Waterborne by Katherine Irons

Author:Katherine Irons [Irons, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780758279118
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2012-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

“I want to come!” Danu cried, leaving the small loom where she’d been painstakingly weaving a tapestry in greens and blues and brilliant purples. The bunched threads and knots and the lopsided pattern gave evidence that this was one skill that she had yet to perfect. “Please, Daddy, let me come. I’ll be good.”

Poseidon looked at his wife. “It’s up to your mother. Rhiannon?”

“Archery? Is the archery range any place for a small girl?” She glanced at the loom and shook her head. “For a girl who’s first in her dance class, your weaving attempts are atrocious.”

Danu grimaced. “I hate weaving, Mommy. My starfish looks like an octopus.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve finished my homework, and I practiced the harp for two clicks of the water clock. Please let me go with Daddy. Pretty please.”

“But Lady Dorkas is coming with Damalis this afternoon. You three children had so much fun last time they visited.”

Danu shook her head so hard that her blond curls bounced, and folded her arms over her chest. “Damalis is too little for me to play with. She’s only three. Uncle Orion promised to teach me to shoot a bow. I’ll be so good they won’t even know I’m there.”

Poseidon chuckled. “That I’d have to see to believe. I’ll take her. You’ll have no peace this afternoon if I don’t.”

“Yay!” Danu hugged her father’s legs and ran to fetch her new red sandals with the gold tassels.

The queen sighed. “You spoil her. She’ll be impossible by the time she’s a teenager.”

Rhiannon was probably right. He did spoil Danu, but the child had secured a place in his heart, in both their hearts, that made it almost impossible to deny her anything within reason. And Danu was an amazing child, far older than her years in so many ways, not to mention her rare psychic gifts. “She only gets to be young once,” he murmured, brushing his lips against his baby son’s fuzzy head. “And a princess doesn’t need to learn the art of weaving to attract a rich husband.”

“I suppose you’re right. The Lady Athena believes she’s born for the priesthood, anyway.”

“Or a seat on the high council. And archery would be an asset for either choice. We won’t be late.”

“See that you’re not. We have that dinner with the ambassador from the Scottish Lochs, the strange-looking man.”

The high king groaned. “I like state banquets no more than Danu likes her weaving.” His mouth tightened. “Don’t you wish sometimes that I was only a prince among princes again? Life was a lot simpler before my father died.”

“Every day,” Rhiannon replied. “And every night. Our time was more our own before you became Poseidon. When you were Morgan, no one cared if we took time away to be with your family.”

“If wishes were horses,” he answered. “But it is what it is. I’m Poseidon and Perseus will wear the crown after me.”

“He may not want it any more than you.”

“Perhaps. You should have thought of that when you gave me a son instead of another gorgeous daughter.

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