Then a laugh, shrill and boyish.
“Oh.” Phineus didn’t try to hide his disappointment. “It’s you.”
“Phineus.” The voice sounded petulant. “That’s no way to greet an old friend.”
Phineus reached for his staff, wedged it into the ground and pushed himself up. “I’d hoped your father would come. But he sends his messenger.”
“You wound me. I thought you enjoyed our chats.”
Phineus was in no mood to be toyed with. Not today.
“If you’ve come to ask about the omphalos shard, my answer is the same as it has always been. It was stolen from me in Delphi, and I have no idea where it is now. Fly back to your father and tell him he’s wasted his time.”
“Oh, I don’t care about the stone, and father doesn’t actually know I’m here. Although, I’m sure he’d be very interested to learn how one of his pets came to end up dead on top of your hovel.”
Phineus could hear the smile in the other’s voice. That was worrying.
He tapped his stick against the ground. “I’m deadlier than I look.”
The other laughed again, his voice crackling across two octaves, like a boy’s on the cusp of adolescence.
“What do you want, Hermes?”
The laughter stopped abruptly.
“You’re no fun today.” The god sighed. “Father’s given my siblings a new game. A hunt. It’s turning out to be rather exciting. Uncle Hades has set loose a creature from the Underworld disguised as a mortal girl. Apollo thought he’d got rid of her in Delphi, but somehow, she escaped. Then Artemis received a message from one of her followers on that strange little island of hers saying the girl has godlike powers. Well, we all thought she was exaggerating, but then Athena went to have a look and got the shock of her life. So, tell me, where is she?”
Phineus’s fists tightened on his staff. They didn’t know. Zeus hadn’t told his children who Danae really was. Could it be that the King of the Gods was afraid?
A smile bloomed across Phineus’s face.
“You’re in a strange mood. Is this what happens to mortals when their bodies shrivel up?” Hermes didn’t wait for Phineus to reply. “Anyway, I don’t have all day. She’s been here, hasn’t she?”
Phineus’s smile grew broader.
“Hasn’t she?”
“How should I know? I’m blind.”
Phineus flinched at a loud crack next to his ear, and a spray of rock shards hitting his cheek.
“I’m getting bored now. I know she has. That ship she’s on stopped here. You won’t be so difficult once I tell you which of my siblings wants the information.”
He wanted to be entertained. Phineus knew that tone. He also knew how to prick his visitor’s anger. “Ah, little messenger, doing someone else’s bidding as usual. Are the others not letting you play?”
Phineus choked as a gauntleted fist clamped around his neck and he felt the sharp sting of metal cutting into his skin.
“I am a god, you maggot. You will show me respect.” Hermes tightened his grip. “It’s Ares’s turn next, and the God of War doesn’t like to lose. Now, I’m going to ask you one last time. Has the girl been here?”
I’m coming, Manto, Phineus thought, as he hawked and spat into what he hoped was Hermes’s face.
The god released his neck. There was a pause. Then Phineus was pushed violently against the rock. The breath was knocked from his lungs. He wheezed in agony, Hermes’s gauntleted hand pressing against his chest, crushing his ribs with unworldly strength.
“Before you die, I want you to know that I’m the one who convinced Father to keep you alive. The harpies brought you food because of me. Every breath you’ve taken, every dream you’ve had, every hope, every thought, every shit, has been mine. Goodbye, Phineus, I will forget you ever existed.”
The pain was excruciating. Phineus could barely breathe, but he was no stranger to agony. Then he felt something completely new. He’d lost sensation in his fingers and toes. It was beyond numbness, as if his extremities were filling with emptiness. He was diminishing, as though Hermes were pulling his very essence out through his chest.
For the first time in a long time, he was afraid. Only his Manto remained a glimmer of hope as the last of his life-threads were wrenched from his body.
