The Ariadniad - Part Two
Title: The Ariadniad
Author: El-Sharra
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The Life of Ariadne, princess of Krete
Warnings (if any): some light BDSM, rape; and it's long
Notes: This is the compleated version of a story that I posted (the beginings of) under my old LJ account a few months ago.
The Ariadniad - Part Two
I had reached the Hall of the Dancing Floor when a strange sound stopped me. I strained my ears to separate the noise from the pulse of the sea- a low, angry howl.
There were doors to the cave now, large solid bronze doors shut fast with a thick wooden beam. There were spaces for gold panels to be placed onto them, though only the top two were in place.
The top right showed Minos exiling Sarpaedon after the end of the war and the artist had wrote in exquisite detail. The Bull stood to the side of the King and there was even the small figure of Myletus cowering behind Sarpaedon’s cloak in fear of Minos’ jealousy. The top left panel showed the beautiful Europa astride the great bull as it swam the sea to our shores.
A queen rides a bull and it gives us Minos. A Bull rides a queen and we get whatever it was that Pasiphae bore. ‘A monster either way’ I thought ‘it’s only the one that looks the part’.
As I stared at the door it lurched and rattled in it’s hooks and I fell back a step in shock. One of the workmen must have noticed for he came over to me to explain. The beast-child Asterios had been cast in chains shortly after its birth as it would lung and claw at any who came near it. They had to drug it with the milk of the poppy to just close the cuffs around its wrists but it was soon straining against even the strongest shackles and it was quickly decided that the safest place for the creature was in the cave itself. The doors were swiftly put into place and the top panels hinged so that food and water could be lowered down through the thick metal bars they concealed.
The elders were still arguing over what must be done with the beast. Some called for his death, though most agreed that the Law must be upheld and its sanctuary defended. Meanwhile, the child-thing howled and grew and grew and grew and beat against the walls of it’s cell. And above all it ate. It craved blood still in the vein and hearts still beating in the breast, it would lunge and pull at its chains at the passing of any living creature, and tear into the flesh of any unfortunate enough to be within it’s grasp. Three novices, one priest and a bull-dancer who feared nothing had already been lost to the monsters appetite. It seemed the thing needed to kill as much as it needed to eat. After the last death no one dared to attempt clean the sanctuary and the stench of death and rot hung heavy in the tight spaces of the temple.
Since the night of Asterios’ birth no other living child had been born upon the island. Even the beasts threw still-born and the winter-sown wheat would not grow and in the poor areas sickness was beginning to spread. Most thought Krete cursed and blamed the queen for her defilement of the sacred rite. Some blamed the Bull but were unable to say why fault should go to him.
I blamed Minos.
Yes, it was true that Pasiphae had used he position to sway the priests to her need, but her own hand had been forced by the gods. It was Minos who had sworn to Poseidon the Bulls death and it was Minos who failed to grant the god his due. If there was a curse, then by rights it was the King’s duty to bear the burden. And that burden began to become evident once the navy entered the port of Athens.
Minos had sent Androgeus ahead, his beloved bastard-born son by one of the palace serving girls, sent him to Athens and to King Aegus carrying sweet words and precious gifts. Aegus had no heir, no male heir anyways (or at least not one Minos knew of) but he did have daughters. He had many daughters, most unmarried and Minos had discovered the ease of inheritance through the wedding bed and was developing a taste for Mykenaean trade.
Athens was not as stable as it liked to appear to outsiders. Aegus had held kingship through two sonless marriages and was getting old, while his brother, Pallas had thrown enough male heirs to populate his own small country. There was unrest growing and Aegus mistook Minos’ son as an insurgent and called for his death; it was one of the few mistakes that Aegus ever made as king. He had been a good ruler and did not deserve his sad end, but the killing of Androgeus was a mistake, and one that he admitted freely.
He admitted it to Minos himself, with true piety and regret and honest repentance. He had performed sacrifices to the gods and offered gifts to Androgeus’ ghost to beg forgiveness.
But Minos was never moved to forgiveness so easily. Minos’ got his trade rights and without taking a bride, though he did take a daughter of Minos, in fact he took seven and seven sons of Pallas as well. Androgeus was fourteen, Minos demanded fourteen in his place, and not just once, fourteen youths every year for so long as Minos lived- for every year Aegus had robed Minos of his son.
They were to follow within a month of Minos’ departure. The delay was unavoidable. It would take that long to load the Athenian tribute ship with the oil and tin and foodstuffs that Minos also won in blood-debt. A heavy price for a bastard-born princling, though higher tolls have been paid.
I was standing near the front of the crowd gathered at the docks to welcome back Minos and the Kretan navy with the other priests and priestesses, all dressed in their finest regalia.
It shocked Minos I think, to see me dressed as a priestess and for once I was not afraid of him, I did not hunch my shoulders or avoid his eyes. He stumbled when his gaze met mine and reached out for the guard ropes. As he did a gust of wind rose off the water and caused the king to fall to his knees, his hand came out before him to catch himself and the diadem rolled out of his grasp, along the gang plank and off down into the deep waters of the bay.
A quick-witted temple novice; Diktyana I later learned was her name, hit the dock in a run and dove off the side. She hit the water in slow motion and all watching held their breath in shock and waited. After two minutes had passed the whispers began. Then through the clear water of the bay her rippled image appeared, with the unmistakable gleam of gold held out before her. She fairly flew from the water in a spectacle of speed and grace that was a marvel to behold. The girl walked to Minos but it was into Ismene’s hands that she placed the treasure. It was quickly thrust back to the King to allow him the formal presentation and so the completion of his labor, but many of those gathered wondered at the meaning of these events. Many felt that Minos was not forgiven the death of Kharis and still held miasma for the event. But politics often rules out in the end and they had to at least make a show of things.
Minos blamed me of course, said that I bewitched him with my gaze. Perhaps I had, ‘free me with a fall’ I had prayed so long ago.
