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- Joined
- Mar 18, 2021
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter One
Aponolus looked around, noting the woman almost instantly. He nudged Galen forwards.
“It is you that she waits for. Be a good fellow and introduce us.”
The nudge actually moved Galen some five feet closer to the young woman with the infant in her arms, attracting her attention.
“I am..”
She stepped towards him as the words began to come out of her mouth. “Athena has told us of your coming. You are Galen, whom she sends on this quest.” She turned to the large, well muscled Spartan. “You are Aponolus, whom she has assigned, along with my Captain, Aenid, and myself, as his companions.” She did not offer a hand, but nodded to the wide eyed infant in her embrace, “This is Diana, namesake of the great Amazon, and I am Sappho of Lesbos, owner of this vessel.”
Galen nodded, still a little uncertain of himself, “Galen of Gortyn.” Athena had told him nothing concerning a quest. For his part, Aponolus satisfied himself with a single question.
“Unusual enough that a woman would own a merchant vessel. Why would you increase the oddness by naming this vessel after Salides, the coward and slaughterer of women?”
She looked almost coldly at him. “I was there at Salides End. Salides, the coward of Dorlia was Aenid, the Hero of Scarabus. That is why we call it the Salides. To remember and to commemorate when the man he became slew the man that he was and sacrificed his life so that others might live.”
Aponolus looked at her carefully. “You speak of those events with fire in your eyes. I take it you were there?”
She nodded. “He saved my life – twice. The second time he saved Diana, too, enabling her to slay the harpies. Without his sacrifice she would have perished and everyone on this vessel with her. His memory we will honour as long as we have breath to do so.” One who knew the story would note that she left out her own not inconsiderable part in the affair.
A man of youthful demeanour joined them. “These are the two Athena bade us grant passage?”
She kicked him gently, “Do not be learning the language of Captains, my captain. It is the simple honesty of your own tongue that I favour.”
He winced, then grinned with mischief in his eyes. “Well?”
She gave him an exasperated look, “Yes, Aenid. You know,the first mark on the chart. Get us underway as soon as the goods have been offloaded and the gods and the tides permit.”
He smiled and winked before bowing deeply, “At once.” He turned away, “Necklin!”
“Aye?”
“How long ‘til we have the ship offloaded and reprovisioned?”
Necklin chuckled drily, “The mistress anxious to get underway already, is she? Where is she taking us this time?”
“Porphyrus.”
Their conversation faded into the background as Sappho shook her head, dimples showing. They all loved her. She had been a young woman just of age to marry when they swore service to her and scarcely older than young Perion who took the name Aenid in honour of their fallen captain. Being the only other youth onboard it had been only natural that the two of them would spend time together when off duty. When she had been promoted to owner as well as mistress of the vessel, and he to Captain, it had forced the two of them to spend even more time together taking care of the business of the ship. In the process she had discovered a man who truly cared for those who worked under him. A man who gently made her aware of her own short comings as a leader and helped to make her a better one. What had made that even easier was that he had been completely blind to his own good qualities and all too aware of his own deficiencies. They had helped each other live up to the oath they swore to Diana on the day they had buried Aenid, the redeemed Salides. Since that day, Necklen had helped them both, very much a mentor, but ever mindful of their rank. Suggesting solutions out of his vast experience when problems inevitably arose as well as pointing out when something was working well. Meanwhile she used her academic background to learn the skills of a merchant and Aenid used the skills he had been taught to run the ship.
Eventually their deepening friendship had turned a corner, not into bed, but into courtship and eventually into marriage. The very thing she had fled had become desirable not because of the institution, but because of Aenid. Because of his willingness to continue their shipboard roles as they had been. With their union had come another blessing, young Diana. She turned back to her two passengers, “Welcome aboard. Young Damaris will show you to a cabin.” She pointed to Galen’s withered hand, “Even passengers are expected to take a turn at the sweeps at need. Are you going to be able to do so should the need arise?”
Galen flexed his good arm in response, “I may not have two arms, but the one I do have will add something to the oars if we are that desperate.”
