Chapter 13

Meridion had waited for Rhapsody to leave before he took control of the moot. As soon as he was convinced that she was no longer listening, he stepped forward and addressed the crowd. "My fellow Cymrians, I know that these new tidings are grave and deserve the utmost attention, but while we are waiting for Gwydion to bring the prisoner before us, I wish to bring up another subject. Many of you are aware that your former Lord and my father as well as Lady Rhapsody's husband died a few months ago at his own choosing. Since then, Rhapsody has found love and comfort in the arms of another. He has cared for her and loved her for as long as he has known her, which is a very, very long time. These two should be together and they are finally able to be, except for in one area. You see this man that Rhapsody is now with is King Achmed." Here, Meridion paused as a rustle of gasps and wonder passed through the crowd.

"Now, I know that all of you are surprised by this pairing, but I can assure you that he loves and cares for her and will protect her with his very life. Evidence of this love has been shown to us this very day. You all saw the wounds that the King had obtained by uncovering the plot that was out against Rhapsody and the Cymrians. We all know that he cares little about the Cymrians and so it was the love for the Lady that he put his life in danger.

'He has proved to us that he would be a great protector for our lady and will love and honor her till the end of time. But these two fear that you, the people, will never accept a union of marriage between them because of your distrust of the Bolg. It is because of this I come to you now, to put before you a vote of this matter.

'I remind you that there is no law that says that the Lord and Lady Cymrian have to be married, so if you choose today to bless their union, you are in no way saying that Achmed will be your new Lord. This is something that no one, including Achmed, wishes to happen."

He paused once again as a slight laughter brushed through the crowd. Then a murmur of discussion took over then. Meridion stood and watched as each member of the moot discussed with each other this proposed consent of marriage. He smiled down as he realized that most of the discussion was leaning in the two lover's favor. He prayed that neither Rhapsody nor Achmed would kill him for this, but it needed to be done. He had been seeing their pain in this final area weighing on both of them and knew that this was something that had to be brought before the people before either would ever consider taking care of this problem.

"What say you? Can you accept a marriage between my mother and the Firbolg king?"

From somewhere in the crowd, one large voice echoed in the moot, "I believe I speak for everyone here when I say that we will accept anything that our Lady sees fit and will make her happy."

Meridion at once knew the voice to belong to his great uncle Anborn. At this response, a great wave of cheering erupted from the masses in mutual consent to the speaker's words. Meridion could feel that the entire mass of Cymrians gathered there all agreed to the proposal. Now all he had to do was to convince Achmed to actually purpose to his mother. That was not a conversation that he was looking forward to having.

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Rhapsody arrived at the hospice shortly after Grunthor had gotten Achmed there. By now, Achmed had lost a lot of blood and this coupled with his concussion was causing him to black out periodically. When Rhapsody arrived, Achmed was unconscious and Krinsel was working on him.

"How is he?" she asked worriedly as she knelt by his side, immediately beginning to hum a tune under her breath.

"Not good. He has a concussion and the wound in his shoulder will not stop bleeding," Krinsel answered as she continued to work at the wound.

"Why?" Rhapsody asked.

"I don't know. I have never seen anything like this before."

Rhapsody placed a hand over Achmed's forehead as she chanted his name song for a few moments, attempting to bring him back to consciousness. After a short time of this, Achmed's eyelids flickered as his brow furrowed in pain once again.

"Achmed, I'm here," she started. "Do you know why we cannot stop the bleeding in your shoulder?"

It took a moment for him to bring her into focus and to understand her question. When he understood what it was she had asked he tried to nod his head but found the pain too great. Then he tried to speak, but could barely manage above a whisper. Rhapsody leaned over, putting her ear almost on his mouth as she asked him to repeat what he had just said. She was just able to make out two words. "My blade," was all that he said.

Rhapsody looked up at Grunthor, confusion on her face. "He said, 'my blade.' Do you know what that means?"

"Hrekin!" the giant swore.

Rhapsody looked at him, not understanding what was going on. "What, what does that mean?" She was beginning to become frantic. Obviously it was not a good thing but she could see no reason why these two words should mean so much.

