Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast by Jane Yolen Read Free Book Online

a dog with the foaming sickness.”
    “Don’t just stand there gawping, Phreneus,” Scar said, never slackening his grip on Atalanta’s arms. “Use that leather cord of yours to tie her up before she does any more harm. How would we explain that at home? Three grown men bested by a child. And a girl at that.”
    Atalanta screeched in fury, but kick and wriggle as she might, she could not stop them winding the bonds around her arms and knotting them tightly. The scarred man continued to hold her as she fought in vain to free herself.
    “There, that should do, Evenor,” said Phreneus, regarding his work with pride.
    “She’s more beast than girl,” said the squat Goryx. “Do you suppose she’s a maenad, one of those madwomen who go dancing after the god Dionysus?”
    “She’s just a child who’s been abandoned in the woods,” said Evenor, the scarred man. “Who knows how long she’s been running wild out here.” He glanced at her dark hair in its ragged braid, the deep gray eyes. “Looks to be about twelve or so, I’d say.”
    “Why do you suppose she attacked us?” Goryx asked, rubbing his wrist where Atalanta had bitten him.
    Phreneus shrugged. “If she hadn’t jumped out, we’d never have known she was there.”
    Baring her teeth, Atalanta let out the loudest growl she could muster.
    Evenor looked thoughtful. “It’s almost as if she’s trying to keep us from something.”
    “The pit!” Goryx and Phreneus said together. Goryx added, “Maybe there’s something in it and she wants it for herself.”
    Atalanta began to thrash about and moan, anything to slow them down and give Urso more time.
    Phreneus’ spear jerked up. “Do you think she understands what we’re saying?”
    “I don’t know,” Evenor said. “She may have been out here so long, she’s forgotten human speech. My mother told me of a child like that in her old village. The villagers tamed the child—a boy it was, small with a hump on his back—but he never learned to speak proper. Just made noises like a pig.”
    “I bet this one never knew how to speak in the first place,” Goryx said. He put his face near Atalanta’s and made grunting sounds.
    Suddenly Pan’s words flashed through Atalanta’s mind. Dream or not, she could hear them clearly. “The lure of one’s own kind is hard to resist.”
    Not, Atalanta thought, if these are my kind. I can resist them forever. She would never speak to them and would let them think what they liked.
    She leaned forward and snarled at Goryx so loudly, he snapped his head back as if afraid of being bitten.
    “I told you—Harpy’s child!” he cried.
    Phreneus laughed. “She has you jumping, Goryx. Leave her be. Let’s check that pit.”
    Atalanta twisted and dragged her feet so much that in the end Evenor and Phreneus picked her up and carried her. When they reached the pit, they set her down on the ground and stared into the hole.
    “Someone’s rolled a log in here,” Goryx said, as if the other two couldn’t see for themselves.
    Casting around the outside of the pit, Phreneus said, “Plenty of bear tracks.”
    Evenor shook his head, all the while looking at Atalanta. “But no bear.” He smiled slightly. “So bear friend, have you been delaying us till the bear could climb out?”
    Atalanta looked down, her lips set together in a thin, hard slash.
    “What do we do now, Evenor?” Goryx asked in his unpleasant voice.
    “Go after the bear,” Phreneus put in.
    Atalanta looked up at them and held her breath. Please, Pan, guard my bear. A prayer, even to a dream god, might not be amiss.
    Evenor shook his head. “Who knows how far it’s gotten by now. Besides”—and he smiled at Atalanta, almost as if they were conspirators—“we’ll have our hands full getting the girl back to Eteos.”
    Goryx held up his hands. “We’re not taking that Harpy’s brat back with us.”
    “Do you think we’ll be safe if we let her loose?” Evenor asked him.
    Goryx looked