2. The castle of Cronos

If you look at a map of the Mediterranean you wouldn't notice anything strange. But to me there are some things missing. Or to be more exact, two large islands. I miss Leviathan west of Cyprus and Atlantis south of Crete. Those islands were destroyed during the Titanomachy, the great war to end all wars (or so we thought). The great war between Zeus and his Allies and Cronos and his Titans. Atlantis was a Divine stronghold, Leviathan held the dwelling of Cronos.

I came to Leviathan at the age of twelve to work as a divine goat heard, keeping watch over the golden animals that graced the northern slopes of the island. I guess my mother had no other choice than letting me go, even though I didn't want to leave Crete and was scared of the dark place that was the dwelling of the Titan King. But luckily enough I didn't have to live in the castle, but was installed in the servants pavilion just outside the main court.

I could tell a lot of nightmarish stories about the ways of the castle, of Cronos' dungeons where he kept and tortured his prisoners and who's screams could be heard all over the island, until you learned to block them. I could tell about the Dark Warriors he sent out to beat down oppression. They were monsters in its true aspect, seven feet tall, bat like beings with razor-sharp claws and fangs and evil red eyes. Creatures Cronos had brought out from the Dark Realm, creatures who fed on blood and fear and were completely obedient to their master. Sounds like a cliché perhaps, but they are the originals. It's upon them all later evil beasts have been modelled.

Or I could tell about the executions we all had to watch, long and extended killings of the Titans enemies. But that would leave page up and page down with horrors out of which nothing good can come. So I'm skipping this, at least until someone pays well for a script for a splatter movie.

Instead I'm going to tell about Rhea.

Rhea is one amazing woman. The things she had to endure, the horrors she saw, the nightmare she lived, no-one ought to be pushed trough so much misery as this young goddess got to experience even before reaching 30. Yet she walked through it with her head held high, and her heart pure, and emerged on the other side strong and wise.

Being fifteen I was assigned as Rhea's servant, my duties described as helping her with clothes, bathing, hair, make-up and other womanly things. A leap of a career shift from being a goat herd! Rhea had arrived at the castle the same spring. She came from the north, a pale and shy sixteen year old beauty who hid away inside the high, dark walls, an enigma, a mirage.

No wonder I was nervous the first day I went to work for her. At that time I had no idea of her place within the court. I had no idea that this quiet and solemn girl was selected as the next bride for the Titan King.

" Enter!" The voice was soft yet commanding and I pushed the heavy oak door open. Rhea sat on her bed, naked save for a golden necklace and a likewise golden foot-ring, and yet weiled by her long, silverblond hair which cascaded in soft ringlets down beneath knee-length. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen back then, with large, round lavender eyes regarding me behind curtains of hair and delicate hands resting in her lap.

" Hi..." I started, but then quickly correcting myself. This was no equal from the pavilion, this was a Lady of the court.
" Milady, I'm Amalthea, your new chambermaid", I went on. "Of what service may I be?"
" I am Rhea", the lady answered. "You can... you can start with opening the window. It's hot in here. And then you can help me with a bath and a hair wash. "

It certainly wasn't hot, I was freezing in spite of my thick woollen clothes, but I did as the Lady told me. The Castle of Cronos didn't have plumbing and running water; it was first when Zeus built his Olympos decades later such facilities were invented, his son Hephestos being the one coming up with this marvel. So I had to call for a Strongbloke who came fetching the copper tub, carried it on his huge, bronzed shoulders down, to the main well and filled it with icy but fresh water. I used Divine Heat to warm the tub and then I perfumed the bath with rosy soap.

That very first morning in Rhea's service I washed her long hair and massaged her neck and back; tongue tied, since I had no idea of what to say to such a noble lady.

Neither Rhea was talkative. She just told me what to do and what to fetch. She instructed me in pinning up her long hair and how to decorate it with pearls and gems, she told me to bring her writing tools and then she asked me if I could read and write.
" No, Milady", I confessed, "I have never been taught that art."
" A pity", Rhea said. "Yet that can be taken care of. I shall arrange for you to be given lessons."
" Thank you Milady", I bowed.

