Chapter 26Hera detected coolness on her skin, and found it pleasant. A single cricket sang in the vast, empty field. Cattle grazed nearby, and there was a small cluster of tents on the border between the grassland and the oak trees. The tent-cloths were all dyed maroon, and they fluttered a little in the breeze. A handful of men sat around a cooking fire, their blood-red capes tattered and frayed. They spoke in low voices and ate what looked like rabbit stew from earthen bowls. The smell filled her with disgust. Flesh-eaters, all of them, like their creator.
Close to the fire, a man had his arm around a young girl. A greying bandage was wrapped around his head, a freshly stitched wound on his exposed calf. The girl couldn’t have been older than eight. She had inherited her mother’s dark c
