The Secret of the Emerald Sea by Heather Matthews

mind for hours and days afterward.
    Perhaps I need a challenge , she thought. My life is richer now with all these efforts to help the girl, and ... She blushed suddenly—she was sure her face was red now. And Neptune, as well .
    “I will try to find this village and your daughter without the help of...my father,” she told him finally. “Perhaps I may yet find an oracle to assist me, and if I am lucky, I can find Jane before the witch does. When the winter is done,” she promised, “you shall have your daughter safe and sound under the sea where she belongs.”
    * * * *
     
    Neptune glowed. He trusted Minerva with his very soul. He imagined a great celebration under the deep, of all his mermaids in their best ceremonial headdresses, and he, himself, in his special robe of silver-blue and his finest trident. Jane would wear the tiny crown that had been her mother’s once and smile up at him so lovingly.
    His heart felt close to bursting with joy and happiness as he envisioned his life with his daughter close by his side. All the loneliness he sometimes felt would instantly be erased and soothed into nothingness by his beautiful princess who was so like her mother.
    And, perhaps Minerva could come under the water, to bless their family.
    Would she go? he wondered. I would like to show her my kingdom during one of our wonderful celebrations, when it is all so beautiful. So different from this dry and arid world where the cursed oxygen rasps in one’s lungs .
    The underwater is warm, languid, beautiful ... full of wondrous colors and strange lights twinkling...the caves, the sea creatures, the hypnotic waves and rhythms of the sea, the softness of the sea bed against one’s skin. Could I even begin to make her understand the magic of this transcendent world?
    “I would like to try,” he murmured, smiling as he embraced the goddess and said goodbye. He proceeded to the shore where the waves would swallow him in their frothy, warm embrace and take him back to his home.
    * * * *
     
    Minerva also retreated to her own domain. It was a home in the sky, just northwest of the Sunlit Cloud, and conveniently close to the dwelling places of Jupiter and Venus. Some gods and goddesses preferred to go and live on Earth, but most of them were more comfortable in the celestial realm.
    On this day, Minerva surveyed her perfect home with a cool gaze. The columns, a perfect bone white, surrounded her in perfect symmetry. Pale marble floors, as shining as ice, seemed suddenly too clean, too cold.
    “It looks like a fortress of solitude,” she muttered. “No pictures, no flowers, no laughter.” She thought she might pick up some colorful things to decorate her space. “Perhaps a painting,” she murmured, “or a vase.”
    She would place Calla lilies and wildflowers from earthly meadows in bunches and breathe in their scent while she worked. It surprised her now that she had lived this way, alone in this barren, monochrome palace, for so long.
    She would consult Venus about livening up the place. Who better to help her decorate than the most decorative of all of the goddesses?
    Perhaps , she thought, a smile breaking across her features, Venus had stolen another masterpiece that I can borrow.

Chapter Twenty-Two
     
    After her carriage ride with the young Stirling, the Cupid watched Jane carefully. She had told him of their ride and of their shy conversations, her skin flushing with pleasure and embarrassment under the Cupid’s avid gaze. He gloried in the changes love brought to the girl’s eyes. He saw the way her face softened into dreamy wonder and anticipation when she daydreamed. He knew who she thought of at these times.
    On the island, he’d waited in vain for the hands of destiny to grasp him and push him forward. When the young girl had come, with her strange tales of supernatural worlds and sea creatures, it had all become clear. He had known from the start that Jane would be the first to feel his power, and he had