Nobody's Prize (20 page)

“Don’t worry, Theseus,” I said. “If we fight, I won’t be the one who’ll take away a scar. But if you’re afraid, name one of your men to match swords with me.” I swept the training ground with my eyes and in a loud, carrying voice added: “Or are all the men of Athens scared to fight a Spartan girl?”

A grumbling ran through the ranks of the assembled guardsmen. My barb had hit the target and sunk in deep. Theseus didn’t like the way things were going. He tried to pull the fangs from my challenge by turning it into a joke.

“Ha! I know what you’re after, Helen. You’re hoping I’ll say yes to this mad proposal of yours, then you’ll find some sly, womanly way to fix it so that you fight Telys. There’s an easy win for anyone!”

I looked into his leering face and decided I’d seen enough of the cold malice everyone in the palace inflicted on Telys. The soldiers, the servants, and even the slaves were all a yapping pack of hounds following the lead of Theseus, the nastiest cur of them all. I leaped to my feet and shouted, “You
worm
! If you’re too scared to fight me yourself, then say so!”

Theseus jerked away involuntarily, tipping his cup into his lap. Wine splattered over his tunic, dyeing the white wool crimson. He was up in an instant, looming over me. Lady Aithra called out for her son to be merciful, to mind his temper. I knew he wasn’t going to listen. I heard a scuffle from the training ground and Telys’s bleating voice, but I couldn’t tell what it was all about. I looked Theseus in the eye, un-flinching, and braced myself for what would come.

“Lord Theseus! Lord Theseus!” A man came scrambling down the path from the citadel, his half-clothed body thick with the dust of the road. He carried the small forked staff made of bronze that marked him as a herald. Only the most lawless, impious outlaws would dare interfere with him.

The herald’s arrival shifted Theseus’s attention at once. He demanded to know the man’s purpose. The herald collapsed at the king’s feet, breathing hard. Theseus gave him what was left of his wine from his own cup, then asked for the news a second time.

“My lord, I come from Thessaly, from the kingdom of the Lapiths in the shadow of Mount Pelion.”

“Where Pirithous rules?” Theseus tensed. When I’d first encountered him in Calydon, Pirithous had been with him. Their friendship was like the bond between loving brothers. “What’s wrong? Is he—?”

“He’s well, my lord, but he needs your help. Horsemen have been raiding his lands. They grow bolder with each successful assault. He lacks the troops to do more than defend his stronghold. I would have come to you sooner, but the ship that was bringing me here ran aground at Marathon. I had to come the rest of the way on foot.”

The herald had scarcely finished his report when Theseus burst into action. Orders flew, soldiers ran, slaves raced back to the citadel. Theseus dispatched his best men to the port to do whatever might be necessary to get ships to carry him and his troops to Pirithous’s aid. I was hustled back to the palace with the other women and soon found myself standing beside Lady Aithra, watching the king’s ship sail away. No matter what else I thought of Theseus, I had to admire his competence as a leader of men and his loyalty to his friend.

“We must go to the temple of Ares,” the queen said solemnly once the ships were gone. “We must pray for my son’s victory.”

“Don’t forget to make a sacrifice to Zeus as well,” I said lightly. My mind was echoing with happy thoughts.
He’s gone! He’s gone! There won’t be any wedding! I have time to escape it! Thank all the gods, he’s gone!
I felt in the mood for jesting. “And Athena, while you’re at it. Sometimes cleverness wins wars when troops can’t. Oh! And you shouldn’t overlook Poseidon. I’ve heard Theseus claim to be his son more than once, and he
will
be sailing to Thessaly. If he neglects his own father—”

Lady Aithra slapped my face hard, twice. While I was still reeling from the blows, she turned to Telys and barked, “Take her to her room and keep her there. Your life still answers for hers, even though my son’s no longer here. I promise you, I’m
much
less likely than he is to allow you any mistakes.”

Telys swallowed and gently urged me back to my narrow room. Once there, I sank down onto my sleeping mat, nursing my tingling cheeks. “I didn’t know Lady Aithra was so devoted to the gods that she can’t even hear a joke about them,” I grumbled.

“It wasn’t what you said about the gods,” Telys replied. “It was what you said about Theseus’s father.”

“Poseidon or Aegeus?”

“Lord Aegeus, my lady.”

