They Told Me to Give Up the Throne, So I Made Another One
"I have no intention of abandoning the throne of Argos."
Beneath the noon sun, the plaza before the Grand Temple held its breath.
Hearing Hera's declaration, the corner of Kalaon's mouth twisted. It was an arrogant smile, the smile of a man already certain of his victory.
Below the dais, priests and nobles, soldiers and citizens packed the square so tightly there was barely room to stand.
Beside me stood Kalaon with both hands bound, and behind him Hermes swallowed a yawn as he kept watch.
At Hera's side sat Argos, reborn as a peacock, the hundred eyes set in his tail surveying the entire plaza.
And opposite Hera stood Io, restored to human form.
Once Kalaon's curse had been broken, Hera reclaimed the vow that had been stolen from her, and I returned the name and human shape I had briefly hidden for Io.
Only the black mark remaining beneath her collarbone refused to fade.
Hera continued.
"Nor will I refuse Zeus's courtship."
A beat late, the plaza stirred.
Kalaon's smile froze.
"If you choose marriage, you must step down from the throne of Argos."
"Who decided that?"
"A queen belongs to her husband's country. That is the law."
Hera's eyes narrowed.
"I will not stop being a queen simply to become someone's wife."
Her gaze found me.
"And I will not abandon the person I want simply to keep my throne."
The person I want.
That short phrase alone made my heart beat harder for no good reason.
Kalaon raised his voice toward me.
"Can you truly bear Hera to the end if she refuses to surrender her throne?"
"I never asked her to surrender it in the first place."
"Argos's army and its temple will not become yours either."
"Doesn't matter."
This time Hera asked me herself.
"If you can claim neither my throne, nor my army, nor my temple — what is left for you?"
I looked straight at her.
"You."
Kalaon sneered.
"Is there anything words cannot claim?"
"Which is why I'll prove it with a throne, not words."
I removed my crown.
Low thunder rolled across the plaza.
The moment I set the crown upon the dais, the clouds that filled the sky began to descend. From within them, the divine throne of Olympus revealed itself.
The single seat I had occupied alone since the end of the Titanomachy.
I did not ascend it.
Instead I stepped down from the dais and dropped to one knee before Hera.
Kalaon shouted.
"The King of the Gods means to abandon his throne!"
"No."
I snapped my fingers.
Lightning struck the empty space beside the divine throne.
CRACK!
Golden clouds and thunderbolts tangled together.
And a second seat, equal in height to the first, took form.
"I'm making one more."
The crowd's mouths fell open.
I declared it so that every ear could hear.
"Even after marriage, Hera remains the Queen of Argos."
Kalaon's eyes wavered.
"The laws of Argos, its army, its temple, and its wealth shall not be absorbed into Olympus. Nor will I issue any command upon this land without Hera's leave."
Hera looked down at me in silence.
"On Olympus as well, Hera's word does not sit beneath mine. She is neither my proxy nor a queen who speaks by borrowing my name."
I pointed to the second throne.
"She is another sovereign who commands in her own name."
Kalaon shrieked.
"If two masters exist, Olympus will split!"
Only then did I turn to look at him.
"My father thought the same."
Cronus had swallowed his own blood kin to monopolize the throne. He had feared that the moment power was divided, his age would end.
"If a king is only a king when he clutches the throne alone, then I am no different from Cronus."
The plaza went quiet.
"I did not drive my father out so that I could hog the seat by myself."
I looked at Hera again.
"And there is only one place for my queen."
Hera's fingers brushed the cuckoo feather bound to the tip of her scepter.
"My fidelity and my marriage vow are offered to Hera alone."
A low murmur of awe rippled through the crowd.
"If I break that vow, Hera can cast me aside without losing a thing — keeping the throne of Argos and every authority she gains on Olympus."
Kalaon thrashed.
"Lord Zeus!"
"If marriage is a shackle that cages Hera, I will not take it."
I looked up at the second throne.
"And the seat at my side will remain empty until you choose to sit in it."
Kalaon pointed at Io one last time.
"The fact that you brought another woman into your bedchamber from the very day of your proposal does not change!"
Io stepped forward.
She showed the crowd the black mark still remaining beneath her collarbone.
"I was the one who first asked the King of the Gods for protection."
Kalaon's furious cry burst out.
"That woman has already been beguiled!"
Hera's single line cut through the plaza.
"Do not speak for Io's mouth."
I found myself smiling without meaning to.
The words I had thrown at Kalaon yesterday, Hera was returning to him today.
Io looked straight at Kalaon.
