Guardian's Road: Destruction and Creation
Feb. 25th, 2007 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithne[Last story, along with the epilogue, which was a lot shorter than I thought it might be. New story begins probably this coming week or next, tentatively titled Shadows and Silk.]
Fortunately, Knossos was not in flames when we pulled into port that evening.
I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as we disembarked and Melitta gave the crew of the ship orders to unload it and bring everything to the Wazet temple. We walked to the Temple ourselves, stopping to pick up supper on the way. I realized I'd barely eaten anything the day before other than breakfast at the Porta temple, and that couldn't possibly be doing my healing any good. Melitta and Kaia, too, were starving, and I made sure both of them ate well.
When we got to the Porta Temple, we went to find Tressa. "How'd it go?" Melitta asked.
"All's quiet, but...we have missing people. Eight Guardians and four priestesses took off. All of them the hard cases, the ones who really hate the Temple of Porta. Small numbers so far, but I expect more."
I nodded. "It's rather inevitable, and we can't really bring them back. What we have to watch out for is if someone is picking them up and forming them into a group of their own."
Melitta made a face. "Which is likely to happen. I can almost bet that they got better offers from Minos, via Vesna. Tressa, thank you. I'll catch up with you later."
Tressa nodded and left, and I turned to Melitta. "This is going to get very ugly very quickly, I'm afraid. We may have to strike first. The problem is we don't have any concrete evidence of Vesna's involvement in this."
"And with her in Minos's bed, it's unlikely that he will believe us," Melitta said.
"True enough. We may have to set the Temple against the crown." It wasn't a thought I liked.
Melitta got a thoughtful look in her eyes, the one she gets when she's just come to a significant conclusion. "The bull jumping ritual is only six days away. Think they might start something there? Minos will attend." She chewed on her lip briefly. "But is she going to kill him, like she tried Aeneas? Or something else?"
The bull-jumping ritual was part ritual, part spectacle. Every year, every young woman or man who was passing into adulthood participated the jumping of the bulls. The point was to have a bull charge you, leap up just before it hit you, and then do a somersault and vault off of its back. The theory went was that those who were wanted by the Goddess would do well, and those who weren't would be killed by the bull. It was the center of a larger series of harvest festivals, and even if those festivals were more subdued this year, the bull jumping would go on.
"What does it profit her to kill him? She won't do it if she doesn't have an angle on the aftermath." It was my turn to go thoughtful. "Of course, if Minos died, Aeneas would think that Crete was suddenly ripe for the picking. Aeneas attacks, the Temples are low on strength because people are leaving, and the navy is in chaos. We get overrun."
"But she is now without the weapon," Melitta said. She dropped down on a nearby bench. Kaia was across the room, investigating some elaborate lanterns. "Or is she?"
"Well, she has a weapon, but it may be incomplete. That doesn't make it less dangerous. She's been selling the information to both sides. So it's likely that both navies have this weapon, if either of them do."
"Think you can think like Vesna?" Melitta asked.
I chuckled. "I'm a lot more straightforward than she is. But I can give it a shot."
Melitta chewed on her thumbnail briefly, and I was briefly mesmerized by that little motion, and her lush lips. Down, boy. Now is not the time to be having those thoughts. Later. Melitta said, "So, you have a weapon that might not work, but is guaranteed to explode in a huge bang. What do you do with it?"
"You put it somewhere that your enemies aren't likely to look for it but would do a lot of damage when it explodes," I said. "Or you explode it somewhere where your enemies will be blamed for it."
"So likely not on a ship. But you just moved in with the King into his maze of a palace and the bull-jumping is held in front of the palace. And both Temples and all their priests usually attend, as well as half the city."
It rang true. "You wanted to do a lot of damage, that's where you'd set it off. Somewhere inside the palace, close to the front."
"Yep, big enough explosion and the fire spreads to the shipyards."
"And Aeneas walks in and takes over. Maybe."
"It would be an easy victory. Or maybe he gives it to you, and you inherit the Minoan empire with only one bomb, without a protracted war." There was worry in Melitta's voice. "Is this what Phoena meant? Thousands more would die because of those four, and this starts the war against the Greeks that we die in?"
"It very might well be. Both of us would need to be at that ritual," I said.
"But Phoena would have had to have been born by now for Kaia to save her."
"The timing's wrong, but maybe if we hadn't killed those four, this would have happened next fall instead of this one."
"A year later, when the bomb was better built, and they had all the pieces?"
"That's what I was thinking. We've seriously messed with Vesna's plans; things may be going faster than she'd anticipated." And if we died without Phoena being born yet--my guess was that she couldn't do this again. This was our second chance, the last chance to get this right. After this, there were no more chances.
"She is down to but two people helping her. Maybe this causes an acceleration. And maybe not. She may wait another year anyway."
It was a nice thought, but I am a Guardian, and our job is to plan for the worst. "I would prefer not to take the chance, honestly," I said, my voice gentle. "If I knew we had that year, I'd take it--that's long enough for us to change things here, maybe bring back the Fallen. But I think Vesna knows that the longer she gives us, the more chance we have to find and kill the rest of her helpers. Just going on instinct, we've just messed with her life, and she's got to be feeling a lot of pressure to get this over with. And take her revenge on us into the bargain."
"So I bet she will do just that," Melitta said, nodding. "And her person is probably putting the bomb pieces into place already. Think she can make it in six days, though? It really depends on if the bomb is already here and they are working on it. She can't afford to give us much time. If we unite the temples, we have a lot of fighting force together."
I nodded. "I'm willing to bet that something's going to happen at that ritual. whether it's that weapon, or something else. Which means we need to get a spy into the palace. Unless the Wazet folks already have someone there in a position to see something?"
She made a psht noise. "Likely, unless they have been compromised. She is probably purging all Wazet people and worshippers now. We have two choices. Let one of ours go that's a double agent, or find out if Acantha has a source she is willing to share. With 6 days to go, I would suggest the latter. They are in place already. Unless you think Acantha is bad?"
"I don't think she is, but I've been wrong before. We can go talk to her--we need to talk with her about Zarek anyway--and see if Kaia can get anything from her."
"Kaia can probably tell us faster if she is trustworthy or not."
"We just need to get the two of them into the same room for a few minutes, is all," I said. I saw Kaia had her ears pricked, but wasn't coming over to us. "If we're talking to Acantha, Kaia can give us a signal of some sort if she's all right to talk about an agent in the palace with her."
Melitta smiled. "If she is not trustworthy and we need to leave, she can just ask for the privy."
"Sounds good to me," I said. "We should probably go do this now--the Temple should just about be finishing up supper."
She chuckled a bit, and put her hand on my knee. "Let's set a meeting with her in the morning, Theron."
I blinked and then realized that I'd missed yet another night of sleep. "Good idea."
There was a sly twinkle in Melitta's eyes. "Let's go see first if we can make a baby Phoena, then I will let you sleep."
I pulled her close and kissed her soundly, leaving no doubt that I liked that idea. "Demanding woman, you are. I like that about you."
We went to our quarters, and I found out that Melitta had had one of the smaller rooms leading off of the bedroom fitted out for Kaia. "Thought you might like some privacy," Melitta said to her. "Now, in with you. Get some sleep, little one."
Kaia was dragging again. Using her talent like she had been took a lot out of her, it seemed, and she nodded silently and went to her room, closing the door behind her. Melitta turned to me. "Now, Theron, about what we had planned..."
I pulled her close, kissing her, and we wrestled playfully for a bit before ending up in a tangle of limbs and half-removed clothing on the bed. It seemed like it had been forever since I'd had a chance to make love with my wife, and despite exhaustion and still hurting from the battle earlier, it was still a keen pleasure. We were more gentle with each other than usual, and afterwards, when I was holding her in the light of the lantern we'd left burning, I felt profoundly awed and grateful for this woman, for her love.
"About the whole making a baby Phoena thing," I said as we rested, still intimately entangled. "I hadn't asked before, but...are you? Trying, that is?"
She chuckled. "I stopped the drugs the day you asked me to marry you. They might take a while to wear off. I don't know how long it'll take me, but with luck, we can have all the time we need."
"Good," I said, and kissed her. In response, she twitched her hips, and I groaned. "You keep that up, and I'm going to exhaust myself trying to keep up with you," I warned her.
She chuckled, and wriggled so the two of us weren't quite so entangled. "Go to sleep, Theron," she told me, her voice inexpressibly fond. "I'll be here in the morning, I promise."
So I did. I ended up sleeping until a couple of hours after sunrise, when Melitta woke me, saying that Acantha would see us in a couple of hours. We had breakfast and bathed, and then with Kaia went to the Temple of Porta. "Do you need anything for your room, Kaia?" I asked her. "Things to read? Do you like dolls?"
She looked at me as if she was trying to decide if I were serious. "Maybe some things to read," she said. "I like being read to, as well. I'm not too old for that, before you ask," she said, heading off my question. "Dolls, not really, but I saw something in the market we walked through the other day..." She stopped, pressing her lips together, and looked away.
"Well, maybe we can stop this afternoon and you can show it to me. Deal?"
"Deal," she said, and unexpectedly smiled at me. All right, maybe I was getting somewhere with her after all.
She was in her small reception room, alone. Macaria was on the door, and she nodded to me as she let us in. Acantha was reclining on a couch. Her skin was still an unhealthy color, but she looked stronger than she had. "It's good to see you looking stronger, lady," I said. "We have some news about Zarek."
Her voice was still tired. "Ah, good. Bad news, I would guess from your faces."
I nodded. "He was apparently working for Xia. We believe that he's dead at this point."
She was not surprised in the least. I wondered what she had known that we had not. "I had feared the worst when he went missing in the first place."
"We don't know exactly why he was working for them, but my guess is that he was paid very, very well. We're also seeing a lot of people leaving the Wazet Temple. I assume you're seeing the same thing?"
"Some, but not as much as you I would guess. I don't have a Wazet bodyguard."
