Seaborne (21 page)
Authors: Katherine Irons
Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fantasy, #Chick-Lit, #Mythology
“I don’t believe either of you,” Caddoc growled. “You’re lying again, Mother. Of course, I’m Poseidon’s son. I look just like him.”
“Do you?” She laughed. “Stare into a mirror, and then look at your uncle. You will see a resemblance.”
Caddoc shook his head. “No. You’re making a joke at my expense.”
“Would we do that, my son?” Pelagias asked. He moved quickly, closing the space between them, and seizing Caddoc’s right hand. He raised it, and pressed his own left against Caddoc’s fingers. “Do you see how the middle finger is shorter than those on either side? How the nail is flatter? It is the mark of the men of our line. One of your feet has a similarly shaped toe.”
“Your own brother? How could you?” he demanded of his mother.
Halimeda shrugged. “It was common in ancient Egypt. Doubtless among our royal ancestors as well.”
“It disgusts me,” he flung back. “And you could be lying. I could have inherited the strange finger and toe through you and not my uncle.”
She smiled. “If it pleases you to think you bear Poseidon’s blood, then continue to deceive yourself. It doesn’t matter. As to my actions, tell me you do not lust after Morwena? You would have made the beast with two backs gladly with her, believing her to be your half-sister.”
“She isn’t?”
Halimeda covered her face with her hands and sank onto a backless couch. “Have you heard nothing we’ve said? What should it matter who fathered you, if all believe you to be the eldest born of Poseidon? You will be king once he and Morgan are dead, and you will take the sweet Morwena, princess royal as your bride.”
“And my son will be Poseidon,” Pelagias said, joining Halimeda on the couch. He caught a lock of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers.
“Our son,” she said, leaning close to kiss him.
The kiss was not a sisterly one; it was openmouthed and lecherous. It turned Caddoc’s stomach, and he decided that once all this came to pass, once he was high king, he would find a way to make himself an orphan as soon as possible. Doubtless his mother would take delight in futtering a shark and then cutting its throat once she’d reached sexual satisfaction.
“After you’ve taken the twins and the queen, what will you do with them? Why are you placing them under arrest instead of killing them?” Caddoc asked. “Why wouldn’t the High Council allow the queen to reign until—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” his mother said. “Of course, they will die. They are arrested in front of witnesses, treated with respect, and transported back to Atlantis for an official inquiry into the king’s death.”
“Sadly, Korinna’s family and the guards will be attacked by Melqart’s minions a few leagues from the old palace,” Pelagias explained. “They will put up a gallant fight, but all will perish. Prince Alexandros and Prince Orion will be chained with no chance to defend themselves or their mother.”
“The guards will know that there was no attack by shades,” Caddoc said. “Even if you paid them handsomely, how would you prevent them from talking?”
Halimeda leaned back against her brother, allowing him to fondle her naked breast. “Didn’t your uncle just say that all would perish?”
“Even our soldiers?”
“A regrettable necessity,” Pelagias said. He pulled Halimeda into his lap and kissed her again, running his long fingers over her lower back and buttocks.
Caddoc thought he would vomit. He choked, swallowed his gorge, and forced himself to think of Morwena. She had beautiful breasts, high and round, with small pink nipples. He could imagine himself sucking those nipples until she screamed with passion. “You promise I can have Morwena?”
His mother nodded. “Taking her as your queen will stifle any gossip and bind Korinna’s followers to you. Later, if you tire of her …” She shrugged. “Who know what might become of her? It’s a small matter.”
“And if she refuses to marry me?”
“You will be Poseidon,” his uncle reminded him. “You may do what you want.”
Caddoc’s heart beat faster. He could see Morwena’s sensual mouth and her taut buttocks in his mind’s eye. She would be his to do with as he pleased. Heat curled in the pit of his stomach, and he felt his cock grow hard.
“You will have to be strict with her,” his mother said. “She is willful. You must not allow her to come between you and your true family.”
It was true. Morwena was spirited. She felt herself superior to him. That would have to be mended. He would force her to his will if he had to, but better if she leaned on him in her grief … if, after they were wedded and bedded, he gained her trust and devotion.
