“Jason,” I said. “And this is Hilfa, who works with us too.”
Hilfa took his wine, and we escaped through the fountain room into the garden. It was cool out, but not bitingly chilly like the night before. Crocus was looming large in the corner, talking to Pytheas and Sokrates, who was waving his arms about. Over in the other corner, where there was a carved herm, Athene and Ikaros were deeply engaged in conversation with Neleus and a stranger, a beautiful woman with teased-up hair, dressed in a green and black stripy thing. She looked over at us, and I saw she had bright Saeli eyelids, and at once realized who she was.
Gla left the others and came towards us. As gla walked across the garden gla changed with each stride, growing taller, gla hair and clothes and female body fading away. As gla reached us gla had completely transformed and was entirely Jathery again: huge, naked, greenish-gold, with very distinct dark markings writhing across gla skin. Hilfa tried to hide behind me.
“Joy to you, Jathery,” I said, and tried to think how to follow this. “I see you’ve returned safely. And found Athene too.”
“I’d like to speak to Hilfa for a moment, if you’ll excuse us,” gla said.
“I don’t think Hilfa wants to speak to you,” I said, though it was difficult to refuse gla, especially as gla made gla request seem so reasonable. The best of their gods? I hated to think what the others must be like. “I think Hilfa’s terrified of you. I think all the Saeli are. How does a god of knowledge come to be so frightening to gla people?”
“Are you not afraid of Athene?” gla asked, gently.
I looked over at where Athene was standing listening to something Neleus was saying, and found courage in the sight of her, so like her statues. “A little awed, certainly. I’d be intimidated if she wanted to speak to me. I’m only a Silver. But I also love her. I would do the best I could.”
“And the Saeli also love me,” Jathery asserted. The markings on gla skin changed and shifted as gla spoke, making new patterns.
“You cheat us,” Hilfa said, from behind me, sounding panicked. “You take all and give nothing. We appease you and pray that you will pass us by.”
Sokrates, who was the only one facing us, noticed what was happening. He excused himself from his conversation and came over and heard Hilfa’s last words as he joined us. “Are you discussing what makes the Saeli gods different from our gods?” he asked. “I’m also interested to know the answer.”
“It is culture, and patterns of worship,” Jathery said, dismissively. “There are gods on Earth that are more like me than like your gods. And there are other Saeli pantheons that are perhaps more like yours. It is style.”
“But you’re the same kind of being as our gods?” Sokrates persisted.
“Yes.”
“And even among aliens that are much stranger than humans and Saeli, like the Amarathi, the gods are all the same kind of being?”
“Yes.” Jathery looked around, then resigned glaself to answering Sokrates. “Though the Amarathi evolved as tree-like beings whose language was chemical, they have souls like yours, and their gods are like all gods. We are all children of the One Parent.”
“Fascinating,” Sokrates said. “And do the Saeli gods take care of their worshippers?”
“Yes,” Jathery said, flatly, like Hilfa.
“And you’re in charge of wisdom, is that right?” Sokrates asked. I took a cautious step away, drawing Hilfa with me. “What responsibilities do you have?”
“We each have responsibility in certain spheres.” I took another step back.
“But I believe they are divided up differently among your pantheon? How did that come to be?” Sokrates looked politely interested. Jathery’s face was unreadable.
“We each have five things,” Jathery said.
“And is five a significant number among the Saeli?”
“Yes.”
“And how is it that you are the only Saeli god to have left the Saeli planet?” Sokrates asked, persistently.
Hilfa and I retreated back into the fountain room. The black and white tiles and shining silver faucets seemed very welcoming. I swallowed all the wine in my cup in one gulp and set it down on the window sill. “Sokrates is wonderful,” I said.
“It is only a respite,” Hilfa said. His markings had faded to almost nothing and he was rocking a little.
“Jathery is incredibly intimidating even when gla doesn’t do anything but stand there, and gla voice is very persuasive. But you said yesterday that gla wasn’t too bad. What specifically are you afraid of?” I asked.
“That gla will get me alone and unmake me. Gla is one of my parents, Arete said. I think gla could do that, now that gla and Athene don’t need me as an anchor anymore,” Hilfa said, looking down so I could not see his eyes but only the turquoise and orange of the lids. “I thought now that my purpose was fulfilled I could be free. But Jathery put power into me, and now I think instead gla will take gla part of me back, to be stronger.”
“Kill you?”
“Worse than kill me. I do not want to cease to be me, but I could bear it. I am afraid gla will unbind my soul. Gla and Athene made my soul. Gla could take back what gla put into it.” He rocked once and then back, then looked up at me. “Don’t leave me alone with gla, Jason. Please.”
“No way. But I don’t think gods can make souls. I think it was your body Arete was talking about. And she said you’re part human too, remember, and belong to Plato. You’re a child of gods. You must have a heroic soul.” I put my hand on his shoulder.
“Arete did say I belong here,” Hilfa said, tentatively, as if testing a proposition.
Marsilia stepped from the main room into the fountain room as he was saying this. “Of course you do, Hilfa. I’ve been enquiring, and Dad says if you enroll in classes now, you can take oath in the spring.”
“I want to take oath right now. Then I’d belong to Plato and not to Jathery. You’re consul. You could hear it.” There was a note of panic in his tone.
Marsilia shook her head. “It has to be done at the altar before the archons. And it can’t be rushed, because you have to be classified, and that takes a lot of thought.”
“Pah. I am Silver, like Jason and Dion. I work on the boat.”
“But I work on the boat too, and perhaps you should be Gold like me,” Marsilia said. “It’s not easy or quick, making that decision for anyone. And why are you in a hurry anyway?”
As she asked, Jathery came into the fountain room, with Sokrates in hot pursuit.
“I want to speak to Hilfa, before I answer any more of your enquiries,” gla said. Sokrates shrugged and caught my eye, as if to say he had done his best.
“Then speak to him,” I said. “He’s here.”
“We need to speak alone.” Again, gla made it seem like such a reasonable request that it was hard to protest.
I went on and protested anyway. “Why? You can have privacy simply by speaking in Saeli. Arete’s the only other person here who speaks it and she’s in there.” I gestured to the main room of the sleeping house, where the sounds of the party could be heard.
“It’s a Saeli matter, you wouldn’t understand,” Jathery said.
“Please explain it to us,” Sokrates said, in his usual tone of enthusiastic enquiry.
Hilfa was rocking again. I put a hand on his arm. “I’m Hilfa’s friend, and I’m not leaving him unless he wants me to.”
Then as Jathery opened gla mouth to respond, Marsilia jumped in. “We’re his pod,” she said. “Surely there isn’t anything you need to say to a Sael without their podmembers. Indeed, by our law any Sael can specifically request the presence of podmembers even when accused of a crime.”
Sokrates opened his mouth, clearly dying to ask something about this, but managed for once to keep quiet.
“All podmembers,” Jathery said. Gla had his eyes fixed on Marsilia’s as if they were children in a staring contest. “You are only three.”
“Get Thetis,” Marsilia said to me, without looking away from Jathery’s gaze.