If one more insincere ‘nicety’
passes through someone’s lips, I’m going to place them all in a magical time
out. Noticing my growing agitation,
Kallen reaches for my hand under the table and gives it a reassuring
squeeze. I’m not reassured. Why did Dagda and I think this was a good
idea again?
“Julienne, you look lovely
tonight, as usual,” Tana drawls. “How
fortunate you are to be young for eternity.”
Mom’s smile is rapidly
approaching a sneer. “Yes, and I only
had to die to achieve it.”
Clearing his throat, Dagda
says, “Has Xandra told you we have been asked to mediate peace talks between
the Centaurs and the Sasquatch?” He
beams at me.
His jealousy concealed as well
as a polar bear standing against a black wall, Dad snipes, “How did you manage
before Xandra got here? She seems
indispensable to your rule. You can’t
make a move without her.” Okay, that was
definitely not a nicety. This is not a
good sign of things to come over the course of this doomed dinner party.
Dagda and I are trying hard to
include those we love in the growing father/daughter bond we’ve
established. Unfortunately, the people
we love want nothing to do with the idea.
Yes, it’s unreasonable to think they could all be friends, but it would
be nice if we could all be in the same room together without someone wanting,
or attempting, to kill someone. This
dinner was supposed to be a first step in that direction. It seems we’ve tripped before we even got
that first step in.
On his very best behavior,
Dagda smiles tightly. “I am pleased to
have the opportunity to help guide Xandra in her destiny.”
“Yes, it is wonderful to have
your daughter here with us,” Tana says.
She almost sounds like she means it.
Almost.
A strange feeling passes over
me. I swear, ten spiders are crawling on
me. I brush at my arms and legs causing
Kallen to glance at me in concern. “Are
you okay?” he asks quietly.
Realizing I am not being
attacked by spiders, I nod. The skin
crawling feeling is starting to subside.
“I had an insect or something on my arm,” I whisper back.
Not to be outdone, Mom says,
“That you have accepted Xandra into your life is very gracious of you.”
A shiver goes up my
spine. Or was that another spider? I try to surreptitiously check it out but
Kallen catches on. “What is it?” he
asks, leaning around so he can see my back.
“Is there a spider there?” I
ask trying to look over my shoulder like I have a chance of twisting my neck
far enough to see my own back.
Kallen brushes a hand down my
shirt and shakes his head. “Not that I
can see.”
“Dipweed probably has fleas,”
Taz mutters from under the table where he’s waiting impatiently for scraps to
be thrown his way.
“Watch it, Goblin-made,” Felix
growls.
It took days to come up with a
name for Taz’s new brother. Technically
not my Familiar, he belonged to my doppelganger, the Tasmanian devil from
another universe has nonetheless sworn his loyalty to me. Not that I needed another Tasmanian devil
following me around, but at least Taz now has someone to insult besides
me. Felix never had a name before. Therefore, he wanted to make sure he found
the perfect one. He finally settled on
Felix when he learned that the meaning of the name is lucky. He considers himself lucky to have escaped
certain death at the hands of my doppelganger.
I’m just glad he picked something easy to pronounce.
My attention is dragged back
to the conversation when Tana says, “It is not Xandra’s fault she was conceived
in betrayal.” Ouch. Low blow.
Mom narrows her ghostly eyes
at the Fairy. “It’s not my fault your
husband neglected to mention he was married.”
“If you hadn’t been so easy to
seduce, you may have had time to find this out,” Tana counters.
Dad comes to Mom’s
defense. “My wife was tricked into
bedding your unfaithful husband. It was
not her morals that were lacking, it was his.”
He jabs a finger in Dagda’s direction.
Well, at least everyone is
being honest with their feelings now.
Except my biological father who is smart enough to keep his mouth
tightly closed while this exchange volleys back and forth across the large
table in the Palace’s finest dining room.
Like me, he’d rather be anywhere but here at the moment.
“I really wish my
great-grandparents were alive so we could spend time discussing how all of you
were conceived,” I grumble. Kallen tries
to hide his smirk by taking a bite of his potatoes.
Clearing his throat, Dagda finds
his courage and says like the diplomatic King he can be, “We all agree that my
actions were reprehensible at the time.
