Nobody's Princess (21 page)

When the last of the Spartans were out of sight, Milo murmured a few words to Eunike and darted back into the temple grounds. “Who lit a fire under him?” I asked.

“He has things to do.” She linked her arm in mine and drew me aside far enough to keep our conversation private from the gatekeeper. “He’s got to be ready for when you leave tomorrow.”

“Thanks to you,” I said, squeezing her arm. “Eunike, you were wonderful. Now there’s no way that my parents can blame those men for coming home without me. The Pythia foretold it.”

“I never foretold a thing,” Eunike reminded me. “Can I help it if people expect everything I say to be a prophecy?”

“Not even when you said it was
revealed
to you that I wouldn’t be leaving Delphi today?”

“So it was, just not by the gods.
You
told me you’d need one more day to prepare for your journey.” She winked at me. She was right. There wasn’t a single thing she’d said in the temple that morning that couldn’t be interpreted two ways. I
wouldn’t
be going home until at least a year had passed. My parents
would
have frequent news from Delphi; it just wasn’t going to come from me. And as for
why
I wasn’t going back to Sparta with my men, when the Pythia said,
This is how it must be,
no one demanded a more specific reason, because those words came from her lips. My friend controlled an awesome power. She’d used it to help me, but I thanked all the gods that she was too honorable to abuse it for herself.

“Eunike, you should serve Apollo
and
Hermes,” I told her. “How can I ever thank you for—?” I clapped my hands to my mouth: A sudden flash of revelation struck me. “The priests!” I exclaimed. “What about the priests? How can I leave for Iolkos tomorrow if they’re expecting to see me here, in Apollo’s temple, for at least a year to come?”

“Helen, I doubt your father has the power to punish Apollo’s priests for misplacing you,” Eunike said calmly.

“And who’ll have the power to comfort him and my mother once they find out that
no one
knows where I am?” I countered.

“Well, you can’t change your mind about going to Iolkos now—”

“I’m not doing that!” I cried.

“—even if you wanted to,” Eunike concluded. “It would make me look like a liar, even when both of us know I’m not. Apollo would
not
be pleased.” She planted her hands on my shoulders and steered me back through the temple gates. “Don’t worry about it. Prepare for your journey and leave the priests and their expectations to me.”

I’d seen how clever Eunike was; I decided to put my confidence in her. She
would
come up with a way for me to leave for Iolkos and stay in Delphi at the same time. I simply couldn’t imagine
how
she’d manage it.

That night, I dreamed I was standing beside her at the sun god’s altar once more. The temple filled with sparkling golden light, and Apollo himself appeared to us.
I have heard your prayers, my Pythia,
he said to Eunike. His divine voice shook me down to my bones.
I will answer them.

He touched my head with a branch of laurel, and suddenly there were two Helens standing before the altar. My other self turned to face me, but before I could say anything she grabbed my arms and shook me violently, shouting in my face,
You’re not Lady Helen! You never
wanted
to be Lady Helen!
I’m
Lady Helen! Say it! Say my name! Lady Helen! Lady Helen!
I tried to ask her,
Then who am I?
but my tongue wouldn’t move. And still my other self shook me, crying out,
Lady Helen! Lady Helen!
until I realized that I was awake and Milo was standing over my bed, calling my name.

“Lady Helen, hurry, it’s almost dawn, it’s time!”

I sent him out of my room while I put on one of my brothers’ tunics. It wasn’t the foul-smelling one from the hunt; I’d decided to keep that in reserve for only the most dire emergency. I didn’t want to draw anyone’s attention on the road to Iolkos, and I’d realized that being
too
filthy might have just the opposite effect. I bound back my hair, tied on my sword, draped Castor’s old sandals around my neck, picked up my bundle of belongings, and was out the door.

We didn’t leave the temple precinct by the front gateway. Because Milo knew the grounds, I let him lead me to a place where the wall was low and a broken gardener’s wagon gave us just the bit of extra help we needed to scale it. Once over the wall, Milo guided me carefully through the dark, silent streets until we were clear of the city.

The road we took away from Delphi was easier than the road we’d scaled to reach Apollo’s sacred city. Our feet picked up speed on that downward slope. I smelled pine needles, which was nothing remarkable, but I also breathed in the scent of the sea. The longer we walked, the stronger it grew. That shouldn’t be: The sea lay
south
of Delphi, and to march to Iolkos I knew we had to take the northern road.

