Fellow writers, we are reaching the end. The final three submissions will be shorter than usual

and packed with a lot of action and a lot more Leigh. A brief reminder of some plot points from

early in the story (reviewed last year) Athena trained a group of girls to be warriors. Her favorite

was a thirteen-year-old girl named Hala. While Athena was away grieving for Pallas, they were

raped. Athena took vengeance on their attackers and allowed Hera to set them up in good

marriages to preserve the reputations of their families.

The first chapter of this book was Athena’s birth from Zeus’s head. She has been told her whole

life that she was born of him alone. Recently Sthenno told her that she had a mother.

There is also a reference here to a dream Leigh had as a child. This dream comes up in her first

chapter, but it is repeated here for clarity, coming up again so late in the story.

Thank you for all your suggestions and corrections so far.

CHAPTER FORTY

Returning to life in Athens after the chaos of Perseus’s quest was a difficult adjustment. Athena’s

priestesses scrambled with the tense energy that crackled through the air of their temple.

But the city thrived.

Athena consulted oracles and they foresaw that in the next century, Athens would ally

with Mycenae. Mycenae would become a country, a civilization that spread beyond her dreams.

The benefit to her people, and Olympus, would be beyond anything they could imagine.

Olympus would truly rule the earth.

1

Athena started to visit the islands, Perseus’s territories, and the lands around Argos. She

started to seed herself in the hearts of the people. It was easier work than to try to untangle the

web of lies and truths that waited for her in Olympus.

So far, with delicate prodding, none of her brothers, sisters, or cousins had any

knowledge of a first wife of Zeus. But that didn’t mean much. Zeus and Hera had been married

since long before they all came into being. That left only aunts, uncles and titans to ask.

When Aphrodite begged her to come to Olympus to discuss her decision to divorce

Hephaestus, Athena took the opportunity to dig.

“Hestia, dear aunt, will you tell me of the days before father took the heavens?” Athena

sat beside her maiden aunt.

“My Athena,” Hestia smiled. She was a pretty woman, although rigid in her movements,

and the first goddess to declare virginity to be synonymous with virtue. She had advised Athena

when she was young and Athena found her advice to be invaluable. Hestia seemed fond of her so

Athena thought her a good place to start her search for the truth.

Hestia pressed her hands together and looked up to the heavens. “Our father was a cruel

man but once he loved us. I am the eldest of his children and I received the longest span of his

affection. Your father, Zeus, received none, for he was an infant when Gaia gave her terrible

curse. You’d think she would learn, but it seems she never does. The Master she appoints always

imprisons his enemies, and she always comes with a new prophesy of his downfall. When she

came to my father, he swallowed his children, one by one, even as I pleaded with him to spare

us. I loved my father, Athena, as you love yours. But he had no mercy when his reign was

threatened. It was fortunate that our mother smuggled Zeus off. Have you met your grandmother,

Rhea?”

2

“I have not,” Athena said.

“Then you should. Rhea is the only woman who could defy Cronus and command Zeus.”

“But did my father… have any other help?” Athena asked.

“He had much help. There were many who objected to Cronus. We are lucky, because in

the end he saved us and married our sister, Hera. My baby brother, becoming the ruler of the

universe and my sister, his queen.”

“Yes. Very lucky,” Athena echoed.

#

“Rhea delivered Dionysus here,” Athena said after Aphrodite lamented for an hour. “Has she

come since?”

“I don’t know!” Aphrodite cried. “I am not in the familiar fold.”

“You are here more than I,” Athena said.

“You are supposed to be helping me!”

“It was only a question.” Athena sighed. “I have been counseling you for hours. For

centuries. You do not need counsel. You know what you should do. What you need is comfort

and that is something Hera or Hestia or Demeter is more fit for.”

“But do you think it is right that I leave him?”

“Of course it is right.” Athena snapped. “I’ve told you this over and over. You disdain

your husband. Allow him to find someone who does not. You may not have ever been faithful to

him, but he always has been to you. Release him.”

“So, I am right? I am doing him a favor?”

