Many kings and queens were matched without so much as a meeting, but even by those standards this ritual was unusual.

Five young women clustered around the wooden statue of Mara inside the temple. All had been chosen as children, of the right blood to be ratha and of the right age to match the prince. They were raised in the temple, these Maids of Mara, with appropriate names and lessons. Now it was time for Mara to choose who she would ride to marry Adalric.

One of the five hung back. Tamara's steps were careful and deliberate. Her eyes were sometimes wide and sometimes closed in rest, but she knew the grounds of the temple well enough that no one would guess she was so nearsighted as to be functionally blind.

All five of them raised their voices. Together they sang that they were ready to submit to Mara's choice.

The silence that followed felt infinite. Tamara waited, wondering what she would do with her life after one of the other young women was chosen. They would have the option to leave, and former Maids were generally considered excellent wives. Tamara expected that she would stay in the temple, however. It was comfortable, to be somewhere where she knew every step.

-Are you so sure you would not be suitable?- a voice echoed in her head. Tamara didn't startle - she was used to being snuck up to - but she was surprised.

-It's only that we are told you choose to ride only those you find clever and beautiful.-

-And you are not those things?-

-I cannot speak to my beauty, as it is difficult for me to judge what I have not seen. But I don't read and I can barely figure; it was all but impossible to learn when I could not see. So I cannot be clever enough for you.-

-Have you not learned the songs and stories, and the domestic arts of quick hands?-

-I have,- she agreed, -but I know the others have learned much more.-

No words came, and Tamara thought the goddess had indeed gone on to someone else. After only a few minutes, however, she felt a weight settle into her body as if instead of merely standing on the earth, she were about to be pulled into it. The room grew bright and then suddenly lapsed into focus. The statue, the stones, the other Maids' robes, all seemed to be almost glowing in the light, each with a subtle pattern of details that threatened to distract her.

"I have chosen," she heard her voice say, and her body stood. The other Maids looked away. The one nearest her looked relieved. Another sobbed. Tamara had grown up with these girls and wanted to comfort them, but it seemed Mara had other ideas, because her body was already moving toward the door of the temple, and beyond that, the castle where Adalric waited.

I'd been inside the palace before, several times, but certainly not like this. Mara marched my body with a certainty in her stride I'd never had, and instead of holding the arm of another Maid, I could see where I was going perfectly. I'd never realized the floor was a mosaic showing the first queen bringing the tribes together, never seen the tapestries on the walls depicting the Thunder Hawk fighting the Serpent of the Caves or the Mother of Witches and her daughter the Rainbow.

I didn't particularly study any of them, because Mara's attention was on one thing only - King Adalric, at the far end of the room. She strode past the guards without a glance from them; clearly this had been expected.

My body gave the barest bow to the king and I knew Mara was smiling as she did it. I had a second of fear that King Adalric would be offended, but Mara stopped the feeling cold.

And then the king sank to his knees and bowed prostrate before me.

-I know it's new to you, but don't fear. This is all ritual,- Mara assured me. -He knows what's going on.-

King Adalric pushed himself up from the floor and hugged my knees, laughing a little. When he stood and embraced me properly, I realized his face bore the trails of tears.

-Ritual?-

-Ritual can be personal as well as prescribed,- she said to me, and out loud, "I take it you approve, my king."

"I'd almost begun to wonder how the day could finally come, or if it would be what I wished it would be."

"And is it?"

Adalric - for she thought of him that way, without titles, with so much fondness, and it was so easy to let her influence me - laughed again. "Better, my love. Better."

-I thought the relationship of the King and Queen was...- I hesitated, even in thought.

-Formal?- she suggested. -It can be. Your lands have been loyal and generous to me since your people were first united, and often I choose someone who simply asks as a priest or priestess. It's a position and a title. But Adalric, he is special to me.-

When I looked at my king, it was with my goddess's sight, so it is little surprise that I soon felt the same way.