Stone Blind(14)

‘I didn’t know I was,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure you know the answer already, since you seem to have been watching me. My sisters taught me to be like them.’

‘But you aren’t like them, are you? You don’t have their physical power, you don’t have their immortality. There is only a pair of wings differentiating you from any other girl. Your sisters are monsters, with their tusks and their snaking manes of hair. You have very little in common with them at all.’

‘My sisters aren’t monsters.’

This, then, explained why he did not like them. He was appalled by their appearance. Medusa wanted to laugh but she was still afraid. As if anything that was important about Sthenno or Euryale was visible in their teeth or their hair.

‘Aren’t you loyal?’ he said. ‘Can love really have blinded you so much?’

‘You’re the one who is blind, if you can’t see anything beyond a pair of tusks.’

‘Euryale has two sets of tusks, I believe.’

‘It doesn’t matter what you believe,’ she replied.

‘You cannot possibly fail to see what anyone else could see,’ he said. ‘Why do you think I have picked you and not one of your sisters? You know you are beautiful, you know they are not.’

‘I know when you talk of beauty you mean something different from what I mean.’

‘I see.’ He took a step towards her, and she forced herself not to take a step back. ‘So what do you mean by beauty, little Gorgon?’

‘Euryale tends every one of her sheep like it is a child. Sthenno learned to cook so she could feed me when I was little. They care about me and protect me. That is beauty.’

‘Neither of them is protecting you now.’

‘You waited until I was alone.’

‘I did. Very well, if these qualities are so valuable to you, if you really claim to believe that caring and tending are beautiful, when it is so common it is not even limited to humans – any animal cares for its young – then prove it.’

‘How?’

‘Come here,’ he said, and he strode towards her, grabbing her hand. She wanted to pull away from him, but she knew immediately that however strong she was, he was much stronger. There was a clamminess to his touch, a smell of seaweed emanating from his skin. He dragged her to the columns closest to the sea, and pushed his hand against her back, forcing her to look across the wide promontory.

‘Look,’ he said. ‘Out there, towards my temple. What do you see?’

She was sure the group of girls had not been there when she entered Athene’s temple.

‘You already know what I can see,’ she said. ‘I see a group of girls, talking and laughing together.’

‘Are they beautiful?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ she replied.

‘Why?’

‘Because they are young and happy and together,’ she said.

She could feel the irritation in the fingers that pressed against her.

‘They are ordinary,’ he said. ‘Look again.’

And she did as he demanded but she could not see what he saw. ‘It’s because you have spent all these years with no one but your sisters for company. If you had grown up with other girls your own age . . .’

‘If I had grown up with other girls my own age, you would have thought me ordinary too.’

‘Not true,’ he said. ‘I would have admired those ringlets and those arching eyebrows. I would have approved of your long, straight nose and the way your wide mouth is ready to smile. I would have desired you in just the same way if you had grown up among all these girls. You would still have been extraordinary.’

‘You’re just guessing,’ she said. ‘You can’t know that, you just think I want to hear it.’ She felt the tension in his muscles as she said it, and she knew she was right. He was so very sure of his own charm. ‘But I don’t.’

‘Very well,’ he replied. ‘Have it your way. You are nothing more than an ordinary girl with ordinary immortal sisters, and everyone is equally beautiful because you say so. Is that right?’

He grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her to face him. She could feel the pillar pressing against her back, and the smell of salt and anger on his face. ‘You value them all so highly, you think caring for the weak is so important. Prove it to me and to yourself.’

She stared at his dark green eyes and loathed him.

‘You can’t prove what you believe,’ she said. ‘You can only believe it.’

‘That is obviously not true,’ he said. ‘You believe you can fly, and I believe it too. We could prove it by taking you to the edge of the cliff and pushing you off it.’

‘Flying isn’t a matter of opinion,’ she said.

‘Nor is beauty.’

‘I don’t agree with you.’

He leaned close and hissed into her mouth. ‘I will take one of those girls, Medusa. Any one, you can choose. I will take her to the deepest part of the ocean and I will have her until she drowns. Do you understand? I will rape her and she will die of it, because that is what it means to be weak.’

‘They will knock down your temple and never worship you again.’

‘Men will worship me across the world.’ He shrugged. ‘These ones hardly matter.’