Know thyself

- Aphorism inscribed above the temple of Apollo at Delphi

'No.'

The captain was staring at him, slack-jawed. Clearly, it was not a word he heard often. 'Perhaps if…' the man began again.

'That is final. I thank you for coming this way, but I left that life behind. If your crew wanted to buy olive oil, they're welcome to it.'

'I don't think you understand the kind of opportunity you are refusing. And our leader will not take kindly to it, Eagle Bearer.'

Alexios had been patient. He'd been up since the bleeding crack of dawn speaking to this man and, if his stomach was any indication, it was well into mid-morning. Though they were standing next to a shady oak near the paddock Alexios could feel himself begin to sweat. This summer had been particularly brutal. The heat did not help his temper.

'I believe you've just threatened a man, standing on his own doorstep no less. The gods won't take kindly to that either,' Alexios said through clenched teeth.

The captain put his gold helmet firmly on his head, the blue plumage standing stock still in the oppressive heat. No breeze came off the water today. It would be nearly unbearable to work at noon. Alexios would call the workers off and go for a swim instead.

He offered the captain a tight smile, gesturing to a red pithoi filled with olive oil that leaned against the side of the white-washed mud brick. 'For your trouble,' Alexios offered.

The captain's grip tightened around the shaft of his spear. 'I am under strict orders, Eagle Bearer.'

Alexios heard a few pebbles hit the stone walkway. Looking up, he saw an archer perched high on his roof, arrow knocked and ready. Out of the corner of his eye he sensed movement. From high above, Ikaros whistled.

He sighed in frustration. 'If you had a few more men, it would make it a fair fight.'

'We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Choice is yours.' The captain lifted the spear and began walking toward him.

With a loud whoosh above their heads, both men looked aloft. Alexios thanked the gods his bird was fast. Ikaros hooked his long talons into the captain's face, causing him to scream loudly.

Alexios wasted no time. He rushed forward, grabbing the man's spear off the ground. He grunted as an arrow whistled past his ear, taking a bit of skin with it. Turning on his heel he threw the spear as hard as he could. It hit its mark and the archer fell with a cry of pain.

An Athenian solider rushed around the side of the house, sword at the ready. Alexios reached for his belt out of habit, realizing, with a sinking feeling, that he was completely unarmed.

Another arrow, slicing through the hot air, took the solider down, clean through the neck.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw a man dressed in colours he did not recognize.

'Quite a display!' a young man said, emerging from a copse of twisted olive trees. 'It must feel good, to weald a spear with such mastery. I can imagine you miss it.'

Alexios was afraid to admit that. It had felt good. It had felt right.

The young man was dressed in a common, tailored tunic under an iron breastplate, but Alexios noted the golden gauntlets and well-crafted greaves he wore. His dark face was wicked in sweat. He seemed to be the captain of the small guard.

'Here to buy olive oil?' Alexios asked.

'I would take some with bread, if you don't mind. We have been riding all morning.'

Alexios nodded, but when he turned to lead the men indoors he heard a muffled squawk.

'Look!' One of the foreign archers was pointing to an animal fumbling in the dry branches of a shrub. Alexios approached it carefully. Squinting his eyes, he thought he spied a bird.

'Ikaros!' he said, pulling thorny branches away.

The eagle cried out weakly as he freed him from the bush. An arrow had pieced cleanly through one of his wings. 'No, no,' Alexios mumbled, smoothing down Ikaros' feathers.

'You really are an Eagle Bearer,' the Captain said from behind him.

'I must…' Alexios began, but he was unsure of what to say.

'There is a medic on my ship. And one of the priestesses I've heard, is skilled with herbs and remedies.'

Ikaros squawked again and struggled in his arms.

'Okay,' Alexios said, striding toward a free horse. 'Which way down the road?'


Hero's seasickness had finally subsided after a few rough days of travel by trireme. Eudora, however, had taken to it like a proverbial fish in water. That girl always had an air of something otherworldly about her, and while Hero heaved her guts into a basket Eudora slept soundly beside her, waking with the dawn and eating three hearty meals a day.

Even the Prince's soldiers regarded her with a certain weariness. They stayed well out of her way when she went above deck to take in the salty air and the murmured about the strange priestess in their clunky Greek dialect. Some called her witch.

Hero was surprised by her cheerful mood. Though Eudora was nearly always amicable, she seemed particularly happy to be far and away from Delphi.

What had she seen in that fever dream?

Hero often wondered. She'd tried to coax it out of her, but Eudora politely refused each time, or changed the subject, signing something about the different types of sea birds, or the weather that day. She supposed in these situations, being mute was an advantage.

Hero slowly rose from her small sleeping palette. They had spent the morning docked on a tiny backwater island somewhere in the wilds of Greece. Peering out of a porthole, she saw a giant statue of Zeus, outlined by the sun, ready to strike his thunderbolt into the waiting Earth. Islanders were a strange breed. Sighing, she sat back down on the palette.

She also found herself pondering how in Hades she'd come to be sleeping in little more than a broom closet on the Prince of Cyrene's ship.

She supposed she could blame that one on Eudora. In the midst of her fugue she had cried out for the Prince. Not in her voice. Though Hero herself had never heard Eudora speak, she could not imagine her having a heavy intonation, quite like a man's.