Morwena had a soft heart, especially where her younger siblings were concerned. She would take their deaths hard. He’d come upon her playing ball in the courtyard with her sister Tatiana not long ago. Tatiana was just ten, beginning to change from a child to a woman. In time, she might be even more beautiful than her older sister. He wondered … “You say that Queen Korinna’s offspring will die with her. Even the little ones?”
Halimeda smiled. “Children grow up, my son. Haven’t you? If your throne is to be secure, Korinna’s whelps must die with her.”
CHAPTER 21
D
anu woke slowly. For a few seconds, she couldn’t remember where she was. She had fleeting memories of another bed in a tiny brown room in a long boxlike house, but they quickly vanished as she stared around her. Her bed was a giant shell, round and pink and white with pearly insides, but it wasn’t hard like a clam shell. Her mattress and covers were green and silky, so soft that they reminded her of a kitten’s fur. Danu liked kittens almost as much as she liked puppies, but she’d never had one of her own.
anu woke slowly. For a few seconds, she couldn’t remember where she was. She had fleeting memories of another bed in a tiny brown room in a long boxlike house, but they quickly vanished as she stared around her. Her bed was a giant shell, round and pink and white with pearly insides, but it wasn’t hard like a clam shell. Her mattress and covers were green and silky, so soft that they reminded her of a kitten’s fur. Danu liked kittens almost as much as she liked puppies, but she’d never had one of her own.
“No kittens,” someone had shouted at her. “Fleas. They climb on the table.” Not here. Not in this place, but a long time ago. She tried to remember who the grown-up was who said that, but she couldn’t. She did remember the part about the fleas.
Danu wasn’t certain what a flea was or why it would climb on the table. But she hadn’t wanted a flea. She’d wanted a little black kitten to sleep with. If not a real kitten, maybe a toy one, like a teddy bear. She lay on her back and stared up at the high roof. This was such a big room, but it wasn’t dark. Light shone from the floor and from the sparkly white icicles that hung from the ceiling.
If she listened hard, she could hear pretty music all around her, and best of all, lots of tiny little fish swam around the icicles. Some were yellow and blue, others purple and green. It was fun to lie on her back and watch them playing tag with each other.
Danu slid down out of the round bed and was surprised at how warm and smooth the floor was. She looked down at her toes and wiggled them. That was funny. She had little skin things between her big toes and her next toes. She couldn’t remember seeing that before, but it didn’t hurt and didn’t feel like a boo-boo.
Her tummy was making noises. She guessed she was hungry. She was always hungry, but Queenie gave her good things to eat. Everybody here was kind to her, but she still felt a little bad. Her daddy hadn’t come to take care of her like he said he would. And she missed someone else so bad that she had a big lump in her throat and she felt like she was going to cry. The trouble was, she couldn’t remember who it was she wanted to see.
There was a little squeak at the door and her dolphin swam into the room. In her mouth, Echo carried a basket of breakfast. Danu laughed. “Echo!”
Echo wiggled her tail and looked just as happy to see Danu. Echo had slept beside her shell bed last night. Wherever Danu went, Echo went, and sometimes, when Danu was tired of swimming, the dolphin carried her on her back. A dolphin was a good friend, Danu thought, almost as nice as a kitten, but a lot bigger. She didn’t have fur like a cat. Her skin was smooth.
Danu had eaten most of the food in her basket when Morwena and Tatiana came in. Shyly, she smiled at them, and they both came to give her a hug. She liked them. Tatiana was a big girl and Morwena was a grown-up, but she didn’t act like most grown-ups. She liked to play games, and she’d taught her a song yesterday.
“Is my daddy here?” Danu asked. “He said he would come.”
Morwena shook her head. “Not yet, but Mother is going to search for pearls in the garden. Would you like to help?”
Danu nodded. Morwena’s mommy was Queenie, and Danu liked her best of all. “That’s silly.” She wrinkled her nose. “Tomatoes grow in a garden and sometimes moles.”
“Moles?”
Danu nodded again. “Moles are like mouses, only big. Hester didn’t like moles in her …” She paused and nibbled her lower lip. Hester? Who was Hester? She didn’t know anyone by that name. “Can Echo help too?” She didn’t want to leave the dolphin behind. Sometimes friends went away and you never saw them again.
