She gaped. “I can’t, I have no coin.”
The only item of value she had was the brooch, and she needed that to gain entrance to the oracle.
“Hmmm.” Graeculus’s fingers itched toward a scroll. “If you can’t pay then I will have to send you back to the authorities at, Naxos, was it?”
She couldn’t let them send her home, she had to get to Delphi. “I can work off the debt, I’ll do anything, please just don’t send me back.”
Graeculus’s hand paused. He met her pleading gaze, then his eyes slid down, crawling over her body. She stiffened. The clerk looked at the guard. Something unspoken passed between them.
With the scraping of wood on stone, he unfolded himself from under the desk. The merchant followed him through a doorway behind and the guard pushed Danae after them.
The room was cool and musty. It smelled of dust and parchment, and the walls were lined floor to ceiling with stacked scrolls.
“Off the record,” Graeculus said in a low voice, addressing the merchant. “You’re not going to recoup your losses. The girl evidently has nothing, and port officials bear no responsibility for stowaways.”
The merchant’s expression darkened.
“However,” Graeculus lowered his voice further. “There is a way you can make a profit from this unfortunate situation.”
Memnos’s lip curled. “Go on.”
Fear pulsed through Danae. She was very aware of how large the guard was, his hulking frame towering behind her.
“My colleague here, Elias, and I, have an arrangement. Not strictly by the book, but I’m sure a man of your business acumen will appreciate that sometimes steps need to be taken outside of what is strictly legal.”
Memnos made an open gesture with his hands.
The clerk smiled. “A healthy young girl like this would fetch an excellent price at the flesh market.”
Danae stared at Graeculus. “You can’t do that!”
Elias clamped a hand over her mouth.
“We would take our cut of course, but I’d wager she’s worth at least ten drachmas.”
Memnos folded his arms. “What exactly would that cut be?”
Blood thumped in Danae’s ears. She writhed against Elias’s grip and bit down on his palm. The guard swore but didn’t let go. He tightened his hold, his fingers digging into her cheeks.
Through the panic, she remembered something her mother told her when she and her sister were blossoming into womanhood. “Be wary of men, always go about your tasks with your sister, never alone, and if anyone lays a hand on you, kick him between the legs and run.”
Her struggles appeared to grow weaker as she feigned exhaustion. Elias loosened his grip, ever so slightly. She glanced down to gauge the position of his feet, then kicked back with all her strength. Her heel connected with something soft, and the guard let go, groaning like a wounded bear.
Quick as a minnow, she darted toward the door, pulling a flurry of scrolls off the shelves as she ran. Pulse racing, she pelted out into the sunlight. White pillars flickered past, and merchants dived out of her way as she sprinted down the row of customs desks.
Finally, she reached the end of the building and dodged around the side. She bent over, hands clutching her knees for support, sucking breath into her aching lungs. Glancing back, she was relieved to see she was alone.
She straightened up, then a fist collided with the side of her head.
11
Chains and Tales
Danae noticed the smell first. The air was stifling with the scent of overripe produce and rotting spice. And something else, something bitter and human. Then came the pain, blossoming from her left temple and pulsing its way across her skull.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. It was dark. The only source of light shone weakly through one slit of a window. Filthy straw lined the floor. She became aware of something hard and cold on her skin. She looked down and saw an iron cuff secured around both wrists. It was chained to a metal loop screwed into the wall. She twisted her hands, searching for any weakness in the chain. But the harder she tugged, the deeper the metal bit into her skin.
A clink at the other end of the room startled her. She squinted through the gloom and saw that she was not alone. There were others, attached to the same long chain, bolted at intervals around the walls.