"Oi knew that this 'ould come back ta 'uant us," Grunthor said. "A year ago, 'is majesty came across a new chemical that when in contact 'ith blood, keeps it from clottin'. Since then we 'ave both treated one o' our weapons 'ith this stuff. If ee got stabbed by 'is own blade, then that wound will not close."

Rhapsody looked blankly at her giant friend for a moment before the full impact of his words set in. Her first reaction was one of anger. "Why on earth would you two do something like that? What possible advantage could there be by carrying a weapon like that?"

"Oi thought it a neat thing ta 'ave if ya wanted ta make sure the person you stabbed died."

"But not if the person that gets stabbed is you! This has got to be the stupidest thing that you have ever done. Now what are we going to do? Is there any antidote?"

"None that Oi know o'."

"Damn you!" It was then that she looked down and saw that Achmed was once again loosing his battle to stay conscious. "Don't you dare!" she snapped at him. "Don't you dare fade out on me now. You are probably the only one that is going to be able to heal you," she told him.

Hauling himself back to awareness, Achmed gave her a look of uncertainty. He was somewhat aware of what it was she was referring to but that was a skill that he never put much trust in. Never mind that he had never tried it on himself and that he was losing consciousness rapidly.

Grunthor, wondering what it was that Rhapsody meant, asked, "'Ow do you fig'er?"

"He has blood lore. He can use it to force his blood to clot and close the wound. He is the only one here with that ability so it is going to have to be up to him." Then, turning back the Achmed she said, "I know that you don't know if you can do this and you probably still don't trust that part of your lore, but you are going to have to try. I am not going to sit here and watch you die on me now after all these years. I will work on healing your concussion so that you may be able to think more clearly, but the rest is up to you. And if you fail, I promise you, I will hunt you down in the afterlife and make yours into a hell."

Achmed tried to crack a slight smile at this, but found it to be too much effort. Instead he closed his eyes and forced himself to concentrate on his task a hand. He could feel his head clearing bit by bit as he worked. He knew that Rhapsody meant what she said and she would probably nearly sing herself right into a coma trying to save him if he didn't pull off his part of the job. This was something that had to be done and so he knew that he would do it.

As he struggled and strove with himself to bring his wound to a close, he began to hear a distant song. It was not the one that Rhapsody was singing to keep him alive and aware while he worked. In fact, it was not even a song that Rhapsody had ever sung. It was a song that had been growing in his mind over the last week. A slow and rhythmic melody that was full of past fears and promise of a new future. One that he knew had always been present in his mind but had never allowed to grow until recent events. Now he listened to this song and drew strength and confidence from it. As much as he hated the idea, he knew that this was a song that he had to share with Rhapsody and he would have to pull through this ordeal in order to do so.

Then, after what had felt like hours of agonizing labor, Achmed became confident that he had finally sealed his wound. He could no longer sense his life force leaking from his body and the agony in his head had subsided to a dull ache thanks to the ministrations of Rhapsody.

He opened his eyes and looked up at her, he could see tear streaks down her paled face. Her voice was still singing his name, calling him back from the edge. Her voice was becoming horse and gravely with use. She was pushing herself too far for his sake and he had to let her know that everything was alright now and she could rest. Slowly and carefully, he reached up with his good arm and caressed her cheek with the back of her hand.

Rhapsody that become so engrossed and consumed with her singing that she had not noticed his movement until his hand connected with her. She jumped slightly and immediately stopped singing. Looking down at him, she smiled and took the hand that he had raised into her own. Kissing his hand, she gently stroked his forehead and whispered, "I knew you'd come back to me."

Still too weak to respond, Achmed nodded once before leaning into his cot and closing his eyes, signaling to her that he needed to rest and hoping that she would take the cue and find some rest of her own. She did. She kissed his hand one more time before placing his hand on his chest and standing to leave.

She was grateful that Grunthor had remained through out their struggles as he was there to catch her when she nearly fell over with exhaustion. She allowed her giant friend to scoop her up into his arms and carry her off to her room where she immediately fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.