3

“I am not sure he will see I that way, Aphrodite, and I am sure you should not put it to

him that way, but yes. Hephaestus is a talented god and while he may not be attractive, he is sure

to find a wife who will appreciate him for his strengths, if you let him go.”

“I do not want to lose my standing.”

“I doubt you will. Zeus hardly concerns himself with matters he settled centuries ago, but

you can always ask him.”

“But what if I ask and he says no.”

“It is a chance.”

Aphrodite pouted, slumping forward into the pink cushions she lounged upon in her

home.

“Where do you think I could find Rhea?” Athena mused, already forgetting Aphrodite’s

ire.

“I don’t know! Ask Dionysus. She cared for him.”

Athena stood up. “You’re right, of course.”

“You’re not leaving now, are you?” Aphrodite rolled to her feet.

“You know exactly what the wise move is for you, Aphrodite. My counsel is only to

assuage your guilt and concerns of standing. You can seek it a hundred times, but it will not

change, nor will it accomplish these feats. Divorce Hephaestus or do not. I cannot make the

choice, nor suffer the consequences for you.”

Aphrodite flung herself backward onto her klinē with a heavy sigh.

Athena’s sandals echoed over the gold paved paths of Olympus like those of a marching

army. Persephone peeked out of her mother’s flowery temple as she passed. Athena gave her a

nod and Persephone waved before disappearing back inside.

4

Dionysus lounged in his vineyard courtyard, laughing with Apollo and Hebe as they

shared a flagon. Hebe, as usual, was pouring the wine.

“Sister! Dionysus raised his cup when she entered. Apollo tried to stand to greet her, but

stumbled backwards, laughing.

“Dionysus, I am here to speak with you of our grandmother,” Athena said.

“Hebe, dear! Bring Athena a cup. Athena, I don’t have your vintage on hand, but our

siblings and I have been enjoying this glorious blend from my followers in Minoa. I think you

will like it.”

“No thank you,” Athena said.

“Oh, all right then. Hebe, go fetch a flagon of Athena’s vintage from my cellar—”

“No wine, Dionysus. Thank you.” Athena cut him off and Hebe stood suspended in mid

stride for a moment, her beautiful eyes wide with uncertainty.

“No wine?” Dionysus gasped. “You must have wine, Athena! If only a cup! Or a flask!

Or a barrel! What is life without wine? How can joy spread if you refuse to impart on the

greatest gifts Gaia presents us?”

“I am not seeking to spread joy,” Athena said.

Dionysus’s handsome face stretched in shock and his brown curls bounced nervously.

“Not seeking joy? What sort of life is led without the pursuit of joy?”

Athena sighed and shook her head, “All right. All right then, Brother. I will have a cup.

Thank you, Hebe.”

“Hebe! She merely pours. I collect it!”

“Thank you as well, Brother,” Athena accepted the chalice from Hebe, who kept her eyes

down on her feet.

5

“So, you are seeking Rhea?” Apollo asked, a wide, intoxicated grin spreading across his

face. “You will find it a difficult task. She does not like to be found.”

“Is this true?” Athena asked Dionysus.

“Alas, I am afraid it is. She rarely visits Olympus. I only happened upon her in a drunken

stupor, somewhere between life and death, and I cannot tell you where the actual location of it

was. She cleaned me up, helped me master my craft, and dropped me here, barely staying long

enough to look upon her children.”

“Did she see Hera?”

“For a moment. My wicked stepmother sobbed like a child when Rhea departed after

only a minute’s visit. It was a most satisfying sight.”

Apollo laughed with him and Athena glanced toward Hebe. While her brothers certainly

had good cause for their dislike of Hera, she was Hebe’s mother. Hebe served her above all

others and there had never been word of any resentment between them. The pretty young

goddess sat still as a statue, a small smile plastered to her face, giving away no discomfort or

anger or any idea at all of what went on within her head. Athena always thought nothing went on

in her head, but she was beginning to wonder.

“So, there is no way to find her?” she asked, turning back to her brothers.

“You could ask Hermes. But even he would not be able to locate her if she does not want

to be found. And she rarely wishes to be found,” Dionysus said.

