Secret of the Oracle

by Saviour Pirotta

  He indicated the ruins around us. ‘Nobody even remembers this place. Every year, the elements wear away more of these stones. Mount Parnassus is prone to earthquakes. One day there will be no trace of the ancient peoples left, only the legends.’

  ‘I know the old stories,’ I gasped. A storyteller had once told them at a symposium Master Ariston performed in. ‘One of them tells about the people who long ago lived at the foot of Mount Parnassus. They were alerted to the Great Flood you mention by the howling of wolves, who sensed the disaster coming. They fled up the mountain and founded a new city, which they called Lykoreia, in honour of the wolves.’

  ‘Lykoreia,’ said Belos, his lips trembling with the need to let the words out. ‘It means the “howling of the wolves”.’

  ‘But surely that’s just a legend,’ said Thrax. ‘An old story.’

  ‘Who knows?’ said Belos. ‘It could be. Perhaps this city is older even than the legend.’

  He started walking through the ruins, tracing his fingers along the stones. I looked around me with new eyes, imagining the wolves racing up the mountain to get away from the flood, terrified people following in their wake.

  Had it really happened or was it just a story as Thrax insisted? Time draws a veil on events, turning the past into a dream nobody can remember clearly. Legend and reality mix. They become myth.

  ‘Where have you hidden Selene?’ Thrax asked Belos as we left the ruins behind and came once more to empty rocks.

  Belos ignored him and hurried on. The plateau narrowed back to a mountain path and then to a dirt track so narrow we had to put one foot in front of the other to walk along it. To our right, the cliff was smooth as glass, with not even a crack in the rocks to cling to. To our left, it was a sheer drop to the valley below.

  The sun was setting and it was difficult to see with all the shadows. Thrax reached out his left hand without turning. ‘Hold on to me, Nico. We’ll be fine.’

  I took his hand and slowly, like snails crawling along a sodden leaf, we moved forward. My legs felt wobbly and my chest so tight I could hardly breathe.

  Ahead of us, Belos stopped. He had come to a sort of platform jutting out over the valley below. Behind it was a small cave, its mouth bricked up with stones, leaving just enough space for a door. Belos pushed it open.

  ‘Is Selene here?’ Thrax said.

  Belos nodded and we stepped inside. By the light from the door, I could make out an enormous rectangular stone in the middle of the cave. At first I thought it was an altar. Ancient peoples had been known to worship and offer sacrifice in caves. But this stone was too low to the ground for that and I noticed something lying on it. It was the crumbling remains of a skeleton. We were in a tomb.

  My blood turned cold. I’d been in graveyards before, but never within touching distance of actual bones.

  Belos ducked through a low doorway and we followed him down a narrow corridor cut into the rocks. It led to a small chamber where a lamp was burning in an alcove. Belos held it up so we could see into the far corner. There, with both hands chained to the wall, was a girl. She was much thinner than the last time I had seen her and she was covered in dried mud. But there was no mistaking the red hair. It was Selene.

  ‘You animal,’ growled Thrax, turning round to face Belos. ‘Look at her. She’s practically dead.’

  Alerted by the light, Selene rattled the chains feebly and moaned. Belos sniggered. ‘The girl’s still got some fight left in her. She’s like a tiger. Grrr! But she’s weak from lack of water. There’s a flask just out of her reach if you want to help her, slave boy. Go on, the gods will reward you for your kindness.’

  Thrax and I saw the flask at the same time, and we both jumped towards it without thinking. A moment later the ground opened up under our feet and we found ourselves hurtling into darkness.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Buried Alive

  We hit rocky ground and I felt a dizzying pain in my head. ‘Ouch.’

  ‘Are you hurt, Nico?’

  ‘Not badly, Thrax but I’m seeing stars and I’m going to have a second lump on my head to match the first one. How about you?’

  ‘I twisted my ankle but I think I’ll live.’

  ‘You’ll live,’ echoed a voice above us. ‘But not for long.’

  Belos was grinning down at us from the hole we’d fallen through, his face a hideous mask in the lamplight. ‘You thought you had got the better of me but you have fallen for a trick that was old even in the days of the tomb robbers. Did you really think I would let you free Selene? I waited years for my father to find me. Nothing is going to take him away from me again.’

