Chapter 38 A Seer’s Choice
Odysseus’ ship docked at Myconos harbour under a pathway of stars. A scatter of mud-brick buildings clustered around the bay and across the surrounding hillside, their windows glowing with firelight.
Danae, Telamon and Atalanta joined Odysseus, Hylas and four of the Ithacan soldiers in going ashore, while the rest of the men remained on the ship.
Danae carried her bundle of Poseidon’s armour, the trident and the collar slung over her shoulder.
The bounty was too precious to be left on board.
Two of the soldiers ran ahead, the other pair lingering a pace behind Danae.
By the time they entered the heart of the little town, the first soldiers returned, a set of rooms procured.
As they headed towards the lodgings, the smell of roasted meat wafted down the narrow street, driven by the wind that had chased them all the way from Delos.
A kapeleion stood on the corner, voices and hearth-smoke curling from the windows and doorway.
‘I’ll see you at dawn,’ said Atalanta.
Before Danae could reply, the warrior darted down the street and disappeared into the kapeleion.
‘Don’t mind if I do,’ said Telamon, striding after her. When he reached the doorway he glanced over his shoulder. ‘Danae, Hylas, you coming?’
Danae lingered. She would love nothing more than to join her companions and drown the night in wine. But she knew she must keep a clear head. She had a decision to make.
‘I need rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Telamon looked expectantly at Hylas, who glanced at Odysseus, then said, ‘Not tonight.’
The flame-haired man shrugged. ‘Please yourself. But don’t think you’ve escaped recounting your tale.’
Hylas’ face broke into a half-smile, and for a moment his coldness thawed, and he looked like himself again. ‘I know you’ll get it out of me whether I want to tell it or not.’
Telamon grinned then followed Atalanta into the depths of the kapeleion.
‘The rooms are this way, my lord.’ One of the soldiers gestured further down the street.
The weight of Poseidon’s armour dragged down her back as Danae followed Odysseus and Hylas to the end of the row of buildings, the soldiers ghosting her steps.
One of Odysseus’ men pushed open the door of a modest single-room hut. A lone candle glowed from within. The furniture was sparse. A faded rug stretched over the floor, and a pallet rested against the far wall with a single table and stool to its left.
‘I will have my men bring you food while I attend to a small matter of business.’ Odysseus shared a look with Hylas. ‘I’m sure you two have much to catch up on.’
Danae set down her bundle at the foot of the pallet. Hylas lingered in the doorway, leaning on his crutch.
‘You can come in.’
He did so and closed the door behind him, leaving the soldiers to stand guard.
Even as she watched him walk over to the stool and lower himself down, she still could not quite believe he was real.
She was afraid that, like a dream in which the dead once more walk the earth, she would blink and find that he was not really Hylas at all, but a stranger whom grief had painted in the likeness of her friend.
But ghosts did not bear scars of the flesh. Those wounds were her doing. She might as well have gouged them herself.
‘I thought you were dead.’
Hylas ran a hand through his curls. The longer hair suited him.
He looked leaner, sharper, older than the youth she had known.
She wondered if she too appeared as changed as she felt within.
Then she remembered: her features were frozen in time.
She pressed the thought away as she sank down onto the pallet.
Hylas watched her. ‘For a while, so did I.’
‘How did you survive?’
‘The Earthborn that snatched me took me back to its nest – a cave in the mountain. Then a fight broke out. I think over which would eat me …’ He paused at the horror blooming across Danae’s face.
‘In the chaos, I hid. I waited for two days until all of them had left the cave. Then I seized my chance and escaped.’
She could tell he was trying to spare her the worst of it.
‘You didn’t see Heracles?’ During the battle with the Earthborn, the hero had dived from the deck of the fleeing Argo and returned to the Doliones shore in an attempt to save Hylas from the six-armed beasts.
Hylas shook his head, his brow furrowed.
‘He went back for you …’
Hylas’ eyes widened. Then he winced, stretching out his false leg. He undid the leather straps and removed it, then massaged the end of his limb.
Danae stared at the wooden leg, marvelling at how something carved from a tree could move like a limb of flesh and bone. She had never seen anything like it.
‘Brilliant, isn’t it?’ Hylas flexed the leg, the ankle joint rolling.
Danae caught a couple of glints of bronze as it moved, the pins that must hold the contraption together.
‘The inventor, Daedalus, made it. He’s incredible – you’ll meet him when we reach Troy – if you come with us,’ he added swiftly.
‘There’s nothing that man can’t create.’
‘How did it happen?’
Hylas was silent a moment. ‘The Earthborn like to play with their food.’
Danae swallowed. ‘And then … once you escaped? How did you come to travel with Odysseus? Have you always known about the Children of Prometheus?’
