The sanctuary of Aphaia draws women from all over the island and beyond. We stopped a temple girl and sent a message to Fotini and Gaia. They came out almost instantly, both delighted to see us.
‘Hello, Thrax. Nico! What a lovely surprise. Come in. We’ll show you around.’
We followed them through the wide gate, leaving Rhesus in charge of the donkeys. The sanctuary complex reminded me a little of the oracle in Delphi. There were houses for the priests and a huge altar facing a temple with columns all around it. Gaia said there were seventy-two of them.
But what took my breath away were the sculptures under the sloping roof. These showed Athena watching the Trojan War. Below her, striding across the battlefield, were the heroes Ajax and his brother Teucer.
The sun was now high up in the sky, so Fotini and Gaia took us into the priests’ house for something to eat. During the meal, Fotini explained everything she knew about Aphaia, the goddess who protected mothers at childbirth.
When I had written everything down carefully in my tablet, we told her and Gaia about our new mystery. They both listened carefully, Gaia gasping when I described the headless statue of Melinoe.
‘This thief sounds very clever,’ said Fotini. ‘I should imagine he’s an experienced professional who would stop at nothing to get away with his crime. Please be careful, boys.’
Sister Agathe, Fotini’s teacher, approached our table. ‘Mistress Fotini, you have a lesson soon. Please say goodbye to your friends.’
‘We have to go,’ said Gaia sadly. ‘We have a herbal potions class.’
‘You’re learning to make herbal charms?’ said Thrax.
Gaia smiled. ‘And poisons.’
I blinked in surprise. ‘You’re being taught how to make poison?’
‘We are learning to recognise different poisons and their effect on people,’ Fotini explained. ‘And how to make cures and antidotes for them.’
She pulled a small alabastron from the folds of her chiton. ‘Yesterday we made a very special potion with herbs collected from the hills below the temple. It cures snakebites.’ She pulled off the stopper and poured a few drops into the palm of her hand. The antidote was dark green. I thought of the adder in the ruins outside our secret meeting place. ‘Can I have some, Fotini, please? I saw an adder outside our meeting place. I know the poison from adders is only strong enough to kill puppies and small children but I feel safer having the antidote.’
She handed me the alabastron. ‘Yes, take it. I can make more.’
The girls showed us to the gate. ‘It was very nice seeing you, boys,’ said Fotini. ‘I fear your lives might be in danger. Do send us a message if you need help.’
Thrax was very quiet as the temple gate shut behind us. ‘Nico, take out your tablet. We need to add another clue to the list. Clue number four. POISON.’
CHAPTER 12
The Mysterious Cave
Suddenly our mystery had taken a very dark turn.
There was the warning from Fotini. And now a chilling fourth clue. Poison. How had it been used to steal the ring?’ As always, Thrax wouldn’t tell me when I asked.
We were riding ahead of Rhesus so he would not overhear our conversation.
‘We need to search Onatas’s farm,’ Thrax said.
‘What are we looking for?’
‘Clues.’
‘The poison?’
‘Yes. We’ll go tomorrow on foot. It’s important that no one on the farm sees us or they might tamper with the evidence.’
At home, I copied Fotini’s notes on best papyrus for Master Ariston. But we hurried away to the secret meeting place before he could give us any jobs for the next day. We wanted to continue with our investigation first thing in the morning.
The last of the stars had faded in the sky by the time we crested the hill and saw Onatas’s farm ahead of us. The door to the workshop was already open. We could see a light burning inside and heard the clang of the sculptor’s mallet.
‘What do we do now?’ I asked Thrax.
‘We find a good hiding place from where we can observe everyone’s comings and goings. When the coast is clear, we’ll sneak into the farmhouse and have a good look round.’
There was an ancient carob tree close to us, with heavy brown seed pods dangling on its branches. Snuggled in its leafy branches, we had both the farmhouse and the workshop clearly in our sights. I broke off a carob pod and chewed it thoughtfully, relishing its sweet juices.
After a while Timon came out of the farmhouse, followed by Omega prancing happily around him. He let the goats out of the pen. Omega must have picked up our scent, because she came bounding over to the tree and growled fiercely.
