Danae curled her arms around her head.
“Pssssssst.”
Groaning, she rolled over. “What?”
Autolycus grinned. In the morning light, she noticed he was missing several teeth.
“I want to know your name.”
She eyed him warily, but supposed it couldn’t do much harm, and if she told him he might leave her alone.
“Danae.”
“Ah,Danae.” He rolled her name around his mouth like it was a fine wine. “There was another by that name once. She was beautiful, they say. A princess so radiant, her father locked her in a bronze chamber deep beneath the earth, safe from the gaze of men. It was prophesied his grandson would kill him, you see, so he did everything in his power to prevent her conceiving a child. But Zeus had already spied her with his eagle eye. And no walls of bronze or stone can keep a god from what he desires.”
He stared at her. She blinked.
“But you look nothing like her, so I doubt you’ll have that problem.”
She huffed a sigh through her nose. “What do you want?”
The playful glint vanished from Autolycus’s eyes. “Eternal life.”
They were interrupted by the rattle of keys.
The cell door creaked open. Straw crunched underfoot, and two new men accompanied the plump guard into the room. One was slight with small, darting eyes and a scraggly beard. He was dressed in a navy traveling cloak and carried a whip strapped to his waist. His companion was large and muscular. Scars decorated his meaty forearms. He shadowed the smaller man, right hand never leaving the handle of his sword.
“What do you think, Kakos?” said the guard.
The slight man’s gaze slid from one captive to another, all the while fingering his whip. The hairs on Danae’s neck prickled as his gaze lingered on her.
“I’ll take them all.”
Kakos passed a pouch of coins to the guard. He weighed it in his hand before swiftly pocketing it.
Kakos’s lips stretched back to reveal yellowing teeth. “Time to go to market.” He snapped his fingers. “Bring them.”
The guard moved around the cell, detaching the chain from the iron rings. Once his task was complete, he clapped his hands.
“You heard him. Outside!”
Danae hesitantly pushed herself to her feet, taking comfort from the weight of Alea’s brooch against her thigh. She wondered if she could use the pin to pick the lock of her cuff once they were outside.
The line jerked, and she stumbled forward. Not fast enough.
The large man grabbed her arm. She winced as his thick fingers crushed yesterday’s bruises.
“Move,” he snarled, yanking her out into the corridor.
As they shuffled along, she could see more of the building they’d been held in. It had low ceilings with doors at intervals along the right of the passage. At the far end, the stone wall was replaced by iron bars encasing the final room.
Confiscated wares were stacked floor to ceiling. There were crates of fruit and vegetables in a rainbow of colors, including an orange fruit covered in spines Danae had never seen before. Disordered amphorae of oils and wines lay on the floor with sacks of grain slopping over them. A pair of ruby earrings glinted between a stack of ceramic plates, and backed into the far corner was a human-sized statue of the goddess Aphrodite. A sword dangled from a scabbard slung over her outstretched arm, and a jumble of bright silks was wound around her neck. It was jarring to see the statue of a goddess treated in such a careless way.
A small black pot at Aphrodite’s feet caught her eye. It was cracked down one side, but the emblem was still visible, a painted tree, its twisted branches bowed low with fruit. Danae stared at the pieces of gold leaf pressed onto each tiny apple. Her skin tingled. Then the chain pulled taut, and she was forced to move on.
The large man herded them into the belly of a wagon and bolted the door behind them. Danae scrambled onto her knees and held on to the iron bars of the window, pressing her face against the cold metal. She shuddered as the wagon moved, and the world outside leaped with each stone under wheel.
“Where are they taking us?”
