"Thanks," said Alcie to Iole from below. "I had no idea in Illyria how I was gonna climb up. You're pretty smart for not even being a maiden yet."
"There's no place for my feet!" said Iole.
"There are little bumps of stone in this wall," Pandy said. "Try to find a toehold here and there; it will help steady you."
"Easy for you to say," said Alcie.
They all reached the top of the wall quickly. Scurrying over the ledge, they saw there was indeed a large back terrace and a small entryway close to one corner of the back wall of the temple.
"Smaller," Pandy said to the rope, and soon it was a string again, which she tucked into her pouch. They quickly crossed the terrace and gave a light tug on the small door. It opened easily and, without thinking of what lay beyond, the girls entered the Temple of Apollo.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Temple
It was almost pitch black.
Just above them burned a dim torch. Ahead they could discern other torches burning in sconces. Letting their eyes adjust to the darkness, they found themselves at the end of a long, narrow hallway running along the length of one side of the temple. Pandy, Alcie, and Iole looked at one another.
"Well, we're inside and we're all the way back," said Alcie.
"Those were the directions from the bust," said Iole, with a loud giggle.
"Shh!" Pandy said.
"Sorry . . . can't help it," Iole replied.
"Okay. You guys wait here," Pandy said, standing straight and trying to be commanding.
"Like we'd really let you go without us," said Alcie.
"As if!" said Iole, stepping forward.
"I say that!" said Alcie.
"Okay, okay . . . we'll all go . . . but let me go first," said Pandy.
"That works for me," said Alcie.
Pandy led the way slowly in the darkness. They came to an opening in the wall to their right with a narrow stairway leading straight up. Two torches burned brightly high over their heads.
"Do we go up?" asked Iole.
"I don't know," said Pandy. "I think it's probably just living quarters up there. Let's keep going."
Farther down, another torch illuminated a smaller corridor leading off into the darkness. They caught the unmistakable whiff of animals.
"It has to be where they keep the animals for the sacrifices," said Pandy.
"Poor little goats and lambs . . . ," lamented Iole. "Alone in the dark. Probably kept in boxes."
They moved toward another torch burning dimly down the hallway. Drawing near, they could see beyond it part of a lit chamber; they felt the air cool with a slight breeze.
"We must be getting close to the main room," said Iole.
Pandy stopped just before the opening. She flattened herself against the wall and peeked around the corner.
"Oh!"
"What? Let me see!" said Alcie, bending down and craning her neck around Pandy's waist.
"Wow."
"I've never seen anything so immense," said Iole, almost on the floor, peering out from behind Alcie's legs.
"I have . . . the great hall on Olympus," said Pandy. "But this is amazing."
They stepped quietly into the chamber of the great altar.
The enormous room was completely deserted. At the far end were the large doors leading to the Temple Square, bright light glimmering in from the sides. Huge columns stretched way up to support the massive marble ceiling. Oil lamps hung from chains that disappeared into the darkness overhead. Richly colored chalk frescoes along the walls depicted scenes of Apollo healing those diseased in body and spirit. Large white marble collection urns were placed at various intervals to receive tributes and donations. Close to the main doors were sets of shelves where supplicants placed their sandals: anyone allowed to approach the altar had to do so barefoot. An aisle led from the main doors straight through the columns to a small circular area in the middle of the room where, Pandy supposed, supplicants would stand before the high priestess. It was separated from the rest of the hall by a low, circular marble wall, past which no one was allowed to pass.
Pandy saw part of an immense structure to her right. Quietly creeping farther into the room, they dashed to hide behind the columns; now when they peeked out they found themselves directly facing the great altar.
Pandy thought she might stop breathing. She'd never before seen anything so frightening. Beyond the small circle, a series of black stone stairs rose out of the ground. They went up about twenty steps to a flat terrace. From where she stood, Pandy made out two thick slabs of black stone lying side by side with a fissure of hot smoke rising from the crack in between. Hanging in the air over the slabs was a long metal chain with a gigantic hook attached to the end. The hook and the chain were coated with the same black substance as she'd seen on Ares' breastplate on Olympus, and Pandy knew that this was definitely not paint. Beyond the flat terrace, thirty more black stairs led up to a smaller platform, upon which was a simple marble chair.
