“Thenyou’llfight him and win. And then do you knowwhat you’ll serve yourhusbandfor dinner?” Carver couldn’t help his grin. “Eryx’s head on a platter. You can add some lemon slices and those cute little rosemary sprigs if you want.”
Snorting, Bel flicked a spark at him. “Wonderful. We’ll add cannibalism to your long list of flaws.”
Chapter 5
Dione showed up with three kids just after they finished clearing the table. All Bellanca could think was,At least it isn’t four. The words almost tumbled from her mouth before she swallowed them under a strained smile. She’d been fighting her blunter urges lately and figuring out that you could mostly speak your mind without hurting other people’s feelings. She wished she’d figured that out before.
“Dione.” Carver motioned the Atlantian woman and her children inside. “Welcome.”
“Thank you.” Fanning her flushed brown cheeks and already patently exhausted, the woman turned pleading eyes onhereven though Carver was closer and had been the one to invite them in. “Be a Nereid and watch these three for me. I have all ten at home today plus Tereus, and it’s…”
“Overwhelming?” Bellanca reached for two little hands despite the fact that she thought kids were worse than enemies—they were as nerve-racking and unpredictable, but you couldn’t just kill them and be done. At least these ones weren’t spoiled, violent, or carrying hidden weapons, which was pretty much her previous experience with children, herself included. Dione seemed to have pretty good kids, except there weretenof them. And Tereus… Dione’s husband was just as useless as most of the men in Atlantis. Carver had been a pain in her backside since the day they met, but he sure was a cut above in this place.
She glanced at Carver who, of course, liked children and instinctively knew what to do with them. He was already back at the table with the smallest—and apparently ravenous, if the double-handed reach for the contents of the fruit bowl was any indication—one on his knee.
“Oh, blessed gods. Thank you.” Dione practically had tears in her eyes, and Bellanca squirmed like a squid in a fishing net. Shrimp One smiled up at her. Shrimp Two rubbed her nose. Carver’s little shrimp dug into the fruit. All three were girls.
“Of course. You’re welcome,” Bellanca said automatically. Neutral things like that came out more easily here. She didn’t know if she was faking it, watering herself down, or actually evolving into someone who wasn’t consistently rude. In any case, Atlantis was changing her, and she thought it was for the better. Even Carver seemed more relaxed here.
But what in the Underworld were they going to do with three kids all day? Andson of a Cyclops.She forgot to hide the blades.
“Speaking of gods”—she moved slightly to the left to block Dione’s view of their stockpile of weapons—“are you still mad at Zeus about the whole Punishment thing?” They never alluded to their mission with anyone, but things were bound to heat up and, hopefully, finally progress after the incident with Pan. They might as well know what kind of resistance they were up against from the general population. There weren’t just gods to deal with here.
Carver shot her a warning look. Dione looked startled. Bellanca didn’t care. Dione already knew she was strange, and she still trusted Bellanca with her children. Bellanca could probably ask her anything as long as they kept opening the door and entertaining the shrimps on their days off. These were some of the youngest of the brood.
“N-no,” their downstairs neighbor eventually answered. “My family is Hoi Polloi. Tereus’s, too. We wouldn’t have magic anyway, with or without Punishment.”
Bellanca nodded. Hoi Polloi were the many. Magoi were the few, the elite. The powerful. If she restored magic to Atlantis, inequality could get even worse. She shuddered to think how it might be for women who were Hoi Polloi. But she’d make this island accept a queen. She could make Atlantians accept so much more.
“But Punishmentdidtake away our Magoi healers,” Dione added with a frown, her gaze sweeping over her girls. “And the children…” She stopped there. What good would it do for little ears to hear that some injury or illness was out there just waiting to gobble them up?
Bellanca let go of Shrimps One and Two and nudged them toward Carver. “Well, go on and get something to eat. There’s fruit on the table.” She wiped her hands against her pants. Why were kids always so sticky? It was as if they excreted something from their fingers that made it harder for adults to let go.
She turned, watching them each pick out a piece of fruit and cautiously start to eat. If Shrimp Three’s scrunched-up face was any indication, she didn’t like the fig she’d opted for in the end and left it half-eaten on the table. She slipped off Carver’s lap and wandered toward the blades.
Bellanca ushered Dione out before she noticed the direction one of her youngest daughters was taking. “Come back, you know, sometime. I’m sure we’ll manage till then.”
Dione murmured her thanks and left without establishing more precise timing. Her eldest, Aikaterini, would help her out, as usual, but Dione still had plenty of other little ones to deal with at home on top of that lazy heap of seaweed, Tereus. There was no way in the Underworld she was coming back anytime soon.
Bellanca shut the door and picked up a shawl to wind around her head and hair. She could tamp down the magic in her eyes without really thinking about it, but they were in for a whole day with company, and she didn’t want to have to worry about controlling every spark in her hair. After knotting her braid into a bun and tucking the dark-brown head covering firmly into place, she turned back to Shrimps One, Two, and Three. They had names, and she even knew them, but numbers would do just fine.
Hands on her hips, she cocked a brow. “Who wants to play with knives?”
***
Dione had shown up too early on their day off for them to get away unnoticed and explore the island for potential clues about the Shard of Olympus. It would’ve been a random search anyway, since they had no idea where to look. As Carver had pointed out, going north toward Mount Olympus would be a good start, but it was a several-day journey on foot and would involve potential encounters with deadly magical creatures the farther north they got. They only had a day, they were both still recovering from the fight in the cave, and now they had the shrimps to entertain. As frustrating as it was, the only logical choice was to stay home. And it was fortunate they were there when, right on the heels of Dione leaving, Carver received a message from the castle telling him to report to the throne room the very next day.
They exchanged a look over the kids’ heads, surprise mixed with excitement. They didn’t know why yet, but they’d finally caught the break they needed—the chance to get close enough to Cleito to talk.
“This is good,” Bellanca murmured, some of the weight from the useless leads in the conspirator’s cave sliding off herback. Cleito was their best bet at gaining significant information now. Bellanca had known seers. She’d had a sister with the gift of sight, and if Cleito was anything like Appoline, she’d want her power to be used for good. Eryx could beat his oracle bloody every day and she’d still keep her mouth shut, but she’d see Carver and she’dwantto talk. “You just have to get close enough withouthimhearing what you say.”
Carver’s jaw tightened, the optimism she’d glimpsed in his face dimming a notch. “Easier said than done.”
“You’ll find a way.”
If anything, his countenance darkened even more. Before she could ask him why, he turned to the girls and rubbed his hands together. To her, his smile looked forced. “Who’s ready to play some games?”
The oldest kid—Shrimp One—piped up first. “Bel said we could play with knives.” She headed straight for the weapons pile, and Shrimp Two followed. Shrimp Three was already there, looking half-tempted to grab a blade.