I kept away form him as much as I could in the following weeks. It was not hard in truth, my duties kept me in the underground palace most days and Minos was quite busy dealing with the famine and sickness that still plagued the Island. Fishermen were bringing in smaller and smaller catches and the palace stores were beginning to show signs of failing and the poor had taken to gathering around the kitchen doors in hopes of scraps from the kings table. The plague, for now it was, was spreading from the slums and harbors into the wealthy sections of Knossos and that was what finally got the Minos’ attention.
Pasiphae was the best Pharmakeia among the priestesses; and how not with her father the Sun; but thanks to Minos’ ban she was unable to attend the sick that had gathered around the entrances of the Palace Below in hopes of a cure or the priests blessings. We dared not let plague enter into the temple and so Pasiphae sat and diagnosed from within the caves, just out of reach of the light and stirred potions and sewed poppets and we carried them out and ministered to the sick.
The priests and priestesses gathered at the docks again a little over a moon later to greet the tribute ship from Athens. Slaves swarmed aboard even before it had finished docking and began carrying out bundle after bundle of foodstuff and supplies and taking it under heavy guard to the palace store rooms and market place. The crowd stumbled after them with shouts, threatening and begging for the parcels to be opened on the stop and so few remained to see the last of the tribute disembark.
Seven maids and seven youths in gilded chains and white tunics lead down the ramp at spear point two by two. Of the first pair, neither more than five years of age, a golden haired boy with red cheeks and bright eyes and a girl, dark and solemn.
More beautiful still were the next pair, and the next even more, all with a grace and bitter dignity that seems to come of mixing royalty and slavery. The last male was older than his counterpart, he had perhaps seen twenty-five years. Unlike the others, he was the only male with a darker cast to his features, dark hair and dark eyes.
He looked at me and tripped, caught his balance on the arm of the girl he was shackled too and stopped on the swaying ramp. He stood there and looked at me, I looked away quickly, unsure of how his gaze had affected me.
Minos would not risk the health of his new pet slaves and so insisted they be housed in the underground palace until the sickness had run its course. We turned one of the larger store rooms into a suite, placed a guard at their door and tried to return to our regular routine.
It had been almost a ten-day and I hadn’t had a chance to see the Athenians since their arrival and was curious about them and so was happy when I drew lots to deliver them their morning meals. By that time so many of the palace slaves were sick or dead that the temples servants had been summoned there to make up their duties and we were left to make do as best we could.
His name was Theseus, the one with the dark hair and I had been wrong about his eyes. They were not dark like those of the girls but were the exact blue-gray of a sea storm, the kind where you can’t tell where the sky stops and water begins; and the light seemed to shift and swirl in them so like waves crashing on the shore. I disliked him immensely. He was crud and boorish and treated those around him like slaves- even his kin. He dismissed the girls and took advantage of the novices. And there was an air about him that made me uneasy, what was worse was that I found a strange enjoyment in that unease.
I had retuned to retrieve the breakfast scraps to give to the poor gathered outside. He grabbed the trencher from me and tossed it back onto the table and his hand gripped my wrist and he backed me up against the wall with his weight. He moved his hand up to my upper arm and squeezed hard enough that I knew I would bruise. His other hand traced my jaw line and forced my chin up so I would meet his eyes.
“You tripped me with those eyes Dangerous One. I’ve asked after you, Minos’ Daughter.”
I stood trapped, eyes darting for an exit and my heart beating in my throat. His hand moved down around my throat and began to squeeze tight enough that I could feel his pulse through his grip. “Should I fear you little one?” he asked, “are you friend or foe?”
The pain in my neck had made me bold, confused and for the first time since Kharis’ death wet with wanting. “I do not know” I whispered, shaking from dizziness and desire “and if you do not let go we will never find out”. I would never have been strong enough to remove his hand from me, and yet I took his thumb in my hands and pulled him away from my throat. He gave me a grin that made me want to, in equal parts, sink to my knees before him and run in fright.
“My name is Theseus, Princess; I think we shall be good friends.”
He was right of course. Though in truth, that was an easy prediction to make, if he had said we would be foes he would still have been right.
That night I was woken with a crash- a sound like when lightning hits a dead tree; and then screams. I knew. As soon as I heard the sounds I knew- Asterios had escaped. I grabbed my stole and joined the others running in and out the rooms and hall ways.
A large group of us rounded a corner and stood at the narrow stairway that was the main entrance to the palace. I was half way up the stairs when I remembered the Athenians. Had they left their rooms? Were they alive? Was Theseus? They would be lost trying to find their way thorough the impossible twists and turns of the underground palace.
There was weeping in the hall to my left, weeping and the wet sound of the dying trying to breathe, and beyond that, a heavy animalistic growl. I pushed away the hand of a priest and ran to the right across the open Dancing Floor. I wound my way through twists and rooms and halls and doors until I had come to the Athenians’ suite. The guards were dead but the doors still intact. I pulled the keys from a corpse and said a prayer for his ghost.
I opened the door and called to the captives to follow me quickly and went to spy out our escapes, trusting that they followed. The hall was covered in blood and gore and drips of it fell from the ceiling into my hair. There were small fires everywhere from fallen torches that had lit furniture or bodies. But it was the smell that made me truly feel the horror of it; the smell and the sounds- the moans of pain, the terror and pleading of the dying.
I turned to see fourteen pale faces staring at me, scared and angry and ready to burst with questions. I gestured for silence and for them to follow me. We were at the dancing floor again, this time directly across from the stairway. The eldest were carrying the littlest ones now, I carried the smallest boy, my arms burned with the strain, but it kept me from touching the walls.
The marble doors to the palace must be closed by now, for their sake I prayed they were. For our sake I prayed they were open.
We dashed across the floor, certain that we were safe. Perhaps the scent of our fear had drawn it; the shadows had hid its bulk. It lunged as we were half was across and reached out with its clawed hands. Theseus who had taken up rear-guard was scored down his back, as he stumbled the beast grabbed hold of the eldest maiden and flung her and her sister that she was carrying across to the other side of the floor. I turned round to run to them but Theseus grabbed me and pushed me up the stair case. I hated him a little for that, not for his saving my life but because even in all of this evil his rough touch made me quiver with wanting. The others were at the top of the narrow stairs pounding and yelling to have the doors opened but we, Theseus and I were still at the bottom I looked up and all thoughts of desire fled. I turned, doubled over and heaved.