“Milo, are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” I asked.

“This is the way we need to go, Lady Helen,” he replied, looking back over one shoulder. “She’s waiting for us by the shore. She sent for me last night, after the two of you said your good-byes, and told me to bring you to her here this morning.”

I didn’t have to ask who
she
was. “Why?”

Milo shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve told you what she told me, Lady Helen.”

“Milo, we’re going to be traveling together,” I said. “Don’t call me Lady Helen anymore.”

“It would be disrespectful if I only called you Helen, my lady,” he said.

“It would be
ridiculous
if you called me Helen. I’m supposed to be a boy, remember? Call me Glaucus.”

“Yes, Lady—
Glaucus,
” he muttered. I could tell he wasn’t happy about it.

Happy or not, you’d better get used to it, Milo,
I thought.
We’ve got a long way to go, and this isn’t the road that’s going to take us there. What’s Eunike up to, I wonder?

She was waiting for us by the sea, standing beside the smoking embers of a driftwood fire. She was wrapped in a rumpled cape that looked like she’d slept in it. She must have sneaked out of the temple as soon as Milo left her and spent the night on the beach in order to meet us here at this hour. While we’d made the downhill trek from Delphi, the new day had come.

Eunike wasn’t waiting alone. A stocky, middle-aged man wearing only a loincloth stood on her left, his skin the same deep brown as his hair. On her right stood—

“Lady Helen,” Milo breathed, staring at the girl with Eunike.

At first glance, she did look like me as far as height, weight, and the color of her eyes and hair. She was dressed in the same elaborate gown I’d worn to Apollo’s temple, adorned with the same jewelry, her face painted with the same carmine and kohl. But if you didn’t allow yourself to be distracted by details, if you really
looked
at her, studied her closely, you could tell she wasn’t me.

“Who are these people, Eunike?” I asked, bewildered.

The Pythia beamed. “This good fisherman came to Apollo’s shrine years ago, to hear if his daughter here would recover from a fever. The god allowed me to give him good news. Since then, he’s felt that he’s in my debt, no matter what I say. He and his daughter come to honor Apollo every day, when he’s not out at sea, and never empty-handed. While you were in your room yesterday morning, preparing for your journey, I saw them in the temple and realized how closely this girl resembles you. It was as if Apollo himself was giving you the way to stay in Delphi and still seek a
hundred
Golden Fleeces!”

The fisherman stepped forward and raised his hands to me. “The holy Pythia told us what you need, great lady. I’ve sworn to keep your secret safe, and so has my girl. May Apollo destroy us both if we betray you.”

“You can’t do this,” I told him earnestly. “You can’t let your daughter masquerade as me. Think of what could happen to her if she’s discovered!”

The fisherman smiled awkwardly, avoiding my eyes. “Great lady, my girl’s all I’ve got, since her mother died birthing her. I don’t know what I’d’ve done if I’d lost her too, when that fever hit. When I serve the Pythia, I serve the god who gave her back to me, and the Pythia says she wants us to help you. Let us.”

“I won’t let anything happen to this girl, Helen,” Eunike said, stepping between the fisherman and me. “Not even if she’s found out.”

“What do you mean,
if
?” I said. “She might fool someone for a moment, but to pass as me for a year or more? One good look at her—”

“Who’ll bother doing that?” Eunike replied smoothly. “How often did Apollo’s priests pay any attention to you when you passed them on the temple grounds, let alone
look
at you? Even the servants never really
saw
you. You could be any girl at all to them, as long as that girl dressed like a princess.”

“And what if one of them has to
speak
with me?” I demanded. I turned to the fisherman. “Do you think your daughter can
talk
like a princess too?”

“Oh yes, great lady, yes, certainly.” He bobbed his head eagerly. “My Alkyone’s
very
bossy, when she wants to be.”

I saw that I wouldn’t be able to talk anyone out of this scheme. The fisherman saw it as the best opportunity he’d ever get to repay Apollo for his daughter’s life. His daughter saw it as a dream come true, the chance to live like a princess. They trusted Eunike to save them in case the plan failed, but you could tell by looking at their faces, radiant with confidence, that they refused to believe anything
could
go wrong.

