Guardian's Road: Revelation

[aithne]

"I am not," I declared, "rowing to Andikithira tonight. We can spend the night here, and leave before dawn tomorrow. I don't think the men at the camp will come down here tonight. We can find a place to build a sheltered fire for the night."

"Sounds good to me," Melitta said. We were making our way down to the beach we'd originally landed on. "I wasn't looking forward to making the crossing at night."

Kaia was ahead of us still, walking out in front as she usually did. We got to the beach and found a good place to build a fire as the sun slipped down behind the horizon. "Eight days," I muttered to myself as I stood on the beach and watched the sea swallow the sun. Eight days since Orrin and Evangeline had been taken. The fire was burning well, and we'd eaten a meal together, talking about what we'd seen that day.

Coming back to Melitta and Kaia, I started digging into the bag that held most of my worldly possessions. "I want to try something," I said. I found the page where Phoena had described the attempt on King Aeneas's life. "Xia was destroying these, or trying to." I tore the page apart, in half and then in quarters and then eighths, and dropped the pieces on the ground. As they fell, the pieces reassembled themselves into a whole page once more. I picked up the mended page and inspected the text. There were no changes.

"The Xia people were copying them down and then burning them, for some reason, which is a bit weird," I said, remembering what Nestor had told us.

"So burn it," Melitta said. She was sitting with her back to a rock, her dark eyes alight with firelight. "Not like we really need that one."

"True enough," I said, and tossed the page into the fire.

I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, so I was startled when the flame that had caught the paper began to twist and turn hypnotically, writhing into the air above us. The flame made a picture, a long staff hollow at both ends. Words wrote themselves in flame before the staff. 1 length of wood, 36 hands long from one branch, no wider that 6 inches made from oak must be carved.

The words lingered long enough to be copied, and then faded. The paper was picked up by an errant breeze and blew out of the fire, landing at my feet. "I think I know how people have been getting the bits of information they need for that weapon," I said as I picked it up.

"Yes, looks like it. Pretty, though," Melitta said.

"So Xia knows how to put together most of the weapon as well, if they've been doing this with the pages they had."

"But they are missing pages and Aeneas is too. I wonder what happens if they don't have all the pieces to this. Think it will work or just explode?"

I shrugged, putting the page back in my bag. "They might have enough to put it together and make it work, but not enough to be able to reliably target it, Kyrith said."

"So they might not be able to hit anything, including another ship." Melitta wrinkled her nose. "Nice."

"Or they might accidentally sink Crete," I said, remembering what Kaia had said earlier.

"Depends on how big it is. But that's a big stick, that's for sure."

"Not exactly something easy to hide, that's for sure." I glanced over at Kaia. She was wrapped up in a blanket, and her head was dropped to her chest. She was awake, but barely. "Looks like someone needs some sleep." I stepped over to Kaia. Sleepily, she reached up for me, and I picked her up and carried her to the makeshift beds we'd put together earlier. I laid her down and tucked her in, and she muttered and curled up, ducking her head under the blanket.

"Must be nice to be able to fall asleep like that," I said, coming back to Melitta and sitting down next to her.

She gave me a sly smile. "Oh, you do. I just have to tire you out first."

I put an arm around her, pulling her close. She was warm against me, and she sighed as she put her head on my shoulder. "Speaking of," I said in a low voice, "after we're sure Kaia's asleep..."

She turned her head and kissed me, leaving absolutely no doubt that she knew exactly what I was suggesting and heartily approved. We watched the fire and talked with each other, about everything and nothing, as the stars came out overhead and the waves washed the shore.

*****

The stars were just beginning to fade in the sky as we put the boat into the water, loaded a sleepy but uncomplaining Kaia into it, and rowed away from Crete. It was going to be a fine day for rowing. The seas were calm, the sun for once wasn't too hot, and the rowing was relatively easy. Melitta would occasionally spell me at the oars, though she tired quite a bit quicker than I did.

Kaia spent most of the time with either her hands or her feet dangling in the water, completely unconcerned. We made it to the eastern shores of Andikithira about two hours before sunset, and pulled the rowboat ashore and hid it in the bushes.