“Then why don’t you say ‘
my
father’ when you speak of him? Don’t look so shocked, Telys. I know the truth. Palace secrets swarm and fly everywhere, like bees.”

Telys looked downcast. “It would’ve been better for me if Lord Aegeus—if my father had denied I was his. I could have made a different life for myself somehow. I’m not fit to be a guard. Besides, I hate it.”

“Then leave.” I didn’t see the problem. “That’s what I’d do, if I could.”

He shook his head. “If I left the palace, Lord Theseus would worry that I was plotting something against him. I’d have to leave Athens itself to be free of him, and I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“My mother. If I left, they’d take it out on her.”

“Well, then take her
with
you!” It all seemed so simple to me.

Telys shook his head again, more vigorously. “She’s too old to leave on foot, and we’re too poor to get passage on a ship.”

Now I understood, and I felt even worse for Telys than before. I decided it was best to divert him from dwelling on his unlucky situation. “I still don’t see what I said that was so wrong,” I remarked. “Did Lady Aithra think I was insulting
her
by giving Theseus two fathers?”

“That wasn’t it,” Telys replied. “It was what you said about him neglecting his father. Do you know about his first bride, the lady Ariadne?”

“I heard he was sent to Crete to seal an alliance by marrying her, but that he came home alone. That’s all.”

“There’s more to it than that. Lord Theseus loved her dearly, chosen for him or not, but a plague struck Crete before they could sail.”

“She died?” I felt a pang of sympathy.

Telys nodded. “A ship from Crete carried rumors here of a royal death, but none aboard knew more than that. Lord Theseus was too grief-stricken to think of sending word that he was alive and well. Lord Aegeus—my father—was out of his mind with worry.” Telys sighed deeply. “Lord Theseus came home under a black sail to honor his lost bride. A lookout recognized the prince’s ship and brought word of the black sail to the palace. All Athens heard of how wildly my father wailed, ‘He’s dead! He’s dead!’ and ran to the edge of a cliff above the sea. No one could stop him. He jumped to his death.”

“Horrible,” I murmured. “May Hades be good to his spirit.”

“And to the spirit of the slave they forced to give the tragic news to Lord Theseus,” Telys said with a shudder. “That’s why he built that shrine to the lord of the Underworld, the one where we met. He wanted to atone for what he’d done, and what he’d neglected to do.”

Theseus was gone and I enjoyed a breath of freedom. The wedding no longer haunted me. The first night after he sailed north to help Pirithous, I stood before the oil lamp in my room and raised my hands in prayer to all the gods. They’d given me the precious gift of time to think, and I was grateful. Then I murmured a special prayer to Athena. “Goddess of wisdom, make me wise enough to escape from Athens before Theseus comes back, wise enough so my guard Telys won’t have to pay for my freedom with his blood. Even though my hands are clean, I feel accountable for how Hylas, Argus, and Milo died. How can I bear another death? So help me, great Athena. Once I’m free, I’ll make you any sacrifice you ask for, but not Telys’s life.”

I lowered my hands, extinguished my lamp, and lay down under my blanket. Just before I fell asleep, I thought I heard a voice whisper, “Thank you, Lady Helen,” but I was so drowsy that it might have been only the herald of my dreams.

         
13
         

LESSONS TAUGHT, LESSONS LEARNED

In the days that followed Theseus’s departure, life in the palace changed. Theseus had taken many of his soldiers with him, but he couldn’t take all of them, leaving his city undefended. The men he’d left behind resented the king’s choice. Every day, I had to spend some time in Lady Aithra’s company, and every day, I heard the guards grumbling. They soon found a defenseless target for their bile. Telys was still assigned to keep an eye on me through most of the day, so I heard every nasty jibe they tossed his way.

“You ought to teach them some manners,” I murmured to Telys one morning as we passed a trio of those ugly bullies.

“I can’t,” he replied unhappily. “They’ll use it as an excuse to mob me.” He gave a little sigh. “Even if they would fight me one to one, I’d still lose. You saw how useless I am with weapons.”

“I know what I saw,” I replied as we walked on. “I was wondering about it. I know your father made you a guard when Theseus first came to Athens. That must have been years ago.”

“Ten years, I think. I was fifteen.”

“Telys, it’s just not possible for someone to serve as a man-at-arms for so long and still be as—as—well, as
bad
as you are with weapons. It makes no sense.”