The creature was thrusting his swollen, misshapen phallus into the maiden hard enough that both their thighs were covered in her blood. More blood was pooling on her chest from where the beast has bit away her breast and carved the other open with his horn.
Her screams would have been deafening had they not been muffled by the body of the little girl flung across her face and drowned out by the child’s own shrill screams as the best feasted upon her insides.
The beast had grown, large and wide, easily the height of the great labrys; which itself was a large as a tall man and then half that again and the width of a large bull
I could hear the doors slowly being opened. Even with so many slaves they were not quick. The creature took notice of us then and turned away from the girls. The littlest was dead but the elder still moved though I prayed she was unaware. We climbed the stairs as high as we could and the creature slammed into the opening, he was too large for the hall and reached his arm through to claw and grasp at empty air.
Of all the things I had seen that day, that the worst was by far. The beast’s claws, not a hands breadth from my chest, reached towards me as its face peered at me from the frame of the door. Its horns, long and thick and sharp now, gouged chunks off the hall walls. But its eyes; in a face that was blood covered more animal than man, its eyes were aware, and filled with a sense of joy.
I do not know how long I stood in that hallway nor what happened after that. My next memories are of the morning, waking and remembering. I sat in bed, shaking and gripping my knees to my chest till mid morning then went in search of news.
Sanctuary be damned, curses be dammed; Minos had declared a state of emergency. Miasma could be shed with ease, he said, just look to him- though in truth, with the events surrounding him that did not bring much reassurance. But that the beast must die no one disagreed. It was unknown how many were lost below, or if any survived there still. But over one hundred had been counted missing, Pasiphae, Ismene and Daidalos among them.
The fastest of Minos’ ships were sent, laden with his fastest messengers out for Delphi and Dodonna and Elusis and even back to Megara with it’s oracle of Nyx to ask the gods aid in this and one hundred heavily armed warriors traveled down that stairway that afternoon. That night, the three that made reported hearing survivors but they were unable to see how many or where they were. The doors were closed and bolted. We were safe in the palace for now. All but one entrance below had been filled in with rubble and sealed off. The bulk of the beast kept it from climbing the stairs up, but after what had been seen, it seemed a sensible precaution. It was the outside entrances that we worried about. All the known ones were sealed with stones and boulders; even statuary and timber if needed. We hoped that any entrance that eluded us would elude the beast as well. And then we waited.
I was walking in the palace gardens at the next full moon. It was judged safe enough, but even so I was shadowed always by a guard, though I suspected he was there more to warn others in case of an attack than to offer me any protection. I was there half out of piety and prayer and half trying to avoid Minos’ renewed interest in all that was young and breathing. The Athenians’ beauty had awoken his lust again and took his mind from the horrors and evils that had plagued him of late. And when Minos’ lust was awake, no woman or youth was safe; it came, I suppose from his parentage.
It was their whispering that caught my attention, the breeze had carried them just right so that my companion was not aware. I threatened him that I was engaging in the Mysteries and that it would be death to witness and went to spy the source of the noise. I pushed my way through thick branches and leaves and had to close my eyes to the pain. I was in the entrance of the cave even before I knew it was there.
My eyes adjusted to the firelight quickly and I looked upon Daidalos and his young son nursing an assortment of priests and priestesses against the safety of a rock fall which, I guessed rightly, was Daidalos’ work. Farthest from the entrance, almost completely in the shadows knelt the queen nursing the bandaged high priestess, Ismene. I ran to her, crying and threw my arms around her neck. Once we had finished she told me their tale.
They were the survivors, many of them those ostracized by Minos the warriors had heard, but they avoided Minos’ men and sought their own way out. They feared Minos’ anger would mean their deaths if they were discovered outside the underground palace, even with the beast loose below. I could not blame them. They were waiting until the wounded healed and then would flee on a new type of ship that Daidalos had built. I had food and supplies smuggled to them and thanks to Daidalos’ knowledge three more entrances were blocked off.
It was a full two moons later that the ship from Delphi was spotted and all ran to the shore hoping for good news.
“When the child of light, from the shadow is free and the blood of the Bull is returned to the sea, famine and sickness and evils shall flee.”
The words of the Sybil were, for once surprisingly easy to riddle out. Free the queen, kill the Bull and Krete would be freed. Simple enough for me to see, but to Minos who thought the queen dead it was another blow. Had it only been Minos’ fate in the balance I never would have did what I did.
I slipped away to the cave that had sheltered the outcasts and found them getting ready to depart. Three of the priests had succumbed to their wounds, but Ismene, to my joy, looked healthy and whole.
The moon was just rising when we walked into the throne room together, the queen and I. She was hidden beneath a thick veil and in a torn, stained shift and drifted into the crowed easily. Daidalos had rehearsed with me what to say to Minos, how to get his sworn promise that if Pasiphae had been alive that he would forgive her and return her to her throne. At that, the queen stepped forth from those gathered and around her formed a light, painfully bright like the sun.
Pasiphae looked upon the king- her abuser and her freedom, “The blood of the Bull runs in the veins of the beast. Kill it and lift the curse Minos.”
The murmurs began, but it was Theseus whose voice echoed off the walls and called all others to listen.
“Minos, King! You have freed your queen to meet the prophecy’s demands. Would you free Athens as well? Free me and my companions, end your claim and blood debt and I will kill this best for you.”
If there had been shock at the arrival of the queen, this caused the court to erupt in a mass of voices. I stared at him amazed. He had seen what the beast did, had seen the spark of intelligence in its eyes and still he was serious. Minos laughed at him but soon saw the truth in his eyes as I had. The king gestured for Theseus to follow and they left, alone.
