Deception's Princess (Princesses of Myth) by Friesner Esther

Author:Friesner, Esther [Friesner, Esther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780449818657
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

I took comfort from knowing Mother needed me, but if only Lady Íde shared her feelings! Mother’s dearest friend had seen the birth of my sisters and me. Her love and devotion were absolute. She was an inextricable part of our lives.

All of which made her utterly certain that she knew what was best for us, and she was going to see to it that we agreed. For me, that meant being affectionately rebuffed every time I offered to do a woman’s share of our household work while Mother recovered. How many times did I need to hear, “You’re a good girl, Maeve, but no”?

I gave up. She won. But for once the loser in a challenge carried away the prize: the liberty to return daily to the crannog again was mine.

I did so with a clear conscience. Mother was getting better, and aside from our daily visits, what was there to keep me in the ringfort? The grown women of Cruachan were preoccupied, following Lady Íde’s directives. As a result, teaching us girls about the loom and the needle, the spindle, the carding combs, and every aspect of feeding and managing a household fell by the wayside. The fosterlings soon learned that they could spend their days in gossip and flirtation as long as they disguised their lack of real employment with a hank of unspun wool or a piece of eternally unfinished embroidery.

I went where I could put my hands to better use. I scavenged for discarded scraps of leather and made them into a sleeve that would protect my arm from Ea’s talons. My fingers grew astonishingly nimble at whisking off her hood, revealing those fiery eyes. I carried her out into the open, letting her see the shining blue realm awaiting her return.

“It’s going to break my heart when you’re set free,” I told her. “I wish I could keep you forever, but”—I took a deep breath—“how can I do that and still claim I love you?”

Ea gazed at me steadily, and all at once I thought I saw something more than the familiar flash of flame in the depths of her eyes. Tentatively I raised my free hand and touched a fingertip to the feathers on her back. She made no move to warn me off. I stroked her head and she allowed it. The enchantment of that moment lingered over us until she declared Enough! by gaping her beak and stamping her feet on my leather sleeve.

I wanted to tell Odran all about the priceless gift I’d been given. He’d touched the little kestrel many times, but with the experienced, dispassionate hands of a trained healer. What had passed between Ea and me was more than that. He would understand.

I understood, too, that I couldn’t speak to him about it until he was again free to visit the crannog. How could I flaunt my liberty in his face when he had so little? Master Íobar’s delayed homecoming filled the druid with an obsessive drive to make up for lost time with his son’s lessons.

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