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“Who are you? Tell me? I may have service to render to you. Or are you here out of some secret shame?” he asked.
“There is shame, but it is not mine,” she said.
“Who are you? Tell me all. Tell me now.”
“I am Andromeda and my mother is the queen Cassiopeia, who foolishly boasted and brought the wrath of Poseidon upon us. The priests of the temple say I must die to appease him. So you must leave me now to my fate or my kingdom will suffer evermore. Three hundred have died already and all because of idle words. Go now, my lord. It is too late for me, but not for you. Cetus comes and there is none who can stop him.”
“Andromeda...” the man said. “Look at me.”
Lia couldn’t do it.
“You have courage enough to face Cetus but not to look at me?” he asked.
How could he tease her at a time like this? But his words had pricked her pride. She turned her head and, for the first time, saw him truly.
August... She knew it was him the moment she met his eyes. Yet it wasn’t him. He was too young. He looked no more than twenty-five, if that. Thinner; his hair longer and lighter in color, almost bronze. But those were August’s eyes, shining like silver. The hand that touched her face was August’s hand. The voice that spoke to her was August’s voice.
Even if he didn’t know himself, she knew him.
“I am Perseus,” he said. “And there is no time for tears now, my lady. I am a son of Zeus by a mortal mother. I have slain the Gorgon and I will slay your Cetus. Surely that will make me an acceptable suitor.”
“Death alone is my suitor. This is my last night on earth. Leave me to the evening stars. I will never see a morning star again.”
He smiled, and on any other man she would have called it too proud. But he wore it well.
“Dry your tears, my lady. You may live to see the morning star, after all. And I hope from my bed.”
She would have laughed at him but for the earnest tone of his voice.
“Save me,” she said, “and I will marry you tonight. My father would far prefer to pay a bride’s dowry than hold a funeral banquet.”
“Stay brave, Andromeda,” he said. “I will come to you again.”
She meant to speak and wish him well, to thank him for trying even if he failed. But that was when the monster rose from the deep.
Lia screamed.
The beast was enormous, rising and writhing from the water. It had flesh like a week-old corpse, bloated and gray, a thousand teeth in a head large as a house, and huge eyes, big as a soldier’s shield. When it screamed, birds fell from the sky, felled by its foul and poisoned breath.
She would have fallen to her knees if the chains had not held her. But Perseus did not pause once, even to take in the enormity of his task. He mounted his strange horse and, with a cry and a kick and a beating of wings, they rose into the air.
The beast, Cetus, snapped at the horse as it flew around its head. And despite her terror, Lia couldn’t look away.
Artemis, guardian of virgins, protect this man who dares to guard me from certain death. If he has his way, I will live and, by dawn, no longer be under your protection. But as I am a maid still, I am your maid, and I beg of you, protect this man.
Did Artemis hear her prayer or did Perseus defeat the beast all on his own? Or was it Zeus who intervened to save his half-mortal son? She could not say. All she recalled ever after was that one moment Cetus’s head and body danced side to side, snapping at the horse and its rider like a scorpion. And then it simply...stopped.
It went still as a statue. And nothing had scared her more than that moment when everything, even the endless rushing sea, went completely and utterly silent.
Then the beast began to crumble.
A fin fell from its back. A tooth broke out of its head. Piece by piece it came apart, like a stone watchtower in an earthquake. Perseus, she saw, held something in his hand. A horrible thing, so hideous that to look on it would turn anyone to stone.
Lia closed her eyes, closed them tight, and waited.
She did not open them when she heard the beast’s shattering cry. She did not open them when she heard a thousand voices rising in a cheer. She did not open them when she heard hoofbeats on the sand.
She heard the voice of Perseus whispering into her ear.
