03 - The Eternal Rose Read Online Free PDF Page B

time in a very long time. I seem to recall an infant in Bekaara's arms when I came from the skola for the visit."
    Thalassa's pretty face was marred by her scowl. Kallista thought about intervening—they did not need to make her their enemy, not with her news untold—but this was Obed's kin, Obed's culture. He would know best how to deal with her.
    “Besides, Daryath is no longer my home.” He went on in the same gentle voice. “You know that when a man is chosen as mate, he joins the Line of his wife. Her home becomes his. Let me make you known to my mate."
    This was the tricky part. Most of the nations south of the Mountains of the Wind did not have iliani. In Adara, any family based on fewer than four individuals bound in temple vows was considered crippled, half-formed. Up to twelve persons in any combination could make up an ilian, though outside the temple families, iliani tended to be smaller, usually four to six.
    But in the Southron countries, any marriage of more than two persons, one male and one female, was considered an immoral abomination. It was the chief thing that made dealing with them difficult. Primarily because Southroners— these Southroners especially—saw themselves as the center of civilization and therefore right while everyone else was wrong.
    Kallista generally handled it by introducing only one of her iliasti as her mate, just to keep from ruffling the waters. She didn't deny any of her others, but she didn't push the truth in any faces. Though she did have trouble keeping track of just who she'd introduced as mate to which diplomat. That was what she had a High Steward for.
    Obed turned to her and Kallista took his hand, let him draw her closer. “This is Kallista Varyl, Chosen and Marked of the One, Reinine and Ruler of all Adara. My mate."
    Thalassa's eyes went wide. She bent low in one of the straight-legged bows of Obed's people and stayed there. “Your Majesty.” Her voice shook, just a little.
    Finally. The preliminaries were done and they could get down to business.
    “Rise please, little cousin.” Kallista had learned long ago that politeness would get one further toward what one wanted than other methods. If it didn't work, then the stick could be brought out, but honey first. “I am told you have messages?"
    The girl's eyes slid to the small crowd of people behind Kallista and Obed. “They are private messages, Your Majesty. Concerning a matter your husband communicated to my mother several years ago."
    Kallista's heart threatened to pound its way out of her chest. Could it be real news, after so long? “These are my Godmarked, bound to me in service to the One. The child we seek belongs to one of them."
    “Oh?” Suspicion floated across Thalassa's face. She would have to learn to school her expression better if she hoped to succeed in diplomacy. Or trade, for that matter. Her mother Bekaara was a trader, the one who'd set Obed up in his business. “I thought the child was yours."
    Kallista let herself smile. “How could it be, if I am searching for both the mother and the child? But, bound as we are by the marking of the One, the child of any is the child of all.” Nothing but the truth and nothing to disturb strange Southron sensibilities. She hoped.
    “Then whose child is it?"
    What did it matter whose child it was? Ready to bring out the stick, Kallista startled when Stone pushed forward.
    “The boy is mine.” Stone's eyes held a silent plea when he looked at Kallista.
    “His eyes are blue.” He quieted his voice, but Kallista feared not enough to keep the Southron woman from hearing. “All three of Fox's get have brown eyes, but this boy's eyes are blue. Like Rozite's. Like mine. And he looks like Rozite.” He turned the portrait up in Kallista's hand so she could see it, as if she had not already burned the image into her memory. “See? Around the eyes and the jaw. His mouth is softer and his nose isn't so thin or straight as hers, but you can see