  ‘We’ll get out,’ said Thrax. ‘And we’ll bring you to justice.’

  ‘No, you won’t,’ spat Belos. ‘You made a big mistake when you thought I’d brought that girl up here to wait for mountain bandits. I knew the mountain pass was blocked. No, I brought her here to die. Now you are going to perish with her. And when there’s nothing left of you except bones, I shall come back and retrieve my fibula.’

  He tossed some coins down to us. ‘Use these to pay the ferryman for your journey across the Styx.’ His face disappeared from the hole and we heard his boots trudging out of the chamber.

  Without Belos’s lamp, the darkness in the chamber was almost solid.

  ‘The gods help us,’ I whispered. ‘What have we fallen into?’

  ‘The chamber above us must have been a treasure house,’ said Thrax. ‘I have heard tell of ancient rulers who were buried with all their riches. That skeleton in the big cave is probably a dead king from long ago. We are in a trap meant to fool tomb robbers. Belos disguised it with twigs and sticks. I bet you the floor here is littered with the skulls and bones of dead thieves.’

  Thrax shuffled closer to me. ‘Nico, feel in your bag and tell me what’s in it.’

  I did as he asked. ‘I have a stylus, two reed pens and a stale honey cake. Also a scrap of papyrus.’

  ‘Where is your wax tablet?’

  ‘It fell out of my belt and smashed on the floor.’

  ‘Can you find it? I only need the wooden frame.’

  I felt around in the dark, praying I would not accidentally touch a human bone.

  ‘Good,’ said Thrax when I found the broken tablet. ‘I have Master Ariston’s alabastron. It’s nearly full of perfumed oil. Here, I’m setting it down on the floor between us. Don’t knock it over. Now hand me your stylus and tear the papyrus to shreds. They need to be fine, like straw, and put them in a heap on the floor in front of you. Then tear a narrow strip off your chiton and stick it in the alabastron. Make sure the bottom half is hanging down in the oil and the top half is sticking out of the alabastron.’

  I heard the sound of wood scraping against wood as I carried out his instructions. Thrax was grinding the sharp tip of the stylus against the wooden frame. There was a faint burning smell and eventually a small red ember glowed in the dark.

  ‘Nico, the papyrus.’

  I piled the shreds carefully around the ember and Thrax blew on them till a small flame appeared. We watched it blossom. Thrax picked up the alabastron and held the strip of chiton to the fire.

  Now we had a lamp and we could see around us. The floor was indeed littered with bones. I could see a cracked skull grinning at me and a hand with bony fingers spread out on the ground.

  ‘We need a stick or a branch,’ said Thrax. ‘A thick one that will take our weight.’

  The pit was dug out of solid rock, with huge bumps and dents, and many hidden corners. We searched around and soon found the discarded handle of a broken axe.

  Thrax took off his himation and tore it into strips, which he tied and twisted together to make a long rope. He knotted the end of it to the middle of the wooden handle and hurled it like a javelin through the hole in the roof. Twice it fell back into the pit but the third time, the two ends caught on the rim of the hole. Thrax tugged on it to make sure the rope was secure, then turned to me.

  ‘You
go first, Nico. I’ll bring the lamp.’

  I shimmied up the rope, grunting with the effort, the axe handle bending under my weight. Thrax came up behind me, grabbing the rope with one hand and holding the lamp in the other.

  In the upper chamber, we both knelt down by Selene. She was so weak now, she could barely move. Her eyes were almost puffed shut.

  ‘Can you hear me, Selene?’ said Thrax. ‘We’re going to find a way to break your chains and get you out of here. We’re friends and we’ve come to rescue you.’

  Selene rattled her chains to show she understood. I held the water flask to her lips and she drank thirstily. Thrax gave her some honey cake.

  With Selene fed, we looked around for the tunnel that led back to the ancient king’s resting place. We found the entrance without a problem but the far end was blocked with a huge round stone. No amount of pushing, pulling or prodding managed to shift it. It had been cunningly engineered to seal the treasure room with everything inside it.