That being said, I do not regret the daughter who emerged from my poor
decisions. Given the choice to do it
over, I would act just as reprehensible to bring her into the universe. The only thing I can do at this point is
offer my sincerest apologies to those of you I hurt.” He reaches over and places his hand on Tana’s
and turns his eyes to Mom, begging her to believe his sincerity. It’s a good sign when Tana doesn’t rip her
hand out from under his and storm from the room. Mom and Dad don’t zoom off through the
wall. Everyone stays right here.
Unfortunately, the air in the room
has become acrid due to a mixture of awkwardness, regret, anger, acceptance and
a bunch of hatred that isn’t going to go away because my biological father made
a nice speech. I give Kallen a hopeful
glance but am disappointed to find him at a loss for words to throw into this
abyss of misery. I guess I’ll try even
though I’m not very good at this. “So,
Kallen and I are pregnant.”
The shockwave that circles
around the faces at the table appears to have booted the details of my birth
out of all of their minds. The face
displaying the greatest amount of shock is my husband’s. I can’t help a small giggle. “Just kidding,” I say, mostly to Kallen. “I just wanted to break the tension.” The relief on Kallen’s face is palpable. We both agree we should wait to have
children. Many, many years.
“Xandra, that wasn’t funny.”
Mom admonishes.
I shrug. “Just wanted to get your attention. Can we go back to talking about the Sasquatch
and the Centaurs now?”
Quick to jump on the ‘find
something else to talk about’ train, Dagda says, “Yes, of course. Both the Centaurs and the Sasquatch agree it
is time to bring an end to their war.
Now, we need to help them figure out the best way to do this. Xandra and I leave for the Centaur realm the
day after tomorrow.”
Surprised, Mom says, “So
soon?”
I nod. “We don’t want to give them time to change
their minds.” Both races are volatile in
nature.
“Now that they’re done
squabbling, maybe they’ll remember we’re starving to death down here,” Taz
grumbles. I nudge him with my foot and
Felix laughs. At least someone is
enjoying himself.
“What made them decide on a
peace treaty?” Dad asks. “I thought both
sides were adamant that no compromise could be reached.” Dad is fascinated by the politics and
cultures of supernatural beings. He has
been doing so much research lately I’m pretty sure he knows more about these
other cultures than I do.
A genuine smile appears on
Dagda’s face. “I believe our daughter is
the reason behind it.” Dad bristles at
the ‘our’ part of Dagda’s sentence but he doesn’t say anything. I secretly applaud my biological father for
his acknowledgement of Dad’s place in my life. Dagda continues. “After learning of her destiny and
experiencing her power first hand, I believe both sides thought it prudent to
come up with a compromise before they faced her wrath again.”
This conversation is starting
to make me as uncomfortable as the last.
“I doubt that.”
Taking pity on me, Kallen
says, “Uncle, when is the last time we went fishing?” Kallen fishes? Huh.
Dagda sits back in his chair
and rubs his chin. “I can’t remember
exactly. You were probably around ten or
so.” That’s why I’ve never heard about
Kallen’s passion for fish.
“Jim, I believe fishing was a
hobby of yours,” Kallen says to Dad. It
was by mutual agreement that Kallen call him Jim instead of Dad. Dad may be dead, but he doesn’t want to feel
old.
Dad nods. “There was a nice fishing hole just a couple
miles from the house. I got out there as
often as I could when the weather permitted.”
“The weather will be nice for
fishing tomorrow,” Kallen says as an open invitation to both men. I hold my breath to see how they
respond. Especially Dad.
Dagda speaks first. “The river has a nice supply of Callop. There is a place just south of the palace
that is fairly comfortable.”
Dad ponders this for a minute
and then nods. “I would enjoy a morning
of fishing. Someone will need to bait my
hook for me,” he adds with a wink in Kallen’s direction. Being a ghost, Dad will be doing more observing
than fishing. “What, exactly, is a
Callop?”
Dagda, Kallen and Dad manage
to take up the rest of dinner with fish talk.
By the end of the meal, I hope to never hear about another fish my
entire life. Still, I give Kallen a hug
when we rise from the table. “Thank
you,” I whisper in his ear.
He grins and takes my hand,
leading me out of the dining room. When
we are out of earshot of the others, he says, “I hope I get more of a reward
than that.”
Definitely.