I smiled, acknowledging the truth. "True enough. We're also suspecting that someone is doing some recruiting, as well."
"I would bet on it. She is probably placing spies around, as well."
I glanced over at Kaia, and she came over to me, beckoning me down. "I don't have to pee," she said.
Well, then, good enough for me. I smiled at her and straightened. "Speaking of spies. We were wondering if you have anyone placed within the palace itself, close to Minos. We suspect that Vesna is going to do something during the bull jumping ritual."
Acantha gave me a long, measuring look. "I do know some people, yes, that can be trusted. Wazet doesn't?"
"Vesna is very likely going to be purging all of the Wazet people from the palace. Likely has started already, really," I said. "Besides, the Porta temple doesn't have spies." I smiled at Acantha.
Her eyes were calm and cool. "Spies, no. People we trust to pass information when they hear it, yes. No priestess or Guardian of Porta is a spy, but we have many sympathizers."
Semantics, again. I decided not to point out that the difference was really rather academic. "Well, we're suspecting that she may be bringing the pieces of a device into the palace. We know it's not complete, but what they do have has enormous destructive potential."
"Big enough to blow up the bull-jumping ritual?" Acantha was quick, right enough.
"The ritual and most of the palace," I said.
"And with it most of the priests in the city."
"And maybe a good chunk of Knossos, as well. So, yes. It would effectively decimate both temples--and kill Minos into the bargain."
Acantha nodded, and I could see her considering. "I will consult and get back to you today or tomorrow, depending on if we can contact everyone today."
"Thank you. We don't know for sure that this is Vesna's next move, but it makes sense," I said.
"It does, very frighteningly so." I gave Acantha a description of what we were looking for, and then she let us go and called Macaria in. We returned to the Wazet temple, and I put in a bit of drill with the Guardians there, trying to get a feel for them. I identified a few potential troublemakers, but the worst ones appeared to have already left. There was some grumbling about being invaded by Portas, but I didn't pay it any mind.
After I no longer felt up to drilling, the ache of the wounds I'd taken yesterday returning, I went and guarded Melitta while she did the work she was ostensibly here for. We took a break before supper and went to the market to look at the thing that Kaia had said she'd wanted--a toy bull made out of fabric and stuffed with soft scraps. "His name is Kados," Kaia told me as we walked back to the Temple, Kaia carrying the toy.
"It's a good name," I said.
She looked a bit embarrassed. "It's not my name for him. It's Phoena's." She looked down at the patchwork bovine. "She said I can borrow him until she's old enough for him. He's her favorite toy."
I opened my mouth and closed it again. "Is there something else you want, maybe?" I asked her. "Something that's all yours?"
She thought about it. "Maybe--there was a stall back there, the scarf one."
I'd seen her eyeing the colorful scarves before, but hadn't been sure if she'd actually wanted one. "Why don't we go look, and see if there's one you want?"
Turned out there were three she wanted, and she went home with one of them wrapped around the toy bull, one around her shoulders, and one tied around her waist. She was grinning as she skipped along, bouncing like she hadn't since we'd gotten to Knossos. This life was going to take some getting used to for all of us, it seemed.
"You're good with her," Melitta said to me, as she slipped her hand into mine. "You just needed to get used to her."
"I never thought I'd have a child, and if I did, I assumed I'd start with a baby, not one who's almost grown up already," I told her.
Melitta watched Kaia ahead of us. "Maybe not so grown up as all that. She has a lot at stake here, too. If we didn't want her, who knows what would happen to her?"
"But we do. All we can do, really, is love her and hope for the best."
Melitta tightened her hand on mine, and then we were at the Temple and there was a minor crisis for Melitta to sort out. Minor crises continued until nightfall, when a messenger from the Porta temple came and asked us to return. Acantha was not feeling well enough to travel, so we went to her.
This time, Macaria was in the room. After dispensing with pleasantries, I asked, "What have you found?"
Acantha's demeanor was grave. "Unfortunately, little. Only one of four has gotten back to us, but the news is disturbing. Vesna moved in three days ago. Then she cleaned house, moving all the staff out and bringing in her own. Only one still works there, according to them. The other three they haven't seen and when we went to their homes here, they are gone as well. The whole families are gone, not just the individuals. Whole sections of the palace are off limits to the staff now."
I ground my teeth. "Ah, no. I'll bet she got her seer to figure out who was passing information on."
She was way ahead of me. "Likely. And based on that, this one we are talking about may be compromised."
"Very likely. Did this one say anything about things being moved in and out of the palace?"
"Lots of boxes being moved in and out, by men the size of bulls, they say. A lot of Greeks or mercenaries, I would guess. Minos has to know and is probably in on this. He is up to his eyes in debt building that monstrous creation of his, the palace and all its corridors and non-stop construction."
"He might think he knows what's going on," I said. "We need to get in there, somehow."
Acantha nodded. "So the only other piece of information that could be useful is that the main person behind the construction is a smaller man, about sixty or so years in age. He walks with a limp and a cane, they say he bleeds from the leg sometimes, but here is the really interesting bit, so does Vesna."
That brought me directly upright. "So does Vesna? Now, that's very, very strange."
"I thought you might think that interesting," Acantha said, smiling thinly. "I think we plan for the worst. Sending everyone out of Knossos will alert them, and probably cause them to take some drastic measure. We need to take the palace, and quietly."
I thought about it. "Not easy. But--doable. If both Temples work together."
"Volunteers, I fear, which means a small force."
"But the palace itself will work to our advantage," I said, thinking about the maze of the place. "There are places in there difficult to find."
"And many places to hide."
"Of course, the same goes for them. But if Vesna's been moving her own people in, they're not familiar with the palace quite yet." I shook my head, not quite believing the audacity of what we were planning. "Goddess, though. If we find and kill Vesna, we're going to have to kill Minos as well. Just destroying the weapon will only slow this down, not stop it."
Acantha was nodding. "I am afraid so. Then what, is the question. Minos has a lot of children and they will fight for the top. Civil war, likely, or we install a theocracy with a puppet king. And any way this falls we may end up with an invasion."
"Personally, I like the second better than the first," I said. "But if we do end up with an invasion...we can fight, if we're not divided. We might not win, but at least we won't definitely lose."
"Unless we can defend the city with the weapon. Bloody a few Greek noses and they may back off."
Warningly, I said, "That comes with its own risks. That weapon destroyed the first civilization that used it. But it may be worth a try."
"Might get us either way. Strong as we are, we can't defend against the Greek army." Acantha sounded tired, and I saw the dark circles under her eyes. She was haunted, and not just by the aftereffects of the poison that had been used on her, I'd wager. I wondered, silently, what difficult choices she'd had to make lately.
"True enough. If we have the weapon, we may be able to fix it so it doesn't kill us all. We'll see."
She nodded. "Maybe. I suggest you discreetly ask in your temple for volunteers and I will do the same. What's your minimum to try this?"
I pondered the question. Vesna and Minos would have to be taken down together or not at all. "Two priests from each Temple. Two or three Guardians from each. If we get into a pitched battle, we're dead anyway, so we'll be relying on stealth."
"If you can wait until the last day, I will go. But I need time to recover yet. Macaria is a given." The Guardian in question inclined her head. "I have two other guardians I can ask, and I can probably get two more clerics. That will give you five or six, depending if you can wait."
"I think we can. We can use the time to hopefully figure out who's controlling Vesna. We have Melitta and myself, and I'm pretty sure I can get at least one Wazet Guardian, and there are a couple of Wazet priestesses we may be able to get."
"I think ten or twelve, no more," Macaria said. Acantha nodded in response.
"I wish we had more time than this, to tell you the truth, but we'll make do with what we have," I said. "I do want you along, Acantha, if you'll be recovered enough by then. As far as I recall, you're the strongest priestess among us."
Acantha smiled. "Likely, though I don't know the strength of the Wazet priestesses all that well. Celandia was my equal in power but I don't know if you had others. Melitta, possibly."
"Melitta is very good at what she does, but your specialties are different," I said. "Tressa's probably the priestess in the Wazet temple who's almost as strong as her."
"Well, pull together who you can, and we will sneak in on the night before the festival." Acantha took a long breath. "They will starting arriving to cook as early as three hours after midnight on that night and we need to be done by then, between dead night and three hours past."
"That's when the watch will be lightest and sleepiest, as well," I added. "We get in and seek out Vesna and Minos, and improvise from there."
"I think that's all we can do. We might be able to get in with all the extra help that will be carrying food in, but then we need to find a place to hide for a while."
"Shouldn't be difficult. I can't say I know the palace like the back of my hand, but I've been in there quite a bit. I was part of that detail that got sent in to supplement Minos's guards a few years ago."
"You might know some good places, but it's been changing a lot over the last few months. All the new construction."
I thought about it, and nodded. "True enough. We're going to need to get in and scout--or send someone in."
"Just need a few places like Vesna's quarters and Minos's, though I doubt they have changed, and a place to hide."
I had an idea, one that I immediately hated. Kaia would be excellent for this, people didn't notice children, and she could overhear things for us. And as far as we knew, they didn't know what she looked like. But if they did...no. "We'll find someone."
"The Portas aren't very good at being sneaky," Acantha said. "Best it be one of yours."
We agreed, settled a few more details, and departed. Five days to go until the equinox, until we needed to do this.
Tressa agreed to go in to scout for us, and she, Xenos, and Melancton would be coming in with us. When I asked Kaia if she wanted to come, she made a face. "Not really. But I think I need to."
She was probably right, I had to admit, as much as I was reluctant to take her with us.
Tressa came back the next afternoon, after doing her scouting. "Find what we needed?" I asked her once we were together and shut in one of the reception rooms.
She nodded. "I think so. The sleeping quarters of Minos are easy to find, but well guarded. Vesna's are close by, just down the way. I saw the limping guy as well, they call him Corban. He has a place some distance from them, it's a long corridor and one right to get to it. Now the places to hide in small groups are many, but if you want the whole group together, there is only one I could find. It's a wine cellar for the really old stuff. Not the everyday wine, but the state dinner stuff. Since we get few people here, it's pretty unused."