Most of the court waited in the room for a while, but it was late and they began to drift away in twos and threes. I offered to take Pasiphae back to her rooms but she refused wanting to walk alone. There were many places I could have gone, but I stayed. It was because the paintings. As a child I had been in awe of the scenes on the walls. Deep reds, vivid gold and blues; the bull dancers and people celebrating, but it was the throne room that I loved beyond all others. Each griffon had a name and a personality, I would sneak in there in there late at night to be alone with them and we would play wondrous games.
I was running my hands along the feathers of Adagtras (the troublemaker) standing just to the right of the throne when I heard Minos and Theseus walking in the hallway. I ran to the doorway and strained to over hear them. Minos had said yes, had given Theseus permission to hunt the beast, Theseus was on his way to the armory to choose weapons and mail.
I ran back to my rooms and then to catch him there before he could descend. He was testing swords, stabbing and slashing at the air and discarding them into piles around him. I stood in the doorway, in one hand a wickedly sharp metal blade that Daidalos had made of meteorite metal and gifted it to me on a naming day, it was stronger then any blade in that room. In my other I held my ball of red silk yarn.
I felt foolish standing in the doorway and when he finally saw me my throat went tight and closed on my words. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath and laid my plea out before him.
My aid, anything he needed, wanted or desired and that I was able to deliver and if he lived, safe passage from Krete. I had wondered if he would ask for my body, and I was unsure what I would do if he did. I would say yes, of course; it would be a fair trade to leave this place. But whether that thought filled me with dread or joy I could not say- now I know of course, that those two are often the same thing. I felt no love towards him, no draw of friendship, his features were not particularly pleasing to my eyes, and yet there was something familiar that spoke to the heart of me.
I stood, waiting as he looked at me, all he asked was why. For freedom, I answered. He nodded and took the knife and silk and told me to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. He doubted Minos’ word as much as I and feared his death at the Kings hand if he survived his self-imposed ordeal. He charged me with finding a way to get his kin to safety if I could. Before I left I asked him why he was doing this.
He took a deep breath, “this is what I came here for, I was sent by my father to destroy the beast.”
I was stunned. I ha no idea that word of the creature had spread so far, so quickly. And I could not fathom why Pallas would a son on such a task, or why he would want to beast dead. Then I looked at Theseus again, dark hair, sea-eyes, skin and features dark like Aegus’ Daughters. “Your father isn’t Pallas, is he” I asked him. He shook his head no. When I asked him why Aegus would risk his only heir he just laughed at me and repeated it was his father who sent him here.
There would be no rituals, no sacrifices and no announcement even. Theseus would descend in secret. Only Minos knew, save myself and that only by accident.
The first day after Theseus’ decent I packed, I unpacked and packed again. I paced and I prayed and jumped at every noise I heard, Pasiphae came to see me that afternoon. She was a great healer and knew many potions. Minos may have declared publicly his forgiveness of the queen, but in private he still took his anger out on her and she feared herself pregnant after the last night’s ministrations. Any other woman would have been laughed at for thinking she knows herself with child within a day, but I had seen her healing skills and did not doubt her knowing. She came to me to ask if I had any child-bane, but all I knew of was were below. Even if I had my store with me I doubted they would be potent enough for one with ichor in their blood.
She cried on my bed as I bandaged the hurts Minos had caused and placed poultices on her many bruises. She feared bearing Minos another child, this one especially since she knew already it would be a girl. She was right to fear; the child Phaedra they would name her would not be gifted with a happy life. A part of her, Pasiphae said, wished she was back in her prison below. She would die without the sunlight she said, but life with Minos was a hard freedom.
The second day was much the same as the first, even down to the queen weeping on m y bed. I had debated with myself telling her of my plans, but if I was allowed escape I could not let her worry after me and so I spilled my secrets to her. She began crying again, harder. She waved me off when I tried to comfort her. She, through choking sounds, said these were tears of joy. All these years she had seen what Minos had done to me, the beatings, the rape. She knew it had all been her fault- she had traded Krete’s peace for my life. She was not sorry for having done it she said, it was needed but she was sorry for what was done to me. She was overjoyed at the prospect of my freedom. She ran to her rooms and returned with jewels and coins which we sewed into little pouched in my shift and, to my great relief she took upon herself the duty of freeing the remaining Athenians and making sure the ship was stocked and ready to sail.
The third day Theseus returned.
His spear pounded against the thick wooden doors and his yells to open them echoed through the walls. He walked though the doorway and squinting at the light, threw the blood covered severed horn of the beast at the feet of the king and collapsed against the wall.
The king sent men down to see the beast and they declared it dead. They were unable to carry its bulk up the stairs and were sent to begin clearing an outside entrance of rubble and debris. Advisors and officials and priests were sent scurrying off to prepare the ritual that would return the beast to the sea and end the curse its life had brought upon the isle and the feast that would follow. He finally remembered Theseus and called for a physician to tend to him and ready him for the banquet.
There was something in his look and in his speech that made me glad Theseus had not taken the king at his word. Why loose so much when one slave’s death guaranteed the coming of many more for life?
I ran to my rooms and grabbed my bags and went in search of Theseus. I used my power as both priestess and princess to clear the room of al but the two of us. I took thread and needle and began to finish tending to his many wounds. He was covered in thin scratches and was pale from blood loss, thankfully most of them were shallow, though a few were red and raw and deep. He sat through my sewing and through the administration of poultice and bandage and did not speak or make a sound, I was painfully curious to know what had happened below but his eyes warned me off asking. It was not until I had cauterized a large bite on his shoulder did he scream. A page came running to see if we needed aid. I set him to watch on the door and to forbid entrance to anyone.
I can not imagine the pain Theseus felt but he stood with only a little help from me and managed to walk under his own power. I gathered up the remaining medicine and we set out through the hidden passages to the harbor.
Minos was preoccupied with seeing to the ritual and we decided to wait until it was underway to flee. It looked as if the entire island had turned out to see the beast about which so many rumors had been born over the last year. We could see the carcass of the beast being carried up to the cliff edge and the high priests arms raised in blessing. We took his blessings as a sign for us to begin our departure and Theseus ordered oars set and anchor lifted.
