“ We ’ ve found him ! We ’ ve found our Hephaestus , our Vulcan !”
All pretense of Pauline as a nameless creature of Nature or Love had been
dropped . What had started with the students had spread from reveler to reveler and now
the boys brought forth with pride a consort for their Aphrodite . The man who
approached her shuffled with a vicious limp and held his stained hands close to his
chest beneath his inclined head . He knelt before her .
“ All of heaven would fight to sit at your right hand , goddess . The people have
chosen me to receive the honor and prevent such terrible strife .” The man winked as he
said it . Pauline alone caught the gesture . There was kindness in it , the hint of being in
on a joke , and something else more subtle , serious , almost frightening . He was close
enough for Pauline to smell the tang of saltpeter and acid-blued steel below the fumes
of alcohol .
“ A throne for the God of Craft !” she announced , setting the congregation into
motion while she decided what to do with Hephaestus . No one would blame her if she
refused ( it was just a game , after all ), but the cost of acceptance was so little . Pauline
needed only to grant the man a kiss and keep him on her arm for the rest of the night ,
and there wasn ’ t any harm in that , nor reason for fear , surrounded as she was by so
many willing champions and lovers .