Daughter of Wine

Piper

I don't plan to shoot blueberry muffins. The cornucopia must sense my distress and thinks me and my visitors could use some warm baked goods.

Half a dozen steamy muffins fly from the horn of plenty like buckshot. It isn't the most effective opening attack. 

Khione simply leans to one side. Most of the muffins sail past her over the rail. Her brothers, the Boreads, each catch one and begin to eat.

"Muffins," says the bigger one. Cal, I remember: short for Calais. He's dressed exactly as he had been in Quebec. In cleats, sweatpants, and a red hockey jersey—and had two black eyes and several broken teeth. "Muffins are good."

"Ah, merci," says the scrawny brother—Zethes, I recall—who stands on the catapult platform, his purple wings spread. His white hair is still feathered in a horrible Disco Age mullet. The collar of his silk shirt sticks out over his breastplate. His chartreuse polyester pants are grotesquely tight, and his acne has only gotten worse. Despite that, he wriggles his eyebrows and smiles like he's the demigod of pickup artists.

"I knew the pretty girl would miss me." He speaks Québécois French, which I translate effortlessly. Thanks to my mom, Aphrodite, the language of love is hardwired into me, though I don't want to speak it with Zethes.

"What are you doing?" I demand. Then, in charmspeak: "Let my friends go."

Zethes blinks. "We should let your friends go."

"Yes," Cal agrees.

"No, you idiots!" Khione snaps. "She is charmspeaking. Use your wits."

"Wits..." Cal frowns as if he isn't sure what wits are. "Muffins are better." He stuffs the whole thing in his mouth and begins to chew.

Zethes picks a blueberry off the top of his hand and nibbles it delicately. "Ah, my beautiful Piper...so long I have waited to see you again. Sadly, my sister is right. We cannot let your friends go. In fact we must take them to Quebec, where they shall be laughed at eternally. I am so sorry, but these are our orders."

"Orders...?"

Ever since last winter, I have expected Khione to show her frosty face sooner or later. When we defeated her at the Wolf House in Sonoma, the snow goddess had vowed revenge. But why are Zethes and Cal here? In Quebec, the Boreads seemed almost friendly—at least compared to their subzero sister.

"Guys, listen," I say. "Your sister disobeyed Boreas. She's working with the giants, trying to raise Gaea. She's planning to take over your father's throne."

Khione laughs, soft and cold. "Dear Piper McLean. You would manipulate my weak-willed brothers with your charms, like a true daughter of the love goddess. Such a skillful liar."

"Liar?" I cry. "You tried to kill us! Zethes, she's working for Gaea!"

Zethes winces. "Alas, beautiful girl. We all are working for Gaea now. I fear these orders are from our father, Boreas himself."

"What?" I don't want to believe it, but Khione's smug smile tells me it's true.

"At last my father saw the wisdom of my counsel," Khione purrs, "or at least he did before his Roman side began warring with his Greek side. I fear he is quite incapacitated now, but he left me in charge. He has ordered that the forces of the North Wind be used in the service of King Porphyrion, and of course...the Earth Mother."

I gulp. "How are you even here?" I gesture at the ice all over the ship. "It's summer!"

Khione shrugs. "Our powers grow. The rules of nature are turned upside down. Once the Earth Mother wakes, we shall remake the world as we choose!"

"With hockey," Cal says, his mouth still full. "And pizza. And muffins."

"Yes, yes," Khione sneers. "I had to promise a few things to the big simpleton. And to Zethes—"

"Oh, my needs are simple." Zethes slicks back his hair and winked at me. "I should have kept you at our palace when we first met, my dear Piper. But soon we will go there again, together, and I shall romance you most incredibly."

"Thanks, but no thanks," I say. "Now, let Jason and Calli go."

I put all my power into the words, and Zethes obeys. He snaps his fingers. Jason and Calli instantly defrost. Jason crumples to the floor, gasping and steaming; but at least he's alive. Calli immediately bursts into flames but continues whatever she's doing, paying me no mind.

"You imbecile!" Khione thrusts out her hand, and Jason refreezes, now flat on the deck like a bearskin rug.