Author: El-Sharra
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The Life of Ariadne, princess of Krete
Warnings (if any): some light BDSM, rape; and it's long
Notes: This is the compleated version of a story that I posted (the beginings of) under my old LJ account a few months ago.
The Ariadniad - Part Two
I had reached the Hall of the Dancing Floor when a strange sound stopped me. I strained my ears to separate the noise from the pulse of the sea- a low, angry howl.
There were doors to the cave now, large solid bronze doors shut fast with a thick wooden beam. There were spaces for gold panels to be placed onto them, though only the top two were in place.
The top right showed Minos exiling Sarpaedon after the end of the war and the artist had wrote in exquisite detail. The Bull stood to the side of the King and there was even the small figure of Myletus cowering behind Sarpaedon’s cloak in fear of Minos’ jealousy. The top left panel showed the beautiful Europa astride the great bull as it swam the sea to our shores.
A queen rides a bull and it gives us Minos. A Bull rides a queen and we get whatever it was that Pasiphae bore. ‘A monster either way’ I thought ‘it’s only the one that looks the part’.
As I stared at the door it lurched and rattled in it’s hooks and I fell back a step in shock. One of the workmen must have noticed for he came over to me to explain. The beast-child Asterios had been cast in chains shortly after its birth as it would lung and claw at any who came near it. They had to drug it with the milk of the poppy to just close the cuffs around its wrists but it was soon straining against even the strongest shackles and it was quickly decided that the safest place for the creature was in the cave itself. The doors were swiftly put into place and the top panels hinged so that food and water could be lowered down through the thick metal bars they concealed.
The elders were still arguing over what must be done with the beast. Some called for his death, though most agreed that the Law must be upheld and its sanctuary defended. Meanwhile, the child-thing howled and grew and grew and grew and beat against the walls of it’s cell. And above all it ate. It craved blood still in the vein and hearts still beating in the breast, it would lunge and pull at its chains at the passing of any living creature, and tear into the flesh of any unfortunate enough to be within it’s grasp. Three novices, one priest and a bull-dancer who feared nothing had already been lost to the monsters appetite. It seemed the thing needed to kill as much as it needed to eat. After the last death no one dared to attempt clean the sanctuary and the stench of death and rot hung heavy in the tight spaces of the temple.
Since the night of Asterios’ birth no other living child had been born upon the island. Even the beasts threw still-born and the winter-sown wheat would not grow and in the poor areas sickness was beginning to spread. Most thought Krete cursed and blamed the queen for her defilement of the sacred rite. Some blamed the Bull but were unable to say why fault should go to him.
I blamed Minos.
Yes, it was true that Pasiphae had used he position to sway the priests to her need, but her own hand had been forced by the gods. It was Minos who had sworn to Poseidon the Bulls death and it was Minos who failed to grant the god his due. If there was a curse, then by rights it was the King’s duty to bear the burden. And that burden began to become evident once the navy entered the port of Athens.
Minos had sent Androgeus ahead, his beloved bastard-born son by one of the palace serving girls, sent him to Athens and to King Aegus carrying sweet words and precious gifts. Aegus had no heir, no male heir anyways (or at least not one Minos knew of) but he did have daughters. He had many daughters, most unmarried and Minos had discovered the ease of inheritance through the wedding bed and was developing a taste for Mykenaean trade.
Athens was not as stable as it liked to appear to outsiders. Aegus had held kingship through two sonless marriages and was getting old, while his brother, Pallas had thrown enough male heirs to populate his own small country. There was unrest growing and Aegus mistook Minos’ son as an insurgent and called for his death; it was one of the few mistakes that Aegus ever made as king. He had been a good ruler and did not deserve his sad end, but the killing of Androgeus was a mistake, and one that he admitted freely.
He admitted it to Minos himself, with true piety and regret and honest repentance. He had performed sacrifices to the gods and offered gifts to Androgeus’ ghost to beg forgiveness.
But Minos was never moved to forgiveness so easily. Minos’ got his trade rights and without taking a bride, though he did take a daughter of Minos, in fact he took seven and seven sons of Pallas as well. Androgeus was fourteen, Minos demanded fourteen in his place, and not just once, fourteen youths every year for so long as Minos lived- for every year Aegus had robed Minos of his son.
They were to follow within a month of Minos’ departure. The delay was unavoidable. It would take that long to load the Athenian tribute ship with the oil and tin and foodstuffs that Minos also won in blood-debt. A heavy price for a bastard-born princling, though higher tolls have been paid.
I was standing near the front of the crowd gathered at the docks to welcome back Minos and the Kretan navy with the other priests and priestesses, all dressed in their finest regalia.
It shocked Minos I think, to see me dressed as a priestess and for once I was not afraid of him, I did not hunch my shoulders or avoid his eyes. He stumbled when his gaze met mine and reached out for the guard ropes. As he did a gust of wind rose off the water and caused the king to fall to his knees, his hand came out before him to catch himself and the diadem rolled out of his grasp, along the gang plank and off down into the deep waters of the bay.
A quick-witted temple novice; Diktyana I later learned was her name, hit the dock in a run and dove off the side. She hit the water in slow motion and all watching held their breath in shock and waited. After two minutes had passed the whispers began. Then through the clear water of the bay her rippled image appeared, with the unmistakable gleam of gold held out before her. She fairly flew from the water in a spectacle of speed and grace that was a marvel to behold. The girl walked to Minos but it was into Ismene’s hands that she placed the treasure. It was quickly thrust back to the King to allow him the formal presentation and so the completion of his labor, but many of those gathered wondered at the meaning of these events. Many felt that Minos was not forgiven the death of Kharis and still held miasma for the event. But politics often rules out in the end and they had to at least make a show of things.
Minos blamed me of course, said that I bewitched him with my gaze. Perhaps I had, ‘free me with a fall’ I had prayed so long ago.
