Keepers of the Labyrinth (24 page)

44

B
elow Melia Mountain, the day began as usual. Tour buses found their way on the winding mountain roads to the coast of the Libyan Sea. Sheep had already gone to pasture and shepherds roamed amid their flocks on the rocky mountainsides. Old women hawked honey on the roadsides, their jars catching the sunbeams as the chorus of “
agno me
li”
explained that it was the purest in the land. The leaves rustled quietly as a light breeze carried out the memories of a few days of rain. The garden buzzed with bees, soaring back and forth from the flowers to the apiary.

And a small stone path led from the open kitchen, through the garden to the
mitato
behind the manor. It was not exactly like any other
mitato
on the island of Crete. It was not full of the traditional wheels of cheese, hides, kettles and other items a shepherd might need in his herding settlement. Instead, herbs were strung from every beam. Mortars and pestles of all different shapes and sizes were scattered across the center table. Herbal medicines specifically made for every ailment filled small cupboards. Supplements, tonics, powders and poisons hid under the large washbasin sink. Shelves against one rounded wall bowed under large volumes. Cookbooks sat by religious texts. Books on mysticism toppled over books on natural science. Western medicine texts leaned on natural medicine books, which rested on small notebooks on alchemy. The fire sizzled under a pot of water. Several beds, each with a nightstand, clung to the opposite curved wall.

In the bed closest to the door, Lil flipped over, her body aching from head to toe. It had been two days since they had exited the labyrinth. And she was just now stirring. She groaned as she forced her eyes open. She shielded them with her hand as the light pierced the open window and blinded her. She leaned back into the soft pillow and blinked several times.

“You're up?” Aestos said. “Atty, get the verbena tea and the menthol rub.”

Lil shifted to look at the other side of the room. There in the bed next to her was Sydney, and just beyond her, Kat smiled. Lil pushed herself up. There just to the other side of Kat was Charlie. Charlie's eyes fluttered open, and she gave a weak wave and a smile. Lil's heart rose.

“We made it?” she asked, her voice coming out in a croak.

“We made it,” Sydney whispered.

Atticus appeared in front of her, pushing a pair of glasses up his nose. He set a long-stemmed pot and a teacup on her bed stand.

“Thank you,” Lil said. She reached up, rubbing her sore throat.

“The menthol rub,” Atticus said, pulling a small, dented tin from his pocket. He unscrewed the cap and showed it to her. She looked at the goopy salve, splintered with leaves. The strong smell of mint stung her nose.

“You put it on to soothe the muscles,” he said. He handed it to her. “Aches and pains.” She remembered him from the dining hall. He had looked so unsure of himself there. Now he walked away from her to a mortar and pestle, and diligently began pouring things into its base. She peered out the window. Nothing was what it seemed here.

“Very good,” Aestos said. “Atticus is very good at his job. You are lucky.”

“Where are we?” Lil lifted the long-stemmed pot with shaking hands. She poured the tonic into her teacup and took a sip of it.

“You are in the house of healers,” Atticus said, gesturing to the arms of herbs that reached down from the ceiling.

Lil felt the warm, lemony water make its way down her throat. It soothed her, clearing her head. The image of her mother's picture in the last room swirled in her mind's eye. Had she dreamed it? Was it a hallucination? She felt a surge of blood go to her face as she sputtered—

“Athenia, the chamber—”

Aestos moved to her bedside, pulling a chair over to it, and for a moment he reminded her of her father, sitting diligently by her side whenever she had been sick. “She will be down soon. She will come and talk to you now that they know you are awake.”

“I don't understand. That man who tried to sacrifice us. The Icarus Folio. The labrys. My mother's portrait. What happened?”

Aestos smiled and nodded, waving a hand. “Yes. Helene. You are just like her. If you are lucky, you will heal as quickly.”

“You knew my mother?” Lil said, setting the teacup down on the bedside table.

“I knew your mother,” Aestos said, nodding. He looked down at his clasped hands. “Atticus knew your mother. We all knew your mother.”

Lil's throat tightened. “You know why she died?”

Aestos looked up, his eyes lined with tears. His lips worked into a tight line, and he swallowed hard. Nodded. “But you must hear it from the beginning. You can't know it without hearing it from the beginning. And that job is not mine.”

A knock came at the
mitato
door, and Athenia appeared in the sunlit doorway. “Are they all awake?” she asked, peering in.

Lil picked up her teacup again and pushed herself to a full sitting position.

“The room is yours,” Aestos said, getting up. “We have much to do for the leadership lunch. I'll leave the full health report on your desk, but they are all doing quite well.” His eyes surveyed the room, all the way to Charlie. “Considering.”

“Thank you,” Athenia said, stepping inside.

“There's extra tea on the stove!” Atticus said, picking up a basket and going to the door.

Lil watched as Athenia took some time to pour tea and settle into a chair. She held the cup between her hands and stared into it for what seemed like an eternity. Lil was about to say something when Athenia finally looked up.

“You have all been through a great ordeal.” She spoke haltingly. “You have many questions. We have many answers and much to discuss.”

Lil felt the breeze blow in the open window and tickle her hair, and she sucked in a breath, creasing the picture of her mother in her hand—the face of the picture split from the water in the Daedalus chamber—waiting for the answers that she had spent years trying to piece together. She adjusted herself on her pillow, hoping that now, finally, she would hear the truth. Kat, Charlie and Sydney pushed themselves up, too, fully alert. Sydney reached for her glasses on the bedside table and put them on.

