The Princess's Servant

78. The Wardian Wedding

Though each minute dragged, the hours slipped by in the whirlwind of activity that surrounded Holden. Dressers, tailors, attendants, priests, organizers, coordinators, directors and leads. Each assigned to some small part of the grand affair that was his wedding, and each one overworked. The prince had his fitting, his grooming, his rehearsal (which turned out to be little more than a walkthrough of where to stand), and before he knew it the sun had sunk low and the moon had risen high. The cathedral was packed with courtiers and lords and ladies and the room brimmed with an excitement as full as the face of the moon overhead. Holden stood behind a partition to the left of the altar. His nerves alighted.

This was bad. This was very bad.

Holden snuck a peak at all the people. So many people. How had his brother invited them all in such a short time? And why had he invited them when tonight was guaranteed to be a disaster?

Holden had not seen many Wardian weddings — he had not wanted to. After seeing a few, he asked to stop attending. They were unkind to the bride, he thought. And unfair to women in general. He did not like them.

Yet here he was, facing one. About to be in one. And worse, she would be in one too.

There was no way tonight went well. No way Sybil could make it without causing a scene. Tonight was doomed.

"Well, this what you wanted, isn't it?" His brother's voice behind him. "The costumes, the ceremony... The bride."

"This is not what I wanted," Holden replied. Of that, he was quite certain.

His brother blinked at him. "Ah," he said after a beat. "Humor. I've not heard that from you in awhile."

"I'm not being humorous," Holden said. "I would rather be back inside that cursed courtroom than here in this temple."

"Oh." The emperor said nothing for a moment. He twisted his neck as if in thought and then slowly said, "Perhaps you have come to see Sybil's true colors?" There was a tinge of hope in his voice.

"No," Holden said. "I've seen yours. I know why you arranged this wedding, brother. You intend to shame my bride. You want to embarrass her with the rituals and traditions of our weddings. Even after you swore that she was mine to punish."

Thomas lowered his head. "You think this wedding intends to punish Sybil."

"Why else would you mandate such a thing when neither she nor I desire it?"

The emperor drew in breath and then exhaled it. "You are correct to assume that this wedding intends to embarrass your bride, brother."

"Yeah, go figure," Holden muttered.

"But it only aims to do so because it embarrasses you so much more."

The young prince blinked a few times. "H-How so?"

"You had a trial, Holden. A very public trial that related in painstaking detail all the horrors Sybil forced you endured. And now you marry the same woman you testified against not two days ago."

"And?" Holden said. "That's my burden to bear. So why don't we skip the public event so I can deal with this privately?"

"Because you are a prince of Ward!" His brother's voice carried over the partition and quieted the crowd. After a beat, the emperor lowered his voice and neared his brother. "This is not a matter between a man and his wife — this is a matter between the heir to the throne and a foreign adversary! With myself as emperor, you're next in line. And I cannot have the heir to the entire Wardian state believed to be at the command of some Lailoyan!"

"Well, yeah," Holden said. "But she doesn't command me."

"That's how it appears," Thomas replied.

"People will forget," Holden ventured.