Hylas shifted his weight forward, leaning on his crutch. ‘I made it back to the beach. The Doliones took pity on me, treated my injuries as best they could. I lived with them for a few weeks, until Odysseus came,’ his eyes settled on Danae, ‘looking for you.’
Another bare bone of an answer.
‘How did he know I’d been there?’
‘He knows many things. And before you ask, I did not know of the Children of Prometheus before I met Odysseus. He told me who you really are.’ An edge had crept back into his voice.
‘His vision for the future is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.
A world without gods, without priestesses, each person in command of their own destiny …
’ Her doubt must have been written on her face, as he added, ‘You can trust him.’
His words hung in the air between them.
‘How much did he tell you?’
Hylas watched her. ‘I know the truth of what lies in the Underworld, if that’s what you mean.’
She drew a breath. ‘How did you know you could believe Odysseus when he told you?’
‘Because when he spoke of the last daughter, I knew in my bones it was you. I have faith in him, Danae. I believe he can help you win this war.’
Faith. There it was again, that word that held mountains. She wondered how he could offer his so easily, when she found it so terribly hard.
‘Hylas …’ Words failed her. She remembered the last moment they’d shared together before they charged into battle with the Earthborn.
The two of them squeezed together on the viewing platform inside the Doliones’ cave.
He had tried to kiss her. And in return she’d left him to be savaged by those six-armed beasts. Another casualty of her destiny.
As though he could divine her thoughts, Hylas murmured, ‘It’s all right, Danae.’
‘No, it’s not.’ Tears stung her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. ‘I left you. I just stood there and let that thing take you. I could have used my powers, I could have jumped into the sea and swum back to you –’
‘You couldn’t have done any of those things. I carried you to the ship, remember? You couldn’t stand, let alone save me.’
‘Don’t. Stop making it easy for me.’
He huffed a sharp breath. ‘What do you want me to say? That I hate you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t.’
‘You should. I lied to you about who I was, I concealed my true mission. I only joined Heracles’ crew because I overheard you were joining Jason’s expedition sailing for the end of the world, and that’s where I needed to go to find Prometheus.
’ She paused. ‘I chose following my destiny over your life.’
Something raw flickered in the depths of Hylas’ eyes. ‘You did what you had to do. You are the hope of mankind.’ His voice was hollow, as though repeating something he had learnt.
Danae stood, her blood racing. ‘I lied to you! I left you to die. Don’t you care?’
A muscle pulsed in Hylas’ jaw.
‘All right,’ he said quietly. ‘I didn’t just hide in the Earthborn’s nest, then escape.
I slit the belly of a dead one with its own claws and climbed inside.
I lay there, in that stinking carcass, for two days until finally, when the others were out hunting, an opportunity came to crawl out of the cave.
Yes crawl, because my leg had all but been chewed off.
I dragged myself down the mountain, and the pain was so excruciating that when I reached the cliff I threw myself over the edge.
But the fall didn’t kill me, so I lay there, on that gods-forsaken shore amongst the rotting corpses, praying for death.
But the Doliones found me instead. They cut my damaged leg off then and there.
I can still feel it. The limb has gone but the pain wakes me in the night. Gnaws at me every godsdamned day.’
She stared at him, eyes stinging with salt. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, the word a drop in the well of her remorse.
Hylas shook his head, lips pressed together.
‘I care. I didn’t realize how much until I saw you.
’ He drew a breath. ‘Still, you are here now and two of the Twelve are dead. Every man in Odysseus’ army would do what I did for you on the Doliones shore, because they believe like I do, like Odysseus does.
Don’t let your pride stand in the way of your destiny. ’
Danae wiped her face. His belief burned so bright she could not look at him.
Have faith.
She forced herself to meet her friend’s gaze. ‘We will come with you to Troy. We will face whatever awaits us there together.’
Hylas blinked as though he hadn’t expected her to give in so easily.
A knock sounded at the door.
‘That will be the food,’ said Hylas.
‘Come in,’ called Danae.
The door swung open to reveal Odysseus. For a moment, Danae wondered if he’d been outside the entire time, listening to their conversation. But there was a swathe of black fabric in his arms.
‘I thought, if you did decide to join us, it would be prudent for you to take on a disguise.’ From beneath the fabric, he produced a blade. ‘I believe you are familiar with the duties of a seer.’
Danae’s heart sank. She glanced between the two men. It looked as though Hylas was holding his breath.
‘All right. I will come with you.’
Odysseus’ weathered face broke into a grin. ‘Excellent.’ He slipped across the room and lay the clothing down on the pallet, alongside the knife. ‘We shall leave you to it.’
For a moment, Danae expected Hylas to offer to cut her hair, like he’d once done aboard the Argo, as seers were expected to wear their hair cropped.
But he rose and followed Odysseus out into the street, leaving her alone with the shadow of her lies draped across the pallet, a skin she must don once more.