It screamed, it hissed, it thrashed, knocking into the cave walls and freeing chunks of rock that fell heavily into the water and nearly knocked the scurrying archers to their own damp dooms. A boulder dislodged above Korinna, but Ares reached out a single hand and caught it. With little effort, he tossed it aside, and it bounced off the rim of the cave nearly taking out another archer. “Boy, The Thing sure is pissed today.”
Korinna wanted to scream at him, but the sight of Andreas surfacing silenced her. The soldier pulled Diocles out with him to the edge of the bank. The Thing reared its head once more, and Andreas rolled the two away just in time to avoid being crushed.
Korinna turned to Nikeros. “There has to be something we can do.”
The demigod hesitated, looking out at where Andreas was scrambling to his feet, much less impressive suddenly than he’d been back in town, then back to her. “I am not sure what help it would be, but Athena did say—”
“Athena?” Ares grumbled from behind them, “In league with my sister, are you?”
“Not exactly,”—Korinna waved the god off—“What did she say?”
“Athena!” Ares shouted, fire leaping into his eyes, “She thinks she’s so wonderful because she just popped out of Dad’s head. We can’t all be thoughtforms, you know!”
Korinna shushed him then glared at Nikeros to go on.
“Athena said she blessed you with everything you would need for this journey.”
The girl looked down at herself, still barefoot, the hem of her well-fitting and brilliantly white chiton stained with gray water, then out at the pool, the cave mouth slowly crumbling in on itself, the small squadron of soldiers, fruitlessly shooting arrows and running about, and of course The Thing with its talons and fangs and indeterminate sets of eyes. She sighed, “I don’t know what that means! Ares,”—she rounded on the god—“what do you know about The Thing?”
Ares was still stewing, his arms crossed. He let out an annoyed, little grunt and rolled his eyes. “It’s lived at the bottom of this pit in this cave for like thousands of years, and it’s got something to do with the Titans, and I can talk to it, thank you very much, it always comes when I call it, it’s just that once I give it a command, it has to follow through.” The god stuck out his tongue. “So there.”
The Thing swished its spiky, scaled tail once again and barely missed Diocles and Andreas’s heads as the two ran together along the rocks, making their way closer to Korinna. “And what command did you give it exactly?”
With another hefty roll of his eyes, Ares leaned back against the cave wall as dust settled down on his broad shoulders. “I told it to keep you separate from Andreas the Idiot at all costs.”
Diocles loosed a string of arrows at The Thing, nailing it in one of its many eyes, and it reared back in pain. Andreas shouted victoriously, slapping the man on the back, but it lasted for only a short moment as The Thing descended on the two again with an open mouth.
“But you didn’t know who I was.” She watched the two men jump away from the fangs dripping venom that ate away at the stone in their wake. “So what exactly did you say?”
Ares scratched his head. “I don’t know, something like ‘keep him from his true love, even if that means killing him.’”
Korinna’s eyes lit up. It made so much more sense now. The Thing had no interest in her, and for good reason. She took a breath, and before she could think twice about it, jumped down from the ledge to the bank below, sliding down loose rocks and toward the water. The Thing was big, but from down here it was even bigger. Still, she mustered up something like courage, collected a handful of rocks from the ground, and began pelting The Thing’s back as best she could. Most of her projectiles splashed aimlessly into the water as it thrashed and roared at Andreas, but finally one hit, and she followed it up with her voice, “Hey, you! Big, ugly Thing, over here!”
With a pause, The Thing craned an elongated snout over something like a shoulder to turn toward her. Snorting, it changed course as she stuck her tongue out, and even as Nikeros’s frantic voice called out to her, she continued to bait it. It hesitated, then it dipped under the water to traverse the pond. All was quiet as it disappeared below the water, and Korinna’s shoulders dropped. In the silence, the archers began to get to their feet, the rocks had stopped falling, and even Nikeros calmed down, but Andreas took the opportunity to sprint across the rocks.
