He turned and looked directly at me. It was Ury. A cruel smile crept across his lips as he took in the situation. Looking me directly in the eye, he leaned back against the wall and folded his arms.
I glanced back, frantic. The hand was only a few paces away. I pushed hard against the solid mass of sheep, but my bare feet skidded on the stone floor as they bore me forward. The huge hand was finishing with the ram just ahead when an idea came.
Dropping to my back on the floor, I wrapped my arms around the necks of two sheep to either side of me and pulled them together over me. Their sharp front hooves clicked against the stone floor beside my head as they struggled for balance, tugging me along with them toward the light. The massive hand descended, and I buried my arms as deeply as I could in their fleece, hoping the thick fingers wouldn’t feel them.
It passed over their backs, brushing my arms through the fleece . . . and stopped. The Cyclops grunted while I held my breath in terror. The hand came back to touch both heads. It stopped again.
I heard it mumble, perplexed. “Two I feel, side by side.” It paused, trying to work it out. I was sweating so hard my fingers were losing their grip. In a few seconds it would figure it out, and its fingers would reach down to pluck me from beneath the sheep.
The deep rumble came again. “Afraid they are of Nobah Djee, loose in cave.” The light changed as it lifted its arm, and my two sheep staggered out into the morning sunlight, dragging me with them.
Chapter 16
MY GRIP GAVE way just beyond the cave mouth, and I slipped to the ground in the rocky courtyard. The sheep trotted off to join their fellows nearby, bleating happily. For a little while I lay limp on the ground, drinking the fresh hillside breeze and letting the terrified knot in my stomach unwind. Every few moments another sheep issued from the cave mouth and trotted past.
After a little while, I was calm enough to sit up. The Cyclops had a large flock, but I didn’t want to be there when it came out after them. I scrambled to my feet, wondering what to do.
A moment later, three sheep came out, trotting side-by-side as though they’d been yoked to a cart. I was peering at them when one of them spoke. “You there! Come here!”
I gaped.
“Not the sheep, boy—down here!”
I looked closer. Beneath the flank of the leftmost sheep was a man’s head. It was Deklah. I waited for him to let go, but he didn’t.
“Cut me loose, ” he called. “My knife is in my belt.”
As I approached, I realized that he’d been tied underneath the three sheep with grapevines. Grabbing his knife, I sawed away at the woody strands until they let go. As the sheep trotted off, Deklah stood up and started rubbing his arms and legs. Three more sheep staggered out abreast, barely staying upright. Pharos’s dark-bearded head protruded from beneath the middle one, his legs trailing conspicuously behind. Deklah snatched the knife from me and headed over.
Over the next short while, three more men emerged blinking into the sunlight, each tied beneath a group of sheep. I looked up to see Pharos nearby. He glanced at me as we watched another set of yoked sheep trotting toward us, a one-eyed soldier named Leonidas strapped beneath. “Very clever, your escape, ” he remarked. “Ury not helping. I saw.”
I glanced up at him. “You saw that?”
He nodded. “Too far for helping. And Ury helping only himself. He and his cousins from Chefalonos, lying always, stealing from others, returning nothing.”
“Those friends of his—they’re his cousins?” I asked.
Pharos nodded, watching Deklah cutting Leonidas loose. “Cousins are they all. And not just they.” He rubbed his arms where the tightly-tied vines had cut into them. “Pharos, too, is cousin to Eurylochos.”
There was a long delay before the next set of bound sheep emerged. When they did, it was Ury himself underneath them. As he was cut loose, he scrambled up, glancing nervously back toward the cave, before turning and catching sight of the rest of us.
“What are you stupid methusai standing around for?” he cursed. “We have to be off the beach and under sail before that thing figures out we’ve escaped. Now get moving!”
To my surprise, it was Deklah who shook his head. “But Ury, Lopex is still in there! We have to stay. He might need help.”
Ury stared at him in disbelief. “Were you asleep when that thing ate Sophro and Bolos? Do you want to be next? With Lopex gone, I’m in command, and I say move!”
