‘Because I felt like it,’ Eris replied simply. ‘My duty is discord, and sometimes that means releasing what should be locked away. Besides, it will make Aphrodite furious,’ she added with a small, sly smile.
I regained my feet and rubbed my wrists in wonder. My divinity healed the worst of the scrapes from the manacles, though I had been so long in chains that blue-black bruises encircled my wrists like bracelets. Still, I was free.
I looked at Eris. Standing there with the lamp in her hands, her sharp features softened by the gentle light, she almost reminded me of Psyche.
‘You know,’ Eris said softly, startling me back to the present. ‘You shouldn’t be so surprised that I would want to help you.’ Her face was as knife-sharp as ever, but sweetened by an expression of wistfulness I had never seen on the goddess of discord before. ‘I’ve always tried to be kind to you. I only wanted to be your friend. Once I even wanted to marry you. You were the one who kept pulling away.’
Prior to this moment, I thought that everything Eris said or did had a hidden meaning, a veiled viciousness, some private joke that she would later relay to the worst possible parties. I thought there was nothing save for slyness and cruelty in her character, but now she looked only like a lost girl who had no mother or father or brother.
Eris continued. ‘The day is coming when the Olympians willbe nothing but forgotten myths, but you and I will continue, dear brother. We are union and dissolution, day and night. It wouldn’t kill you to write me a letter now or then.’
Eris raised her hand and the door swung open. Light from the hallway beyond spilled in, and I caught my first glimpse of the twining hallways of Olympus in what felt like ages, a reminder of another world beyond this dark prison. Relief washed over me like daybreak, followed by iron determination at the thought of Psyche.
‘Thank you,’ I said to my sister, not knowing what else to say, and ran into the light.
I skidded down the slopes of Mount Olympus in the shape of a vole, determined to shield myself from the eyes of the messengers who came and went from that high peak. This was not solely out of cunning – my power was at a nadir, withered like a dried flower. If I wasn’t careful, I would lose the strength to hold my physical form together entirely, which would make me useless in my quest. I returned to my true shape when I reached the foothills beyond Olympus, leaning on an outcropping of rock and panting for breath.
A gust of wind stirred my hair. ‘Zephyrus?’ I called.
Lanky arms snaked around me, the force of his embrace nearly bearing me into the dust. ‘There you are, Eros!’ he cried. ‘I’ve been searching the four directions for you, but there’s been no trace! Oh dear, what’s happened to you? You look terrible.’
‘I am well aware,’ I replied. ‘But it’s good to see you, Zephyrus.’
‘As it is to see you,’ my friend replied, with a hand on my shoulder and a warmth that nearly brought tears to my eyes. ‘Oh! I must tell you – I have news of Psyche.’
My heart soared, but was quickly dashed when Zephyrus told me of Psyche’s deal with Aphrodite.
‘Three impossible tasks,’ I whispered. ‘My adopted mother may as well have asked Psyche to pull down the sun from the sky and make a pendant from it.’
‘Psyche has already accomplished the first,’ Zephyrus said, grinning. ‘I helped her a bit, though Aphrodite barred me from doing so again. But what should we do now?’
I pondered this. I could not help Psyche myself. I was weak and without allies, and finding her only meant falling prey to the curse again.
I needed help, but where to get it?
Only one name came to mind: Hekate, the lady of the crossroads. I had considered seeking an audience with her once before, when the curse first took root, but I shied away from the possibility back then. I was none too sure she would readily assist me, or what she would ask in return for this boon. Hekate was not my friend; I was not sure if she considered herself anyone’s friend. Still, it was said that she offered aid to those who came to her with open hearts, mortal and immortal alike.
My gaze fell on the forest beyond the foothills of Olympus, and I knew that I would find her there. Hekate Soteira. Hekate the saviour. It was said that if one travelled deep enough into any forest, one would always find her there. I had to try, for Psyche’s sake.
‘Watch for Aphrodite,’ I ordered Zephyrus, rising on unsteady legs. ‘Make sure she does not find my trail.’
‘Where are you going?’ Zephyrus called.
‘To find Hekate,’ I replied. ‘She will know what to do.’
Step by agonizing step, I went to find the one who helps those beyond all other help.
I set off in the shape of a stag but found I could not sustain this for very long. I turned into a lion next, and then a small cat,which did not cover ground as quickly but took less concentration to maintain.
I walked through a seemingly endless vista of trees, far from any human habitation, until I was in the deep forest where only dryads hold sway. I could hear those ancient tree spirits chattering to one another in amusement as I passed, but I laid back my ears and ignored them. The spreading branches laced together far above my head, trapping sunlight so that even during midday the forest floor was chill and dim. My paws sank into centuries of loam as I walked, the rich soil sending up the scent of earth.
Abruptly, I paused. I smelled something new: smoke from a hearth. I followed it, and soon it led me to the place I sought.
The hut was moss-covered and ancient, and might have been mistaken for any small farmer’s house save for the fact that it sat on a pair of chicken feet. A rickety set of stairs led up to the house itself, culminating in a stout wooden door. Outside, pigs snuffled contentedly in a trough, and a cow lowed softly at me. A pair of black dogs, looking like blotches of midnight in canine shape, eyed me warily and began to bark.
The noise summoned her. The door blew open, and Hekate made her way unsteadily down the stairs, gripping the railing for balance. Her skin was nearly translucent, and scraggly hair the colour of dishwater poured over hunched shoulders. Why did she do this to herself? She could choose any shape she liked, the prerogative of a goddess, and yet she chose the appearance of a hag. The fur along my spine prickled, my tail going bottlebrush. I knew I was in the presence of ancient divine power, of a sort that unsettled even me.
Hekate made her way to the place where I, still in my cat shape, sat panting for breath on the mossy earth. The dogs wove around her legs, their ears tipped forward. I arched my spine and laid back my ears with a snakelike hiss when they came tooclose. Either of them could crush me in their jaws, a complication I did not need.