The shipyard, we figured, was on the western side of Andikithira, where it would be seen by fewer ships passing by. Andikithira was a small island, made of largely of a single hill that sloped gently upward. All of the trees leaned slightly to the east, which made for some interesting walking for the first few minutes as our minds tried to insist that the trees were upright and it was us who were leaning.

We got to the top of the hill and down the other side a mile or two, finally coming to a stop behind some boulders. The shipyard was in view, though details couldn't be seen at this distance. We could tell, though, that there were many people climbing on the ships, and from my count there were at least thirty warships in dock, all painted or being painted in dark colors. They were packed close together, more closely than was really wise; if one started on fire, it would spread to the others quite easily.

"I need to get a little closer," I said. "I need to see where tossing that vial will do the most good."

Melitta gave me a hard look. "If you think you're leaving us behind, think again."

I chuckled and we picked our way down to a closer vantage point. "There," I said, pointing. "That's the oil they use to paint the wood with to keep it from taking on too much water at first. That's flammable, if I recall."

I slid down behind the boulder I'd been on top of, and Melitta said, "Oh, that stuff. It burns well, yes. It gives off nasty fumes, too. So, the plan is?"

"Wait until after midnight, get in, throw the vial, and get out. Row to Kithira afterwards and catch a ship away."

And, surprisingly enough, that was exactly what happened. Once the shipyard had quieted down that night, I simply walked down into it. I went unchallenged; there were no perimeter guards as far as I could tell. I came within range, uncapped the explosive vial- and threw it as hard as I could towards the barrels.

There was a moment, that breath-holding moment after the vial disappeared into the darkness, when I suddenly thought about the consequences of someone figuring out I didn't belong there, if the explosion didn't happen.

Plink, I heard from the direction of the barrels.

Then there was light, and a sound that was less noise than impact. It felt almost exactly like being hit with a stone wall.

Screams of the injured and dying, the hungry fire leaping from ship to ship, the sting of splintered embedded in my cheeks and arms; it was just about time to leave. One of the ships had nearly disintegrated, the ones closest to that one were badly damaged, and the fire was spreading very rapidly.

In the confusion, I was able to slip away without incident, and back to the boat we went. It was only a few hours' rowing to Kithira, and by the time we got there my shoulders were burning and my arms were leaden. I got a few hours of sleep, and then we headed to Kithira town to see if we could find a boat away from here. Preferably very, very far away from here. We could see the smoke of the burning shipyard rising into the sky behind us as we shoulders our bags and walked into town.

Kithira town was a small port, but it did have a few ships going out that day. One was heading to Crete, one to Mesinia on the mainland, and one to Milos. Knowing we could get just about anywhere from Milos, we elected to go there.

We landed on Milos four days later. Having talked about it on the way, we'd decided to go to Andros on our way to Limnos, which was where we hoped we could find Vesna. There was a page on Andros, and it seemed like a good idea to stop and see if it was still there on the way.

The boat to Andros didn't leave until the next day. We had some resupplying to do, but mostly I was looking forward to finding a nearby beach to relax on. We thought we might as well see what sights Milos had to offer, though, and one of the most impressive sights was the harbor. There were so many ships here, flying so many different sorts of flags--Minoan, Greek, even a couple of ships bearing Egyptian flags and symbols. There were musicians and vendors here, all catering to the ships and their crews.

We'd hit the market and were strolling along the docks when I spotted something familiar. There was a ship pulling into harbor that was flying a flag bearing the device of two arms, apparently wrestling. The arms were white, and the flag was black. The device had been on several items that had been taken into Attis and Vesna's house, and I was willing to bet it was the symbol Xia used for itself.

"That looks familiar," I said to Melitta and Kaia. "We should probably go have a look at the boat and see just how much trouble we're in."

"Think they are following, or just a coincidence?" Melitta asked.

I had a feeling of premonition, looking at that ship, not quite foreboding but something else. "I'm not willing to call it a coincidence. Though if they're following us, I have no idea how."

"Spells of location, maybe."

