ren’s Reviews > Stone Blind > Status Update

"Perseus looked at his mother and at Dictys, trying to comprehend how these two all-powerful people were suddenly incapacitated. Dictys could steer a course through a sudden storm, he could catch any fish the ocean chose to offer, he could out-sail the monsters of the deep. And yet there he sat, wordless. His mother could heal any injury, repair any break. But she simply stood in silence as their lives fell apart."

"The quiet companionship Dictys had offered was the greatest gift any mortal could have given her. And now - she knew it before the words were spoken - it was about to be taken away.
'This is no life for a woman like her,' the king said. 'She leaves with me.'"

"'The boy is not yours?'
'He is the grandson I wish I had,' said Dictys, Danaë felt her son soften beside her and tried to do the same.
'Ha!' The king's laughter was intended to be unkind. 'For that to happen, brother, you would have had to desire a woman.'
There was silence. Dictys tilted his cup. 'Yes, brother,' he said. 'I would. But the Fates brought me a daughter and a grandson regardless.'"

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"Perseus ran straight to Danaë and stood in front of her. She remembered in a rush the first time she realized she couldn't see over his head any more, and then barely over his shoulder either. Her boy had grown so tall and strong out on the water every day."

"She gazed at him, tracing echoes of Dictys's brow and nose and jaw on the king's face, and wondering how the same features could be so reassuring in one man and so off-putting in another."

"She watched as his eyes lost first their anger and then their fear. His mouth moved as though he wanted to tell her something and she bent down to try and make out the words. But all she heard was the last breath leaving his lungs, the last red globule pop, leaving a thin veil of blood in a perfect circle on his upper lip."

"Dark blood was gushing from his throat and bubbling out red between his lips. Athene found herself appalled by the ugliness and yet she could not stop looking. This is what she was made for, she reminded herself. This is what it meant to fight a war. But that didn't explain the conflicting urges which raged beneath her calm face: to look away from the death she caused, to lean in and lick the warm blood from him."

"Athene couldn't see Hermes anywhere on the plain, but she knew he was there. Wearing the cap of Hades, which he had borrowed (or more probably stolen), the messenger god was invisible, even to her bird-sharp eyes. He was also invisible to the giant who flailed and bellowed into what looked like the breezes. But it wasn't the wind that pierced his skin time and again, slicing through his hide from every direction."

"Perhaps Gaia was reviving him, but Artemis had brought her hunting dogs into battle. Athene felt a brief pang for her owl, but no regret for having left him on Olympus. She would not see her bird's beautiful wings sullied. Still, she had to admire the way the dogs launched themselves at the fallen creature. Teeth fastened around his throat, and this would make nine."

"She watched as Poseidon chased one giant right off the plain and into the sea. What kind of idiot tried to evade Poseidon by running into the sea? The giants had strength and size in abundance, certainly, but they were still not worthy opponents. This fool might as well kneel down and offer his throat to the trident."