I Thee Wed

The room was just as bad as Jinx remembered it.

Jinx never knew who'd thought of it, but the Great Hall in Rainmoor was entirely distressing to be in. Here he'd been made a Lord, here he had killed King Thomas's assassin and become King himself, and here he was to be married. Jinx wondered if he was to die in this room, as had his predecessors.

It was a very large room, but seemed larger. The walls were perfect mirrors, extending up high into the air to join at a central point, and at each corner was a shaft of white fire, illuminating the room brightly. Before he'd entered, the central point had been hundreds of feet above everyone's heads, the reflections producing the appearance of an enormous sphere. But, as Jinx knew from alarming experience, when the King entered the room, its geometry changed- that central point raced upwards to infinity, creating the appearance of the sphere expanding to an infinite plane.

One could stand either state, but watching it go from one to the other was enough to make Jinx want to hide, and when he padded into the Great Hall he squeezed his eyes shut, knowing what would happen. As he entered, up shot the central point, and all around him the illusion of the gigantic sphere expanded with sickening rapidity. When Jinx was sure he could pretend he was standing on a limitless plane, he opened his eyes again. None of the guests seemed to notice.

Elanor was nowhere to be seen, but then it had been explained to Jinx that he wouldn't see her until the ceremony itself. He didn't like this much, but he knew better than to expect such things to make sense. Still, he looked around, seeing who was there. The hall was quite full- most of the Rovers were present, all the First Lords, many other people Jinx had never met...

In the distance, a sandy-haired man with flashing, vividly green eyes was staring at Jinx with a look of desperate entreaty. The man gestured frantically, and was lost to sight behind a crowd of other wedding guests. Jinx blinked, and began to rush to the fellow's aid- only to halt in disarray, nearly running headlong into the mirrored wall.

Jinx whirled, attracting attention from the guests. Hugo, nearby, asked, "What is the matter, my liege?"

"Where is the green-eyed man? He needed to tell me something!"

"Yes, my liege?" said a man with deep green eyes, walking up curiously. He was red-haired and bore no resemblance to the image in the mirror.

"Not you... Can everyone stand still for a minute, please?" asked Jinx, who was determined to find this man. "Please stand where you are."

Jinx paced about, looking at everyone, but there was nobody present who looked anything like the man who'd gestured. Finally, he zeroed in on a small group. "You would know- I recognise your clothing and your looks. You're the ones who blocked him. Did you see a man with green eyes and sort of blond hair? He was gesturing like this." With that, Jinx waved desperately and lashed his tail and laid his ears back in a picture of agitation. "Um... except for the tail, he didn't have that."

"But we didn't block, my liege, begging your pardon." said a very abashed lady whom Jinx had seen the green-eyed man disappear behind. "We got right out of your way immediately! Didn't we, Roger?"

At this, Jinx froze, a fact noted by Peter, who'd approached. "What's this, J... my liege?" he said, in deference to the sensibilities of the wedding guests.

Jinx blinked at Peter. "I was standing right there. He was right next to me, how could he have been gesturing frantically from across the room? I thought I came up on the mirror awful suddenly."

"Eh?"

"Peter, there's someone here who wants to see me, but he's gone now. Did you see him? I've never seen such green eyes. He was a tall man with sandy hair- dressed in green as well, and his clothes looked very fancy, with gold stuff on them."

"Good God. I think you've described... ah, my Lord Andrew! Just the man. Don't you take a particular interest in Rainmoor history? For instance, that key you carry?" asked Peter.

Andrew was in a black mood, though he spoke levelly. "My Lord Peter, my liege- I have a complaint about just that."

"Well?" said Jinx. "What's the matter?"

"Someone has tugged at that very key." Andrew now carried it in a tightly clenched fist. "In fact, the chain I wore it on was broken. I am not accustomed to such violations of my person."

"I should think not, Andrew." said Peter. "Who was fool enough to try that?"

"I don't know!" snapped Andrew, and immediately calmed himself. "I didn't see the thief. I would like license to track the thief down and punish him, my liege."

"Surely you'd do that anyhow?" asked Peter.

"Yes, but it's good manners to ask." said Andrew.

Jinx considered this. "Yes. Go catch him but don't kill him. I want to ask him why he did it. But before you do that, Peter wanted to ask you something."

