did helping me to my feet. In a bad mood, I'd call it hauling me to my feet. With his bulky purple wings filling the changing closet, he was standing much too close. 'You wanted to see me,' he said.
I looked at this youngish fellow. 'Are you Mr. Archer?'
'I'm the archer,' he agreed.
'Who are you? Apollo?'
'Pshaw! Mightier than Apollo,' said Archer with a quirk of his lips. 'Ask Hyacinth about that.
Apollo rules during the day; I rule day and night. Omnia vincit amor! All things I conquer. Even Death is not as strong.'
I said doubtfully, 'You mean the Rich One? I saw him- didn't see him, actually-once. Hades? Lord Dis, you call him?'
He nodded, and smiled at some pleasing memory. 'We were in the library, arguing, and he claimed he was stronger than I, despite that he was blind. I lifted up the Great Weapon and shot, just as he donned his dread helm and vanished, and I had no more sight of him than he of me. The curtains billowed and the candles blew, so for a time I thought he had escaped my shot, for (as well we know) the Great Weapon often goes astray, but the next day he outraged the Maiden as she gathered flowers in the fields of Enna, and carried her down through sunless crevasses into the House of Woe, so I knew my bolt struck home.'
'Death is blind?'
Archer nodded. 'As Justice is: He makes no distinctions, plays no favorites.' Now the boy took me by my naked shoulders and lowered his face toward mine. I thought he was about to kiss me, but instead he merely looked deeply in my eyes.
'You are in my realm as well,' he said. 'There is a boy you love, who steps across the threshold into manhood. I can grant your wish. But you must ask it, and be in my debt.'
'Wait! When you said you could make my true love have the head of an ass, did you mean you were going to change Victor, or that you would change me?'
He said, 'Is that your boon? Is that what Boreas sent you all this way to pray from my court?'
'Your... your court?'
'Know you not who We are, little daughter of Chaos? We are Cosmos itself. The throne is Our own, granted by the Three Goddesses, confirmed by the Fates. Our Royal Person is no less than the Imperator of Heaven.'
'Do you have-I don't mean to seem rude or anything, but-do you have a badge or anything?'
'A what?'
'A letter signed by your mother, or a driver's license, or something to prove you are the Emperor of Heaven? A golden stick, a fancy chair, a shiny hat?'
'I have the Great Weapon. Do you want to fall in love with a goat?'
Goat? I already had enough trouble with Colin. So I said, 'Okay. You are the Cosmic Emperor and King of All Gods. Let's posit that. And you are talking to me, naked in a closet, because...
Why?'
'I've never had a boring conversation with a girl in her lacy things. But once she puts on clothes and opens her mouth, then...'
I favored him with a withering look. 'It's the 'in the closet' part I was wondering about. You are afraid to talk to five children in a group, aren't you? You are not really an emperor of anything, are you?'
'Well, that depends. I was pitched off the throne by my uncles, but I never formally abdicated. My realm is shrunken somewhat, so only my brothers Fear and Dread keep faith with me. My sister Trouble is with me, too, sort of, but she's almost more trouble than she's worth. Well, it's not much, but it is something.' He shrugged. 'Every leader has some setbacks from time to time. So?
We are the sovereign power that rules the ordered universe. You have a petition to ask. Ask.'
'Can I ask for peace between Cosmos and Chaos?'
'Petitions for peace can only be granted by both parties in contention, not by one. But I am pleased, very pleased, that you thought to ask for that before you asked for life or freedom. Lord Terminus had you raised together, as Earthly children, and instructed in the histories and arts of man. Have you never wondered why?'
'I have wondered,' I admitted.
'Boreas told me the reason.'
'You trust him?'
'Indeed. But I don't like him. Likeable and trustworthy are not the same thing, are they? But Boreas, even after Terminus died, kept faith with the orders he was given, kept his promises.
Which is why I trust him now, that cold bastard, and I let him know where I was, despite
