Odysseus in the Serpent Maze (6 page)

I
N THE BRIEF TIME
he’d been aboard the pirate vessel, Odysseus had spotted the one thing that had given him some hope. There had been a flock of seagulls barely visible in the distance.

Where there are gulls
, he thought,
there must be land
.

If he could only make it to land, anything was possible.

A fresh ship.

A sword.

Men to follow him.

He worried about Mentor on the ship more than he did about himself in the sea. It was only a matter of time before Mentor’s unthinking honesty betrayed him. As soon as the pirates discovered the truth, they’d fling Mentor over the side of the boat along with their slops. But only if they were feeling particularly forgiving.

Odysseus swam slowly towards the spot where he’d seen the gulls.

Better thinking than sinking,
he told himself. Gritting his teeth, he began swimming with renewed vigour. Both their lives depended upon him reaching land.

Odysseus was actually a strong swimmer when he didn’t have high waves, a weakened leg, and a sick friend to contend with. He’d grown up on an island, learning to swim before he could run. He knew not to rely on one kind of stroke, but to rotate several—an overhand for a few minutes, then a more restful sidestroke, then the overhand again, and finally turning on his back, letting his legs do most of the work.

The last time on his back, he not only saw gulls but could hear them as well.

He flipped over and, lifting his head, tried to catch a glimpse of a shore.

There was a smudge on the horizon that might be an island.

He forced himself onward, stopping every hundred strokes or so to tread water. But lack of food, lack of fresh water, and, most of all, lack of sleep were telling on him. His limbs were growing weaker. He had a persistent headache from the sun and the salt. Each time his arm ploughed through the water, it took a greater and greater effort to raise it again. His legs protested too, especially the right leg. His chest burned as if an iron spike had been driven through it. But still he swam on, now counting the strokes as he went.

One hundred … two hundred … three hundred …

This time the cries of the gulls, which he had taken for encouragement, sounded mocking, as if they were calling out, “Foolish mortal! Neither fish nor fowl.”

Water kept splashing into his mouth, though he tried to keep it closed. The salt stung his eyes. His lungs ached with the effort of breathing.

One thousand … one hundred…

He trod water again, tried to see if the shore was any closer. But his eyes were cloudy, and he couldn’t see a thing.

He was done.

He knew he was done.

Best surrender with grace
, he thought.

The sea sucked him down, and he had time for only a single cry.

Then the water was over his head. First blue. Then green. Then gold—shards of it, like coins sparkling over his head.

He’d seen those coins before, when he was a baby, pitched headlong into the calm water of the Bay of Phocis, his first swimming lesson.

No, not coins. He realised that now. A golden thread above him, where the sun met sea. Like the thread of life woven by the three sisters, the Fates. It was Clotho who spun the thread, Lachesis who wove it into the fabric of the world. Finally it was grim Atropos who—at the end of a man’s life—cut the thread with her knife.

But I’m not a man yet
, he wanted to cry out, as if that had ever made any difference to the Fates. As if one could make a sound beneath the water.

A sound.

Like a chittering.

A whistle.

Recalling the sound of a shepherd directing his flock on land.

Life.

And then something surged below him, stopping his descent: a giant hand beneath him; giant fingers cupping him, lifting him up, pushing hard against the wall of water.

Poseidon
? he thought wearily.
Is it you, mighty god of the sea, uncle to my own Athena
? He was too tired to think more.

Looking down for an instant, he thought he saw a pair of Nereids, those beautiful, long-haired sea nymphs that sailors desire. One of them swimming on each side of him, their graceful bodies arcing effortlessly through the water.

And then his head broke through the waves, and he gasped and gasped for air, his eyes dazzled by the light.

The sun blazed like a beacon above him, and his ears were filled with thunder.

The thunder of breakers crashing on the shore.

A final heave of the water threw him forward, and he was suddenly knee-down in shallow water, waves frothing angrily around him. Belching out a stomach full of brine, he crawled painfully up on to the dry beach.

A
dingle, a shingle, a wee bit of sand.

For a long while he lay on his side, sucking in air and thinking,
The Nereids. I will honour them. I will make sacrifices to them. I will tell my children and my grandchildren how they saved me.

