Chapter Six
The Wooden Horse
-oOo-
Damalis awoke with Astinos' name on her lips, but it was not a sweet dream, she had been a spectator in her own mind, watching Astinos kissing Circe's hand and smiling that beautiful smile which made her knees weak.
She had no problem leaving her bed that morning, she felt wide awake, the nerves of discovering Theron's secret and her new, confusing feelings about Astinos mingled in her head like a cocktail that knocked her about.
Adelpha was a little worse for wear that morning. She had indulged in the wine a little too much and was cradling her head and groaning sickly.
"I didn't make a fool of myself last night did I, Damalis?" she croaked from under the covers.
Damalis laughed, "I shouldn't think so, but I believe Admes is in no doubt of your favour"
The girl slowly sat up in her bed, her hair askew and her face pale and greasy, she gratefully took the goblet of water Damalis passed her and emptied it all in a few seconds.
"Oh! I feel like a rabble of giants have just trampled on my head"
"Well, it's a good thing you don't have school today, Miss Adelpha" Damalis grinned, "Now come on, let's try to make you look a little more human"
It took a while to get Adelpha out of bed and to sponge her down, she vomited, almost hitting Damalis but finally she managed to slip into a loose fitting tunic whilst Damalis pinned her hair up out of her face in case she should vomit again. Damalis tried not to laugh as she followed Adelpha stumble to the dinning room. Captain Artemis was again in his usual seat and opposite him, to Damalis' delight, Astinos was sitting over a bowl of porridge, he too looked a little green.
Adelpha stumbled over to a seat and dropped slowly into it, holding her head in her hands. Her father looked over his scroll and shock his head, "Not a pretty sight; a young woman with a hangover. How do you expect to attract a husband with such behaviour, Adelpha?" he asked.
Damalis thought she could see a tinge of red mingle with the green on the girls face as she went to fetch her some toast from the kitchen. Haidee was already there with great dark bags under her eyes as she sorted through the cutlery. Damalis sensed the woman was looking for a fight with the way she scowled at one of the girls for sneezing and hurried back, making sure that Adelpha ate her breakfast, though it took a while because she nibbled through it like a rabbit. Damalis looked over at Astinos and decided that even though he looked pale and about to vomit, he was still the most beautiful creature she had ever seen and to her embarrassment, he looked up just in time to see her watching him, he smiled politely and returned to his breakfast. Damalis hurried off to assist Haidee in the kitchen and saw that Hesper too was there inspecting the pantry, she had a foul look on her face which made Damalis wish she hadn't ventured into the kitchen at all.
"It seems we have a thief in our midst" she growled, crossing her arms over her chest and eyeing Haidee and Damalis, "At least three loaves of bread are missing and I could swear I counted ten jars of honey last week"
"Perhaps a guest requested them last night" Damalis tried to reply offhandedly as she grabbed a towel and began drying some plates. She did not see Hesper staring hard at the back of her head.
"Perhaps, but I'll be keeping a sharper eye on this kitchen. You've been slacking again, Haidee" Hesper said venomously before stalking out of the kitchen.
Haidee angrily threw a towel into the sink and cursed loudly, "That evil harpie! Like I didn't have enough to do last night I'm also expected to remember the exact amount of loaves in the pantry. What a horrid woman"
Damalis bit her lip, feeling awfully guilty at having put Haidee in trouble for her own thievery, but she had needed Otis' services and would do it again if she had to, she just hated that other people needed to get in trouble for her own quest for vengeance. But she was determined not to let it happen again, to night she would go visit The Wooden Horse and find out just who this man was that Theron had met with and get some answers.