I nearly fell off the branch in alarm.
‘Come back, you silly girl,’ Timon called out. ‘You know you’ll never be able to catch the bird in that tree. You’ll just frighten her chicks to death.’
Omega barked and pawed frantically at the tree trunk before darting off. She followed Timon and the goats away from the farm. They all disappeared over the hill.
‘He’s taking the goats out to pasture,’ said Thrax. ‘He’ll be gone all day.’
A few moments later, Smilis skipped out of the workshop to relieve himself in the weeds. He was wearing an oversized loincloth and had feathered wings fastened to his back. His skin was a ghostly white, as if he’d been rolling around in flour.
‘He must be modelling for Onatas,’ I whispered to Thrax. ‘Eros, I think.’
Smilis went back inside, scratching his bottom. Nothing else happened for a while. Then the door to the farmhouse opened and Telephassa emerged with a calathus clasped to her chest. It seemed to be full of fruit. She set it down on the doorstep and looked around furtively before disappearing behind the farm. When she came back, she had a second basket dangling at her hip. Once more she took a good look around and hoisted the heavy basket on to her head.
We held our breath a second time as she passed right under our tree. ‘She’s on her way to the agora to sell whatever’s in those baskets,’ I whispered. ‘The gods are smiling on us today, Thrax. She may be gone for some time too. She was acting very suspiciously though, if you ask me. I wonder what was in that smaller basket?’
The ringing of Onatas’s mallet stopped abruptly. The sculptor and Smilis both came out of the workshop. Onatas sat on the grass with his back against the wall. Smilis ran over to the farmhouse and returned with a bowl of food and a heavy jug. We waited in the tree while they breakfasted on honey cakes.
The moment the coast was clear again, we slipped down from our lookout. ‘Come on, Nico,’ whispered Thrax, ‘let’s see what that cook was up to.’
We sprinted towards the farmhouse, keeping low in the tall grass. Behind it, we stopped to get our bearings. A narrow path lay in front of us, with a hen run on one side and a well-tended vineyard on the other.
We followed the path past the vineyard to a rocky patch of land. There was a brook and behind it a small cave in the rocks. The entrance was bricked up and had a door, painted bright green.
We pushed the door open. Inside, there was a curious, sickly smell coming from a lebes, a cauldron with handles, bubbling over a low fire. We slipped in to have a look around. We could make out jars and pots on a stone shelf on the wall. Huge bunches of drying herbs hung from the moss-encrusted ceiling. Below them was a stone table, scrubbed clean, with a lidded cooking pot on it.
Thrax lifted the lid. The pot was full of alabastrons just like the one Fotini had given me.
‘Potions,’ I said.
I didn’t have time to say anything else. We heard footsteps running to the door. Someone was coming to the cave.
‘Down here, Nico,’ said Thrax, and we ducked under the table.
The unexpected visitor came in. I heard a grating sound as a stool was dragged across the floor to the table. There was a clink as the lid was lifted off the cooking pot and something dropped inside it.
Then the stool was dragged back in place, the
feet skipped away and the door closed behind them.
Thrax and I came out from under the table.
‘I wish it wasn’t so dark in here,’ I grumbled. ‘I might have recognised those feet.’
Thrax wasn’t listening. He lifted the lid from the cooking pot again, examined the alabastrons and finally picked one out. ‘Nico,’ he said, ‘do you still have the jar that Fotini gave you?’
‘Yes, it’s in my bag.’
‘Put it in here instead of this one.’
‘Why, what’s in that one?’
‘Traces of poison, I believe. Nico, you can strike out clue number four from your list.’
CHAPTER 13
Toy Soldiers and Marbles
‘That was Telephassa’s cave, wasn’t it?’ I said. ‘It’s where she mixes her potions. That’s what she had in the small basket. Alabastrons full of herbal potions to sell on the sly at the agora. Onatas knows nothing about her potion-making so she gets to keep the money she earns. Good on her.’
‘She also makes poisons,’ said Thrax.
