I saw that I wouldn’t be able to talk anyone out of this scheme. The fisherman saw it as the best opportunity he’d ever get to repay Apollo for his daughter’s life. His daughter saw it as a dream come true, the chance to live like a princess. They trusted Eunike to save them in case the plan failed, but you could tell by looking at their faces, radiant with confidence, that they refused to believe anything could go wrong.
If I wanted to go to Iolkos and then on to Colchis and the Golden Fleece, I’d have to borrow some of that wholehearted faith. I bowed my head and raised my hands to the fisherman’s daughter. “Lady Helen, do I have your permission to go?” I asked.
She stood tall and looked down her nose at me, but her lips curved up in a graceful smile. “Go with the blessing of the gods,” she said. Her voice was only a little lower than mine. “And with Poseidon’s blessing above all.” She gestured at the little boat rocking on the waves not far from where we stood on shore.
“No road for you, Helen,” Eunike said gaily. “Not yet. This man has promised me to take you as far as Corinth.” She patted the fisherman’s shoulder. He looked ready to die of joy at receiving such a sign of favor from Apollo’s chosen one.
“I’ll do better than that!” he declared. “I’ll take you all the way to Iolkos, if the gods let me.”
We said our farewells and the three of us waded out to his boat. Milo looked as if he were going to his own funeral. Considering what a sorry sailor he was, he might have been right. Once we climbed aboard, he sank down on the deck and buried his head in his hands.
“What’s wrong with him?” the fisherman asked me as he prepared to set sail.
“He gets seasick,” I told him. “Badly seasick.”
Our new friend pursed his lips, then went toward the back of the boat and returned carrying a small, sealed clay flask. “Have a swig of this,” he said, forcing it into Milo’s hands. “It’s mostly mint and ginger; settles the stomach. Back that up with a proper sacrifice to Poseidon, and I guarantee you’ll think we’re sailing over glass.”
While Milo sniffed the neck of the flask warily, then drank, a favorable wind sprang up. The fisherman made haste to set the sail. The painted cloth belled out and we were under way. I waved good-bye to Eunike until a curve of the coast hid her from my sight, then I went to see if there was anything I could do to help the fisherman.
“Help? Bless your kind heart, no,” he told me. “I’m used to sailing this sweet girl on my own. You look after your friend and see to it that you don’t forget to make that offering to Poseidon, like I said. The gods are watching.”
I went back to Milo, but he’d stretched himself out on the boards and had fallen asleep. Maybe there was something stronger than ginger and mint in that little flask, but as long as he wasn’t being sick again, I was happy. I left him in peace and walked forward, to the small vessel’s prow.
With Milo napping and the fisherman busy, I’d have to come up with an offering to Poseidon on my own. I opened the soft leather pouch at my belt and fished around inside. It was packed with beads of gold, silver, and precious stones. As part of my preparations for this trip, I’d taken apart several of my necklaces, intending to trade them, bead by bead, for supplies on the road.
“Lord Poseidon of the seas, earth shaker, horse tamer, guide my hand,” I prayed. “Choose your sacrifice.” My fingers closed on what I thought was just another bead, but when I pulled it out into the light, I saw that it was the monster’s tooth that the old sailor had carved into the shape of Aphrodite riding a dolphin. Poseidon had made his choice.
I held the little image to my heart. Out of so many possibilities, why had the god chosen this for his sacrifice? Did it mean something? I wished that Eunike were still with me. She was used to understanding divine messages. Aphrodite was born from the ocean’s foam and I was giving her back to the sea. Was that a sign that I’d return safely to the place where I’d been born or a warning that the ocean would swallow me up too?
If I’d never left home, I wouldn’t have to tangle my brain over omens, I thought. I wouldn’t need to worry about my fate, or Milo’s, or what will happen if I—if I don’t come home at all. I filled my lungs with briny air and let out my breath slowly. A rock at the bottom of a well is safe from worries too.
We were sailing east, into the sun. I raised my arms and called out, “Lord Zeus, ruler of gods and men, even though I’m not your daughter, give me a father’s blessing. All-seeing Apollo, give me your light; Athena, lend me your wisdom. Beloved Aphrodite, let Milo and me find only kindness on this journey. Lord Poseidon, grant us a safe voyage and accept this sacrifice!”
I threw the carving of my goddess as high and far as I could, into the sky above the waves, and watched its arcing path through the air. As it fell, I saw a golden shape come diving toward the plummeting image, a huge eagle that seized the monster’s tooth in his talons. The feathers on his breast skimmed the sea before he soared back into the sky and flew away.
“Did you see that, La—Glaucus?” Milo’s voice sounded in my ear. He’d woken from his nap and come up behind me unexpectedly. I almost jumped overboard with surprise. “It’s a good sign, isn’t it? Or is it predicting that something’s waiting to snatch us away? If that’s so, I swear I won’t let it touch you. But is it a good sign after all? Ah, what does it mean?”
“You worry too much, Milo,” I said as if I had no such worries of my own. “If every hero stopped to think about all the what-ifs in his path, none of us would ever take one step beyond our own doorways.”
“But you saw what it did,” Milo protested. “The eagle is Lord Zeus’s bird. We can’t just ignore it. Ah, what does it mean?”