My sister, my twin, she’s been a woman for at least two years. “But since you’re already so knowledgeable, how are you going to manage to hide it when you’re on the road and you-” “Men know more about women than you think,” Eunike said. They both told us that this isn’t something for men to hear.” I nodded at Milo.

Mother repeated all of it right before my sister left Sparta to marry. “My nurse, Ione, told my sister and me all about that when we were ten years old. “I know, I know!” I exclaimed, stopping her before she could say any more. What I mean is the time each month when-” If their gifts to the sun god were too extravagant, I could also predict what Father would have to say about it when we got home.” Then they’d made another offering just to have Apollo’s priests translate the Pythia’s wild words. The young priest’s glib words were better than underground fumes for giving me a vision of what lay in store for both of my brothers: They were going to have their ears filled with flattery, then be persuaded to leave a rich gift at Apollo’s shrine just to hear some poor girl babble riddles while she choked half to death on smoke. “Polydeuces and I should know our fate.”Ĭastor’s fate? He didn’t need an oracle to discover that I could tell him exactly what it would be. But your noble brothers will be heroes, making their own futures heroes should know what awaits them.” Your only surprises will be the name of your husband and whether your babies will be sons or daughters. You’ll be Sparta’s queen, living a life blessed by the gods. “What a gift you have for joking, Lady Helen! You know your future. “Why not say that every day lets me choose my own future?” “Why only one or two?” I asked, thinking of all the moments my life had already accumulated in which I’d chosen to follow a different path than the one most people would expect of me. Better to know when and where those choices will come to us instead of being taken by surprise. “The Fates themselves grant us one or two places in our lives where the thread untwists and we can follow either one strand or the other.

Nobody's Princess by Esther M. Friesner