A tall man with a pinched face bid. Then another and another. Her eyes flitted from one bidder to the next, trying to work out what type of master they might be from the tilt of their head or the set of their chin.
She was drawn back to the cloaked figure. The voices of the bidders faded away as she looked into the depths of that hood.
She thought she’d been afraid before, but that was only a shadow of the terror she felt now.
From the darkness under the hood stared a pair of crimson eyes.
Suddenly, the crowd was on its feet, shouting and pointing behind her. She twisted around to see the Spartan soldier had somehow got hold of a sword. Lycon, Autolycus and the old woman fell to the ground as he swung the weapon, yanking their shared chain, to decapitate Kakos’s enforcer with a single blow. The large man’s severed head sprayed an arc of blood through the air before rolling across the wooden platform.
The guards surged onto the stage in a flurry of blue. Despite his cuffed hands and being attached to three other people, it took five guards to slow the Spartan’s attack. He fought like a wild beast and killed three before he was finally disarmed.
Blood leaking from a myriad of stab wounds, he roared, “Sparta!” and went down smothered by a sea of blue cloaks.
Danae glanced back at the seating. Many of the buyers had fled. But the gray-cloaked stranger remained, staring at her with his terrible red eyes.
She didn’t hesitate a moment longer and while the guards and Kakos were distracted, bolted across the stage and leaped down onto the path.
She could hear Autolycus shouting behind her, “That’s it, girl. Run, Danae, run!”
Expecting to feel the clamp of a guard’s hand on her shoulder at any moment, she sprinted as fast as she could across the gravel and plunged into the forest.
13
City of the Sun
Leaves whipped Danae’s face, and twigs clawed at her limbs, but she did not slow. Then a root caught her foot and sent her tumbling to the ground. Scrambling onto her back, she stared at the trees behind her, expecting to see Kakos, the guards or the hooded stranger burst through the foliage.
But no one came.
She stayed on the forest floor while her breathing calmed. Perhaps, in the chaos, they’d given up on her.
The air was close, sickly with the sap of trees and damp earth. Sunlight glinted through the leaves, but its warmth didn’t reach the ground. She shivered. It was like being underwater, watching the light dance on the surface above, as though it belonged to another world. But she knew the sea, its tides and the creatures that dwelt within it. This forest was a different beast altogether.
She looked down at the welts on her arms and the tears in her tunic. Now her pulse was no longer deafening, the rustle of leaves and chitters of unseen animals pressed in. She flinched as an owl hooted in the canopy above. Then her hands flew to the hem of her tunic. She sighed. Alea’s brooch was still there.
She thought of the Spartan soldier. He was the only person who’d been kind to her since leaving Naxos. She knelt and said a prayer to Hades, God of the Underworld.
“Please look mercifully on the Spartan who died at the Athenian flesh market today. Please command the ferryman to carry him across the River Styx, even if he has no coin to pay.”
She doubted Kakos would perform the burial rights and place obols on the Spartan’s eyes. But she hoped his soul wouldn’t be left to wander the bank of the Styx until the end of time.
She rubbed her face and sat back on her heels. She was alive. She was free. She was in Athens. The terror of the flesh market still vibrated through her body, but she had to get to the city. It was the only way she was going to find the road to Delphi.
Doggedly, she pushed herself to her feet and began to pick her way back through the broken vegetation.
Hours passed, and the light above faded. Her head was throbbing by the time she found a stream trickling through the undergrowth. Throwing herself into the shallow water, she drank until her belly ached. Then she pushed herself up and kept walking, only stopping when she could barely see the trees in front of her.
Night was upon her, she was exhausted, and she was completely and utterly lost.
She sank against a large tree, determination seeping out through her sandals. Her stomach growled. The meagre ration of bread consumed in the wagon seemed a very long time ago. The last thing she wanted was to spend a night in the forest, but she needed rest, and it would be impossible to find her way in the dark.
She heard a rustling nearby. Her pulse quickened. She looked around, straining against the gathering gloom for somewhere safe to sleep, somewhere she wouldn’t be discovered.
Her eyes traveled upward.
She grasped the lowest branches of the tree and pulled herself up. She climbed, clenching her teeth as the bark raked her palms. Unlike the rocks she was used to scaling back home, the tree seemed displeased with its invader and bent under her weight. One branch dipped so violently it almost sent her tumbling back to earth.
Finally, she reached a sturdy branch that was thick enough to safely bear her load and high enough to be hidden from the ground. She wedged herself into the crook between the trunk and the branch, and in this space between sky and earth, waited for sleep.
