Shimmering Splendor by Roberta Gellis

Author:Roberta Gellis [Gellis, Roberta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Greek Myth Fantasy
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1995-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Psyche had made no protest. She had been glad enough for a reason to sit down, even on the altar, for her head was swimming and she feared she would faint. Perhaps she did sink into a kind of unconsciousness, for she was hardly aware of the chanting, the burning of some offerings, the pouring out of others, the anointing of her cheeks, forehead, and breast with unguents. She remembered saying, as she was helped down from the altar, that her weakness was owing to having come so far in so strange a way. That was the last thing she remembered until she opened her eyes and saw her mother sitting beside her bed.

“Teras,” she cried, pushing herself up, terrified for a moment that she had created her life with him in a beautiful dream to ease her fear and that she had wakened from that dream into the time before her sacrifice.

“Who is Teras?” Beryllia asked.

“My monster,” Psyche replied, anxiously examining her mother’s face. “The monster I was to marry and did marry.”

“You call for him?”

Psyche breathed a sigh of relief. Beryllia’s frightened question assured her that her mother had gone with her to Mount Pelion and left her there. She had not dreamed it. She had been sacrificed—and had returned.

“He is the dearest monster in the world,” she said, smiling. “The gentlest and cleverest being I have ever met, so good to me, so kind. My life would be a perfect dream if only—”

“Is he very horrible to look upon?” Beryllia’s voice trembled.

“I have no idea,” Psyche replied, still smiling. “I have never seen him. To spare me he wears a cloud of darkness. But his looks, whatever they are, are only a seeming. When I touch him, I feel an ordinary man, tall and strong. He—”

She stopped. She did not wish to tell her mother that Teras had not been born deformed but had committed some unnamed crime for which he had been punished by an illusion of horrible malformation. Psyche no longer believed her wonderful Teras had done evil, even though he assured her he had and that his punishment had been just. Nor did she wish to admit that Teras’s illusion of deformity had been cast on him owing to some offense taken by the selfish, greedy beings that dwelt in Olympus. However mean and petty and un-godlike, the Olympians were very powerful mages. To think of them as she now did would be very dangerous for her people, who might be led to scant their sacrifices or speak or act in other ways that would bring down Olympian wrath.

“You were forced?” Beryllia sobbed, shuddering.

“I was not forced, mother. After I came to know him, I went willingly to him.” She had been speaking seriously, but suddenly her eyes danced. “And it was the best thing I ever did. He has taught me to make love in the most delightful ways. Mother—”

Beryllia’s breath drew in sharply. “You are ensorcelled, Psyche. Do you not remember

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.