"Might be. Let's go see if we can recognize anyone, I saw a place we can watch from without too much chance of being spotted. Be ready to run, though, both of you." I approached the ship and ducked down behind some conveniently placed crates. After the ship had finished pulling into docks and the ramp had been thumped down, a single man disembarked quickly, heading purposefully through the crowd on the docks. He was tall, thin, and wore a full beard. He looked familiar, and after a moment of searching my memory, I placed him--he'd been a visitor to Attis and Vesna's house on a regular basis, and had been in the shop before we'd killed Attis.

We followed him as best we could through the crowd. He was heading towards the market, and as he walked we saw that he moved like someone accustomed to going unnoticed. We hung well back, but even from this far away I could tell that he was moving like he had something heavy on his right leg. A weapon, I guessed.

The guy stopped at several market stalls, showing the vendors a piece of paper that seemed to be a drawing. They shook their heads, but when he stopped at the stall where we'd bought buns earlier, the baker nodded and pointed towards the dock.

I grabbed Melitta's arm and pulled her unto the shadow of a building, Kaia beside me. "He has a picture of one or more of us, I think. We should get out of town for the day."

"Or do we want him? He will report us here already and he will probably tell them which ship we left on, if he doesn't catch us first. Or we can make sure he doesn't tell anyone and Xia is out a member or a lackey."

"True. If he just disappears, they might figure we were here, but they won't know where we've gone," I said.

Melitta smiled. "That's my plan."

"He's carrying something heavy on his right leg," I told her. "Probably a weapon of some sort, but I can't tell what."

Kaia piped up, "If you do catch him, I can tell you what he is thinking. So you don't have to go and torture him to death before he talks."

I raised my eyebrows at the young seer. "Hunh. Well, that's useful. So the question is, would he come after one of us if we showed our faces, or would he go back and get help?"

Melitta looked thoughtful. "If it's me alone, he might just try to catch me. He might not try it if it's you."

"You might be able to lead him into an ambush. If I can get my hands on him, I should be able to get him down."

She nodded. "All right, let me lead him out of town, where we have less people watching."

"Sounds good." We went to find a place just outside of town where the road to the other side of the island passed through a densely wooded area. There was good cover, and few people traveling the road. Melitta kissed me soundly and headed back into town.

About a quarter of an hour later, I heard familiar footsteps approaching. Melitta walked swiftly by me, giving my hiding place a wink and walking by. Kaia was well-hidden in a nearby tree, and my focus began to narrow down to one thing, and one thing only--taking this man down when he arrived.

He did arrive only a couple of minutes after Melitta, moving quickly in an attempt to gain on her. I leaped out of cover, using my weight to get him down in the ground before he had a chance to react. Once he was down, he tried to go for the thing on his leg, but I managed to pin him and prevent him from touching it.

Melitta appeared and tied his legs. I got his hands, and Melitta gagged him. Then we carried him off the road, into cover that wasn't within earshot of it. Kaia had scrambled down from her tree and met us there. As she watched, I roughly stripped the guy, removing most of his clothing, a number of weapons, and the large amount of money he had on him. I carefully used a knife to slit the guy's loose trousers almost to his hip, and hissed a breath inward as I saw what he was been carrying on his thigh.

It was a segmented ring made of metal and at least plated with gold. It was anchored into his thigh with clamps sunk into the muscle at least an inch deep, maybe deeper. It had to hurt like hell when he walked. The skin around where the clamps went through his skin was red and weeping.

"I'd bet that's pretty new," Melitta said, pressing on one of the clamps with a finger and noting the sudden hiss in the guy's breath. "Not quite healed yet."

"Any ideas how to remove this thing? Or what the hell it is?" I asked.

It was Kaia who answered. "He does. He calls it his watcher." The guy's eyes flicked towards Kaia as she came to sit down next to his head.

"What's it do, can you tell?"

Her voice was serious. "It is device in which Xia can monitor him from a distance. It allows them to communicate."

"And if we remove it, it won't be able to contact them any more?"

Kaia's attention was focused on the guy, her small, sharp face intent. "Yes, but to get it off, you need to have the master, this is just a part. He is scared that you are going to take his leg off. It may stop it from working, but it's untried."