"Listen!" said Iole.
There was a low rumble underneath the stone slabs. It built in intensity for a few minutes, then suddenly a shower of sparks and a geyser of smoke shot from the fissure with such force that it almost displaced the stones. It quickly subsided again.
"This doesn't look like the altars back home. Do you think they actually lower the little animals into . . . ?" said Iole.
"I don't even want to think about what goes on in here," said Pandy.
"Well, I've seen sufficient. . . Let's find this Jealousy thing and get out," whispered Alcie.
Abruptly, a tall woman in stately black and gold robes appeared on top of the altar, screaming something at the top of her lungs back over her shoulder, her dark hair whipping from side to side. From behind her came the sound of yelling in return. The woman grasped the back of the marble chair and began sobbing piteously. She pounded the back wall with her fist and walked to the edge of the platform, her face streaked with tears. Suddenly, a small child (Pandy thought it was a boy) appeared and ran crying to cling to the woman's legs. The woman picked up the child and held him close, whispering something softly into his ear. Then another woman, even taller than the first but wearing almost identical robes, joined them on the platform. She too was shouting and waving her arms.
"You dare to bring a child into my temple! A filthy brat who despoils my home, interrupts the sacrifices with his squalling, and desecrates the great altar!"
"I have been ordained, Callisto!" said the first woman. "I serve as you do. You have no authority to berate me about my child. Nor are you permitted to chastise Nera about her baby We have as much right to be here—"
"Right? You have no right, Ino! You and Nera . . . with your youth and your experiences and your smiling faces and . . . your . . . children! I'll show you!" said the second woman.
She grabbed the child away from the first woman, Ino, with such force that Ino almost toppled off the platform. Then the second woman, Callisto, walked quickly to the side and lifted the child over her head.
"I'll show you how much right you have in my temple!" Then she spoke a few quick words in a low voice that Pandy couldn't hear. At once the giant black slabs far below began to slowly part and Pandy saw a glowing light from a fire somewhere deep under the temple.
Ino screamed once. Then she rapidly began to speak in low tones as well, now grabbing for her son. The slabs stopped moving away and began to close together. Callisto raised her voice higher, still holding on to the child, and the slabs reversed direction again, drawing farther apart. The two women, each holding on to the child, were dueling, their incantations growing in ferocity. Ino, with a fantastic surge of energy, finally closed the stones together again.
Callisto tore the crying child completely away from his mother, and held him precariously over the edge.
"Fire or no fire, Ino, this child dies!" she said and prepared to drop the little boy from the great height onto the black stones below.
Pandy was feveri
sh and dizzy watching this horrifying spectacle. She had no idea what she was doing, but she once again felt as she did standing in front of Zeus: she was not in control of her words as they were being torn from her throat.
"Stop!" she cried, stepping out from behind the column. Alcie and Iole tried desperately to pull her back, but too late; Pandy was already standing in the main aisle. She stared up at the commotion on the platform, which instantly stopped.
Callisto was so shocked at Pandy's presence in the temple that she momentarily forgot what she was doing and just gaped into the dim light.
Ino immediately took the opportunity and seized her child out of Callisto's grasp. She ushered him away, then quickly came to the edge, also looking down at Pandy.
There was a long moment of silence, then finally Callisto found her voice.
"Trespasser!" she screamed. "Unclean! You approach the altar unbidden? You dare look upon the face of the high priestess unmasked? Your eyes will be torn from their sockets!"
"Callisto, wait. . . ," Ino began, but Callisto turned and struck her so hard across the face that Ino fell dazed against the back wall.
"Silence! I have had enough of you!"