“Of course,” Tatiana said, giggling. “She’s your nurse dolphin. She goes everywhere you go to protect you from sharks and squid and …” She wiggled her fingers in a scary way and made a face. “Sea monsters!”
Danu’s eyes opened wide and she looked to Morwena to see if her sister was just teasing about the monsters. Morwena was smiling, so Danu laughed too. “If any monsters come, Echo will eat them up! Won’t you, girl?”
The dolphin squeaked and rolled over twice, always a good sign. Queenie had promised that after a while Danu would learn to talk to Echo. She didn’t understand that. She talked to Echo now, but the dolphin just squeaked. She didn’t talk at all. It had to be another grown-up story that they told little kids.
Morwena took her hand. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s go. You’ll love the garden. There is another school of baby starfish and I think I saw a blue sea horse just the right size for you to ride.”
Danu swallowed the sad, missing-daddy feeling and moved along with them. Her tummy was full, her friend Echo was coming, and there were exciting things to see. Best of all, Queenie would be there, and she would hug her and tell her what a good girl she was. It would be a fun day … if only Daddy could come like he promised.
On the beach at Seaborne, Claire rolled her chair down the long cement walkway that ran along the high tide line. Metal railings prevented her from taking an accidental tumble into the sand, but even sturdy construction required constant work to keep the path from being washed away by waves and storms.
The week since she returned from the hospital had been a restless one. Every day, except for two days when it had poured rain, she’d come to the water’s edge to wait for Morgan to return. She’d watched the waves, staring out to sea, straining her eyes to see him appear out of the surf. And at night, in her room, she’d lain awake in her bed, listening for his step, waiting in vain to hear his husky voice.
It was good to be home. She’d never appreciated Seaborne more; the tranquility of the house, the beauty of the grounds, the beauty of the ocean. She couldn’t imagine ever leaving this place, ever wanting to live anywhere else. All the examinations, the CT scans and the interviews had tired her, and she’d slept eight or ten hours a night over the last few days.
The only thing that had troubled her—other than her separation from Morgan—had been the reoccurring migraines. At least, she thought she might be experiencing migraines, but the intense pain never came. Three or four times, she’d seen a bright light in her bedroom, a light with no source, a light so brilliant that it had hurt her eyes. And twice, she’d been certain that she heard a voice in her head. Not Morgan’s voice, not a voice that she could identify, just someone calling her name, and once, the word “wait.”
Okay, so this wasn’t something she was prepared to share with anyone else, especially any of her doctors. People who heard voices were crazy, weren’t they? But this voice was oddly reassuring. It wasn’t telling her to blow up anything or alert the neighborhood to an invasion by space aliens. The voice usually came shortly after the incidents of the light, but once she’d awakened in the middle of the night, certain that there was something important she should remember but couldn’t.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried to understand what was said. She desperately wanted to make a connection to the dream world she’d shared with Morgan. What if that was something similar?
She didn’t know how or why Morgan had come to her in the first place, but she’d decided that he was real. Whether he came from outer space or another dimension, it didn’t matter. Morgan existed. All she had to do was to find him again.
She tried to recall every trace of the strange experience she’d had the last time she and Morgan had been together: Alex, the man Morgan said was his younger brother, the whirlpool that had sucked them down into an alternative world of fantastic trees, green skies, and Indian pipes, and Morgan’s passionate lovemaking. Never had she given so much of herself to a man, and never had a man pleased her so much. If it was a dream place, it was better than this existence.
She and Richard had barely spoken since the hospital. She wasn’t ready to forgive him, didn’t know if she ever could. She still loved her father. Nothing he could do or say would ever change that, but she had taken a step to independence that she’d never taken before. She’d no longer live her life according to Richard’s suggestions. For better or worse, she’d make her own decisions.
By forcing her to undergo mental tests and physical examinations she didn’t want, he’d almost stripped away what little she had left of her self-worth. This was her life, and if she died, so what? Didn’t every human being die sometime? Not that she was looking for an escape. Maybe once, in a dark period of her life, but not now. Morgan had opened windows to possibilities she’d never dreamed existed. And even if she never saw him again, she was through being a victim and done feeling sorry for herself. She’d find a way to make her life—what there was of it—count, and she’d treasure every second of it.