It was a thought I'd had when I'd first seen the thing. Removing legs was a messy business, and could be very fatal if you weren't careful. "I was just thinking that the easy way would be to take off the leg. Is he using it to communicate with them now?"

"He is."

I pulled one of the Kyriths from my harness. I caught the guy's eye. "Well. Off with the leg it is, then. If that doesn't work, we can just kill him. Melitta, I'll need you to at least seal off the wound when I'm done, so he doesn't bleed out. Unless he'd like to stop communicating with Xia for the moment, anyway."

There was almost a laugh in Kaia's voice. "He is stopping. Ask what you need quickly. He is trying to fight me and hiding things."

I tried to ignore how my skin was crawling and turned my attention to the guy. "What's your name, and did you know we were here or was your arrival just a coincidence?"

"His name is Eudor. He didn't know we were here, he was sent to look."

"What was he supposed to do if he found us?"

"Report, and kill if possible." Kaia's voice was a bit abstracted, as if she were paying attention only to relaying the message and not to the content of it.

"Is he a member of Xia, or just a lackey of some sort?" I asked.

"He is a lackey of Vesna's, but he knows about Xia."

Ah, too bad. "Does he know how many other people are out looking for us?"

"Lackies, about thirty or forty. Xia itself was eight, now seven. Vesna is the only name he has."

"How many others have a watcher attached to them?"

"Only nine watchers and a master. Vesna has the master."

I was starting to get used to this odd interrogation, grateful for Kaia's ability to extract information seemingly effortlessly. "Where is Vesna at the moment?"

"Ios, waiting for you."

"What does he know about the weapon that's contained in Phoena's book?"

"They have many of the pages, but it doesn't work right. They are still searching for more. He knows it will destroy ships."

I straightened, looking at Eudor. He looked like he was caught in the grip of terror, his eyes flicking to each of us in turn. I turned to Melitta. "All right. Melitta, do you have anything else?"

She tilted her head. "His last assignment?"

"His last assignment for Xia was to assassinate Celandia." I saw Melitta's eyes go dark and cold. Celandia was the high priestess of the Temple of Wazet, and someone that Melitta had known. even if they hadn't been close friends.

"Did he succeed?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Who was framed for the killing?"

"Porta clerics."

Did I even think it was going to be anything else? I gave Melitta an inquiring look, and she shook her head. Through Kyrith, I said to her, Distract Kaia for a second, this won't take long. He needs to die before he manages to tell Xia what he's spilled.

She nodded, the stepped forward to hold her hand out to Kaia. "Kaia, honey, let's go." The girl got to her feet, taking Melitta's hand, and the two of them began to walk away.

Eudor's eyes were on the two of them, uncomprehending. A sweep of Kyrith through his neck ended his life, probably before he was even aware that I was in motion. I waited until the body stopped twitching, and then dragged him behind a nearby boulder.

I took a long breath after I was done with that, and went to catch up with Melitta. With Celandia dead, Knossos was probably in the middle of a war between the Temples, the tensions between the churches rising to a fever pitch. But there was nothing we could do about it, and we needed to get off of this island and disappear again. Andros would work well for that.

We camped outside of Milos town that night, and left for Andros the next day on the tide. The trip there took three days, and the boat landed on the larger of the two ports on the island, a town named Hora. The port was lively, though not as large as Milos, and we heard the ship hawkers calling names of destinations as we walked along the dock. Limnos, our next destination, was among them.

The page is in an old temple in an almond grove in the center of the island, Kyrith told me in her doubled voice.

"Too far to walk today," I said to her. It was late afternoon, the cooling evening breeze coming up as we walked through the bustling dock market. Melitta pointed out a place that looked like a garden with wine and food vendors around the edges. It appeared to be one of those places where you could stay for a bit, talk to your neighbors, and have something to eat for a bit.

We sat down near an older man who was feeding bits of bun to a sparrow who was hopping ever-closer. "Haven't seen you before. Pretty daughter you have there," he said to us, smiling.

I chose not to explain. "She is," I said. "We just arrived today, we're on our way to the mainland. We have a few days before our boat leaves. Is there anything we ought to see?"

