“Because you’re something of a clod, Orion.”
I whirled and there stood the Golden One with the sun at his back. He wore a short-skirted robe that seemed to gleam with a radiance of its own. His handsome face was frowning with annoyance.
“Orion, what are you trying to do? Don’t you realize that every time you disturb the continuum like this we have to work to repair the damage you’ve done?”
“Where is Anya?” I asked.
“Far from here.”
“What’s going on? Why am I being held in Pella if there’s a crisis so grave—”
“Stop this chatter!” Aten snapped. “You’ve been told more than once, Orion: your task is in the placetime where you’ve been sent. Do as Hera commands. Is that clear?”
“Not clear enough. I want to know what you are trying to accomplish.”
His narrow nostrils flared angrily. “You want to know, do you? All right, I’ll tell you. You ruined my plans for Troy. Do you remember that?”
He had wanted Troy to beat the Achaian Greeks and go on to establish an empire that would link Asia and Europe. I had thwarted him out of spite.
“That little game of yours unravelled the continuum so badly that we had to exert all our efforts to bring things back together again.”
Good, I thought. Aten had gone insane then; he neglected to recall that little fact.
“We are still trying to repair the damage you’ve done. There must be an empire that unites Europe and Asia, even if it lasts only for a few generations. It is important. Vital!”
“So Alexandros—”
“Must succeed. If you ever expect to see Anya again, you must do as Hera commands. Do you understand that?”
I bowed my head and heard myself mutter, “I understand.”
Aten shook his head and grumbled, “I must say, Orion, that you’ve been more trouble than you’re worth. But you’re strong, I’ll grant you that much. I sent you to the Mesozoic again, back among the dinosaurs, just to get you out of our way until we needed you again. But somehow you showed up at Pella.”
“Anya did that,” I replied, with a certainty that surprised me.
He gave me a sharp look. “Perhaps she did,” he mused. “Perhaps she did. When I wanted to put you in suspension, she insisted that I let you live out a life somewhere in the continuum.”
“So I was to be stored away like a toy that you had grown tired of playing with.”
“Like a tool that I wanted to keep available until I needed it again,” the Golden One corrected.
“And now?” I asked.
“Now we face the gravest crisis of all, thanks in part to your infernal meddling.”
“That is what Anya is doing, fighting against this crisis?”
“Orion, that is what we all are doing. We have no energy to spare on your antics.”
“And Hera is manipulating the events in Macedonia?”
“That is her part of the crisis. Again, because of your stubborn resistance to our will.”
“So what am I to do?”
He smiled thinly. “Nothing at all, Orion. You should have been put in cryonic storage, but I think your cell in Pella will do almost as well. Enjoy your new playmates.”
He meant the rats, I knew.
CHAPTER 30
I opened my eyes in the darkness of my cell and saw the red hateful eyes of the rats surrounding me. Only a few heartbeats of time had elapsed since I had lain myself down on the moldy straw pallet, I reckoned. The rats were approaching me warily, sniffing at the odor of fresh meat but not yet excited into a feeding frenzy.
I sprang to my feet and they scattered to the corners of the cell, chittering with fear and disappointment.
Thus I spent my days, pacing the narrow confines of the cell, not daring to sleep. The only mark of elapsed time came when the jailor slid my gruel through the slot in the door and collected my chamberpot. Gradually I began to look on the rats as companions.
Using the skill I had learned long ago from the Neanderthals, I tried to put myself into the consciousness of the rats. Gradually I learned to see my cell through their eyes. I felt the gnawing hunger that drove them, so much so that I started to leave my miserable bowl of gruel unfinished and let them lap up the remains.