Page 66 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

Orion took E.T. from Syssi and set him in the highchair at the head of the table.

"The blessing first," Alena said, looking at her mother.

There was no birthday blessing tradition, but Annani was great at improvising.

She rose and stood beside the highchair, and as Evander looked up at her from under the crown, he gave her the most adorable smile.

Annani put her hand on his soft curls.

"Evander Tellesious," she said. "May the Fates weave you a long and strong thread. May it be entwined with love, joy, and honor." She bent and kissed the top of his head. "Be blessed, my dearest."

Behind her, Khiann repeated the words softly in the old tongue, and the others repeated them in English, a beat behind, so that the blessing went around the room twice.

Alena placed a small round cake in front of her son. It was frosted white and topped with a single candle.

The large cake sat on the sideboard, three tiers high.

Orion lit the candle, and when E.T. blew on it ineffectively, Orion helped.

Someone started singing the happy birthday song, and others joined. E.T. clapped along, waiting with surprising patience to eat his cake.

When the song ended, Orion pulled the cake closer to his son's hands. "Go for it, little man."

Evander put one chubby hand on top of it, then lifted it and looked at the frosting covering it. He turned to look at his mother, and when she smiled and nodded, he put the hand in his mouth.

"That is how it is done," Dalhu said.

After that, it was carnage. Both hands. Frosting in the curls. The crown finally slid off and landed in what remained of the cake, and E.T. picked it up and tried to eat it, too.

"I want my own cake," Allegra complained.

She stood beside the highchair, arms crossed, an expression of deep indignation on her face.

"Sweetheart, this is Evander's birthday," Syssi said.

"I want my own cake!"

Syssi crouched to Allegra's level. "Here is what we will do. You will get the biggest piece of the big cake."

Allegra considered this. "Bigger than Uncle Dalhu's?"

"Bigger than Dalhu's," Syssi confirmed.

"Okay."

With the tantrum averted, there was a collective release of breath.

Ovidu cut the cake, and Alena and several of the ladies passed slices to the guests, the first and largest going, as promised, to Allegra. Then it was time to open the presents.

When their turn arrived, Annani watched her youngest grandson respond as Orion pulled out the castle she had commissioned from Esag weeks earlier. It had towers, a working gate, and twenty carved knights on twenty carved horses.

E. T. licked one of the knights, then tried to bite his head off, and when that did not work, he put it back and moved on to the other presents. He was still too young to appreciate the castle, but in a few months, he would be playing with the knights and horses instead of trying to eat them, and then he would outgrow the simple play and move to other types of games.

Children grew up too fast.

25

SULLHA