{"product_id":"medusas-sisters-isbn-9780593547762","title":"Medusa's Sisters","description":"\u003cb\u003eA vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eA gorgeously crafted retelling of Greek mythology, \u003ci\u003eMedusa’s Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e is a celebration of the many faces love can wear.”\u003ci\u003e —BookPage \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perfect for fans of \u003ci\u003eCirce\u003c\/i\u003e, this is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. Prepare to be enthralled!”—Stephanie Marie Thornton, \u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHer Lost Words\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e*\u003c\/i\u003eA BookPage Best Book of 2023: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe end of the story is only the beginning…\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were unique among their immortal family. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from lowly sea-born origins to the outskirts of the pantheon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.“\u003ci\u003eMedusa's Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e totally destroyed me. A moving tale of sisterhood and heartbreak. . . . this book had its claws in me from the very first page - pun intended.”—Genevieve Gornichec, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Witch's Heart\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Medusa’s two almost-forgotten sisters--- Stheno and Euryale---come to enchanting life, telling their own stories, bound to Medusa yet separate and fiercely free to make their own destiny. \u003ci\u003eMedusa’s Sisters \u003c\/i\u003egives us an intimate look at what it means be an immortal yet walk and live among human beings. Lyrical, exquisitely detailed, and poignant.”—Margaret George, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHelen of Troy\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Confessions of Young Nero\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With stunningly beautiful prose, Lauren J.A. Bear has deftly tugged on myths of old to weave a fresh and feminist modern legend from the dusty references of Medusa’s once-forgotten sisters. Perfect for fans of \u003ci\u003eCirce\u003c\/i\u003e, this is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. Prepare to be enthralled!”—Stephanie Marie Thornton, \u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHer Lost Words\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Medusa’s Sisters \u003c\/i\u003eis a wonderful, powerful story that totally absorbed me. Clothed in Greek mythology, it explores the loyalties and conflicts of family—especially the relationship between sisters who are bound together at birth but also need the independence to claim a life of their own. It is a compliment to Ms. Bear’s writing that I never saw monsters, only sisters.” —Anne Bishop, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Queen’s Price \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCrowbones\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“\u003ci\u003eMedusa’s Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e is a stunning debut. Lauren Bear writes with lyrical elegance, her gorgeous prose illuminating the fierce power of women, the bonds of sisterhood, and the enduring strength of myths and legends. A gloriously feminist novel that achieves both historical richness and modern relevance. As thought-provoking as it is entertaining. I couldn’t put it down.” –Mimi Matthews, \u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Siren of Sussex\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lyrical, brilliant, and deeply moving, MEDUSA’S SISTERS connects the stars—the myths you thought you knew—in startling new ways. Prepare to be devastated.”—Mary McMyne, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Gothel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Alive with soaring poetry and myth, \u003ci\u003eMedusa's Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e sparkles as a delightfully feminist subversion of the maligned and forgotten Gorgon women, reframing and bringing their shadowy legend fiercely, vengefully, into the light. A bold and beautiful tale about sisterhood, motherhood, and what it truly means to be a woman.\"—Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Witch and the Tsar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eA gorgeously crafted retelling of Greek mythology, \u003ci\u003eMedusa’s Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e is a celebration of the many faces love can wear.”\u003ci\u003e —BookPage \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In giving a voice to those long silenced, \u003ci\u003eMedusa's Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e brings the cosmology of ancient Greece to vivid life, writhing and seething with numinous possibility. It is a story of monsters and mortals, and the gods who use them both with careless cruelty.”—Jacqueline Carey, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eKushiel's Dart\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCassiel's Servant\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Bold, beautiful, and brilliantly subversive, Bear's incredible debut is engrossing from the very first page. With her ambitious storytelling, Bear breathes life to characters often reduced to the shadows, and has proven herself as a talent to watch!\"—Claire M. Andrews, author of the \u003ci\u003eDaughter of Sparta\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A must-read for Greek mythology fans seeking new depth in their tales and those who enjoyed Madeline Miller’s \u003ci\u003eCirce \u003c\/i\u003eor Pat Barker’s \u003ci\u003eThe Silence of the Girls\u003c\/i\u003e.\"—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Debut novelist Bear has artfully fashioned an entrancing tale that not only perfectly captures in poetic prose both the fabled glories and gritty realities of ancient Greece, but also features a trio of sisters, who, despite being mythological beings, seem all-too real and relatable by virtue of Bear’s gift for incisive characterization.\"—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bear handles the different voices of Stheno and Euryale with masterful skill and wit… With stellar writing and her focus on Medusa’s forgotten sisters, Bear’s contribution to the sub-genre of mythic retellings is not to be missed. Highly recommended.”—\u003ci\u003eHistorical Novels Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Captivating.\"—\u003ci\u003eMs. Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Fans of Madeline Miller’s \u003ci\u003eCirce \u003c\/i\u003ewill want to check out Medusa’s Sisters, a feminist take on the infamous Gorgon and her siblings Stheno and Euryale. Like the best mythological tales, \u003ci\u003eMedusa’s Sisters\u003c\/i\u003e is about more than gods and monsters, exploring the bonds of sisterhood and the quest to leave a lasting legacy.”