King of Ithaca by Glyn Iliffe Read Free Book Online

bowl and, with a fragile and almost helpless movement, she took something from it and put it into her mouth. Eperitus watched her lower her head and chew. After a while her chin fell on her chest and her body went limp, remaining still for some time. He looked at Castor, but the prince was watching the priestess with a hawklike stare.
    Suddenly her body jerked upwards as she sucked in a lungful of the vapour through her nostrils, held it, and then exhaled with a long sigh. Thrasios took a step towards her, excited, twitching restlessly in his eagerness to help his mistress. The Pythoness began to inhale deeply now, lifting her head to take in the fumes that coiled about her. Her eyes remained closed as her breathing grew quicker, heavier, her shoulders thrown back and her small breasts thrust outwards with each breath. Thrasios snatched the bowl from her lap, threw the long, dark leaves that filled it onto the floor, and used it to waft more of the vapours into the face of the priestess.
    Gradually her breathing slowed and the Pythoness relaxed. Then she turned to face her visitors. But it was not the same tired woman the men had seen earlier. Now she was self-assured, even arrogant as she surveyed them. And there was something else about her: her eyes had changed.
    With horror Eperitus saw that the irises were now yellow and the pupils were vertical slits. She opened her mouth and hissed, a forked tongue lolling out of her lipless mouth.
    ‘Who seeks the future?’
    ‘I do,’ Castor answered, showing no fear. He stood and kicked Eperitus’s sandalled foot. Struggling against the fear within him, he rose to his feet to face the Pythoness.
    ‘And I,’ he whispered.
    They were the only ones standing. The others knelt before her, touching their hands and foreheads to the cave floor. The Pythoness pointed at Castor.
    ‘What is it you seek, Odysseus of Ithaca?’
    Eperitus stared at his companion and then at the Pythoness. Castor looked equally shocked, but a moment later was kneeling before her with his head bowed.
    ‘Yes, I know you,’ she continued. ‘Long have I waited for you: the hero who will make a name so large it will take an ocean to swallow. Ask.’
    ‘My father’s kingdom is threatened, goddess. I must know if I will rise to become king in his place, or whether the throne will be seized by his enemies. Will I reign, or will I be exiled by usurpers?’
    The Pythoness gave her answer without hesitation.
    ‘Find a daughter of Lacedaemon and she will keep the thieves from your house. As father of your people you will count the harvests on your fingers. But if ever you seek Priam’s city, the wide waters will swallow you. For the time it takes a baby to become a man, you will know no home. Then, when friends and fortune have departed from you, you will rise again from the dead.’
    ‘Thank you, goddess,’ he said, and sat down beside Antiphus. He placed his head in his hands and was silent.
    ‘Do you understand the prophecy?’ Thrasios asked.
    ‘Aren’t you the interpreter?’ Halitherses retorted.
    ‘I’ve had more difficult riddles to decipher. You must fetch a princess from Sparta, Odysseus, and she will defend your palace from usurpers. You will become king and reign over a prosperous kingdom for ten years. From then you have a choice: to stay at home, or go to the city of Troy far away in the east. But be warned, if you choose Troy you will not see your homeland for twenty years; and when you return you will be alone and destitute.’
    Eperitus glanced inquisitively at Castor, or Odysseus if that was his true name, but the prince did not look up as Thrasios interpreted his fate. Instead he fixed his eyes on the chasm and said nothing.
    ‘And you, Eperitus of Alybas?’ the Pythoness asked, pointing at the tall young warrior. ‘What is your question?’

 
    Chapter Four
    H ELEN OF S PARTA
    The great hall of the palace at Sparta was dark but for the glow of a fire at its centre. Colossal shadows