"Good work," I said. "Did you see Vesna?"
"No, but I did see the back of Adara."
I bit back an oath. "Damn. Guess she decided not to ship out like we told her."
Tressa snorted. "Didn't think she would, did you?"
"Well, I sort of hoped. Adara wasn't limping, was she?"
"Nope, not that I could see."
I scratched the back of my neck. "And if her back was to you, you probably couldn't see if she was wearing a ring. Ah, well, it was just a thought."
"I did look for things out of the ordinary while in there. If there is a bomb in there, it's well hidden."
"I wouldn't doubt it. Though it's large enough that you'd think it would be hard to hide. Were they doing any building near the front of the palace?" I asked.
"No, at the top. They were putting a large oak piece on the roof."
I closed my eyes. That had to be part of it. I talked a bit more to Tressa, then went to relay the information to Acantha. She had her people picked out--herself and Macaria were going, as well as Basha, Macaria's second, and Dyna and Eleni, both priestesses of Porta, chosen for their fighting and healing skills and lack of qualms about killing Minos.
It was a nerve-wracking three days of waiting, then. I kept second-guessing myself, wondering if it was a mistake to wait until Acantha was well enough to go with us. But no matter how I turned it, Acantha was probably the single most powerful priestess on the island, and perhaps in this part of the world. We very well might need her.
Construction on the palace continued at breakneck speed, but nothing really out of the ordinary happened. There was the usual buildup to the ritual and feasting of the equinox, and I tried to concern myself with looking out for Melitta and Kaia.
Finally, the day arrived. Mid-day, we gathered together. "We'll go in quiet, in groups of three, and meet in that wine cellar," I told everyone. "I think that's the easiest way to get in without being detected. Once we're all in, we'll need to hit Minos and Vesna's quarters fast and hard. They're our two main targets. Adara and Corban are also targets--if we can take Corban alive, we do, but don't worry overmuch if he dies. We need to do this as quietly as we can--Melitta and Tressa, take out whatever guards you can with poison before we head in directly."
Melitta nodded, then asked, "We staying in one large group for the fighting or breaking into two groups?"
"The quarters are too close for us to stay together. One group should have Acantha, Macaria, and Tressa in it--Xenos, Dyna, you both go with them. The rest will be with me. That gives us a good balance between the two groups."
Nods all around. Melitta looked around, apparently satisfied. "We are ready then, I think."
"All right. Let's go do this."
Into the palace we went, in groups of threes and fours through the afternoon, drifting into the chosen wine cellar. We had about seven hours before the appointed hour, and we stayed quiet and tried to sleep as we could, keeping two of us on watch at all times. We were in luck, and weren't disturbed.
When it was almost time, we were stirring and getting ready to go. Acantha broke the seal on a jar of some of the finest wine in here, dumped her waterskin out, and filled it with wine. "Minos is not going to need it if we succeed, and we need it more." She passed the jar to Macaria, and took a swallow of wine. "Could be the last thing you drink, might as well make it expensive."
We passed the wine jar around and each took a few swallows, including Kaia, who looked thrilled to be included in the adult ritual then somewhat less so once she actually tasted the wine. Then we discarded everything that might weigh us down in the fight. I kissed Melitta soundly and told her I loved her, and then hugged Kaia and told her, "If things start going badly, find a place to hide, and get out when things calm down."
"And don't use the thing you did to Minta on anyone unless they attack you," Melitta added, quietly.
I'd thought that had gone without saying, but Melitta shrugged at me, as if to say, she's a kid, she's probably scared, give her clear instructions.
I stopped and cleared my mind, letting the calm I'd been taught fill me up, then nodded to the rest. And so we crept out into the silent midnight corridors, in search of Vesna.
We avoided a few people; the palace was dead tonight, most everyone sleeping in anticipation of a long day tomorrow. We arrived on Minos and Vesna's corridor, and saw that there were two guards each on both Vesna and Minos's doors, telling us that the happy couple was not sleeping together that night.
I signaled to Melitta and Tressa--I'd seen Melitta hit a man with her darts at three times this distance, this should be easy. The guards on Vesna's door went down silently, but the ones on Minos's made some noise, clatter of armor and half-drawn swords.
Now or never.
Acantha led her team to Minos's door, and we went to Vesna's. The keys were on the belt of one of the guards, and as I retrieved them and unlocked the door, I heard the sound of people moving around inside, low voices too indistinct to make out. I finished unlocking the door, then opened it with a kick and ducked out of the way, figuring there was a nasty surprise on the other side.
A gout of flame roared out of the open doorway, and I saw that the same thing had happened on Minos's doorway. None of us were hurt, though I smelled burnt hair. Then I stepped through, one Kyrith in each hand, to see--no one.
Not a soul in the room.
I stepped into the room, listening hard, hoping to provoke an attack. Nothing. Only the sound of moving air, coming from what appeared to be a closet. At the back of the closet was a panel that was slightly ajar, through which the wind was blowing, stirring the hanging clothes.
"I think she may have left through here. Unless anyone can tell if there's an invisible person in the room."
Melitta answered me. "Nobody in here."
"In we go, then."
The panel led to a shaft with a ladder in it, and from there to the roof. As I climbed, I heard a humming sound coming from ahead. I hurried, and I prayed.
When we reached the roof, I saw Vesna, Adara, and an older man who must be Corban. All of them were fiddling with something, a large lever that extended into the wall. I looked around, glanced at Melitta and nodded to Corban, and went after Adara. Basha and Eleni both went after Vesna.
Adara was easily the best fighter among them, and it was like fighting Minta all over again, except without the serrated dagger to deal with. I found myself very glad I'd taken the time to heal up all the way as I harried Adara and she harried me right back.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Corban fall, felled by Melitta and the dagger we'd taken from Minta. Vesna killed Eleni and Basha fell, though I didn't know for sure whether he was badly wounded enough to be dead. But stepping into their place was Acantha, with Xenos behind her.
No Macaria.
I couldn't think about it, could only face the opponent in front of me. Adara fought me more or less to a standstill, falling back to her mother's side. Both of them were bleeding heavily, and Vesna reached for the lever. "Enough! It's over. You let us walk out of here and your city lives. If not, we all die."
"And set you free to do this again?" I asked, not putting up my axes.
Vesna's hand tightened on the lever. "You may be willing to die, but is Kaia? Is it worth her life?"
I stared at Vesna and thought that there was much more at stake here than she knew. Not just one daughter, but two. I glanced at the lever, wondering if I could disable it. "The weapon isn't in the building," I heard Kaia whisper behind me. "It is the building."
I took a long breath. "You leave, and you run right to the Greeks. We all die anyway."
Vesna had the audacity to look amused. "But as your daughter pointed out, you have the building intact. It won't take you long to figure out how to aim it without destroying your city. The Greeks won't stand a chance."
"And if we decide to try and kill you, you'll trigger the weapon?"
Kaia had stepped right up behind me, and was pulling on my elbow. I couldn't spare a moment to look at her. "Seems we have a stalemate," Vesna said.
"Looks like," I said. Kaia's tugging was getting almost annoying, and despite myself I looked down. She had something in her cupped hand, something shiny. A golden ring.
Oh, good girl! If this was what I thought it was--
I lowered one of my hands and extended my little finger. Kaia slid it onto it quickly, and suddenly I was hearing babble, voices swimming and growing and fading. I turned back to Adara and Vesna, and realized that Vesna really was going to throw the lever if I didn't comply. Goddess, the hate she had in her! Grief, anger, all of it mixed together in a stew of venom that was aimed directly at Melitta and I. She didn't want to see us die.
She wanted to see us suffer.
"Back up," I told her, and to her vast surprise, she did. Then I realized something odd. I could hear Adara, too. She was wearing a thigh ring, so long that it had likely healed entirely and she no longer limped. "To your knees, both of you, and stay there."
They complied. "Why are you both wearing those rings?" I asked, unbearably curious.
Kaia said, "Wasn't them, it was Minos."
Vesna nodded. "Minos controlled Xia."
I glanced at Acantha. "Is Minos dead?"
Her bladed smile was there, but there was no happiness behind it. Macaria was probably dead somewhere below. "Yes, he is. Not a very worthy opponent. He cowered, mostly."
Melitta came up next to me. "Make them jump, Theron." Her voice held no compassion, but also not cruelty. Just desire for this to be over.
We were four stories in the air, and if I recalled correctly, the courtyard below was stone. "I was just getting to that part. Vesna. Adara. Jump off the roof."
Adara was crying as she turned away from us, pleading to the air. Vesna was silent as stone. Both of them took two steps and then a third, the third that carried them off the roof. There was a silence, then a cracking thud from below.
I looked over the edge. They had both hit the steps leading to one of the entrances on the main floor. Both were splayed, unmoving, heads looking something like smashed squashes, with seeds all over.
I'd seen worse, but that didn't make the sight any better, really. "Well, someone's going to have a tough cleanup job in the morning. Kaia--where did you get the ring?"
She was peering fascinatedly over the edge of the roof at the bodies below. "Minos had it. I saw it in Acantha's mind. I summoned it up the stairs."
"You summoned--never mind. You can tell me about it later." I closed my eyes, using the ring to feel for those other voices I'd heard. Two were in the city, and I gave them silent instructions to come to the steps in front of the Temple of Wazet and wait there for further instructions. There was one far away, on Limnos. I ordered him to release the prisoners he had--Orrin and Evangeline were still alive!--and make sure they could get to wherever they wanted to go. Tell them that Kaia is in Knossos, I sent, as my last instruction.
Then we went to gather the bodies of the fallen, and take them back to their Temples to be prepared for burial.
*****
The bull-jumping that year was smaller than it usually was, due to the fact that Crete was suddenly in deep mourning over the loss of its king--his lover had killed him, it was said, and then in her madness had jumped off the roof, taking the Wazet priestess who'd tried to stop her with her. We were choosing someone who could be king, someone tractable, who didn't mind being told what to do by the priest advisors who would watch his every move.