For the first time, I saw a flinty look of resentment on Telys’s face. “It wouldn’t be if I were given decent weapons and real training. I had both when I first started, but my father died too soon, and when Lord Theseus took the throne—”

“I can imagine. If you’d had the proper equipment, your story would be different.”

He smiled shyly. “I don’t think so. Having the right weapons isn’t all it takes to be a good warrior. You’ve actually had training, Lady Helen. I still would have lost to you.”

His words hit me in the same way that the Muses’ divine inspiration is supposed to strike their most beloved singers and poets. I stopped and poor Telys stumbled into me, but I didn’t care. In one beautiful instant, my eyes had opened to a way for me to flee Athens without having to worry that Telys or his mother would suffer for it afterward.

“Oh, Telys, this is
wonderful
!” I exclaimed, turning a beaming face to him.

I suspect that my unexplained joy must have looked like an attack of madness to him. “Lady Helen, is something the matter?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

“That…depends,” I said, growing thoughtful again. “Telys, how badly do you want to leave Athens?”

“Shh!” He darted nervous glances all around, then whispered, “With all my heart. But you know I can’t.”

“No, I think you can, you and your mother both, safely. All you lack to do it is the means to buy passage on a ship bound far from here.”

A dreamy look came into his eyes. “Mykenae. I’d like to go there. I’ve heard it’s a finer realm than Athens, and that the king has a taste for beautiful things. My mother was no ordinary slave. She had a gift for painting pottery and images of the gods. She taught me her skills when I was little, and I loved it. I think I could recapture the art if I had the chance.”

The two of us were standing still, talking like the friends we’d become instead of like the future queen and the despised guardsman. Suddenly I was aware that there were too many eyes on us, too many tongues keen to carry false tales to Lady Aithra’s ears, and Lady Aithra was much too eager herself to hear bad things about Telys.

I turned and doubled back the way we’d come, walking briskly. Telys fell into step in a guard’s proper place, right behind me.

“Lady Helen, where are you going?” he asked, flustered. “The queen’s waiting for you with her women.”

“The queen can wait. All she ever wants to do is force a spindle into my hands, then
tsk-tsk-tsk
over how badly I tangle the wool.” I widened my eyes and tuned my voice to imitate Lady Aithra’s. “‘My goodness, child, how
do
they raise girls in Sparta?’” I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

“Then where—?”

“Somewhere we won’t attract notice,” I said. “Around people who’ve got too much honest work to do to bother listening to conversations that don’t concern them. We’re going to the kitchen.” Telys looked doubtful, but he trusted me.

The palace kitchen was bustling. Kitchens that need to feed many people always are. As soon as we walked in, I asked for food to give us a reason to be there, then settled myself in one corner of the busy room. The head cook himself brought me a plate of broiled quail, but hurried back to his work almost before I could thank him. Telys and I were left entirely to ourselves.

“Just the way you said it would be,” Telys remarked. “Amazing!”

I flashed him a smile and bit into one of the crisp-skinned quail on my plate. “I just hope I’ll be able to come up with some equally amazing way to find us a safe place for your lessons. I’m going to teach you how to fight, Telys.”

He brightened at once. “My lady, I’ve got just the place, if you don’t mind a bit of a climb. There’s a part of the citadel walls that encloses older stone-work. No one’s sure if it’s a ruined tower, or a shrine, or just the last remnant of the fortress built by Lord Kekrops, the first king of Athens. An ancient oak stands there too, a huge one, and between that and the old wall there’s a small, well-hidden space that might do.”

“Is it big enough to swing a sword?”

Telys smiled. “We can find out.”

I nibbled the last bit of meat off a quail’s tiny leg bone. “When the night guard comes to take your place at my door, you’ll have to find us a pair of wooden swords to practice with and bring them to that place. You can’t let anyone catch you, Telys.”

“The place I have in mind is always deserted. No one likes to go there. They think the place is haunted by the old king’s spirit.”

“Theseus’s warriors fear ghosts?” I wanted to laugh.

“Lord Kekrops’s ghost is different. He was a dragon from the waist down.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Better that than from the waist up, I suppose.”

I decided that the best course to take would be spending two days in Lady Aithra’s tedious company for every one that I’d spend teaching Telys, so that she wouldn’t be too quick to suspect anything odd about my absences. I put this plan into effect at once.

