Page 18 of Heir of Autumn
Wait. The fifth? Weren’t there only four before?
“I haven’t seen a unicorn,” she said. “But perhaps I can help you find one, hmm? Sapling, starling. Little darling.”
The merfolk broke away from the fifth, hissing as they scattered and disappeared among the waves. My chest stung with something like loss, despite knowing we’d be spending plenty more time in the oriel. We’d see other merfolk for sure.
No, I should have recognized that uncomfortable pang in my chest for what it was. Apprehension. The dread of once again encountering the strange, temperamental goddess who had so forcefully taken control of Sylvain’s mind.
“Aphrodite,” I said, nodding politely. I backed up onto the edge by a careful inch, before I remembered that she might construe that as an insult. “What brings you to the Oriel of Water today?”
She brought her hands under her great tresses, flipping her hair out of the water, sending up a spray of droplets that shimmered with rainbows in the sunlight.
“Why, I was born here, don’t you know? Well, notherehere, but a place like it. Venus emerging from sea foam, or so the story goes.” She pressed the tip of her fingernail against the bottom of her heart-shaped lips. “Or did I come out of a seashell fully formed and fully grown? At least that was how the artists of old depicted my coming. A gaggle of lecherous fools, if you ask me.”
“It’s really you,” Evander said, his voice trembling when he spoke. “I can feel your power. The goddess Aphrodite, in the flesh.”
He flinched when she swam closer, a coy grin playing on her lips. “Why, yes. Yes, it is me. And it’s you, Evander Skink. I knew I would meet you eventually.”
“You’ve heard of me?” he asked, a finger pointed at his own face. I’d never heard him sound so unsure, so vulnerable.
“Why, hasn’t everyone?” Aphrodite tittered. “But I’ve paid extra special attention to you over the years. It’s my business, you know? Goddess of love and all that. The trouble is how everyone seems to think that I only govern love of a sexual sort, the romantic kind. Yes, yes, I know that technically filial love should be Hera’s domain, but I can’t help that I care too much.”
Evander blanched at the mention of family. Maybe it was a show of mercy, or compassion, how Aphrodite swam over to Namirah instead.
“And you, Namirah,” Aphrodite said. “Kindest greetings.”
“Yes,” Namirah said stiffly. “Kindest greetings, oh goddess of love, filial and otherwise.”
Aphrodite’s teeth seemed so wet and sharp when she smiled. “Filial and otherwise.”
“Ooh!” Satchel squealed. “Do me next.”
The darkness faded from Aphrodite’s face when she locked eyes with him. She laughed good-naturedly, resting both her arms on the rock as she leaned in for a closer look.
“You’re a complicated case, little pixie. So small, and yet so full of emotion. I imagine you’ve been learning one or two interesting things about relationships in recent times.”
Satchel reddened slightly, avoiding my gaze as he scratched the back of his neck. “One or two things.”
Aphrodite spun in the water, kicking as she brought herself closer to me, and therefore Sylvain. And there I thought I was safe, passed over in favor of more interesting mortals to taunt. Sylvain stiffened. I did my best to look nonchalant, relaxed.
“You know why I’m here, don’t you, sapling?”
I looked down at my medallion, the gold and gemstones of it reflecting the sunlight. The finest divine craftsmanship, made by the hand of Hephaestus himself.
“You want to know what happens when I plug the Tears of the Ocean into the amulet. Except you already know, don’t you?”
Admittedly, the thought of recruiting yet another elemental guardian to my roster did excite me. What would Father think of me, a summoner who had barely expanded his stable of eidolons? I was collecting more allies, sure, but they were all guardians.
Would he consider it an affront to the art of summoning? Dare I wonder: would he be proud of me instead?
“Correct.” Aphrodite reached out and tapped me on the end of the nose, both her finger and the seawater warm and wet. I rubbed at the spot, sniffling. “Go on and murder a guardian, the way you do best, and see what happens. Oh, and tell me more of this Withering if you do come across it again.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “How do you already know we’re going to run into the Withering again?”
“Call it a hunch.” The goddess stretched out her fingers, examining her fingernails. “But more specifically, consider how you’ve encountered it everywhere else already. Even in a dimension adjacent to your Earth, hmm?”
The Black Market. She was talking about Sister Dolores.
“I shall speak freely, sapling. It is most concerning to my kind that this brittling plague has demonstrated an ability to infect more than just plant life. Why, you’ve seen it affecting beasts, humans, even the fae. What happens if the Withering should claim a god?”
