The Oracles of Troy (The Adventures of Odysseus)

The torch fizzled and went out. He tossed it aside and threw the broad shield down onto the coiling, twisting brood before him. There was a sharp hiss and a snap from behind: one of the snakes had darted at him and missed. Eperitus jumped onto the shield, feeling the soft, spongy mass beneath the leather as he sprang off again and reached for the stairs. Somehow he found them, his ribs colliding painfully with the stone steps, despite his breastplate, as he clawed his way to safety. He sensed bodies striking at the air about his ankles and then he was up, safe, with Astynome sobbing as she tried frantically to haul his heavy bulk higher up the steps.

‘It’s alright,’ he gasped. ‘It’s alright, I’m safe.’

‘Have you been bitten?’ she asked, the panic clear in her voice.

‘No, no. I didn’t feel anything.’

He lay on his back, looking up at the orange-hued clouds passing over the pit, and shuddered from head to foot. The convulsive shivering did not stop until Astynome lowered her face over his and kissed him.

‘Thank you for coming after me,’ she whispered.

He reached up and touched her cheek. ‘I wouldn’t have abandoned you. But next time I’ll use the steps.’

She smiled and he sat up, feeling the tug of the leather strap around his wrist. Taking it in both hands, he pulled his grandfather’s shield slowly from the pit, pausing only to make sure there were no snakes attached to it before knotting the two ends of the strap and slinging the shield onto his back once more. He bent down and lifted Astynome into his arms, then carried her back up to the garden above.

‘Did Apheidas escape?’

‘Yes,’ he answered.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t stay back as you ordered. What are you going to do?’

‘Take you somewhere safe,’ he said, lowering her onto a stone bench and kneeling before her. ‘Which ankle is it?’

‘That one. Ouch! Be careful.’

‘I don’t think it’s broken, but I doubt you’ll be able to walk on it for a few days.’

‘What about Apheidas? Are you going after him?’

‘And leave you here? Listen to what’s happening out there. Look at the sky, the smoke … They’ll be looting this house and putting it to the torch before long and I won’t abandon you to be raped and murdered. Your life is far more important to me than his death. I’m only sorry I didn’t listen to you earlier.’

As he spoke, they heard crashes and shouts erupt from the hall.

‘Where’s that lead to?’ Eperitus asked, picking Astynome up again and nodding towards the door that Apheidas had escaped through.

‘An alley alongside the temple of Apollo.’

Eperitus crossed the garden as quickly as he could with Astynome in his arms and kicked open the door. To his right, the alley continued to the battlements and bent round to the right again, with a side entrance in the temple wall opposite. To the left he saw the small square he had crossed earlier to enter Apheidas’s house and ran towards it. A body now lay face-down at its centre – an old man with a dagger protruding from his ribs. Astynome gasped at the sight and turned her face away.

‘We’ll see a lot more corpses before this night’s over,’ Eperitus said.

He ran on, following Astynome’s directions as they headed for the gate to the lower city. Buildings were burning on all sides, throwing orange sparks and columns of black smoke into the air, while here and there groups of marauding soldiers shouldered open doors and ransacked houses at sword point. The screams from within declared the fate of the occupants. After they had seen the second body of a child, Astynome buried her face in Eperitus’s shoulder and refused to look any more. Then a harsh call rang out and two Greeks blocked Eperitus’s path.

‘Give us the woman,’ the first demanded. ‘We’ll pay for her. Look.’

He pointed to two other men, standing in a doorway surrounded by looted goods. One of them lifted a skin of wine in one hand and a copper bowl in the other.

‘Not interested,’ Eperitus replied, and made to move around them.

The second man stepped in front of him, blocking his way. He was tall and strong, and an axe hung loosely but menacingly from his right hand. Eperitus felt Astynome’s arms tighten about him.

‘It’s a fair exchange,’ the man said. ‘We don’t want to cheat a fellow Greek. And we don’t want to kill a countryman, either, unless we have to.’

Eperitus took two steps back towards a nearby wall and lowered Astynome to her feet. She laid a hand against the wall for support.

‘That’s more like it,’ the first man said.

The smile dropped from his face when Eperitus drew his sword. The man placed both hands about the haft of his axe and was hurriedly joined by his comrades from the doorway. Then a voice called out.

‘Eperitus!’

Eperitus turned to see Omeros running towards him, accompanied by Antiphus and Polites. At the sight of the giant Ithacan and the bow in Antiphus’s hand, Eperitus’s assailants moved back and retrieved their trinkets, before slipping off into the shadows.

‘Excellent timing, Omeros,’ Eperitus greeted him. ‘Truly excellent.’