"Yes indeed! Andrew, can you describe King Adrian?"

Andrew blinked. "Of course I can. As it's his Key I guard, I took a natural interest in learning about him. He was a great warrior, fair, and a grand researcher. His reign was from the years..."

"No," interrupted Peter, "what I mean is- what did the man look like?"

"Kingly." said Andrew. "He was tall, with fair hair. Unlike the kings of the day, he cut it rather short. It is said he had shockingly vivid green eyes that are not properly represented in paintings- in any event, he didn't sit for paintings often and there are only two extant. He liked to dress in green, both when hunting game, and brighter green for courtly functions, which he considered symbolic of his love for the hunt..."

Peter and Jinx were looking at each other, and Jinx cut the man off. "I've seen him."

"...you what?"

"I've seen him. Just now. Just as you described- and he wanted to tell me something. He waved frantically, but then he vanished."

Andrew seemed stunned. "Adrian? Here? The ghost of Adrian is trying to see you?"

"That's what it looks like." said Peter. "We can check with a painting of King Adrian to see if that's really who Jinx saw. But why here, why now?"

"Don't you think that is obvious?" said Andrew. "Someone has just tried to steal my key! That was Adrian's key! The chest that contains Adrian's Mail is lost, but if it were found it's this key that would open it. My liege, the ghost of King Adrian must have been trying to warn you against this theft!"

"Easy, Andrew." said Peter. "Nobody blames you, and you still have the key, haven't you? There's one thing that puzzles me, however. Someone tried to snatch the key from you?"

"Tried hard enough that the chain parted," said Andrew. "I've got to find out who could be that quick. They were lost in the crowd immediately."

"Well, Andrew, I've been able to see where you were standing for the last half hour, and I can tell you that there was nobody fleeing, in the crowd or not. You're sure it wasn't someone standing next to you?"

Peter's wife, Julia, wandered up cheerfully. "So good to see you again, Jinx. What's going on here?"

Andrew considered, and replied, "Quite sure. A fighting man learns to take in the state of an opponent's hands at a glance. I whirled, and there were no hands near me that were holding a weapon- and no hands that appeared to have just made a snatch for the Key."

"Oh, my goodness," said Julia. "Not the Ghost again? I thought Elanor had chased it away."

"That's it!" cried Peter, turning some nearby heads. "It may have been the Pickpocket Ghost. Surely you've heard of that, Andrew?"

"I don't attend to gossip." said Andrew, rather gruffly. "What's this?"

Julia explained. "There's a Rainmoor ghost known for picking pockets. It likes keys, but it can't hold them. It'll dig a key out of your pocket and then drop it. Or it used to, until some years back when it disappeared. Could it have come back?"

"That's not all, Julia- Jinx has seen the ghost of King Adrian! We think it may have been trying to warn him of the attempt on Andrew's key. It was originally Adrian's key, you know."

"How exciting!" said Julia. "I.. oooh!"

All conversation stopped, as Elanor entered the hall. She padded softly, a bit awkwardly due to her advanced pregnancy, but it was difficult to tell because of the astonishing clothing she wore. The black panthress was swathed in filmy white, and pulled behind her a silky train that seemed almost weightless. Her expression was a curious mixture of "Isn't this fancy decoration I'm wearing, the envy of all to behold?" and "Ye gods, when can I get out of this ridiculous getup?" and this belied the incredible skill of the dressmaker, who had somehow managed to translate the concept of a flashy wedding gown into a gown for a four-footed temptress.

Seeing it, Jinx immediately understood why the dragon Vernon had once chortled at the thought of Elanor in a wedding gown. Seeing him, Elanor immediately turned and began heading towards him cheerfully, in spite of First Lord Hugo's protests of "No, no, my Queen, over here!"

"No," retorted Elanor, "he's over here, can't you see?" She joined Jinx, Peter, Julia and Andrew to the accompaniment of good-humored chuckling from some of the wedding guests. "Isn't this pretty, Jinx love? If only I was a better shape I could leap about and it'd look like a flying cloud. Now, can we get this over with so I can get off my paws and go lie down, please?"

"We'd better," said Jinx. Peter was openly smiling, and Hugo, who had elected himself the master of ceremonies with little argument from anyone, was frantically trying to beckon the bride and groom to the front of the hall.

