“You forgot to take the ring,” he said.
Gwen laughed, and as she leaned back, he placed his mother’s ring on her finger.
She looked at in awe.
“It fits perfectly,” she said. “Where did you get this? I have seen royal jewels all my life, yet I have never seen anything like this.”
“It was my mother’s,” Thor said. “It is meant for you. For you, and none other.”
Gwen looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears, and they kissed. They held the kiss for as long as they could, and finally, they embraced, holding each other tight.
“Thorgrin, my love,” she said softly, pulling back and looking at him. “There is something I wish to tell you, too.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes, and Thor looked at her and wondered what it could be.
“There was a reason it was hard for me to climb these cliffs,” she said. “A reason that I have not been myself.”
She reached out and held both his hands and smiled.
“Thorgrin: I’m with child.”
Those words struck Thorgrin through the heart, coursed through his whole body, made him lose all sense of time and place. He was beyond elated. He felt as if he were part of something bigger than himself, something deeper in the universe. He felt his entire world spinning. He was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.
“A child?” he asked.
She nodded, smiling.
He looked down at her stomach, and gently rested his palm on it. As he did, he felt an incredible energy racing through his entire body. He could feel the child spinning and moving, the slightest tremors in his palm. He felt a love and joy beyond what he ever thought capable of experiencing.
He embraced Gwendolyn, hugging her tightly, and she hugged him back.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear.
“I love you, too,” she whispered back.
Thor draped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight, and the two of them turned and looked out at the vista, both suns sitting low in the horizon, King’s Court awash in scarlet and violet twinkling in a thousand points of light. It felt to Thor like the Ring was being reborn, slowly coming back to life. All around them winter flowers bloomed, fields glowing white, and against the backdrop of the second setting sun, it was the most beautiful thing Thor had ever seen. It was an ideal moment, the perfect moment for his proposal, and he wanted to freeze it forever. It was magical. Just like his entire relationship with Gwendolyn.
As they looked out at the horizon, at the distant road to King’s Court, Thor saw an endless caravan of humanity coming towards this city from all directions, some on foot, others leading horses, carts, cattle. They were all heading to the same place, all coming to celebrate the new Ring, all coming to celebrate hope.
“A stream of humanity,” Thor observed. “People of all walks want to come back to King’s Court, to celebrate. They all have faith in you.”
“We will rebuild it,” Gwen said. “Stone by stone. We shall make it as great a city as it ever was. And the centerpiece of all the celebrations will be our wedding. It will be the most magnificent wedding the Ring has ever witnessed. It shall be followed by our baby. Everything will be new again, and our people will rise from the ashes. We will do it together. Our love will build it.”
They leaned in and kissed, and they held the kiss as the final light of the setting sun washed over them. Thor only wished he could hold the world this way forever.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Gwendolyn soared high in the air as she rode on the back of Ralibar, clutching on for dear life, as she always did when she rode him, trying to predict his unpredictable temper. Ralibar dipped in and out of the clouds, dove up and down, snorting, sometimes even arching back. He was the most strong-willed and temperamental creature she had ever met, and she could feel his emotions flaring within him.
Gwen was honored that Ralibar even let her ride him. She had discovered, moons ago, his fondness for her. Whenever Thorgrin went to ride Mycoples, Ralibar would become jealous and territorial, and would snort and shriek at Thor, trying to scare him away. Ralibar and Mycoples would stand off with each other, and it had been getting progressively worse—until one day, Gwendolyn had accompanied Thor to see him off, and they had all been shocked as Ralibar had turned to Gwendolyn, had lowered his head and, while first examining her suspiciously, had then leaned in and stroked her stomach with his face. Ralibar had purred softly, and for the first time ever, he had calmed.
Thor had watched in shock as Gwendolyn had reached up and stroked Ralibar’s face, nervous as she felt his rough scales, ancient and a little bit moist. Ralibar had then shocked them all even more by lowering his head all the way to the ground, a gesture meant for Gwen to ride him.
Gwendolyn had mounted him nervously, not sure what to expect. It had been a wild and crazy ride, and she was uncertain whether he actually wanted her on or not. Yet, still, he had sought her out every day since and had gestured for her to keep riding him.
For a beast who was clearly endeared to Gwendolyn, Ralibar had a funny way of showing it. From the outside, it might even seem as if he hated her. He was a moody and tempestuous creature, perpetually in some sort of emotional storm, whether at himself, or humans, or other dragons. Gwen felt compassion for him: she got the feeling that he was a loner, a malcontent, yet she sensed that, beneath it all, Ralibar had a big heart, and that he might just be lonely. He flew erratically, and often acted as if he wanted Gwen off of him; yet when she tried to dismount, he threw a fit, and thus clearly wanted her to stay.
Despite all his craziness, Gwen had taken a liking to him; he had an odd way of getting under her skin. Over these last several months, Gwen had grown accustomed to his moods, and had learned to read his signs. The bond between them grew ever stronger, and it made Gwen feel happy in a way she had not expected. She even sensed Ralibar’s moods starting to calm.
On this beautiful summer morning, in the picture-perfect weather, both suns shining, Gwen took her morning ride, as she always did. Nearby, Thorgrin rode Mycoples, the two of them lifting up into the air in the early morning sky, as they always did together, launching off from the top of King’s Castle, their dragons intertwining as they flew. They had developed a morning ritual, and they followed it today: they circled the grounds of King’s Court, then circled the towns and villages surrounding it, Gwen surveying her people, her kingdom, every single morning, to make sure all was in order.
Gwen loved this time together with Thor and with Ralibar and Mycoples, the most magical mornings of her life, watching the suns rise, watched the mists burn off the land below in all different colors. It also afforded her a bird’s eye view of her kingdom, and more than once she had spotted some trouble down below that she would have not seen otherwise, which made her convene her council and set wrongs right. She had spotted fires, small villages dilapidated, people injured or struggling with their horses and carts, roads in disrepair…an endless number of small fixes to her kingdom. It allowed her to be an omnipresent queen. It also was reassuring for her people to look up and see her every morning, watching over them, setting wrongs right, riding on the back of a dragon. It enforced her image as a woman of power.
Gwen had never anticipated that she would fall so comfortably into the role of queen. But now that six moons had passed since the expulsion of the Empire and her peoples’ return to King’s Court, since she had begun the process of re-establishing her rule, she had found that being queen came naturally to her. It had been the most glorious six moons of her life. She had grown closer to Thor than she could ever imagine, the two of them
