She thought that she had power to drive a wedge between us, but she had nothing.

He landed, and the weapons were already lifted, held with a deadly poise that was like no girl, nor no man either. The greatest warrior of his generation.

I listened and did not speak. Achilles' eyes were bright in the firelight, his face drawn sharply by the flickering shadows. I would know it in dark or disguise, I told myself. I would know it even in madness.

But you were the one who really taught him healing," Achilles said."I was.""You do not mind that the snake gets all the credit?"Chiron's teeth showed through his dark beard. A smile. "No, Achilles, I do not mind.

His trust was a part of him, as much as his hands or his miraculous feet. And despite my hurt, I would not wish to see it gone, to see him as uneasy and fearful as the rest of us, for any price.

In our stories these divinities had to work by wheedling and flattery, by favors won from stronger gods. They could not do much themselves. Except live, forever.

I could not make him a god," she says. Her jagged voice, rich with grief. /But you made him./

But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another... We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows? Perhaps one day I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you... We are men only. A brief flare of the torch. Those to come may raise us or lower us as they please.

I understood something then. My sister might be twice the goddess I was, but I was twice the witch. Her crumbling trash could not help me.