When he'd succeeded in enticing the couple to their positions in front of the crowd, Hugo took a deep breath, as if preparing himself for lengthy pronouncements. Seeing this, Jinx glanced at Elanor, who was trying to scratch her ear with a paw well-tangled in gown, glanced back at Hugo, and lifted an eyebrow.

Hugo exhaled, deflated. "How short should I make it, my liege?"

"Short." said Jinx and Elanor in unison, and Elanor shifted on her sore paws, grumbling.

Hugo cleared his throat. "We... that is, I... um, On this day, er..." and, showing uncharacteristic shrewdness, cut to the chase. "Do you, Elanor, take Jinx, King of Rainmoor, to be your husband, through better and worse to the end of your days?"

"Of course. I did that long ago. I mean, look at me!" said Elanor, but Hugo had already moved on.

"Do you, Jinx, King of Rainmoor, take this w... take Elanor to be your wife, through better and worse to the end of your days?"

"I do." said Jinx solemnly, and meant it.

"Then I now pronounce you m.. hmph! Pronounce you man and wife."

Hugo retired, flustered at his inability to come up with a good-sounding way to say 'I pronounce you bipedal tiger thing and grossly pregnant lady panther', and Jinx kissed his bride. At first he intended Elanor to come up onto her hind legs and kiss him like people, but she was too heavy and absolutely refused, and he had to go down to meet her, and even then all they managed to do was bump muzzles foolishly- but none of it mattered, the crowd cheered delightedly anyhow.

Jinx shot a glance at the far horizon, knowing that this hall tended to become unstable when Rainmoor was unhappy. At least, things that displeased the magic of Rainmoor produced ripplings and shiftings of the mirrored walls, and this could be seen plainly by looking off into the distance. At the moment, 'not seen' was a better description- the hall seemed ostentatiously solid and stable. Jinx tried to look for the green-eyed man in the distance, but quickly decided that it was too disturbing trying to look for things in the distant multiple reflections of the mirrors. What if you found them?

After Elanor was comfortably returned to a state of nap, Jinx pulled Peter aside again. "Supposing it is this King Adrian- what should I do?"

Peter scratched his head. "I'm not sure, Jinx. We could try to look into that for you. I suppose it depends on what he wants. Andrew should be on guard now, I would think, so perhaps King Adrian's accomplished what he was after- though that leaves the question of why he'd be a ghost in the first place."

"Is he going to be able to find me at home?"

"I guess you're wanting to get out of here pretty badly, Jinx? I honestly don't know. My guess would be no, but I can't swear to it. I think he's fixating on you because you're King. Outside of Rainmoor, you're still King."

"Then he can come looking for me, because I'm going home." said Jinx.

As Julia approached them, Peter glanced disapprovingly at Jinx. "You're not going to stay the night? Really, Jinx!"

"No, I want to go home. Why?"

Hearing this, Julia hastily said, "Of course, understandable. Peter? Come with me now..."

As she led Peter off, Jinx departed in his quick, silent way, plainly eager to get home and away from all the fanciful Rainmoor scenery around him. Peter turned to Julia as the Great Hall automatically shifted back to its 'sphere' state on the King's exit. "Julia, what is the meaning of this? I ought to pull his whiskers out, tie a knot in his tail or something. He's not going to give Elanor a wedding night?"

A subtle smile played across Julia's lips, and was gone. "Darling, she's too far gone to really enjoy that sort of thing- but I needed to tell you, I was just with Elanor. She could probably use our support- she's crying, but determined. She knows perfectly well Jinx is going home tonight."

"You don't say. Do you suppose they arranged it? I do know he's miserable here..." said Peter.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think so. I think she just understands him very well. She's quite brave. Come and help me hold her paw, because she's set on staying here for the good of Rainmoor. She seems to understand that part quite well but she hasn't even got a home to speak of. The King's rooms were never changed from when King Thomas lived there, and naturally she doesn't feel like that's really hers."

"No, I suppose not." said Peter. "I daresay we can help with that. I'd still like to wring Jinx's neck..." He glanced around cautiously, but nobody was listening. "...though I suppose that's no way for a First Lord to talk. Hugo would wring mine if he knew I was talking this way."

Julia smiled. "You come along and help me comfort Elanor. And don't be so stuffy when you've no idea what you're dealing with. Elanor isn't the one I'm sorriest for. Come, Peter."