A big hand fell on his shoulder. “Pharos is not leaving Lopex. His thinking is more needed than yours, Eurylochos.”
Ury shook Pharos’s hand off. “Thinking? You don’t even know what the word means, you big stupid ape.” He looked around at us. “By Zeus, are all of you idiots? That creature will be out here any moment!”
Especially if he kept yelling. Ury looked around at the men’s expressions and his voice took on a wheedling tone. “Look, Lopex can take care of himself. He’d tell you the same thing. Or did you forget it’s his fault we were in there?”
But Deklah shook his head again, his jaw set. “Do you think I want to be eaten? But you know, Lopex did get us out of there. Maybe it’s different for you, but I have to stay.” He marched off toward the cave mouth. Pharos followed him, and, after a pause, the rest of us did too.
“Now what?” Ury stumped up as we huddled behind the boulder. “How long are you going to wait? Or are you going to march in and rescue him?”
Leaning out from behind the boulder, Deklah waved him to silence. “Listen. It’s saying something.”
We crept toward the entrance. The creature’s low voice rumbled from inside. “Always leading, head of flock. But not today, find you at back.”
We crept through the stone courtyard to the cave mouth and peered inside. A few paces from the entrance, the Cyclops’s gory head was bent down as it spoke to something behind its arm.
Its other hand reached down and hoisted the creature into the air. It was a massive old ram, the largest of the flock. I gasped. Dangling beneath it, his knuckles white as he clung to the ram’s curling horns, was Lopex.
The Cyclops lifted it to its face as a man might lift a mouse, a milky fluid leaking from its shattered eyeball. There was a black patch under the fingernail that Lopex had stabbed. The ram kicked frantically, terrified by the unaccustomed height and the heavy weight on its horns.
“Take your eye, to see again,” the Cyclops rumbled. “Nobah Djee, then could I find.” A frown crossed its brow. “Why so heavy, O my ram? Too much weight, for lonely beast.”
It brought the struggling creature closer, turning it this way and that as if trying to catch a glimpse through some undamaged corner of its shattered eye. Lopex’s body twisted only a foot from the creature’s mouth, his billowing purple cloak nearly brushing its cheek. Kicking in terror, the ram was savaging Lopex’s face with its sharp hooves, Lopex’s teeth bared in a fierce grimace as he struggled to avoid them.
I snatched up an egg-sized stone. I had to do this right— there was only time to do it once. Drawing my arm back, I aimed by memory for the alcove where I had seen the giant knife, and threw the stone carefully into the cave. It arced up over the creature’s legs and smashed loudly against the huge bronze tool. The Cyclops jerked its head up at the noise, its face darkening. “Thieves in cave now stealing knife, ” it rumbled. It set the ram down at the cave mouth and turned to grope on the floor inside.
Lopex let go of the ram’s horns and collapsed just inside the gap. Freed, the ram scrambled out. After a moment, Lopex staggered to his feet and followed it. A long gash beneath his eye was dripping blood onto his slashed tunic, torn and bloodstained in a dozen places. As he caught sight of us, he straightened up and wiped the blood from his face.
Ury shouldered me out of the way. “Thank the gods you’re okay, Lopex. That thing will be out at any moment!”
Lopex wiped the welling blood from his forehead with the hem of his tunic. “Believe me, it’s good to see you too.” He paused to catch his br
eath, then peered at Ury. “That was an excellent idea, escaping under the sheep. I’m surprised. I’ve never looked to you for ideas before, Ury.”
I opened my mouth angrily, but there was a grunt from the cave. The boulder was moving. Lopex put a finger to his lips and beckoned us out of the courtyard.
Behind us, the Cyclops had shouldered its way out and was following its bleating flocks. Even blind, it was walking faster than we were. Lopex glanced back.
“Run!” he mouthed, gesturing down the hill. I set off as fast as I could, my limp still slowing me. The rest of the men sprinted ahead, dodging the rubble that littered the slope to head along the gully to the beach where our ship lay.
The crew were sitting in groups finishing breakfast, and just ahead of me Ury rolled in among them like an avalanche. “Drop what you’re doing! Push that ship out! Break camp! There’s a Cyclops coming!” he yelled.
