OUTSIDE AGAIN A CHILLES was brisk. “I will see you at dinner,” he said, and
turned to go.
An hour before I would have said I was glad to be rid of him; now,
strangely, I felt stung.
“Where are you going?”
He stopped. “Drills.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. No one sees me fight.” The words came as if he were used to
saying them.
“Why?”
He looked at me a long moment, as if weighing something. “My mother
has forbidden it. Because of the prophecy.”
“What prophecy?” I had not heard of this.
“That I will be the best warrior of my generation.”
It sounded like something a young child would claim, in make-believe.
But he said it as simply as if he were giving his name.
The question I wanted to ask was, And are you the best? Instead I
stuttered out, “When was the prophecy given?”
“When I was born. Just before. Eleithyia came and told it to my mother.”
Eleithyia, goddess of childbirth, rumored to preside in person over the birth
of half-gods. Those whose nativities were too important to be left to chance.
I had forgotten. His mother is a goddess .

Chapter 5