By Jove (26 page)

“Grant,” she managed to gasp out.

“No! Not Grant. Grant wasn’t there when we made love for hours. It wasn’t his name you cried out as you came, but mine.”

“Grant wouldn’t have had to trick me into taking ambrosia to make me say his name when I came,” she retorted. With another shove against his chest she broke free from his embrace and ran to the door. “I’ll find him,” she said, hand on the doorknob. “You aren’t going to win.”

“I always win, my dear.”

“I rather doubt—ah. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” she said slowly. “It isn’t about me at all. It’s about you and Grant. I’m just a convenient tool for you to use against him.”

“Nonsense, my darling. We’ve already discussed this.” Julian bent to gather up a stack of files scattered on the floor. “You are my beloved Theodora.” He set them on the desk and turned to face her. “But I will win you from him, just the same.” A smile touched the corners of his mouth. “Are you sure he still wants you?” he continued conversationally. “He’s an intelligent being. Knowing you’ve betrayed him with me—well, it just might be kinder if you failed to find him. Then he could slip away at commencement, and you wouldn’t have to put him through the unpleasant task of rejecting you to your face. If he were to see you now, with your blouse unbuttoned and your hair all tousled, what conclusion could he draw but that you prefer me?”

Theo looked down, swore mentally, and began to do up her buttons. “How would he know I’ve been here?” she demanded. “Unless you tell him—which would mean he’s somewhere nearby.”

Julian shrugged and pointed at another scattered pile of papers. They lifted obediently into the air and settled on his desk, shuffling themselves into an orderly stack. “Maybe he is. But he might be incapable of understanding anything in his current state.” He pretended to sigh sadly. “I can’t imagine you wanting to embrace the physical Grant just now.”

“In his current state—
what have you done to him?
”

“Nothing that shouldn’t be reversible, assuming he has the strength of heart and mind for it. Stubbornness was always one of Grant’s fortes, though others called it persistence and courage. I’m rather proud of myself for thinking of his hiding place. Not a bad job for short notice.” He smiled at her, a teasing, faintly malicious smile. “No, I’ll have to think about whether or not I tell him. Maybe I’ll save it for a few days, as a treat. I imagine he’s gotten a little bored by now.”

Theo snorted. “Behold the noble king of gods and men, who tortures his prisoners with lies,” she said scornfully, to cover the fear that had gripped her.

“It’s no lie that you slept with me, beautiful Theodora.”

“After being tricked into it. I’m glad you’ve had your fun, Julian. Don’t you dare try it again.” She finished buttoning her blouse and opened the door.

“At least I hope you’ve learned your lesson about taking adequate ambrosia, my dear. You’re welcome any evening to join me in a glass of wine, you know.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

Julian smiled and pointed at his desk blotter on the floor. It came into his hand. “I can afford to hold my breath, really. You have less than one month left to find where in the world I’ve put your dear Grant.” He tapped the calendar on it. “One month. I can hardly wait.”

…

Outside Julian’s office Theo leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Her breathing was still uneven, and she desperately longed for a shower to get the feeling of Julian off her. But there were more important things to be done first.

She willed her breathing into calmness, then held it. Breathing, as Julian pointed out, was optional now. In the stillness, she listened. Apart from Julian, humming cheerfully to himself in his office (which made her teeth grind), the building was empty. Good. She slipped down the stairs and into the Great Room.

It was full dark now, so Theo darted around the room turning on lights—she didn’t dare trust her powers just now—and looked around. “Not a bad job for short notice”, Julian had said when he taunted her about Grant. That must mean that whatever Julian had done with him the evening of the symposium, it was something he’d thought up on the spot. Which might mean that there was something in the Great Room that had given him the idea for it.

Not the furniture. Most of it had been piled away, with only the dining couches set up on the other side of the room. With a tentative wave, she sent a couch scuttling back on its short legs to rest against the wall. Then more confidently she moved the rest, apart from one chair.