"The one who drove my body forward as a tool to prove Zeus's lust was you."
The peacock unfurled his tail.
A hundred eyes opened as one.
"I will testify as well."
Argos's voice rang across the plaza.
"Lord Zeus could have destroyed me, yet he did not."
A hundred eyes turned toward my broken shoulder.
"To keep Lady Hera's request, he blocked my attack with his own body."
The crowd's gaze, once fixed on Kalaon, went cold.
Hera declared.
"I strip Kalaon of the office of High Priest and of the right to use my name."
Priests rushed forward and roughly tore away the ornaments that symbolized his authority.
"His crimes will be judged in a public trial under the laws of Argos."
Kalaon asked blankly.
"You mean you will not execute me?"
Hera answered without warmth.
"Your guilt will be weighed by the law of Argos, not by my anger."
Kalaon was dragged away.
Now every eye turned to Hera.
She looked up at the two thrones, then came to stand before me.
"I will not change the condition of one month."
"Figured as much."
"You are still on trial."
"I'm the King of the Gods, you know."
"Right now you are a suitor."
I had no rebuttal.
Hera brushed the damp feather at the tip of her scepter with her fingertips.
"But I have confirmed that you do not intend to take my throne from me."
Her gray-blue eyes held me squarely.
"I formally accept Zeus's courtship."
Cheers shook the plaza.
I rose slowly to my feet.
Then Hera picked up the crown I had set upon the dais.
"You said you would show me whether you could still choose me even after removing your crown."
"I did."
Her gaze dropped to the bandage wound around my shoulder.
"Yesterday you chose one person's life over a throne."
"Because it was someone you hold dear."
Hera took one step closer.
I shut my mouth.
Her lips touched mine.
It was brief.
But it was unmistakable.
The plaza's cheers cut off in an instant.
Hera drew back as if nothing had happened.
"Payment for sparing Argos."
My wits returned a beat late.
"For a payment, that was a little short."
The Queen's Scepter struck my shin.
Thwack—!
"Do not be greedy."
"…Yeah. Though at this rate I might have to abandon the shin."
Even clutching my aching leg, I couldn't stop smiling.
"In a month, how many more of those do I get?"
"Shall I cancel what just happened?"
"No, ma'am."
Formal speech leapt out of me on its own.
Off to one side of the plaza, the Anonymous Bard was frantically scratching down a new verse.
"Blinded by jealousy, Hera at last
stole even the womanizer's lips."
I looked down at the parchment.
"Why do you write even the good scenes like that?"
"People only listen if there's jealousy in it."
"I'm the one who received it."
"A narrative in which the King of the Gods is the one who yields is far more stimulating."
This was a fight even lightning would struggle to win.
Even after leaving the plaza, the sensation lingered on my lips.
"So the month starts today?"
"It started yesterday."
"Then I gained a day."
We had walked maybe twelve paces.
Whoosh—!
A single silver spear split the sky and fell.
BOOM!
The spearhead punched through the stone floor in front of us.
Hera raised the Queen's Scepter, and I reflexively stepped in front of her.
But Hermes's reaction beside us was strange.
The same guy who had been slouching a moment ago now straightened his back and even smoothed his clothes.
"What's with you?"
"Someone far more troublesome than the people I usually have to apologize to has just descended."
Parting the clouds, a goddess descended. Armed in silver armor and a helmet, she held a shield in one hand and, in the other, a spear identical to the one just thrown.
The goddess of wisdom and war.
My first daughter, Athena.
Hermes bowed his head.
"Elder Sister."
Instead of answering, Athena tossed an old bronze tablet at my feet.
Clank.
It was the wartime contract Metis and I had divided between us before the Titanomachy began. At the very bottom of the bronze plate, an unerased sentence was engraved.
"Zeus and Metis enter this contract as spouses who unite kingship and wisdom."
Athena looked at me coldly.
"Father."
"Yeah."
"You intend to take a new queen without first settling the force of your first marriage vow?"
Hera's gaze slowly descended to the bronze tablet.
I opened my mouth in a hurry.
"That wasn't a marriage — it was a wartime alliance."
A familiar woman's voice drifted from behind Athena.
"That is what you chose to believe, I suppose."
From between the clouds, Metis revealed herself.
The goddess recorded as Zeus's first wife.
Metis looked at me and smiled with easy leisure.
"The contract, however, says spouse."
Hera's Queen's Scepter slowly turned toward me.
"Explain yourself."
It had been barely twelve steps since that first kiss.
Ah, for real… damn it.