Finally the beast burst forth from the water, drenching them in gray, brackish water and screeching into the cave. Korinna was frozen, and if not for Andreas’s quick feet and the massive bulk of his arms, she would have been flattened by The Thing, but instead it landed with an earth-shattering crash on the bank, and she found herself several leaps and bounds away from the spot.
Andreas had a tight hold on her, his face vexed, though it contorted as he shook his head and stuttered, “My…my love?” He glanced across the pond to Diocles, then back to her. “That was quite brave of you.”
“That was stupid,” she whispered in a wavering voice, but when she saw that the monster now had flattened itself against the bank, and was crouching low, taking deep breaths but no longer attacking, she sighed, “But also kinda smart.”
The creature’s many eyes darted across the cave, falling on the mortals. A long tongue jutted out of its mouth, but quickly retracted. It looked to be at peace.
Diocles trotted along the far side of the bank toward them then, and The Thing raised its head, pulling its lips back to reveal sharpened fangs.
“Stop!” Korinna yelled, holding out a hand at him, and the man froze, teetering on the edge of the bank. The whole chamber seemed to hold its breath. The Thing dropped its head again.
“Okay, come here.” She waved him on, and the man took a few careful though confused steps toward them. Again, the monster reared up, this time more aggressively, and just as Diocles reached the two, it struck, sending the three flying in different directions.
As The Thing roared again, an arrow sailed swiftly through the sky and pegged it squarely in one of its possibly hundreds of eyes. Korinna looked up to see Nikeros standing over where she had fallen. He was notching another arrow, this one with a rounded tip, but curiously he aimed it downward at her.
“What in Tartarus are you doing?” She tried to scramble away from him, flipping over on her knees, but still felt the bite of the arrow as it hit her squarely in the ass. “Nikeros!” She flung herself around and reached back for it, but the arrow was gone.
“These are aversion arrows.” He glared up at the beast. “It should not want to come near you at all now.”
“Oh.” She rubbed her butt then shrugged. “Well, thanks, I think.”
“If you die,”—he pointed at her with the tip of his bow—“I cannot help but think that would count as a failure on my part.” The smile he normally wore was replaced now with a miffed frown. “However, love is a much stronger force than any other on Gaia. It is the strongest force, in fact, so I cannot guarantee the enchantment of these arrows will outlast The Thing’s commands.”
Korinna waved her arms at The Thing, and it reeled. A growl that yet again shook the cave caused all of them to wobble on the jagged rocks, and Korinna couldn’t help but think they’d just made it that much worse.
Throwing its head back, The Thing blindly went for Andreas again, but Korinna sprinted toward it and forced it to change course. Angry and confused, The Thing fell backward and nearly crushed a small group of archers who fled in every direction, followed by swaths of venomous spit and lashing talons. The Thing threw itself against the bank and slammed its tail into the wall, causing a cave-in from which another group of archers had to flee. Korinna stood with her arms out wide in front of Andreas and Diocles, her breaths coming short and heart pounding.
Then from the ledge where Ares still stood, arms crossed, simply looking on the mess before him, she heard the baying of one of his war hounds. The Thing was still thrashing and howling and barking, and it was absolutely monstrous a
nd weird and terrible, but it might just work. “Niko, you got any more of those puppy love arrows?”
“Of course.” He pulled a pink-feathered one from his quiver and held it aloft.
She pointed at the dog who was now raising quite a ruckus and had stolen The Thing’s attention. “Love conquers all, right?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her—“Right,”—then loosed the pink arrow, nailing the dog, followed by a second just into The Thing.
CHAPTER XIV
“But…but…I wanted to kill Andreas!” Ares stomped, gesturing to The Thing. The monster had curled up on the bank with one of his war hounds. It was purring, because that was a thing The Thing apparently did, and the dog’s tail was thumping contentedly.
Korinna put a hand on his bulky arm. “I know. Maybe next time, okay?” She held up the box he’d given her. “But I think we both agree this is more important, eh?”
Ares twisted his mouth then sighed, “I guess.”
