‘But he stole it nearly five days ago. Why wait till now to deliver it?’
‘There’s a new moon tonight,’ answered Thrax. ‘Look, it’s already in the sky. It must be the signal for their meeting. Pirates often conduct important business on the night of a new moon. They think it brings them good luck.’
I stared at the hulking trireme. ‘You mean that’s a pirate ship?’
‘Don’t you recognise it?’ said Thrax. ‘There are no eyes on the prow. It’s the same vessel that tried to skewer us on our way to Aegina.’
‘That means the captain on board is the pirate with the golden mask. I wonder how he got to know about the ring of the harpies, and how he got in touch with Smilis.’
‘We need to find Smilis before he gets on board that ship,’ I said. ‘They’ll be sure to sell him off when they have no more use of him. Pirates are notorious for selling children to slave traders.’
We searched all over the shore but failed to find the slave boy. In the end, we found a shady spot where we could keep a lookout. Slowly, the hot day faded into a balmy evening. The sky grew dark. Finally, there was movement on the ship. A dark figure rose out of the deck, followed promptly by another.
‘The pirate with the golden mask,’ I gasped.
‘And his henchman, the pirate with the silver mask,’ added Thrax. ‘He’s waving a torch. Oh no! Nico, look.’
Smilis had crept up to the ship unnoticed and was clambering over the bulwarks, the wooden horse still clamped firmly under one arm. The pirate in the silver mask came forward. He took the boy by the hand and led him to the stern, where the pirate in the golden mask had appeared. There was a grating noise, and the three of them sunk below deck. The ship appeared deserted once more.
‘That boy has no idea what danger he’s in,’ said Thrax. ‘Come on. We can’t abandon him now.’ Within moments he had scurried down to the quay. I ran after him but he reached the ship before me and, using the oar holes as footholds, climbed over the bulwarks.
Thrax reached down to me. ‘Come on, Nico, I’ll pull you up.’
Somehow I managed to hit the deck without twisting my ankle. The ship swayed lightly under my feet and I thanked the gods it was a calm evening. I always get sick on choppy waters, even in a harbour.
‘What now, Thrax?’ I asked.
He pointed to a stack of amphorae under the mast. ‘We hide behind those.’
We squatted behind the jars, keeping our heads low. Sitting there, I thought I could hear a faint moaning sound coming from below. It’s the kind of noise I imagined the shades on Charon’s boat would make. It made my skin crawl.
CHAPTER 17
The Discus Thrower
‘Can you hear that?’ I asked Thrax.
‘Hear what?’
‘Moaning.’
Thrax listened. ‘I can’t hear any moaning.’
I put my ear to the planking. But now the moaning had stopped. Instead, I could hear proper voices. I signalled to Thrax and he put his ear to the deck too.
‘I pray our trust in you was not in vain.’
‘No, sir,’ replied a weaker voice. ‘I have the ring, sir.’ It was Smilis.
‘So what are you waiting for? Give it to me.’
There was a rattling sound and I imagined Smilis shaking the ring out of the trapdoor in the wooden horse’s belly. Then a pause, and finally a deep, satisfied sigh. ‘Aaah, at last. The ring is mine.’
We heard footsteps and then the three figures rose out of the deck again. Peeping from behind the amphorae, I saw the pirate in the golden mask put the ring on his finger. He held it up to the moonlight. It sparkled, and the eyes of the winged monsters glowed like embers.
‘I am glad you like it, sir,’ said Smilis. ‘Perhaps now I can claim my reward?’
The pirate in the golden mask chuckled deep in his throat. ‘Your reward?’
‘Your man promised me that if I got you the ring, you would take me away with you on the high seas. That you’d teach me to become a pirate like yourself.’
Hideous laughter echoed from the silver mask and I recognised it at once. Belos! My mind reeled at the thought. Had he run away to sea?
‘He promised me, in the name of Melinoe,’ insisted Smilis.
‘You little fool,’ growled Belos. ‘Melinoe is the mother of cheats. You’ve been had.’ He turned to the taller man beside him. ‘Shall I throw him in with the others, sir?’
