Titans of Chaos

He looked back and forth at Vanity and me, expectant, smug. I said, "The Great Weapon."

He nodded, and one hand touched the pink curves of his Turkish bow with unconscious pride.

"Indeed. The Great Weapon. How could Chaos resist, if I had all the queens of the underworld, ofdreamland and outer void fall in love with the world? What can quiet the hatred of all enemies,but love, beautiful love?"

I shuddered at the thought of my mother, or the beautiful Lady Nepenthe, Colin's mother, whom Ihad once seen in a dream, in this man's arms.

He must have guessed my thought, for he looked at me and said sharply, "Not like that! I am ahappily married man, little girl. I meant to have the enemies of this world fall in love with theworld, with Gaea herself, her mountains and rushing streams, majestic forests of green, somberartic seas of blue, and deserts all encrimsoned with the many colors of a flame: and overhead theordered spheres of heaven with their gemlike stars remote, the planets wheeling like falcons intheir cycles and epicycles. Who, seeing the Cosmos, would not fall in love?"

"What went wrong?" I asked.

He spread his hands. "My mother told me that people do not always treat the ones they love sowell. She thought it was madness."

Vanity said, "Your mother is Lady Cyprian? Aphrodite, Venus? Why does she get a vote? Ithought you were the Emperor of Cosmos?"

"Ah, but even Monarchy is based on the willingness of the Led to be led. You see, three goddessescrowned me: Lady Tritogenia the Wise, also called Athena, who controls the Thunderbolt and thestarry hosts of heaven; the Lady Cyprian, who bestows the love of the people; and the GreatQueen Basilissa, called Hera, who grants the Mandate of Heaven, and decrees Sovereignty itself.

Only the head those three sovereign goddesses anoint, the martial maiden, the beloved, and themother of gods and man, can sustain the oak-leaf crown.

"Do you know the meaning of the old history?" Archer continued. "King Terminus was aparricide; his hands were polluted with his father's blood. Only these three could wash the stainsaway: wisdom, and love, and the law. The Great Queen of Heaven is also the High Lady ofForgiveness, and Grandfather Terminus repaid her kindness by giving her ever more adulteries toforgive."

He seemed lost in thought for a moment, frowning.

"So these three goddesses picked you?" I said softly.