*
Next morning, Kleito found a pair of sandals for her, and Melaina paced, awaiting any word from Eleusis. Kallias stalked in the background, a dark shadow among stone walls outside the women's chamber. Kleito's maids hovered around Melaina. Mid-morning they heard a great flurry of activity from the slaves and the shouts of approaching men as Aeschylus entered the courtyard.
Aeschylus was more surprised at Melaina's presence on Salamis than she at his, and very pleased. "I thought the Persians had you for sure."
"My mother!" she cried. "Tell me of my mother."
"Safe!"
"Oh, what relief! Yet, your eyes betray some catastrophe."
"A tale to slaughter the heart."
"Oh, do tell me it's not Grandfather."
"Perished defending the Holiest of Holies. Cremated by its timbers."
She turned away. "And he'd just regained his health at such a terrible price. The others? Palaemon, my girlfriends? What of stout-hearted Sophocles?"
"The blacksmith and his slaves weathered Persian wrath. Sophocles saved your mother."
"My friends?"
"Agido, saved herself, her swift feet."
"Oh, the comforts amid such sorrow! Agido alive! But Anaktoria?"
"No word."
With that, Kallias drew Aeschylus aside and walked him back to the men's quarters, where they remained for sometime.
"War plans," Kleito said. "Carnage forever occupies men's minds."
When the men returned, Melaina approached her uncle. "Please. Return me to Eleusis. My mother mustn't go through this alone."
Aeschylus stared at her before answering, his great black eyebrows twitching. "You and your mother must go separate ways. Henceforth, you'll be with me."
"But my mother needs me, and I her. It's but a short distance by boat. Surely someone, a slave, could return me."
"You're no longer in your mother's care."
"I belong to my mother. Nature demands it."
"No. You were your father's daughter. At his death, you became mine."
"But surely I'm of no use. I'm always in the way. You know the trouble I cause. Aunt Philokleia, why she'd flog you herself for bringing me."
Aeschylus laughed. "You won't be long with us. I'm giving you to Kallias."
"What travesty is this? Enslaved within my own country? Is that the punishment I suffer for an unwanted pregnancy?"
"Not a matter of slavery but marriage. Your father willed it so on the battlefield, before his death."
Oh, no! she thought. She felt dizzy and wondered if she was to have a seizure. No wonder Kallias has always been there to pull me from death's clutches. "But he doesn't even like me." She saw a wry smile cross Kallias' face. "Besides…." She could never voice the fact that she herself didn't care for the man. "I'm to be exiled from Eleusis?"
"Not exile. Given a new life."
"I have no dowry. All I own is in ashes at Eleusis."
Kallias stepped forward. "I've seen to your dowry. That I was close to you when the Persians charged was no accident. You were being evacuated when they struck. My slave confiscated all the belongings in your chamber."
Melaina felt her face flush with rage. How dare he invade my privacy! she thought. How can I live with this man? Bear his children? She considered telling them of her epilepsy but knew that would mean disaster for her and the child. If what her mother told her were true, he'd never put up with such a defect. Anyway, if she'd been cured at Epidaurus, it was a useless argument.
Kleito took her hand. "I'll go to Myrrhine. But this news will greatly upset her. Not a burden she'll carry well along with the death of her father."
Melaina remembered her covenant with her father and felt shame that she'd tried to go against his command of marriage. Somehow, I'll have to swallow my pride and deal with this new, unimaginable circumstance.
Aeschylus spoke to Kallias. "Mardonius has retreated from Athens and Attica to move farther north and prepare for the final engagement. Hellene forces will muster at Eleusis before traveling north through the foothills of Kithaeron into Boeotia. If Mardonius does in fact pull all his troops out of Attica, we'll return to Athens immediately."
The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis Page 67