It was still quite the spectacle, and Kaia watched avidly. Melitta had given her rather too many sticky sweets, and she bounced in her seat next to me as she watched a young woman successfully vault an irritated bull. "What was the summoning thing all about?" I asked Kaia, curious.
She wrinkled her nose, and didn't stop bouncing. "I got sent to bed a few times without supper, I was hungry and made the food come to me by floating it down the hall. I thought it might work on the ring."
"Well, I'm glad it did," I said, and that was that.
It took a good year for things to settle down. We invited the Fallen back and they came to the last person. The children who were tending the old ones, at Phoena's temple, declined to come back, telling us that it wasn't time for the old ones to wake quite yet. We did keep in close touch with them, though.
Orrin and Evangeline finally managed to make it to Knossos about three months after the rest of the Fallen had arrived, and Kaia was delighted to see them--but also heartbreakingly wary of them. It took us a bit, but we did manage to settle the issue of who Kaia was going to live with mostly peaceably. She spent most of her time and all of her nights with us, and she would spend some time with her natural parents--especially when Melitta and I didn't have any attention to spare for making sure she wasn't getting into trouble.
Orrin and Evangeline mostly took this with good grace. Evangeline loved Kaia, but seemed almost relieved to not have to mother her any more. Orrin missed her, though, and it took a while for him to stop flinching after Kaia started referring to both he and I as her fathers.
And when the Greeks did arrive--well, by that time we'd figured out how to use the weapon. We spanked them and sent them home, followed up with a few ambassadors who had the unenviable task of trying to make peace. We put the pages of the book each into a separate lead cask and sank them at places all around the ocean, hoping that they would remain lost forever.
So life went on, as it always did. And two years later, after a long and very difficult labor, Phoena was born into the world. Whether or not she would be the only natural child Melitta and I would ever have remained to be seen; after being terrified for two days during Melitta's labor that I was going to lose my wife or my daughter or both, I was perfectly happy to stop with the children we had. Melitta, though, seemed to think it worthwhile, and less than a year after having Phoena was talking about trying for another one.
And so we came to the bull-jumping when Phoena was a year old, three years after Melitta and I had tried so unsuccessfully to flee from each other.
*****
"Theron, your daughter won't come out of her room, and we need to go or we're going to be late!"
"Why are they always my daughters when they're misbehaving?" I asked. Melitta gave me a look and shifted the little girl on her hip. Phoena waved one chubby hand at me, and I stooped to kiss her, and then her mother. "I'll go see what's wrong with Kaia," I said. "She's been moody lately. Think she's about to start her cycles?"
Melitta gave me an amused look. "Theron, if you value your life, I'd suggest not telling her that. She's having a hard enough time with her body changing as it is, don't go making it worse. Kiss me again, and I'll go tell Xenos we're almost ready."
I did, and I walked over to the room that Kaia had been occupying since we'd arrived at the Temple just over three years ago. I knocked on the closed door. "Kaia? Can I come in?"
I heard a meh from the other side of the door, and decided to take it as an invitation. I opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind me.
Inside, everything was in cheerful disarray as usual. Kaia herself was sitting where her bed made a corner with the wall, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around Kados, her toy bull. I suspected that Kados had gotten a lot of tears dripped on him over the last few years, in secret. The girl hardly let any hint of her emotions show, but I knew by now that she surely felt things, and deeply.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. Kaia's dark hair fell over one eye. She'd refused to put her hair up this morning, or wash, or eat breakfast, or do anything that involved leaving her room. Unfortunately, she'd picked the fall equinox to throw this particular fit on, and we were all expected to be at the bull jumping this afternoon.
"Hey, little one. What's wrong? I thought you loved the bull-jumping."
She sniffled, and I started--Kaia was crying? She never cried where anyone could see. "I'm sorry." Another sniffle. "It's just--today. Please, go, I'll be fine."
"I'm going to be worried about you all day if I go and you don't," I said. "You know that. At least tell me what's wrong?"
"It's today," she said, her voice shaking. "Today is the day you--" She broke off and hunched in on herself.
Oh. I thought I understood. "Today's the day we died, when this first happened, isn't it?"
She nodded, and I reached out to her. "It's all right, Kaia," I said quietly. "Come here. You want to talk about it?" She scooted over to me, leaning into me. "Want to tell me what happened?"
Kaia swallowed. "It was a day, just like today. The air felt the same. I tried to get you not to go to the ritual, I said it was dangerous. You said you had to go, that we couldn't act like we were afraid." She swallowed. "You'd just found out about Xia, you'd just figured out that Vesna was involved. You had no idea what she'd done. So I took Phoena, and I ran away. I ran as far and as fast as I could run, and I was still running when Knossos exploded." She gulped, and sobs seemed to force their way out of her. I held her and let her finish the bout of tears. When she had control over her voice again, she said, "We were captured by the Greeks and they made us slaves. They used the thigh rings to control us. We escaped, but it took us years. And we hatched this plan, to try again, give us a second chance. I told Phoena all about you, and Mom. I told her all about what life used to be like here, about how happy we were, how happy you and Mom were together. I tried to make you be alive for her." She wiped her eyes.
"Then what?" I asked. "She went back with Kyrith, and what did you do?"
She shook her head. "It wasn't like that. The spell we used was very dangerous. We didn't know if it would work. The only way we could make sure it did was if one of us gave their lives to it." I sucked in a sharp breath. "Phoena was the one with the greater gift, and I knew that she could fix things if I could only give her a chance. So I did. I hurt too much to do anything else."
I let Kaia lean on me in silence for a little bit. "It was very brave, what you did," I said, finally. "And I'm going to make sure, if I can, that you don't have to do it again. Unless Knossos is going to explode today."
Kaia shook her head. "It's going to be a nice bull-jumping. Hardly anyone's going to die this year." She let her shoulders sag, her head droop a bit. Fourteen, and stuck in that awkward place between girlhood and womanhood, her newly developing body taking her by surprise every time she moved. And carrying these secrets still, this knowledge that was hardly fair for anyone to have to carry.
But Melitta and I tried to let both of the girls be normal, as we could. At the moment, Phoena was just a baby, so that was easy. Harder was to just let Kaia be herself, and not bring her into endless conferences on matters of Temple leadership. We weren't always successful, but I'd noticed lately that she had a habit of simply showing up when she was going to be needed, and leaving it alone the rest of the time.
I was proud of her, this daughter of mine, unbearably so. She was going to be an amazing woman--just like both of her mothers. "I love you," I told her. "Now that I know what's wrong, you can stay here today, if you want to be by yourself."
"No," she said, and smiled tremulously. "Talking about it helped. I'll get dressed."
"And wash behind your ears," I told her.
She wrinkled her nose and me and laughed, and I left her to change and wash and comb her hair. While she was doing so, I straightened some papers I'd left in a pile on the desk Melitta and I shared. We were getting closer. It was going to take decades, but the two Temples were going to be one, one of these days. Phoena had left us the keys, in the form of her art, and the book she'd left behind, one of the copies of which I'd picked up on Kasos. It was a scripture for a new religion, rituals and rites that blended the best of the two traditions. We weren't there yet, but every day we got a little closer. It was a long, hard road we'd chosen for ourselves, but it would be worth it in the end.
And on the desk, also, was the little statue of the blended Goddesses, the first one Melitta and I had found, the piece of worked stone that had changed everything. I picked it up, running my thumb over her carved hair. "You did know what you were doing, that day, weren't you? You knew that we needed a second chance. That we all need second chances sometimes."
The carving smiled its usual enigmatic smile in response, and I set it down on the desk. Behind me, Kaia cleared her throat. "Ready to go, Dad."
I turned, and smiled to see her. She'd bound her hair up simply, and she was wearing what would probably be one of the last child-style dresses she would ever wear. Soon enough, she'd trade her simple dresses for bright skirts. She had one of the blue scarves we'd bought her right before the battle in the palace tied around her waist, and she had Kados tucked under her arm.
"Hey, Kados is going to see the bull-jumping, too?"
Kaia smiled, a bit self-consciously. "Actually, I was thinking that maybe it's Phoena's turn to have him. She's going to start talking soon. She'll need someone to talk to."
"Well, only if you're done with him."
Again, that smile. "Well, I might borrow him sometimes. But maybe I'll start talking to real people some." She reached out her hand towards me. "I think we're late."
I took her hand, and we went out into the hall together, and joined Melitta and Phoena. Kaia was right. It was a very nice bull-jumping that year. Phoena gnawed on Kados's soft horns quite happily, and we all cheered on the young men and woman who were jumping. In two or three years, it would be Kaia out there, vaulting her own bull.
I took Melitta's hand, and leaned over to murmur something into her ear that made her raise an eyebrow and murmur back, "Do you think we can get Orrin and Evangeline to watch the girls tonight, though?"
"Give them to Xenos for the evening, if they're busy," I told her, all seriousness. "After all, you did mention wanting to try for another baby..."
The look she gave me fair smoldered my hair right off, and I sat back in my seat, my hand still in hers.
I was lost from the first moment I saw her.
Of course, I was also found from the first moment I saw her.
And that, my friends, is the end of the story, which ends where it began--in love.
[The Minoan civilization persisted for another century and a half. A very canny Greek King decided to leave Crete alone for a few decades, and the weapon fell into disrepair as the residents of Knossos thought themselves safe. When the Greeks returned unexpectedly forty years later, the weapon no longer worked, and there was nobody left alive with the knowledge to repair it. The Minoans were overrun and their culture mostly eradicated; today, they leave us with the remnants of the Palace at Knossos, also known as the Labyrinth, ruins, beautiful paintings, and scores and scores of tally-books--but no stories other than what has been handed down in Greek myth.
Today, the Minoans remain a mystery, their writing mostly untranslatable and the meaning of their buildings and paintings debated endlessly. Which is probably just as Phoena would have preferred it.]