Sappho nodded and smiled, “I think, in any case, that we have no choice. Athena grant us wisdom, we must pursue the quest she has given us.”
They followed the boy below in silence, stowing their meagre gear in the cabin he showed them before returning on deck to watch the hustle and bustle of a ship getting under way.
* * *
The sail was full and the sweeps were in. Even Aenid and Necklin were satisfied with her and the crew, other than the helmsman, were mostly lounging idly or doing the odd bits that were never finished on a ship. Two days out from Corinth, the seas calm and peaceful with fair wind carrying them towards their destination. Sappho and Aenid were having dinner in her cabin, a rare quiet moment alone as the baby was asleep.
“I am worried. I don’t know what this quest is, but the last time we were involved in a quest given by one of the gods, you almost died. I worry that Athena may have set a challenge that is too much for Galen and that it will fall to his companions to aid him. That it may prove too much for his companions. Bad enough when you were with Diana and responsible only for yourself. Now you have young Diana and a ship full of sailors who depend on you as well. They cannot stand to lose you.”
She noted that Aenid did not mention what a loss it would be to him. “Ever putting others ahead of yourself. One of the things I love about you most, my Aenid, my love. You make no mention of your own loss, though I know how deeply you would feel it. Captain of the ship, you cannot go ashore on any part of this journey, yet as those charged to see this task through, one of us must.” She caressed his cheek, “Worry not, dearest one, I will be very careful.”
He shook his head, “You misunderstand me, Sapph. I have been training young Damaris to navigate and Necklen can run the ship as well – better than I can. I want you to stay with the ship. To be safe. To be there for Diana. For Necklen and the crew. They need you.”
She kissed him, with great tenderness and the full depth of the love she had come to feel for this young man. “We neither of us know what comes but we will face it together, you and I. Together we are stronger than apart. Together we can stand.” Kissing him again, she let the silence linger for a moment. “And now, my husband, if the ship can spare her Captain for an hour, then I would have need of him.” Taking his hand, she led him to her bed where they enjoyed each other for the next hours of the day.
* * *
Galen looked at Aponolus, “I know why I am here. That the Lady Athena has commanded it, but you are Spartan by way of Corinth, neither of whom follow the lady. Why do you concern yourself with me?”
The big man was silent for an unusually long time. “Athena it was who helped me to see more than a dead sister. Athena it was who led me to Corinth when all I wanted to do was to hunt down the man who killed my sister. It was in Corinth that I met Diana, the woman who spared you. It was in Corinth that I found the trail that led to the man I sought. And it was in Corinth that I was given the task of mentor to you. What better way to repay the goddess to whom I am thus indebted?” A hearty clap to Galen’s back rattled his frame. The big man seemed to love doing that, Galen reflected. “Besides, I have grown to like your company.” His grin made one of its frequent appearances. “We quest, do we not?”
Galen nodded, thankful to be spared another bone jarring example of companionship. He had always considered himself to be one of the stronger and, indeed, he was. Aponolus, on the other hand. Galen smiled, the affable Aponolus was muscled on an altogether different scale. “Do you have any idea the nature of this quest?”
Aponolus shook his head, “Only that we were to board this ship. Beyond that, I have no clue.”
* * *
Athena smiled. Companionship. That of a wife for her husband and he for her. That of friends. It was wisdom to build such relationships. Whatever fate befall them, they would not face it alone. That is the strength of man, their bonds to one another. It was no wonder the gods were falling out of favour. We gods, most of us at any rate, seem to be more concerned with ourselves than with those who worship us and give us strength. She stirred the waters and turned her attention back to Diana. If there was to be a future for Olympus, Diana was going to be at the heart of it.
* * *
Galen sat alone, pondering. He had been a leader of men. Respected. Admired. Women had desired his attention. Then he had screwed it up and nearly lost his life into the bargain. Only the mercy of this woman Diana had prevented it. Lady Athena, his goddess, granter of wisdom. What she was going to do with him remained to be seen. He remembered stories of quests heard as a child and they did not fill him with anticipation. It had seemed exciting to hear such stories, but now he had lived adventure and battle. Lived moments when raw nerve was the primary defence against being skewered by steel.
