I shook myself, a wry grin on my face. A few days ago I had been sure he was about to kill me; now
I was daydreaming about him as a lover. Perhaps that was the sight of the distant cliffs talking, perhaps all the unresolved emotion of birth, perhaps just the foolish thoughts of the young girl I was desperate to leave well behind.
Respect was enough to hope for now, and even that might be asking far too much.
Siangan eventually joined me at the deck railing. She put her arm about me, and we leaned in close to each other, and I knew, somehow, that she was indescribably sad. Over the past weeks we had talked of many things, but apart from that first night when she’d offered me so much comfort, she had rarely mentioned her homeland, or the child she had lost.
‘Siangan?” I said, and she somehow knew to what I referred. “I will not be welcomed here,” she said, and then her arm squeezed my (newly refound!) waist. “But I think that somehow you will find yourself a true home. But beware, Cornelia. There will be those who will seek to harm you.” That man Hera warned me against ? I thought. Gods! I hadn’t thought about Hera’s warning for months!
And what was his name? Birth must truly have muddled my wits to have forgotten that… there was something she’d said… some description…
‘The Horned One?” I said, relieved that something had finally come to me, but Blangan frowned.
‘Loth?” she said. “I would not have thought so. I admit, he was only a baby when I held him, but surely I would have felt any malevolence—”
‘No. Not Loth. Another name… I’m sorry. It was so long ago. I can’t recall. I was warned against him. A long time ago. Ah, do not worry about it, Blangan. I am sure it is nothing.”
‘Well…” Blangan faced me fully, and pulled me yet closer, and kissed my cheek and then my mouth, almost as a lover would. “Whatever happens to me,” she said, very low, “keep safe, Cornelia. Keep safe.”
I opened my mouth to ask her why she should think she was in danger, but she had turned and was gone, and I was left staring foolishly after her with a profound sense of loss and sorrow that was as unknown, and as unsettling, as was my strange reaction to this new land.
CbAPGGR SI*
ITHIN THE HOURBRUTUSHEARD THE COM-
bined shouts of several of the fore-lookers. Already standing close to the stem of the ship, he raced forward, Hicetaon and Corineus at his side, to see at what they shouted.
On their port bow the cliffs had drawn back into what appeared to be a wide bay, or perhaps the mouth of a river, flanked on both sides by high headlands. As they drew close to the opening, Brutus could see that the bay stretched back as far as his eye could see. It was so big it could easily hold five hundred vessels; his fleet would almost be lost within its vastness.
He turned to Hicetaon and Corineus. “Well?”
‘We take five ships and sail in,” said Hicetaon without hesitation. “If this is as good as it appears, then the rest can follow at our signal.”
Brutus looked at Deimas who had joined them. He nodded his agreement.
‘Good,” Brutus said. “We take this ship, and those of Assaracus, Aganus, Peleus, and Serses. Signal them, Corineus.”
Brutus stepped up to the stem post, the fore-looker moving aside for him.
‘I can hardly believe such a land exists,” the fore-looker said with the reverence of a man who had hitherto been used to the thinner soils and harder climate of western Greece.
‘Aye,” said Brutus. He leaned over the stem post, hanging on with one arm, and shaded his eyes against the now bright sun. “I see no smoke, nor no sign of habitation. You?”
The fore-looker strained his eyes, then shook his head. “It is a paradise, waiting for us.”
‘Aye,” said Brutus. “Waiting for us.”
* * *
OARSMEN RAN TO THEIR BENCHES AND SLIPPED THEIR oars in the five ships Brutus had selected, their captains ordered the sails lowered and stowed.
Within minutes the ships had come to, navigating through the wide opening between the headlands.
‘Order the men to keep close lookout,” Brutus said softly although there seemed no sign of danger, or even of further watching eyes, in the wide bay. Formed by the great mouth of a river estuary, the bay was flanked on either side by steep wooded hills that rolled away into the distance.
There were no smoke trails, no sign of habitation, no tracks that led from the woods to the foreshore, no fishing boats drawn up on the occasional sandy beach.
On the other hand, there were numerous water birds, the flash of fish schools within the water, and the mouths of several creeks that emptied into the bay.
The river estuary itself stretched wide and deep, and wound into the hills in a general northwesterly direction.
‘Even if there are archers hiding in those hills,” Hicetaon said, “the estuary is wide enough to allow the entire fleet entry without danger.”
Brutus took a deep breath, considering. The five ships were now deep into the bay, the river stretching invitingly before them, and they could see nothing, nor had their presence elicited any reaction from the close woods.
It could be a trap… but…
‘Signal the other ships to follow us in,” Brutus said, “but signal also that the archers are to stand ready, should we have need of them. We need to land somewhere, at some time… and I can see no sweeter place than this. We have to risk it.”
‘Do we land here, on one of these sandy beaches?” Hicetaon said.
‘I think not. None of them are large enough to allow for the size of our fleet, nor for the numbers of our peoples. There is no place here to establish an easy camp for twelve thousand; besides, this bay is still too open to the sea. If a storm should blow in then the ships would be dashed against the rocks. We follow the river, and see what we may see.”
SLOWLY, SINGLE FILE, THE BLACK-HULLED SHIPS OF the Trojan fleet sailed into the mouth of the estuary and up the river. On either side reared the steep wooded hills; now and again among the trees close to the waterline the Trojans caught a glimpse of deer or hare, and even once of several slow-blinking wild sows standing at the water with their piglets, watching the gradual progression of oared ship after oared ship pass up the channel.
Corineus’ vessel led the file, Brutus standing alert close to the stem post. His eyes continually moved between the two shorelines, looking for signs of human habitation—or human ambush.
Once they’d left the wide bay at the mouth of the estuary, and moved into the river, Cornelia came to stand with him.
‘Achates?” Brutus said, glancing at her.
‘Aethylla is feeding him,” Cornelia said, her eyes on the passing hills.
Brutus opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and merely nodded instead.
‘This is a mysterious land,” Cornelia said after a few minutes.
‘You said it was green earlier.”
She shrugged. “It is green and mysterious. What lives in those woods, do you think, Brutus?”
‘Deer, hare, birds, wild boar. All the creatures woods harbor.”
‘But what else’ ? There is surely something else in these woods…”
Brutus looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”
Cornelia took a moment to reply, staring into the forested slopes to either side of the river as if she looked for something… or someone.
Eventually she shrugged, giving a small embarrassed smile. “I don’t know. Maybe my thoughts remain muddled from Achates’ birth. Forgive me, Brutus.”
He smiled himself, very gently. “I will allow you a few muddled thoughts in return for the gift of Achates. It is not a heavy price.”
He reached out a hand, and after a small hesitation, she took it. “I have been impossibly foolish, Brutus, and my thoughts and hopes mired in the past. We have a marriage to make, you and I, and I think… I know I would very much like to make the best of it that I can.” Tears glinted in her eyes. “As you said, perhaps we should make the best of our doom. Perhaps…”
‘Perhaps,” he said, making the effort to respond to her effort, “we can even make something good of it.”
One of her tears spilled over, and he lifted his other hand and wiped it away with his thumb, gently, almost caressingly.
‘We have wasted too much time,” he said softly.
FOR TWO TURNS OF THE RIVER THE LANDSCAPE RE-mained unchanging; steep rolling and closely wooded hills, sometimes plunging to the water’s edge in cliffs, sometimes easing down more gently to small sandy beaches.