Hera Teleia's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The crow held its place on the rail until Hera lifted her hand. It dropped the green sprig into her palm and flew off toward the lower gardens. Hera closed her fingers on the sprig. Demeter did not send crows for small matters. Hera had just sent her peacock across the ocean to watch the boy, and already her friend was telling her the watching would not be enough. She left the balcony and went to find Demeter herself. She found her in a low grove behind the palace, walking a row of young olive trees. Demeter was Hera's oldest friend on Olympus, and the only goddess who could kill a harvest with a mood. Her golden hair caught the last of the sun. She did not turn when Hera approached. She only touched a branch, and three new leaves opened under her fingers. "You sent a bird," Hera said. "I did." "Say what you came to say." Demeter dropped her hand from the tree. "Your peacock will bring you pictures. Pictures are not enough. You will watch that boy eat and sleep and speak to servants, and you will still not know him. You need someone inside his life. Someone he trusts." Hera's grip tightened on her scepter. "He trusts no god." "He trusts his sister." Hera went still. "He has no sister I made." "He has one the world made. A twin. Sophia Alderwyne. Raised beside him. Sharper than him. She lives in London. She sees him without the mask he wears for the rest of us." Demeter finally looked at her. Her green eyes were level and cold. "Hermes is in her bed on and off. He will carry to you whatever she says of her brother, if you ask him plainly." Hera heard the offer and heard the price under it. Demeter knew too much already. Demeter was telling her so, without saying it. "Why help me?" Hera said. "I am not helping you. I am telling you what you do not know. What you do with it is yours." Demeter turned back to the tree. "Winter is coming again. I would like fewer secrets on this mountain, not more." Hera stood a long moment. Then she bowed her head once, the way queens do when they accept a debt they cannot yet pay. She left the grove and did not stop until she reached the messenger's court. She sent word for Hermes to attend her at dusk. She did not write the reason. She would speak it in his ear, and she would speak the girl's name. Hera walked back to her balcony with the sprig still in her hand. Her peacock would bring her the boy's face. The girl would bring her his heart. And Demeter, smiling in her grove, now held the leash on them all.