She stopped pushing the chair to watch the antics of two willets fighting over a tiny crab. They were long-billed sandpipers, about sixteen inches tall with black-and-white wings. Each was so intent on capturing a scurrying sand crab and keeping the other from having it that a seagull swooped in and carried off the prize, leaving the willets staring suspiciously at each other.
Something about the larger of the two sandpipers reminded her of Justin and she laughed aloud. He’d been in contact several times since she’d been home, but this morning’s conversation had been their longest talk, and it made her think. At first, after she’d returned from the hospital, she’d refused Justin’s attempts to reach her. She hadn’t wanted to speak to him any more than she had Richard. But, as Justin pointed out, in all fairness, he had tried to talk her father out of sending her to the hospital against her wishes.
Not that she had any silly illusions about Justin. He was definitely after her money and still trying to convince her that she’d be better off married to him than sitting here alone. He’d reminded her that if she had a husband, Richard would be unable to make medical decisions for her. There would never be a repeat of what had just happened.
“Unless it was you,” she’d flung back at him. “You could have me committed if we were married.”
“I would never do that,” he’d insisted. “No matter how much I wanted to have you get the best care, I couldn’t take away your right to make your own choices.”
He’d reminded her of the baby that was available for adoption. “This opportunity might never come again,” he said. “Not for a child of this mental and physical potential.”
Thinking about the baby was emotionally wrenching. It was hard to accept that she’d never give birth … never hold a child born of her own body. Although, why the desire to be a mother was so overpowering she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if she’d had any experience with babies or ever been in close contact with a newborn.
As the two willets flew off, followed by the screeching seagull, Claire wondered if she was being foolish. Was she trading motherhood and a somewhat normal life for the existence of a hermit here at Seaborne? And what if Richard was right? What if that clinic in Switzerland could give her back the ability to walk again? Was she slamming the door to her own future for a dream man who swam with fish?
And what if her dreams had vanished as quickly as they’d come? “Then I’ll just have to dream new ones,” she murmured into the wind.
Using her cell, she made the call she’d been planning on all afternoon. She needed to give Justin an answer concerning his marriage proposal. His office was closed, and the recording said that they would resume normal hours on Monday, which was odd. It wasn’t a holiday. She wondered if he had taken a vacation and why he hadn’t mentioned it when they’d spoken.
She tried Justin’s apartment and got voice mail there as well. She didn’t leave a message. What she had to say could only be said to him. Undaunted, Claire looked up Justin’s new cell number and punched that in. He’d always changed his personal number when he acquired a new phone. It was one of his many quirky traits, such as checking his car door twice whenever he locked it.
Typical psychiatrist
, she thought,
crazier than his patients
.
Typical psychiatrist
, she thought,
crazier than his patients
.
This time, she was successful. Justin picked up on the third ring.
“Claire. Darling. What a nice surprise. I was just thinking of you. I have copies of the sonogram. The baby’s a boy.”
A boy
, she thought. Somehow, she’d pictured herself the mother of a little girl. She shook off the notion. Trust Justin to extract every drop of her emotions. “I tried the office first,” she said, forcing her voice to be cheerful, “but I got the recording.”
, she thought. Somehow, she’d pictured herself the mother of a little girl. She shook off the notion. Trust Justin to extract every drop of her emotions. “I tried the office first,” she said, forcing her voice to be cheerful, “but I got the recording.”
Someone was laughing in the background. It sounded like a woman. She wondered if Justin was in a bar or having a late lunch in a restaurant. “Is this a bad time?” she asked.
“No, not at all. I thought I’d told you when we talked. Crystal, my receptionist, had her tonsils out,” he explained. “I’d had two cancellations, and one of my favorite patients is having a facelift. It was easier to take a few days off than to deal with a temp from the agency.”
She resisted the urge to ask why he hadn’t called Inga, the woman she’d caught him cheating with, to see if she was available. Justin had always insisted that Inga was a top-notch office manager. But, there had already been enough bad feelings between them. There was no sense adding salt to the wounds.
“Everything’s all right, isn’t it? You aren’t sick?”
“Never better.”
“It sounds like I hear the ocean. You’re down on the beach alone again, aren’t you? Do you feel safe there alone? What if you fell out of your chair?”
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