Pandora Gets Heart Read Online Free

then there was a hard knock at the cabin door.
    “Mid-meal,” came the cook’s voice, unusually gruff.
    Iole hurriedly opened the door and, thanking the cook, who glowered at her as he left, took a tray with three plates and set it on the end of her cot.
    “Why did he bring it to us?” Pandy asked. “Why aren’t we eating in the dining hall?”
    “Well, alpha, the cook doesn’t want us back in the dining hall. He feels that because I was immune to the chaos last night, I must have had something to do with it,” Iole answered. “And, beta, we’re the only ones left onboard, so he’s basically got very little to do.”
    “What? Why?” Pandy asked, sitting up slowly. “Why only us?”
    “Everyone, even if they still weren’t feeling well, demanded to disembark on the island of Euboea early this morning, including a few of the sailors and people whose homes are even farther to the north. They all think the ship is haunted. They’d rather walk or wait for another ship. The captain would have put us off as well, but I showed him how sick you both were. Now he’s just trying to sail the ship as fast as possible into the Pagasaean Gulf and to Iolcus. We must be close.”
    “Iole, what about the Eye of Horus? Why didn’t you try that on us?” Pandy asked.
    “Yeah,” Alcie said. “If a tiny Egyptian amulet can heal a dead Pharaoh, or whatever, then it’s good enough for me!”
    “Well, first of all, it’s still around Homer’s neck. When I did go up to check on him periodically, he was bent so far over the railing, I couldn’t get at it. And second, the eye seemed to be having no positive healing effect on him whatsoever, so I believe that the eye is basically useless on god-given injuries like the effects of a pure evil— even a lesser one; for the eye to have any effect, they have to be mortally inflicted.”
    “Homie!” Alcie said, swinging her legs over the side of her cot and awkwardly getting to her feet. “I’ve gotta find Homie!”
    “Don’t move too fast, Alcie!” Iole cautioned, watching Alcie hurriedly fastening her girdle.
    “What do you know, head-bouncer! Oh . . . oh, Gods,” Alcie cried, steadying herself before heading into the passageway.
    “Come on,” said Pandy, following. “We all need some air.”
    “Fine,” said Iole. “But I’m bringing food, and you’re gonna eat it.”
    On deck, they found Homer by the railing, passed out from sickness and exhaustion, sailors stepping over (and occasionally on) him. After Alcie had awakened him gently and gotten him standing, and after Iole had forced everyone to take a piece of dry flatbread (Alcie promptly tossed hers into the sea), they all watched the swiftly passing coastline until the ship turned to the west, rounded a hook-shaped peninsula, and headed north into a large bay.
    Looking northeast, Pandy now saw two green mountains in the far distance and felt, instinctively, that one of these was their destination, Mount Pelion, and that the great plague of Lust would be hiding on it . . . somewhere. But what form, what shape? What would she have to battle this time? Gazing at the ring of land surrounding her, she turned to the southwest and the direction of her home, knowing that at this moment, she was closer to Athens than she’d been in months. A wave of homesickness washed over her as the ship sailed farther into the bay. Closing in on the northern shore, Pandy watched the water turn from a deep blue to an emerald green, then to a light turquoise as the water became shallower.
    It was only when they were one hundred meters from the gleaming white beach at the end of the bay that Pandy realized the ship had stopped moving.
    She turned to say something, but Homer had his head hung over the side, still not feeling well. Alcie was adjusting her girdle for her larger-than-usual stomach, and Iole was fiddling, eyes closed, with her new hair clip. At that moment, the captain came up behind them.
    “All right,” he said,