Then rolling over on to his stomach and pushing himself up on to his elbows, he stared out at the sea for some sign of his rescuers.

And then he saw them—two fins coursing through the waves side by side.

“Dolphins!” he cried, his voice as torn and ragged as a cloth on a nail. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he would have laughed.

He looked behind him at the land. A rocky height dotted with moss and scrub rose up like a castle wall.

“Must … climb,” he croaked. “Must … find … water.”

But he could do neither. His thread of life, so nearly cut, could carry him no further. With a groan, he fell back down on the sand and surrendered to the darkness.

I
T WAS THE STINK
that woke him.

It smelled worse than the dunghills in the courtyards of his father’s palace. Worse than the goat pens at the height of the summer, when even the flies couldn’t stand the smell.

Opening his eyes, Odysseus found himself in the dim interior of a cave. He was lying on a pile of leaves on a packed earth floor with a shaft of sunlight filtering through the cave mouth.

How did I get here?
he wondered.
And what
is
that stink?

He rubbed his nose as hard as he could, but nothing seemed to get rid of the smell.

Then he heard a sound—the feet of some large animal behind him tromping across the cave floor.

He froze, pretending to be unconscious still.
Best not attract its attention.

What sort of animal could be large enough to have carried him up from the beach to its lair?

What sort of animal smelled this bad?

Without meaning to, he shivered, remembering some of the tales his father had told. About giant cannibals, and boars big as houses. About monsters who ate the flesh off still-live men.

He slotted his eyes and saw a pair of hairy legs ending in cloven hooves. Not daring more, he had to be content with that one glimpse.

As the monster passed by, the stench went up Odysseus’ nostrils like smoke up a chimney. It was all he could do not to choke.

Now the beast had moved entirely out of his line of vision. He could still hear it shuffling around, but until he could figure out what it was, he didn’t want it to know he was awake.

Suddenly he noticed something strange. There was a thread of music, like a hummed tune, coming from one end of the cave.

Is there another prisoner in this cave as well?
he wondered.

The shuffling feet came closer.

The smell got closer too.

Odysseus squinted his eyes again, looking straight up and into the round, snub-nosed face of a cheerful old grandfather leaning over him. The old man had a long, scraggly beard and thick, grey curls falling over his brow.

Relieved, Odysseus opened his eyes wide.

“Awake at laaaaast, eh?” the old man asked. His voice ended in a high bleat.

“Hsssst,” Odysseus whispered. “The creature.”

The old man looked puzzled, glanced around. “Whaaaaat creature?”

“Whoever carried me here …” Odysseus began. Then he sat up and stared at the old man.

At his bare arms and chest.

At his goat legs.

At the little horns poking through the grey curls.

“Time to eaaaat,” bleated the goat-man.

Odysseus reached behind him for some kind of weapon—a loose rock, a club, a handful of sand—but there was nothing. So he did the only thing he could think of: he scrambled backwards until he felt a cold stone wall behind him.

The creature shook its head. “Don’t taaaaake on so, maaaanling,” he chided. “Do mortals no longer remember old Silenus?”

“The satyr?” Odysseus had thought such creatures mere nursery tales.

“Aaaaat your service,” Silenus said, then did a little capering dance on his goat legs, ending in a surprisingly graceful bow.

Odysseus was suddenly annoyed at being mocked by such a stinking, ugly creature. He stood, careful not to hit his head on the roof of the cave, and said, “I am Odysseus, prince of Ithaca.”

The satyr’s brow creased in thought. “Aaaaaa, yes—Ithacaaaa. Sour grapes. Ugly women.”

“My mother—” Odysseus began.

“Aaaall men’s mothers aaaare beautiful,” Silenus said quickly. “Now eat? Or do you intend to follow drowning with staaaaarving? The gods cannot die. But a maaaan need not choose to die twice.”

Odysseus suddenly realised he was not only terribly hungry but thirsty as well. “Water. I’d like water.” He wrinkled his nose. “That is, if you have any.”

“Here, maaaanling.” The old goat-man held out a small wooden bowl filled with water.