-oOo-
The day went by slowly, but it could have been the slow pace that both the Captain's children went about their day. Neither felt completely cured of their hangover until early afternoon, which was good timing as Admes had proved true to his word and came to visit. Though he insisted it was to see Astinos, no one could deny how his eyes roved the lobby until he saw Adelpha sitting peacefully to the side with a scroll in hand. She almost leapt off of the seat when she saw him smiling at her and blushed as she greeted him. All three tottered off into the courtyard to talk, Damalis felt tempted to follow, but as usual she had chores to take care of and went about cleaning Adelpha's bedchamber. She also needed to plan out her escape to Thérapné that night and she also needed to make a disguise so that anyone who saw her figured her for a hermit man and not a young servant girl, so when the coast was clear, she delved into the male servant quarters and fished out a large brown robe that swamped her body and stuffed it under her bed for later, she also stored the change from the materials she had bought for Adelpha's new dress there as well, in case she needed to bribe. Again, she felt guilty at stealing from the Captain, but she had no choice, still it did not ease the guilt.
Astinos, Adelpha and Admes did not return from the courtyard until the evening when dinner was prepared. Damalis could see the contentment in their faces as the family once again reunited after nine years enjoyed a simple dinner with Admes as their guest. Damalis could not stop smiling as she saw Adelpha sit moon-eyed opposite Admes who joked and laughed with his friend Astinos about their experiences in the Agoge. However the conversation took a very serious turn when the Captain asked where his son would be heading now in his career.
"I have been assigned to guard the council halls, father" he replied a little grumpily.
"Well that's wonderful!" Adelpha chirped, "That means you won't have to leave"
"It has been a while since Sparta has been at war, we are the most powerful and feared race in this land, there has been no need to send any troops into combat" Captain Artemis boomed quite proudly.
Admes was the one to explain Astino's grim expression; "We had been hoping to go to battle as soon as the Agoge was over. We wish to experience the honour of war"
"There are many of those within our walls that would see the King and the councilmen of his favour dead and buried. It seems now a days we are fighting a war of politics," growled the Captain.
"You mean there are traitors within the council, Captain?" Admes asked. Damalis found herself taking time in cleaning up the table as she listened to the conversation. She wondered if Theron's name would come up and indeed it did.
Enora rolled her eyes, "Honestly, must we have such a conversation at the dinner table?" she asked exasperatedly.
The Captain acted as though he had no heard her, "Those who are against the King are not openly so. They hide in the shadows like cowardly rats, biding their time, gathering support and strength. There is no way to know how many in the council are corrupted, though I strongly suspect Theron"
Astinos looked quite thoughtful as he played with a strip of chicken on his plate. Damalis wished she could see what he was thinking but she had dawdled enough and left with the empty plates back to the kitchens.
-oOo-
Damalis was not excused until the family had retired to bed, Admes had left with promises to Adelpha that he would visit as soon as he could, but both he and Astinos were due to start their shift the next evening.
The night was settled when all the servants in the women's quarters were finally sound asleep, some snoring lightly and Damalis quietly slipped out of bed, her shoes still on and her normal robe on under her nightdress. She carefully slipped it off over her head and after twisting her hair into a knot, sneaked out of the room and through the dark house like a snake, careful not to open the lobby door to wide as it tended to creak.
The night care was crisp and there was a slight breeze in the air that sent goose bumps rising upon her arms and neck. Damalis swung the robe around her, tying it tightly around her waist and lifting the hood over her head where it almost covered her eyes. By the light of the full moon she stalked past the beautiful blooming jasmines that crawled their way about the courtyard walls and slipped passed the gate and into the street.
Damalis had never been out of the house so late and it was strange to see the busy streets that were brimming with noise and bodies so suddenly dark, empty and quiet. It was almost a completely different place as she padded alongside the walls of the building and headed south towards Thérapné.
