Electra. Kerry Greenwood

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СКАЧАТЬ little birds, and she wept as she fed them that she had no more to give.

      I collected my little brother and crept away. What was a little Goddess-impersonation to this suffering?

      The three men returned as promised. I woke abruptly, and the three lying together on the one mantle stirred.

      'Morning,' stated Diomenes, and Eumides buried his head in the Asclepid's shoulder and said, 'Again?' as he always did.

      'The men have returned,' I said from the doorway, 'bringing - how much did you ask them to buy?'

      The mule was sagging at the knees under many sacks and what an amphora of oil. The men were dragging a travois with more sacks. Diomenes joined me and gave a pleased grunt.

      'Yes, that should supply them until the first barley ripens. Come on, sailor, get up. Lady, perhaps you could pour some nice cold water on him.'

      'I'm up, barbarian! Well, this Artemision didn't try to rape us but it has the fiercest fleas in the Argolid.' He stripped off his tunic, captured the insect and cracked it between his nails. There was straw in his coal-black curls. He was a disgusting sight.

      'A picture of Trojan elegance,' commented Diomenes indulgently. 'Put on your tunic, you'll shock the Maiden. Let's go and examine the load. They've made a bargain almost as good as one of yours, Eumides.'

      'Those were authentic silver coins, not convincing tin,' he protested. 'You can't make a very good bargain with real money.'

      'You're a scoundrel,' said Cassandra fondly. 'I must speak to the village. Come with me.'

      She had let down her waist-length hair and she shone like gold as she walked into the square. She had dressed in a tunic and peplos, as Artemis is always drawn. Her strong arms were bare. Her eyes were grey. She looked like a Goddess.

      The voices, exclaiming at all that food, died away as she came. She walked to the very centre of the village and said, 'I am pleased with you, Artemision. You have made me welcome with all you had. Therefore I say: all will be well. The barley will grow. You will eat of my bounty until then. I require this of you; feed your women, for only thus will you breed strong sons.'

      She went into the little temple, came out bearing the cauldron full of nightshade broth, and poured it out on the ground. Eumides and Diomedes unloaded the produce and allotted one sack of grain and a little oil to each house. There was also a handful of figs and one dish of honey, and a measure of strong winter-wine. We would have enough bread to take us to Corinth once they had ground and baked our single sack of barley.

      Cassandra did not come back into the little house, but perched on the well-coping until the women, veils awry or missing in their excitement, carried their grain down to the grinding stones.

      Then she sat down as though she was used to such labour, and rolled the stone for each woman in turn, so that all the flour had been sanctified by the Goddess.

      'Artemision will never forget this,' I said, when she returned. Orestes was eager to watch his friend eat his first full meal and hall followed the women back to their houses.

      'True. They will feel strengthened in future misfortune by my fraudulent presence. They will treat all strangers well, in case I sent them. Their barley will surely grow and they will boast of this visitation for generations,' she said.

      'Also, their women are saved and they will recover faster because they believe,' she said to Diomenes. 'Or does that not accord with your philosophy, my Lord?

      I could not get used to the way she spoke to men - mockingly, like another man.

      'They will certainly heal faster because they believe,' said Diomenes. 'Every Asclepid knows that. Will you come with me, Lady? I want to search for plants. They'll need some tonics and some purifying herbs. I've already told them that they can only eat gruel today, and a little bread and oil tonight. Luckily some of the goats are still in milk.'

      She laughed. 'Yes, I shall spread some divine radiance on the hillsides, and Eumides shall have a lesson in herbalism. Will you come, Maiden?' she asked me.

      No one had ever asked me before to make a choice if I came or stayed. I had been doing exactly as I was told for my whole life, and I did not know what to say. I was comfortable in the square and I liked watching the people, so I ventured, 'I think that I would like to stay here.' It was easy. And Cassandra simply smiled.

      Cassandra

      Tearing off his dirty tunic, Eumides flung himself down into the rich spring green and complained, 'I tire of land.'

      'How can you tire of it when it's so beautiful?' asked Chryse, doing the same and lying down beside him. 'Sniff, Trojan! That's a mountain bouquet out of Achaea that a Princess might gather.'

      'A Princess has gathered it,' he grinned as I dropped flowers onto his naked chest.

      'Orchis for male potency, primroses for sweetness, daisies for the sun, fieldfares for wealth, cyclamen for hidden loves,' I chanted, scattering them. Eumides took a deep breath. The rings in his ears glinted, and the purple Orchis was netted in his hair.

      'It's beautiful,' he conceded. 'But I belong to Ocean, the salt river that encircles the world.'

      'We shall have sea enough soon,' said Chryse. 'We must reach the Isthmus of Corinth and then take a boat for Khirra, thence inland to Delphi. The Gods only know what the roads are like.'

      'And the Corinthian Gulf will be swarming with pirates,' commented Eumides. He did not seem unduly disturbed by this prospect.

      'Do you think it was improper of me to impersonate a Goddess, Chryse?' I asked. Eumides pulled me down to lie between them and I smelt mint and flowers, crushed by our weight. 'You are the Goddess,' he said, kissing me. He exuded a sleepy heat. Eumides would never engage in deep philosophical debates, he would never worry about an ethical problem, and questions of honesty would never keep him awake at night. It was part of his disreputable charm.

      'The women of Artemision would have died tonight,' said Chryse judiciously, his tone oddly unsuited to someone lying half-naked in spring pasture. 'And you didn't present yourselves to them as a Goddess; they made that assumption themselves. So I believe that you did right.

      'Their women live, the village will survive, and they will consider themselves blessed. Unless they are so boastful about their divine visitors that their neighbours rise up and massacre them out of sheer envy, they will be fat and insufferable in a year's time. I think you did well.'

      His opinion mattered to me. 'Lord, I thank you. Now, if my status as a Divine Virgin is not to be blasphemously imperilled, we must get up and pick herbs. What are you looking for, Chryse?'

      Their arms released me reluctantly. I was equally reluctant, but I did not want to risk the wrath of vengeful Artemis if she noticed that her avatar was playing spring games on a flowery hillside.

      'Aha, borage,' he pounced on a plant with small dark-blue flowers and greying furry leaves. 'What do you call this, Lady?'

      'Rabbit's ears, blood purifier. Now if we can find some all-heal-'

      'Valerian?' he hazarded. We strayed down the mountain and I found a large stand of it. I dug carefully with my knife and broke off a piece of root no longer than my hand.

      'That СКАЧАТЬ