He smiled, the quest did not seem to worry Aponolus overmuch, nor that slip of a girl and her husband. He laughed to himself. They must be putting on as good a front as he was. He sighed, regardless, they would be arriving at Porphyrus tomorrow. Things would begin there… it was the ‘what’ that concerned him.
* * *
Icelus flew through the gate of horn and found, at last, Athena’s dream for Galen. He looked at the rather boring bits and was glad he was being allowed to dress it up. An owl. That was going to be boring. Why did Athena always want an owl? What was it with her and those awful looking things, anyway? He shrugged as he neared the ship and began to transform into the owl…
* * *
Galen walked through the dimly lit cave. There was a river of fire, slowly flowing along one side. It was a bright yellow, almost white in the middle, a dull red along the banks. The heat was almost unbearable, but it was the river that provided the light. The owl flitted here and there, leading inward, bits of gnarled, twisted brush his only resting place while he waited for the man to catch up. Shadows cast on the walls, some of them reaching out towards the bowman as he walked. In spite of the heat iciness would walk up his spine or pass through his body. It felt unnatural. An icy mist surrounded him, a voice speaking out of it with words he could not hear, but he knew what they said, “Your honour is as broken as your bow and has become as twisted as your hand.”
The words seemed to echo through him day and night, tormenting him on the one hand with the knowledge of his failure, spurring him on to reclaim his honour on the other.
An invisible hand picked him up, plunging him into river of fire, he could feel the intense pain as he was heated, yet he was not consumed. Laid on an anvil he was hammered and shaped before being quenched in cool liquid.
He was walking again, the owl patiently waiting at times while he stumbled over unseen rocks on the floor of the cave or ducked low, sometimes even crawling, through places where there was no room to stand. Through it all, the mist came and went, like a living thing. It stole the heat from him so that he was cold even within the searing heat.
Again and again on his journey the hand picked him up, heating him almost to the burning point in the river of fire, shaping him, plunging him into the coolness of liquid which would become the steam which permeated the cave, fighting ever with the mist for control.
Suddenly, he found himself in a large open chamber with his companions and realized they had been with him all along, though only he had been forged and tempered. His mind now recognized the sound which had been nagging at him for hours: the unusually low pitched bleating of a goat. It must be huge. Drawing his makhaira he looked all round. Aponolus, too, was looking, as was the girl Sappho and the boy, Aenid. Together they formed a square, backs to each other. A hand reached out of the dark snagging the girl, who reappeared a moment later, suddenly dark haired and somehow more beautiful. The dark haired woman seemed familiar to Aponolus, despite the strange yet familiar armour, and he left with her, going into the darkness. Aenid, for his part followed his Sapph who continued to call to him for help.
He was again left alone. He looked for the goat, but found instead a creature of long silken hair of a colour he could not fathom. At times it appeared black as night or golden as the sun, at others a deep red and still others silvery as the moon. She was beautiful, her bounty displayed in a golden toga that shone like hammered armour but was as soft to the touch as the flimsiest of silk. Her long legs seemed to dance as she walked, her head and bust almost gliding towards him. Her eyes, ot once green and blue and yellow were as hard and black as the darkest marble he had yet seen. “You have not yet found your woman. I am she who waits.” Her lips did not move, yet he clearly heard the words sung by the sweetest voice he could imagine. Her hands caressed his cheek, sliding down to his chest. So sensuous was her touch, so bewitching her appearance that his heart failed to beat.
The next he knew he dangled from chains listening to an old hag’s cackle and there with him, his companions. The creature, the lower half man, the upper half a goat with three eyes bleated delight in a deep bass as it towered over the four of them. Then the owl was swooping towards him, diving towards him. Bigger. Bigger. He had never seen an owl so big, its beak open to reveal a huge maw behind the curved beak as it dove upon him. Ever nearer, the bird’s mouth getting ever larger until the blackness swallowed him.
