Dark of the Moon

chapter 37

CHOOSE YOUR attendants." The Minos and I were back in the Goddess chamber. He indicated the largest jar, which rattled on the floor as the snakes that he had tipped into it struggled with one another.

He lit a small torch, and the room felt even stuffier. I reached for it, but he shook his head. "They'll flee if you approach with fire. Choose." I almost asked how, and then I realized: I would know. I was sure of it. I closed my eyes with relief; maybe this meant that I would know Velchanos as well.

The Minos removed the lid, and I stood over the mass of dark, writhing serpents. My two hands shot out together—they acted without my will—and each grasped a snake square behind the head. I stood with my arms stretched out in front of me, a wriggling snake in each hand. They knew their fate; I could feel this in the way they arched and flailed, trying to escape. Too late, sisters, I thought as I turned toward the door. You have been chosen as I have been chosen. I stepped outside a second time. The people cried out and fell to their knees, weeping with joy and terror.

I gazed on them until they quieted. "Choose me!" some men were saying wordlessly, and "Choose my son!" some women were telling me, their thoughts as clear as actual words. Others hoped that I would pass over them, over their brothers and sons and lovers and fathers and husbands. It made no difference. It was not I, but Velchanos, who would choose; it was up to Velchanos to reveal himself—or not. I was amused but not irritated at their error, any more than I would be irritated at a child who stubbornly tried to catch a moonbeam, refusing to see that her hand would pass through it, no matter how many times she failed.

My gaze swept through them as they stared up at me, high on the top step. Ariadne inside me asked, "What are we looking for?" but Goddess inside me told her to hush, that We would know.

And We did. Near the cooking pots, someone stood a bit apart from the others. I stared in his direction, and some people in the crowd craned their necks and turned around. I knew who the solitary figure was, and the recognition made my heart lurch.

I climbed down the steps, half floating and half about to trip over my heavy skirt. Both my hands clutched the snakes. As soon as I stepped down from the portico, I lost sight of the figure, but I knew that I was walking directly to it as surely as one of Daidalos's lodestones turned toward the north. In the days when I had been free to wander outdoors, I used to love to watch fields of grass divide and bend under the force of the god who made the wind blow through them. I remembered that now, as people moved silently out of my way.

He was standing in front of the fire tended by Kylissa, priestess and birth sister of my mother. She held a long wooden spoon in one hand and cradled her little grandson in the other arm. She took a step backwards, away from me. I hardly noticed her, for I had my eyes fixed on the other figure.

I knew who it was. I had known even before I took my first step down from the portico. Something had drawn me to him, and I searched myself. How would I know if the force pulling me to him was the divine love of Velchanos for Goddess, or if it was Ariadne's love for Theseus? I had felt something when he kissed me. Was that love?

I needed time, and I needed someone to ask. I had neither.

The Minos was suddenly at my side. I didn't know if he had moved quickly or if time had changed its pace yet again. I was glad to see him, because a part of me was aware that my hands were cramping. I gave him the now-limp snakes. Soon, they would be in pieces in a stew, along with the others, who still lay coiled in their pots.

I looked up at Theseus's bearded face, which was staring at me in confusion. Velchanos had been testing me; he wanted to see if I would make the same mistake that my mother had made. I smiled and thought, I've passed your test. It's not one or the other: Do I love Theseus? or: is this Velchanos? It's both. You'll see, my lord; I'll do what is necessary.

I took the sash from my attendant and wrapped it around his waist, drawing him close to me. I felt his breath on my face and his warmth on my chest. "Welcome back, my lord," I said, and smiled up at my lord Velchanos, who had returned to me as surely as a dove returns to its cote, in the person of the Athenian prince Theseus.