And now, here he sat. He could clamber down the rocks that seemed to lead him closer to the sea. Or climb higher and hope to find fresh water and supplies further inland. He wondered again how far he was from the Gorgons and felt another rush of anger that he knew so little but was expected to achieve so much. He muttered a brief but heartfelt prayer to his father.
‘Well, you shouldn’t have picked him, then, should you?’
Perseus jumped at the sound of Athene. He turned and lost his balance, sliding off the rock he had been perched on before realizing with relief that she wasn’t shouting at him. Nor was she looking at him, which meant he could pick himself up without further embarrassment.
‘You can’t possibly mind.’ The disbelief in Hermes’s voice was entirely at odds with the rage of Athene.
‘What do you mean, I “can’t possibly mind”？’ she shouted. ‘Why wouldn’t I mind? It was my city for the taking and you tried to give it to him.’
‘I didn’t do anything of the kind,’ he replied. ‘My vote wasn’t enough to change anything, and you know it.’
‘It was enough to make it a draw!’ she said. ‘So that Father had to get an independent judge to decide.’
‘Not quite independent,’ Hermes murmured. She stared at him. ‘And anyway, my vote wasn’t worth more or less than any of the others. Why aren’t you arguing with them?’
‘Because they aren’t here,’ she snarled. ‘And you were last. And you enjoyed it.’
‘Everyone enjoyed it,’ he said. ‘What difference does it make that I was last?’
Perseus could see he should keep quiet.
‘It meant I thought I might win,’ Athene said. ‘I thought you might choose me, since we’ve been on these trips together.’
‘I’m the messenger god,’ he replied. ‘I’ve been on trips with everyone.’
‘Well, I thought you liked me.’
‘Why?’ he asked.
There was a pause.
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘Why does it matter if I do or not?’
‘Well, do you?’
Perseus glanced up from the stone-strewn ground, which he had been studiously considering. Hermes was facing Athene, his smirk less pronounced than usual. Athene looked exactly like she always did, Perseus thought, but more so.
‘Not really,’ said Hermes. ‘I think Zeus spoils you. It makes you petulant and prone to shout.’
‘Well, then, I don’t like you either,’ snapped Athene.
‘Then you can’t mind who I voted for or why,’ said Hermes.
Athene turned and looked at Perseus. ‘Do you like me?’ she said.
Perseus wondered if he should simply throw himself off the cliff before things got any worse. ‘Er, yes?’ he replied.
‘You see?’ Athene turned back to Hermes. ‘I’m likeable. He doesn’t think I shout. Do you?’
‘No,’ said Perseus. ‘Not unless you want me to.’
Hermes began to laugh. ‘He’s scared of you,’ he said. ‘He’ll say anything he thinks you want to hear.’
‘Are you scared of me?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ said Perseus.
‘Good. But you also don’t think I shout?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘I don’t suppose you could help me again, could you?’
Athene rolled her eyes. ‘I knew Zeus had sent us for a reason. What is it now?’
Perseus tried not to wince as she shouted at him. ‘I don’t know which way I’m supposed to go,’ he said. ‘Or how far it is. Or where I can get fresh water. Or whether those berries are safe to eat.’
Athene looked at Hermes. ‘You aren’t going to pretend this is me being petulant?’ she said.
‘No, this is him.’ Hermes spoke slowly to Perseus. ‘Follow the line of the coast,’ he explained. ‘Like Athene told you to. You’ll know you’ve reached the Gorgons when you see Gorgons.’
‘But I don’t know how far it is!’ Perseus said. ‘What if I miss them?’
‘Miss them?’ Athene said. ‘You think you might just wander past the Gorgons and not notice them?’
‘I don’t know,’ Perseus said. ‘I mean, I don’t . . .’ Faced with two scornful gods, his words tailed off. Perhaps now was not the time.
‘You don’t what?’ asked Hermes.
‘Nothing,’ said Perseus.
‘Zeus sent us here for a reason,’ said Athene. ‘There must be something you need to know.’
‘Well, it’s just, I haven’t been told,’ Perseus said. ‘So I don’t know what the Gorgons look like.’
Hermes and Athene stared at one another, all animus forgotten. ‘You don’t know?’ the messenger god said.
‘No.’
‘So you came on a quest for the head of something you couldn’t identify?’ Hermes asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you think to ask anyone before you set out?’ Athene said.
‘No.’
‘And it didn’t occur to you that you’d need to know?’ Hermes was shaking his head.
‘It did,’ said Perseus. ‘But I didn’t know who to ask.’
‘How about the king who set you on your quest?’ suggested Athene. ‘Polydectes. Remember him?’
‘I couldn’t ask him.’ Perseus was horrified. ‘Then he would have thought I was stupid.’
‘Yes, I can see how that would have put you off,’ Hermes said. ‘You could have told us you had no idea what you were doing when we found you.’
‘He did seem like the kind of person who might embark on a quest for a Gorgon’s head without knowing what a Gorgon was,’ Athene said. ‘Now you mention it.’
‘You already thought I was an idiot,’ Perseus said. ‘I didn’t want to make things worse.’
‘They’re worse now,’ Hermes replied. ‘Now I think you’re much stupider than I would have if you’d said something at the outset.’
‘Right,’ said Perseus.
‘I probably don’t,’ Athene added. ‘But that’s because I thought you were incredibly stupid when we met, and there wasn’t much scope for me to think less of you.’
‘Yes,’ said Perseus. ‘I appreciate that.’
‘So you’ve been walking along the coast, wondering if whatever you see might be a Gorgon?’ Hermes checked.
‘Yes,’ said Perseus.
‘Like gulls or sheep or prickly pears?’ Athene asked.
‘Well, I know what all those are,’ he said. ‘But otherwise, yes.’
‘So you just asked Zeus for help, and the help you need is to know what a Gorgon looks like?’ Hermes said.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘No, I just wanted to be sure. I could just tell you anything was a Gorgon, and you’d believe me?’
Panic flooded Perseus’s face. If the gods decided to trick him, he would have no way of knowing until he reached Seriphos. He could see the vicious disdain in the eyes of the king as he revelled in Perseus’s failure, hear the mockery of his courtiers. He felt suddenly short of breath, even after sitting on the rock to recover from his climb. Perhaps Zeus would intervene to save him, he thought. Or, failing that, perhaps Polydectes wouldn’t know what a Gorgon was either, and he could just bluff it out. Even as Perseus thought this, he acknowledged it was unlikely.