I kept away form him as much as I could in the following weeks. It was not hard in truth, my duties kept me in the underground palace most days and Minos was quite busy dealing with the famine and sickness that still plagued the Island. Fishermen were bringing in smaller and smaller catches and the palace stores were beginning to show signs of failing and the poor had taken to gathering around the kitchen doors in hopes of scraps from the kings table. The plague, for now it was, was spreading from the slums and harbors into the wealthy sections of Knossos and that was what finally got the Minos’ attention.
Pasiphae was the best Pharmakeia among the priestesses; and how not with her father the Sun; but thanks to Minos’ ban she was unable to attend the sick that had gathered around the entrances of the Palace Below in hopes of a cure or the priests blessings. We dared not let plague enter into the temple and so Pasiphae sat and diagnosed from within the caves, just out of reach of the light and stirred potions and sewed poppets and we carried them out and ministered to the sick.
The priests and priestesses gathered at the docks again a little over a moon later to greet the tribute ship from Athens. Slaves swarmed aboard even before it had finished docking and began carrying out bundle after bundle of foodstuff and supplies and taking it under heavy guard to the palace store rooms and market place. The crowd stumbled after them with shouts, threatening and begging for the parcels to be opened on the stop and so few remained to see the last of the tribute disembark.
Seven maids and seven youths in gilded chains and white tunics lead down the ramp at spear point two by two. Of the first pair, neither more than five years of age, a golden haired boy with red cheeks and bright eyes and a girl, dark and solemn.
More beautiful still were the next pair, and the next even more, all with a grace and bitter dignity that seems to come of mixing royalty and slavery. The last male was older than his counterpart, he had perhaps seen twenty-five years. Unlike the others, he was the only male with a darker cast to his features, dark hair and dark eyes.
He looked at me and tripped, caught his balance on the arm of the girl he was shackled too and stopped on the swaying ramp. He stood there and looked at me, I looked away quickly, unsure of how his gaze had affected me.
Minos would not risk the health of his new pet slaves and so insisted they be housed in the underground palace until the sickness had run its course. We turned one of the larger store rooms into a suite, placed a guard at their door and tried to return to our regular routine.
It had been almost a ten-day and I hadn’t had a chance to see the Athenians since their arrival and was curious about them and so was happy when I drew lots to deliver them their morning meals. By that time so many of the palace slaves were sick or dead that the temples servants had been summoned there to make up their duties and we were left to make do as best we could.
His name was Theseus, the one with the dark hair and I had been wrong about his eyes. They were not dark like those of the girls but were the exact blue-gray of a sea storm, the kind where you can’t tell where the sky stops and water begins; and the light seemed to shift and swirl in them so like waves crashing on the shore. I disliked him immensely. He was crud and boorish and treated those around him like slaves- even his kin. He dismissed the girls and took advantage of the novices. And there was an air about him that made me uneasy, what was worse was that I found a strange enjoyment in that unease.
I had retuned to retrieve the breakfast scraps to give to the poor gathered outside. He grabbed the trencher from me and tossed it back onto the table and his hand gripped my wrist and he backed me up against the wall with his weight. He moved his hand up to my upper arm and squeezed hard enough that I knew I would bruise. His other hand traced my jaw line and forced my chin up so I would meet his eyes.
“You tripped me with those eyes Dangerous One. I’ve asked after you, Minos’ Daughter.”
I stood trapped, eyes darting for an exit and my heart beating in my throat. His hand moved down around my throat and began to squeeze tight enough that I could feel his pulse through his grip. “Should I fear you little one?” he asked, “are you friend or foe?”
The pain in my neck had made me bold, confused and for the first time since Kharis’ death wet with wanting. “I do not know” I whispered, shaking from dizziness and desire “and if you do not let go we will never find out”. I would never have been strong enough to remove his hand from me, and yet I took his thumb in my hands and pulled him away from my throat. He gave me a grin that made me want to, in equal parts, sink to my knees before him and run in fright.
“My name is Theseus, Princess; I think we shall be good friends.”
He was right of course. Though in truth, that was an easy prediction to make, if he had said we would be foes he would still have been right.
That night I was woken with a crash- a sound like when lightning hits a dead tree; and then screams. I knew. As soon as I heard the sounds I knew- Asterios had escaped. I grabbed my stole and joined the others running in and out the rooms and hall ways.
A large group of us rounded a corner and stood at the narrow stairway that was the main entrance to the palace. I was half way up the stairs when I remembered the Athenians. Had they left their rooms? Were they alive? Was Theseus? They would be lost trying to find their way thorough the impossible twists and turns of the underground palace.
There was weeping in the hall to my left, weeping and the wet sound of the dying trying to breathe, and beyond that, a heavy animalistic growl. I pushed away the hand of a priest and ran to the right across the open Dancing Floor. I wound my way through twists and rooms and halls and doors until I had come to the Athenians’ suite. The guards were dead but the doors still intact. I pulled the keys from a corpse and said a prayer for his ghost.
I opened the door and called to the captives to follow me quickly and went to spy out our escapes, trusting that they followed. The hall was covered in blood and gore and drips of it fell from the ceiling into my hair. There were small fires everywhere from fallen torches that had lit furniture or bodies. But it was the smell that made me truly feel the horror of it; the smell and the sounds- the moans of pain, the terror and pleading of the dying.
I turned to see fourteen pale faces staring at me, scared and angry and ready to burst with questions. I gestured for silence and for them to follow me. We were at the dancing floor again, this time directly across from the stairway. The eldest were carrying the littlest ones now, I carried the smallest boy, my arms burned with the strain, but it kept me from touching the walls.
The marble doors to the palace must be closed by now, for their sake I prayed they were. For our sake I prayed they were open.
We dashed across the floor, certain that we were safe. Perhaps the scent of our fear had drawn it; the shadows had hid its bulk. It lunged as we were half was across and reached out with its clawed hands. Theseus who had taken up rear-guard was scored down his back, as he stumbled the beast grabbed hold of the eldest maiden and flung her and her sister that she was carrying across to the other side of the floor. I turned round to run to them but Theseus grabbed me and pushed me up the stair case. I hated him a little for that, not for his saving my life but because even in all of this evil his rough touch made me quiver with wanting. The others were at the top of the narrow stairs pounding and yelling to have the doors opened but we, Theseus and I were still at the bottom I looked up and all thoughts of desire fled. I turned, doubled over and heaved.
