Our heads snap to her.No. I am not ready.
‘Are you sure?’
She nods.
Ceto curses. ‘I had thought … perhaps that it would never come. You are nearing twenty, you are so late, I mean—’ She tails off. She is looking at my grandmother. I see it too.
‘Grandmama?’
Her eyes are liquid. ‘I have … I did what I could.’
Our gazes are a question. She pulls herself up on to the banks. Strokes my hair over and over, as if it is the last time she will get to do so. My heart picks up but even as I think,I am not ready to leave her, I also think,but Ceto will come with me, and I am so strengthened by this thought that I am terrified.
‘When the oath was first sworn, I went first to my father, to plead your case. He was … unhelpful. He has no love for the Olympians but does not deny their supremacy. He is also …’ she searches for the words and settles on, ‘he preferred my first husband. My first two sons. After the drying of the Nile … he believes he has done enough. And so, I had to look elsewhere.’
‘Athena.’
She nods. ‘She and Artemis are dear to each other and her sister agreed to delay your time for as long as naturally possible. We have had longer than I expected, but you are not fully mortal.’
Droplets of river water cling to her cheeks but I know thetears when I see them. I wipe her face, I do not wish her sensitive skin to sting with salt on my account. I kiss her.
‘Thank you,’ I murmur. ‘I will be all right.’
I look at Ceto. ‘If he asks you about this, what will you say?’
‘I will say Artemis did not will it, it is what I would have said anyway,’ but she is distracted, I know the way she taps her tongue against her teeth. She is testing the oath, feeling the gaps in its shield around her. She has something to say.
‘It would be so awful, wouldn’t it, if your timenevercame?’ Her eyes are round with intent, lit with that fierce glow. ‘My master said:I would wait until your daughter is a woman, until she has bled and can give me sons.If such a time never comes, the oath would eventually be declared void. My master would not harm you or your family, he has sworn not to, and he is no oath breaker. But he would rightfully tire of waiting.’
‘And fair enough,’ I say slowly, staring at her. ‘What use is my beauty if I am barren and ill?’
Hope rolls out before me, I wish to walk in its soft rug, but it is Ceto, of course, who takes the first step.
‘You must never drink anything my sister gives you then.’ She leans against the banks, against my grandmother, the reassurance and intimacy surprising. Wonderful. ‘Amphitrite has been gifted salt by our master. She has always been interested in plants and now she has grown many powerful ones.’
I gasp a half-laugh. I am giddy with possibility.
‘No wonder she voiced such concern about the uses ofpharmaka!’
‘Indeed.’ My grandmother is also nodding now. ‘And, ofcourse, Amphitrite interfering with your bleeding would not break the oath. She made no such promises.’
I recite Ceto’s orders to myself again, quietly, checking them as she does.If her beauty wanes, ensure that she and her family do not seek to find a way out of our bargain. If it does not, do not seek to affect her looks out of loyalty to your sister.My beauty has not waned. And this will not affect my looks. Such plotting, scheming to throw away my riches, is unsuspected. And what is not suspected is not prohibited. She was right, she has played her part well. He would not think to forbid her from aiding me in this way.
She is grinning, bristling and feral. ‘I am sure Amphitrite would love to see you robbed of the chance at her crown.’
11
Aethiopia
I want to meet her alone, but Ceto will not allow it.
‘I know my sister.’
‘But you cannot see what she gives me, you cannot know the full truth. If your master questions, you must be able to say that you are unsure of why I have not bled, that you have not seen me take or drink anything.’
‘He will not ask me so specifically; I have told you, he is not so careful with me. He trusts me.’
‘It is a risk.’