Prologue
Chapter One
Aponolus looked around, noting the woman almost instantly. He nudged Galen forwards.
“It is you that she waits for. Be a good fellow and introduce us.”
The nudge actually moved Galen some five feet closer to the young woman with the infant in her arms, attracting her attention.
“I am..”
She stepped towards him as the words began to come out of her mouth. “Athena has told us of your coming. You are Galen, whom she sends on this quest.” She turned to the large, well muscled Spartan. “You are Aponolus, whom she has assigned, along with my Captain, Aenid, and myself, as his companions.” She did not offer a hand, but nodded to the wide eyed infant in her embrace, “This is Diana, namesake of the great Amazon, and I am Sappho of Lesbos, owner of this vessel.”
Galen nodded, still a little uncertain of himself, “Galen of Gortyn.” Athena had told him nothing concerning a quest. For his part, Aponolus satisfied himself with a single question.
“Unusual enough that a woman would own a merchant vessel. Why would you increase the oddness by naming this vessel after Salides, the coward and slaughterer of women?”
She looked almost coldly at him. “I was there at Salides End. Salides, the coward of Dorlia was Aenid, the Hero of Scarabus. That is why we call it the Salides. To remember and to commemorate when the man he became slew the man that he was and sacrificed his life so that others might live.”
Aponolus looked at her carefully. “You speak of those events with fire in your eyes. I take it you were there?”
She nodded. “He saved my life – twice. The second time he saved Diana, too, enabling her to slay the harpies. Without his sacrifice she would have perished and everyone on this vessel with her. His memory we will honour as long as we have breath to do so.” One who knew the story would note that she left out her own not inconsiderable part in the affair.
A man of youthful demeanour joined them. “These are the two Athena bade us grant passage?”
She kicked him gently, “Do not be learning the language of Captains, my captain. It is the simple honesty of your own tongue that I favour.”
He winced, then grinned with mischief in his eyes. “Well?”
She gave him an exasperated look, “Yes, Aenid. You know,the first mark on the chart. Get us underway as soon as the goods have been offloaded and the gods and the tides permit.”
He smiled and winked before bowing deeply, “At once.” He turned away, “Necklin!”
“Aye?”
“How long ‘til we have the ship offloaded and reprovisioned?”
Necklin chuckled drily, “The mistress anxious to get underway already, is she? Where is she taking us this time?”
“Porphyrus.”
Their conversation faded into the background as Sappho shook her head, dimples showing. They all loved her. She had been a young woman just of age to marry when they swore service to her and scarcely older than young Perion who took the name Aenid in honour of their fallen captain. Being the only other youth onboard it had been only natural that the two of them would spend time together when off duty. When she had been promoted to owner as well as mistress of the vessel, and he to Captain, it had forced the two of them to spend even more time together taking care of the business of the ship. In the process she had discovered a man who truly cared for those who worked under him. A man who gently made her aware of her own short comings as a leader and helped to make her a better one. What had made that even easier was that he had been completely blind to his own good qualities and all too aware of his own deficiencies. They had helped each other live up to the oath they swore to Diana on the day they had buried Aenid, the redeemed Salides. Since that day, Necklen had helped them both, very much a mentor, but ever mindful of their rank. Suggesting solutions out of his vast experience when problems inevitably arose as well as pointing out when something was working well. Meanwhile she used her academic background to learn the skills of a merchant and Aenid used the skills he had been taught to run the ship.
Eventually their deepening friendship had turned a corner, not into bed, but into courtship and eventually into marriage. The very thing she had fled had become desirable not because of the institution, but because of Aenid. Because of his willingness to continue their shipboard roles as they had been. With their union had come another blessing, young Diana. She turned back to her two passengers, “Welcome aboard. Young Damaris will show you to a cabin.” She pointed to Galen’s withered hand, “Even passengers are expected to take a turn at the sweeps at need. Are you going to be able to do so should the need arise?”
Galen flexed his good arm in response, “I may not have two arms, but the one I do have will add something to the oars if we are that desperate.”