Now, Grant had been tied in his chair, about here—a momentary sadness, mingled with anger, flooded through her, and she sternly pushed it back. That wouldn’t help her find Grant. Julian had been next to him. Yes: when she’d stormed down the stairs and into the room, she had stopped—

Theo looked down at the mosaic floor. There had been a wreath at her feet, one of the pretty fillers the mosaic’s designer had put in between the scenes from mythology. That would be right here. And so Grant’s chair had been there—she waved it impatiently into place. Which would have meant Julian was—she stepped the six or seven paces forward and to the left—here.

She looked down.

At first, she was—disappointed. At her feet was another of the floral patterns. But just to her left She moved over a few more paces.

There was a beach scene before her: curling blue waves washed up on a sandy tan shore. Two figures stood on the sand, surrounded by seals. One was a man, tall and strongly built, grappling with the other—but what was the other? A lion, from the savage jaws and wild tawny mane. But below, where paws and legs should be, was a thick, brownish-gray column, like a tree trunk. What was half lion, half tree?

“Proteus,” a voice said next to her.

Theo jumped and looked up. Olivia stood there in her own form, regarding her with her gray eyes. “Are you all right?” she continued. “I was worried when you didn’t show up for dinner.”

“I—I didn’t hear you come in. I thought the building was empty,” Theo said, blushing and floundering.

“It is now. Julian just left. He looked very pleased with himself.” She looked questioningly at Theo, who threw herself into the chair and stared miserably at the floor.

“I’m not surprised. He should be. He—” She bit her lip. “He almost got me again. I fainted when I was getting my mail and he took me into his office and gave me his ambrosia wine and I—we—” She shuddered. “It was a close thing.”

“I see,” Olivia said after a minute.

“Do you see now why I was avoiding ambrosia?” Theo said defensively. “If taking it will make me forget everything and fall into Julian’s arms, then I’ll have to learn to do without it.”

“But there’s no reason why it should do that,” Olivia said with a frown. “I don’t suddenly fall into a stupor and forget everything when I have it. Nor does anyone else I know. There must be something about his wine that does it to you.”

“He did say it was double-strength, from grapes fed with ambrosia.”

“That shouldn’t give it this power over you.” She sighed. “Oh, Theo. I told you to be careful of him.”

“Well, I was unconscious when he started pouring it down my throat. I didn’t have much choice.”

“Then next time, have some of my ambrosia before you get to that state. I don’t think it will have the same effect as his.” She tapped her lips with one finger, staring at her shoes and thinking. “I suspect it’s time I did a little research. Speaking of which, what were you doing, just now?”

“He—he talked about Grant. He threatened to tell him that I had betrayed him again. And that Grant might not want me to rescue him because of it—”

“Utter rot. Don’t believe it for a minute. Go on.”

Olivia’s straightforward rebuttal was comforting. Theo continued, “And he said that he wasn’t sure Grant would be able to understand him in his current form, and that it hadn’t been a bad idea, for short notice. So I thought that maybe something in here had given Julian the idea for what to do with Grant. I think I’ve figured out where we all were standing when Grant disappeared that night.”

“You think Julian was standing here? And that he saw Proteus?”

“Yes. Or at least, I think so. But what about Proteus could have given him any ideas?” Proteus, the old man of the sea, a prophet, and… “A shapeshifter?”

“That’s Menelaus and Proteus,” Olivia said, pointing. “When Menelaus was returning from the Trojan War, he was shipwrecked on Proteus’s island. When he tried to capture the old man to ask for his help, Proteus turned into all sorts of dreadful things—a lion, a snake, a tree, a burning torch—” She stared at Theo, her eyes wide.

“A burning torch,” Theo repeated. Prometheus’s—Grant’s—device, carved into his ring. “Does that mean Julian turned him into something?”

“It might.”

Theo got up from the chair. “But we’ve looked everywhere, at anything that might make any sense,” she said, pacing and staring at the floor. Abruptly, she stopped. “Olivia?”

The other woman hurried over to her and looked where Theo pointed. Equidistant from where Theo had estimated Julian stood but on its other side was another scene. This one was simpler: a man and a woman, standing in a doorway. The woman gazed adoringly up at the man as she pressed something into his hands, something round—an apple? No. Larger and rounder, like a ball.

