Chapter 47 - Psyche

Aphrodite led me down to a river on the west side of her estate. My feet skidded on rocks and pebbles as I struggled to keep up with her stride. When we reachedthe river’s edge, my toes squished into the mud, making my sandals so slippery that I fell back onto my butt.

“I still like my idea of sorting grain,” Ceres added. “She’s not a weaver, but nothing says ‘domestic’ like success in the kitchen.”

Aphrodite looked down at me as I scrambled back to my feet. “No, this will do.” Then she set about explaining that all I had to do was cross the river and sheer a clumpof golden wool from each of her sheep before noon.

I blinked and nodded as she explained, trying to showhow intently I was listening, but focusing more on what she wasn’t saying. Something about the test seemedsurreally easy — easier than sorting grain — and that worried me. Were the sheep impossibly fast? Maybe they secretly had wings like Pegasus and would fly away? I had to be missing something.

“Understand?” Aphrodite asked.

When I nodded, she smiled grimly. “Good. Then I hope to see you back here before noon.”

Aphrodite pranced back up to her palace, gossamer white gown and blonde curls flowing like enchantedwaves in her wake. Ceres gave my shoulders a quick squeeze before following her.

Nope - definitely not a good sign.

Once they were gone, I turned back to my task. Nowthat I looked at the sheep closely, maybe this wouldn’t be so easy after all. The animals weren’t so much fluffy, timid sheep, as massive, snorting rams. Their goldenfleece sparkled only half as bright as the solid gold, spiraling horns that rose dangerously from their foreheads. Beady black eyes seemed alive with the heat of simmering coals and all of them were locked on me.

Gulping, I slipped the knife out from my belt. I moved slowly, cautiously, wading step by careful step toward the bank on the meadow-side of the river. Even though it was still early, my palms were already starting to sweat. The knife passed to my left hand as I tried to dry off my right, but my dress was muddy from my littletumble. I leaned forward ever so slightly, touching the soft green grass of the meadow, drying my damp hand.

Never did I take my eyes off of the biggest ram. As luck would have it, he was the closest to the river. And as I approached, he lowered his head, bobbing his horns inwarning. When I touched his meadow, he stomped his massive hoof, sending a divot of grass flying behind himwith no more effort than if he’d been pawing sand.

“Easy, boy,” I said. “It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Even if he could understand me, my knife probably spoke louder than my words.

Sliding my right foot onto the bank, I slowly rose out of the water. I hadn’t even straightened my knee when I was hit and launched back into the river. Water rushed into my mouth and nose as I gasped. For a moment, I thought I might drown in a measly meter of water. When I forced my head above water, choking and sputtering, I expected to see the ram standing on the bank, preparingto wade in and strike again. But he hadn’t moved. He was still stomping his little patch of earth into oblivion.

I pushed a soggy clump of hair from my mouth. “What the…”

And then familiar arms wrapped around my shoulders, hugging me in a tight embrace. “Don’t hug meback,” Alexa said. “She may be watching.”

“If she’s watching, how would she explain me flying into the river just now?” I asked. But I really didn’t care. I was just relieved to have my friend back, whether it caused me trouble with Aphrodite later or not.

“Did you see yourself sliding around on the bank earlier?” Alexa giggled. “It’s not much of a stretch for her to think you did that all on your own.”

“Maybe so.” I pursed my lips together. “Mind telling me why I needed to crash in the first place?”

“Um, because the sheep would’ve killed you, silly. You can’t just go walking up there and whacking off pieces of their wool now.” I felt Alexa sit down in the water beside me as I looked at the shimmering beasts.

“But I have to collect their fleece before noon. I can’t —” A sob caught in the back of my throat. “I can’t not do this.”

I pushed myself up to stand but Alexa tugged my armout from under me. Without support, I toppled back over with a splash.

“Uh oh, looks like you’ve sprained your ankle,” Alexa told me. “You better scoot back to the shore and rest for awhile.”

I didn’t understand, but I didn’t argue either. Like an injured crab, I pulled myself backward through the water with my hands and pushed with my left foot, making ashow of not using my right foot at all.

“Okay, now what?” I asked Alexa as I scooted my dripping self out of the water.

“Now, you sit,” she answered. “Look at your foot, roll it around, but don’t stand on it. You might as well dry
out in the sun while you wait.”

“Wait for what?” I pounded my fists on the shore as I glared at the big ram, who’d gone back to chewing grass.“I don’t have time to sit around here. It’ll take me forever to get wool from all of those sheep.”

“Do you have time to die?”

“No.” My lower lip jut out in a very immature pout.

“Then just trust me, will you? The rams nap late inthe morning. They’ll all go lay in the shade under that oak on the far side of the meadow. Zeus could drop a thunderbolt on top of them and they wouldn’t wake up. You’ll be able to collect all the wool then with no problemand be on your way… long before noon.”

Instinctively, I reached to hug her. She batted me away with an invisible hand.

“Stop! You’ll give us away.”

