Defying Fate

Chapter 12-p2

Asterion was playing near the central mast. Someone had found or carved some small wooden animal figurines, and he was sitting surrounded by five or six of them, just picking them up and moving them around.

Odysseus came and knelt beside the boy, and the wind spirit floated down beside them. Asterion laughed in surprise, and patted the creature's ears, while the creature chirped, and hummed a tune Odysseus didn't recognize.

Odysseus's attention wandered, and he looked across the deck at Eurylochus, who had come up as well, and was giving orders to the crew, with Mando hovering just behind his shoulder, imitating every move he made. The crew, sitting in their rower's benches, hid chuckles and snorts of laughter as Eurylochus looked them over sternly.

"I know that song," Cassandra said, coming close, and letting Bombom drift toward her, smiling its wide-mouthed smile. "It was playing when we met." She hummed along with the spirit.

Odysseus thought back, but he didn't remember any music from that night. He only remembered fire and smoke and the sounds of distant battle. It felt like an eternity ago.

"There was no music," he said, and Cassandra glanced at him.

"Oh, right," she said. "It must have been something else."

Asterion laughed and chased the wind spirit, falling into Cassandra's lap, but picking himself up again, and smiling at her. Odysseus noticed that many of his teeth had grown in. He'd probably been able to handle solid food for several months now, and Odysseus was reminded of the time wasted.

"Will you watch over him for a moment?" He asked Cassandra, who froze.

"You trust me?"

"It's been a long time since the storm," Odysseus said. He put a hand on her shoulder briefly, then stood up, striding across the deck.

The sun was setting. They were still headed east, away from Polyphemus' island, the shadow of the ship's mast stretching out before them like an arrow, pointing the way forward.

He stepped up to Eurylochus, and the wind spirit disappeared.

"What's our heading?" he asked his second-in-command.

Eurylochus shook his head, and shrugged. "What does the prophet say?"

"You believe her?"

Another shrug.

"She says that it's gone silent," Odysseus said quietly.

"And what about Athena?"

Odysseus looked away, staring at the darkening waves. "She's gone."

"Gone? But—"

"She's just gone, alright!" Odysseus pushed away, leaning on the railing. Too late, Eurylochus covered up the lost look on his face, forcing it back into its regular stony lines, while Odysseus tried not to look at him.

"I'm sorry, captain."

"I'm not sure if I failed her, or if she failed me.." Odysseus felt tears pricking his eyes again and he wiped them away quickly.

Eurylochus patted Odysseus on the shoulder awkwardly, and Odysseus tried to shake off the anger and frustration with a force of will and a shake of his head.

"It will be fine. A goddess and a man can't be friends. She was only holding me back. I'll get us all home, if it's the last thing I do."

"I don't doubt it, captain." Eurylochus was still stonefaced, in a way only Eurylochus could be, carefully concealing his emotions.

"I'll ask Cassandra again," Odysseus remembered. "She said something about a message. Perhaps there is still a god out there willing to help us."

Cassandra was still playing with Asterion, they'd stack some of the figurines one on top of the other until there was a short tower, then Asterion would knock them down with a shriek of laughter.

Odysseus chuckled at Cassandra's exaggerated look of exasperation.

"You're good with him," he said, kneeling on the deck once again.

"The gift of prophecy does not help me predict when he will strike," she said seriously. She started stacking the figurines again, to Asterion's laughter.

Bombom hovered over Asterion's shoulder, but as Odysseus knelt, it drifted over to rest on top of his head.

"Why does it chose me?" He asked.

"He's claimed you," Cassandra said without looking up from her tower.

"Hi guys, I'm Odysseus!" The little creature said, in an altered version of Odysseus' own voice.

Odysseus flinched in surprise and the wind spirit fell from his head, chirping with laughter. It caught itself before it hit anything, and floated around Odysseus' head.

"It's a mimic," he observed thoughtfully, but the trail of thought was interrupted by another shriek from Asterion as the animals tumbled again. One sailed directly through Bombom as if it wasn't there, and hit Odysseus in the chest. He caught it as it fell. It was a tiny wooden horse.

"The others would have reached home by now," he wondered, turning it in his hands. "I wonder if news has reached Ithaca."

Cassandra looked down at the little horse, then up at his face. "She's asked about you," she said softly. "She knows that you are alive and that you are on your way."

Odysseus couldn't articulate the feeling in his heart as he looked back at her. "I don't know which way to go," he whispered.

Cassandra looked down at Asterion, then out at the setting sun.

"There was a message," she said.

"A message from the gods?"

Cassandra shook her head. "No, not from a god. The gods are... busy. This is older. More... powerful. His—" She shuddered. "His voice was strange, it wasn't like my visions. He has promised to protect you from the coming wrath of his sons."

"Wrath?" Odysseus coughed and reached out for Asterion.

"The cyclops..." Cassandra's eyes were huge, and her whole body seemed to have collapsed on itself. "Was Poseidon's son. We killed him, and he wants revenge. And Zeus is still angry about the child. They will demand recompense together. A storm, unlike any the world has seen."

Odysseus felt the blood drain from his face, as he looked out at the darkening sea before them.

"When?"

"Soon," Cassandra shook her head. "Days, maybe. We were hidden on the island of the Lotus Eaters, but, now they know where we are."

"And this... other? Has promised shelter? Wait. His sons?" He began to put it together.

"Kronos..." Cassandra whispered.

Odysseus stood abruptly, dislodging the wind spirit from his hair, again.

"Don't tell anyone this," he said, scanning the sea. "Not yet."

"Not like they will believe me anyway," Cassandra slumped down and began stacking animals again.

Asterion clapped his hands in delight, and Odysseus looked down at them...

Couldn't he have had just one day?