“That is disappointing,” Athena said.

“May I ask why you are looking for her?” Dionysus shook his cup in the air and Hebe

filled it with more wine.

6

“There are gaps in the histories about the titan wars. I am trying to fill them in, so that I

can be sure Father’s glory is correctly dictated to the mortals. Our aunts seem to be lacking the

information I need.”

“Of course. They spent most of that time in their father’s belly.” Dionysus laughed.

“Would my mother be able to help?” Apollo asked.

“Your mother?” Athena had forgotten about Leto. “I suppose she may. Would she be

willing to speak of such things to me?”

“Certainly. There was a whole world before Olympus and she played a great part in it.

Sometimes I think it is a shame that so few titans remain. My mother is so very different from

Olympians, so much more refined.”

“Refined?” Dionysus asked and belched loudly. He and Apollo collapsed into fits.

Athena caught Hebe’s eye for the first time.

The small smile remained on her face, her expression pleasant and still, but in those blue

eyes, there was a churning depth.

#

“Leto, I am sorry. I’m afraid I never learned the parentage of most titans, beyond my

grandparents,” Athena said as she leaned forward on the silk cushions she sat upon across from

the titaness. They met on a deck on top of Leto’s temple, which overlooked all of Delos. The

island was very small, and cluttered with temples. Mostly Apollos, filled with vestal virgins, but

there was one for each god of the Pantheon. Only a sparse strip rocky terrain lay at the end of the

island, connecting it to another small island at low tide. Very little land for a good hunt, or much

of anything at all, but worship and solitude.

7

From all sides the green sea lapped at the shore as if Poseidon was trying to seduce the

island.

“My parents were children of Gaia and Uranus, siblings to your grandparents. All the

children of Uranus were the first generation of titans. It wasn’t until Cronus ate his children, that

the lines were drawn.”

“So, you chose not to be an Olympian?” Athena asked.

“My sister, Asteria and I were already titans. We could not become something else. But

we chose to side with the Olympians, like a few of our cousins when the war came down.”

“You sided against your own parents?”

“We did. They ignored what Cronus had done to his children. They thought so little of it,

we could not be sure they would not do the same to us, should the need arise.”

Athena had known that Leto must have chosen sides against her own kin, logically, but

she never considered just what that meant. It took her a moment to regain her thoughts. Leto

waited patiently, her veils fluttering in the wind, revealing glimpses of the lovely face beneath

them.

“What happened to your sister?” Athena asked, “I hear nothing of her. Is she around? Has

she gone into a deep sleep?”

“Asteria.” Leto swallowed hard. “She is not around. Forgive me, Athena, but if that is

what you wish to discuss, you will have to ask elsewhere.”

“No, I’m sorry. That is not what I want to speak with you about. I am just— that is, I

don’t really know how to ask… what I want to ask.”

8

Leto brushed the veils back from her face, revealing it in full for the first time. Her eyes

were dark blue, like the deepest part of the Atlantic. Her expression was tight, pained as she

reached out to Athena, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek as if Athena was her own child.

“You found out about your mother, didn’t you?” she asked, a bitterness thickening her

soft voice. “No one else will tell you about her. But I will tell you, because it is why my sister is

gone.”

Somewhere in the distance, or maybe just in her mind, Athena heard the clanging of

metal, and whispers in the dark.

9

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Leigh

“The other night, I heard you talking,” Leigh spoke up at last while they ate lunch.

It had been a hard day. She had chased General Alea and Di around the island three times

and never caught up with them. She’d taken a hard fall, trying to out maneuver the general in a

faux knife fight. The motor was running again and Alea had found a way to strap on the tires that

looked like it could have the dinghy floating again.

Her dreams had only gotten more intense and she had been noticing more and more that

things on the island didn’t make any sense at all.

As much as she wanted to just run and read and train and hear stories, she knew she

couldn’t go on forever pretending that something wasn’t really wrong. That her saviors weren’t

lying to her.

General Alea took a big bite of her slice of crusty bread dripping in olive oil. “Oh yeah?”

“You were talking about me,” Leigh said. “You were talking like you knew each other

really well.”