“Oh, right.” My hands fell back to my sides. “You’re still the best, even if I can’t hug you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Alexa pulled herself up beside me on the bank and stretched out on the warm grass. I pluckedblade after blade of grass, tearing them into little pieces and pitching them into the river.

“How do they do it? The rams, I mean. They look strong, but strong enough to kill?” It wasn’t the questionI really wanted to ask, but it broke the uncomfortablesilence.

“Well, if the flames they shoot from their nostrils don’t burn you up, they’d run you through with their horns. Maybe both. I guess they have to be vicious or everyonewould be running around with golden clothes.”

“She tried to kill me, then.” I peeled another blade of grass into strips. “I mean, Aphrodite sent me out to this
field to be burned and staked.”

Alexa rubbed my hand.

“I’m sure that wasn’t what she hoped would happen. It’s just, the tests given to demi-gods are never easy.” Her voice seemed to blend with the flow of the river andmy vision got watery as my eyes teared up. I still had so much to think about when it came to my family and every spark of a thought burned.

“Maybe I should just let him go,” I mumbled. “After everything that’s happened, everything I am, I don’t deserve him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Knowing who your real dad is doesn’t change a thing about who you are.” Alexa smoothed a strand of hair back from my face. “I told youthe first time we met that you deserved everything in that palace — and that includes him.”

Rubbing at the bridge of my nose, I pushed away any tears that had managed to escape. “I just don’t know if I
can do this right now.”

“You’re tired, is all.” Alexa squeezed my shoulder. “See, the sheep are starting to lie down. They’ll benapping in no time. You can do this.”

We sat in silence as the dozen golden sheep meandered to the oak and lumbered down to rest. Oneby one, their horns tore into the ground as their heavy heads fell over in sleep. As they dreamed, their hooves stuck at the dirt and sparks jumped from their nostrils.

As I watched, Alexa squeezed my hand. “You should go now,” she said. “They sleep soundest when they’ve first dozed off.”

My knife was still stuck in the bank from when Alexahad knocked me off my feet and it’d gone flying. I plodded over to it and pulled it loose from the mud. After washing it in the river and drying it on my dress, I inspected the blade to make sure it was perfectly clean. “Wouldn’t want to get mud on Aphrodite’s golden wool,” I muttered under my breath.

Alexa laughed. “Don’t forget to limp. You sprained your ankle, remember?”

“Whatever. Aphrodite can think whatever she wants about me falling into the river. I’m not going to fake a limp around flesh-eating sheep.”

Sloshing out of the river, I climbed onto the far bank. At first I took careful steps, trying not to let the grass crunch under my feet. But the closer I got to the rams, the more I just wanted to be done with the task and get out of the meadow. When I was within a few meters of the animals, I started running until I got to the farthest one away. My plan was to start far and work my way closer to safety.

I knelt by the back of the first ram to stay out of theway of his feet and flames. Of course, that put me withineasy striking distance of his massive horns he if threw his head back for some reason.

For a moment, the horns paralyzed me. With fear or with awe, I don’t know. They were much more intricate and deadly than I’d seen from across the river. Instead of being perfect spirals, the horns came to a razor-sharppoint along the top ridge. And the tips looked sharper than any needle I’d ever seen. Yet the horns were still beautiful, laced with delicate carvings that corkscrewedaround in intricate patterns.

What are you doing? If you don’t hurry up, you might get to feel the horns and not just look at them.

I grabbed a fistful of fleece from the back of the ramand started slicing. Trying not to tug on his skin, I sawed the knife as fast as I could until the clump fell loose inmy hand. The soft, glittery fleece squished between my fingers.

One down, eleven to go. I duck-walked to the neighboring sheep and started sheering away a clump of his fleece. With each patch I removed, I got moreconfident. Sawing faster, tugging harder, just trying to get the task over and done with.

But as Alexa had warned me, demi-gods don’t get easy tasks; things only went that smoothly until theeleventh sheep. My left hand was about overflowing withpuffs of golden wool by then, and I lost my grip on thetuft of fleece from the ram I was working on. I was crouched down on my toes and leaning over the sheep, so that when I lost my grip, I fell face-first across his belly.

Now Alexa may have thought that nothing could wakethe sheep while they napped, but she was wrong.

The ram leapt to his hooves, leaving my face to fall into the dirt as my feet were tossed up in the air. The knife slipped from my hands and the clumps of wool scattered. I rolled over and found the ram’s face nearly pressed into mine. His black eyes glinted with rage andhe snorted sparks that singed the ends of my hair.

“Easy now,” I whispered. “I don’t want to hurt you.” I wiggled my right hand carefully through the grass until I felt the knife handle on my fingertips.

“Ngeeeeeeeee.” The ram bellowed and raised up on his hind legs. I grabbed the knife and rolled as the ramcame down and struck the ground with a thunderingblow. While he shook his head and refocused on me, I managed to get up onto one knee and plant my other foot on the ground.