The pirate in the golden mask nodded. Smilis, realising he was in danger, hurled the wooden horse at Belos, hitting the silver mask full on. Belos cried out in pain, then leaped at Smilis. But the slave boy squirmed out of his grasp. He got to the bulwarks and vaulted over them. I looked down, expecting to see Smilis sprawled out on the quay, but he had landed on his feet. He stuck out his tongue cheekily at Belos and ran towards the tunnel.
He didn’t get very far. The taller pirate unhooked the golden mask from his face and hurled it like a discus.
It hit Smilis squarely in the heel and sent him sprawling to the ground, like the hero Achilles felled by an arrow. I looked, thunderstruck, from the golden mask lying on the quay back to the pirate. He was swiftly pulling his himation over his head.
But he hadn’t been quick enough. I caught a fleeting glimpse of his face before the himation hid it from view. The pirate in the golden mask was our bitterest enemy.
Abantes, the crooked priest from Delphi!
CHAPTER 18
Prisoners
Thrax and I had crossed swords with Abantes in Delphi, where he was one of the priests working in the famous oracle. We had caught him accepting bribes to change the Pythia’s message, a heinous crime that could have ruined the reputation of the oracle. The last time I’d seen him, he was threatening to have revenge on Thrax and me.
Now here we were, hiding on his ship.
Myrmidons swarmed off the trireme and surrounded Smilis, jabbing at him with their spears. Two of them hauled him to his feet and dragged him back to the ship. A third retrieved the golden mask and returned it to its owner.
Abantes put the mask back on his face and pulled down his himation. He inspected his reflection in a mirror, which Belos had brought from the stern where a lamp burned in front of a statue of Poseidon. ‘Tie up the little fool and throw him in the hold with the others.’
Smilis was dragged away, kicking and screaming. A moment later I felt the sharp tip of a myrmidon’s spear in the small of my back. ‘Put your hands above your head and get up, both of you.’
I stood slowly, coming into full view of Abantes and Belos.
‘By the gods,’ exclaimed Belos. ‘Look what the mighty Poseidon has spat on to our ship, Father.’
Abantes’s eyes glared at me with pure hatred through the peepholes of his golden mask. ‘It is not Poseidon who has delivered the fools into our hands. It is my immeasurable desire for revenge. Hate, my son, is stronger than faith in the gods. Remember that.’ He held up his right hand for Thrax and myself to see.
‘Are you still looking for this? You will never lay your hands on it, nor return it to that boor of a merchant, Gorgias. I have wanted this ring ever since his weakling of a son told me about it. And when my spies told me that the merchant had tasked you with finding it for him, my desire for it grew even more. Look how perfectly it fits my finger. It belongs there.’
He waggled his fingers so that the ring caught the moonlight and flashed like a star. The harpies’ eyes glowed even brighter. ‘I imbue this ring with all my anger and hatred…’
‘Your threats do not scare us,’ Thrax cut in. ‘People may quake at the sound of your name but we know you to be a fake and a charlatan. What are you? A priest, a pirate, a retired naval officer?’
‘I am all three,’ hissed Abantes. ‘I led a double life as a navy officer and a pirate for a long time. And lately I have also been a priest. Not out of love for the gods but because it brought me a lot of power and respect.’
‘We will take the ring back from you,’ said Thrax. ‘
Only we won’t be stealing it. We’ll be claiming it in the name of Gorgias, who will give it to his niece. She inherited it from her father.’
Abantes growled through the mask. ‘Get them out of my sight before I run them through with my dagger.’
‘But you have revealed our identity to them, Father,’ protested Belos. ‘They must die or they will give us away.’
‘It will not matter,’ replied Abantes. ‘This is the last voyage of the ship with no eyes. I am giving up the sea. You and I shall retire to a place so remote, not even the gods will find us. We will live in splendour on our ill-gotten gains. As for these two, we shall trade them on with the others.’
Two of the myrmidons grabbed us and tied our hands tightly together. We were dragged across the deck towards a trapdoor and shoved down a short flight of stairs.
