Journeyman (A Wizard's Life) by Eric Guindon Page B

had entered and he remembered what the headman had said about his own choice of wives. Sania cared about him, it seemed. The other two girls saw him as a the best match around, but not as a person.
    “Have you made your decision? It is not good to keep the ladies in such suspense.”
    “I have,” he said with more confidence than he felt. Brenia had smiled at him and it had made his heart flutter.
    “And what is the decision?”
    “Uh, umm . . .” He stopped looking at Brenia and looked at Sania. She had read the look he had just given her elder sister and knew he had chosen Brenia. She looked crestfallen, her eyes already beginning to fill with tears she was holding back.
    Would Brenia weep if I did not choose her? he wondered. He thought the answer was no, she would not. She would be angry. Dania? She would be disappointed, but not emotionally affected. Sania was the only one he thought would be touched emotionally by losing him.
    “I choose Sania to be my wife, if she will have me.” He declared before he changed his mind again.
    The girl looked at him with surprise for a moment before she smiled, excited and genuinely happy, and ran to him. She jumped into his arms and gushed: “Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”.
    He did not know if the other sisters had reacted as he had predicted, he was too busy enjoying the affections of his soon-to-be bride.
     
    #
     
    The wedding was wonderful, the entire village turned out for it. Even relatives living in other nearby villages came to see the wizard wed the headman’s daughter. Sania’s sisters, reluctantly at first, agreed to serve as her bride’s maids. Benen’s best man was a volunteer from the village, a young man named Eggan. He had been selected from a large pool of volunteers; everyone wanted to get a chance to get to know the hero-wizard.
    The happy couple’s union was celebrated for hours, with plenty of food and drink. By evening, when the two were rather drunk, they were told they must withdraw and complete their union. Benen was not sure what they meant at first, but Eggan clarified things for him.
    For the moment, the couple was to continue living in the headman’s house; there was plenty of space. A guest bedroom had been made theirs in an isolated portion of the large building and two of the other guest bedrooms in that area had been cleared for their use. This is where they retired to after the party.
    When they were alone, Benen and Sania both grew shy. Neither had ever been intimate with another.
    Taking the lead, Sania, blushing fetchingly, undid the four cinches that held her bodice together. The dress fell off her, revealing her naked body beneath. Seeing her thus, Benen lost his shyness and, together, they figured things out well enough, their enthusiasm taking the place of experience.
    That night, after Sania was asleep, Benen lay in the darkness thanking the Creator for his luck. He had spent some time watching his wife sleep and was now preparing to go to sleep himself when he felt a cold presence he had almost forgotten about.
    “I’ve found you at last,” Timmon’s voice said. It spoke low, in consideration for the sleeping lady. “I’ve actually been nearby but I didn’t want to . . . interrupt.”
    “That’s, hmm, considerate of you. So, you had trouble finding me again? I thought you said you had a sense of where I am?”
    “I do, but you moved around so much and went so far I had difficulty keeping up with you. Also, it seems I’m only awake at night.”
    “What happens to you during the day?”
    “I dream.”
    “What are your dreams like?” Benen was curious about the creature.
    “Over and over, I live through the moments of my death.”
    “Oh.”
    “I know you killed me now.”
    “Oh.”
    “It’s okay. I was going to kill your friend.”
    “Thank you for understanding.”
    “Even my emotions are cold now,” Timmon said.
    “I’m not moving again, Timmon. Now that I’m married, I will settle down here.