Guinevere was trying very hard not to think about the fact that she'd been in this man's bath eight hours ago when she woke, and was now marrying him.
She was succeeding. Mostly.
"We begin with the Dragon Code initiation," Master Mage Jaxon Valerios intoned. "Do you swear fealty to the crown of Drakencrest?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to honor the flame, the sky, and the house you enter this night, and to uphold the laws of Velkaris above all others?"
"I do."
"The code receives you."
Maddox turned to face her with a gold dagger in hand. He lifted her bruised hand gently, turning it palm-up.
He pricked the pad of her index finger, and guided it over the stone bowl. One drop fell.
The flame roared.
It doubled in height, turned a deeper gold, and settled into a signature pattern the elders along the east wall recognized on sight. The pattern was his. Exactly his. The bowl was burning, to the last flicker, in the High King's personal signature.
Stunned faces along the wall.