Fortunately, Knossos was not in flames when we pulled into port that evening.
I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as we disembarked and Melitta gave the crew of the ship orders to unload it and bring everything to the Wazet temple. We walked to the Temple ourselves, stopping to pick up supper on the way. I realized I'd barely eaten anything the day before other than breakfast at the Porta temple, and that couldn't possibly be doing my healing any good. Melitta and Kaia, too, were starving, and I made sure both of them ate well.
When we got to the Porta Temple, we went to find Tressa. "How'd it go?" Melitta asked.
"All's quiet, but...we have missing people. Eight Guardians and four priestesses took off. All of them the hard cases, the ones who really hate the Temple of Porta. Small numbers so far, but I expect more."
I nodded. "It's rather inevitable, and we can't really bring them back. What we have to watch out for is if someone is picking them up and forming them into a group of their own."
Melitta made a face. "Which is likely to happen. I can almost bet that they got better offers from Minos, via Vesna. Tressa, thank you. I'll catch up with you later."
Tressa nodded and left, and I turned to Melitta. "This is going to get very ugly very quickly, I'm afraid. We may have to strike first. The problem is we don't have any concrete evidence of Vesna's involvement in this."
"And with her in Minos's bed, it's unlikely that he will believe us," Melitta said.
"True enough. We may have to set the Temple against the crown." It wasn't a thought I liked.
Melitta got a thoughtful look in her eyes, the one she gets when she's just come to a significant conclusion. "The bull jumping ritual is only six days away. Think they might start something there? Minos will attend." She chewed on her lip briefly. "But is she going to kill him, like she tried Aeneas? Or something else?"
The bull-jumping ritual was part ritual, part spectacle. Every year, every young woman or man who was passing into adulthood participated the jumping of the bulls. The point was to have a bull charge you, leap up just before it hit you, and then do a somersault and vault off of its back. The theory went was that those who were wanted by the Goddess would do well, and those who weren't would be killed by the bull. It was the center of a larger series of harvest festivals, and even if those festivals were more subdued this year, the bull jumping would go on.
"What does it profit her to kill him? She won't do it if she doesn't have an angle on the aftermath." It was my turn to go thoughtful. "Of course, if Minos died, Aeneas would think that Crete was suddenly ripe for the picking. Aeneas attacks, the Temples are low on strength because people are leaving, and the navy is in chaos. We get overrun."
"But she is now without the weapon," Melitta said. She dropped down on a nearby bench. Kaia was across the room, investigating some elaborate lanterns. "Or is she?"
"Well, she has a weapon, but it may be incomplete. That doesn't make it less dangerous. She's been selling the information to both sides. So it's likely that both navies have this weapon, if either of them do."
"Think you can think like Vesna?" Melitta asked.
I chuckled. "I'm a lot more straightforward than she is. But I can give it a shot."
Melitta chewed on her thumbnail briefly, and I was briefly mesmerized by that little motion, and her lush lips. Down, boy. Now is not the time to be having those thoughts. Later. Melitta said, "So, you have a weapon that might not work, but is guaranteed to explode in a huge bang. What do you do with it?"
"You put it somewhere that your enemies aren't likely to look for it but would do a lot of damage when it explodes," I said. "Or you explode it somewhere where your enemies will be blamed for it."
"So likely not on a ship. But you just moved in with the King into his maze of a palace and the bull-jumping is held in front of the palace. And both Temples and all their priests usually attend, as well as half the city."
It rang true. "You wanted to do a lot of damage, that's where you'd set it off. Somewhere inside the palace, close to the front."
"Yep, big enough explosion and the fire spreads to the shipyards."
"And Aeneas walks in and takes over. Maybe."
"It would be an easy victory. Or maybe he gives it to you, and you inherit the Minoan empire with only one bomb, without a protracted war." There was worry in Melitta's voice. "Is this what Phoena meant? Thousands more would die because of those four, and this starts the war against the Greeks that we die in?"
"It very might well be. Both of us would need to be at that ritual," I said.
"But Phoena would have had to have been born by now for Kaia to save her."
"The timing's wrong, but maybe if we hadn't killed those four, this would have happened next fall instead of this one."
"A year later, when the bomb was better built, and they had all the pieces?"
"That's what I was thinking. We've seriously messed with Vesna's plans; things may be going faster than she'd anticipated." And if we died without Phoena being born yet--my guess was that she couldn't do this again. This was our second chance, the last chance to get this right. After this, there were no more chances.
"She is down to but two people helping her. Maybe this causes an acceleration. And maybe not. She may wait another year anyway."
It was a nice thought, but I am a Guardian, and our job is to plan for the worst. "I would prefer not to take the chance, honestly," I said, my voice gentle. "If I knew we had that year, I'd take it--that's long enough for us to change things here, maybe bring back the Fallen. But I think Vesna knows that the longer she gives us, the more chance we have to find and kill the rest of her helpers. Just going on instinct, we've just messed with her life, and she's got to be feeling a lot of pressure to get this over with. And take her revenge on us into the bargain."
"So I bet she will do just that," Melitta said, nodding. "And her person is probably putting the bomb pieces into place already. Think she can make it in six days, though? It really depends on if the bomb is already here and they are working on it. She can't afford to give us much time. If we unite the temples, we have a lot of fighting force together."
I nodded. "I'm willing to bet that something's going to happen at that ritual. whether it's that weapon, or something else. Which means we need to get a spy into the palace. Unless the Wazet folks already have someone there in a position to see something?"
She made a psht noise. "Likely, unless they have been compromised. She is probably purging all Wazet people and worshippers now. We have two choices. Let one of ours go that's a double agent, or find out if Acantha has a source she is willing to share. With 6 days to go, I would suggest the latter. They are in place already. Unless you think Acantha is bad?"
"I don't think she is, but I've been wrong before. We can go talk to her--we need to talk with her about Zarek anyway--and see if Kaia can get anything from her."
"Kaia can probably tell us faster if she is trustworthy or not."
"We just need to get the two of them into the same room for a few minutes, is all," I said. I saw Kaia had her ears pricked, but wasn't coming over to us. "If we're talking to Acantha, Kaia can give us a signal of some sort if she's all right to talk about an agent in the palace with her."
Melitta smiled. "If she is not trustworthy and we need to leave, she can just ask for the privy."
"Sounds good to me," I said. "We should probably go do this now--the Temple should just about be finishing up supper."
She chuckled a bit, and put her hand on my knee. "Let's set a meeting with her in the morning, Theron."
I blinked and then realized that I'd missed yet another night of sleep. "Good idea."
There was a sly twinkle in Melitta's eyes. "Let's go see first if we can make a baby Phoena, then I will let you sleep."
I pulled her close and kissed her soundly, leaving no doubt that I liked that idea. "Demanding woman, you are. I like that about you."
We went to our quarters, and I found out that Melitta had had one of the smaller rooms leading off of the bedroom fitted out for Kaia. "Thought you might like some privacy," Melitta said to her. "Now, in with you. Get some sleep, little one."
Kaia was dragging again. Using her talent like she had been took a lot out of her, it seemed, and she nodded silently and went to her room, closing the door behind her. Melitta turned to me. "Now, Theron, about what we had planned..."
I pulled her close, kissing her, and we wrestled playfully for a bit before ending up in a tangle of limbs and half-removed clothing on the bed. It seemed like it had been forever since I'd had a chance to make love with my wife, and despite exhaustion and still hurting from the battle earlier, it was still a keen pleasure. We were more gentle with each other than usual, and afterwards, when I was holding her in the light of the lantern we'd left burning, I felt profoundly awed and grateful for this woman, for her love.
"About the whole making a baby Phoena thing," I said as we rested, still intimately entangled. "I hadn't asked before, but...are you? Trying, that is?"
She chuckled. "I stopped the drugs the day you asked me to marry you. They might take a while to wear off. I don't know how long it'll take me, but with luck, we can have all the time we need."
"Good," I said, and kissed her. In response, she twitched her hips, and I groaned. "You keep that up, and I'm going to exhaust myself trying to keep up with you," I warned her.
She chuckled, and wriggled so the two of us weren't quite so entangled. "Go to sleep, Theron," she told me, her voice inexpressibly fond. "I'll be here in the morning, I promise."
So I did. I ended up sleeping until a couple of hours after sunrise, when Melitta woke me, saying that Acantha would see us in a couple of hours. We had breakfast and bathed, and then with Kaia went to the Temple of Porta. "Do you need anything for your room, Kaia?" I asked her. "Things to read? Do you like dolls?"
She looked at me as if she was trying to decide if I were serious. "Maybe some things to read," she said. "I like being read to, as well. I'm not too old for that, before you ask," she said, heading off my question. "Dolls, not really, but I saw something in the market we walked through the other day..." She stopped, pressing her lips together, and looked away.
"Well, maybe we can stop this afternoon and you can show it to me. Deal?"
"Deal," she said, and unexpectedly smiled at me. All right, maybe I was getting somewhere with her after all.
She was in her small reception room, alone. Macaria was on the door, and she nodded to me as she let us in. Acantha was reclining on a couch. Her skin was still an unhealthy color, but she looked stronger than she had. "It's good to see you looking stronger, lady," I said. "We have some news about Zarek."
Her voice was still tired. "Ah, good. Bad news, I would guess from your faces."
I nodded. "He was apparently working for Xia. We believe that he's dead at this point."
She was not surprised in the least. I wondered what she had known that we had not. "I had feared the worst when he went missing in the first place."
"We don't know exactly why he was working for them, but my guess is that he was paid very, very well. We're also seeing a lot of people leaving the Wazet Temple. I assume you're seeing the same thing?"
"Some, but not as much as you I would guess. I don't have a Wazet bodyguard."
I smiled, acknowledging the truth. "True enough. We're also suspecting that someone is doing some recruiting, as well."
"I would bet on it. She is probably placing spies around, as well."
I glanced over at Kaia, and she came over to me, beckoning me down. "I don't have to pee," she said.
