The Orpheus Descent by Tom Harper Read Free Book Online

it. The weird music played again, much closer. I looked around.
    Whichever god guarded that place, he wanted strange offerings. Wooden frames lashed together with ropes lay scattered around the precinct like the pieces of some enormous machine. Shallow sandpits had been dug into the soil, with more figures like the one on the beach laid out inside them. Seven metal pipes of different lengths dangled on strings from a tree branch, knocking into each with the wind to create the ever-shifting music I’d heard. A horned Bacchus watched proceedings from a plinth. And still the water tempted me.
    ‘What could be wrong with having a drink?’
    Without warning, something flew out of the forest and struck me hard on the head. Weak, off-balance, I toppled over and fell splash into the pool.
    Euphemus grabbed me and hauled me out. I shook myself off. An apple lay on the ground beside me, with a big brown bruise to match the bruise swelling on my forehead. And on the edge of the clearing, behind the boundary wall, a man was watching us.
    I jumped at the sight of him. He was a beanpole of a man, with a round head that he seemed to have borrowed from someone much larger. Grey hair burst out in all directions, matted with leaves; leaves clung to his white tunic, too, as if he’d slept the night in the forest. He didn’t look strong enough to have thrown the apple so hard.
    ‘Is it safe to drink?’ Euphemus called.
    The man shook his head.
    ‘We need water,’ I croaked
    He considered this. Very deliberately, he walked around the wall to the gate and bowed. He followed the path, spiralling round us three times before he finally reached the centre.
    ‘I am Eurytus,’ he announced, as though it should mean something.
    He looked like an outlaw, or an escaped slave. But he obviously wasn’t entirely destitute. A round gold disc, carved with tiny writing, dangled at his throat on a leather cord.
    I caught his eye and realised I didn’t look any better. ‘Our ship sank,’ I whispered. ‘We need water.’
    ‘Come with me.’
    He made us follow the path all the way back to the gate, muttering to himself all the while. The wind-chime music died away as we left the precinct and carried on into the forest. Not far off, we came to a shallow stream running between poplars.
    ‘You may drink.’
    We knelt down on the bank and slurped up the water like dogs. I almost drowned myself all over again. Eurytus leaned against a tree, watching.
    ‘Are you from Athens?’
    I nodded, surprised. How could he tell? Did so many bedraggled Athenians come traipsing through these woods that we were a common sight?
    ‘Our ship was going to Taras,’ Euphemus said. ‘Is it far?’
    ‘Nine miles.’
    ‘Can you take us there?’
    He looked us up and down. ‘You should rest, first.’
    From Eurytus’ appearance, I’d expected his house would be a lean-to made of moss and branches, the sort of place the centaurs might have taken the young Achilles to nurse him on berries. In fact, he lived in a good-sized farmhouse beyond the forest, overlooking a cultivated plain. That was as much as I saw before I collapsed into his surprisingly comfortable bed.
    I only meant to sleep for a couple of hours, but when I woke, a soft sunset was glowing orange through the window. Fresh clothes had been left on a stool. Euphemus lay on the bed beside me, snoring like a marble saw.
    I dressed and went out. The main living room was empty, but I could hear a soft, irregular tapping, like loom weights, coming from outside.
    Eurytus sat on his knees in the courtyard. For a moment, I didn’t recognise him. He’d changed into a clean, white woollen tunic and combed his hair almost respectably straight. But it hadn’t made him normal. He scrabbled on the ground, kneeling over a sandpit and making patterns out of white pebbles, murmuring under his breath. Every so often, he’d lean over to the counting frame beside him and shuttle a counter from one side to the other with a