Di buried her face in her hands but the general met her eye. “We do. Di is my sister.”

10

“So, this was some kind of— some kind of a set up.” Leigh thought the admission would

scare her, break her, but she didn’t flinch. She slathered a pad of soft cheese onto her bread. “But

I don’t get it. I remember the wave. How can you fake a wave like that?”

“I didn’t fake the wave. That was a real wave, and it really capsized your ship,” General

Alea said.

Beside her, Di ran her fingers down her face and regarded Leigh with green eyes. Her

eyes changed colors, Leigh realized. They’d been green the day they met, but they’d also been

blue, and gold. Just like her hair. Sometimes it was streaked with bronze or blond and other times

it was black as pitch.

“You knew it was coming, though. You pulled me out on deck. I remember that. You

took my wrist. I’d cut my hand and I came out of the bathroom and you grabbed me and pulled

me out on deck and we saw the wave coming,” Leigh recalled.

“As long as I could hold onto you, I could get you out safe.” The general’s dark gray eyes

gave nothing away. At least that was constant.

“And what about everyone else? Did they all die? Did you bring the wave?” Leigh knew

she sounded crazy, but she knew she wasn’t crazy. Di’s eyes changed colors. General Alea knew

the wave was coming. And the things they had said…

We don’t rule the world anymore.

“Some of them lived. Most of them died. I was there to save you, Leigh. Just like the

wave was there to claim you.”

“Claim me? What the hell does that mean?” Leigh took a bite of her bread. She should be

scared. This was scary. But she wasn’t scared. If Alea and Di had kidnapped her, well, they were

11

the best kidnappers in the world. And if it was something else, then she just wanted to know

what that something else was.

“I wasn’t sure at first. By the time we reached the island I was. The ocean was trying to

take you. First the wave, then getting lost and finally when Delos came into the sight, the way it

tried to keep us from the shore. It even knocked you off your feet and tried to drag you back

when we made it to land.”

Leigh shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. The ocean is… the ocean. You are

a person. Tell me how YOU knew.”

“Because I know the ocean isn’t just the ocean. Not always. Not when it comes to you.”

“Okay, you know what? I thought I was being crazy. You have just brought this to a

whole new level of crazy. I can’t even— I just can’t.”

“Leigh,” Di started but Leigh tossed her bread onto her plate and stormed into her room,

slamming the door behind her. She flopped into her bed. Her warm, soft bed where no one ever

bothered her, and buried her face. Her curtains were drawn and the room was dark for midday.

She rolled onto her back, wincing at the ache in her ribs from a blow the general had dealt her.

Then she sighed.

She was being an asshole. What did it even matter what Alea and Di were doing? No

matter what their story was, she was better off here. She loved it here. She was living a great life

here.

She covered her face with her hands and when she brought them down Alea sat at the

foot of her bed. In the dim light there was something very different about her. Strange but

familiar.

12

“When I was young, just starting out on my own, I trained a group of girls to hunt and

fight combat style. Or I started to train them, before I got distracted by my family,” General Alea

said, her voice soft and even, reminding Leigh of something long ago. “When I returned to them,

they’d been attacked. Because I hadn’t stayed with them, protected them, taught them about what

to look out for, I made them more vulnerable while trying to make them stronger.”

She leaned forward and a haze a light coming through the dark curtains caught the lines

on her face, illuminating them silver. Leigh recalled the dream she had when she was young, just

before her mother left.

“I did my best at the time to repair the damage. Helped the girls get into good families,

find people to take care of them. And most of them were fine. Or at least, seemed fine after that.

But there was one girl, she never got over it. Not the rape. Not the attack, but my abandonment.

She waited her whole life for me to come back and resume her training. I had my own grief and

my own pain. I would have forgotten her completely. But there was one night, I was walking the

city, lost in my own, angry thoughts. The moon was high and a shadow flickered past me. I

looked up and I saw a vision of grace, weaving a staff through the air like a dancer. The skill, the

discipline, it enchanted me and I stood, watching this silhouette in the moonlight until she knelt

down to the ground and looked up to the moon and I saw an old woman, whose unfulfilled

potential burned from her face. It was my Hala, still training, all alone, in secret. Still begging me

to give her the chance she was denied.”