Well, then, good enough for me. I smiled at her and straightened. "Speaking of spies. We were wondering if you have anyone placed within the palace itself, close to Minos. We suspect that Vesna is going to do something during the bull jumping ritual."
Acantha gave me a long, measuring look. "I do know some people, yes, that can be trusted. Wazet doesn't?"
"Vesna is very likely going to be purging all of the Wazet people from the palace. Likely has started already, really," I said. "Besides, the Porta temple doesn't have spies." I smiled at Acantha.
Her eyes were calm and cool. "Spies, no. People we trust to pass information when they hear it, yes. No priestess or Guardian of Porta is a spy, but we have many sympathizers."
Semantics, again. I decided not to point out that the difference was really rather academic. "Well, we're suspecting that she may be bringing the pieces of a device into the palace. We know it's not complete, but what they do have has enormous destructive potential."
"Big enough to blow up the bull-jumping ritual?" Acantha was quick, right enough.
"The ritual and most of the palace," I said.
"And with it most of the priests in the city."
"And maybe a good chunk of Knossos, as well. So, yes. It would effectively decimate both temples--and kill Minos into the bargain."
Acantha nodded, and I could see her considering. "I will consult and get back to you today or tomorrow, depending on if we can contact everyone today."
"Thank you. We don't know for sure that this is Vesna's next move, but it makes sense," I said.
"It does, very frighteningly so." I gave Acantha a description of what we were looking for, and then she let us go and called Macaria in. We returned to the Wazet temple, and I put in a bit of drill with the Guardians there, trying to get a feel for them. I identified a few potential troublemakers, but the worst ones appeared to have already left. There was some grumbling about being invaded by Portas, but I didn't pay it any mind.
After I no longer felt up to drilling, the ache of the wounds I'd taken yesterday returning, I went and guarded Melitta while she did the work she was ostensibly here for. We took a break before supper and went to the market to look at the thing that Kaia had said she'd wanted--a toy bull made out of fabric and stuffed with soft scraps. "His name is Kados," Kaia told me as we walked back to the Temple, Kaia carrying the toy.
"It's a good name," I said.
She looked a bit embarrassed. "It's not my name for him. It's Phoena's." She looked down at the patchwork bovine. "She said I can borrow him until she's old enough for him. He's her favorite toy."
I opened my mouth and closed it again. "Is there something else you want, maybe?" I asked her. "Something that's all yours?"
She thought about it. "Maybe--there was a stall back there, the scarf one."
I'd seen her eyeing the colorful scarves before, but hadn't been sure if she'd actually wanted one. "Why don't we go look, and see if there's one you want?"
Turned out there were three she wanted, and she went home with one of them wrapped around the toy bull, one around her shoulders, and one tied around her waist. She was grinning as she skipped along, bouncing like she hadn't since we'd gotten to Knossos. This life was going to take some getting used to for all of us, it seemed.
"You're good with her," Melitta said to me, as she slipped her hand into mine. "You just needed to get used to her."
"I never thought I'd have a child, and if I did, I assumed I'd start with a baby, not one who's almost grown up already," I told her.
Melitta watched Kaia ahead of us. "Maybe not so grown up as all that. She has a lot at stake here, too. If we didn't want her, who knows what would happen to her?"
"But we do. All we can do, really, is love her and hope for the best."
Melitta tightened her hand on mine, and then we were at the Temple and there was a minor crisis for Melitta to sort out. Minor crises continued until nightfall, when a messenger from the Porta temple came and asked us to return. Acantha was not feeling well enough to travel, so we went to her.
This time, Macaria was in the room. After dispensing with pleasantries, I asked, "What have you found?"
Acantha's demeanor was grave. "Unfortunately, little. Only one of four has gotten back to us, but the news is disturbing. Vesna moved in three days ago. Then she cleaned house, moving all the staff out and bringing in her own. Only one still works there, according to them. The other three they haven't seen and when we went to their homes here, they are gone as well. The whole families are gone, not just the individuals. Whole sections of the palace are off limits to the staff now."
I ground my teeth. "Ah, no. I'll bet she got her seer to figure out who was passing information on."
She was way ahead of me. "Likely. And based on that, this one we are talking about may be compromised."
"Very likely. Did this one say anything about things being moved in and out of the palace?"
"Lots of boxes being moved in and out, by men the size of bulls, they say. A lot of Greeks or mercenaries, I would guess. Minos has to know and is probably in on this. He is up to his eyes in debt building that monstrous creation of his, the palace and all its corridors and non-stop construction."
"He might think he knows what's going on," I said. "We need to get in there, somehow."
Acantha nodded. "So the only other piece of information that could be useful is that the main person behind the construction is a smaller man, about sixty or so years in age. He walks with a limp and a cane, they say he bleeds from the leg sometimes, but here is the really interesting bit, so does Vesna."
That brought me directly upright. "So does Vesna? Now, that's very, very strange."
"I thought you might think that interesting," Acantha said, smiling thinly. "I think we plan for the worst. Sending everyone out of Knossos will alert them, and probably cause them to take some drastic measure. We need to take the palace, and quietly."
I thought about it. "Not easy. But--doable. If both Temples work together."
"Volunteers, I fear, which means a small force."
"But the palace itself will work to our advantage," I said, thinking about the maze of the place. "There are places in there difficult to find."
"And many places to hide."
"Of course, the same goes for them. But if Vesna's been moving her own people in, they're not familiar with the palace quite yet." I shook my head, not quite believing the audacity of what we were planning. "Goddess, though. If we find and kill Vesna, we're going to have to kill Minos as well. Just destroying the weapon will only slow this down, not stop it."
Acantha was nodding. "I am afraid so. Then what, is the question. Minos has a lot of children and they will fight for the top. Civil war, likely, or we install a theocracy with a puppet king. And any way this falls we may end up with an invasion."
"Personally, I like the second better than the first," I said. "But if we do end up with an invasion...we can fight, if we're not divided. We might not win, but at least we won't definitely lose."
"Unless we can defend the city with the weapon. Bloody a few Greek noses and they may back off."
Warningly, I said, "That comes with its own risks. That weapon destroyed the first civilization that used it. But it may be worth a try."
"Might get us either way. Strong as we are, we can't defend against the Greek army." Acantha sounded tired, and I saw the dark circles under her eyes. She was haunted, and not just by the aftereffects of the poison that had been used on her, I'd wager. I wondered, silently, what difficult choices she'd had to make lately.
"True enough. If we have the weapon, we may be able to fix it so it doesn't kill us all. We'll see."
She nodded. "Maybe. I suggest you discreetly ask in your temple for volunteers and I will do the same. What's your minimum to try this?"
I pondered the question. Vesna and Minos would have to be taken down together or not at all. "Two priests from each Temple. Two or three Guardians from each. If we get into a pitched battle, we're dead anyway, so we'll be relying on stealth."
"If you can wait until the last day, I will go. But I need time to recover yet. Macaria is a given." The Guardian in question inclined her head. "I have two other guardians I can ask, and I can probably get two more clerics. That will give you five or six, depending if you can wait."
"I think we can. We can use the time to hopefully figure out who's controlling Vesna. We have Melitta and myself, and I'm pretty sure I can get at least one Wazet Guardian, and there are a couple of Wazet priestesses we may be able to get."
"I think ten or twelve, no more," Macaria said. Acantha nodded in response.
"I wish we had more time than this, to tell you the truth, but we'll make do with what we have," I said. "I do want you along, Acantha, if you'll be recovered enough by then. As far as I recall, you're the strongest priestess among us."
Acantha smiled. "Likely, though I don't know the strength of the Wazet priestesses all that well. Celandia was my equal in power but I don't know if you had others. Melitta, possibly."
"Melitta is very good at what she does, but your specialties are different," I said. "Tressa's probably the priestess in the Wazet temple who's almost as strong as her."
"Well, pull together who you can, and we will sneak in on the night before the festival." Acantha took a long breath. "They will starting arriving to cook as early as three hours after midnight on that night and we need to be done by then, between dead night and three hours past."
"That's when the watch will be lightest and sleepiest, as well," I added. "We get in and seek out Vesna and Minos, and improvise from there."
"I think that's all we can do. We might be able to get in with all the extra help that will be carrying food in, but then we need to find a place to hide for a while."
"Shouldn't be difficult. I can't say I know the palace like the back of my hand, but I've been in there quite a bit. I was part of that detail that got sent in to supplement Minos's guards a few years ago."
"You might know some good places, but it's been changing a lot over the last few months. All the new construction."
I thought about it, and nodded. "True enough. We're going to need to get in and scout--or send someone in."
"Just need a few places like Vesna's quarters and Minos's, though I doubt they have changed, and a place to hide."
I had an idea, one that I immediately hated. Kaia would be excellent for this, people didn't notice children, and she could overhear things for us. And as far as we knew, they didn't know what she looked like. But if they did...no. "We'll find someone."
"The Portas aren't very good at being sneaky," Acantha said. "Best it be one of yours."
We agreed, settled a few more details, and departed. Five days to go until the equinox, until we needed to do this.
Tressa agreed to go in to scout for us, and she, Xenos, and Melancton would be coming in with us. When I asked Kaia if she wanted to come, she made a face. "Not really. But I think I need to."
She was probably right, I had to admit, as much as I was reluctant to take her with us.
Tressa came back the next afternoon, after doing her scouting. "Find what we needed?" I asked her once we were together and shut in one of the reception rooms.
She nodded. "I think so. The sleeping quarters of Minos are easy to find, but well guarded. Vesna's are close by, just down the way. I saw the limping guy as well, they call him Corban. He has a place some distance from them, it's a long corridor and one right to get to it. Now the places to hide in small groups are many, but if you want the whole group together, there is only one I could find. It's a wine cellar for the really old stuff. Not the everyday wine, but the state dinner stuff. Since we get few people here, it's pretty unused."
"Good work," I said. "Did you see Vesna?"