When those first two spindle-cursed days passed and Telys and I were finally able to begin our lessons, I couldn’t tell which of us was happier. I knew I’d never seen him walk with such a light step as when he led me to the hidden place he’d spoken of, between the old walls and the new. He ducked behind the great oak tree and brought out a cloth bundle.

“I couldn’t find wooden practice swords,” he said. “You’ll have to teach me using this.” With a surprisingly graceful move, he whipped the cloth away, revealing my own sword, which my teacher, Glaucus, had given me. I was so thrilled to see it, safe in that familiar sheath with its pattern of golden leopards, that I wanted to fill the sky with cries of happiness.

I contented myself with grabbing it with both hands and hugging it fiercely to my chest. “Oh, Telys, I can’t thank you enough for this,” I said quietly. “How did you get it?”

“After Lord Theseus recognized you, he ordered one of the guards to fetch all your belongings from the inn where you and—where you were staying. He said it wouldn’t do for a common innkeeper to own anything that was the property of a princess. I was there when the man returned, so I saw where he put your things.”

“Do you think you could go back there again without anyone seeing you?” I asked. “I could use one of my tunics. It’ll be hard to teach you swordsmanship if I’m forced to wear a dress all the time.”

“I can do it. I’ll bring a sturdy box too, so you can keep everything here.”

Telys’s confidence stirred me with a fresh hope. “I want you to look for one thing more,” I told him. “I had a belt-pouch holding a little gold and silver. If we’re lucky, it’s untouched.”

Telys smiled. “I remember that pouch. I came across it while searching for your sword. It was so wrapped up in your clothes I doubt anyone else noticed it.”

“The gods grant that’s true.” I took a deep breath and slowly drew my sword. The day was cold but bright. Sunlight sifted through the oak branches and dappled the blade. I looked at Telys. “Let’s begin.”

Days went by, swift or slow, depending on whether I spent them helping Telys learn the right way to wield a sword or having Lady Aithra scold me for making a mess out of every piece of handwork she gave me to do.

Theseus’s scorned half brother turned out to be an impressive fighter once he got lessons from someone who wanted to see him improve, not fail. He would have been even better if his sword hadn’t been a disgrace. Like all his gear, it was a bad fit, intended to make him look absurd. By the time the moon had passed completely through two changes, it no longer mattered how inferior his blade was. He’d mastered enough skills to turn the worst sword ever forged into a formidable weapon.

One morning, when the warmth of early spring was in the air, I called a halt to our practice and declared, “You’re ready.”

Telys lowered his sword and wiped sweat from his brow. “Are you sure, Lady Helen?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t,” I replied. I sheathed my sword and wrapped it up before replacing it in the wooden box he’d provided. It lay safe beneath the oak and held all the useful things he’d brought to our makeshift training ground. This included my belt-pouch, though it turned out to be much too light for my liking. The most skillful haggler couldn’t trade so little for three sea passages away from Athens, or even one. It had been a long time since I’d first filled it. Most of the gold, silver, and gemmed ornaments were gone, bartered for things Milo and I had needed in our travels.

Milo…
I prayed daily that his spirit was at peace.

“It’s time you found us a ship,” I said. I picked up the dress I’d left neatly folded at the oak tree’s roots and slipped it on over my tunic. “And time to make your fellow guardsmen pay for our passage to Mykenae.”

“
And
pay for calling me clumsy all these years.” Telys wore a wolfish grin.

“Careful,” I said. “My plan depends on your reputation for being inept with weapons. Don’t be
too
eager to lose it until we’re on our way. In the meanwhile…” I knelt beside the box under the oak and took out my sword once more. “Here, Telys,” I said, giving it to him. “Use this to win our sea passage.”

His grin was gone. “Lady Helen, your own sword?” He accepted it with reverence. He knew what it meant to me.

“I trust it and I trust you. You’re a capable warrior, but you’ve got to be an unbeatable one.”

The following morning, Telys brought me to visit Lady Aithra. The spring weather was fair and balmy, so she’d chosen to do embroidery in one of the palace courtyards. Her women tittered over how curtly she dismissed Telys the moment we arrived and how quickly she had a slave bring another guard to mind me. They must have been starved for amusement, because that was how she always treated him. The queen couldn’t stand the sight of her rival’s son.

I wish she hated me enough to set me free, too,
I thought.
I want to watch Telys make my plan unfold.
Besides my sword, I’d given him the last few gems and gold and silver bits left in my belt-pouch, the seeds of our escape.