“Did you?” Leigh asked, sitting up in the bed now.

“No. She died a week later. Her funeral was one of the biggest the city had seen. Children

and grandchildren and great grandchildren, friends and admirers. She was well loved. I had seen

to that. But I failed her. I gave her a whiff of her greatest dream and then denied it to her,

13

claiming it was for her own protection. What I had seen that night was her swan song. All of her

skill and all of her longing, culminating in that beautiful ode. And once it was expelled, she had

nothing left to give.”

In the dim room, Leigh regarded General Alea and General Alea regarded Leigh, willing

her to remember. Leigh could feel her will, coaxing and calling, rolling over her head like a

mother’s caress.

And then the general sat back and Leigh did remember.

The dream. She’d had so many recently but this had been the first one, when she was

eight, so clear she thought for sure it was real that a woman came into her room. The woman

was tall with long black curly hair and deep olive skin like the Italian supermodels her mom

thought were so pretty. She sat down on Leigh’s bed in their New York apartment, the nice one

with the big windows, and took Leigh’s hand.

“Things are going to change soon, girl,” she said. “You’re going to have to get tough.”

“It was you,” Leigh said. “When I was a child, you came to me, didn’t you?”

Alea didn’t answer. Her gray eyes sparkled in the dark room.

“And since then, since here, all these dreams, all these— every night, all the time,

sometimes I don’t even know if I’m awake when I wake up. Because those are you too, aren’t

they? Just not— I am you in those dreams. I— I remember Hala.”

“I have been waiting for you to be ready to understand.”

“Understand? I understand less every minute! I thought— my mother told me that dream

wasn’t real. But I swore it was. That you had walked into my room and talked me. And later,

after she left, I thought of it again. But then I would forget.”

“Tell me about your mother, Leigh.”

14

“Why?” Leigh asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Because I never knew my mother,” General Alea said. “Because I can tell you why she

left, but I think you already know.”

“She thought my father could give me more than she could. And he wouldn’t let her

leave him but keep me.”

Alea nodded. “It was the same for me.”

A sudden grief seized Leigh’s body and she shuddered as urgent tears burst from her

eyes. “And then I did the same thing. I did the same thing to my baby.”

15

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

Athena

Leto sat up on her klinē, taking a deep breath. The island of Delos was still, even the waves

seemed to stop reaching for the beach. “My own children do not know this story as I am going to

tell it to you, Athena. And I hope that it will remain that way. They have good standing in

Olympus. Zeus is a loving father to his children and I would not jeopardize their place with

him.”

“I understand,” Athena said, shifting in her cushioned throne. “I will keep it in

confidence.”

“Cronus was a fair ruler. He and Rhea fostered the young mortals when Prometheus

discovered them. He gave his kin space to rules their domains as they chose, and there was little

restriction on partnerships and no dominion of men over women.”

“What do you mean?” Athena asked.

“While Cronus was the king of the heavens, Rhea was the princess of the earth. Men

created things, but women created life. They had equal standing in counsel and decision

making.”

“Was it so different than it is now?”

16

“It was, Athena. Very different.”

Athena settled back, unsure of what Leto meant. The sun crept low on the sky, casting

long shadows across the island. Leto offered her a cup of nectar and Athena accepted it. The

titaness continued.

“Gaia led Cronus to overthrow his father because he had imprisoned her primordial

children. When Cronus took his father’s throne, he refused to release them. Gaia prophesized

that his own son would overthrow him, so he collected each of his children and swallowed them

whole. Zeus was a new baby and while she nursed him, Rhea heard Hera shouting as Cronus

came for her. She swaddled a pile of rocks for Cronus to eat and fled with Zeus to the ocean, to

hide with her sister and brother. They considered themselves apart from the kingdom of Cronus,

focused entirely on the massive task of managing the ocean. A task they still maintain, although

Poseidon may not admit it.

“They sent their youngest daughter with Rhea to help her with the baby. Metis was still a

child herself, but she was wise and prudent and she petitioned Gaia to help Rhea hide her baby

from his father.”