It was an odd and strained goodbye, but Korinna convinced Andreas she had other dryad responsibilities and would seek him out again in the near future. Soon after, Hermes showed up with his ram-led cart. Couldn’t have gotten here sooner? she thought, and Hermes’s snake smirked at her from over the god’s shoulder as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Diocles continued to glare at her even as his men filed onto the ship, only relenting when Andreas slapped him on the back and commented how they’d both escaped from death’s clutches once again, a story he surely wouldn’t forget.
Jumping up into Hermes’s cart, Korinna waved goodbye to the ship though she wasn’t entirely sure the men could see her as the ship pulled away. The arrow Nikeros had shot Andreas with still held sway over his heart, but she probably hadn’t made enough of an impact to garner his affections without it, and she sighed knowing it once it wore off, she probably would never see him again. Andreas was nice and all, but she was okay with that. (It was also at that moment that a single northern wryneck flit through the sky above them on its southern migration. Korinna didn’t know the wryneck by that name though—she would have called it an iunx or a jinx—but her mind was too fatigued to realize that the gods may have been giving her a sign.)
“So, what do you think?” Nikeros asked, hoping into the cart beside her with wide eyes and a dumb grin.
“I think this is exhausting!” She fell back against the seat and even as the cart took off into the sky, she found herself more relaxed here than she’d been on the ground moments before.
“No, no, about Andreas.” He was nodding as if willing her to confess an undying affection for the man who was little more than an acquaintance.
“Oh.” Korinna busied herself with her hair, running fingers through it to remove the tangles. “I don’t think it’s gonna work out.”
His face immediately fell. “Indeed, you are not glowing. But why?”
She glanced back down at the ocean, the ship a speck as it sailed away. She imagined Diocles’s joy at having Andreas to himself again, and the probable mutual, if not realized, feelings. “Just trust me, okay?”
“Well, Andreas was only the first of three.” His jaw was clenched as he set his sight on the sky ahead. “Hermes, to the seat of Theopopolis, please.”
“Wait!” Korinna held up the box with her free hand as the other held the braid she’d just tied off in her hair. “We’ve got an errand to run first!”
“Oh, that?” Nikeros shook his head. “No time.”
“Uh, I think we have enough time to make sure the god of war isn’t pissed off at me. Hermes,”—she turned to the god who had been silently observing them—“we need to go see Aphrodite.”
“A quick stop off at home, eh?” He smirked at Nikeros.
The demigod sighed with a throaty grunt.
“Home?” Korinna lit up. “You live with your mom?”
“Well, we all do,” he sputtered, “I mean, we work for her.”
“All the Erotes?” Korinna bounced in her seat when he nodded. “Hermes, to the temple of love!”
Aphrodite’s palace could be described in one word: pink. It sat at the top of a mountain, above a bank of immobile clouds, where the rocks appeared frost-covered, though they were simply alabaster and glittered with an iridescent shimmer in the sun’s rays. Trees sprung up along the white stone walkway, perpetually in full bloom with tiny pink flowers, petals gently swaying in the breeze. When flowers fell, they were instantly replaced by another interminable blossom, sometimes a lilac or white bud breaking up the sea of rose, magenta, and blush.
At the path’s end stood a row of golden pillars holding up a blinding marble roof. Steps ran along the entire length of the palace, raising it high above them, and just before the entrance stood a statue, as tall as three of Korinna stacked atop herself.
Cut out of white marble, Aphrodite’s form surveyed them from above, her hips cocked to one side, hands tangled up in freely flowing hair over her head. Starkly naked save for a golden-painted sheath that did little to cover the most salacious bits, she was perfection from the delicate peak of her hairline down to the perfect crescent lunulae of her toenails.
Korinna gaped upward. “Wow. That’s, uh, a lot.”
“Yes.” Nikeros had his eyes trained to the ground as he swept past the statue. “It certainly is.”
Korinna pulled her eyes away to hurry behind him as he walked, quicker and with more purpose than she’d gotten used to. “This place is amazing!” The whole temple seemed to vibrate with an energy that made Korinna giddy—a feeling that was completely foreign to her. Also surviving a god, a monster, and a man probably had something to do with it.
