Seaborn 03 - Sea Throne by Chris Howard

Author:Chris Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Lykeion Books
Published: 2010-05-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19 - Dining with the Sea

The doorbell rang. Gregor was in the middle of a conversation with Olivia—she'd been banned from dinner preparations by Agatha. He excused himself, set his glass down and made his way to the foyer. Kassandra came bounding over a chair and couch, gazelle-like, crossing the living room in a blur, shoving her father out of the way, and slamming her hand against the front door.

"I'll get it, dad. Please don't answer the door. Please? For me?"

He backed away, gave her a disappointed look.

Kassandra closed her eyes, then opened them, a blink that lasted a moment too long, testing something in the air. She swung the front door in, bowing her head to a woman with shoulder-length red hair going a little gray. She wore glasses with thin purple frames, and a long gown that started out pale blue at the shoulders, darkening to indigo at her waist, sliding into pure black at the knees.

"Welcome to our home, Elizabeth Shoaler. An honor to have you here. Your son and Kaffia Lang have already arrived." Kassandra backed away from the doorway after a quick glance up the path to Atlantic Avenue to see if it felt and tasted clear. "Please come in. You know my father, of course."

Gregor held out a box that had appeared in his open hand a second before, bowed his head. "Good to see you again, Elizabeth. Open it."

Elizabeth hesitated, looking up at him for a moment, trying to read his expression, nodded, smiled, and took the box—and inside, a flash of heavy gold, three heart-shaped blocks with wire hooks to bind them together. "A trilithon? But I can't...Is this...gold?"

Gregor smiled, a genuine response to her surprise and joy. "You can make them of bronze and other types of stone and metal, but gold is the finest."

Elizabeth shook her head, stunned. "I mean. This must have cost a fortune. I cannot take this, Gregor. I'm not seaborn. I can't even use it."

"That's only my half of the gift." Gregor surprised Kassandra by throwing his arm over her shoulder, pulling her close. She had a feeling that Ampharete had put him up to it, now that she was free of the others and inside her husband's soul. "The girl you waited thirteen years to save from the king?" He paused for effect, and then released his daughter. "Show Elizabeth who you really are."

Kassandra bowed her head again to Elizabeth, running with her father's—and mother's—impromptu generosity. "We never properly thanked you for risking everything to save many seaborn from a tyrant—and in particular, one girl with a Rexenor father and an Alkimides mother from her own grandfather. I was the Wreath-wearer, if that means anything to you."

Elizabeth nodded. "A little." Scowling now because she wasn't sure about the past tense.

"I am no longer...just that. When you agreed to take in a seaborn girl, when you heard my mother's call, you saved more than someone with Alkimides blood, more than an heir to the throne you hate.

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