Voyage of the Snake Lady (15 page)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Agamemnon’s Curse
N
ONYA SHUFFLED UNEASILY
and frowned as though she was beginning to doubt the Snake Lady’s promise. Iphigenia saw that she was angry and turned to appeal to her directly.
“Old One”—she addressed her with courtesy—“I wish nothing more than to leave this place and see you high priestess once again, but something has happened that I could never have believed possible and it changes everything!”
Nonya sprang forward and caught her by the arm. “I knew it,” she snarled. “I knew it. I should never have trusted you moon priestesses!”
“By Maa!” Myrina cursed beneath her breath. Her carefully laid plan seemed to be going very wrong.
“No!” Iphigenia tried to soothe the old woman by stroking the hand that clutched at her. “I do honor you, Priestess. Believe me, this role has been forced upon me. I would willingly see you in my place, but . . . I cannot leave yet. I cannot leave alone!”
“Two-faced one!” Nonya bellowed.
Myrina tried to push herself in between them, her heart thundering, panic rising at the noise that the old woman was making. “You must listen to Hepsuash—let her explain!”
“You swore to me! You swore me false!” Nonya wouldn’t listen and she turned so fast that neither of them could stop her snatching the hunting knife that swung from Myrina’s belt. She lunged at Iphigenia, but Myrina’s arm shot up between them, catching the intended blow, her arm ripped open from elbow to wrist, just as two temple guards burst into the chamber. They grabbed the old priestess, one on either side.
“The old witch! Curse her!”
“How did she get in here?”
“Trying to murder Hepsuash!”
“And another one!”
“No!” Iphigenia intervened at once, concerned at the blood that flowed from Myrina’s arm. “She was defending me . . .”
“Yes!” One of the guards confirmed her words. “I saw her step between them and prevent the witch from harming Hepsuash!”
“This is Myrina, a novice priestess.” Iphigenia spoke quickly but she kept her voice steady. “I have chosen her to train for temple duties!”
The two men kept tight hold of Nonya, who screeched ferociously and hurled a mouthful of spit in Iphigenia’s direction. The captain of the guard appeared in the doorway and ordered Nonya to be taken away and locked up. “How could this happen?” he demanded. “There will be trouble when Thoas hears of it!”
“Take her away and keep her safe!” Iphigenia ordered. “But do not harm her or treat her ill! The goddess will punish you if you disobey me.”
Nonya was dragged away, but they could hear her cursing them both roundly until the sound of her anger faded into the distance.
“Priestess . . . are you hurt?” The captain spoke with respect.
Iphigenia shook her head.
“Shall I send some of the slaves?”
Iphigenia nodded quickly. “Tell them to bring water and clean cloths. Myrina has protected me; now I will see to her needs. I wish a little peace to compose myself and allow this injured one to rest.”
The man bowed and quietly left the room.
“I promised the old woman . . .” Myrina murmured, her voice suddenly weak. “She has a right . . . to curse us both, for I promised that you and I . . .” But the color fled from her face and her words petered out as she slumped back onto the couch, faint with loss of blood.
Iphigenia made Myrina lie down. “Be still . . .” She quietly took charge. She ripped a strip of cloth from her own gown to stanch the flow of blood, tying it tightly about her friend’s arm.
Three temple slaves came into the chamber, carrying the things that Iphigenia had requested.
“Do not even try to speak!” Iphigenia warned. “Lie back and let me tend this wound or you will be good for naught but worms!”
The weakness of blood loss overcame Myrina as she watched Iphigenia with the ghost of a smile. Then everything went black.
When she opened her eyes she found that she was in Iphigenia’s bed and bright sunlight filled the room. She was dressed in a beautiful silken priestess’s gown, similar to the one that Iphigenia wore, and though her arm throbbed, it had been skillfully bandaged. She lay there puzzled for a moment, but as she looked at Iphigenia’s face bent over her with concern, the memory of all that had happened last night came back.
“I cannot lie here,” she complained, struggling to sit upright. “The girls are left alone and I must not leave Nonya imprisoned in her own temple.”