At once, I could hear that spooky moaning sound again. It grew louder as the myrmidons hauled us to a second trapdoor and dropped us like sacks into the deepest part of the ship, the hold. I landed face down in a handspan of dirty bilge water. The haunting noise stopped for a moment and I heard a loud gasp before it started again, louder than ever. I realised my imagination hadn’t been playing tricks on me after all. The eerie noise was real. There were children imprisoned in this ship and they were all moaning.
The trapdoor crashed shut and the darkness wrapped around me like a shroud, tight and suffocating. The air reeked of sweat and pee. I managed to get to my feet, only to bang my head against the low ceiling.
‘Grapes,’ sobbed someone – a girl I think, although it could have been a boy, faint with hunger – over my shoulder. ‘Do you have any grapes? My mother always gives me grapes before I go to bed.’
‘I have no food on me,’ I said, rubbing my sore head with my tied-up hands. ‘Not even a grape.’
‘Nico,’ said Thrax. ‘Clear your mind and concentrate. We must find a way out of here.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘We need a plan. Where do you think this ship is heading?’
‘To an island somewhere in Megale Hellas,’ said a girl who was squashed in between Thrax and a very small boy. ‘I overheard the rowers talking about it the last time we were allowed on deck. They are exchanging us for salt.’
Megale Hellas was a vast region at the western end of the Hellenic world. People from Hellas had settled there hundreds of years ago, taking with them a sacred flame from the mother country to light the fires in the new temples. They founded colonies that grew into rich and powerful cities. It’s somewhere I’d always dreamed of visiting, but not in chains.
‘How many of you are imprisoned in this ship?’ Thrax asked the girl.
‘We were nine before they brought you two and the other boy in.’
‘That makes twelve of us,’ said Thrax.
‘Twelve against thirty rowers, a gang of myrmidons, a helmsman, a piper and two madmen,’ I said. ‘We’re going to need a really good plan if we are to escape.’
‘We will escape,’ Thrax assured me. ‘I have no intention of being exchanged for a pot of salt. And I mean to take the ring of the harpies with me when I leave this ship.’
CHAPTER 19
Alexa
The trireme lurched suddenly, throwing everyone off their feet. Some of the children screamed and most started wailing again. A few kicked against the hull with their bare feet. We were on the move.
‘Where’s Smilis?’ I asked Thrax.
By now our eyes had grown used to the dark and we spotted him sitting alone with his back against the hull. I waved at him with my bound hands but he looked away.
Thrax called out to the children. ‘Silence, everyone. Sit down quietly. If you spread out there’s plenty of room for us all. My name is Thrax. This is my friend Nico and that boy over there who was brought in just before us is Smilis. He’s my friend too. We’re going to escape and we’ll take anyone who wants to come with us. How many of you would like to leave this ship?’
All the children except Smilis nodded. My heart went out to him. I wished I could put my arms round him and tell him I understood why he’d stolen the ring. If I were a young boy with only a slave’s bitter future ahead of me, I too might have been tempted to steal from my master.
Thrax must have been thinking the same as me. ‘Smilis,’ he called, ‘shall I count you in with us? Nico and I are going to need your help.’
Smilis turned his face to the wall but nodded.
‘Good,’ said Thrax. ‘Now listen, everyone. I calculate it will take at least six days to get to our destination. Our ship will sail at night, to avoid running into Athenian or Aeginian ships. During the day, the pirates will drop anchor in some secret bay or harbour. But after two or three days we’ll have to strike out into open waters till we get to Megale Hellas. So we have only a few nights when we’ll still be close enough to land to escape.’
He turned to the girl next to him. ‘You said you are sometimes allowed on deck.’
‘Every morning when the ship docks,’ replied the girl, whose name was Alexa. ‘But only for a short while. It’s to let us breathe some fresh air and to drink. They give us food too; a small crust of stale bread to make sure we’re worth our salt when they come to barter us. The rowers and the myrmidons go ashore to offer sacrifice and raid hamlets and farms. But one of them always stays behind to stand guard over us. Not that we can even think about escaping! Our hands are tied all the time.’
‘What about the pirates in the gold and silver masks?’ asked Thrax. ‘Do they go ashore too?’