Turning back, she threw wide her arms and began a shrill, high-pitched wail interrupted every so often with strange gibberish words. Callisto's body started gyrating wildly, her head rolling from side to side, her hands fluttering high and low like frenzied birds. Pandy understood almost nothing of what she said, but three times she caught the word summon.
Alcie and Iole came out from behind their columns and stared slack-jawed at Callisto, whose voice was now building in volume to a siren scream.
"Strike me dead—look!" said Alcie, pointing upward.
High up toward the marble ceiling, a swirling cloud was forming, twisting, and writhing in upon itself. The girls began to make out the shapes of huge wings with black and white feathers, flashes of silver scales, and long snakelike tails.
Four large flying creatures, winged lizards with hooked beaks and claws, were forming slowly, biting and tearing at one another within the cloud. As the cloud melted away they began swooping down about and around the temple columns; clumsily at first, almost as if they had been formed blind and were just beginning to use their sight. Sweeping past the girls in their flight with growing accuracy, they left behind them a sickening, loathsome stench. Pandy thought of raw meat, eggs, and goat cheese having been left to stew in the sun. Pandy, Alcie, and Iole began to run from column to column trying to find some escape, but they each doubled over from the disgusting odor, feeling nauseous and light-headed.
"Oh, no! I . . . I know what they are!" yelled Iole, as she fell against a column. "Harpies! The hounds of Zeus! Oh, Gods! Pandy, they're Harpies!"
From the platform, Callisto gestured wildly to the three girls and screamed at the flying Harpies, now dive-bombing Pandy, Alcie, and Iole with pinpoint precision. The girls' only protections were the large width of the columns and their ability to skirt quickly from side to side. But Alcie either kept crashing into columns as she tried to get around or veering out into the main aisle, leaving herself exposed. A Harpy spotted her from above and dove toward her. Alcie saw it coming and tried to duck quickly behind a column, but smashed her shoulder into the marble instead.
Pandy had run to a front corner of the temple, trying to move in the dim shadows around the side walls. She was intent on getting to Iole, who had managed to crawl to the large front doors and was trying in vain to dislodge the wooden bolt that ran across, but it was simply too heavy. Pandy was just about to reach Iole, who was still pushing and pulling the bolt with all her tiny might, when they both heard Alcie smash into the column with a loud crack.
Alcie screamed. Pandy and Iole turned to see the Harpy's metallic tail whip into Alcie's head and throw her to the ground, where she lay without so much as a twitch.
Iole shrieked and started to crawl toward Alcie. Pandy yelled at her to get back but it was too late. A Harpy, flying the length of the main aisle, its neck craning back and forth, saw Iole on her hands and knees trying desperately to reach her friend. In a swift descent, the Harpy let out a terrifying screech and opened its giant claws. Iole looked up just in time to see the glint of the temple lamps off of a series of metal scales, then two talons locked themselves around her waist and lifted her off the ground.
Pandy was still on her feet, Alcie was lying slumped against a pillar, and Iole was now being carried, unconscious, toward the altar. Pandy raced down the aisle, grabbed Alcie, and quickly dragged her back behind the nearest column. Quickly but gently, Pandy curled Alcie inward around its base. She stepped back out into the main aisle and came face-to-face with a Harpy flying low to the ground.
The Harpy snapped at Pandy's head, catching a small hunk of her hair in its beak. It began to ascend, pulling her head up with it. As she jerked her head away, trying to free herself, the blunt edge of its enormous wing caught her square in the face and almost flipped her on her back. She began to lose consciousness, the vile stench of the Harpy like a poison surrounding her, only vaguely aware of the burning sensation on her scalp and a feeling of warm wetness trickling down her cheek. She fell backward against the column where Alcie lay.