“I suppose.” He made his way up the steps without bothering to look around. “It is home.”
At the apex, Korinna could see past the pillars into the wall-less, covered space inside. In its center was a winding staircase that led into an enclosed area above, but before her was a slick, marble floor, shimmering with veins of pink quartz, begging to be run across, and at its end a throne in the oddest shape she’d ever seen. The urge to take off for it overcame her, and she burst past Nikeros, but a tug on her braid stopped her short. She gasped and rounded on him. “What gives?”
Nikeros narrowed his eyes, holding her in place by her hair. “Having a mortal here is uncommon. I would prefer if no one saw us.”
Korinna huffed, though when she looked about, the place seemed deserted. “Embarrassed of me?”
He raised an eyebrow at her, almost playfully. “Well…” When he walked off, she gasped, but was too amused to really be mad, and that too made her pause. Normally she would have been very, very mad at that, and yet she had the sudden urge to laugh.
Nikeros took more measured steps to the throne, an iridescent shell large enough to house a thousand clams. It sat open, its innards replaced with soft, pink cushions and golden tassels. Suspended from the ceiling behind the throne hung a mosaic of colored glass depicting the goddess of love as she materialized from the ocean, and as Korinna stared at it, she thought she could hear the sound of crashing waves though they were far from the sea.
“All right.” Nikeros grabbed the box from her hands and jogged it up to the throne. “The goddess does not seem to be here, so…”
Korinna could no longer hear his voice as she’d turned from the throne and bounded across the floor. Everything sparkled or glowed or looked too soft to pass up touching, and though this was not exactly her taste, she could barely help herself from indulging. She grabbed an exceedingly fluffy pillow as she went and rubbed it against her face, and then she—Korinna—actually giggled.
“Oh, no.” Nikeros was coming up behind her, and she picked up her pace. “I was afraid of this. Aphrodite’s got this whole place full of pheromones.”
Korinna started up the winding staircase. “I have no idea what that means!” A salty breeze caught her face as she went, and her cheeks hurt from smiling.
“Mortal, stop!” Nikeros’s voice followed her as she ran.
&nb
sp; On the upper level she quickly lost him by taking two quick turns down random hallways. She passed many rooms, places for baths, for sleeping, for eating, but came to an abrupt halt when she smelled something warm and spiced and overwhelmingly pleasant beyond it. It was a familiar smell, though she couldn’t place it, and she hugged the furry pillow tight against her chest as she pushed open the door.
A bedroom, simple but homey, lay on the other side. One wall was lined with bookshelves holding weighty tomes as well as a few small urns. Along the windowed wall ran a desk that looked well-loved. Parchment was scattered across it, held down with an opalescent stone, the edges fluttering in the breeze. In the room’s center was a bed, large like Andreas’s, but visibly softer with pale blue sheets and downy pillows at the helm. She turned, feeling Nikeros behind her. “This is your room.”
He stood awkwardly in the doorway and scratched behind his ear. “You are correct.”
“Well, it’s just great!” She flung herself back onto the bed and smirked up at him. “Hmm, the bed of an Erote. I bet it’s seen a lot of action.” She gave him a wink, but his face just went red. Laughing, she grabbed a book off the stand beside it. “What are you reading?” As she flipped through the pages, it was abruptly pulled out of her hands.
“Things that will drive your mind to madness, Mortal.”
“Oh well, couldn’t read it anyway. And I have a name, you know.” She snorted and rolled away from him, crawling over to the other side where she found a small black box and a lid she could screw off. “What’s this?”
Nikeros’s eyes went wide. “Ink!”
As the demigod ripped yet another object from her hands, Korinna sighed and threw herself back onto the bed, squeezing the fuzzy pillow. It was comfortable, significantly more than Andreas’s, and compared to her own, well, there was no comparison to a mat of woven reeds on top of some straw. Staring up at the ceiling, she sighed, “What’s it like being a god?”
The Korinniad Page 8