Yet Tamis was not without courage. Steeling herself, she chose a path and flew to the heart of the shadow, feeling the power of the Dark God eating into her soul like acid. She could not hold her presence here for long, and fled back to the transient security of a solid present.
The knowledge she had gained became a terrible weight which burdened the old priestess. She could share it with no
one and knew that at the most critical moment, when the evil needed to be challenged, she would be dead.
She prayed then, harder than she ever had, her thoughts spinning out into the cosmos. A darkness grew inside her mind, then a single light shone and she saw a face, lined but strong, hawklike with piercing blue eyes beneath a helm of iron. The face blurred and faded, to be replaced by that of a boy. Yet still the eyes were piercing blue, the mouth set in a determined line. A name came to her. But was it that of a saviour or a destroyer? She could not know, she could only hope. But the name echoed in her mind like distant thunder.
Parmenion!
Sparta, Summer, 385 BC
They came at him silently from the shadows, faces hooded and masked, wooden clubs raised.
Parmenion darted to the left – but two more attackers ran into his path and a club slashed past his head, grazing his shoulder. His fist hammered into the masked face, then he cut to the right and sprinted towards Leaving Street. The cold, marble eyes of the statue of Athena gazed down on the boy as he ran, drawing him on towards her. Parmenion leapt to the base of the statue, clambering up to stand against the stone legs.
‘Come down! Come down!’ chanted his tormentors. ‘We have something for you, mix-blood!’
‘Then come up and give it to me,’ he told them. The five attackers ran forward. Parmenion’s foot lashed into the face of the first, hurling him back, but a club cracked against his leg to knock him from his feet. He rolled, kicking out and sending an assailant sprawling, then he was up again and leaping high over them to land heavily on the street. A hurled club took him between the shoulder-blades and he staggered. Instantly they were upon him, pinning his arms.
‘Now we have you,’ said a voice, muffled by the woollen scarf masking the mouth.
‘You don’t need the mask, Gryllus,’ hissed Parmenion. ‘I’d know you by the smell.’
‘You will not contest the Final tomorrow,’ said another voice. ‘You understand? You should never have been allowed to take part. The General’s Games are for Spartans – not half-breeds.’
Parmenion relaxed – his manner becoming subdued, his head dropping. The hold on his arms eased . . . suddenly he wrenched free, his fist thundering into Gryllus’ face. They swarmed in on him then, punching and kicking, driving him to his knees. Gryllus hauled him up by his hair as the others pinned his arms once more.
‘You asked for this,’ said Gryllus, drawing back his fist. Pain exploded in Parmenion’s jaw and he sagged against his captors. The blows continued; short, powerful hooks to the belly and face.
Parmenion did not cry out. There is no pain, he told himself. There is no . . . pain.
‘What’s going on there?’
‘It’s the night-watch!’ whispered one of his captors. Loosing their hold on Parmenion, the youths sprinted off into an alleyway. Parmenion fell to the street and rolled. Above him loomed the silent statue of Athena of the Road. As he groaned and lurched to his feet, two soldiers ran to him.
‘What happened to you?’ asked the first, gripping Parmenion’s shoulder.
‘I fell.’ Parmenion shook loose the helping hand and spat blood.
‘And your friends were assisting you to rise, I suppose?’ grunted the man. ‘Why don’t you walk with us for a while?’
‘I need no escort,’ Parmenion told them.
The soldier looked into the youth’s pale blue eyes. ‘They are still in the alley,’ he said, keeping his voice low.
‘I did not doubt it,’ answered Parmenion, ‘but they’ll not take me unawares again.’ As the soldiers moved away Parmenion sucked in a deep breath and began to run, ducking into alleys and cutting left and right towards the market-place. For a while he heard his pursuers, but then there was only the silence of the city night.