The man launched into a long discussion of various places to see on the island, some of them here, some of them in Gavrio, on the northwest side. "The coast road will take you there. Don't take the old road that goes into the center of the island."

"It's impassable?"

"More like haunted. Nobody goes there. There's an old temple up there in a forest made mostly of almond trees. It's still standing, but it's centuries old and not in good repair."

"Haunted how?" I asked.

"By some ancient spirit." He made a sign against evil, sketching a drawn bow in the air with his fingers. "People who go up there don't come back. But that was in my grandfather's time. Others say they see people there at night, praying to evil gods and sacrificing themselves and animals to the darkness."

"Strange. Do you have any idea who the temple was dedicated to when it was built?"

"Some strange snake god."

"Ah." I turned the conversation back to the market in Gavrio, and the old man began to tell me about the temples there. We ate and chatted, and overall I got the impression that Xia hadn't been there, at least not recently. This was good news, better than I'd hoped for.

After sunset we found an inn to spend the night at. I wanted to sleep in a bed, one that for once wasn't moving. Neither Melitta nor Kaia argued. The room we took had two beds, one for Melitta and I and one for Kaia, and it was a plain room but it suited quite well. We got lucky in our choice of inn; it was situated right above a beach, and through the open window we could hear the sound of waves crashing on the shore all night long.

It was, to be honest, one of the more pleasant nights we'd spent since leaving Athens. I wasn't about to let my guard down completely, but I felt safer than I'd felt for a while. Melitta fell asleep before I did, and I held her as she slept, breathed in the scent of her hair, listened to her and Kaia's breathing and the waves outside.

It occurred to me that despite all the trouble we were in, I was happy. I was growing fond of Kaia, getting used to her strange ways. I was still wildly in love with Melitta, and very glad indeed to have so much time in her company. I was getting to see islands I'd never have gotten to see otherwise, and at the end of it all there might even be a place to go home to, with the rest of the Fallen.

Melitta stirred and muttered in my arms. I kissed the top of her head and closed my eyes. We had a walk ahead of us tomorrow, and I should try to get some sleep.

The sound of waves followed me into my dreams.

*****

There was a rustling on the path ahead of us.

I caught Kaia's arm and pulled her behind me. We had been walking into the center of the island, following an ancient road that was more broken stones than whole, overgrown in many places. We had passed farm after farm in the beginning, and then walked past orchard that slowly gave way to tangled forest. Almond trees heavy with fruit were all around us, gnarled with age. There was no sign of human habitation other than the fact that the road was still visible, but still the back of my neck itched. We heard low whistles every once in a while, and I'd spotted some wind tubes in the trees that accounted for that.

We were being watched, that was for sure, and it was as if the forest itself were watching us. There were birds and small creatures in the undergrowth, but now I could hear and see movement ahead. It was human-sized, but something was strange about it.

We'd stopped stock still while I was listening, and now I took a cautious step forward, and another. The rustling started up again, this time louder. "Careful," I said in a low voice.

We continued forward, and the way became more difficult. Branches had been strewn in the path, making moving silently or quickly impossible. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a whisper come from somewhere nearby.

"Turn back--"

"Why?"

Another voice. "Why have you come?"

"Who are you?"

"Strangers, intruders, why have you come--"

Why why why WHY who why who who who has come oh who has come who who WHY--

Turn--back--

I had stopped moving, but the voices still came. I cleared my throat. "I'm Theron, and this is Melitta, and this is Kaia. We're here because Phoena's led us here."

Phoena? Phoena! Phoena phoena phoena--

The whispers babbled the seer's name, over and over again, as if the words were a stream tumbling down a rill. We stood and waited as the whispers echoed over us, as the rustling in the bushes continued without cease.

Another rustle from ahead, and a young man stepped out onto the path. He moved like a deer, all lightning muscle and utter stillness, more like a forest spirit than a human. "Greetings. Who are you?" I called to him.

He regarded us with eyes that reminded me of something, I wasn't sure quite what. "Quinn. You speak the name. How do you know Phoena?"

"We've spoken with her, and we've seen many of the places that she built and painted. We haven't met her yet, but evidently we will some day," I said, carefully.