Odysseus reached a bit tentatively for the bowl. Then he swallowed its contents down in a single gulp. “More.”

Silenus got him another bowlful from a large pottery krater by the cave mouth. “Drink slowly, else you will bring it aaaaaall back up. Fresh waaaaater is in short supply on this island.”

“I’d guessed that,” Odysseus said, wrinkling his nose again. But in spite of the old satyr’s advice, he drank the second bowl as quickly. And when he felt the water threatening to rise up, he calmed himself by closing his eyes and waiting for the spasm to pass.

“Now eat,” Silenus said.

Odysseus watched warily, but when the old satyr passed him a large palm leaf heaped with nuts, berries, and boiled roots, Odysseus was suddenly so hungry, he quite forgot his host’s smell. He devoured the humble meal as if it were a palace feast.

“Eat the leaf, aaaas well,” Silenus said.

Maybe a goat can eat that
, Odysseus thought, but all he said aloud was, “I thank you, kind sir, for the food and drink. I confess I was startled by your appearance.”

“Staaaartled …” the satyr said, and smiled slyly.

“I wasn’t afraid,” Odysseus said, “if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Not aaaat all.” Silenus nodded.

Before Odysseus could answer, something scuttered across the floor. The old satyr snatched up a club from somewhere behind him and brought it down with a loud
whack.
Smiling, he picked up the dead shrew by the tail. “Caaaare for seconds, young prince?”

Odysseus shook his head. Suddenly the nuts, berries, and water rushed up again, and he barely made it outside the cave in time.

Once his heaving stomach was emptied, Odysseus sat down in front of the cave mouth. It was quiet outside. Even the seabirds had grown silent.

The old satyr offered him a bowl of water, and this time Odysseus sipped it, making the single bowl last a long time.

Silenus dropped down beside him. Outside, the goat-man’s stench was bearable.

Just.

“How caaaame you here?” Silenus asked. “I raaarely have visitors.”

“Rarely?”

“Well, never before, aaaactually.” He sighed, and his long beard fluttered.

Odysseus thought about telling the old satyr the truth about his escape from the pirates. But the truth was so unheroic. If he was to gain the satyr’s co-operation, he’d have to impress it. He gave a moment’s thought to what he would say and a deep crease grew between his eyebrows, but the creature didn’t know the significance of that.

“I set out from Ithaca with five ships under my command,” Odysseus said, thinking five surely sounded better than one. And
my command
was grander than saying he’d been nursemaided by a merchant captain. “We sailed south to the land of the Egyptians, where we burned their cities and took their cattle, women and gold.”

Silenus leaned forward, his dark eyes bright with interest. “Is thaaaat where you injured your leg?”

“No, that was later,” Odysseus said, really getting into the story now. “We were attacked by Poseidon’s watchdog, a great serpent of the sea. It swallowed my first ship, bit the second in half, and then started to pluck the men from my own ship one by one by one with its huge yellow teeth.”

Silenus showed his own teeth, which were the colour of sand.

“I seized my spear,” Odysseus continued, “ramming it into the monster’s neck, but not before one of the serpent’s teeth gored me. Ignoring the pain, I ground the spear deep into the monster’s flesh. It struggled frantically, and I was whipped off the deck and flung far across the sea, far out of sight of my comrades.”

“Aaaaaaa,” said Silenus.

Taking this for a sound of appreciation, Odysseus continued with grand gestures. “Seeing an island, I swam for it. And … here I am.” He took a sip of the water.
Really
, he thought,
it
could
have happened that way
.

Silenus rubbed his beard. “Perhaaaaps,” he baaed slowly, “customs have changed since I was maaaarooned here. Aren’t you raaaaather young to be leading a waaaar baaaaand?”

“I am a prince,” said Odysseus. “Do you doubt me?”

“You’re right, maaaanling. What a poor host I aaaam to doubt aaaa prince’s word. Or thaaat a prince’s wound so recently got is aaaalready so well knitted up.”

Odysseus glanced down at the scar on his thigh, which was a dark line now, no longer the pulsing red of a new goring.

“Why should I question aaaaa story thaaat is the only real entertainment I’ve haaaad in my long exile?” The goat-man grinned.