‘Yes,’ replied Alexa. ‘But they don’t stay with the crew. They go further inland, alone. Some say they go to drink the blood of innocent children.’
‘Ha,’ said Thrax. ‘A likely story. Now listen carefully. When we’re let out in the morning, I need someone to distract the guard. I have something really important to do.’
‘I could pretend I’ve fainted with hunger,’ said Alexa. ‘That always has the guard worried. The pirate in the golden mask is very keen to get as much salt for us as possible.’
‘Or I could pretend I’m sick from drinking bilge water,’ I suggested.
‘Let’s try that, Nico,’ said Thrax. ‘If it doesn’t work, Alexa can pretend to faint from hunger.
He patted Alexa on the shoulder and I noticed that his hands were free.
‘Thrax,’ I gasped. ‘How did you do that?’
He laughed. ‘I held my wrists slightly apart when the myrmidon tied my hands. It gave the rope some slack. Look, I can slip my hands in and out of the knot as I please.’
I stared at him in admiration. ‘Thrax, I do believe you’ll get us off this ship and back to Aegina after all.’
The night passed very slowly and by morning I was frantic to be let out and gulp down some fresh air. We all scrambled to our feet, slipping in pee and bilge water, as one of the myrmidons pulled open the trapdoor. Rough hands reached down to haul us up one by one.
‘Follow me,’ said a myrmidon who, I guessed, was going to be looking after us while the rest went ashore. He fixed Thrax and I with a glare. ‘And no tricks from either of you two. Try and jump into the sea and I’ll spear you like a fish.’
We tramped in single file up to the deck. The sun was just about to rise and the air smelled fresh and invigorating. I breathed in deep to clear out my lungs. We had docked in a rocky cove surrounded by steep cliffs. There was a wide crack down the middle of them, forming a dark path into a green forest.
An altar stood on the rocks close to the shore, where the crew was offering sacrifice. I’d heard that sailors often drown horses in honour of the sea god but this lot was only burning fruit and pouring wine on the altar. Abantes and Belos were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they’d gone inland already, through the path in the cliffs.
‘Walk around the deck,’ ordered the myrmidon. ‘Get some strength back into your legs. Single file.’
Thrax was at the other end of the line, near the stern, as we started marching up and down the ship. He seemed to be edging towa
rds a small altar with a statue of Poseidon on it. I glimpsed a fishing boat far out at sea and wished I could wave to get the crew’s attention. Alexa nudged me in the ribs with her elbow and we launched into our planned diversion. I crumpled up my face and howled loudly in pain.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Alexa, pretending to look concerned.
‘My stomach. Aargh… Aargh… I shouldn’t have drunk that bilge water. I’m going to throw up.’
The myrmidon, who’d marched up to see why I was causing a fuss, took a hurried step backwards. ‘Don’t you dare throw up on my clean deck or I’ll make you mop it up with your own tongue.’
‘I can’t help it, sir,’ I moaned. ‘Oh, it feels like the hydra itself is tearing my insides apart.’
‘Well, be sick in the sea if you have too,’ snapped the myrmidon. ‘Get moving.’
I stumbled to the bulwark, followed by Alexa, and made loud gagging noises over the side. I kept it up till my throat was so dry, it hurt.
‘Thank you, sir,’ I said to the myrmidon when I couldn’t retch any more. ‘I feel better now.’
The myrmidon who had been handing out the bread glared at me. ‘Get back in line, then.’
I threw a sideways glance at Thrax as I took my place with the others. Somehow he had managed to get hold of Abantes’s mirror. He was holding it up to catch the ligh of the rising sun.
I realised what he was doing right away. He was signalling to someone out at sea. But who?
CHAPTER 20
A Friend to the Rescue
‘That was a risky thing to do, Thrax,’ I said. ‘Thank the gods you weren’t caught.’
‘I had my back to the shore,’ he said. ‘No one could have seen me signalling.’
We were in the hold again. Despite the stench, my stomach rumbled with hunger. I’d missed out on my rations and I wouldn’t get anything to eat till the next day.
Alexa pulled a small hunk of bread from inside her chiton. ‘I saved you some,’ she said.
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