  We were buried alive.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The Howling of the Wolves

  Back in the treasure room we sat on the ground, close to the lamp. The water and honey cake had revived Selene. She peered at me, then at Thrax. ‘The child-men,’ she whispered hoarsely.

  ‘Let’s have a bit of honey cake ourselves,’ said Thrax. ‘And a gulp of water. They’ll help us think. But we must leave some food for later. We have no idea how long we’re going to be in here.’

  I chewed my cake in silence and took a large swig from the water flask. Thrax started rubbing his twisted ankle, trying very hard not to wince at the pain. He stared at the lamp and I knew once again he was working things out in his mind.

  I had no idea how long we sat there, huddled together in the feeble light. I tried to concentrate on finding a way out of the tomb but the task seemed impossible. My mind is not as disciplined as Thrax’s. It kept wandering back to the same question about Belos and Abantes.

  Why did they want Selene dead?

  I was sure Thrax had figured that out already but I couldn’t interrupt him while he was thinking, and not with Selene listening.

  Gradually, I became aware of a faint eerie sound, like a strong wind in the trees. But there was no wind in here, and no trees. I hoped it was not the moaning of the ancient king’s ghost, wandering around its tomb looking for the stolen treasure.

  ‘The sacred wolves,’ whispered Selene, struggling to get the words out. ‘They come in and out of the mountains.’

  ‘Selene is right,’ said Thrax, sitting up on one elbow. ‘It is wolves howling.’ He scrambled to his feet, wincing at the pain in his twisted ankle. ‘If there’s a way for wolves to get in here, there might be a way for us to get out. Or at least for one of us to go and fetch help.’

  He spoke to Selene. ‘Nico and I are going to look for the wolves before the oil in the alabastron runs out. We’ll come back for you, I promise.’

  He held the water bottle to her lips again and gave her the last of the honey cake. Then we both shinned back down the rope. The sound of wolves was definitely louder in the pit, and much clearer.

  Thrax held the light close to the ground, swinging it in wide arcs. ‘Hey, look, Nico.’

  Peering in the light, I could make out a cluster of tiny dark blobs on the ground. ‘Wolf poo,’ I said.

  Thrax nudged a lump gently with his toe. ‘And it’s fresh. The wolves were in here while we were in the chamber above. Let’s find out where they’re coming in. There must be a hole or a large crack somewhere.’

  It was not easy finding the hole. The walls of the cave were patterned with dark shadows. To make matters worse, our light was guttering. I was thinking of adding a new strip of cloth from my chiton when I heard a soft, rustling sound behind me. A wolf-cub had her snout in my bag, which I had dropped on the floor.

  She froze the moment I moved, her bushy tail held up stiff behind her. ‘Thrax!’ The wolf-cub pulled her head out of my bag and fixed me with small amber eyes. Her tail twitched and in a flash, she was gone.

  ‘Did you see where she went?’ said Thrax.

  ‘Yes, she went round that rock in the corner.’

  We rushed behind the rock and Thrax shone the light against the rough wall.

  ‘Eureka! I’ve found it.’

  The light had revealed a large hole about a knee’s height off the ground. It was packed with loose stones that had a crack between them, wide enough for a wolf-cub to squeeze through. Thrax started pulling out the stones. I put the alabastron on the ground and joined him. A slight breeze touched my face as we dislodged more stones. Fresh air! On the other side of this wall, there was a connection with the outside world.

  We soon had a pile of rubble on the floor and the hole was much deeper. ‘There’s a proper tunnel here,’ said Thrax. ‘It’s just about wide enough for a person to crawl in. I think tomb robbers used it to get into the treasure chamber above us.’

  His theory was proved right when we discovered a cracked skull in the debris. The tunnel must have collapsed with someone still inside it.

  ‘Did the tomb robbers dig it themselves, do you think?’ I asked, trying not to shudder as Thrax handed me the skull and I put it down gingerly on the ground.

  ‘No, the walls are too smooth to have been made with human tools. I think it was carved by an underground river thousands of years ago. The tomb robbers were just lucky to find it.’