“No.” Iphigenia bent to speak low to her. “But we must be careful and not raise suspicion. There is something I must tell you and somebody I wish you to meet. We have to talk together and it cannot be explained in a moment.”
Iphigenia’s serious tone of voice made Myrina lie back again. She acknowledged that she was still too weak to drag her friend away at once, so she must just trust to the good sense of the young girls who guarded the cave and the devotion of Big Chief.
Iphigenia sat down on the bed and took her hand. “You must listen with patience,” she insisted. “There is much to tell.”
“Patience is not my greatest quality, as you know,” Myrina said. “And I have much to tell
you
, but it must wait a while.”
“How to start?” Iphigenia struggled to find the right words. “When I mirror gaze, I have sometimes seen a face.” Myrina huffed with impatience.
“This is important!” Iphigenia reproved, speaking sharply. “This face—I have glimpsed it in my mirror all through my years with the Moon Riders.”
“Whose face?”
Iphigenia shook her head. “I didn’t know then, but I do now!”
“Those we see are those we love!” Myrina protested. “How can it be possible to love and not know?”
Iphigenia looked at her steadily. “Oh, you can love and not know, if you are from Agamemnon’s family.”
Myrina fell quiet, knowing only too well the strange and terrible childhood that Iphigenia had suffered. “And now you do know who it was?”
Iphigenia nodded. “It is the young man who is to be offered for sacrifice, the dark-haired one. As soon as Thoas presented him at the temple, I recognized him as the face in my mirror visions.”
Myrina remembered the moment when she had stood with the girls at the front of the crowd. She herself had seen that something important passed between the young sacrificial victim and the quiet priestess.
“The troubled one!”
Iphigenia nodded sadly.
Myrina sighed. Had Iphigenia fallen in love at last? Surely she could not look with love on a man so young and half out of his mind. “Do not tell me that you want to stay here with him. He is due to be sacrificed in two days’ time! I was there in the crowd and I felt desperately sorry for him, too, but I thought that you looked on him with motherly concern, not love!”
All at once Iphigenia laughed, and the sound of it amazed Myrina.
“I do love him,” she said. “But not in the way you think. It is not motherly love either—the love I feel for him is . . . a sister’s love!”
“A sister’s love?” Myrina struggled to understand and then she began to remember that terrible time when Agamemnon had offered the young Iphigenia as a sacrifice.
“A brother . . .” She frowned. “Yes, you did have a brother.”
Iphigenia nodded, smiling.
Myrina saw it more clearly now. Clytemnestra, the queen of Mycenae, had traveled to the town of Aulis with her daughter, both of them dressed in rich wedding clothes, believing that Iphigenia was to be the bride of the great warrior Achilles. They’d traveled in a litter and in Clytemnestra’s arms there had been a baby boy, new born.
“Orestes!” she murmured. “You had a brother Orestes. Somehow . . . I have never thought of him!”
“But I have,” Iphigenia said. “It was his face that I saw in my visions, even though I did not know him as my brother. But when he started to tell me who he was and where he came from I suddenly understood why I had seen him in my mirror!”
“Does he know who you are?”
“Yes—he does now, and that knowledge has soothed his troubled mind. His ship is anchored just a little way up the coast, but he and his friend Pylades came here searching for the ancient image of Artemis. They heard of a statue washed up by the sea and thought it might be what they were looking for.”
“You and I know that to be the figurehead from Neoptolemus’s slave ship.”
But Iphigenia would not be distracted. “I believe the Moon Lady saved me for a purpose,” she insisted. “She washed me into Tauris harbor to meet my brother.”
Myrina frowned and rubbed her arm. This certainly altered things; her plan was completely thrown. “You say he has a ship?”
“Yes . . . but it is anchored in a hidden bay to the east. He and Pylades set out in a smaller boat to seek the statue and were blown into Tauris harbor. It is hard for a boat to escape once it has slipped through the narrow channel.”
“I have seen it.” Myrina nodded. “And the crazy Taurians snatched them from the sea and named them as the Chosen Ones.”
Iphigenia’s face fell. “I cannot see how we can leave at all, but I know this—I cannot leave without my brother.”
