Their celebrityhood in Belthar lasted almost a month and Thomas and Lirenna made the most of it, enjoying the balls and banquets. The parades and the trips to the outlying regions of the huge kingdom. All of them places of outstanding natural beauty.
The only part of their tour that caused them some unease was their visit to Fort Bow and the northern border forts. The defensive line that had been built just after the end of the war to keep out the undead hordes of Darkthorne. The last of the Circle of Raks and the inheritor of what was left of the Shadowarmy. The border was quiet, though, and there was no hint of any trouble during their stay there.
Eventually, though, they became old news and interest in them faded. The soldiers were given an extended leave of absence and Matthew made ready to go home. He invited Thomas and Lirenna to come with him, and they agreed immediately, eager for the chance to spend some time with their friend and get to know his family.
Heather was the daughter of a family that owned and lived on a farm to the south of the country, close to the westernmost fringes of the Darkenmoors. Matthew had told each family about the other and their meeting, so long anticipated, was every bit as jubilant as they'd known it would be. Heather’s family were solid, down to earth people that Thomas and Lirenna took to immediately, and Matthew's family were entranced by Lirenna's more than human beauty. A beauty that overawed them almost as much as the fact that she was a wizard.
Matthew, Heather and their children had a building to themselves adjoining the main farm buildings, and Thomas and Lirenna were given the spare room in the attic; luxurious compared to Thomas's cabin aboard the Jules Verne. They spent the evenings in the larger building beside it, though, where they enjoyed long conversations with Heather's father and brothers. Big, burly men who'd been soldiers themselves during the Fourth Shadowwar before returning to the agricultural life with the return of peace.
"I actually saw the Sceptre of Samnos once," one of them, Hamos, the eldest brother, told them during the first evening after their arrival. "I was at the third battle of Fort Dirk and Resalintas himself led the charge. I only saw him from a distance, of course. Just a tiny speck half a mile away. But when he activated the Sceptre we all felt it, like fire in our blood! It made us feel like giants, like nothing in the world could stand against us! Our swords shone like liquid fire and the Shads fled at the sight of us, while up ahead the Sceptre was shining like the sun, so bright no-one could look at it. The Sceptre itself! They say it can only be used once every hundred years, and I was there! I saw it, with my very own eyes!"
Thomas and Lirenna listened attentively as he continued speaking, and now and again they glanced towards Matthew, who clearly hadn't told him about his own involvement with the Sceptre, or that of the wizards. On the contrary, a troop of actors had passed this way a few months earlier, putting on a performance of 'The Sceptre of Samnos', and the version of events depicted in the play was now accepted gospel, even among people who should have known better. When their eyes met, Thomas took the opportunity to nod gratefully, and the soldier grinned in return. Matthew clearly shared their desire for a quiet life, and Thomas took a moment to wonder what the King would have done had he known more about Matthew's past.
Hamos was married with a teenage son who was speaking of joining the army, fired up by the tales of action and adventure he'd heard from his father and uncles. "Makes me worry about my own boys," Matthew admitted to the wizards one quiet evening after they'd returned to his own home and were sitting in front of a crackling fire. "I try not to talk about the war in front of them, except to tell them how terrible it is, but they're surrounded by old war heroes on all sides. What do I tell them? That it's okay for me to run off and have adventures and become a hero but not them? I wouldn't mind if it really was over, but there's still Darkthorne to the north, gathering his forces and plotting to start the whole thing all over again. What if my boys join up just in time for the outbreak of the Fifth Shadowwar? What if..." He leaned forward in his chair, staring into the fire and looking thoroughly miserable.
Thomas nodded, thinking of Derrin, but then he cheered up. "There isn't going to be a Fifth Shadowwar," he said. "Not on the same scale as the last one, anyway. There can't be. There's no Shadow, no Puncturium. The Bone Prince has been shut out of the world, and he can't return unless the world suffers the kind of misery and torment that only the fall of a major civilisation can produce. There have been others like Darkthorne throughout history. Rak kings who try for worldly power, who try to build empires of darkness, but they never last long. Neither will this one. Let your boys join the army if they want to. Yes, they might get hurt in some skirmish somewhere, but paradoxically, unless a major war breaks out, they'll actually be safer in the army than here on their own farm. Accidents happen on farms after all. People are hurt and killed. People catch all kinds of horrid diseases. But in the army there'll always be clerics and priests around to heal them."
"Unless a major war breaks out," said Matthew gloomily.
"Which it won't," said Lirenna. "Belthar is surrounded by mountains. Who’re you going to go to war with? Rahm? Sidon? Stonn? Do you seriously think that any of the former provinces will dare to challenge the might of Belthar? The only enemy is Darkthorne, and he'll be dealt with long before your children are old enough to enlist."