If I wanted to go to Iolkos and then on to Colchis and the Golden Fleece, I’d have to borrow some of that wholehearted faith. I bowed my head and raised my hands to the fisherman’s daughter. “Lady Helen, do I have your permission to go?” I asked.

She stood tall and looked down her nose at me, but her lips curved up in a graceful smile. “Go with the blessing of the gods,” she said. Her voice was only a little lower than mine. “And with Poseidon’s blessing above all.” She gestured at the little boat rocking on the waves not far from where we stood on shore.

“No road for you, Helen,” Eunike said gaily. “Not yet. This man has promised me to take you as far as Corinth.” She patted the fisherman’s shoulder. He looked ready to die of joy at receiving such a sign of favor from Apollo’s chosen one.

“I’ll do better than that!” he declared. “I’ll take you all the way to Iolkos, if the gods let me.”

We said our farewells and the three of us waded out to his boat. Milo looked as if he were going to his own funeral. Considering what a sorry sailor he was, he might have been right. Once we climbed aboard, he sank down on the deck and buried his head in his hands.

“What’s wrong with him?” the fisherman asked me as he prepared to set sail.

“He gets seasick,” I told him. “
Badly
seasick.”

Our new friend pursed his lips, then went toward the back of the boat and returned carrying a small, sealed clay flask. “Have a swig of this,” he said, forcing it into Milo’s hands. “It’s mostly mint and ginger; settles the stomach. Back that up with a proper sacrifice to Poseidon, and I guarantee you’ll think we’re sailing over glass.”

While Milo sniffed the neck of the flask warily, then drank, a favorable wind sprang up. The fisherman made haste to set the sail. The painted cloth belled out and we were under way. I waved good-bye to Eunike until a curve of the coast hid her from my sight, then I went to see if there was anything I could do to help the fisherman.

“Help? Bless your kind heart, no,” he told me. “I’m used to sailing this sweet girl on my own. You look after your friend and see to it that you don’t forget to make that offering to Poseidon, like I said. The gods are watching.”

I went back to Milo, but he’d stretched himself out on the boards and had fallen asleep. Maybe there was something stronger than ginger and mint in that little flask, but as long as he wasn’t being sick again, I was happy. I left him in peace and walked forward, to the small vessel’s prow.

With Milo napping and the fisherman busy, I’d have to come up with an offering to Poseidon on my own. I opened the soft leather pouch at my belt and fished around inside. It was packed with beads of gold, silver, and precious stones. As part of my preparations for this trip, I’d taken apart several of my necklaces, intending to trade them, bead by bead, for supplies on the road.

“Lord Poseidon of the seas, earth shaker, horse tamer, guide my hand,” I prayed. “Choose your sacrifice.” My fingers closed on what I thought was just another bead, but when I pulled it out into the light, I saw that it was the monster’s tooth that the old sailor had carved into the shape of Aphrodite riding a dolphin. Poseidon had made his choice.

I held the little image to my heart. Out of so many possibilities, why had the god chosen this for his sacrifice? Did it mean something? I wished that Eunike were still with me. She was used to understanding divine messages. Aphrodite was born from the ocean’s foam and I was giving her back to the sea. Was that a sign that I’d return safely to the place where I’d been born or a warning that the ocean would swallow me up too?

If I’d never left home, I wouldn’t have to tangle my brain over omens,
I thought.
I wouldn’t need to worry about my fate, or Milo’s, or what will happen if I—if I don’t come home at all.
I filled my lungs with briny air and let out my breath slowly.
A rock at the bottom of a well is safe from worries too.

We were sailing east, into the sun. I raised my arms and called out, “Lord Zeus, ruler of gods and men, even though I’m not your daughter, give me a father’s blessing. All-seeing Apollo, give me your light; Athena, lend me your wisdom. Beloved Aphrodite, let Milo and me find only kindness on this journey. Lord Poseidon, grant us a safe voyage and accept this sacrifice!”

I threw the carving of my goddess as high and far as I could, into the sky above the waves, and watched its arcing path through the air. As it fell, I saw a golden shape come diving toward the plummeting image, a huge eagle that seized the monster’s tooth in his talons. The feathers on his breast skimmed the sea before he soared back into the sky and flew away.