“Pa, what’s happening?”
Hurriedly, her father began to row. “Your mother called the temple hands.”
Danae’s stomach dropped through the bottom of the boat. If the temple hands believed she was possessed by an evil spirit, they would kill her.
“I won’t let them take you, Danie. I’m not losing another daughter.”
At the sound of her childhood name, she began to cry. Amidst all the chaos, her father and his boat were a lifeline to everything that had been ripped away.
Once they were hidden behind the crag of the next bay, he heaved in the oars. Then he put his arms around her and wiped her tearstained cheeks.
She felt sick. She couldn’t banish the image of Alea’s ribs peeling away from her body.
She extracted herself from her father’s arms. “I think the gods have cursed me.” Terrified as she was of him looking at her the way her mother had, she told him everything that had happened, from finding Alea’s body in the sea to the strange golden apple tree.
Odell looked at her long and hard. “Oh, Danie, I’m sorry. I don’t understand this any more than you do. Sometimes, I think the fates just roll a die.”
She looked up at the yellow-legged gulls soaring above, cawing to each other as they searched for nesting spots on the cliffs.
“I’ve got to leave Naxos, haven’t I?”
Her father nodded, an ocean of sadness in his eyes. “It’s the only way you’ll be safe. The temple hands will hunt you to the ends of the island.”
She knew he was right. It didn’t make it any easier.
Her father delved into the pocket of his tunic and brought out the owl brooch Philemon had given Alea. He pressed it into her hands. She traced the little green gems with her fingers. It felt like a lifetime had passed since she’d first seen it pinned to her sister’s breast.
“Go to the oracle at Delphi. This will pay your entrance. The oracle knows everything. Whatever’s happening to you, if youarecursed, the Pythia will tell you how to fix it. Then you can come home.”
Delphi. The mainland. She’d never even been to Athens, let alone the land beyond.
“I’ve never been anywhere but Naxos...how will I find my way?”
Her father took her by the shoulders. “Take this boat and sail northwest past the islands until you reach the mainland shore. Then follow the coast west for two days until you reach Mount Parnassus. There you’ll find Delphi.”
“But if I take your boat, how will you fish?”
Odell’s eyes were heavy. “I’ll find a way.”
“You and Santos rely on it—I can’t take it, you’ll all starve!”
“You have to,” his voice wavered. “You have to get off the island.”
Danae chewed her lip. “What if I took another ship?”
Odell’s lined brow furrowed.
“Merchants sail from Naxos to Athens every day. I could stow away on one of their vessels.” She reached for her father’s hand. “I can do it.”
He broke down then and held her, their tears muddling with the scales at the bottom of the boat.
An hour later, the mouth of Naxos Port yawned before them, ships of all shapes and sizes protruding from the jetty like jagged teeth.
“Get down,” her father whispered as they approached.
Danae curled herself into the bottom of the boat. It wasn’t long before she felt the gentle jolt of their vessel knocking against the jetty. Odell gathered up the tether and attached it to a wooden mooring pillar.
The air hummed with the steady chatter and clatter of merchants and their wares, punctuated by the wet crack of octopuses hitting stone as fishermen slapped their catches onto the rocks to dry. She breathed in the scent she knew so well. Fish, sweat, spice and oiled wood. She wanted to remember every note. She had no idea when she would smell them again.
