Lydra set the watch down and touched the Labrys talisman to her lips. “What do you mean?” she asked tonelessly.
Here we go, Reid thought, and wondered if he was about to destroy the world he had come from, like summer sunlight scorching a morning mist off the earth; or if he was only fluttering his wings in the cage of time.
Neither, I hope, I pray my agnostic prayer, he thought amidst the knockings of his heart. I hope to gain the influence I must have in order to do ... whatever is needful to, find those travelers from the future when they come, and thus win home to my wife and children. In exchange, can I not salvage a little of Erissa’s world for her? Or at least get her back to the one she salvaged for herself?
It is my duty. I suppose it is also my desire,
“My lady,” he said solemnly, out of a dry mouth, “I have been shown visions of horror, visions of doom. I have been shown Pillar Mountain bursting asunder in such fury that Atlantisi sinks beneath the sea, tidal waves overwhelm the fleet and earthquakes the cities of Crete, and the royal island falls prey to men who set chaos free to roam.”
He might have gone on to what he remembered from books not yet written: A sleazy reconstruction under the new rulers, who must surely be Achaeans and who had no wish to keep the peace either at sea or on land. The Homeric era to follow; would splendid lines of poetry really repay lifetimes of disintegration, war, piracy, banditry, rape, slaughter, burning, poverty, and glutted slave markets? Finally, that invasion from the north which Theseus himself was troubled about: wild Dorians bearing iron weapons, bringing the Bronze Age down in ruin so total that scarcely a legend would remain of the dark centuries which came after.
Lydra, who had sat still a while, spoke. “When is this to happen?”
“Early next year, my lady. If preparations can be made—”
“Wait. A fumbling attempt at rescue could be the very cause of disaster. The gods have been known to work deviously when they would destroy?’
“My lady, I speak only of evacuating the Atlanteans to Crete and everyone there inland from the coastal towns ... safeguarding the fleet—”
The pale eyes held most steady upon him. “You could have been misled,” she told him slowly, “whether by a hostile Being or an evil-seeking witch or a mere fever. You could even be lying for some purpose of your own.”
“You must have had a full report on me from Diores, my lady.”
“Not full enough, obviously.” Lydra raised a hand. “Hold. I make no accusation against you. Indeed, what I have heard, what I see in your expression, makes me think you’re likely honest—as far as you go—but you do not go very far, do you, strange one? No, something this drastic requires askings out, purifications, prayers, visits to oracles, takings of counsel, the deepest search and pondering that mortals can make. I will not be hastened. According to your own word, we have months before us wherein to seek the wisest course of action.”
Decisive as any man he had known, she finished: “You will stay on this isle, where sacredness holds bane at bay and where you can readily be summoned for further talks.
There are ample guest quarters in the wing reserved for visiting male—votaries.”
“But my lady,” he protested, “my friends in Athens—”
“Let them bide where they are, at least until we’ve learned more. Be not afraid for them. Winter months or no, I’ll find occasions to send messengers there, who’ll observe and report.”
The Ariadne imitated a smile. “You are not a prisoner, man from afar,” she continued. “You may walk freely about the main island too, when not needed here. I do want you always under guidance.... Let me think.... A dancer should suffice, a lay sister, young and merry to brighten your moods.”
Reid thought it odd how calmly she took his news. Had Diores ferreted out sufficient hints to give her forewarning, or was, she inhumanly self-controlled? Her voice snapped the thread of his wondering:
“I have in mind particularly a sister of excellent family whose name may be an omen. For it’s the same as that of your woman companion I was told about. Erissa.”
XIII
The bull lowered his head, pawed, and charged. As he ‘ came down the paddock he gathered speed, until earth shook and drummed with the red-and-white mass of him.
Poised, the girl waited. She was clad like a boy for this, in nothing more than belt, kilt, and soft boots. Dark hair fell down her back in a ponytail lest a stray lock blind her. Reid’s nails dug into his palms.
Sunlight out of a wan sky flashed off tridents borne by the men on guard. In an emergency, they were supposed to rescue the dancers. They stood at ease just outside the rail fence. Reid couldn’t. Through the cool breeze, the hay and marjoram odors of Atlantis’ high meadows, he sensed his own sweat trickling, stinking, catching in his mustache and making his lips taste salty when he wet them.
That was Erissa waiting for those horns.
But she won’t be hurt, he told himself frantically. Not yet.
At his back the hills rolled downward, yellow grass, green bush, here and there a copse of gnarly trees, to a remote glimmer off the sea. Before him was the training field, and beyond that a slope more abrupt, and at its foot the city, the bay, the sacred isle,, and that other isle which, rising black from scintillant blueness, was the volcano. Above the crater stood a column of smoke so thick that the wind hardly bent its first thousand feet. Higher up it was scattered and blown south toward unseen Knossos.
The bull was almost upon the girl. Behind her a half-dozen companions wove a quick-footed pattern of dance.
Erissa sprang. Either hand seized a horn. The muscles played beneath her skin. Incredibly to Reid, she lifted herself, waved legs aloft, before she let go—and somersaulted down the great backbone, reached ground in an exuberant flip, and pranced her way back into the group. Another slender form was already on the horns.
“She’s good, that ‘un.” A guard nodded at Erissa, winked at Reid. “But she’ll take no priestess vows, I’ll bet. The man who beds her ‘ull have as much as he can handle—Hoy!” He leaped onto a rail, ready to jump the fence with his fellows. The bull had bellowed and tossed his head, flinging a girl aside.
Erissa ran to the beast, tugged an ear, and pirouetted off. He swerved toward her. She repeated her vault over him. The dance resumed, the guards relaxed.
.’Thought for a bit there he was turning mean, said the man who had earlier spoken. “But he just got excited. Happens.”
Reid let out a breath. His knees were about to give way. “Do ... you lose ... many people?” he whispered.
“No, very seldom, and those who’re gored often recover. That’s here on Atlantis, I mean. The boys train on Crete, and I’m told no few of them get hurt. Boys’re too reckless. They’re more interested in making a good show, winning glory for themselves, than in honoring the gods.
Girls, now, girls want the rite to go perfect for Her, so they pay close attention and follow the rules.”
The bull, which had been rushing at each one who separated herself from the group, slowed to a walk, then stopped. His flanks gleamed damp and his breath was loud. “That’ll do,” the ringmaster decided, waved his trident and shouted, “Everybody out!” To Reid he explained, “The nasty incidents are usually when the beast’s gotten tired. He doesn’t want to play any more, and if you force him, he’s apt to lose his temper. Or he may simply forget what he’s supposed to do.”
The girls scampered over the fence. The bull snorted. “Leave him a while to cool off, before you open the gate,” the ringmaster said. He cast a glance more appraising than appreciative over the bare young breasts and limbs, wet as the animal’s. “Enough for today, youngsters. Put your cloaks on so you don’t catch cold and go to the boat.”