Hestia's Hymn (9)
From the moment I learned Achilles could be saved, I stopped sinking into unnecessary gloom. There was no room for depression when I had work to finish and preparations to make before we could leave. Thinking that my wife might be suffering even now, I felt I could understand a little of what the first Orpheus must have gone through — so I wrapped things up as fast as I could.
The temple restoration could be left to the people here, so that was no worry, and Danae had come through unharmed, which was a relief in itself. King Acrisius had also agreed to my request and promised to do everything in his power to rebuild the temple, so I was confident the reopening wouldn't take long. What I needed to handle right away, then, wasn't the temple itself so much as settling the people's hearts — and that was something I did all the time. With Hestia here as well, it was almost trivial.
Once the work was done, Hestia and I marked out where we had to go. Our destination was, of course, the island of Cyprus — and while it wasn't as bad as Colchis, the road there was still a rough one.
I decided to set our departure point at Iolcos, the same port where I'd made my first voyage years before.
From Iolcos we'd sail out into the Aegean, pass Andros, Delos, Naxos, Amorgos, Nisyros, Cameiros, and Karpathos, flow into what people commonly call the Mediterranean, and only then head for Cyprus.
If that was hard to picture, it helped to think of it as going from Greece through Turkey all the way to the waters off Lebanon. As I said, it wasn't Colchis — but it was still a longer journey than going from Greece to Crete. Under normal circumstances I would have simply flown, but while my clothes and mace came along whenever I transformed, Achilles's fragments did not. So in the end we had no choice but to travel on foot and by ship.
That was why I'd planned to use the finest means of overland travel I had — my own son — and ride by chariot…
"Prrrrr… prrrrrrrr… prrrrrr…"
The clatter of the wheels never stopped, and the scenery whipped past in a blur, but even so Epiphos's disgruntled breathing never let up. Hauling a chariot that carried me, Hestia, and his own mother turned to stone, Epiphos seemed thoroughly disappointed in me and refused to listen from start to finish.
"He seems to be in a foul mood… He wouldn't even listen earlier when I tried to talk to him…"
He threw a fit the moment Hestia so much as reached toward him — that said everything. Under ordinary circumstances, dragging him out like this would have been impossible, but the moment he heard his mother could be saved, he'd stepped into the traces of his own free will. The boy was a filial son, no question. He might have been sulking, but he was still racing us toward Iolcos at my request, and at this pace we'd arrive in less than a day. I had a plan of my own, so for once I was sure things would go smoothly.
"If you're leaving Argos to take the sea route, wouldn't it be faster to stop by Athens? Why are we going this way?"
"In Iolcos, my friend Jason reigns as king. It'll be easier to get a ship there than in Athens, where I have no connections — and with Epiphos's stride, we'll arrive just as quickly either way. I judged this the better choice."
"You've sired a divine stallion. He can't fly and he can't leap the sea, but on solid ground there isn't a horse alive that could outrun him."
"Hearing a goddess say so will make Epiphos happy."
"……………"
"…Probably."
Normally the little show-off would have been dying for praise, but today he kept his mouth shut and simply ran. We'd set out early in the morning, and at Epiphos's pace it was a distance we could cover by evening at the latest, so I took the chance to enjoy the chariot's speed and the sheer, brutal power of his stride. Hestia, on the other hand, clearly wasn't used to this sort of thing — she clung to me the whole way.
"Kyaah!"
"Hold on to me."
"How on earth does he…"
The terrain of Greece was brutally rough to begin with, and Epiphos tore across it as if it were flat ground — his power was almost beyond description. Lesser rocks he simply crushed underfoot; when wild beasts crossed our path he drove them off with a single roar. Somehow he also knew the roads perfectly, cutting down every shortcut he could find, so that by midday Iolcos was already in sight.
"PRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
"Wha—?!"
The moment we reached the city gates, he let out a massive cry, as if dumping every scrap of stress he'd been holding in. He stamped his hooves and kicked the chariot with his hind legs, wordlessly condemning his useless father and making it clear we were to get off at once. Hestia and I scrambled down, packed Achilles's fragments into a basket — and he turned his back on us without another glance.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
I wondered what he thought he was doing, but he treated me like something beneath notice and simply galloped off into the distance. We hadn't even entered Iolcos yet, and he'd left the two of us behind on his own. It was a vivid reminder of just how deep a son's rebellious phase could run.
"Wh-where is he going?"
"While I was off sailing with Jason, Epiphos stayed here — he knows Iolcos better than I do. From the look of it he's headed for the palace. I'd guess he's going back to the stable he used to use."