The creature was thrusting his swollen, misshapen phallus into the maiden hard enough that both their thighs were covered in her blood. More blood was pooling on her chest from where the beast has bit away her breast and carved the other open with his horn.
Her screams would have been deafening had they not been muffled by the body of the little girl flung across her face and drowned out by the child’s own shrill screams as the best feasted upon her insides.
The beast had grown, large and wide, easily the height of the great labrys; which itself was a large as a tall man and then half that again and the width of a large bull
I could hear the doors slowly being opened. Even with so many slaves they were not quick. The creature took notice of us then and turned away from the girls. The littlest was dead but the elder still moved though I prayed she was unaware. We climbed the stairs as high as we could and the creature slammed into the opening, he was too large for the hall and reached his arm through to claw and grasp at empty air.
Of all the things I had seen that day, that the worst was by far. The beast’s claws, not a hands breadth from my chest, reached towards me as its face peered at me from the frame of the door. Its horns, long and thick and sharp now, gouged chunks off the hall walls. But its eyes; in a face that was blood covered more animal than man, its eyes were aware, and filled with a sense of joy.
I do not know how long I stood in that hallway nor what happened after that. My next memories are of the morning, waking and remembering. I sat in bed, shaking and gripping my knees to my chest till mid morning then went in search of news.
Sanctuary be damned, curses be dammed; Minos had declared a state of emergency. Miasma could be shed with ease, he said, just look to him- though in truth, with the events surrounding him that did not bring much reassurance. But that the beast must die no one disagreed. It was unknown how many were lost below, or if any survived there still. But over one hundred had been counted missing, Pasiphae, Ismene and Daidalos among them.
The fastest of Minos’ ships were sent, laden with his fastest messengers out for Delphi and Dodonna and Elusis and even back to Megara with it’s oracle of Nyx to ask the gods aid in this and one hundred heavily armed warriors traveled down that stairway that afternoon. That night, the three that made reported hearing survivors but they were unable to see how many or where they were. The doors were closed and bolted. We were safe in the palace for now. All but one entrance below had been filled in with rubble and sealed off. The bulk of the beast kept it from climbing the stairs up, but after what had been seen, it seemed a sensible precaution. It was the outside entrances that we worried about. All the known ones were sealed with stones and boulders; even statuary and timber if needed. We hoped that any entrance that eluded us would elude the beast as well. And then we waited.
I was walking in the palace gardens at the next full moon. It was judged safe enough, but even so I was shadowed always by a guard, though I suspected he was there more to warn others in case of an attack than to offer me any protection. I was there half out of piety and prayer and half trying to avoid Minos’ renewed interest in all that was young and breathing. The Athenians’ beauty had awoken his lust again and took his mind from the horrors and evils that had plagued him of late. And when Minos’ lust was awake, no woman or youth was safe; it came, I suppose from his parentage.
It was their whispering that caught my attention, the breeze had carried them just right so that my companion was not aware. I threatened him that I was engaging in the Mysteries and that it would be death to witness and went to spy the source of the noise. I pushed my way through thick branches and leaves and had to close my eyes to the pain. I was in the entrance of the cave even before I knew it was there.
My eyes adjusted to the firelight quickly and I looked upon Daidalos and his young son nursing an assortment of priests and priestesses against the safety of a rock fall which, I guessed rightly, was Daidalos’ work. Farthest from the entrance, almost completely in the shadows knelt the queen nursing the bandaged high priestess, Ismene. I ran to her, crying and threw my arms around her neck. Once we had finished she told me their tale.
They were the survivors, many of them those ostracized by Minos the warriors had heard, but they avoided Minos’ men and sought their own way out. They feared Minos’ anger would mean their deaths if they were discovered outside the underground palace, even with the beast loose below. I could not blame them. They were waiting until the wounded healed and then would flee on a new type of ship that Daidalos had built. I had food and supplies smuggled to them and thanks to Daidalos’ knowledge three more entrances were blocked off.
It was a full two moons later that the ship from Delphi was spotted and all ran to the shore hoping for good news.
“When the child of light, from the shadow is free and the blood of the Bull is returned to the sea, famine and sickness and evils shall flee.”
The words of the Sybil were, for once surprisingly easy to riddle out. Free the queen, kill the Bull and Krete would be freed. Simple enough for me to see, but to Minos who thought the queen dead it was another blow. Had it only been Minos’ fate in the balance I never would have did what I did.
I slipped away to the cave that had sheltered the outcasts and found them getting ready to depart. Three of the priests had succumbed to their wounds, but Ismene, to my joy, looked healthy and whole.
The moon was just rising when we walked into the throne room together, the queen and I. She was hidden beneath a thick veil and in a torn, stained shift and drifted into the crowed easily. Daidalos had rehearsed with me what to say to Minos, how to get his sworn promise that if Pasiphae had been alive that he would forgive her and return her to her throne. At that, the queen stepped forth from those gathered and around her formed a light, painfully bright like the sun.
Pasiphae looked upon the king- her abuser and her freedom, “The blood of the Bull runs in the veins of the beast. Kill it and lift the curse Minos.”
The murmurs began, but it was Theseus whose voice echoed off the walls and called all others to listen.
“Minos, King! You have freed your queen to meet the prophecy’s demands. Would you free Athens as well? Free me and my companions, end your claim and blood debt and I will kill this best for you.”
If there had been shock at the arrival of the queen, this caused the court to erupt in a mass of voices. I stared at him amazed. He had seen what the beast did, had seen the spark of intelligence in its eyes and still he was serious. Minos laughed at him but soon saw the truth in his eyes as I had. The king gestured for Theseus to follow and they left, alone.
