Midnight Frost

their blue, pink, purple, red, and silver petals glistening like jewels that had been spilled across a white marble floor.
    A woman stood in the middle of the clearing. Her long, velvet gown was the same rich green as the pines, although the edges of the fabric seemed to shimmer with all sorts of opalescent colors—pinks, blues, purples, reds, silvers, golds. She wasn’t beautiful, not like I considered Nike to be, but her face was kind and gentle, although her lips were turned down with a hint of sadness. Her black hair was short, with ends that curled under. Her skin was as pale as snow, which made her eyes seem that much greener. Something about her features seemed familiar, as though I’d seen her before, although I couldn’t quite place when or where.
    As I watched, the woman moved through the clearing. She didn’t have on any shoes, but the snow didn’t appear to bother her, and she didn’t leave any footprints in her wake. Her head was bent, and she was speaking softly, as if she was talking to the carpet of wildflowers that surrounded her. I couldn’t make out her words, but the flowers seemed to respond to her voice, their stems turning and their bright petals arching toward her, as if they were trying to show off their best sides just to please her.
    “Who’s that?” I whispered.
    “That,” Nike replied, “is Eir.”
    So that was why her face looked so familiar. I’d seen it in the carvings and statues at the ruins.
    “That’s the Norse goddess of healing?”
    Nike nodded. “Eir is one of my oldest, dearest friends—and strongest allies.”
    We watched Eir move among the wildflowers. Suddenly, a shadow darted across the snow, and a gryphon dropped down from the sky—the same gryphon who had saved me and Logan from the snowstorm. I wasn’t quite sure how I knew that, but I did.
    The gryphon bowed low to Eir, then gently tugged some wildflowers free from the snow and presented them to her, just like in the carving I’d seen at the ruins—the one where the ambrosia flowers had been. Eir smiled and returned the creature’s bow before carefully taking the flowers from his beak. She brought them up to her face and inhaled deeply. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I almost thought I could smell the same thing she did—the sweet scents of the flowers mixing with the cold crispness of the snow.
    Eir whispered something to the gryphon, and he soared back up into the air, darted toward a nearby tree, and grabbed something out of the top of it. He landed in the clearing again a moment later. Eir bent down and plucked a green plant from his beak—something that looked like a clump of mistletoe. After a moment, she turned. Her green eyes met mine, and I was again struck by the kindness in her face. She radiated the emotion the same way Nike exuded victorious power. Eir started walking toward us, while the gryphon padded along at her side.
    “There are few things Eir loves more than her wildflowers,” Nike said. “But her gryphons are one of them.”
    “So they’re Eir gryphons then?” I asked. “Like Fenrir wolves and Nemean prowlers and Maat asps?”
    Nike nodded. “Exactly like that, although few mortals remember the gryphons’ proper name anymore, just like they’ve forgotten Eir is the goddess of mercy, as well as healing. But Eir has always had a fond place in her heart for the creatures. That’s one of the reasons she built her home here on the mountaintop—so they could make their nests nearby and she could watch over them.”
    “Why are you telling me all of this?”
    Nike smiled. “You’ll see.”
    Eir and the gryphon stopped in front of us. The goddess tilted her head to the side, her green eyes boring into my violet ones as if she could see all the secrets of my soul just by looking at me. Maybe she could. I straightened up to keep from shivering under her intense scrutiny.
    “I see it now,” she said, her voice as soft as a breeze rustling through the wildflowers. “Why you have such faith in her. She is strong-willed. Young, but very strong.”
    Nike’s smile widened, and, for a moment, I felt like a puppy the two of them were oohing and aahing over in some pet store window. Like I’d just done some sort of trick to win their approval, although I had no idea what it might be.
    Eir kept staring at me, as if she expected me to say something.
    “Um . . . thanks,” I said. “Thank you, goddess. That’s a very nice compliment.”
    “It was not a compliment,