The Oldest Living Vampire In Love (The Oldest Living Vampire Saga Book 3) by Duncan Joseph

Author:Duncan, Joseph [Duncan, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Cobra E-books
Published: 2012-06-16T04:00:00+00:00

7

Finally, the day of the wedding came, and the entire village, it seemed, turned out for the ceremony. The rite took place at the edge of the lake where meadow gave way to a swath of powder soft sand. The warm weather had lingered, though the sky was sodden and gray with clouds, rain’s moist promise, and the wind came whipping in from the choppy surface of the lake, wet and chill. But at least the sun was occluded, and my cheeks were clear of the tarry black tears that vampires weep in bright sunshine.

Valas had tutored me in the procedures of the Tanti nuptial ceremony for the past several days, and I stood with him behind the village shaman, who would perform the bulk of the ritual to bind our two children in matrimony.

The rites would be somewhat altered for this unusual wedding, as the gods of the Tanti were invoked in the ceremony, and there were many who believed that I was the physical incarnation of one of those deities, but it did not seem as though it would be a problem with the majority of the Tanti people. They had an abundance of deities, and they were not overly concerned with those they had not dedicated themselves to.

The shaman, a leathery old thing name Padtuk, invoked the gods of the Tanti, calling out the name of each one in the order of their rank in Tanti culture. The villagers, who sat in a broad semi-circle before us, echoed back the name of each deity he entreated.

“…And we call upon the god of the hearth, Moab, the goddess of the threshold, Anavetrazeesi, the god of tools, Heb, and the goddess Yenaulba, who sanctifies the food that we put into our bodies,” the old man droned.

“Moab… Anavetrazeesi… Heb… Yenaulba…” the crowd reverberated gravely.

So many mortals—I could feel them staring at me with avid curiosity! I searched the crowd with my gaze, taking pleasure in picking out the ones who bore the features of their ancient ancestors. There was the one who looked like my Eyya. She was sitting beside Paba, fussing with his clothing. There was a young man who favored Nyala, my second wife, and another fine fellow who had Brulde’s somber eyes. I spied yet another, a lanky woman, who had my auburn hair and long, narrow face. How many generations separated the two of us, I wondered, this long lost granddaughter? And what a miracle I had found her across such vast gulfs of time!

Babies cried and children ran freely through the congregation, some of them playing in the sand, as Padtuk continued to call out to their deities. Finally, he finished. Either he’d run out of breath or run out of gods. When his voice fell away, Ilio approached from the village, decked out in his finest attire. He grinned at me as he passed through the assembly, then lowered himself to his knees in front of the shaman.

“Valas, father of Priss, this man Ilio petitions you for the hand of your daughter in marriage.

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