Onatas was shutting the workshop as we came round the farmhouse. ‘We might have to come back to have a look in there,’ whispered Thrax. ‘Pretend we’ve only just arrived, Nico. I need to speak with Onatas.’
‘Good day, boys,’ called Onatas, seeing us. ‘Any news of Gorgias’s ring?’
‘Not yet, I’m afraid, sir,’ said Thrax. ‘We still need some more information. But we hope to conclude our investigations soon. Tell me, do you remember who you were sitting with at the symposium?’
‘I was meant to share a couch with my brother-in-law, Ezekias,’ replied Onatas. ‘We always sit together when we’re invited to the same party. But my nausea meant I had to stretch out and have the couch all to myself. Ezekias was brought a spare one.’
‘You say Ezekias is your brother-in-law,’ said Thrax.
‘He married my only sister three years ago. But he was a close friend long before that. His parents owned a farm nearby. We used to play together, which is how he met my sister.’
‘I take it Ezekias brought his slaves with him to the symposium.’
‘He brought two of them,’ said Onatas. ‘Ezekias can be a bit of a show-off, especially if there are rich patrons he wants to impress. He’s an olive merchant.’
‘Do you think we could speak to him, sir?’ asked Thrax. ‘I need to find out more about those slaves.’
Onatas looked surprised by Thrax’s request. ‘He’s in Athens for a few days, but perhaps my sister can help you.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
Onatas wrote us a note and told us where to find Ezekias’s house. ‘You can’t miss it,’ he said. ‘It’s the third house along the street above the agora. There’s a mosaic of Athena above the front door.’
We found Ezekias’s house without any problems. A thick-set slave in a patterned chiton answered the door and told us to wait on the doorstep. A few moments later a very old woman came out. She had the end of her chiton drawn across her wrinkled face.
‘Can I help you?’ she said through the cloth.
‘We want to speak to the lady of the house,’ said Thrax. ‘Onatas the sculptor sent us.’
‘Wait here,’ said the woman. The door closed on us once more. When it opened again, the old woman was smiling icily. ‘Mistress says to come in.’
We followed her into a pretty courtyard with a pomegranate tree in the middle. A woman in her thirties came down the stairs.
‘How can I help you, boys? Is anything wrong?’
‘We are helping Master Onatas retrieve a missing ring,’ said Thrax.
‘Oh, you must be the talented mystery-solver my brother was talking about,’ said the woman. ‘Onatas has told us all about the theft. I am Helena. How can I help?’
‘We need to speak to your slaves. The two male ones who went to the symposium with Master Ezekias on the night of the robbery. I believe one of them might have been involved without knowing it. But we mustn’t make it look like we have come especially to talk to him. It might put him on his guard if he thinks he’s in trouble.’
Helena’s eyebrows arched in surprise. ‘One of my slaves, involved in a robbery? Who’d have thought it? Come into the andron. It’ll be all right to sit there while my husband is away.’
I was just as surprised as Helena to hear the thief might have had an accomplice, who might not have had any idea he was involved in a crime.
The slave who’d opened the door came in with cups and a jug. I threw a discreet glance at his feet. They were certainly the right size to fit in the sandal boots that had left the mysterious footprints in the workshop. He served the wine and bowed to his mistress before leaving.
‘Well, was it him?’ Helena demanded. ‘He’s capable of it, you know. He’s robbed before and been punished for it.’
‘You have no reason to punish him,’ Thrax assured her.
The curtain to the andron parted again and a boy of about five or six came in with bowls of nuts. He put them down carefully on the table.
‘This is Lampus,’ said Helena.
Thrax smiled at the boy. ‘Thank you, Lampus.’
The boy looked at Thrax in surprise. He was not used to being thanked.
‘I see you like painting,’ said Thrax.
Lampus’s look of surprise turned to amazement.
‘You have minute dots of paint on your arms and legs,’ said Thrax. ‘What have you been painting? Toy soldiers?’
Lampus nodded shyly. ‘Spartans.’
‘Iros, the older slave, carves them for him,’ Helena explained. ‘He’s Lampus’s father and a very gifted carver. Ezekias encourages him.’