Sappho nodded and smiled, “I think, in any case, that we have no choice. Athena grant us wisdom, we must pursue the quest she has given us.”
They followed the boy below in silence, stowing their meagre gear in the cabin he showed them before returning on deck to watch the hustle and bustle of a ship getting under way.
* * *
The sail was full and the sweeps were in. Even Aenid and Necklin were satisfied with her and the crew, other than the helmsman, were mostly lounging idly or doing the odd bits that were never finished on a ship. Two days out from Corinth, the seas calm and peaceful with fair wind carrying them towards their destination. Sappho and Aenid were having dinner in her cabin, a rare quiet moment alone as the baby was asleep.
“I am worried. I don’t know what this quest is, but the last time we were involved in a quest given by one of the gods, you almost died. I worry that Athena may have set a challenge that is too much for Galen and that it will fall to his companions to aid him. That it may prove too much for his companions. Bad enough when you were with Diana and responsible only for yourself. Now you have young Diana and a ship full of sailors who depend on you as well. They cannot stand to lose you.”
She noted that Aenid did not mention what a loss it would be to him. “Ever putting others ahead of yourself. One of the things I love about you most, my Aenid, my love. You make no mention of your own loss, though I know how deeply you would feel it. Captain of the ship, you cannot go ashore on any part of this journey, yet as those charged to see this task through, one of us must.” She caressed his cheek, “Worry not, dearest one, I will be very careful.”
He shook his head, “You misunderstand me, Sapph. I have been training young Damaris to navigate and Necklen can run the ship as well – better than I can. I want you to stay with the ship. To be safe. To be there for Diana. For Necklen and the crew. They need you.”
She kissed him, with great tenderness and the full depth of the love she had come to feel for this young man. “We neither of us know what comes but we will face it together, you and I. Together we are stronger than apart. Together we can stand.” Kissing him again, she let the silence linger for a moment. “And now, my husband, if the ship can spare her Captain for an hour, then I would have need of him.” Taking his hand, she led him to her bed where they enjoyed each other for the next hours of the day.
* * *
Galen looked at Aponolus, “I know why I am here. That the Lady Athena has commanded it, but you are Spartan by way of Corinth, neither of whom follow the lady. Why do you concern yourself with me?”
The big man was silent for an unusually long time. “Athena it was who helped me to see more than a dead sister. Athena it was who led me to Corinth when all I wanted to do was to hunt down the man who killed my sister. It was in Corinth that I met Diana, the woman who spared you. It was in Corinth that I found the trail that led to the man I sought. And it was in Corinth that I was given the task of mentor to you. What better way to repay the goddess to whom I am thus indebted?” A hearty clap to Galen’s back rattled his frame. The big man seemed to love doing that, Galen reflected. “Besides, I have grown to like your company.” His grin made one of its frequent appearances. “We quest, do we not?”
Galen nodded, thankful to be spared another bone jarring example of companionship. He had always considered himself to be one of the stronger and, indeed, he was. Aponolus, on the other hand. Galen smiled, the affable Aponolus was muscled on an altogether different scale. “Do you have any idea the nature of this quest?”
Aponolus shook his head, “Only that we were to board this ship. Beyond that, I have no clue.”
* * *
Athena smiled. Companionship. That of a wife for her husband and he for her. That of friends. It was wisdom to build such relationships. Whatever fate befall them, they would not face it alone. That is the strength of man, their bonds to one another. It was no wonder the gods were falling out of favour. We gods, most of us at any rate, seem to be more concerned with ourselves than with those who worship us and give us strength. She stirred the waters and turned her attention back to Diana. If there was to be a future for Olympus, Diana was going to be at the heart of it.
* * *
Galen sat alone, pondering. He had been a leader of men. Respected. Admired. Women had desired his attention. Then he had screwed it up and nearly lost his life into the bargain. Only the mercy of this woman Diana had prevented it. Lady Athena, his goddess, granter of wisdom. What she was going to do with him remained to be seen. He remembered stories of quests heard as a child and they did not fill him with anticipation. It had seemed exciting to hear such stories, but now he had lived adventure and battle. Lived moments when raw nerve was the primary defence against being skewered by steel.