"Why do you come here?" A challenge in that clear voice.

"There is a page that describes future events, and probably some more paintings, somewhere in the temple ahead of us. We've come to at least look at the page and the paintings."

"You seek the page. Speak truthfully now, your life depends on it." He lowered his head slightly. "The shipyard, what island was it on?"

Startled by the question, I said, "Andikithira, near Crete."

I could swear in that moment that Quinn was deeply startled. He looked at me with wide eyes for a moment, then nodded. "He knows. The question is answered. One thousand years from the past to now. Come, Theron. Destiny awaits."

I wasn't sure about this, but I did follow the boy, Melitta and Kaia behind me. The rustles accompanied us in, but the whispers had stopped.

He led us to a temple built in the really old Minoan style that you barely saw these days. There were white marble columns holding up a partially-intact roof. There were no walls to keep out the wind. Quinn came to the center of the temple, turned, and waited for us to catch up. "Here you are. Wait until sundown and the way will be revealed."

I glanced at the sky. It was early afternoon. "So why are you all the way out here? Guarding the temple, I assume."

There were those eyes again, and I realized what the expression in his eyes reminded me of. Kaia at her most unnervingly direct had an expression much like that. I glanced at her, and she was smiling at the boy, evidently delighted to find herself here. Quinn said, "We guard the temple and the old ones until it is our time to be the old ones."

"I noticed that there don't seem to be any adults among you."

"No, they sleep." He seemed unaware of anything odd about that statement.

"And you've been doing this for a thousand years?"

"Me, no, sixteen years. When the old ones were young, they did the same."

This was making less sense the more I talked to him. I tried again as Melitta took my hand beside me. "I take it they're asleep in the place where we're going?"

"I don't know where you are going, they sleep in another path. You wish to see them?" There was an odd emotion in the boy's voice. A kind of hope.

"We have some time before sundown, I would like to."

"No more than a thousand heartbeats. We are immune, but you are an adult. You will fall asleep. Come." He stepped back, towards another part of the open temple, around behind a column. He slid a panel on the column open to reveal a narrow staircase going down. The stair was illuminated by a dim, directionless blue light.

We followed Quinn down, into a dimness that smelled like camphor and jasmine. The staircases ended at a chamber that held hundreds of men and women lying on stone slabs. Beside each of the slabs food and jugs were placed, as if they might wake any moment and be hungry for breakfast. In the eddies we made as we walked, I could see a blue vapor wafting, reminding me of Delphi.

"The old ones," Quinn said, gesturing widely.

"Why are they down here? Are they waiting for something?" I asked.

"You, to take the paper and be gone. For you to begin the religion, for you to lead."

That simple statement took my breath away. Me? They had been waiting a thousand years for me? I was somewhat afraid they were going to be disappointed, to tell the truth. "Oh," I managed at last. "Well, then. We've seen blue smoke like this before, in Delphi, but it doesn't smell the same here."

"Mixed with sulfur it becomes a drug that grants visions, or just musings of a mind gone mad. You decide. Straight, it grants sleep that allows life to continue for centuries."

"And Phoena set this up?"

"The temple, yes, but for herself. We found it and deciphered its meaning and its writings. She lived for five hundred years, teaching us and waiting, but she ran out of time. She was here, still is, but all that remains are bones. She taught us the question and the answer. Only you would know the answer, or be willing to give it. Others that come may have known, but they chose another island."

"What happened to those who gave the wrong answer?" I asked.

"Died." Quinn's statement was flat and matter-of-fact.

"We should probably go back, before Melitta and I fall asleep," I said.

A thick waft of blue smoke eddied in front of Quinn's face. When it cleared, I was struck anew by the odd look in his eyes. "You have time yet. You want to see her?" he asked.

Did I? "I would, yes," I told him, wondering if it was true. It was, I thought. Strangely enough, it was.

He led us back to the very back of the room, to a slab by the back wall. On it lay bones, laid out in a perfectly undisturbed skeleton. On the base of the granite slab was carved:

Phoena
The Beginning
Fora Xia

My breath caught in my throat, and then I looked up at the stone wall above the bier.