\u003ci\u003e—\u003ci\u003eParade\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Lauren J. A. Bear puts a new twist on Greek mythology.”—PopSugar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bear never softens her unsparing vision of an ancient world dominated by male violence and Olympian capriciousness. But she empowers female figures demonized through the ages to voice their own ideas about who they are and about the merciless forces that have determined their destinies. ‘Medusa’s Sisters’ offers a compelling alternate version that brings new depth to a familiar myth.”—\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Bear’s writing is pure poetry. Not in the way that you would imagine with depictions of a hazy blue ancient Greece, but with words that are encased in wanting and need. Honesty that is so real it is almost brutal. And most of all, the raw desire to understand yourself and your place in the world. It is a story about overcoming, perseverance and unconditional love.\" —The Student (Edinburgh)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eLAUREN J. A. BEAR\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Boston and raised in Long Beach. After studying English at UCLA and education at LMU, she taught middle-school humanities for over a decade—and survived! She is a teaching fellow for the Holocaust Center for Humanity and lives in Seattle with her husband and three young children. She likes crossword puzzles and being on or near the water without getting wet.FIRST EPISODE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Stheno\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The way of sisters is more arcane\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e even\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e than the ways of gods.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e -Erastus of Athens, \"The Theater of Sisterhood\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e First you must accept that monsters have families.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My mother and father, two ancient sea deities of notorious danger, gave me eight siblings, but we were not raised together. Couldn't be, for we were separated by more than birth order-by our physical shape, our otherworldliness. Human families, by comparison, are so simple. Maybe one child has brown hair, the other blond. Eye color may range over shades of blue. Oh, how mortal parents dramatize these trite differences! Discussing in laborious detail how one learned to walk a whole month before another! Inconceivable!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In my family, some of us had tails.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Deino, Enyo, Pemphredo, Echidna, Ladon, and I share parents, but Medusa and Euryale are my sisters. Just as the Graeae were born together, so were we Gorgons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We would not be called the Gorgons, however, for many, many years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My grandparents were primordial beings, the sea and earth themselves, present at the creation of the world. This union between Gaea and her second husband-her own son Pontus-produced my parents. My father, Phorcys, married his sister and female counterpart, Ceto, and all their progeny came to life during the Golden Age of the Titans, well before Zeus was hidden in a mountain cave on Crete and Cronus swallowed the changeling rock.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Yes, I watched Zeus release the monsters of Tartarus and conclude the ten-year campaign against his father, victorious. His lightning bolts became the harbinger of a new era, the Silver Age, where he was lord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Though well hidden from the fray, I also witnessed the Titans meeting their punishments. Prometheus and the eagle. Atlas and the world. I should have paid closer attention when these so-called Olympians, denizens of the highest mountain, attacked those who wronged them with dogged maliciousness. Maybe then I would have been more prepared for how they treated the rest of us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On days when I'm especially cynical, I find it almost laughable that I am older than both Poseidon and Athena, who would wreak such havoc upon my life. No respect for elders in the immortal community, I'm afraid. But then again, so much of age is attitude, and it took me far too long to acquire one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I sound just like my mother. That happens to immortals, too, when we become old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And I'm getting ahead of myself. I do that sometimes. Time holds little consequence when you occupy forever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The story of our birth, then.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My mother, Ceto, resided in a watery cave beneath Mount Olympus, connected to her precious seas through endless tunnels and labyrinthine streams. Though my father adored his wife, he did not attend her labor-a messy, menial process, which he considered a female's work. And for reasons inexplicable-both then and now-matters of the womb are unpalatable to masculinity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I have viewed battlefields covered in unspeakable gore, but I have seen delivery beds far, far worse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I am extremely old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At my mother's side stood her first set of triplets, the Graeae, or gray women. Another trio forced to sacrifice their individual identities for group nomenclature. Born with gray hair and skin, Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo shared one detachable eye and tooth. I never found them ugly, despite that deficiency. Their gray faces were more interesting than unpleasant, and unlike my sisters and me, the Graeae had a gift: the modest ability for prophesy, to guide those who wander or are lost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Though if they ever deigned to advise us in those early days, we certainly didn't listen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When Ceto's contractions commenced, my mother summoned Doris, the wife of her other brother, Nereus, for Doris bore the nearly fifty Nereids and thus had plenty of experience with labor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Still, complications arose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I emerged first, en caul-within the protective sac indicative of my immortality. My aunt ruptured the bubble and released me, red-faced and stoic, upon the world. Doris smacked my bottom with her aquamarine hand to summon tears, but I refused to cry. I frowned at her repeated efforts, bringing Ceto great felicity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"This one will be unforgiving!