"She means her head. She wants you to bring them the Aegis of Athena," Galead told me, the color draining from his face as realization hit him.
Galead curled his hands into tight balls as he pushed away from the table to pace the floor.
"When Perseus used her still living head to save a woman, he gave it to Athena for safe keeping afterwards. Athena made a shield of it, her Aegis. Anyone not related to Medusa who handles the shield or looks on it will be turned to stone or struck dead. At least according to the legends," Isabel explained.
"Absolutely not! Thera will not help you," Galead declared from behind his clenched teeth. Anger, no it was rage, lurked barely contained behind those grinding teeth. A rage born in part by grief if I could read him well enough. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes as well as in the undertone to his voice. He did not see me now as he held a look that said he was drifting far and away. Galead walked a few steps deeper into the flickering light cast by the torches, staring into nothing but the bleak shadows.
"You are probably right, Galead. I doubt I, let alone you, could protect her from those that would want to see us fail. She might be able to hide, for awhile. Maybe even live out her days isolated and alone. Exiled. For that is the only way she would have a chance to be safe," Isabel said in a subtle sing-song voice. "The harpies at the very least might not be happy to see the curse broken. They might decide to end the threat she could pose no matter what she does."
Galead rounded on Isabel.
"Do not think you can use your charms on me so easily. Your voice is not the first Siren's Song I have encountered. Do you even know what you are asking her to do? Do you know what you are really doing?" he leaned over the table, ashen and tired from the outburst and a hidden weight I could not help him bear. Even Isabel looked abashed to have caused him pain. I wanted to say something, but I was so far behind what was really happening that nothing came to mind.
Just then Wayne's voice called down for him. Galead shouted back with a flat sounding promise to be right up. He looked at each of us before he left, saying,
"That accursed item carries suffering with it like snowflakes upon the wind. Destruction follows its use as if it were rainbows come after the storm, only dark and dripping in its wake. A shield that protects nothing. It has nearly faded from memory and that is where it should stay. Find another way if you want your curse broken. Leave the Aegis out of it. Leave Thera out of it."
He left in a fury, not waiting for me to follow. Isabel looked at me as I looked at her, his words a clear warning that even she found serious enough to give her pause. I broke the silence first.
"You healed my mother." I found it hard to say the words, but a relief when they were out.
"As much as I could," Isabel guardedly replied.
"Why?"
"I hoped it would earn me a bigger cell. I don't know if you've seen the other cells, but the one I've got now is a total upgrade," she said, mocking me until she realized I was going to demand an answer. "I didn't want another memory to regret."
I nodded, unable to talk through the stupid lump suddenly forming in my throat.
"I'm so sorry, Thera," she said, reaching her hand out to grip my arm. "I did not mean for anyone to get hurt. Truly, I didn't."
We said nothing further to each other even as I mounted the first step on the staircase, casting one more backwards look. Galead had left Isabel free of her cell, but not the cage the curse was forcing us to live in.
CURSEFELL
CHAPTER NINE
That night I had trouble putting aside all I had learned, and all that I still did not know. I opened the shutters over my
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