Pandy's last image was of Iole being flown across the altar and her own nose coming to rest against the top of Alcie's foot.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lambs
Pandy awoke, smoke searing her nostrils and a loud noise in her ears. Instantly she recognized the particular burnt smell of special herbs: someone was preparing a sacrificial fire. She tried to move her arms, but they were tied tightly behind her back. She blinked, struggling hard to concentrate on the commotion all around. She and Alcie were both facing the great altar, seated on small wooden chairs in the middle of the supplicant circle, their hands and legs bound fast with thick ropes. Their carrying pouches, cloaks, and supplies were piled in a heap next to them. Beyond Alcie, Pandy caught sight of two temple acolytes in hooded white robes standing next to a large wheel with a coiled chain running up toward the ceiling. At the base of the altar stairs, sacrificial herbs were smoldering in sconces, sending up thick streams of inky smoke. The loud noise she'd heard was Alcie yelling, her eyes wide and focused on a point high above them. Groggily Pandy followed Alcie's gaze—and her heart stopped.
Iole was hanging above the two stone slabs on the great altar, the large metal hook passed through her little girdle. Her hands and feet were bound, but fortunately she was still out cold. High on the second platform, Ino had been tied to the marble chair and her mouth was gagged. Callisto was standing close to the edge, her face now hidden behind a black silk veil. When she saw Pandy awaken, she began to descend the long stairway to the first platform.
"Pandy do something! Figs! Tell them, Pandy . . . tell them why we're here!" Alcie cried, breaking into wrenching sobs.
Staring at Pandy, Callisto reached the temple floor. She circled the small stone wall and came up behind Pandy.
"You dare to defile the Temple of Apollo? Did you think you would go undiscovered?" she said, moving past Pandy. "Did you think you were clever, sneaking into the hall like a thief? Perhaps you are a thief. What have you come to steal, thief; you and your friends?"
"We're not here to steal anything, you big, fat, decomposing hydra!" shouted Alcie.
"Alcie, shut up!" said Pandy.
Callisto was standing directly in front of Pandy, but when Alcie called her a nine-headed water snake, Callisto moved quickly, her hand outstretched to strike. Her veil fluttered off her face for a second and Pandy saw the long straight nose and high cheekbones of a beautiful older woman, except that now her mouth was pulled back in a contorted grin.
"Wait, O high priestess!" Pandy shouted, stopping Callisto's attack. "It's me! I'm the one . . . I'm the only one who should be here. My friends have nothing to do with why . . . um . . . Please . . . I'll tell you. I come on command from the great Zeu—"
"Should be here? You should be h
ere, defiler? I am the only one who should be here," spat Callisto, looking up at Ino. "I am surrounded by those who think they are better than me . . . those who think they know more . . ."
Callisto's voice trailed off for a moment, then she turned again toward Pandy.
"I'm amused. You're far too young to be allowed to seek information from the oracle on your own. I see no elders with you, and you obviously entered from the back terrace . . . therefore I can only assume you are all thieves."
Her brown eyes narrowed into razor-thin lines.
"Now I will show you what I do to thieves!"
She walked around the wall and up the first set of stairs.
"I come on command of the great Zeus! I am here for the plague! You have to listen to me! I have to get Jealousy back!" shouted Pandy.
"A thief and a liar!" Callisto whirled about. "As if the Sky-Lord would allow a sniveling she-worm to do his bidding!"
Callisto was now racing to the second platform, taking two stairs at a time. The low rumble had begun from underneath the slabs as smoke and sparks shot up through the fissure.
"But it's true . . . and I can prove it!" said Pandy "May I just say," the high priestess said loudly, reaching the top, "that there are three little lambs that will be very grateful to you and your friends for one extra day of life! Let us now see what I can foretell from the ashes of thieves!"
She began the same strange incantation as before and the stone slabs below began to part little by little. Alcie was now trying so hard to break her bonds that the ropes were cutting into her skin.
"Pandy! Stop her!" she yelled.
The slabs were halfway open when Iole woke up. A blast of smoke and sparks shot out of the glowing pit, but fell short of reaching her. She screamed and thrashed about on the hook.
"Iole, don't move!" Pandy yelled.
The slabs were now almost fully open and Iole stared down into a blazing furnace. With the full intensity of the flames just meters below her, lole's skin began to redden. The bumps that covered her legs and arms swelled to twice their size.
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