\" she laughed between bites, for our mother ate the caul of all her immortal children. With jelly dripping from the corners of her mouth, Ceto named me Stheno, for she knew, even then, that I would be strong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Euryale followed moments later, screaming incessantly-even within the bloody veil-demanding attention with her first breath. Another family might have greeted her with the affection she so obviously needed, but our callous community only grimaced.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Make it stop,\" muttered Deino, no doubt wishing she also shared a retractable ear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Though separated by mere heartbeats, Euryale would always be my younger sister. We had to organize ourselves somehow; all living beings crave hierarchy, and we were no exception.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"How do they look?\" our mother asked, straining to see her new daughters as her older ones performed the rites of delivery, washing and swaddling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Ordinary,\" answered Pemphredo on a sigh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Fins? Fangs?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"None.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Talons?\" wondered Ceto, riding a hope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Not even a sharp nail. Ten fingers, ten toes. Two eyes.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ceto snorted, then winced as she clutched her lower abdomen. \"Doris! I feel another!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This last baby, however, refused to drop.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"It is breech, I think,\" worried Doris, removing red hands from my mother's birth canal and pushing green hair out of her eyes with a forearm. \"I felt a foot.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Then go in and grab it!\" hissed Mother, gnashing her razor-sharp teeth. Ceto wasn't only the goddess of the largest sea creatures, but also the most lethal ones. \"The little demon is destroying me!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Poor Doris shoved an entire arm's length into my mother's belly, grabbed the baby's leg, and yanked. When Doris would later recount the story, she claimed the din of my mother's shrieks blurred the boundary between life and death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The babe, however, arrived in this world the same way she would leave it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Voiceless.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She was small and bluish with a shock of dark hair and no caul. A serpentine umbilical cord coiled lethally about her head and neck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A being born in conflict with itself, choked by its own lifeline.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Dead,\" murmured Doris, with greater surprise than sadness. For my kind, death is more a novelty than an emotional experience. Most of us lack the requisite empathy. Soft hearts aren't meant to last forever; it is why immortals grow selfish and cold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Yet Doris was softer than most, and she held the lifeless babe gently while untangling the cord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"What a shame,\" she lamented. \"Three would have been a nice number.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Pemphredo, commanding the communal eye, ran a hard look over the cradled corpse, crown to toe, and her lips tightened. She snatched the tiny baby from Doris's arms and tossed it into the abyss. Doris yelped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Daughter!\" upbraided our mother, slamming fists against the miry stones of her cavern. \"I would have liked to see it before you fed my beasts!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Pemphredo shrugged, for she was not inclined to apology. There had been an ominous aura to my youngest sister, and Pemphredo felt only respite to be rid of the pernicious little presence. Besides, our kind did not romanticize babies. You had to be strong to survive in such a world, and this one was clearly weak.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"You really are vicious,\" remarked Ceto with some admiration, exonerating Pemphredo's transgression. \"Show me the other two, at least.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Deino and Enyo brought Euryale and me into the moonbeams that descended from the cave's natural skylights, casting our neonatal features in an opaline glow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"They are common.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A failure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Later, we would be called \"human form.\" No physical deformities, no aberrations of color. We were my parents' most conventionally beautiful offspring-cherubic, even-and, thus, their least impressive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"They are lovely,\" corrected Doris, overcompensating. \"And their eyes are so unusual!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Indeed,\" Ceto responded sadly, inspecting the four miniscule orbs staring up at her expectantly. Mine were red ocher and Euryale's shone amber. Our mother gave them half a breath of consideration-and tried to find some satisfaction-when the tunnels began to shake, rattling loose stones and dirt from the walls. \"Stitch me up, Doris, my husband comes!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Our brief chance at being special come and gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Pemphredo threw the remains of afterbirth to my mother's white-bellied shark, who lingered in a nearby pool, while Doris rinsed and tidied my mother's lower half. Ceto, already beginning to heal, prepared herself for the arrival of my father in his seal-led chariot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Bring them to me!\" she ordered, flapping her arms impatiently.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Deino and Enyo dutifully-blindly-passed us to our mother, who quickly assembled a maternal tableau: a babe propped in the bend of each scaly arm, her own head tilted downward in a vain attempt at demure. However, to Ceto's disappointment, it wasn't Phorcys emerging from the quaking subterranean depths, but rather, my other sister, the she-dragon Echidna.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Half speckled serpent, half maiden, Echidna was-at that time-my parents' most prolific issue. She resided in the fetid, slimy waters of the most arcane depths below the earth. With her monstrous storm-giant consort, Typhon, Echidna birthed some of the most profligate abominations on land or sea: the Hydra, Cerberus, the Chimera, and the Sphinx.