"No, but I did see the back of Adara."
I bit back an oath. "Damn. Guess she decided not to ship out like we told her."
Tressa snorted. "Didn't think she would, did you?"
"Well, I sort of hoped. Adara wasn't limping, was she?"
"Nope, not that I could see."
I scratched the back of my neck. "And if her back was to you, you probably couldn't see if she was wearing a ring. Ah, well, it was just a thought."
"I did look for things out of the ordinary while in there. If there is a bomb in there, it's well hidden."
"I wouldn't doubt it. Though it's large enough that you'd think it would be hard to hide. Were they doing any building near the front of the palace?" I asked.
"No, at the top. They were putting a large oak piece on the roof."
I closed my eyes. That had to be part of it. I talked a bit more to Tressa, then went to relay the information to Acantha. She had her people picked out--herself and Macaria were going, as well as Basha, Macaria's second, and Dyna and Eleni, both priestesses of Porta, chosen for their fighting and healing skills and lack of qualms about killing Minos.
It was a nerve-wracking three days of waiting, then. I kept second-guessing myself, wondering if it was a mistake to wait until Acantha was well enough to go with us. But no matter how I turned it, Acantha was probably the single most powerful priestess on the island, and perhaps in this part of the world. We very well might need her.
Construction on the palace continued at breakneck speed, but nothing really out of the ordinary happened. There was the usual buildup to the ritual and feasting of the equinox, and I tried to concern myself with looking out for Melitta and Kaia.
Finally, the day arrived. Mid-day, we gathered together. "We'll go in quiet, in groups of three, and meet in that wine cellar," I told everyone. "I think that's the easiest way to get in without being detected. Once we're all in, we'll need to hit Minos and Vesna's quarters fast and hard. They're our two main targets. Adara and Corban are also targets--if we can take Corban alive, we do, but don't worry overmuch if he dies. We need to do this as quietly as we can--Melitta and Tressa, take out whatever guards you can with poison before we head in directly."
Melitta nodded, then asked, "We staying in one large group for the fighting or breaking into two groups?"
"The quarters are too close for us to stay together. One group should have Acantha, Macaria, and Tressa in it--Xenos, Dyna, you both go with them. The rest will be with me. That gives us a good balance between the two groups."
Nods all around. Melitta looked around, apparently satisfied. "We are ready then, I think."
"All right. Let's go do this."
Into the palace we went, in groups of threes and fours through the afternoon, drifting into the chosen wine cellar. We had about seven hours before the appointed hour, and we stayed quiet and tried to sleep as we could, keeping two of us on watch at all times. We were in luck, and weren't disturbed.
When it was almost time, we were stirring and getting ready to go. Acantha broke the seal on a jar of some of the finest wine in here, dumped her waterskin out, and filled it with wine. "Minos is not going to need it if we succeed, and we need it more." She passed the jar to Macaria, and took a swallow of wine. "Could be the last thing you drink, might as well make it expensive."
We passed the wine jar around and each took a few swallows, including Kaia, who looked thrilled to be included in the adult ritual then somewhat less so once she actually tasted the wine. Then we discarded everything that might weigh us down in the fight. I kissed Melitta soundly and told her I loved her, and then hugged Kaia and told her, "If things start going badly, find a place to hide, and get out when things calm down."
"And don't use the thing you did to Minta on anyone unless they attack you," Melitta added, quietly.
I'd thought that had gone without saying, but Melitta shrugged at me, as if to say, she's a kid, she's probably scared, give her clear instructions.
I stopped and cleared my mind, letting the calm I'd been taught fill me up, then nodded to the rest. And so we crept out into the silent midnight corridors, in search of Vesna.
We avoided a few people; the palace was dead tonight, most everyone sleeping in anticipation of a long day tomorrow. We arrived on Minos and Vesna's corridor, and saw that there were two guards each on both Vesna and Minos's doors, telling us that the happy couple was not sleeping together that night.
I signaled to Melitta and Tressa--I'd seen Melitta hit a man with her darts at three times this distance, this should be easy. The guards on Vesna's door went down silently, but the ones on Minos's made some noise, clatter of armor and half-drawn swords.
Now or never.
Acantha led her team to Minos's door, and we went to Vesna's. The keys were on the belt of one of the guards, and as I retrieved them and unlocked the door, I heard the sound of people moving around inside, low voices too indistinct to make out. I finished unlocking the door, then opened it with a kick and ducked out of the way, figuring there was a nasty surprise on the other side.
A gout of flame roared out of the open doorway, and I saw that the same thing had happened on Minos's doorway. None of us were hurt, though I smelled burnt hair. Then I stepped through, one Kyrith in each hand, to see--no one.
Not a soul in the room.
I stepped into the room, listening hard, hoping to provoke an attack. Nothing. Only the sound of moving air, coming from what appeared to be a closet. At the back of the closet was a panel that was slightly ajar, through which the wind was blowing, stirring the hanging clothes.
"I think she may have left through here. Unless anyone can tell if there's an invisible person in the room."
Melitta answered me. "Nobody in here."
"In we go, then."
The panel led to a shaft with a ladder in it, and from there to the roof. As I climbed, I heard a humming sound coming from ahead. I hurried, and I prayed.
When we reached the roof, I saw Vesna, Adara, and an older man who must be Corban. All of them were fiddling with something, a large lever that extended into the wall. I looked around, glanced at Melitta and nodded to Corban, and went after Adara. Basha and Eleni both went after Vesna.
Adara was easily the best fighter among them, and it was like fighting Minta all over again, except without the serrated dagger to deal with. I found myself very glad I'd taken the time to heal up all the way as I harried Adara and she harried me right back.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Corban fall, felled by Melitta and the dagger we'd taken from Minta. Vesna killed Eleni and Basha fell, though I didn't know for sure whether he was badly wounded enough to be dead. But stepping into their place was Acantha, with Xenos behind her.
No Macaria.
I couldn't think about it, could only face the opponent in front of me. Adara fought me more or less to a standstill, falling back to her mother's side. Both of them were bleeding heavily, and Vesna reached for the lever. "Enough! It's over. You let us walk out of here and your city lives. If not, we all die."
"And set you free to do this again?" I asked, not putting up my axes.
Vesna's hand tightened on the lever. "You may be willing to die, but is Kaia? Is it worth her life?"
I stared at Vesna and thought that there was much more at stake here than she knew. Not just one daughter, but two. I glanced at the lever, wondering if I could disable it. "The weapon isn't in the building," I heard Kaia whisper behind me. "It is the building."
I took a long breath. "You leave, and you run right to the Greeks. We all die anyway."
Vesna had the audacity to look amused. "But as your daughter pointed out, you have the building intact. It won't take you long to figure out how to aim it without destroying your city. The Greeks won't stand a chance."
"And if we decide to try and kill you, you'll trigger the weapon?"
Kaia had stepped right up behind me, and was pulling on my elbow. I couldn't spare a moment to look at her. "Seems we have a stalemate," Vesna said.
"Looks like," I said. Kaia's tugging was getting almost annoying, and despite myself I looked down. She had something in her cupped hand, something shiny. A golden ring.
Oh, good girl! If this was what I thought it was--
I lowered one of my hands and extended my little finger. Kaia slid it onto it quickly, and suddenly I was hearing babble, voices swimming and growing and fading. I turned back to Adara and Vesna, and realized that Vesna really was going to throw the lever if I didn't comply. Goddess, the hate she had in her! Grief, anger, all of it mixed together in a stew of venom that was aimed directly at Melitta and I. She didn't want to see us die.
She wanted to see us suffer.
"Back up," I told her, and to her vast surprise, she did. Then I realized something odd. I could hear Adara, too. She was wearing a thigh ring, so long that it had likely healed entirely and she no longer limped. "To your knees, both of you, and stay there."
They complied. "Why are you both wearing those rings?" I asked, unbearably curious.
Kaia said, "Wasn't them, it was Minos."
Vesna nodded. "Minos controlled Xia."
I glanced at Acantha. "Is Minos dead?"
Her bladed smile was there, but there was no happiness behind it. Macaria was probably dead somewhere below. "Yes, he is. Not a very worthy opponent. He cowered, mostly."
Melitta came up next to me. "Make them jump, Theron." Her voice held no compassion, but also not cruelty. Just desire for this to be over.
We were four stories in the air, and if I recalled correctly, the courtyard below was stone. "I was just getting to that part. Vesna. Adara. Jump off the roof."
Adara was crying as she turned away from us, pleading to the air. Vesna was silent as stone. Both of them took two steps and then a third, the third that carried them off the roof. There was a silence, then a cracking thud from below.
I looked over the edge. They had both hit the steps leading to one of the entrances on the main floor. Both were splayed, unmoving, heads looking something like smashed squashes, with seeds all over.
I'd seen worse, but that didn't make the sight any better, really. "Well, someone's going to have a tough cleanup job in the morning. Kaia--where did you get the ring?"
She was peering fascinatedly over the edge of the roof at the bodies below. "Minos had it. I saw it in Acantha's mind. I summoned it up the stairs."
"You summoned--never mind. You can tell me about it later." I closed my eyes, using the ring to feel for those other voices I'd heard. Two were in the city, and I gave them silent instructions to come to the steps in front of the Temple of Wazet and wait there for further instructions. There was one far away, on Limnos. I ordered him to release the prisoners he had--Orrin and Evangeline were still alive!--and make sure they could get to wherever they wanted to go. Tell them that Kaia is in Knossos, I sent, as my last instruction.
Then we went to gather the bodies of the fallen, and take them back to their Temples to be prepared for burial.
*****
The bull-jumping that year was smaller than it usually was, due to the fact that Crete was suddenly in deep mourning over the loss of its king--his lover had killed him, it was said, and then in her madness had jumped off the roof, taking the Wazet priestess who'd tried to stop her with her. We were choosing someone who could be king, someone tractable, who didn't mind being told what to do by the priest advisors who would watch his every move.