“Theseus,” she said softly to Olivia. “It’s Theseus and Ariadne. She’s giving him the ball of string before he goes into—”

“Into the labyrinth,” Olivia finished. They stared at each other.

…

Theo’s dreams were not pleasant that night. Once she finally got to sleep, that is. She and Olivia had sat in the Great Room til late, discussing the pictures.

“But we don’t even know if that’s what Julian was looking at when he decided what to do with Grant. He could have been looking at Amphitrite, and changed Grant into a fish,” Theo had argued.

“Do you really believe that?”

“No. I don’t know what I believe.”

“So is it Proteus, or the labyrinth?”

But where was there a labyrinth anywhere? And what could Proteus have to do with any of it?

So when Theo got up to teach her class Monday morning, she was tired and heavy-eyed, not to mention late. Though she usually tried to get breakfast first, there hadn’t been time. So, cringing, she went upstairs to get some coffee from the pot in June’s office.

As always, June was there. Theo tried not to look at her as she sidled toward the coffeemaker with a mumbled “Good morning.”

“You left your mail here on Friday,” June barked, startling her into nearly dropping the pot.

“Oh. Er, yes, I did. Sorry. Thank you.” So kind of the old harpy to remind her. But would June know what had happened after she’d passed out? Theo stole a glance at her face as she pulled the papers and envelopes from her box. Oh, yeah. She knew. She stuffed her mail in her bag and beat a hasty retreat.

Olivia was late for lunch that afternoon, so Theo pulled out her mail to read. Among it was a plain white envelope with no address. It was the note she’d seen on Friday, right before she’d fainted. Theo opened it and pulled out a small square of paper.

It is painfully obvious that you are in need of a good dose of ambrosia. Do not, however, accept any from Julian’s hand, especially in his wine. Some of his ambrosial wine also contains varying amounts of water from the river Lethe. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

A Friend

“Is that piece of paper a snake? You look as if it just bit you,” Olivia said. She sat down across from Theo. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

Without saying a word, Theo handed her the note. Her face felt stiff.

Olivia whistled as she read it. “Well, that would explain things. Lethe! No wonder you forgot everything but Julian when you drank his wine.”

“He d-did drug me,” Theo stammered angrily. “He swore he hadn’t—”

“So he lied. Is that so surprising? What
I
want to know is who this ‘Friend’ is.”

Theo struggled to bring her breathing under control. “So do I.” Lethe, the river of forgetfulness! So that was what had made her forget everything—not only Grant, but herself, her life, her wants and dreams. It was almost worse than what he’d done to her physically. He’d stolen so much from her. She’d found herself again…and now she would find Grant if it killed her.

Chapter Nineteen

“The way I see it, it has to be either Arthur, Marlowe, or Renee. The rest are too much in Julian’s pocket, or wouldn’t dare defy him,” Olivia said, a few afternoons later in the Great Room.

The question of the identity of the “friend” who had sent the note to Theo was occupying almost as much time as searching was. At least it seemed that way to Theo.

“Well, it’s not Renee,” she said, irritably rubbing her eyes.

“Why not? She likes you.”

“Yes, I know. So she wants me here with Julian, so we can go shopping together for the rest of eternity. Do you know, she scolded me yesterday for refusing to look Julian in the eye and smile when we meet in the halls? ‘Since he’s probably going to win, don’t you think you ought to be a little nicer to him?’” she mimicked bitterly.

Olivia winced and said, “Okay, so not Renee. Then Arthur or Marlowe. Which do you think?”

“Honestly, Olivia, I don’t really care. I want to get out and look for Grant, not sit here and speculate about the author of anonymous notes.” Theo rose and started pacing up and down the width of the room.

“We’ve done as much looking as is practical without further clues. If we can find out who this friend is and talk to him or her, we might get further faster,” Olivia explained patiently for the sixth time. “I think you need to get them each alone and question them.”

“Question whom?” said a cheerful voice. Marlowe had strolled into the Great Room. “Hello, Theo. Oh, uh” —he dropped his voice— “hi, Olivia.” He looked around the room then asked, “How’s it going?”

Theo looked at Olivia. “Well, er—”

“Now’s your chance,” Olivia said under her breath. “But not in here. Go sit outside or something.”