Warriors in Bronze by George Shipway Read Free Book Online Page A

goats strayed beyond the tree-line to open ground below - whether by chance or training I never discovered.
    A man leaning on an ash stave watched my return to con­sciousness. It is hard to describe him. Withered, stringy, emaci­ated, bent beneath the weight of countless years. Long dirty- white hair fringed a smooth bald pate. A wispy beard, the upper lip shaven, the nose a wedge of gristle, sunken violet eyes in caverns beneath white brows. In contrast to the stig­mata of age the skin of his forehead and cheeks was smooth, unwrinkled, pale as polished bone. He wore a linen tunic once dyed green, now sun-bleached, torn and stained; his arms were sinew-corded stalks, dead ivy clasping twigs. And yet - which is why I find it difficult to depict him properly - an aura hung about him of dominance and dread.
    He spoke sharply to a spearman standing at his shoulder, a man different from the Goatmen as he himself - stocky and blond, hair and beard trimmed short, rocky weather-tanned features and eyes like burnt black wood. His only garb was a leather apron; a fold pulled through his crotch was gathered in front and buckled to the belt like a codpiece of times gone by. A bracelet of lead-coloured metal decorated a wrist; he grasped a heavy spear. Stepping smartly forward he wound fingers in my hair and jerked. The pain brought tears to my eyes and cleared the fog from my brain.
    The old man said, 'You come from Rhipe. Who are you ?’ A gentleman's voice, the timbre deep and clear, the voice of a man in lusty middle age, the accent indefinable. All the in­flexions of Achaea and lands across the sea overlaid his tones, as though our tongue was one of many he could command at will.
    He kicked my leg. 'Answer, lad! I have ways of finding the truth.'
    I had realized directly I saw them that these were the dreaded Goatmen, the scourge of all Achaea and the bane of civilized men. To me, hitherto secluded in impregnable My­cenae, they were nothing more than a legend, a fairytale nursemaids told to frighten children. I knew little of their history, and never troubled to learn. But now, like an icy douche, I recalled something Atreus had once said: 'Better to cut your throat than be taken alive by the Goatmen.'
    Should I tell this decrepit old cripple my name and rank and lineage? He was clearly the Goatmen's leader, despite his age and frailty. Perhaps if I did he would shrink from the reper­cussions - a warband after his head. Or maybe the spilling of royal blood would simply add spice to his sport. No - whoever he was, deny him the relish of knowing the prize he held.
    I gathered a little spittle from a mouth as dry as a kiln, and spat. A smile infinitely evil curved the grey cracked lips.
    'Turn over.'
    Was this to be the death-blow? He carried no weapon; his spearman lolled negligently on the shaft. Painfully I obeyed, and rolled on my face. The tip of the stave touched my shoulder.
    'As I thought. The mark of Pelops.'
    I wear on my right shoulder an ivory-coloured birthmark: a heritage borne by every male descended from Pelops of Elis. (And a wonderful story the bards have concocted to account for that!) Even under the stress of pain and fear I wondered how this freak, a companion of outcast Goatman, should be familiar with the fables of Achaea's noble Houses. I turned on my back, and croaked from an arid gullet, 'Very well. I am Agamemnon son of Atreus. Who the blazes are you?’
    'Dionysus.'
    He uttered the word proudly, like a title borne by kings. Remembrance stirred: some half-forgotten tale which con­nected the name with Thebes. (The source of everything vexa­tious, Atreus had said.) A legend of olden days when Electryon still ruled. Surely this crazy creature, ancient though he was, could not be that Dionysus ?
    With insolence wefting the words I said, 'The name means nothing to me.'
    'No?' He sighed. 'You youngsters have no memory for fame. And impertinence, my lad, does not become your situation. In these two hands' -