Lyre by Helen Harper Read Free Book Online

direction.  Run, whispered a voice from the deep recesses of her mind, run now.  Except Yuri couldn’t run.  She couldn’t even move.  The other zoo visitors around her weren’t paying any attention.  Yuri opened her mouth to call out for help, to try and say something – anything.  No words came out, however. 
    The snake woman took another step towards, then another.  Yuri tried to scream, but still no sound came out.  She gulped in air and bunched her fingers into fists, feeling her nails dig into the soft flesh of her palms.  And then the woman was right in front of her, scant inches away from her face.  Several snakes snapped out towards her, jaws flashing.  Yuri tried to recoil away, but all she succeeded in doing was rocking back slightly on her heels.
    ‘So,’ the woman drawled, ‘it would appear you’ve been touched by the gods.’
    Yuri could do nothing except stare at her.
    ‘You wouldn’t be able to see me in all my glory otherwise.’  She reached up to one twisting snake with one gleaming red taloned finger and stroked its head. Yuri could have sworn the thing closed its eyes in ecstasy at her touch.
    ‘Tell me,’ she continued, keeping her eyes trained on Yuri.  ‘What’s your story?’
    Yuri still couldn’t speak.  Her tongue felt like was a heavy lifeless thing lying useless inside her mouth.  She tried to lift her hands up to her throat, and realised she couldn’t.  They felt like useless ten ton weights hanging at her sides.
    The woman tsked.  ‘Sorry.’  She snapped her fingers.  All of a sudden, Yuri felt released, as if a massive burden had been lifted from her.  She took a step backwards, wanting desperately to get as far away as possible from the freakish snake woman – and yet unable to quite to turn and run.  Her mention of gods was more important than Yuri’s immediate safety.
    ‘I keep forgetting that happens.’ She lifted up a single shoulder in an elegant shrug.  ‘Let’s start again, shall we?  I’m Medusa.  And I’d very much like to know how it is that you can see me for what I really am.’
     
    *
     
    They sat down together on a small bench in a quiet corner of the reptile house.  Yuri perched herself on the very edge of it, as far away from the writhing snakes as she could possibly get.  Medusa seemed unconcerned.
    ‘How old are you?’ she asked.  ‘Thirteen?’
    Yuri smarted.  ‘Fifteen.’
    Medusa pursed her lips.  ‘You look younger.  It’s difficult to tell with humans sometimes though.’  She flicked her a thoughtful glance.  ‘You are human?’
    Yuri bit her lip and nodded.
    ‘Have you been to Olympus?’
    ‘What’s Olympus?’
    Medusa tapped the side of her mouth thoughtfully.  ‘Not a what, a where.  It’s where the gods reside.  The gods that you must have met.  Only true believers who’ve already met the gods can see past the scales of their eyes to the truth.’ She gestured towards her hair.  ‘This truth.’
    ‘Are they…?’  Yuri paused and licked her lips.  ‘Are they dangerous?  The snakes, I mean.’
    She threw back her head and laughed.  ‘No.  In fact, they’ve been there so long I’m almost fond of them.’  Something in her eyes hardened.  ‘Not that I have much choice in the matter.’
    Yuri looked at her.  The last time she’d attempted to tell the truth about what had happened on that terrible day, her mother had slapped her.  The memory of the shock of it still stung.  The sad thing was she almost wished her mother would bother slapping her now.  At least it would mean there was still a flicker of someone inside her who cared.  Sometimes she wondered if her mother thought that she was the only person who’d lost someone that day; she seemed to possess such a monopoly on grief that it was as if there was nothing left for Yuri herself to cling to.
    ‘My father,’ she said finally.  ‘We were in Japan.  He took me out fishing for the day.’  She traced a small knot