Page 122 of The Rose (The Godwicks 2)

What was she doing here?

And who was she?

It seemed she should know but she couldn’t...it was on the tip of her tongue, but without August here as a guide, she was lost.

She would simply close her eyes and wait for morning. She thought if she fell asleep, when she woke up she would be back where she belonged, wherever that was. Where was that again? She couldn’t remember. Didn’t matter. Wherever she’d come from, she must not have liked it much if she’d left it. She settled back into the bed, next to her sleeping husband, and closed her eyes.

Thunder.

Lia gasped and sat up in bed. Was there a storm? She reached out to wake her husband, but then she saw something.

A woman stood by the window, the large square stone window, and stared out at the ocean. She was tall and extraordinarily beautiful. Her bearing was noble, imperious, almost military in her white gown overlaid with a thick leather breastplate and a sword sheathed on her hip. Whoever she was, she was no servant. Whoever she was, Lia must greet her. All strangers in this kingdom must be greeted as if they were gods traveling in disguise.

Lia slipped from the bed and wrapped a sheet around her naked body as she approached the waiting woman.

“My lady,” she said. “Who are you and what brings you to my chamber? Tell me so that I might make you most welcome.”

“You carry a son inside you,” the woman said, not meeting Lia’s eyes.

“A son?” she repeated. So soon? She’d been married only a few hours.

“Are you not pleased?”

“Too pleased for words,” Lia said. “But how do you know?”

“It is my place to know and tell and yours to hear and believe.”

“I do hear. I do believe. But...who are you?”

The woman at last turned her face from the ocean to look upon Lia. Her eyes were the gray of dove’s wings.

“Pallas Athena,” the woman whispered.

Lia gasped and sank to her knees.

The woman stepped close and Lia rested her head against a thigh as strong as marble.

“Your piety is pleasing to me,” Athena said, and she touched her fingertips to Lia’s hair. “I will bless the child you carry.”

“Thank you, great lady,” Lia said.

“Your son was conceived within a stone’s throw of the ocean. He should be a great seafarer. Salt water shall flow in his veins. His name will rise like the tide but never retreat.”

Lia looked up at the goddess.

“Bless you, my lady.”

“Go,” Athena said. “Go now to the temple if you wish to claim this blessing for your child. Go now and offer a sacrifice, and your son’s name will be remembered for eons as the greatest of all the heroes of Athens.”

Then Athena was gone.

Lia did not hesitate to obey. She rose from her knees and found her discarded gown on the floor by the bed where her new husband had tossed it.

She dressed quickly. Barefoot—she had no time to lace her sandals—she slipped from her bridal chamber. Her naked feet made no sound on the stone floors as she ran down the long dark hallways. She found the door that led to the stable yard and slipped out of it. She could not be stopped. Even if her father or her husband found her now, she would run away from them. Not even a king’s command could outrank a god’s.

Once free of the palace grounds, she had only to take the cobblestone path to the temple. She saw it a mere half mile away, white as a dove in the moonlight. Lia felt Athena’s protection around her as she made her way down the path. Her feet struck no rocks. She encountered no bandits or brigands. And though it was clear a storm was brewing, the rising winds pushed her on like a ship at full sail. She reached the temple so swiftly she wondered if she’d been carried part of the way by the winged feet of Hermes.

Like every temple in the known world, the entrance faced the rising sun, but it was hours until dawn. Surrounded by a shroud of night, Lia climbed the cool marble stairs. She found a brazier left to smolder by night and lit a torch with the remnants of the fire. By her small fire she found her way to the altar. Warm air rose from between the tiles of the temple floor, tickling her feet and setting her skin to shiver.

---