Chapter 29 - Psyche

By the time I fell out of bed the next "morning," the staff had already moved on to serving lunch. After grabbing a tuna pita, I met Alexa in the gardens. We were sprawled across the lawn and she was telling me about the time brother number seventeen hid a dead fish in sister twelve's dresser, when I heard wailing from far in the distance.

"You know, that pita looks really good. Come inside with me so I can get one?" Alexa asked in a hurried rush as she grabbed at my hand.

I didn't budge. "What's that noise?"

"It's probably a wounded animal. We ought to get inside in case it's dangerous."

I ignored her and moved closer to the sounds. And then I heard the wails more clearly. "My sister! Poor, Psyche. Poor, poor, Psyche!"

Chara. She must've come back from Mycenae to mourn me at the cliff. The relief of knowing she didn't hate me after all did little to diminish the
heartache and guilt shredding my stomach. Here I was, happily oblivious in my new little world, and my family thought I was dead. I was the worst sister ever.

Alexa pulled harder on my arm. "Hurry, Psyche. Get inside the palace. Before it's too late.” Her voice was urgent, pleading, frightened.

Still, I managed to shake my arm loose from her grasp. "What are you talking about? That's my sister calling for me. There's no danger."

Scurrying toward my sister's laments, I followed her voice back to the cliff where my parents had been forced to leave me. Alexa followed in my wake, desperately pleading with me to turn back. But I couldn't stop. Chara was up there. She was so far above, and I was standing down where the West Wind had deposited me, hidden by a fresh forest of limbs and leaves.

"Chara!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. A heavy breeze rustled my dress and played my cry back to my own ears like an echo. I called out for her again and again, but each time the wind dampened my voice and kept it from rising.

"Favonius, stop that!" I screamed at him. "I need my sister to hear me... You let her hear me!" Tears and panic bit at me. I had to let her know Aris hadn't harmed me.

And then the wind was gone, as if it had never been whipping around my ankles in the first place. I called again to my sister and this time she stopped wailing.

"Chara! It's Psyche."

"Psyche! Is that you?" Chara's voice call back to me.

Alexa put her hand on my arm again. "Psyche, we need to go back. You don't know what you're doing. This is a mistake."

I ignored her.

"Yes!" I answered Chara. "I'm fine. Don't worry anymore, okay?"

"How can I get down there?" she called.

"Favonius," I commanded, "please bring my sister down here to me."

Stillness.

I waited for Chara to appear in the clearing, but she didn't arrive. The vind made no indication it had heard me.

"Psyche? Are you still there?" Chara called to me again.

"Yes! I'm trying to get you down here."

"Just tell me how. Where's the path."

"There is no path," I shouted back. "You need the West Wind's help. Favonius," I hollered again, searching the sky around me for any sign of a breeze, "bring me my sister!"

Everything remained still, but the Wind's booming voice shook me rom inside as it answered. "Aris forbids it."

"He can't!" I sobbed. "He has to let her come see me. To at least see for herself that I'm still alive."

The Wind didn't answer. He'd given me my answer and moved on.

I racked my brain for what to do as my sister continued calling down to ne. "I didn't understand. Did you say the path was to the west?"

"Can you come back tomorrow?" I shouted up to her.

"I don't want to leave you," Chara called down.

"I'm fine. I promise. Tell Mother and Father I'm fine."

"Father's sick," she called. "Can you come home?"

"I don't think -- I don't know." I could barely yell anymore over my tears. Father was fine when I'd left five days ago. What could've gone wrong already? "Come back tomorrow. You can visit. Please."

"Fine," she answered. "I'll be back tomorrow."

I took my time wandering back to the palace, barely hearing Alexa shuffling her feet behind me over my own sniffles. I had a problem. I'd promised my sister a visit even though I knew Aris had already forbidden it.

But why had he said no before I even asked?

Chapter end