Kushiel's Justice - Jacqueline Carey [122]
After Innisclan, the chambers seemed spacious. We refreshed ourselves and joined our hosts for dinner. It was a pleasant meal, due in large part to the children, who were permitted to attend during the early portion of the evening. In them, I could see a bright shadow of the man their father had once been, merry and irreverent.
"You're pretty" Galanna informed Phèdre, clambering down from her chair and flouncing her skirts. "Do you like my dress?”
"Very much, my lady." Phèdre smiled. " 'Tis as lovely as you are.”
She tossed her silken black hair. "I know.”
Joscelin grinned at Hyacinthe. "There's D'Angeline blood in that one.”
"Oh, do you reckon, Cassiline?" Hyacinthe shifted the burden on his lap; the boy Donal, who'd ensconced himself there. It was an image I'd never thought to see; the Master of the Straits as rueful father. Donal leaned forward, intent on grabbing a serving-spoon from a dish of baked pears. "No, no, let it be.”
"They're a bother, aren't they?" Sibeal said fondly, rising to pluck Donal from Hyacinthe's grasp. "Forgive us for inflicting them on you. Anyway, 'tis time they were a-bed. Let's find Nurse, shall we?”
A chorus of howls ensued.
"Here, I'll take him." Dorelei reached out her arms. "Just for a moment.”
"As you will." Sibeal transferred him gladly. The boy settled into Dorelei's lap with a sigh of victorious contentment, and began telling her a long, rambling tale about chasing a frog in the garden that morning.
I watched them together. Dorelei smiled, bending her head to listen to her young cousin. He had a round, impish face, his father's black curls, and a pair of protruding ears. If we had children, they'd be close kin.
"We wanted to give their lives a semblance of normalcy." Hyacinthe was watching them, too. "And I wanted them to have the things I never had.”
"Like a father?" Phèdre asked softly. "It seems you're a good one.”
"He indulges them terribly," Sibeal said, smiling at him.
Hyacinthe smiled back at her. "That's because I can always lock myself in the tower and leave you to deal with them.”
The children were permitted to linger for a few more minutes, and then Sibeal exerted her maternal will and declared an end to it. The nurse, a befreckled young Tarbh Cró woman who clearly doted on the children, was summoned and led them away. I laughed at the production they made of it, with downcast heads and dragging feet, futile pleas trailing behind them.
After their departure, we spoke of more serious matters, telling them what had transpired with the Maghuin Dhonn. I expected Sibeal to be reluctant to hear them discussed, but she didn't seem as troubled by the Old Ones as Dorelei and the Cruithne in general. I suppose being wed to a man who could command the seas to rise and fall had that effect.
Hyacinthe was interested. "Drustan's asked me to keep an eye on them," he said. " 'Tis a funny business, though. I can't always see them. Not all of them.”
"In the sea-mirror, you mean?" Joscelin frowned.
He nodded. "Betimes I can't find them, even though I know where they ought to be.”
"Mayhap it's because betimes they're not human," I murmured.
"I've wondered about that," Hyacinthe said. "And I've wondered, too, about their stories of coming to Alba long, long ago, when the Straits were still covered with ice. If it's true, their magic is old, as old as what's written in the Book of Raziel, only different.”
Dorelei shivered beside me.
"Can you speak the dromonde to learn the truth?" Phèdre asked, curious.
"Not without one of the Maghuin Dhonn before me." Hyacinthe shook his head. "And mayhap not even then. The dromonde looks backward as well as forward, but I do not think I can see past the origins of the Tsingani.”
There was a good deal more conversation about them, but it was speculation and came to naught in the end. When