On it was a painted carving, life-sized, of a woman who looked very much like Melitta. Instead of being small like Melitta, she was tall, almost as tall as I was. The painting of her looked out over the gathered sleepers with a gaze that seemed quite awake and aware. Her mouth was curved in just a bit of a smile.

I looked from the carving to the bones, and unexpectedly my heart twisted hard in my chest. This was her. My daughter. The daughter I'd never thought I was going to have. It seemed wrong, to have seen her for the first time like this, as bones and dust. "This is what she looks like?" I asked Quinn, gesturing at the carving.

"That is. Like your wife and you."

I glanced at Melitta beside me, who seemed entranced by the carving. I could hear her breathing, and I but an arm around her shoulder. She and I had discussed what Kaia had said to me, about Phoena being our daughter, but I'm not sure she'd believed it until this moment. She is going to be as beautiful as her mother, I said to her through Kyrith.

Her only reply was to glance at me, and I could see she had tears standing in her eyes. I tightened my arm around her shoulders as I said, "I've been told she's our daughter. Going to be our daughter, that is. I haven't worked out how she managed to get a thousand years in the past, though."

Quinn shrugged. "She never said, but she talked like she had been there. She always said later according to my fathers' fathers father. But later never came."

"The vapors only keep you alive so long, then?"

"Yes, the oldest now living is nearing six centuries. He will die soon."

"The words, here. Do you know what they mean? We've run across the word Xia before as the name of a group."

"The beginning is something we called her. Fora Xia means don't trust. It's something she used to say a lot."

"Don't trust what, or who?" I asked.

"We took it for other people except for those that knew the answer. But she meant otherwise. Maybe its a warning for you? Make any sense?"

"It does, in a way."

Quinn nodded. "Time to go, its been eight hundred and sixty-six heartbeats for you."

Startled, I asked, "You've been counting?"

"I have my own. Something we learn to do from birth."

"Ah. Let's go up, then." I gathered Kaia up from the corner she'd been investigating, and she fair bounced along beside us as we walked towards the staircase. Up we went into air that smelled like forest rather than jasmine. My head was spinning, so I didn't ask any more questions of Quinn. I had enough to digest already.

We had a few hours before sundown, so Melitta and I spread out a blanket and had something to eat. A boy and girl about Kaia's age approached us and beckoned to our young seer. She gave us a glance, and I nodded permission. "Be back by sunset," I told her.

She nodded and raced off with the children. I sighed as I watched her go. It must be so deadly dull for her much of the time, traveling with us. As adult as she seemed much of the time, she was still a child, and it seemed unfair that she had no friends her own age around.

"Isn't much we can do about it right now," Melitta said when I mentioned it to her. "I'm sure she's got friends back with the Fallen. Maybe if we make our way there one of these days."

"Maybe. If we get Orrin and Evangeline back..."

She turned and looked at me, an unexpected seriousness in her eyes. "Do you really think we're going to get them back? You remember what Phoena said. Accept her as our daughter and be done with it."

I spread my hands. "Maybe. Anything is possible. I just--"

"Don't really want to be her father?" Melitta asked, a bit archly. "Creeps you out a little too much?"

"I was going to say, I have no idea how to be anyone's father, much less a seer's. I don't want to make any real mistakes with her. She's had a rough enough life as it is."

"Awwww." She kissed me gently. "She's had a good start, and she doesn't seem to need a whole lot of guidance at this point," she said, thoughtfully. "We protect her, let her develop her gift, make sure to give her some breathing room. Seems simple enough to me."

"You think?" I glance away at Melitta, towards where I could hear childish shouts coming as children played in the forest. "I don't know. I think there's a lot more to Kaia than she shows us anyone. Phoena may be the person who knows her best, I think. I get the feeling sometimes...well, I don't really know how to put it into words. It's hard to know how to love her, sometimes."

"Funny," Melitta said, leaning against me. "I've had people say the same thing about me."

I chuckled. "I know exactly how to love you, though. Honestly, I don't think I could help myself."

"I like that about you," she said, grinning. "You'll do fine, Theron. Just relax some around her. In the end, she's just a girl, and she needs the same things all kids need."