Confusion erupted. Most of the men probably didn’t know what a Cyclops was, but Ury’s tone told them all they needed. They began dashing everywhere, some snatching at tents, food and stores and getting in each other’s way while others ran to push the ship off the beach, tripping in their haste. Their noise swelled rapidly as I reached the camp.
Lopex limped in last. Taking in the scene instantly, he swung up onto the stern deck. “Achaeans! Listen to me! There is no reason for fear. It is true there is a Cyclops on this island. But if we remain silent it can never find us: last night as it slept, I blinded it with a stake through its eye. So hold your tongues and prepare the ship for sea—quietly. We will sail once the ship is reloaded.”
Reassured, the men who had begun dashing around at Ury’s shout calmed down and began stowing supplies on board, Lopex supervising from the bow. I was refuelling the fire pots when he appeared at my shoulder and shook his head, wrinkling his nose. I nodded and put them out— smoke could give us away as easily as noise.
On the beach, the cooking fire had already been smothered, and the tripods and pots were being collected. While thirty men heaved the ship out into the shallows, others, guided by gestures from Lopex, were loading some sheep that had trailed down the hill behind us. I grinned. Even in an emergency, the man was an opportunist.
As I collected a bundle of sleeping blankets, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Pen, smiling shyly. “Alexi!” he whispered. “You’re back! What happened? Is it true, there’s a, what is it, a Cyclops? What’s that?”
I was surprised at how pleased I was to see him. He was standing easily, his bandaged leg causing no pain. A clean bandage, recently changed, I noted. “I’ll tell you sometime, ” I whispered back. “Right now we really have to get off the beach.” I pointed. “Fetch those cess trench shovels. Don’t let them clink.” He nodded happily and trotted off. Something had shifted in our relationship, and it seemed natural for me to tell him what to do.
I began to splash out to the stern ladder with my load, but stopped. There was a terrible sound coming nearer. A ponderous thudding like someone slowly pounding the ground with a huge mallet. My face went cold. I turned to look, and the pale head of the Cyclops appeared over the lip of the gully.
Chapter 17
IT WAS WALKING slowly in our direction, pounding the ground with the stripped white trunk of a dead pine tree as it came. We froze, all eyes turning automatically to Lopex. He gestured to stop where we were, and we watched, motionless, as the creature tapped its way along the gully toward the beach.
Broad daylight revealed the full horror of its appearance. Its skin was a blotchy white, and its eye socket, now partly scabbed over, was leaking blood and yellow pus down its face. It emerged from the gully onto the beach, then stopped and sniffed the air.
“Find you soon, Nobah Djee, ” I heard it muttering. “Gone for now but soon to eat.” It continued out of the gully onto the beach, heading directly into the camp. The soldiers crept out of its path as it advanced, moving aside tools and weapons, anything that might alert it to the camp around it.
Near the centre of the campsite, the creature suddenly changed direction. I felt a chill as I spotted the brass cooking tripod directly in its path. Once that huge foot touched it, the Cyclops would know instantly that we were here.
A soldier crept out. Deklah. A massive foot crushed down only a few paces from him, but he kept going, weaving his way directly between those vast feet. Holding the tripod gently to keep the legs from clanking, he picked it up and tiptoed out of the creature’s way, the tree-trunk cane smashing a deep depression into the sand right next to him. I let my breath out slowly. He might have been a complainer, but in bravery he could stand with Lopex.
The Cyclops shambled down to the water’s edge, its pine cane pounding large uneven circles in the wet beach sand, pausing several times to sniff the air. Lopex stood on deck, gripping the rail and watching the creature intently for any sign that it was about to move toward the ship. After a few moments, it turned the other way and shuffled off. The beach ended at a rocky spit that jutted into the ocean a short distance away, and the creature turned and began stumping its way along it.
Lopex gestured for the men to continue, and a short time later we pushed the ship into deeper water. The Cyclops was sitting quietly at the end of the spit, its face in its hands. Standing in the stern where they could see him, Lopex signalled to the men, who extended their oars and began rowing, timed by his slow gestures. A short distance out, they turned the ship by poling off the bottom.