" Do not thank me, it is not out of charity I offer this. It is going to be necessary if you are to work for me. I have no use for illiterate girlies. I want a small staff of reliable persons I can trust with important things. And reading and writing is necessary for what I am going to need you for, Amalthea. "

I blushed, I felt so humble in the presence of Rhea, so immature even if she was hardly a year older than me.
" Tell me another thing", Rhea went on. "Where do you come from?"
" Crete, Milady. "
" Is it a good place?"
" Yes, it's tranquil. Sparsely populated. Mountainous. Very beautiful. "

" Is it... safe?"
" I'm not sure I understand, Milady. How do you mean 'safe'?"

" Can one go there and shake a tail of pursuers? If one want to be alone for a while I mean. "
" I guess so, Milady. Especially if you go to Ida or Dicte or a similar place. Far away in the barren land among the mountains. "
" That can be good to know. Now I want to ask you for one thing Amalthea. "
" Yes, Milady?"
" Stop calling me Milady, at least when we are alone. I'm Rhea. And I'm only eight months older than you. I don't want to feel like an old crone. This place is miserable enough, makes one feel old and worn, sucks out ones life spirit. "
" I understand, Mi... Rhea. "

We didn't become friends the first day though. Or the first week or even the first month. But slowly we were starting to grow closer, Rhea beginning to confess things to me. Told me about her parents and the island where she had grown up. Told me about her childhood and the god she had been in love with, and how she had been torn away from all that and brought to this place of horror.

" Why?" I asked.
" Because he desires me."
" Who?"
" The King."
" Cronos?"
" Don't say his name. It gives me the shivers. "

Interlude

My beloved has waken up. He's on his way out into the buzzing Manhattan. But first he's going to have his cellphone and his MP3-player and his pager and his palm-pilot and his digicam and his scanning-pen and keeps raving around the penthouse looking for these things. What is it with these modern gods and all their gadgets they want to carry around all the time, and why is it that they never seem to be able to find half of them when they need them?

" No, Hud, I haven't seen your iPod", I tell my beloved who for the third time tears out all his clothes from the wardrobe.
" But Thea, I put it on the desk by the stationary PC yesterday and now it just ain't there. Are you sure the 'puter nymph hasn't been using it?"
" Yes I am! She has after all her own gizmos. Now, have you looked in the kitchen?"
" Why should I? It's not there. It has never been in the kitchen. Not since the day before yesterday at least. "
" Take a look there anyway, sweetie!"

Of course the iPod was in the kitchen.

Interlude ends

One evening I found Rhea sprawled over her bed, crying. Her back was shaking and her sobs seemed uncontrollable. I sat down, patting her awkwardly on the back of her head.
" Rhea, what's wrong? "
" He had me", she gasped. "He raped me."

I didn't need to ask who. I just looked at her ruined hairdo and torn-apart, blood-stained dress, feeling so incredible sorry for her. And I was glad I wasn't pretty. That I didn't have the looks to attract Titans.

One month later the King sent his present Queen away and married Rhea. It was a terrible event. I had never seen my lady looking so pale as the morning when I dressed her in a white lace dress and decorated her hair with silver and amethysts. Before she went down to the reception hall to be received by the King she took my hand and looked at me with sad, sombre eyes.
" Amalthea", she said, voice weak and shivering. "Remember my inquires about your island. They were seriously meant. Don't ever mention them to anyone! "

" Rhea are you sure..."
" I don't want to end like Gionna. To be sent away to... "
" Where? "

Rhea paled even more.
" When he has tired of them, when he has raped them enough he sends them to... they say he sends them to Tartarus. "
" Tar..." I could hardly utter the terrible word. "Why?"
" Because it amuses him. And because he knows that when they once are there they can't get away and disturb him when he's busy with his latest desire. "

" And if... If there's children?"
" He does something with them too. I don't know what and I don't know why, but he does something. Haven't you thought it strange that there's no offspring of his around, Amalthea?"
" Rhea I - It's time! Good luck, for what it's worth. "

We hugged. The next morning I was dismissed from my duties and sent back to Crete. Rhea was going to get new chambermaids.