‘Nico and I would love to see your toy soldiers,’ Thrax said to Lampus.
Lampus looked at Helena, who nodded. ‘You may show our visitors.’
We followed the young slave out of the andron and across the yard. He opened a back door and we emerged into a shady lane, roofed over with a gnarled grapevine. Across it was a row of sheds. Some were stores for animal feed, others small workshops. Lampus showed us into one of them.
It was spotlessly clean and smelled of pigment and glue. A row of freshly painted soldiers stood drying on a windowsill.
‘Ah,’ said Thrax. ‘This one here must be Odysseus himself. I can tell because he looks like a prince. And this one is Sinon, isn’t he? The Greek soldier who pretended he’d been left behind in Troy. You’ve painted him very well, Lampus. Well done.’
Lampus grinned, pleased that Thrax had recognised the little figures.
‘It’s a pity you lost the horse to put the soldiers in,’ said Thrax. ‘Did you leave it somewhere?’
Lampus nodded. ‘I took it with me to a symposium a few days ago. I must have left it there. But Father is going to make me a better one.’
‘You must be more careful with your toys,’ said Thrax gently. ‘Have you got any others?’
Lampus went to a battered chest in the corner of the shed. It was covered in faded pictures of scenes from mythology: Herakles fighting the hydra; Perseus holding up Medusa’s head and Pegasus swooping over a fire-breathing chimera. He threw back the lid to reveal a small collection of ragged toys. I realised he must have been given them by kind friends of the family, or rescued them from rubbish heaps. Thrax lifted out a horse’s head, made of cracked leather. It was stuck on a short pole and had only one eye.
‘Ah, a hobby horse,’ said Thrax. ‘I always wanted one of these when I was younger. You’re a very lucky boy. What else have you got in here? Have you got any marbles?’
‘Yes.’ Lampus picked up a stoppered jar and rattled it.
‘Now, I think you’ve lost one of your marbles, haven’t you?’
‘Yes. It was inside the wooden horse when I lost it at the symposium. I like the rattling noise it makes when I pull the horse along.’
‘It was a nice grey stone one, with white swirls going through it. A champion,’ said Thrax. ‘Well, I found a marble like that, although it wasn�
��t in a wooden horse. I wonder if it’s yours?’
He reached inside his bag and drew out the marble. It was the one from Onatas’s tool chest. Lampus’s face lit up and he reached for it.
‘It is yours, isn’t it?’
‘Yes!’ Lampus opened the clay jar and pushed the marble in with his finger. ‘I’ll never lose it again. I promise.’
‘You can cross clue number two off your list,’ grinned Thrax after we’d said goodbye to Helena. It was lunchtime, and we had stopped at the agora for something to eat.
There was only one clue left to tackle but I had to admit I had no idea how any of them fitted into the mystery. How had that marble moved out of Lampus’s wooden horse and ended up in Onatas’s tool chest?
‘Hurry up, Nico,’ said Thrax. ‘Finish your food. I’ve solved the crime, but we have one more clue to find.’
‘You mean you know who the thief is?’
‘Yes, but I need to check one last thing before I reveal the name.’
‘Clue number three,’ I said. ‘Keys.’
Thrax smiled. ‘We’re looking for two keys.’
‘Where are you hoping to find them?’
‘If my hunch is right, they are on Onatas’s farm. ‘Hiding in plain sight.’
I looked at Thrax in astonishment. ‘You mean you have seen them already?’
Thrax smiled. ‘And so have you. You just didn’t know you were looking at them. To be honest, neither did I, till I had a good think.’
‘And we’re going to get them now?’
‘Tonight,’ said Thrax. ‘We need the cover of darkness.’
CHAPTER 14
Spies in the Night
We returned to Inacus’s house for clean chitons. Despite our best attempts to avoid Master Ariston, he waylaid us coming out of the kitchen.
‘Inacus is having a little symposium tonight. Nothing grand, just me and two of his closest friends. We’re going to show them how fast Hero is progressing at his orating skills. I’ll need you both with me. Thrax, make sure my harp is in tune. I might, just might, sing one or two songs.’
Pirates of Poseidon Page 6