The Daughter of Zeus novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Daughter of Zeus

On Olympus the queen demands Indy's death, and Zeus claims her as his own in front of every god; Hera answers with three dawns of Games and an executioner for an escort.

He didn't ask permission before he picked me up.

He put one arm under my knees and one behind my back, and the world turned white.

I felt no wind and no falling.

There was only a long hum that rattled my teeth, and then there was stone under his boots.

"Put me down," I said.

He did, immediately, and stepped back with his hands open.

I was standing on a floor of white marble the size of a football field.

It hummed under my boots.

Columns went up and up until I lost them in cloud.

Hundreds of people lined the walls, and none of them looked like people.

A woman with a face too perfect to look at.

A man made of what seemed to be bronze.

A tall figure whose hair moved on its own.

They were all staring at me.

I was filthy, and I smelled like smoke and blood.

I still had a golden pelt over one arm, because I hadn't let go of it.

"Where is this?" I asked.

"Olympus," Alekos said quietly.

"Don't kneel unless you want to. Nobody is going to make you."

"That's not what I was asking."

"I know."

A woman stepped out of the crowd.

She was tall, with black hair braided into a crown, and a cloak of peacock feathers that rustled when she moved.

Every one of those feathers had an eye on it, and every eye was open.

She stopped three feet from me and looked at the pelt on my arm.

"The golden hind," she said.

"Hunted down and skinned like a farm animal, within sight of the Champion of Olympus."

"I brought her as you commanded, my queen," Alekos said.

"Be quiet, Alekos."

"I was hungry," I said.

The woman turned her head slowly.

She had the coldest smile I had ever seen on a human face.

"Yes," she said.

"That is exactly what I was counting on."

I didn't understand it.

The back of my neck prickled anyway.

"Hera," Alekos murmured, so only I could hear.

"The queen."

"My lords," Hera said, raising her voice to the hall.

"The law of the Sacred Quarry is older than this city.

Whoever sheds the blood of a sacred beast is tried and put to death.

This mortal ate the hind of the high forest.

I ask for the sentence."

A roar went through the crowd.

I heard the word death more than once.

My heart was slamming against my ribs.

I looked around for a door and found only more columns.

"You can't just kill someone for hunting," I said.

"Mortals have been killed for less," Hera said.

"I didn't even know what it was."

"Ignorance is not a defense under the law."

"Whose law?"

She smiled again.

"Mine."

Then someone walked into the middle of the floor, and the hum under my boots deepened until I felt it in my back teeth.

He was a tall man with silver-gold curls, a weathered face and eyes the color of lightning.

He wore plain white wool, no crown, and no jewels.

Every god in the hall went quiet.

He came right up to me and took my right hand in both of his.

He turned it over and looked at the scar.

His thumb was very gentle.

"Look at me," he said.

I did.

I couldn't stop myself.

Something in his face broke open for a second.

It closed again, quick.

"She's mine," he said.

The whole hall stirred.

"She is the daughter of Zeus," he said, loud now, to everyone.

"She is under my roof, and nobody touches her."

I pulled my hand away.

"No," I said.

Everyone gasped, and I didn't care.

"My father's name is Walt Weatherly.

He taught me to track and to fix an engine.

He's in my pack right now, in a tin, and I won't have anyone say different."

Zeus looked at me for a long moment.

"He raised you well," he said at last.

There was no mockery in it.

"Then she is still a killer of the Quarry," Hera said, sweetly.

"Even a king's blood must stand the Games, my husband. Or are you saying the law bends for your bastards?"

Zeus's jaw tightened.

He didn't answer her, and I noticed that.

I filed it away.

"Three dawns," Hera said.

"The Hunt, the Oath and the Judgement. If she wins all three, she walks free."

"And if she loses?" I asked.

"Then by old custom, the sentence is carried out by the Champion of Olympus."

She turned to the man behind me.

"Alekos," she said, "you brought her, so you will walk her through all three dawns."

Her smile widened.

"And if she fails, my dear, you will be the one who carries out the sentence."

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