"Right!" agreed Thomas. "A spell in the army'll do wonders for them! Look what it did for you."
Matthew grinned at that, and he nodded, looking a little happier. "Maybe you're right," he said, "and maybe it'll be good for them to see a little of the world before they settle down. I'm certainly ready to settle. I've had enough excitement and adventure to last me a lifetime. I've decided to retire from the army. I don't ever want to be away from Heather and the kids again."
Heather sat up straight and stared at him in stunned delight. "Do you mean it?" she cried, clutching at his arm. "Do you really mean it?"
"I really mean it," confirmed Matthew seriously. "I'd have come back to you months ago if I could have. I've missed you more than I can ever tell and I never want to be away from you ever again. From now on I'll be a farmer. A farmer, a father..." He took her hand and squeezed it. "...and a husband."
They stood and hugged each other tightly. Tears of joy and heartfelt relief squeezed from Heather's tightly shut eyes, and the wizards slipped quietly out of the room.
☆☆☆
There were more tears when Thomas and Lirenna said their goodbyes and left a few days later. "We'll come visit you every so often," promised Thomas, "and we'll bring Derry. I'd like him to meet your boys."
"And I know they'd love to meet Derry as well," agreed Matthew. "Perhaps your boy can persuade mine to take more interest in their lessons. At the moment, they seem to think that all they need to know is how to wave a sword around."
"He'll have them enrolling as wizards if you're not careful," warned Thomas with a chuckle. "Then you'll be sorry,"
They all laughed, and hugs and kisses were exchanged all round. "Thank you for bringing him back to me," Heather told Thomas. "It's been such a comfort knowing he was with you. If half the stories he told me about you are true, you could have protected him from a flock of dragons and the entire Circle of Raks! When I got his letter telling me he'd joined up with you again, I knew straight away he was going to be all right."
Thomas looked at Matthew quizzically, who shrugged apologetically.
"That goes for you too," Lirenna then told Matthew. "Thank you for bringing my Tom back to me."
"I didn't do anything," said the former soldier, looking surprised. "I hardly lifted a sword the whole time."
"That wasn't what I meant," said the demi shae, beaming gratefully. "You were a friend to him. A real friend when he needed one. He's often told me what a difference it made to have someone he could really confide in when he felt alone and scared. Not just on the ringed planet, but before that as well, in ancient Agglemon and on the Southern Continent. We can never repay what we owe you."
Heather stared at her husband in surprise and growing pride and wonder, and Thomas was amused to see the pink glow of embarrassment spreading across his friend's face. A few more things you didn't tell her about, he thought. You will, though. She's going to pump you for everything now. She won't be content until you've told it all, and won't she be surprised then!
The rest of the family were staring as well, amazed that wizards considered Matthew an equal. Was even their confidante with whom they'd shared their deepest fears.
As so often before, Thomas found himself amazed that he could have that kind of effect on people, that he was regarded as something so special. Can't they see that I'm just some bloke, just like them? he thought. He knew, though, that, no matter how much the popular perception of wizards had changed since Tak's time, it would be a lot longer yet before they were accepted with the same casual indifference as plumbers and carpenters. Before they were seen as the professional tradesmen that they really were.
☆☆☆
They didn't return directly to the University but spent a couple of weeks in Haven, the people of which were about the only people in the world who hadn't heard about their adventures by now. Thomas and Lirenna played them down, craving a rest from celebrity and a return to glorious normality, and they said they'd just popped in to renew the acquaintance of their friends and neighbours. And of course, to see their son, Derrin.
The young lad was doing well, they were delighted to find. Still studying the material he'd brought from Lexandria to continue his education and being taught his shayen heritage by Dallon, his great grandfather.
Thomas and Lirenna also visited their cottage, looking it over to assure themselves that it was keeping well, but they saw no point in opening it up for the brief time they'd be there. Instead they stayed in the home of their neighbours, the Gammons.
Eventually, though, the time came when they had to return to Lexandria, to fulfil the obligations they'd made there. Thomas's ability to sense Rossemian magic would be needed when they went off to find the Shipbuilder homeworld, a mission of vital importance to the safety and security of the world, and where Thomas went, Lirenna followed.
"We'll be back soon enough, love," he told her as they made ready to leave. "Another year or two. However long it takes to wrap this business up, and then we can come back for good. Back to our little cottage, and this time we'll never leave. It'll be our home for the rest of our lives."
The demi shae smiled with pleased anticipation and they held each other closely for a long time.