The East Wind screamed in my ears like a howling maelstrom, whipping my hair painfully around my face even though Ares shielded me from the brunt of it with his body. Maybe it was more an attestation to how weak I was that I couldn’t even stand firm against a mere wind, but it astonished me that I didn’t even feel him waver. If anything, I was the one still huddling, struggling to escape the invisible, cutting tendrils that snaked around him to bite at me, even as sheltered as I was.
Before long, however, the boat’s wild side-to-side rocking began to even out. And although I could feel the vessel still bouncing over the waves like a skipped rock beneath us, it was far steadier under my feet than it had been a few minutes ago.
With the imminent danger of being tossed overboard now fading,