It was still quite the spectacle, and Kaia watched avidly. Melitta had given her rather too many sticky sweets, and she bounced in her seat next to me as she watched a young woman successfully vault an irritated bull. "What was the summoning thing all about?" I asked Kaia, curious.
She wrinkled her nose, and didn't stop bouncing. "I got sent to bed a few times without supper, I was hungry and made the food come to me by floating it down the hall. I thought it might work on the ring."
"Well, I'm glad it did," I said, and that was that.
It took a good year for things to settle down. We invited the Fallen back and they came to the last person. The children who were tending the old ones, at Phoena's temple, declined to come back, telling us that it wasn't time for the old ones to wake quite yet. We did keep in close touch with them, though.
Orrin and Evangeline finally managed to make it to Knossos about three months after the rest of the Fallen had arrived, and Kaia was delighted to see them--but also heartbreakingly wary of them. It took us a bit, but we did manage to settle the issue of who Kaia was going to live with mostly peaceably. She spent most of her time and all of her nights with us, and she would spend some time with her natural parents--especially when Melitta and I didn't have any attention to spare for making sure she wasn't getting into trouble.
Orrin and Evangeline mostly took this with good grace. Evangeline loved Kaia, but seemed almost relieved to not have to mother her any more. Orrin missed her, though, and it took a while for him to stop flinching after Kaia started referring to both he and I as her fathers.
And when the Greeks did arrive--well, by that time we'd figured out how to use the weapon. We spanked them and sent them home, followed up with a few ambassadors who had the unenviable task of trying to make peace. We put the pages of the book each into a separate lead cask and sank them at places all around the ocean, hoping that they would remain lost forever.
So life went on, as it always did. And two years later, after a long and very difficult labor, Phoena was born into the world. Whether or not she would be the only natural child Melitta and I would ever have remained to be seen; after being terrified for two days during Melitta's labor that I was going to lose my wife or my daughter or both, I was perfectly happy to stop with the children we had. Melitta, though, seemed to think it worthwhile, and less than a year after having Phoena was talking about trying for another one.
And so we came to the bull-jumping when Phoena was a year old, three years after Melitta and I had tried so unsuccessfully to flee from each other.
*****
"Theron, your daughter won't come out of her room, and we need to go or we're going to be late!"
"Why are they always my daughters when they're misbehaving?" I asked. Melitta gave me a look and shifted the little girl on her hip. Phoena waved one chubby hand at me, and I stooped to kiss her, and then her mother. "I'll go see what's wrong with Kaia," I said. "She's been moody lately. Think she's about to start her cycles?"
Melitta gave me an amused look. "Theron, if you value your life, I'd suggest not telling her that. She's having a hard enough time with her body changing as it is, don't go making it worse. Kiss me again, and I'll go tell Xenos we're almost ready."
I did, and I walked over to the room that Kaia had been occupying since we'd arrived at the Temple just over three years ago. I knocked on the closed door. "Kaia? Can I come in?"
I heard a meh from the other side of the door, and decided to take it as an invitation. I opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind me.
Inside, everything was in cheerful disarray as usual. Kaia herself was sitting where her bed made a corner with the wall, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around Kados, her toy bull. I suspected that Kados had gotten a lot of tears dripped on him over the last few years, in secret. The girl hardly let any hint of her emotions show, but I knew by now that she surely felt things, and deeply.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. Kaia's dark hair fell over one eye. She'd refused to put her hair up this morning, or wash, or eat breakfast, or do anything that involved leaving her room. Unfortunately, she'd picked the fall equinox to throw this particular fit on, and we were all expected to be at the bull jumping this afternoon.
"Hey, little one. What's wrong? I thought you loved the bull-jumping."
She sniffled, and I started--Kaia was crying? She never cried where anyone could see. "I'm sorry." Another sniffle. "It's just--today. Please, go, I'll be fine."
"I'm going to be worried about you all day if I go and you don't," I said. "You know that. At least tell me what's wrong?"
"It's today," she said, her voice shaking. "Today is the day you--" She broke off and hunched in on herself.
Oh. I thought I understood. "Today's the day we died, when this first happened, isn't it?"
She nodded, and I reached out to her. "It's all right, Kaia," I said quietly. "Come here. You want to talk about it?" She scooted over to me, leaning into me. "Want to tell me what happened?"
Kaia swallowed. "It was a day, just like today. The air felt the same. I tried to get you not to go to the ritual, I said it was dangerous. You said you had to go, that we couldn't act like we were afraid." She swallowed. "You'd just found out about Xia, you'd just figured out that Vesna was involved. You had no idea what she'd done. So I took Phoena, and I ran away. I ran as far and as fast as I could run, and I was still running when Knossos exploded." She gulped, and sobs seemed to force their way out of her. I held her and let her finish the bout of tears. When she had control over her voice again, she said, "We were captured by the Greeks and they made us slaves. They used the thigh rings to control us. We escaped, but it took us years. And we hatched this plan, to try again, give us a second chance. I told Phoena all about you, and Mom. I told her all about what life used to be like here, about how happy we were, how happy you and Mom were together. I tried to make you be alive for her." She wiped her eyes.
"Then what?" I asked. "She went back with Kyrith, and what did you do?"
She shook her head. "It wasn't like that. The spell we used was very dangerous. We didn't know if it would work. The only way we could make sure it did was if one of us gave their lives to it." I sucked in a sharp breath. "Phoena was the one with the greater gift, and I knew that she could fix things if I could only give her a chance. So I did. I hurt too much to do anything else."
I let Kaia lean on me in silence for a little bit. "It was very brave, what you did," I said, finally. "And I'm going to make sure, if I can, that you don't have to do it again. Unless Knossos is going to explode today."
Kaia shook her head. "It's going to be a nice bull-jumping. Hardly anyone's going to die this year." She let her shoulders sag, her head droop a bit. Fourteen, and stuck in that awkward place between girlhood and womanhood, her newly developing body taking her by surprise every time she moved. And carrying these secrets still, this knowledge that was hardly fair for anyone to have to carry.
But Melitta and I tried to let both of the girls be normal, as we could. At the moment, Phoena was just a baby, so that was easy. Harder was to just let Kaia be herself, and not bring her into endless conferences on matters of Temple leadership. We weren't always successful, but I'd noticed lately that she had a habit of simply showing up when she was going to be needed, and leaving it alone the rest of the time.
I was proud of her, this daughter of mine, unbearably so. She was going to be an amazing woman--just like both of her mothers. "I love you," I told her. "Now that I know what's wrong, you can stay here today, if you want to be by yourself."
"No," she said, and smiled tremulously. "Talking about it helped. I'll get dressed."
"And wash behind your ears," I told her.
She wrinkled her nose and me and laughed, and I left her to change and wash and comb her hair. While she was doing so, I straightened some papers I'd left in a pile on the desk Melitta and I shared. We were getting closer. It was going to take decades, but the two Temples were going to be one, one of these days. Phoena had left us the keys, in the form of her art, and the book she'd left behind, one of the copies of which I'd picked up on Kasos. It was a scripture for a new religion, rituals and rites that blended the best of the two traditions. We weren't there yet, but every day we got a little closer. It was a long, hard road we'd chosen for ourselves, but it would be worth it in the end.
And on the desk, also, was the little statue of the blended Goddesses, the first one Melitta and I had found, the piece of worked stone that had changed everything. I picked it up, running my thumb over her carved hair. "You did know what you were doing, that day, weren't you? You knew that we needed a second chance. That we all need second chances sometimes."
The carving smiled its usual enigmatic smile in response, and I set it down on the desk. Behind me, Kaia cleared her throat. "Ready to go, Dad."
I turned, and smiled to see her. She'd bound her hair up simply, and she was wearing what would probably be one of the last child-style dresses she would ever wear. Soon enough, she'd trade her simple dresses for bright skirts. She had one of the blue scarves we'd bought her right before the battle in the palace tied around her waist, and she had Kados tucked under her arm.
"Hey, Kados is going to see the bull-jumping, too?"
Kaia smiled, a bit self-consciously. "Actually, I was thinking that maybe it's Phoena's turn to have him. She's going to start talking soon. She'll need someone to talk to."
"Well, only if you're done with him."
Again, that smile. "Well, I might borrow him sometimes. But maybe I'll start talking to real people some." She reached out her hand towards me. "I think we're late."
I took her hand, and we went out into the hall together, and joined Melitta and Phoena. Kaia was right. It was a very nice bull-jumping that year. Phoena gnawed on Kados's soft horns quite happily, and we all cheered on the young men and woman who were jumping. In two or three years, it would be Kaia out there, vaulting her own bull.
I took Melitta's hand, and leaned over to murmur something into her ear that made her raise an eyebrow and murmur back, "Do you think we can get Orrin and Evangeline to watch the girls tonight, though?"
"Give them to Xenos for the evening, if they're busy," I told her, all seriousness. "After all, you did mention wanting to try for another baby..."
The look she gave me fair smoldered my hair right off, and I sat back in my seat, my hand still in hers.
I was lost from the first moment I saw her.
Of course, I was also found from the first moment I saw her.
And that, my friends, is the end of the story, which ends where it began--in love.
[The Minoan civilization persisted for another century and a half. A very canny Greek King decided to leave Crete alone for a few decades, and the weapon fell into disrepair as the residents of Knossos thought themselves safe. When the Greeks returned unexpectedly forty years later, the weapon no longer worked, and there was nobody left alive with the knowledge to repair it. The Minoans were overrun and their culture mostly eradicated; today, they leave us with the remnants of the Palace at Knossos, also known as the Labyrinth, ruins, beautiful paintings, and scores and scores of tally-books--but no stories other than what has been handed down in Greek myth.
Today, the Minoans remain a mystery, their writing mostly untranslatable and the meaning of their buildings and paintings debated endlessly. Which is probably just as Phoena would have preferred it.]
Here ends Guardian's Road.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 03:54 am (UTC)I particularly loved the last two paragraphs there where you tied it back into history.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 05:16 pm (UTC)