I smiled, and the conversation turned then towards speculation about what the paper would say when we got our hands on it. A few hours later, Kaia reappeared, her knees filthy and her cheeks rosy from running around. We put together a cold meal, and waited for sunset.

When the sun sank towards the horizon, the rays of the sun cast shadows on a pair of columns at the center of the temple. The shadows were in the shape of two Minoan axes.

"Well, there's the path, but how do we follow it?" I muttered, walking to the columns. They were close enough together that I could easily touch both of them. I looked and saw to my surprise that there were indentations on the columns, places where the blades would fit into the stone. They were shallow depressions, but the purpose was clear.

I took the Kyriths out of my harness, and held each of them to the columns. They moved just slightly, pressing into the stone with a click. As the columns began to turn, the axes came loose of them and fell back down into my hands. I reharnessed them and stepped back, just in case the ground decided to open up.

Melitta and Kaia came up on either side of me as he columns spun down into the ground, and the floor between them rose and became a pedestal. On the pedestal was a box.

I stepped forward and gingerly checked out the latch on the box. One motion, and the latch gave and the top opened, revealing a sight that we both looked forward to and knew to dread--a page from Phoena's book.

Wondering what my unborn daughter had in mind for me now, I picked it up and read.

By now, you know that the high priestess of Wazet is dead, murdered in cold blood. The Wazet and Porta priesthoods are coming to blows.

Melitta has been named as the next high priestess and needs to assume her duties. By taking a Guardian of Porta as her bodyguard and husband, she will bring the strife to an end and unite the temples.

My mouth hung open. Beside me, Melitta coughed in surprise. "Why would they name you as the next high priestess?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "They shouldn't, I wasn't anywhere near the line. It should be Celandia's next, Adara. And after Adara--oh, damn."

"What?"

"Next after Adara is Obelia. It sounds like from this that Celandia named me instead but she must have suspected something in Adara and Obelia to choose me."

I took a long breath. "Well. It sounds like we need to head to Knossos, at any rate."

"It does." She looked up at me. "Feel like being head of the Guardians of Wazet? And probably Porta?"

I gave my love a wry smile. "I don't know, traveling's been nice. But as long as I get to be married to you, I can do it."

"This is going to get insane. We will be playing more politics, but we will have more resources."

I nodded. "We may eventually look back on this as the easy part, true enough. But I think it's important that we do this."

She let out a gentle breath. Kaia had wandered away at this point, off toward the edge of the Temple. "I think so too. And Kaia? If we do this, we may not get the chance to go rescue Orrin and Evangeline. Or we send a lot bigger group than just us."

I glanced over at the young seer, who was a small moving place in the gathering gloom. "True enough. We may have the resources to do that. She seems happy enough being with us for the time being, and I'm sure she'll tell us if that changes."

"I'm sure," Melitta said, and the thing was agreed.

I let out a breath. We were going home.

Home to a city that was probably on the edge of open warfare. Home to a Temple in which I had no friends, that would be exceedingly suspicious of my presence. The Wazet people would resent me, the Porta people would see me for the walking heresy I was, and I hadn't forgotten the penalty for breaking our vows.

I was going to walk into their midst and demand that they change. It was high time that someone did, and I supposed I was the best one for the job.

I knew, now, that under the stiff upper lip and the public clinging to our Guardian's vows lay something dark and festering. I had too many friends who were quietly, desperately unhappy. Too many friends who seemed somehow frozen in time, as if they had stopped growing the day they had taken those vows. Too many comrades who I knew sought out pain to blot out the errant desires of the heart and the body.

It was time for it to end. But few deaths are painless, and the death of an ideal, however mistaken, is always messy.

I was going to have to convince the Guardians to follow me on my road. And that was going to be one of the hardest things I'd ever done. Bt if we were to survive, we had to free ourselves.

As we settled down for the night, camping near the temple, I ran the thought over and over in my mind. Am I ready for this? Am I ready to fight for this, to shed blood for this, to maybe die for this?

No. Not nearly ready to die for this. I had a lifetime to spend with Melitta yet, after all. But I was ready to fight.

And so, the next morning, we started out for Knossos.