Damalis only encountered a few people on her trip and they were merely drunks stumbling home from the local tavern, The Wolf's Head. It had been easy to hide from them; she simply slipped into the shadows of a nearby house and waited for them to stumble by before she continued her journey into the bowels of Thérapné. It was instantaneous, the change between the two towns. Suddenly the houses went from pearly white to murky brown, the roads went from flat and straight to crocked with potholes that you had to be careful not to trip in. There were quite a few derelict houses, domicile to only the homeless, but there were a lot more people roaming the streets, almost as if they had no where else to go. Damalis was forced to head down the alleyways to avoid the great crowds of dirty old men with tankards of mead, singing loudly and cursing.
Damalis had never been so scared, not since her home was burning around her. The alleyways were dark and cramped; she often tripped on rubbish or stray cats, but soon she could hear the light music of a band and the warm, burning torches emitting a soft glow out of the windows. From the sound of the chatter inside, it seemed to be heaving to the point that revellers were spilling out onto the street.
Damalis took a deep breath; trying to force down the impossibly tight feeling she had in the pit of her stomach and weaved her way through the crowds until she was finally in the warmth of the tavern.
It was possibly the seediest bar that Damalis had ever seen, though she rarely stepped foot in one. The ground was nothing but an assortment of rugs slung together and the stone walls were chipped, their carvings slowly worn or damaged over time. There were tacky wooden tables of different designs and sizes scattered all about the small tavern and a long bench was pushed up against the rear of the building where the staff were handing out drinks and taking back handfuls of coins.
Damalis strained her neck over the noisy crowds around her, but could not see anyone that looked like the person Otis had described, so slowly she walked around the building, eyeing everyone she passed and trying to keep attention away from herself at the same time. In the end, Damalis found herself an empty seat at the bar and waved her hand for someone to pass her a tankard. It wouldn't look good for a stranger to just be sitting in a tavern not drinking, though Damalis had never tasted alcohol she didn't find it at all tasty and kept to drinking only a minuscule amount each time she brought the mug to her lips.
It seemed like an hour had passed and no one fitting Otis' description had entered the tavern, she had taken to walking around the building every few minutes before settling back at the bar and eventually the crowd began to thin as the hour grew later and later, until Damalis grew impatient and figured that the man was not going to show until finally someone in an equally obscuring robe as her own took a seat three chairs away from her and leaned heavily over a large tankard.
Damalis watched him from under her hood as he lifted the drink to his lips and sank down half the contents, knocking the hood clean off his head and exposing his marred head. Damalis was horrified to see just how disfigured he was and was in no doubt that this man had had to have seen battle to have such a collection of old wounds.
The mans face looked worn like old leather, there was a scar that ran down the left side of his forehead, right across his eye and down his cheek. A large chunk seemed to have been taken out of his left ear and there were multiple small pink scars that flaked across his skin.
Damalis watched as the man sat with his back to the crowds, mulling in a deep misery that could not be ignored. His eyes were dark and deeply glazed as if he were somewhere else, somewhere that resembled a nightmare that he was trying to forget. It distressed Damalis to look at his face too long and after almost an hour she had missed him get up from his seat and leave the tavern. In a panic, Damalis had tried to catch up with him, but as soon as she had reached the door of the tavern, there was no one in sight.
"Hades!" she cursed under her breath, frustrated at her own laziness and without any leads she turned on her heels and made the arduous journey back home and crawled into her cold bed with nothing but sourness in her heart.
-oOo-
Vampirebaby13 - If some guy tried to force me to marry him I would choose castration as a form of punishment. Quite fitting don't you think? Lol, thanks for the review.
Bryna - Well I'm still reeming off the next few chapters so as far as I'm concerned I won't be leaving this fic hanging.
Raging Raven - They always warm the cockles of your heart don't they? I mean, can you really imagine Astinos dragging some poor woman to his house, forcing her to marry him and raping her? Not really...and I don't think I want to either! :S
A/N: I don't know if anyones noticed but I have been throwing in a few little references into this fic. Such as the Wolf's Head tavern, which is a reference to the wolf that Leonidas slayed. Then there's the Wooden Horse which is an obvious reference to the Wooden Horse of Troy. Just little things that put a smile on my face!