Athenia placed her cup on the center table. Lil noticed that she wore a long flowing wrap that looked soft and breezy, and from a large sleeve, she pulled the virtues that they had collected through their night in the labyrinth. Lil's breath caught as she saw the gold pendant the man had worn tied in with the others. Her mind raced with thoughts as she relived the journey and her dream. They had visited ancient chambers, gone into a surreal passage. They had seen the wings of Daedalus, a lightning machine with the symbol of Zeus. Charlie had thought many of the artifacts looked real. The dead bodies, Lil knew, were definitely real. The terrors of the challenges were etched in her memory, and yet there was so much fact and fiction melding together in her head that it was impossible to separate the two. It was almost as though she had lived a nightmare and, even now, couldn't wake from it. She leaned forward, her questions bubbling to the surface.

As if Athenia knew she was about to begin, she raised her hands. “Still your questions for now. There is much I have to say.”

Lil watched as, like her, Sydney, Kat and Charlie tightened their hands and lips and waited, impatiently, for Athenia to begin.

“You have been through a great trial,” Athenia said. “One I had hoped you wouldn't have to experience.” She paused, setting the pendants down in her lap and pulling a loaf of bread from the center of the table. “But I'm afraid what's done is done.” She tore a piece of bread from the loaf and handed it to Lil. “You have been into the labyrinth. You secured the virtues and made your way to the nebulous chamber.” She stared down at the charms as if they were old friends. “You saw artifacts from Minotaur, Europa, Daedalus and Ariadne.” She gazed out at the bright sun. “You likely saw their shadows and spirits in the chambers. They're never too far from here, after all.”

Lil gulped, following her gaze out the window. “But—”

Athenia raised her hand once more, slicing her words out of the air. “When you entered the labyrinth, you saw the inscription.”

The others nodded.

“‘Everything you think you know abandons you within,'” she said, picking up a bowl of olives and handing it to Lil. Lil accepted the bowl, taking a few and jamming them into the bread, then set it in her lap and extended the bowl to Sydney. Her mind was far too busy to sit and eat.

“It was real, then?” Charlie said quietly from three beds down. “It was all real.”

Athenia closed and opened her eyes, and she took a breath as though to summon the courage for what she had to say next. “The history of Crete dates back much further than the classical Greeks, much further than our written histories. Well, our known written histories. During this time, the Minoans populated the island. They were a people who started society in the Western world. They were creators, innovators. They built their own community dwellings.”

“Like the palace of Knossos,” Charlie piped in.

Athenia continued, almost as if Charlie hadn't said anything. “They made olive oil and wine, and they harvested from the fields and they even had their own alphabet.”

Athenia plucked the Ariadne virtue from her lap and flipped it over, revealing the spiral side with the many pictographs. “As you also know, from your lesson with Colleen, the Greeks wrote down the stories of their ancestors. These have come to us as modern-day mythology, but what we often forget is that the Greeks thought of the mythology as their history.

“There was a time long, long ago, before 1600 BCE, when Zeus, not a god”—she raised her index finger—“but a man, roamed this hillside.”

Lil pictured the Mohawked man drawn on the door of what the man had referred to as the nebulous chamber.

“He was a serious warlord with a thirst for blood and power. Though kings didn't technically exist, you could say Crete was his kingdom. Because he was the most powerful, at least the most feared, he was also the most revered.” She dropped the Ariadne virtue and picked up the golden Zeus pendant: the circular design crossed by the lightning bolt. “He wished to become immortal, and he had a plan for it.”

“Through story,” Charlie said.

“Through science,” Sydney added.

Athenia nodded.

“He needed a team of innovators to build him into more than he was. To give him the resources he needed to conquer the Aegean.” She flipped the bundle of pendants and selected the tablet that they had pulled from the Europa chamber.

“He had taken Europa from her home in Phoenicia, knowing full well that her family were skilled historians. Her brother Cadmus is given credit for bringing the Greek alphabet to the Western world. That script was Linear A, the roots of the Greek language. Europa was also a writer and historian, and she was forced to write stories of Zeus' conquests. These stories became staples in the oral histories of the island, spreading and expanding throughout the Aegean.

“Next”—she flipped the bundle and pulled the horns of the Minotaur to the surface—“Minotaur. The artist,” Athenia said, “Minotaur was the bastard son of Minos, and Zeus' grandson. He was banished to the labyrinth because it was foretold to Zeus by an oracle that he would overtake him, be twice the king that he could be. Contrary to the modern-day myth of Minotaur as monster, he was a sensitive artist, nay, a visionary, who would have brought peace and prosperity to Crete. Zeus' medium was power and fear, so he locked him away and turned him into a monster, so that all people who came to Crete might fear the island even more than they already did.”

Athenia flipped the pile again as Lil's head buzzed. She held up the winged hands from the Daedalus chamber.

“Daedalus, the ancient world's greatest innovator, was brought to Crete and forced to create a labyrinth, his own prison. He was promised tools and resources, but ultimately those tools and resources would be used to gain more land and power for Zeus.”

Lil stared at the final virtue once again, the sign that her mom had worn.

“And Ariadne, popularly and rightfully known as the mistress of the labyrinth. As a young one she was bound to her grandmother in the darkness of the passageways by a rope, spinning her way in and out of the shadows. Then she was able to navigate the unraveling twists and turns on her own.” Lil pictured the statues bound to one another by the ropes.

Athenia flipped the pendant, revealing the labrys. “She was a bold warrior, and it was her job to protect the labyrinth and those sacred secrets inside it. Her weapon was a double-headed ax.” She flipped the pendant over again, showing the spiral with the pictographs. “And on this side, a map, written in Linear A. A complex tool to navigate every path to the nebulous chamber . . . and beyond. Only decipherable to a rare few.”