  ‘As are we,’ I said. Before long we had removed enough stones for Thrax to wriggle into the tunnel. He passed more stones back to me, which I added to the ever-growing pile.

  The stones ran out halfway through the tunnel, the rest of which Thrax said was clear. ‘Listen,’ he called out in an echoey voice. ‘Can you hear that?’

  I stuck my head in and listened. ‘It’s the sound of water.’

  ‘A river,’ said Thrax. ‘Rushing down the mountain. It might be a small tributary of the Pleistos, which starts on Mount Parnassus and flows all the way down to the Corinthian gulf.’

  He wriggled on in the dark, dragging himself along on his elbows. Soon I could see the soles of his sandals coming back, dusty white in the darkness. He stood up, shaking grit out of his hair. His face glistened in the lamplight; it was covered in spray.

  ‘The tunnel comes out more or less at my height above the riverbank,’ he said breathlessly. ‘The river’s pretty fast. I guess it’s swollen by the recent rains. If we could find something to ride on, it’ll take us out into the open at some point. Hand me the lamp, Nico, and follow me.’

  He went back into the tunnel feet first. I followed, wriggling forwards on my tummy, praying I wouldn’t get stuck. At the far end, we dropped out on to a narrow ledge, which was slippery underfoot. The sound of the river was deafening and, within moments, we were both soaked to the skin.

  ‘If only we had a boat of some kind,’ I shouted at Thrax, ‘or at least a raft.’

  ‘A raft,’ Thrax shouted back. ‘Good thinking, Nico. Let’s see if we can find anything to build one.’

  The gods were with us. We worked our way along the ledge till we came to a bend in the river. And there, trapped against the curved wall, was a small pile of thick branches. I had no idea how they’d got there but Thrax had an answer right away.

  ‘I guess they were part of a raft,’ he said. ‘The tomb robbers must have had the same idea as us. They made a raft to get to the tunnel. Only they lost control it and came to grief against the rocks.’

  ‘The robbers’ tragedy is our good fortune,’ I said.

  We dragged the branches on to the ledge, struggling to keep a hold on the slippery bark. When we had them laid out side by side, I tore my himation into strips and helped Thrax lash the strongest ones together.

  The raft built, we hurried back to the treasure room. Thrax used a sharp stone from the riverbank to smash Selene’s chains. I had filled my flask at the river and we gave her more water. She got shakily to her feet.

  ‘Lean on me, Selene,’
said Thrax. ‘We’re getting you out of here.’

  By the time we reached the riverbank, the lamp had gone out. Still, it was not completely dark. The river seemed to have its own light, a mysterious glow that made it possible for us to tread safely along the ledge.

  We helped Selene aboard the raft, then Thrax and I pushed it into the water. We only had a moment to leap on board before the current caught us and whipped us away. At first the raft spun as if it were being sucked into Charybdis’s jaws and I was sure we were all going to be thrown off. But once round the bend we stopped spinning. The current swept us along at great speed and we had to hold on to each other to stay on. Our faces were lashed with freezing water, which stung our faces and got into our eyes.

  For most of the time, the roof of the watery tunnel was high above us but sometimes it swooped down so low we had to duck or we’d have smashed our heads against the rock.

  Once we burst through a colony of bats hanging from the ceiling. They panicked and whirled around us, squeaking and flapping their pointed wings.

  Selene, who had closed her eyes, opened them again. She lashed out with her arms in a panic.

  ‘Harpies,’ she screamed, hitting out at the creatures. ‘Harpies. They’re after us!’

  The bats were left behind in an instant as the raft hurtled on. The branches bucked and jiggled underneath us, putting a terrific strain on the linen straps. I was sure most of them were going to snap any moment, hurling us into the roaring water.

  ‘Hey, look,’ said Thrax, nudging me in the ribs. ‘I think there might be light up ahead.’

  I became aware of a blurry glow in the distance. It grew larger and brighter, even as I looked. A few moments later, the raft shot out into blinding sunshine. My hands raked the air, trying to find something to hold on to. For a moment, I caught sight of the twin cliffs behind Delphi. Then I plummeted, screaming at the top of my lungs, and plunged into swirling water.