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started wandering around inside. I might actually have been worried about getting lost in there, except
that I could see daylight coming in at so many places. The windows and holes were all above eye level,
but I could easily tell where the river was, because the trees I saw look-ing out on that side were far
away, while on the other sides they were growing right into the ruins....
"I went into room after room. Some of them were of crazy shapes, and a few were huge. On the walls
there were paintings, as old as the building itself, and many of the paintings were very strange. And some
statues. . . . I didn't want to look at those closely, because they frightened me. I can admit that now.
Maybe some of them still would, even though I'm now who I am.
"There were... things... that I suppose had once been pieces of furniture, but by the time I saw them
they'd rotted away until only scraps of wood were left.
"Everything in there was half-engulfed in lichens and mold and mildew.... Anyway, to cut the story short,
I came at last to a place it was a kind of strongroom, but the door was standing ajar. Inside there was a
shrine to a certain god. And below the shrine a kind of cabinet, made of both wood and stone,
intri-cately carved.
"I thought the handle of the door seemed to reach out for my hand, beckoning. And when I pulled it
open, I found something inside something very important. And at that moment every-thing was changed
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for me, forever." The transformed version of Carlotta paused, staring into the distance.
"The Trickster's Face," Jeremy supplied.
Her eyes came back to him. She blinked. "Oh no."
"No?"
"No. Finding the Face, becoming a goddess, came later. You see, that shrine in the temple in the swamp
belonged to Hermes." She paused, looking at him curiously. "But hasn't. . . your own god ... told you all
this already?"
"I've been afraid to ask him much of anything. And he tells me very little. Never comes out and just says
anything in clear words. I suppose he's taking it easy on me. Because I can't get over my fear of ... of
being swallowed up in his memory. Con-sumed by him."
Carlotta nodded. "I know what you mean. Trickster's fright-ening, too, though she's not... Apollo." The
last word came out in a reverent hush.
Jeremy was shaking his head. "Carlotta, by all the gods, but I'm glad you glad I now have someone I
can talk to, about all this!" Impulsively he seized her hand. "But you were telling me what you found in the
ruined temple, that day we met."
"Yes. Let me try to keep the story in some kind of order." She sighed and took a moment to gather her
thoughts. "What I dis-covered in the cabinet, on that first day, was, of course, the Sandals." Jumping to
her feet and pirouetting slowly before him, she reminded him how gloriously her feet were shod. "Jeremy,
did you never guess what truly frightened our crew of boatmen into running off?"
"I never thought much about it. I've had a lot of other prob-lems to keep me busy."
"Well, it was the sight of me that did it! Of course as soon as I found Sandals looking like these I had to
try them on, and as soon as I tried them on I discovered what they were good for.
"When our worthless crew saw me fly out of the temple dip-ping and darting in the air like a
bird they pointed at me and screamed and ran around for a minute like beheaded chickens. Then they
chose to pile into the little boat and paddle like hell off into the swamp. Even though they had some idea
of what kind of things lived in the swamp, they chose that rather than stay ... in the presence of what I
had become."
At the time, the sight of the fleeing men, whom she certainly hadn't liked, had provoked in her a giddy
laughter, but the men's desertion had proven to be no joke, and soon her anger had flared. If it hadn't
been for Jeremy happening along, she would have been forced to use the Sandals to get help and there
would have been no keeping them secret after that.
Now Carlotta gave a fuller demonstration of the Sandals' darting power, moving to the distance of a
hundred normal paces and back again, all in the blink of an eye.
"Beautiful," said Jeremy, and confirmed with a glance that his three companions were still asleep.
Perhaps if it were not for Apollo, he would have been as terrified as the boatmen.
She said: "I think that even you, even with Apollo in your body, will not be able to move as swiftly and
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smoothly as this." Apollo's memory, when pressed, confirmed the fact and pumped up more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]