Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [81]
All expression smoothed from her face, which remained white and pinched. “Forgive me,” she said, although she sounded as though her lips were too stiff to utter the apology. “It’s just that I am surprised at so generous a gesture on behalf of your natural daughter.”
The scorn in that one word was like a slash from the willow switch. Elandra flinched, then felt angry for letting either of them see she could still be affected by taunts. She had to outgrow such foolishness, she told herself. She had to learn to be impervious to the insults. Her mind turned to the possibilities of the future her father offered. She had never even allowed herself to dream of any kind of life such as other young women had. But if she did go and if she was married well...
“Unlike Bixia, Elandra has her own destiny,” Albain said proudly. “It was read by the soothsayer in her mother’s household at her birth.”
Elandra and Hecati exchanged an involuntary glance. Elandra took a step forward. “I did not know this,” she said, intrigued despite a wary sense that she might not like it. “Why have I never been told?”
He smiled at her. “Because of your mother’s wisdom. She asked me not to tell you until you were grown. I was also requested, by another party, to let you be raised more roughly than Bixia, to test you for a purpose I do not know.”
“But—”
“I did not like to keep such a secret at first, but as the two of you have grown up together, I have seen Bixia spoiled and fawned over by everyone until she’s vain and puffed up with conceit. I see you, resilient and wary, expecting no favors.”
“You cannot say that Elandra is better than Lady Bixia,” Hecati said with quick jealousy. “She is too tall, too thin, all awkward elbows. That hair is a fright. It will never stay combed.”
Albain smiled at Elandra. “your hair has the same auburn tint as mine. And today you make me think of the last time I saw Iaris.”
“My mother,” Elandra whispered. Her mother’s name was never spoken. How she thirsted to hear it, how she longed for any detail of what her mother was like.
“Iaris was quite a beauty,” he said, his eyes growing soft and distant with memory. “Not in the common way, but very fierce and reserved. When she sent me away, she looked much as you look today, all haughty and tense, with tears in her eyes she would not let fall. By the gods, it was not easy to win her heart at first. Nor would she be tamed. Nor could I keep her.”
Elandra bit her lip, and her yearning was an ache that filled her entire being. “I long to hear more about her. All my life I’ve hoped that someday you would tell me.”
“I know.” Gently he touched her cheek. “This is not the time. You must go today with your sister, for training and preparation for marriage.”
“But—”
He shook his head to still her protest. “We are not always given our choice in these matters, Elandra. Had I been given leave, I would have warned you of your future long ago. I would have given you a trousseau too. For you are as precious to me as Bixia.”
“But who commands you, Father? Who has told you to raise me thus? Who has made you keep silent?” Elandra frowned at him. “My mother?”
He shook his head. “Give up this guessing game. I am not at liberty to tell you. I have defied them enough by taking off the spell of restraint.”
“But—”
“Hush. You must learn to accept what destiny writes for you.”
“And what is this destiny that has been foretold for her?” Hecati asked in a spiteful voice.
His gaze never wavered from Elandra’s. “She is to marry a man whose name shall be known throughout the ages. Whether he is a warlord or a philosopher depends on the match the Penestricans will arrange according to their wisdom.”
For a moment there was only silence in the room.
Elandra forgot to breathe as her mind turned over his words. In spite of herself she was pleased and Haltered. It was the destiny of someone intended for greatness. Her life was not going to he dull or ordinary after all.
“Well?” Albain asked, breaking the silence.
Elandra drew in a breath, and her involuntary half smile flickered into a frown.