A figure began to speak through her, writhing and calling for the Prince, explaining that the Dark One was after him, chasing him on. And that the fabled fighter was located in Kephallonia. And that they needed to reach him. Quickly.

Well, she wasn't going to let Eudora go alone, was she?

The sound of footsteps broke her out of her reverie. There was a soft knock at the door.

'Yes?'

Eudora's golden head peaked out from behind it. Her eyes were wide with excitement. She gestured for Hero to follow her.


It was the man from her dream. And Eudora had been right; there was nothing kingly, or aristocratic about him.

His skin was bronzed from working outside and scars crisscrossed up his arms, the shiny flesh reflecting in the sunlight. It seemed paradoxical that those arms, that had killed and injured so many, should be holding that raptor so gently.

'Is there a doctor?' he asked, to no one in particular.

'Trained by Hippocrates himself,' an older, bearded man replied, stepping forward.

'It is an arrow wound,' Alexios explained.

Eudora found herself walking forward. A small group had gathered around the pair. The bird screeched as it eyed the unfamiliar people. 'Leave us,' the medic commanded as he led the warrior up to the observation deck. Eudora meant to give them space, but something was urging her closer.

Lifting the skirt of her tunic she rushed off to the room she shared with Hero. 'Eudora?' Hero whispered as she dashed away.

There were not many things in this world a poor farmer's daughter owned. She cherished an old leather bag that once belonged to her mother. When she was visiting her those weeks ago, her mother had filled it with the usual herbal accouterments. She slung the long strap over her shoulder and climbed the stairs to the observation deck.

The feeling was tense on deck, the crew keeping their heads down, doing their best to find tasks to keep themselves busy. Hero was standing at the bottom of the stairs, arms folded across her chest.

Eudora rushed past her, taking the stairs two at a time. She strode over to where the two men were huddled, crouching down next to them. The medic was wielding a long, thin silver instrument that looked like a nimble pair of shears.

'I must say, what luck I have using this for the first time on an animal and not a man! Excellent practice.'

The warrior gave the medic a withering look. He did not speak after that. Eudora knelt beside the medic. The bird thrashed as he lifted the shears toward the wound.

'Stop, Ikaros,' the warrior commanded, but the bird continued to wriggle, opening and closing its long talons, sharp as any spearhead.

Eudora had an idea. She placed her hand gently on the medic's, indicating that he should stop. The old man nearly jumped from the contact. 'By the gods, my lady, I did not see you there!' he said, wiping sweat from his brow.

The warrior looked over at her, cocking his head to one side as he studied her. She offered a timid smile.

Then, though it was terribly indecent, she removed her headscarf. She had seen her father use this trick when the mourning doves were being uncooperative. She was not sure if it would work, but it was at least worth a try.

Eudora leaned over the bird, slowly covering its head with the blue material. It was a thin garment, so she wrapped it loosely in layers to ensure it blocked out the worst of the sunlight. Sure enough, the bird calmed.

At that moment, everyone's shoulders seemed to sag a little. The medic regarded her. 'What a clever thing you are!' he said with a laugh. 'Dumb as a post, but clever… yes, I will give you that.'

Dumb. How she hated that word. Mute was bad, but dumb made her feel positively ashamed. In spite of the noonday sun she could feel colour rising to her cheeks. The warrior said nothing.

Using the shears, the medic pulled the arrow through the eagle's great wing, completing its intended journey. He did not sew any skin back together, instructing that it needed time to bleed. Instead he removed her headscarf and packed up the wound with gauze. When Eudora opened her pack of herbs, the medic waved her off calling the medicine 'poppycock'.

And just as abruptly as everything began, it ended. The medic was called to care for someone who'd nearly sawed through their own hand with a sword.

Eudora turned to head below deck, but a voice stopped her.

'Those might be useful,' the warrior told her, pointing to her pack.

Eudora reached in, pulling out some herbs to show him. She crushed them between her fingers and held them up for him to smell. Leaning in closer, the warrior took in the spicy aroma. He leaned away from her suddenly, sneezing over the railing of the deck.

'Those are…' he began, wiping his eyes, 'powerful.'

Eudora took that as consent. She hiked up her tunic once more to crouch down again by the bird, who had since shuffled up and was standing on its powerful talons. Eudora was fond of animals. She used to help her father pull lambs, nursing the ones who lost mothers, before she was sent to the temple. Those were good days.

Easy, you dangerous thing, she thought to herself, reaching for it. To her surprise the raptor did not seem too bothered by her.

'You might want to be careful, he can be-'

But she was stroking the soft down of its underbelly. The raptor inched closer and soon she was running her hands over the stiff feathers of its wings.

There, you are not so frightening afterall.


Alexios watched her in amazement.

It was twofold. Firstly, he was almost certain that was the woman in his dream this morning. Secondly, he had never seen Ikaros act so affectionately with another person. He wondered if he'd not truly woken up this morning and instead it was all some strange dream.

'Odd, isn't it?' It was the captain from earlier. 'Animals are more likely to recognize the presence of the gods. More so than us, anyway.'

Alexios turned to face him. 'Who are you?'

The man smiled. 'It's been very hectic and it is not even midday.' He gestured down the stairs. 'Can I offer you some wine and bread for your trouble?'

'I'd rather know what I'm about to be getting myself into. I'm not used to having men show up at my door trying to kill me…' he paused, 'lately.'

'I've heard stories of you Eagle Bearer…' the man began. 'I am in need of help.'