Artemis Rising by Cheri Lasota

Author:Cheri Lasota
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: historical fantasy, young adult, mythology
ISBN: 9780983837350
Publisher: SpireHouse Books
Published: 2011-07-16T07:00:00+00:00

TRISTAN HAD BANDAGED HER FEET WELL, BUT Arethusa couldn’t hide her limp as she walked to the breakfast table the next morning. Tristan watched her, his eyes revealing that something was amiss.

The condessa sniffed it out immediately. “Why is she limping?” she said.

Tristan hesitated. Arethusa knew he didn’t want to lie. And she wouldn’t let him. How many times had she gotten in trouble for her night-wanderings? What was one more scolding to her? She raised her hand to stop Tristan the moment he opened his mouth to speak and answered the question herself with pencil and paper.

I went out to the shore and cut my foot.

The condessa’s mouth turned into a hard line. “Do I have to bar your window and chain you to your bed before I am to have any peace?”

Arethusa couldn’t picture the woman lifting a finger to dust the windowsill, much less bar it.

“I worry for you walking the shore without a chaperone—and so late at night.” Pai implored Arethusa with a tender smile. “I have told you again and again. Why do you not listen?”

Arethusa lowered her eyes. She knew Pai was just concerned. Over the three years she had lived with the Estrelas, she had taken to thinking of the conde as her Pai, the way Tristan had from the beginning, for he was more of a father than her own had ever been. Still, she found it hard to forgive his leniency toward the condessa, for as kind as the conde was, that was how cruel his wife could be.

The condessa was not so benevolent. “The girl’s wild. She brings dishonor on this house. Yes. They both do.”

As usual, Pai said nothing. Arethusa did not miss Tristan’s downturned eyes, his folded hands. How many times would Pai ignore the effect the condessa’s words had on Tristan? Why did Pai always refuse to step in? She wondered if his illness caused his indifference. He had aged prematurely over the past three years. His coloring had faded to a grey pallor and his voice had lost its deep tenor. His breathing came shorter now, and, though the condessa fussed over him, he took little care of himself.

Arethusa remembered an exchange she had overheard two years before when the padre had admonished Pai for the condessa’s conduct.

“If you do not trouble to check your wife,” Padre said, “she could destroy what little hope your children have for a happy life.”

As Arethusa listened with an ear pressed to Pai’s study door, she heard a great strain in her adoptive father’s voice. “I cannot—I cannot prevent her.”

“You must, Fernando. Inês’s words are poison.”

“You have never understood. You cannot know what I’ve done to Inês, what pain she suffers for my sins. I cannot change my fate and I would not if I could, and it is Inês who suffers for it. I refuse to turn my back on her, and yet I do every day that I live.”

“And have you not also turned your back on your children?”

“Arethusa and Tristan know I love them.

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