The Oracles of Troy (The Adventures of Odysseus)

He took a few steps down the left-hand passage and paused with his torch raised before him. After a moment’s contemplation, he placed his fingertips against the wall to his right and moved forward. A dozen paces further on he stopped again. There was a large, black opening ahead of him to the right, which his torch seemed barely able to penetrate. He shook his head, as if in denial of the instinctive fear he felt, and entered. At once he stepped back in alarm, covering his face with his arm as black shapes came darting out of the tunnel. A sound like wind tumbling through the leaves of a tree filled the tunnel and small bodies were caught momentarily by the light of the torches as they fled in panic, startled by the unexpected intrusion into their secluded world.

‘Bats,’ he said, his voice a little higher than normal. ‘Just bats.’

He continued his advance and the others followed. The air seemed colder as they turned the corner and the torches struggled momentarily to throw out any light, as if the darkness itself was suffocating them. Then the flames grew again, running in ripples up the fat-soaked cloth and throwing back the shadows to reveal a flagstoned floor and stone walls. The end of this new passageway was not yet visible, but as Odysseus stared into the blackness Eperitus touched him on the shoulder and pointed. Odysseus looked again and finally saw what his captain’s keen eyes had already picked out. Something was lying on the ground several paces ahead of them: a grey ball at the foot of the left-hand wall, a bundle of rags a little further back, and the glimmer of something metallic beside them. Eperitus moved past Odysseus and knelt down by the first object.

‘What is it?’ Odysseus asked, his voice hushed but urgent.

‘A skull,’ Eperitus replied, staring down at the empty eye sockets and the open jaws that were still set in a silent scream, long after life’s last breath had passed between them. ‘The body’s over there.’

Odysseus joined him and saw the humped shape of a ragged cloak in the shadows, torn in many places and heavy with dust. Grey rib bones were half visible through the holes in the wool, while two skeletal arms reached out into the circle of light cast by their torches. A short sword lay on top of the body.

Diomedes lifted the cloak away with the point of his blade. The material crumbled with the movement, revealing the grey skeleton beneath.

‘The shoulder bone’s the same colour as the rest. This isn’t Pelops.’

‘It’s the body of a grave robber,’ Odysseus said.

Eurybates picked up the sword. ‘These black stains are blood. But if the weapon was dropped on top of the man’s cloak after he was decapitated, then who killed him?’

‘One of his companions?’ Eperitus suggested. ‘They found something of value and argued over it. Typical of their kind. The victor then left the tomb with his treasure and closed the entrance behind him. Perhaps that’s all this curse is: human greed in the face of untold wealth.’

‘I pray to the gods you’re right,’ Odysseus said, though his instincts told him otherwise. ‘Now, let’s find the sarcophagus and hope these men didn’t have a taste for ivory.’

A little beyond the remains of the robber, the tunnel turned right. With Odysseus leading again, they advanced into the blackness for a few paces until another passage opened on their left, noticeable only by a deeper darkness and the faint, cold movement of air on their cheeks. The king ignored it and, with his fingers still tracing the right-hand wall, plunged on into the depths of the maze. Almost immediately the wall bent right and then another right, leading the huddled group of warriors shortly afterwards to a dead end. Without taking his hand from the wall, Odysseus followed it left and left again, back the way they had come until it turned right twice to lead them once more to the opening they had passed only a few moments earlier. He did not hesitate, but pressed on with his torch held before him in his free hand. The wall led him left to another choice of ways – an opening that went straight on or a passage that headed right. Knowing he must stick to the plan he had worked out the evening before, Odysseus turned right and traced the wall in a zigzag pattern until it bent sharply back to the right again. He turned the corner and stopped so suddenly that Eperitus and Diomedes almost walked into him.

‘Another body,’ he announced.

He raised his torch upwards so that it shed a pool of orange light over the curled up form of a second skeleton. This one wore no cloak and the remains of its short tunic were nothing more than a few lengths of rag clinging to the ribcage and the angular protuberances of the pelvic bone. Its head remained attached to the spinal column, but the handle of a knife stuck out from its back.