Chapter 35 Ghosts of the Living #2
Icy dread seeped through Danae’s body. ‘Pegasus …’ She tilted her face to the sky.
There was nothing, just endless blue. No white wisps of cloud or airborne steeds.
She wondered if this was how Heracles had felt, when he discovered she’d abandoned him.
Perhaps this was his revenge. But Pegasus …
the horse’s betrayal cut like a silent blade.
She had felt their bond weakening ever since she learnt his true name, but when the moment came, she’d hoped he would choose her.
‘No.’ Atalanta’s voice was deep and hollow. ‘He would never …’
‘He’s gone, Atalanta!’
‘What did you say to him?’ The warrior rounded on Telamon, pushing him in the chest.
‘Nothing, he … oh gods.’ Telamon ran a hand through his flame-red hair.
‘What?’
‘He said he couldn’t go on like this.’
Atalanta paled. ‘If he felt that way why would he take the horse?’
A terrible thought unfurled in Danae’s mind. ‘What if he tries to get more strength elixir from his father?’
‘He wouldn’t betray us,’ said Atalanta quickly.
Telamon sank down into a squat, cupping his head in his hands.
Blood pounded in Danae’s ears. How could she have been so careless? Heracles had worn his misery like an open wound, and she had just twisted the knife in deeper.
‘He would never go to his father … not after everything Zeus has done to him.’ Telamon shook his head, his eyes gleaming like polished bronze. ‘He must have realized he couldn’t come with us, not as he is. He’s a proud man. He’d never have been able to admit that to us.’
Atalanta’s limbs trembled. ‘I’m going to kill him. If I ever see him again … I’m going to fucking kill him.’ She stormed away across the shore.
Danae was about to follow the warrior when a strong hand stilled her.
‘Leave her be. She’ll come back in her own time.’
Danae watched her for a moment, then stepped back, freeing herself from Telamon’s grasp.
‘There is something I must do.’
She stalked the shore, collecting loose stones in the hem of her dress.
Then she walked across the sand onto the dusty earth and paused by a scattered crop of yellow, violet and red blooms. She crouched, unfurling her bounty, and began to build a mound of rocks, the largest at the bottom, the smallest at the top.
When she was done, she knelt on the ground.
She had put finding Alea’s ghost before her destiny, and it had almost cost her everything. Metis had told her the original Titans sacrificed all they were to become Gaia’s champions. Now she must do the same. When she left Delos there could be no more distractions; her life was no longer her own.
‘Wherever you are, I will never stop loving you and I will never forget …’ fresh tears streamed down her cheeks, ‘but I cannot keep carrying you.’
Then she rose and walked back towards the sea.
Danae found Telamon sitting by the boat. Nestled in its belly was a bundle of Poseidon’s armour, the shards of his trident and the collar that had subdued her powers, all wrapped in an old cloth salvaged from the wreckage of Metis’ hut.
‘You brought the trident and the collar.’
‘I thought you might want them,’ replied Telamon.
She frowned as she considered the jumble of metal. She did not know what she would do with them, but a spark of intuition told her they had not yet served their purpose.
‘Good thinking.’ She glanced about. ‘No Atalanta?’
He shook his head.
‘Should we go after her?’
‘No. She’ll come back when she’s cooled down. Trust me.’
Danae lowered herself down beside him, and they both gazed out towards the ocean.
‘I take it we’re still sailing for Olympus?’
Danae nodded, then briefly closed her aching eyelids.
‘Tell me a joke.’
Telamon looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘A money lender from Mycenae died. When his family read the will, they discovered he’d named himself as heir.’
‘I don’t get it.’
He clicked his tongue. ‘Everyone knows Mycenaean money lenders are the most miserly men in all of Greece.’
‘Not everyone.’
Telamon glanced at her, his lip curled. ‘Anyone who didn’t grow up on a backward rock in the middle of the Aegean.’
Danae snorted. ‘Where were you born that is so superior to Naxos?’
‘Aegina. But I spent many years on Salamis.’ He let out a long, wistful breath. ‘Now that is an island. Finest olive groves in Greece, and the women, ah the women …’ a dreamy expression softened his face. ‘Hips like ripe figs and skin so soft when they wrap their thighs around you –’
‘I get it.’
Telamon glanced at her. ‘Although perhaps not quite to your taste. I suspect you enjoy a tougher variety of fruit.’
Danae swallowed. He was steering the conversation into waters she did not wish to sail. ‘Aboard the Argo, Peleus told me about your younger brother Phocus’ accident. It wasn’t your fault the discus hit him, you know that?’
Telamon stiffened. ‘Ah.’ He paused. ‘Be that as it may, mine was the hand that threw it.’
‘Is that why you went to Salamis?’
He nodded. ‘A blood crime like fratricide requires cleansing by an anointed king. Luckily, Cychreus of Salamis was happy to do the honours.’ He barked out a laugh that didn’t ease the weight behind his eyes.
‘I was lucky, where Heracles was sent on death-defying labours by Eurystheus, as penance for the death of his family, I was given Cychreus’ blessing to marry his lovely daughter, Periboea. ’
‘You have a wife?’ Danae did not know why she found this surprising.
Many men left their spouses at home to seek glory in battle and pleasure in strangers’ beds, but Telamon had always struck her as incapable of any serious attachment.
Despite the crinkling lines at the corners of his eyes, she’d always thought of him as boyish.
But looking at him now, she realized he must be a similar age to Heracles; perhaps a few summers past his thirtieth year.
Telamon gazed out across the bay. He looked the most sombre she’d ever seen him.
‘Oh yes, and a child. We were children ourselves, both barely sixteen when we married. To have a wife at that age was one thing, but a baby.’ The sea shimmered in his eyes. ‘I fled a month after my son was born. You see, I have always been a coward.’
‘I would never call you that.’
Telamon smiled ruefully. ‘Fighting’s easy, but taking responsibility for others … that requires real bravery.’
There was a crunch behind them. Danae turned to see Atalanta striding across the beach. She and Telamon rose to their feet.
‘If you two have finished gossiping, shall we get a move on?’
Danae’s mouth twitched into a smile.
They dragged the boat into the shallows and clambered in. Telamon took up the oars and rowed them out of the crescent bay, past the rock where the silver-winged gulls nested, onto the open sea.
Danae gazed back one last time towards Delos, and the tiny mound of rocks just visible on its peak, then down at its smaller twin at the edge of the sea.
‘Goodbye,’ she whispered, the wind stealing the word the moment it left her lips.