The ram charged, snorting blasts of fire as he loweredhis head and aimed for mine. Just before he reached me, I fell to the side to dodge his blow. As he passed, I plunged the knife as deep as I could into his side. He wrenched it from my hand as he barreled past, leavingme defenseless.

I scrambled to my feet as the ram skidded to a stopand turned to face me. Blood like crimson dye spilledacross his golden wool where the knife jutted out fromhis side. He pawed the ground impatiently while lookingfirst at his injured side and then at me.

Again, he raised onto his hind legs and bellowed. I was worried he’d figured out my duck and roll trick, but I knew I couldn’t outrun him either. With no time to think, I ran at the sheep and jumped as high into the air as I could when he charged, hoping I’d at least clear therazor-like horns. Because his head was down in his charge, I did manage to make it over the horns, but my feet and legs came down awkwardly.

My left leg slid down the ram’s side and my right leg was caught up underneath me, pinned between his back and my body. I toppled forward and grabbed whatever I could get hold of to keep from crashing into the ground. With one hand, I caught his tail. With the other, a chunk of wool. As I fell, the wool popped off in my hand and I spun backward off the sheep, holding on by only his tail. The sudden shift in my weight knocked the ram off balance and he crashed sideways into the ground, drivingthe knife deeper into his side.

I hurried back to my feet, ignoring the trails of bloodoozing down my own legs after that fall. My heart thundered as I tried to think of a new way to dodge his next charge. Jumping hadn’t been my best idea. As I slowly backed away from the ram, I realized he wasn’t getting up.

His side heaved with each labored breath. The ramexpelled a final, fiery breath and then was dead.

Two thoughts crossed my mind at the same time. I did it! I’m going to finish this task. and Crap! I just killedone of Aphrodite’ s golden rams. No matter how muchsparkly wool I hauled in, she would not be happy about this.

The clump of wool from the dead sheep was still clutched in my grasp. Well, that makes eleven. I scurriedback to the place where I’d spilled the other ten balls andquickly gathered them back up. Praise the gods, none of the other rams had woken up during my fight. Just onemore sheep to sheer and I’d be done.

When I turned to go to the last sheep, I realized I didn’t have my knife anymore. How was I supposed to cut off a lump of wool with no knife?
Running back over to the dead ram, I tried to roll himover, but he was too heavy. I even tried sliding my free hand under his carcass to get my knife back, but it was no use. I couldn’t wiggle my fingers enough under his massive weight to even find the handle. For all I knew, it was lodged so deeply in his side, I wouldn’t be able to get it out anyway.

Frantic, I looked around for some tool. I hadn’t comethis far, shorn eleven sheep and battled to the death with a fire-breathing golden ram to fail now. I toed some rocks by my feet, but none of them had a sharp enoughedge to cut through fleece.

As I stared at the twelfth sheep, another ram rolledover and butted his head right into its flank. The horns! I could use the horns as a knife. Tip-toeing around the two animals, I reached down and gently grabbed a tuft of wool right under the horns.

Please just don’t let them wake up. I sawed one ram’s wool off using the other’s horns. If the other ram so much as raised his head, I’d lose my hand. But the hornwas so amazingly sharp, it severed the wool like a hot knife cuts through butter.

With twelve tufts of golden wool in my hands, and thesun starting to sink almost directly overhead, I sprintedtoward the river. “I did it!” I yelled to Alexa as I crashed into the water, splashing and tripping with every frenzied step. I scrambled up the bank, panting and dripping wet.“Did you hear me? I did it!”

But it wasn’t Alexa who answered me.

“Of course I heard you,” Aphrodite answered. She’d materialized out of nowhere and stood towering over meas I stooped to catch my breath. She unraveled the ball of fleece from my fingers and inspected it.

“You got all twelve, I see.”

“Yes,” I panted, still trying to catch my breath. Even through gasps though, I noticed I was smiling andAphrodite was not.

“Is that your blood I smell, or have you injured oneof my rams?”

I lifted the hem of my tattered dress and looked downat my legs. Angry red scratches and dried blood still linedmy shins, but I’d stopped bleeding. That was probably more than I could say for the sheep.

Dropping my dress, I stood and looked up at Aphrodite. “Probably a little of both. One of your sheepattacked me.”

“Then the only way you could be here is if you killedit.”

My shoulders slumped. This didn’t sound like it was going to be good.

“I’m sorry, Psyche. But your task was to sheer the sheep without harming them.”

Um, how’d I miss that instruction? Maybe while I was focusing on trying to look like I was paying attention but not actually hearing a word she was saying.

“Since you bested the ram, though, which is morethan I expected, I won’t call off our deal just yet. I’ll giveyou another task.”

I wasn’t sure whether I should be grateful or pissed. I’d had a hand-to-hand duel with a killer sheep andcollected twelve tufts of wool, just like she asked, but I wasn’t any closer to seeing Eros.

Then again, I wasn’t any closer to being turned over to Ares either. I guessed I had to take what I could get for now.

Chapter end