Myrina sighed. What should they do now? She remembered the battered ship they had passed, anchored at Yalushta, where the coastline split into two levels. “I saw his ship. An ancient galley with Agamemnon’s symbol blazoned on its sails, the
Castor and Pollux
.”
“That is it,” Iphigenia said.
“Then it is simple,” Myrina insisted. “We must all escape together down Nonya’s secret way.”
But a cloud of sorrow shadowed Iphigenia’s face. “It is not so simple,” she said. “The Chosen Ones are guarded day and night and, though I may go to speak with them, the guards never leave their side.”
Myrina frowned again.
“And there is more to tell! More horror—perhaps the worst of all!” Iphigenia’s mouth twisted with a painful bitterness that Myrina had never seen in her before. “My mother is dead . . . murdered by my brother.”
“What!”
“Orestes visited the oracle at Delphi, and the powerful, priestess whom they call the Pythoness told him to avenge his father’s death; he must go to Mycenae to kill Agamemnon’s murderers.”
“Those Achaean priests and priestesses have much to answer for!” Myrina spoke angrily. “Why do they always want blood? The Pythoness must come from the same mould as Chalcas! They call the Moon Riders barbarians, but we cannot compete with their pointless blood lust!”
Iphigenia’s face was white with pain.
“Did he do it?” Myrina asked her gently.
“Yes, he did.” Iphigenia spoke low. “My brother has killed his own mother and mine.”
Myrina shuddered. Even to a tough warrior woman like her this was a terrible thing. “To kill in battle is one thing,” she murmured, shaking her head, “but to kill the one who bore you! Can you still love him?”
Iphigenia’s face was racked with grief, but she nodded. “He is . . . little more than a child, and he is broken up with sorrow and guilt. My mother died in his arms and whispered to him that his sister still lived. She told him that he could redeem the sin he’d committed if he found his sister and made his peace with her! So he has been searching for me ever since.”
“And his search for a statue?”
“He was sent before a great council at Athens in judgment for his matricide. They banished him, saying that he could return to his home only if he found the ancient image of Artemis.”
Myrina’s eyes were full of tears, and her voice broke a little. “Such a quest is impossible to fulfill. What does it mean—the ancient image of Artemis? I knew when I saw him in the procession that his sanity had fled. Now I understand his madness,” she whispered. “But . . . he has found his sister and I think he has made his peace with her! That is the most important thing.”
Iphigenia nodded as tears spilled down her cheeks. “We do not need an old priestess to curse us! In my family we are cursed from birth to death at every turn.”
Myrina held out her arms, and Iphigenia laid her head on her friend’s shoulder and wept bitterly, with huge racking sobs that made her slim frame shudder. They hugged each other tightly, and Myrina cried, too, rocking her friend gently. Through all the years of bitter struggle and despite all her harsh memories, Iphigenia had never, ever wept like this. She’d never truly allowed herself to weep for her father’s treachery nor for the tragic chain of death and revenge that had been set in motion when Agamemnon commanded his young daughter to go to Aulis as a bride.
A
T LAST THEIR
sobbing quieted a little and they began to dry their eyes. “How is your arm?” Iphigenia asked, pushing her own misery aside.
Myrina stretched it out and flexed her fingers. “It is very well bandaged.” She smiled and then hiccuped. “It will mend. But now, my dear friend, we must think carefully what to do. If you can find it in your heart to forgive your brother, then none of us have the right to wish him ill. Your forgiveness means everything; your forgiveness must have the power to banish this curse forever!”
“Thank you.” Iphigenia clasped her hand. “You see why I cannot leave without finding a way to free both Orestes and his faithful friend Pylades.”
“Yes,” Myrina said. “And it seems we have little time. But there is something that I must honor. I made my promise to Nonya, and though the woman will never listen and casts blame as fast as lightning, still I would not leave without reinstating her as high priestess in your place.”
Iphigenia was of the same mind. “I will do all I can to achieve such a thing. I’d give anything to exchange places with her, though I wish she’d repudiate this terrible belief in sacrifice.”
Myrina’s brow was furrowed. “Is there any way we can get Orestes and his friend up here to your room so that we can take them down the secret way?”