As I watched from the stern, I realized with alarm that our course would take us close to where the Cyclops was sitting.
“Is he crazy? What’s Lopex doing?” I whispered to Zanthos, who was leaning on his steering oar.
Zanthos pointed. “You see where the water gets all small and flat there? Just there to port?” he whispered back. “Means a sandbar down below. Can see her when tide’s out, most likely. But we can’t slide over her, keel’s too deep. Got to come around by this side, see?” I nodded.
As we approached, I heard the creature muttering to itself through its huge hands. “Meant to happen, this was not. Foretold to lose my eye, my sight, to brazen hero, proud and tall. Not to band of creeping dwarfs.” It lifted its head, and what might have been a tear ran down its giant cheek. “Wrong, it was, the oracle, ” it groaned. “Betrayed was I. Came how to this?”
We were coming up on the creature now, and Lopex signalled the men to stop rowing. Our momentum carried us forward, and as we slid silently past, he went to the stern railing to look up at it. His knuckles gleamed white as he clenched the rail, his teeth bared.
The men sat perfectly still as we drifted beneath the creature’s eyeless gaze. Could it guess we were nearby? But it just sat, making strange choking noises as we drew farther away. We had escaped.
Then, to my astonishment, Lopex called out.
“Cyclops!” he cried, his voice mocking. “You have taken my men to fill your belly for a day, but I have taken your sight forever! Perhaps next time you will receive guests with the honour they are due!” He turned on his heel and barked at the men. “Now row!”
But the Cyclops had scrambled to its feet the moment it heard Lopex’s voice. Groping in the shallows, it hefted a boulder half the size of our ship and lobbed it in our direction. I gripped the rail fearfully, but the rock hissed over our heads and splashed into the sea ahead.
A moment later, the bow of the ship was wrenched up as if by a giant hand, spilling the men from their rowing benches and knocking me to the deck. The boulder had triggered a huge wave that was driving us directly back toward the island. A few men cried out, but their companions stopped them, pointing. I looked up to see us being washed straight toward the Cyclops, now standing just offshore, knee-deep in the water. It was turning its vast head slowly back and forth, listening. Sniffing.
The Pelagios had slipped sideways as the wave swept us toward the creature. In a few moments, we would wash up against one of those enormous legs. I clutched the rail in terror as we drifted toward it
.
Lopex wasn’t idle. Unlacing the nearest oar from its leather stay, he leaned over the railing with it. As we drifted closer, he threaded it silently between the creature’s legs. The outstretched oar almost brushed its left shin as it nosed silently up against the wet, seaweed-coated rocks behind. We were so close that the near-side rowers were underneath its hairy, overhanging belly. If it moved its arm, or took a step forward . . . I couldn’t look at it, couldn’t look away.
Lopex strained in eerie silence, pushing hard against his oar, feet braced against the slippery deck. Our slow drift stopped, so close that the nearest rowers could have reached over the rail and touched the creature’s hairy legs. Seeing his plan, several men carefully unlaced their oars and began to help. Directly above us, the Cyclops’s head continued to turn back and forth.
Very slowly, our ship began to move again, back out to sea. With infinite caution, Lopex used his long oar to pole us along the bottom, the sinews of his arms standing out with the strain. A little farther out, Lopex gave the sign to untangle the remaining oars, and once more we began to row.
We had pulled a little farther out when, to my astonishment, Lopex shouted once again. “Creature! Why hunt what you cannot see? Your pebbles cannot reach me, but I can still strike you with my voice. Save your energy to gather your sheep, if we have left you any.”
The Cyclops whipped its head around and opened its mouth. “O my kin!” it cried, its voice impossibly loud. “For help I call! Gored am I, bereft of sight! Robbed, my grotto, flocks are gone! Punish him, who stole my sight!”
Vast voices boomed back across the water. At least one was coming from the island dead ahead. “Your eye?” “Your sheep?” “How can this be?” “Reveal his name, revenge to bring!”
Torn from Troy Page 14