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ceto respected nobody, but Echidna at least commanded my mother's attention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And at that moment, Echidna made quite the entrance, heaving with anger, the disposed baby pressed tightly against her chest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Who did this?\" Echidna demanded, seething, her black eyes darting between Doris, Ceto, and the Graeae.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I did,\" responded Pemphredo, insouciant as always. I would later nickname her the Wasp, for she seemed both free of fear and full of sting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"We did,\" corrected the other two Graeae, in unison, for it was innately understood-even then-that our family's triplets elicited collective punishment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I understand your vision is limited, gray sisters, but your one eye fails you. This infant lives and breathes.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Our mother gasped-I imagine with some amusement. \"Pemphredo, you wretch! Hand her to me, Echidna! Now.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Of course, I hold no natural memory of this day, but each time Doris recounted it later, she would pause at this part-linger on the lone heartfelt moment-for Echidna did not want to release the baby. Connections form quickly in my world. Love can be found at first sight and enmity even earlier. The bond between Echidna and my youngest sister was adamantine, instantaneous. Only reluctantly, and with much haggling, did she surrender the child to her rightful mother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Many times, I have wondered how the trajectory of our lives might have curved if Echidna refused-even if she kept only the one of us. Are we so attached to our fates? To our catastrophes?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Echidna, after all, would suffer so much more than she deserved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My mother blew her salty breath into the little face, and the baby's eyelids parted, revealing eyes as green as peridot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"She is different, somehow,\" Ceto noted, comparing the salvaged babe to my other sister and me. \"This one is changed, in a way I can't describe.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"She is mortal,\" Echidna claimed. \"Her immortality was stillborn.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Unusual,\" murmured Ceto.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"But possible,\" added Deino, yielding the wisdom of the eye. \"She was not en caul. She will die.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Of old age. Or sickness,\" elaborated Enyo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Or murder,\" finished Pemphredo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"You see her future?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Not clearly,\" Deino replied. \"We cannot tell how she will leave this world.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Or when.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"But she will leave it? You are certain?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Pemphredo nodded. \"Kill the baby now. It will be a mercy.\" It was an argument born of the most abject pragmatism, and echoed by the other Graeae.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"What can a life mean for one who will die among those who cannot?\" wondered Enyo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"This babe will always be at risk,\" reasoned Deino. \"It will be unfair to the other two sisters, futile, like yoking them to a broken plow.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ceto deliberated. She operated within her two natures, made manifest in the twin leviathans flanking her at all times. Sometimes she was a whale, tribal and sage. At other times she was a lone shark. Bite first before you are eaten.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Your daughter lives,\" contended Echidna. \"Infanticide, especially within a family, is an act of great darkness. An anathema, even among our kind.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ceto pursed her lips. \"And what does Nereus's wife think? Do you side with my gray children or my sea dragon?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Doris shook her head, wisely abstaining from the family's division. \"All your children offer cogent counsel, but you are the mother. It is your choice.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Echidna, intrepid and fervent, locked eyes with Ceto. \"As such, you will bear the punishment.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It must have been quite a sight: two monsters, mother and child, engaged in a war of wills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"If you do not make your claim,\" finished Echidna, \"I will keep her.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And it was this statement that spared my sister from becoming chum. I suspect my mother made the decision mostly out of intrigue: What was it about this divisive baby that inspired Echidna's advocacy, her attachment?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I will acknowledge this mortal, who is somehow a product of me and my brother-husband.\" Ceto laid us babies upon a bed of woven seaweed, and we squirmed into our familiar positions. Reunited by touch and feel. \"Whether she be an honor or a curse, let none of you harm her.\" And Ceto flicked her wrist, decree delivered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Echidna lowered her head, as pleased as the Graeae were jealous and Doris was eager to leave.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"What will you call them?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Stheno,\" Ceto began, like the opening of an invocation, as she touched our brows. \"Euryale.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And she paused, lingering on the third infant-the babe who almost wasn't. Ceto bared her teeth. \"And the little queen.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Pemphredo scoffed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Then Ceto whispered the name that would become lore when it was still only a name, nothing more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Medusa.\"","brand":"Ace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302994727141,"sku":"NP9780593547762","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593547762.jpg?v=1767732511","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/medusas-sisters-isbn-9780593547762","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}