her floating in the salt water. Ten other oceanids clustered around Pallas, massaging her arms and legs.
She was a beautiful woman. Perhaps that was why Athena wanted her around so much.
Pallas was dark as the night. Her skin glistened in the sunlight, reflecting sunbeams in every direction. Her hair she wore braided tight to her skull in rows that almost looked like snakes as she moved. But her eyes were arguably the most beautiful thing about her. Those dark pools that looked like the darkest abyss. Eyes that saw far more than a normal nymph.
She tossed her hair over her bare shoulder and smiled at Kore, sharp white teeth terrifying and beautiful at the same time. “Maiden, is it?”
“Kore.”
“Ah, of course! That’s what Athena said your mother had named you,” she giggled. “But the real question is whether you live up to your name?”
Kore had never been embarrassed about being a virgin. Her mother had surrounded her with powerful women who valued remaining untouched by any male hand. But somehow, when Pallas said it, her virginity seemed... wrong.
Her cheeks burning, she replied, “Yes. Just like Artemis.”
Artemis slapped a hand to Pallas’s shoulder. “Don’t tease the girl. We’re not all like an oceanid and free to enjoy whoever we want. And some of us have no interest in enjoying the company of men.”
Pallas looked Kore up and down. “Some of us don’t, I agree with you there, Artemis. But I also have a sense for the people who want to remain pious and clean, like you. Some women weren’t meant for the white peplos and gilded himations. Some of us were meant for the earth and swells of waves.”
Again, Kore’s body burned. This time it wasn’t just her face. The blush spread down her shoulders and arms, almost sizzling the chilly ocean water.
Some women were meant for the earth and swells? Why did the words seem so important?
“What do you mean?” she asked. She couldn’t keep herself silent when there was a possibility Pallas knew far more than she did. Like she could answer a question Kore didn’t even know she had.
“You really are a maiden,” Pallas replied with a chuckle. “You’ve never even watched the mortals? The swells... You know. When a man knows what he’s doing, there’s an ocean in every woman.”
Kore frowned. The ocean in every woman? But her father wasn’t Poseidon, so wouldn’t she have a storm inside her?
No, that felt wrong. She wanted nothing of Zeus inside her. And her mother’s magic was made of the earth, so she probably had something like roots.
“I’ve never watched a mortal couple,” she murmured.
The nymphs surrounding Pallas giggled at her words. One threaded a braid through her fingers and laughed. “We know not all mortal men know how to summon the sea in a woman.”
Another nymph snorted. “Don’t look to the Spartans if you’re asking for that.”
“Why not?” Pallas shifted forward, dislodging a few nymphs who leaned on her. “I’ve heard of the Spartans even in my homeland. Libyans say the Spartans are the most masculine men here.”
“They are,” the nymph replied. “But they fear women. Some of them have to pretend their wife is a man in the beginning. They go to her in the middle of the night so they never have to see her face. They prefer the company of men.”
Pallas waved a hand in the air, dismissing the thought with an expression of disgust. “So they are like all Greek men, then. Come to Africa, ladies. There you will find a lover who knows the ocean in a woman’s body. He will summon the sea for you.”
They all dissolved into giggles and Kore was still lost. Summon the sea? What in the world were they talking about?
Artemis sighed and slapped her hand to a wave, sending water splashing over the giggling nymphs. “You’re all disgusting. No man will ever touch my body to summon the sea or otherwise.”
“How strange,” Pallas replied. “Don’t the mortals give you offerings for their weddings? They beg you to watch over their marriage.”
“They do.” The huntress shifted lower in the water until it touched her chin. “I don’t want their locks of hair, or their prayers. But they wish me to guide them from girlhood to marriage. Then Hera watches over them.”
Now that was fascinating. Kore asked, “What do they offer you?”
“Locks of hair. They weave flower crowns that they leave for me to find after their wedding.” Artemis blew bubbles in the saltwater. “Ridiculous really, but if the ritual