“Metis cared for Zeus?” Athena set down her cup and realized her hand was trembling.

“Metis saved Zeus,” Leto said, brushing her veils from her face so Athena could see the

intensity in her eyes. “Without her, Rhea never would have been able to hide him into manhood.

And Metis providing him with education and counsel as he grew.”

“And what about the rest of you?”

“My father supported Cronus. My mother stayed out of it. For the most part, everything

carried on as usual. My sister and I avoided Cronus’s company, but no one defied him on Rhea’s

behalf. I remember this is when things began to change. My father began to give orders to my

17

mother. My mother began to try to reign in Asteria, who was as wild as the forest, and more

beautiful than Aphrodite. Asteria refused to be tamed, but I took to wearing veils, to assure my

mother that I would avoid attracting the attention my sister yielded. When Asteria married, we

thought she would settle down, but her husband tried to force her to submit and their fights

would make the earth quake. Asteria would not be subdued and she left her husband often.

“It wasn’t until Zeus returned, tricking Cronus into regurgitating his children, that sides

were truly chosen. My father took up arms with Cronus against his children. Asteria and I sided

with our cousins on Olympus. Prometheus turned against both his father and his brother to fight

with the Olympians, after bearing witness to Metis and Zeus’s wedding.”

“Prometheus should have remained with his kin,” Athena said, her dry throat rasping as

she looked out over the ocean. She could still see those warm brown eyes on the day of her birth

when she thought of him.

“Indeed,” Leto said.

“Zeus did marry another before Hera.” Athena needed to clarify. It felt like treason on her

lips. It felt like the worst kind of sin, betrayal of her father.

“He did. Metis raised him up to be the great man he became, planning his coup against

his father, plotting the strategies in the war against the titans. She brokered the alliance between

Prometheus, kept her parents neutral and brought me and Asteria to their cause, even though

Asteria’s husband fought for the titans. When the Olympians won, Metis convinced Zeus to

pardon the women who fought with their men, but when he threw his father and the other gods

who sided with him into Tartarus, she was distraught. He argued that he had released the children

his father had kept imprisoned, the ones Gaia had punished him for, but Metis knew that her

grandmother intended for all her children to be free. And she was correct.

18

“Gaia came to Olympus while we celebrated our victory. She promised Zeus that he too

would be overthrown by his son, the second child he was to have with Metis. Metis, at the time

was already heavy with her first pregnancy. After Gaia left, she fell to her knees, there in front of

all of us. She begged Zeus to allow her to birth their first child before he cast her out. She

promised to tear out her own uterus as soon as the child was born, so that there would be no

second child.

“I will never forget it. No one who was there will ever forget. Zeus looked down at her as

she pleaded, and looked up at all of us. We stood, stone still, waiting his decree. What she

suggested was so noble, so reasonable, but he looked at his brothers and they shook their heads.

Zeus grew to a mighty size and seized Metis around the waist. He opened his mouth as wide as a

snake’s and he swallowed her down, just as his father had done to his brothers and sisters.”

The world spun around Athena. Around and around. She couldn’t catch her breath. Her

vision blurred. Leto’s lovely face, suddenly deeply lined with sorrow rolled around her and the

sea and the sky and suddenly she was unsure if she stood or sat or lay on the ground. Her

stomach churned. Inside her that seed of fury she had come to know as Pallas flared to life after

silent centuries.

She closed her eyes but it only intensified her dizziness. She was caught in a whirlpool

and it was spinning her down, into the depths of the earth.

Leto continued and her voice was the only anchor Athena could hold to as she spun. “His

headaches started shortly after. Pounding, all day and night. It wasn’t until later we realized that

Metis was hammering her own armor into something for her child. Zeus tried to quiet them with

ambrosia, with women, with tincture, but when they were at their worst, he writhed with pain.

Hera comforted him, but he wanted nothing to do with her then. He had set his sights on my

19

sister, Asteria, the most beautiful and wild goddess in the world. He proposed their marriage and

she refused him over and over again. While she had sided against her husband in the war, when

Zeus ate Metis, she determined she had made the wrong choice. She would not abandon her

marriage for a man who would turn so easily on the woman who had saved him.

