Well, that was the end of it then. Kore sent a one eyed glance at Cyane and hoped her friend saw the apology in her gaze. She’d make it up to the naiad somehow... Hopefully.
Demeter grabbed her arm and yanked her away from the ocean. Her bruising grip nearly crushed Kore’s bicep. “You know better than to wander off. Do you know what I was thinking while I couldn’t find you?”
“That someone had stolen me away?”
“That someone had stolen you away, and I would never find you again. You are my only child, Kore. The only one I ever wanted and I will not lose you to some foolish Olympian who saw you up there in the clouds.” Demeter rambled as if she hadn’t already had this argument with Kore a thousand times.
“I just love you so much, Kore. More than I love myself or even the mortals who pray to us.” Predictably, Demeter stopped them in their tracks and tugged Kore into her arms. “What would my life be like without you? I would wander the earth with no hope or joy left. You are the only reason I continue onward.”
Her face was pressed uncomfortably against her mother’s collarbone, nose mashed to the side and air whistling through her nose. “I love you too, mom.”
“I know you do, my dearest girl.” Demeter drew back and smoothed her fingers over Kore’s cheeks. Almost as though she expected her daughter to have been crying, which Kore was not. “Now before we leave, you need to wash this off your face. You look like a hetaira.”
She left Kore standing there with her mouth open. Had her mother really just compared her to a courtesan? A rich one, certainly, but still she had said she looked like a prostitute that a mortal would pay for an evening.
Closing her mouth, she tried to remember why she’d even agreed to go to the festival. Oh right, she hadn’t. Her mother had ordered her to go. The mortals would expect to see them together. Their beloved Demeter in all her motherly qualities with her simple, devoted daughter at her side.
That ugly part of Kore reared its head again. It whispered for her to run off. Leave her mother and do whatever it was she wanted. She was old enough. Smart enough. Powerful enough to go anywhere and protect herself.
The world was at her feet.
The only problem was Kore didn’t know what she would do. Limitless possibilities awaited her, but not a single one was tantalizing enough to tempt her.
Except a shadowy figure, perhaps. A man who had made her smile when she had thought the world was crashing around her shoulders.
Kore shook her head. Fanciful thoughts. She needed to find her mother.
Chapter 6
Kore sat beside her mother at the head of a table full of mortals. It was an honor to have gods seated at their table. So why did she think they couldn't care less?
The food was nothing like it had been in Olympus. She stared down at a dead pig, fully roasted, with holes where its eyes had been. No matter how many people tried to talk to her, she couldn’t stop staring at the red body. It looked like it could stand up at any moment.
She hoped it wouldn’t.
Sick to her stomach, she shook her head when one of the mortal servants offered her another drink. She didn’t want to put anything else in her stomach if she was just going to throw it up.
How did her mother stand to be around these people? Most of them were men, paying homage to the goddess who would bring them a good harvest in the fall. Demeter would give them whatever they wanted if they entertained her well.
Kore wondered if it was the first time many of them had worshipped a woman. Considering the way they tossed their wives to the side the instant Demeter was in their vicinity, she thought it might be.
But they knew something few mortals did. Her mother loved dirty jokes.
They told them repeatedly. Some about the size of a donkey that was larger than Zeus. Others about sleeping with their sisters or whatever horrible things they could think up.
One recited a poem, Catullus 16, and merely listening to it made Kore wince. These were the mortals she was supposed to respect? Her mother was laughing hysterically, but there was nothing funny about what the man was saying.