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“Andromeda, the gods have spared you. Open your eyes.”
She obeyed. How could she not?
“I am saved?” she wondered. Perseus stood before her, hands on either side of her body. Sweat and seawater drenched his hair, and there was blood on his tunic. His skin was flushed and his eyes wild with victory. She had never seen a more beautiful man.
“Yes, my lady. You are saved. I saved you for myself. Am I yours?”
She smiled. “As I am yours, my lord.”
He brought his sword, gleaming and gold, and with it he broke her chains.
Next, he pulled off his tunic and helped her into it. She stepped forward off the rocks and nearly stumbled in her relief and her shock. She clung to his bare chest, his arms, and felt the flesh of him under her cheek. The mad pounding of his heart betrayed that he, too, had fought in mortal fear.
“You are safe now, my lady. Now let us go rejoicing into the city. You will be my bride by morning.”
“I can’t... I can’t stand.” Though she believed him when he said she was safe, her body would not obey her commands to move, to walk, to accept she was free.
“Then you shall ride.”
He lifted her like she weighed nothing and set her on the back of his winged horse. She took hold of the bridle and Perseus led her and his beast from the edge of the water up the path to where the guards waited and stared, and the citizens of the city waited and stared, and her father waited and stared, and her mother stared and wept.
“Andromeda...” her father breathed as he came forward and touched her bare foot with his hand.
“I live, Father. I live. And you have this man, Perseus, to thank.”
He looked at Perseus, shining like copper in the light of the guards’ torches.
“How can I repay you for my daughter’s life?” her father asked, eyes wide and beseeching. She had never seen the mighty man so humbled.
“With her heart,” Perseus said. “I will wed her tonight.”
“She was...before all this... She was to be wed to her uncle, my brother Phineas.”
“Where is he, then?” Perseus demanded. “Was he the man who slayed the serpent of Poseidon and saved your daughter? Or was it another man, perhaps?”
Her father nodded. His word was law.
“You shall have her,” the king said.
“Yes, he shall,” Lia confirmed. “But not at your word. At mine.”
“I wish you luck with her,” her mother said. “With a tongue as sharp as hers, you will need your shield as much as your sword.”
“The most beautiful maiden in this kingdom and the next wishes to have me as her husband,” Perseus retorted. “What man can ask for more luck than that?”
Chastened, her mother dropped her gaze to the ground.
At the top of the path, where sand met stone and the palace loomed, Perseus took a torch and stood upon a high step. To the waiting assembly, he called out in a voice deep as thunder, strong as lightning.
“I am Perseus, son of Zeus by a mortal mother, and tonight I have slain the serpent to save your princess and your kingdom. Tonight, I wed Andromeda. Tomorrow...ah, tomorrow you will not see us. And perhaps not the day after, either. The gods saw her beauty and her courage and chose to reward it. Your kingdom is saved and, far more than that, your princess is saved! Rejoice!”
A cheer rose up, so loud it shook the rafters of the firmament. The stars shivered. Lia shivered. Perseus took his winged horse by the lead rope once more and guided her into the palace grounds. Behind them people streamed in the gates, singing and dancing and wailing in joy. Every torch was lit. Every voice cried out to bring food and wine, to light offerings at the temple, to rouse all the children from their beds.
Perseus led her and his steed all the way up the high stone steps and through the open palace doors.
“You!” he called out to one of Andromeda’s maids who had hidden herself in the palace to mourn her lady in private. She came forward, joy in her face.
“My lady,” she said, and it was all she could say.