Most of the court waited in the room for a while, but it was late and they began to drift away in twos and threes. I offered to take Pasiphae back to her rooms but she refused wanting to walk alone. There were many places I could have gone, but I stayed. It was because the paintings. As a child I had been in awe of the scenes on the walls. Deep reds, vivid gold and blues; the bull dancers and people celebrating, but it was the throne room that I loved beyond all others. Each griffon had a name and a personality, I would sneak in there in there late at night to be alone with them and we would play wondrous games.
I was running my hands along the feathers of Adagtras (the troublemaker) standing just to the right of the throne when I heard Minos and Theseus walking in the hallway. I ran to the doorway and strained to over hear them. Minos had said yes, had given Theseus permission to hunt the beast, Theseus was on his way to the armory to choose weapons and mail.
I ran back to my rooms and then to catch him there before he could descend. He was testing swords, stabbing and slashing at the air and discarding them into piles around him. I stood in the doorway, in one hand a wickedly sharp metal blade that Daidalos had made of meteorite metal and gifted it to me on a naming day, it was stronger then any blade in that room. In my other I held my ball of red silk yarn.
I felt foolish standing in the doorway and when he finally saw me my throat went tight and closed on my words. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath and laid my plea out before him.
My aid, anything he needed, wanted or desired and that I was able to deliver and if he lived, safe passage from Krete. I had wondered if he would ask for my body, and I was unsure what I would do if he did. I would say yes, of course; it would be a fair trade to leave this place. But whether that thought filled me with dread or joy I could not say- now I know of course, that those two are often the same thing. I felt no love towards him, no draw of friendship, his features were not particularly pleasing to my eyes, and yet there was something familiar that spoke to the heart of me.
I stood, waiting as he looked at me, all he asked was why. For freedom, I answered. He nodded and took the knife and silk and told me to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. He doubted Minos’ word as much as I and feared his death at the Kings hand if he survived his self-imposed ordeal. He charged me with finding a way to get his kin to safety if I could. Before I left I asked him why he was doing this.
He took a deep breath, “this is what I came here for, I was sent by my father to destroy the beast.”
I was stunned. I ha no idea that word of the creature had spread so far, so quickly. And I could not fathom why Pallas would a son on such a task, or why he would want to beast dead. Then I looked at Theseus again, dark hair, sea-eyes, skin and features dark like Aegus’ Daughters. “Your father isn’t Pallas, is he” I asked him. He shook his head no. When I asked him why Aegus would risk his only heir he just laughed at me and repeated it was his father who sent him here.
There would be no rituals, no sacrifices and no announcement even. Theseus would descend in secret. Only Minos knew, save myself and that only by accident.
The first day after Theseus’ decent I packed, I unpacked and packed again. I paced and I prayed and jumped at every noise I heard, Pasiphae came to see me that afternoon. She was a great healer and knew many potions. Minos may have declared publicly his forgiveness of the queen, but in private he still took his anger out on her and she feared herself pregnant after the last night’s ministrations. Any other woman would have been laughed at for thinking she knows herself with child within a day, but I had seen her healing skills and did not doubt her knowing. She came to me to ask if I had any child-bane, but all I knew of was were below. Even if I had my store with me I doubted they would be potent enough for one with ichor in their blood.
She cried on my bed as I bandaged the hurts Minos had caused and placed poultices on her many bruises. She feared bearing Minos another child, this one especially since she knew already it would be a girl. She was right to fear; the child Phaedra they would name her would not be gifted with a happy life. A part of her, Pasiphae said, wished she was back in her prison below. She would die without the sunlight she said, but life with Minos was a hard freedom.
The second day was much the same as the first, even down to the queen weeping on m y bed. I had debated with myself telling her of my plans, but if I was allowed escape I could not let her worry after me and so I spilled my secrets to her. She began crying again, harder. She waved me off when I tried to comfort her. She, through choking sounds, said these were tears of joy. All these years she had seen what Minos had done to me, the beatings, the rape. She knew it had all been her fault- she had traded Krete’s peace for my life. She was not sorry for having done it she said, it was needed but she was sorry for what was done to me. She was overjoyed at the prospect of my freedom. She ran to her rooms and returned with jewels and coins which we sewed into little pouched in my shift and, to my great relief she took upon herself the duty of freeing the remaining Athenians and making sure the ship was stocked and ready to sail.
The third day Theseus returned.
His spear pounded against the thick wooden doors and his yells to open them echoed through the walls. He walked though the doorway and squinting at the light, threw the blood covered severed horn of the beast at the feet of the king and collapsed against the wall.
The king sent men down to see the beast and they declared it dead. They were unable to carry its bulk up the stairs and were sent to begin clearing an outside entrance of rubble and debris. Advisors and officials and priests were sent scurrying off to prepare the ritual that would return the beast to the sea and end the curse its life had brought upon the isle and the feast that would follow. He finally remembered Theseus and called for a physician to tend to him and ready him for the banquet.
There was something in his look and in his speech that made me glad Theseus had not taken the king at his word. Why loose so much when one slave’s death guaranteed the coming of many more for life?
I ran to my rooms and grabbed my bags and went in search of Theseus. I used my power as both priestess and princess to clear the room of al but the two of us. I took thread and needle and began to finish tending to his many wounds. He was covered in thin scratches and was pale from blood loss, thankfully most of them were shallow, though a few were red and raw and deep. He sat through my sewing and through the administration of poultice and bandage and did not speak or make a sound, I was painfully curious to know what had happened below but his eyes warned me off asking. It was not until I had cauterized a large bite on his shoulder did he scream. A page came running to see if we needed aid. I set him to watch on the door and to forbid entrance to anyone.
I can not imagine the pain Theseus felt but he stood with only a little help from me and managed to walk under his own power. I gathered up the remaining medicine and we set out through the hidden passages to the harbor.
Minos was preoccupied with seeing to the ritual and we decided to wait until it was underway to flee. It looked as if the entire island had turned out to see the beast about which so many rumors had been born over the last year. We could see the carcass of the beast being carried up to the cliff edge and the high priests arms raised in blessing. We took his blessings as a sign for us to begin our departure and Theseus ordered oars set and anchor lifted.