"He must be truly furious… I never dreamed he'd abandon us and go stake out a spot first…"
"It's also his way of saying hurry back. Just like when I left on that voyage, he'll wait for us to return."
He was an extremely clever child. Even without words, he knew how to make his meaning clear through action, so I led Hestia on without worry. Epiphos had been able to ignore the soldiers at the gate and walk straight in — we, it seemed, would not be so lucky. A man of middling years approached and began to probe at my identity.
"You there… could you be…?"
"You know me?"
"Oh! Ohhh! Of course I do! It's Lord Perseus himself!"
"Yes, that's right. I have business here — may we come in?"
"Naturally! Come, come, right this way."
Fortunately, no one tried to pick a fight the way they had last time. Standing in my adult form so I could carry the basket of Achilles's remains had worked in my favor. After the Colchis voyage, once Jason returned, any number of heroes had made their faces known around here — so we entered the city without any trouble at all.
Even on the road up to the palace, built high atop the polis, people recognized me, and I exchanged greetings as we climbed. Since becoming king, Jason seemed to have been kept busy; plenty of people were heading up to the palace, and among them were heroes whose faces I didn't even know.
"When might we be able to see King Jason?"
"His Majesty is extremely occupied. If luck isn't with you, you may have to wait until tomorrow. Should it grow too late, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave — my apologies."
"Is that so…"
The soldier guarding the palace answered the woman who'd suddenly questioned him without the slightest idea that she was the goddess Hestia. Had it been any other goddess, there would have been chaos and divine wrath on the spot — but she simply stepped back with perfect composure, and watching the whole thing made my heart hammer in my chest.
"What's the matter? Your face has gone dark."
Oblivious to my nerves, Hestia smiled gently as she addressed me. The chariot ride had left her red-brown hair wildly windswept, and she didn't seem to care in the slightest — which told me everything I needed to know about how the other gods regarded her.
"If any other of your worshippers had seen that just now, they'd all be wearing the exact same expression I am."
"I'm not the sort of goddess who hands out divine punishment on a whim…"
"That still doesn't mean you should be ignored. A question like that is something I should be asking — Lady Hestia had no need to step forward."
"My, my~ How frightening…"
"………Huh?"
She giggled, slipped past me, hid behind a pillar, and poked only her head out — treating me like a child. She used to do the same thing when she played with the orphans at our temple, ducking out of sight and deliberately showing herself just to tease them. I never imagined she'd do it to me. From Hestia's point of view I was probably no different from a child, but it still stung my pride.
"Ahem! In any case, they say we might not get an audience today, so it would be wise to secure lodging ahead of time. Fortunately I know one of the soldiers — if it turns out we can't meet him, I plan to go that way. What do you think, Lady Hestia?"
"I don't think it'll come to that."
"Why not?"
Still half-hidden behind the pillar, she smiled at me with narrowed, foxlike eyes and contradicted me outright. I wondered what possible grounds she had for saying that — but it turned out she was a woman who knew how to lift someone up, just as I did, and she said something unexpected.
"Because you've been scattering goodwill everywhere you go for so long. If Jason truly knows how to judge a person, he won't dare slight you."
Would he, really?
It hadn't been long since I'd made the worst mistake of my life in this body.
Would a hero like Jason still treat someone like me with respect?
"Have you lost your confidence?"
"A little… I may have lost it, yes… I know he isn't the sort of man who'd cast me aside, but no matter what I think, self-deprecating thoughts keep rising up…"
"Then this will be the perfect chance to pull yourself together."
The moment Hestia finished speaking, a new soldier appeared behind the one who'd been rattling off the king's schedule, whispered something in his ear, and passed along a message. Hestia and I waited at the palace entrance for their conversation to end — and sure enough, they both looked our way, pointed at me in particular with undisguised shock, and came running over.
"Lord Perseus?"
"Yes."
"Lord Jason summons you at once. He asked me to apologize on his behalf for keeping such an important guest waiting — so I bow my head."
"There's no need. I came without an appointment; you don't have to bow."
I hurriedly stopped the soldier, and from behind me Hestia's laughter slipped into my ears like a melody of pure happiness. The sly way she carried herself — as if to say see, I was right — only underscored that for all her gentleness, she was still a goddess.
"Come along. Your friend is waiting."
"Friend…?"
"Yes. Don't look so surprised at something so obvious. At the very least, that's clearly how he thinks of you."
Her tone was meant to comfort me as my confidence wavered, and I squared my shoulders, straightened my back, and followed the soldiers. Fortunately the sudden gloom lifted and my spirits returned to normal, and for a little while I filled the hollow left by her absence with Hestia instead.
Right. He isn't that kind of man.
Only then did I shake off those foolish thoughts and the depression that had come with them.