“Zeus was relentless in his pursuit of her, starting with lavish gifts, obscenely grand

gestures, and finally demanding she marry him. She ran away from Olympus and hid in the Atlas

mountains with our cousin, now condemned to hold up the sky.

“Zeus could not find her. His headaches only grew in intensity, and his brothers plotted to

overthrow him while he was weak. He realized he needed an ally in Olympus and finally turned

to Hera, proposing marriage to her. But Asteria tried to break into Tartarus to free her husband

before the wedding and Zeus captured her, dragging her back to Olympus.

“When Hera saw her, she confronted Zeus, but he pushed her aside, dragging my sister to

his palace to force her into submission. I was there, with Prometheus and we did nothing. I— I

was too unsure. I thought Asteria would survive it and run off again.”

Leto stopped and let her veil fall back over her eyes but Athena could see the tears that

glistened on her cheeks. When she spoke again, her voice cracked.

“I was wrong. Asteria refused to be taken. She broke free from Zeus and she ran. She ran

right to the edge of Olympus, only stopping for a second to look back at me. I didn’t know what

she was doing until it was too late. She ran right off the edge, turning to a quail— a stupid bird

that can barely fly— and plunging down to the earth.

“She was a deathless god, though, was she not?”

“She chose death. Death over Zeus.”

20

The impact of the words settled on Athena, who clung to the arms of her chair trying to

ground herself.

“After he married Hera, it occurred to him that perhaps I shared some physical traits with

my sister. I was still in Olympus, the fool I was and I failed to notice that he spied on me when I

took off my veils. When he came for me, I did not resist him.”

She shook her head and buried her face, suddenly overcome. “I enjoyed it. I, the humble

daughter, the one who spoke softly, who had strived to please my parents while my sister defied

them. I enjoyed the love of the master of the universe. And when my belly swelled and Hera

learned the truth, I knew it was not me she saw. It was my sister. It was Metis. It was all the

women he’d chosen over her. The fight they had was the worst the world had ever seen. Floods

and earthquakes, tsunamis and tornados. The mortal toll was astronomical and then I was cast

from Olympus, forbidden to set my feet on solid ground, with my children ready to arrive.”

“You found Delos.”

“Delos found me. You see, Athena, I abandoned my sister. I was jealous and resentful of

the attention she received for refusing to behave. But she never abandoned me. When she died,

she did not retire to Elysian. She came back to this world. She laid herself flat on the sea and she

grew into an island. A floating island that sheltered me and my babies, alone in the world for the

first time. Delos is my sister Asteria. I cannot explain how she did it, but she did it to save me

and my children, to provide us safe land forever. After Apollo gained Zeus’s favor we anchored

her to another small island and built the temples here. Not to honor the gods, but to honor my

sister. That is why we do not move on from Delos.”

The spinning receded at last and Athena realized her eyes were wet.

“Leto… this really the truth?”

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“Why would I risk the wrath of your father for lies?”

“I had a mother.” The words were the answer to a prayer she never knew she’s had.

“Where is she now? Is she in Elysian?”

“I cannot say. It has been centuries since you have been born. These are questions for

wise goddesses.”

“I must find her.”

“You must not.” Leto shook her head. “Your standing in Olympus would crumble if you

refused the honor Zeus bestows you as his and his alone.”

“But it is a lie!”

“A lie he has told so much, he believes it himself. I had not yet been cast from Olympus

when Prometheus cleaved you from Zeus’s head. How they shuddered at the sight of you!

Glorious in your armor, with your plumbed helm down over your face. Even Zeus trembled at

the sight of you, fearful that he had failed to prevent the birth of the prophesized son. Then you

lifted your helm and their fear turned to joy, for you were lovely and you were not a threat to

Zeus.

“You are his tie to Metis, his first love, his mentor, his savior. And he claims you as his

alone because of the glory you carry with you, wherever you go. Do not deny him that, Athena.

Or you will find yourself searching for a floating island.”

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