Warrior Rising (Goddess Summoning #6)(12)

If so, he was vastly mistaken.

“Arise, Agamemnon. I come with glad news,” Hera finally said.

“Great Goddess, do you bring a message from the mighty Zeus?”

Hera’s eyes flashed with anger and her voice sizzled with power so tangible it brushed, crackling, against the arrogant mortal’s skin. “I am not a messenger for my husband!”

This time Agamemnon’s bow was low and obsequious and much more appropriate. “Forgive me! I did not mean to offend the Queen of the Gods.”

Hera curled one lip delicately. “Mores the pity you don’t mean offense because it comes so naturally to you. Heed my warning, Greek king, your arrogance will be your doom.” Happily, she saw him pale. “But, no matter.” She waved her hand graciously, motioning for him to rise. “The news I bring has to do with your empty bed.” Although Hera remembered the slender, hairless boy and wondered just how empty the king’s bed had been.

“Indeed, Goddess, my war prize was returned to appease the golden twins. Though I meant no disrespect by claiming Khryseis, it seems her father disapproved.”

“Khryseis was no good for you. A king should have a worthy prize. Only Briseis is beautiful enough for one such as you.” Silently Hera promised herself that she would look up poor Briseis after this whole debacle was finished and grant the girl a boon to make up for sharing this blustering fool’s bed.

“Briseis! She is lovely, but she belongs to Achilles.” The king’s expression turned sly. “Although I hear all that beauty is wasted on him. Achilles frightens maidens.”

Ah, Hera thought, then the rumors about Achilles are true. “Exactly why Briseis would do better with you.”

Agamemnon stroked his thick beard contemplatively. “True… true… but still, Achilles—”

“Does Achilles or Agamemnon rule here?” Hera interrupted.

“I rule the Greeks!”

“Then claim the war prize that most suits you,” Hera said.

Agamemnon met the goddess’s gaze. “May I do so with your blessing?”

“Of course. And to help soothe Achilles’ well-known rage, I shall arrange for a bedmate to be sent to him. This new war bride will be unlike other women. You should know that she has my very special blessing.”

“I bow to your will, Great Goddess,” Agamemnon said.

“Excellent. Then send your men for Briseis immediately.” While Agamemnon bowed, Hera clapped her hands and disappeared in a rush of glittering blue smoke.

Thetis curtseyed respectfully to Athena. Then, hastily conjuring ambrosia and cushioned chairs made of mother of pearl, she motioned for the gray-eyed goddess to sit.

“Rest yourself, Athena. To what do I owe this—” Her words broke when she realized that the goddess was blood-spattered and hard-eyed. “By Poseidon’s trident! What has happened?”

Athena waved a dismissive hand at the bloodstains, which instantly disappeared. “It is all because of the tedium of the Trojan War. We have decided it must end.”

Thetis’s beautiful face drained of its alluring peach color. “My son is fated to die in the Trojan War. If it is coming to an end, then so is his life.”

“That is what I’m here to speak with you about. We have an idea that may prove mutually beneficial to all of us. We believe the Trojan War can be ended without your son’s death.”

“Anything, Goddess. I will do anything to save my son,” Thetis said, recovering some of her color. Then she added, “Who is we?”

“Hera, Venus and me.”

Thetis’s blue eyes widened. “Three such powerful goddesses joined with one purpose!”

“Well, it isn’t always an easy alliance, but we three do have one thing very much in common—we are well and truly sick of this war.”

“Four,” Thetis said firmly. “We four are allied by this purpose, if there is some way my son can be spared.”

“Tell me, Thetis, is your son still pleased with the choice he made to end his life too soon?” Athena asked.

Thetis chewed her full bottom lip while she considered. “Achilles won’t speak of it directly, but I know him well. Over the past years he has become increasingly unhappy. Did you know he hasn’t taken a lover in almost a decade?”

Athena’s eyes widened. “Truly?”

Thetis nodded. “It’s the berserker rage that overtakes him—women are frightened of him because of it. My son would never force himself on a woman, so he lives out the short time that remains to him alone except for his Myrmidons, and even they are becoming leery of him. I can feel my son’s sorrow and I believe he keeps moving toward his fate only because the life he’s living brings him nothing but loneliness.”

“So this war-prize bride who lives in his tent, she is not his lover?”

“Briseis is a beautiful young woman who is as frightened of my son as all of the rest of them have been, even though he has only treated her with kindness,” Thetis said.

Athena’s smooth brow wrinkled in thought. “But if he’s kind to her, you would think that she would eventually accept him.”

“You have never seen the berserker rage possess him, have you?” Thetis asked quietly.

“No.”

Thetis shuddered. “It is a thing terrible to behold. He is no longer my Achilles when it comes upon him. He becomes a monster, a beast, a physical manifestation of pure rage set only on violence.”