King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus)

‘Is the walk taking its toll on you?’ the Cretan grinned.

‘I can match you step for step, friend, unlike the rest of your men. Their arms weigh them down and the air back there is heavy with their constant sighing.’

Halitherses looked back and grunted. ‘Too much peace has made them soft. They’re good lads – plenty of spirit – but may the gods help them if they ever find themselves shield to shield in a real scrap.’

By now the chariot of the sun had slipped below the horizon and the detail was draining out of the world, making it difficult to be sure of their footing on the wet and smooth-trodden path. Despite this and the state of his men, Castor did not slacken the pace for one moment. It was clear he would reach the oracle at Pythia tonight, even if they did not.

‘It’s dark now,’ he said, ‘but the full moon will be up before long. The temple’s only a short march away and I want to be there before the Pythoness drinks one too many of her potions.’

‘You speak like you’ve been there before,’ Eperitus said, intrigued. For days on his solitary journey he had turned over the stories he knew about the oracle. Mount Parnassus was a magical and sacred place, full of mystery and terror. Returning pilgrims in Alybas had told of a fire-breathing hole at the heart of a mountain, guarded by a monstrous serpent, where men descended after offering a sacrifice to Gaea, the earth mother. Inside was the Pythoness herself, upon whom the goddess had bestowed the power to know all things past and present, and all the secrets of the future. Wreathed in smoke, she would speak in mysterious riddles that only her priests could interpret, whilst all around her the cloud of stinking fumes would shift to depict ghosts of ages past, or spectres of things to come.

‘Not into the oracle itself,’ Castor answered, ‘though I’ve waited outside while my uncles went in. They live here on the slopes of Mount Parnassus and consult the oracle two or three times a year. I came here in my youth to claim an inheritance promised by my grandfather, so I remember the place well.’ He looked about himself. ‘We hunted boar a number of times in these hills.’

Halitherses, who had taken the lead from Castor, called back over his shoulder. ‘Show him the scar.’

Castor paused to pull aside his cloak, revealing a long white scar that ran up half the length of his thigh from the knee. It was still visible in the fast-failing light beneath the thin canopy of trees, though Eperitus had not noticed it before then.

‘A boar?’ he asked.

‘Not just any boar,’ Castor replied. ‘It was a monster, a gigantic beast of untold years. His hide was thicker than a fourfold shield and you could see the scars of old spear thrusts through his coarse hair. Two great tusks jutted from his mouth,’ he held up his forefingers before his chin and glared boar-like at the young warrior, ‘as long and as sharp as daggers, though twice as deadly with his bulk behind them. But most terrifying of all were his eyes: as black as obsidian, burning with hate for all mankind. They were filled with the experience of a beast that’d outwitted more than one huntsman, and I knew I wasn’t his first victim. Though I was his last.’

‘Your uncles killed him?’

‘I killed him!’ Castor told him proudly. ‘I was the first of our party to see him charging out of a thicket with his breath clouding the morning air. Though only a boy, I threw my spear between his shoulders as his head was lowered at my belly. My grandfather and uncles tell me he was dead before he hit me and only the momentum of his great bulk carried his tusk into my thigh. As for me, he knocked my legs away and I hit my head on a rock. I woke up a day later with my wounds bound and every bone in my body aching.’

‘You were fortunate.’

‘Fortune has nothing to do with it,’ Castor snorted, turning to walk back up the path as his men finally caught up with them. He held open the inside of his shield, revealing a painted image of a maiden in full armour. ‘Athena protects me. I honour her above all other gods, excepting Zeus of course, and in return she keeps me from harm. She saved me from the boar, not fortune.’