“No.” Iphigenia was quite definite. “I have power of a kind, but it is very limited. The guards will not let them out of their sight, but I may go to their prison and speak to them.”
“One thing may help.” Myrina took her friend’s arm. “I saw you receive the sacrificial victims—I was there in the crowd—and I do know that you are loved and honored as Hepsuash. Now tell me—what kind of a man is Thoas?”
Iphigenia sighed. “He is a spoiled and stubborn young man, but . . . not wicked, I think. He begs me to marry him and of late I have given him a little hope, just to fend him off and keep him as my friend. I do not like to be deceitful, but . . .”
Myrina clasped her hand. “You have learned from the Snake Lady! And I think you have learned well. What other choice do we have? Thoas has a huge army to back him! We could go down fighting, you and I. We could stand back to back and send many of these Taurians to their goddess’s hunting ground. But a little trickery might save our lives and theirs. King Thoas is besotted with you.”
“No.” Iphigenia smiled, shrugging her shoulders. “He loves women. He has more wives than any other king I’ve heard of. He’s intrigued with me and swears that I am different. I make him feel at peace, he says, but he will soon tire of peace! This month it is me; next month it will be another.”
“If this is true . . .” An idea began to come to Myrina that might help them get away and please Nonya at the same time.
“I am the first woman to be unwilling to marry Thoas, which seems to make him all the more keen,” Iphigenia said.
“But he listens to you and respects what you say?”
“Yes,” she agreed with a wry smile. “Yes, he does, but he will not listen to my pleading for the lives of the Chosen Ones. Sacrifice has been a long and ancient tradition here: the people are so stupid, they fear that the goddess will be angry and make the sea dry up if they do not feed these poor bewildered strangers back into it.”
Myrina smiled at the irony of Iphigenia calling the Taurians stupid just as Nonya and Katya had done. Perhaps they had more in common than they realized. “I think I see a way . . .” Her spirits rose a little as a new plan slowly began to form in her mind. “If you told Thoas that you had discovered that these young strangers were guilty of murder—which is quite true—and swore that they must be purified by washing them in the sea . . . would he agree to that?”
“Yes, that might be possible. I think we’d be well guarded, but . . .” Iphigenia’s face lit up with understanding. “I begin to see!”
“And you must bring the old figurehead, too!”
“That figurehead saved my life,” Iphigenia told her seriously.
Iphigenia insisted that Myrina rest while her wound began to knit and she regained her strength. When they were alone they spoke together of their plans, but while the temple servants hovered around to wait on them, they tried to make the most of good food and drink, though Myrina thought often of the three girls left guarding the cave and the horses.
As darkness fell that evening they went down to the sacred inner temple, where the two young sacrifices were kept in surroundings more luxurious even than the priestess’s chambers.
They found them both thin and pale, beside platters piled high with honeyed dates and sweetmeats that they couldn’t bring themselves to touch. “A gilded cage!” Myrina hissed.
But at Iphigenia’s warning glance, she fell silent.
Orestes went at once to his sister, the deep, instinctive affection between them clear to see. Iphigenia spoke quietly to the boys, explaining the plan, and Pylades turned his head to listen, alert and suddenly hopeful. Myrina warmed to him, understanding his anger. She remembered the time long ago when she’d been companion to the young Princess Cassandra, also thought by many to be mad. It had not been an easy friendship at first, but Cassandra had turned out to be the most extraordinary person Myrina had ever known. Now she looked at Orestes and thought that even he might be hauled back to sanity and redeemed by his sister’s love and care. Perhaps Pylades would be rewarded for his devotion in the end.
“Do you understand?” Iphigenia took her brother’s hand.
“Of course I do,” Orestes said, but when she asked him to repeat her words, he shook his head and couldn’t. His sister soothed him and told him it didn’t matter, while Myrina spoke fast and low to Pylades, making sure that he at least would know what to do. “You are a true friend,” she told him. “Believe me, I know what such friendship costs!”
“We were raised as brothers,” Pylades said simply.
“And brothers you are!” Myrina agreed.
