“This was foolish,” he said curtly. “We were lucky it was Dolos.” He paused. “We shouldn’t do this again until we reach Colchis.”
Even now, all she wanted to do was touch him. They’d stolen a fleeting moment together, and she had wasted it on appeasing her desire. The narrow planks between them felt the size of a continent, but there was still time. She couldn’t let the opportunity slip away.
“Heracles, there’s something I need to tell you.”
He reached out and stroked the back of his fingers along her jaw, tracing his thumb across the contours of her mouth. “Not here.”
Then he kissed her, one last time.
True to his word, Heracles did not seek out Danae again. She was left to comfort herself with the vision the omphalos shard had shown her. She and Heracles were going to find Prometheus together, it was written by the fates. She would just have to be patient and wait until they landed at Colchis to reveal their shared destiny.
Two weeks later, she was back in the store, taking an inventory of their remaining rations, when Peleus threw open the door. She smiled at him. He was still not well enough to row, but every day the man grew stronger. With Dolos busy at the oars, Danae carefully followed the healer’s instructions and kept a watchful eye over Peleus. The morning he’d woken and asked for wine, she knew his battle with the fever was won.
“Daeira, come look at this.”
She followed him out onto the deck and nearly dropped the pack of biscuits she was carrying. She had only seen snow once before, one particularly cold winter on Naxos. She’d thought the stars were falling from the heavens.
She tilted her face to the sky, laughing as the flakes dissolved on her skin. They were so delicate, like the cold specters of spring blossom.
“Look, there!” Pollux was pointing to something in the distance.
Danae squinted through the snow. On the horizon she could just make out jagged mounds of gray rearing up into the clouds.
“It’s Colchis!” shouted Jason.
The Caucasus Mountains, Prometheus. They were almost there.
39
The Farthest Shore
As they traveled inland, Danae gazed at the Caucasus Mountains towering in the distance, her stomach tingling in anticipation. Rising above the spines of the dark green trees that clustered the bank, the snowy crags dominated the sky. They were the largest mountains she’d ever seen. Forests of dense pine trees carpeted their slopes, giving way to ice-coated rock at their peaks. She could just make out the great stone walls of Colchis city, which harbored Jason’s golden fleece, nestled between the forest and the mountains.
She thought of the Titanomachy, how the Titans had supposedly ripped the earth apart until the Olympians ended their destructive rampage. She’d been told that mountains and ravines were the scars left behind.
Her eyes trailed along the Caucasus range to the highest crest, barely visible through the clouds. That’s where Prometheus would be. The highest peak of the largest mountain. That was where she and Heracles must go.
Eventually, the river became too narrow for theArgo, and they were forced to stop.
“Pull in the oars and tether the ship.” Jason jumped down from the stern and clambered across the benches to the prow deck. “First three rows, gather anything you can to camouflage theArgo. Next three, set up camp. At first light we stake out the city and get a look at what we’re up against.”
The crew disembarked, and Danae leaped down, her feet encased in fur boots, crunching on the snowy ground. It creaked underfoot as she walked. There was an oppressive silence to the blanketing whiteness. When the crew’s voices lulled and no birds sang, the quiet was deafening. But it was beautiful too. Spiders’ webs hung like fine necklaces from the branches of ice-crisped trees and their leaves looked like they were laced with tiny flecks of glass.
She walked over to where Heracles was stripping branches from a pine tree, her gut a nest of writhing snakes.
“I need to tell you something.”
He straightened up.
“We should go somewhere private,” she whispered.
“Heracles!” Jason shouted from theArgo. “Bring the whole tree.”
The hero sighed. “Come to me tonight. I’ll leave my lion hide outside my tent...” His blue eyes twinkled. “So you don’t go into the wrong one.”
Her lips quirked. “Oh, I won’t.” She held his gaze, desire unfurling in the pit of her stomach.
“Heracles!” shouted Jason. “What are you waiting for?”