He smiled, the quest did not seem to worry Aponolus overmuch, nor that slip of a girl and her husband. He laughed to himself. They must be putting on as good a front as he was. He sighed, regardless, they would be arriving at Porphyrus tomorrow. Things would begin there… it was the ‘what’ that concerned him.
* * *
Icelus flew through the gate of horn and found, at last, Athena’s dream for Galen. He looked at the rather boring bits and was glad he was being allowed to dress it up. An owl. That was going to be boring. Why did Athena always want an owl? What was it with her and those awful looking things, anyway? He shrugged as he neared the ship and began to transform into the owl…
* * *
Galen walked through the dimly lit cave. There was a river of fire, slowly flowing along one side. It was a bright yellow, almost white in the middle, a dull red along the banks. The heat was almost unbearable, but it was the river that provided the light. The owl flitted here and there, leading inward, bits of gnarled, twisted brush his only resting place while he waited for the man to catch up. Shadows cast on the walls, some of them reaching out towards the bowman as he walked. In spite of the heat iciness would walk up his spine or pass through his body. It felt unnatural. An icy mist surrounded him, a voice speaking out of it with words he could not hear, but he knew what they said, “Your honour is as broken as your bow and has become as twisted as your hand.”
The words seemed to echo through him day and night, tormenting him on the one hand with the knowledge of his failure, spurring him on to reclaim his honour on the other.
An invisible hand picked him up, plunging him into river of fire, he could feel the intense pain as he was heated, yet he was not consumed. Laid on an anvil he was hammered and shaped before being quenched in cool liquid.
He was walking again, the owl patiently waiting at times while he stumbled over unseen rocks on the floor of the cave or ducked low, sometimes even crawling, through places where there was no room to stand. Through it all, the mist came and went, like a living thing. It stole the heat from him so that he was cold even within the searing heat.
Again and again on his journey the hand picked him up, heating him almost to the burning point in the river of fire, shaping him, plunging him into the coolness of liquid which would become the steam which permeated the cave, fighting ever with the mist for control.
Suddenly, he found himself in a large open chamber with his companions and realized they had been with him all along, though only he had been forged and tempered. His mind now recognized the sound which had been nagging at him for hours: the unusually low pitched bleating of a goat. It must be huge. Drawing his makhaira he looked all round. Aponolus, too, was looking, as was the girl Sappho and the boy, Aenid. Together they formed a square, backs to each other. A hand reached out of the dark snagging the girl, who reappeared a moment later, suddenly dark haired and somehow more beautiful. The dark haired woman seemed familiar to Aponolus, despite the strange yet familiar armour, and he left with her, going into the darkness. Aenid, for his part followed his Sapph who continued to call to him for help.
He was again left alone. He looked for the goat, but found instead a creature of long silken hair of a colour he could not fathom. At times it appeared black as night or golden as the sun, at others a deep red and still others silvery as the moon. She was beautiful, her bounty displayed in a golden toga that shone like hammered armour but was as soft to the touch as the flimsiest of silk. Her long legs seemed to dance as she walked, her head and bust almost gliding towards him. Her eyes, ot once green and blue and yellow were as hard and black as the darkest marble he had yet seen. “You have not yet found your woman. I am she who waits.” Her lips did not move, yet he clearly heard the words sung by the sweetest voice he could imagine. Her hands caressed his cheek, sliding down to his chest. So sensuous was her touch, so bewitching her appearance that his heart failed to beat.
The next he knew he dangled from chains listening to an old hag’s cackle and there with him, his companions. The creature, the lower half man, the upper half a goat with three eyes bleated delight in a deep bass as it towered over the four of them. Then the owl was swooping towards him, diving towards him. Bigger. Bigger. He had never seen an owl so big, its beak open to reveal a huge maw behind the curved beak as it dove upon him. Ever nearer, the bird’s mouth getting ever larger until the blackness swallowed him.