She explained their plan to him and felt confident that she could rely on his nerve and good judgment to steer his friend through the ordeal that lay ahead. They returned to the priestess’s chamber and ate a good meal. Iphigenia sent one of the temple guards off to Thoas’s palace with a message that she must see him early in the morning, for an impediment to the sacrifice had arisen. While she was giving these orders, Myrina secretly packed away some of the fruit and soft white bread from the table. Then Iphigenia dismissed the servants, giving them the impression that she and Myrina were settling down for the night.
As soon as they were alone, Myrina drew back the hanging that covered the secret entrance to the passageway, taking up the bundle of food that she’d prepared. They both paused, looking fearfully at each other for a moment. “Do we do right?” Iphigenia murmured.
“What choice is there?” Myrina asked. “Until the full moon,” she whispered, kissing her friend. “I pray you will not forget Nonya.”
“I will not!” Iphigenia whispered. “Blessings of Mother Maa! Until the full moon!”
Myrina hurried down the steep rocky steps, her wounded arm bound tightly in protective leather, still wearing the beautiful priestess’s robe. Her heart thundered with excitement. She needed every drop of courage she could muster and every bit of snaky craftiness, too.
The three girls were sitting together in the cave mouth just as she’d left them, but they rose to their feet with wild relief when they saw her.
“Where is Iphigenia?” Tamsin demanded anxiously.
“What a beautiful dress!” Phoebe frowned. “Aah! You are wounded!”
“I am strong enough and there is no time to explain,” Myrina told them. “Iphigenia is safe for now and I need you all to ride fast with me to find the Achaean ship, the
Castor and Pollux
, that we passed on our way to Tauris. Fetch me the horses and some proper riding clothes!”
Tamsin and Phoebe ran at once to obey her, but Katya looked at Myrina with suspicion.
“Where is my grandmother?” she asked.
“She, too, is safe enough.” Myrina grabbed the girl by the shoulders and spoke firmly. “You must trust me, Katya, and come with us. I know it is hard, but you must believe me.”
“I haven’t the skill to ride,” she protested. “I will stay here and wait for Grandmother!”
“No!” Myrina insisted. “You ride with me. You are all important to our plans and if you wish to see your grandmother safe and happy again, you will do as I say!”
Phoebe stumbled into the cave mouth with a bundle of Sinta trousers and a smock. Katya watched uneasily as Myrina stripped the silken gown over her head and struggled into comfortable riding gear.
Phoebe picked up the gown and made to lay it inside the cave, but Myrina told her to roll it up carefully and put it into one of the bags.
Big Chief neighed a warm, impatient welcome as Myrina strode across the grass to him and leaped onto his back. Tamsin and Phoebe mounted their horses and they all turned back to Katya, who hesitated in the cave mouth.
Myrina wheeled Big Chief around. “Trust me!” she begged.
Katya sighed and came across to them, holding out her arms so that Myrina could lean down from Big Chief’s back and haul her up behind her.
“Hang on tight!” she hissed.
Katya wrapped her arms around Myrina’s waist and gritted her teeth, ready for the ride of her life.
All three horses set off, their ears pricked, manes flying as they lengthened their stride, heading toward the sea and the high cliff tops in the bright moonlight.
They galloped on, skirting the temple of Artemis. The building stood almost in darkness, still and quiet.
“What is happening in there?” Phoebe shouted.
“Tomorrow you will find out. Iphigenia will not let us down.”
They rode through the night, never stopping until Myrina saw the furled brail sail of the
Castor and Pollux
down below them in the harbor at Yalushta, just as the darkness began to lift and a rosy glow crept up from the east.
Halfway down the steep grassy slope they dismounted to drink from a clear stream. They rested while they ate the bread and fruit that Myrina had brought from the temple and the horses grazed.
“Now,” said Myrina, her voice tense with the importance of what she had to say, “I will tell you what Iphigenia and I have planned. You must listen carefully, for we may need your help. It is a dangerous undertaking, but in order to free Iphigenia and deal fairly with Nonya we must take this course of action. Now, first there is something that I must explain—do you remember me telling you long ago that Iphigenia had a baby brother?”
The three girls listened, openmouthed, fascinated and concerned.
“Do you all understand?” she asked when she’d finished.
“Yes.” All three nodded gravely.