It was where the wine came from and the inhabitants wove tufted rugs which were famous all over Greece.
She had been shown several of them when she was in Athens and had made up her mind to buy one because they were so attractive.
"What happened in Arachova?" Orion asked.
"Kazandis was there!"
Orion seemed to stiffen in his seat.
"I thought he was in prison."
"Apparently he escaped," Madame replied. "He swept down on the town last night and although they tried to drive him away he stole a considerable number of things before he left."
"That is serious," Orion remarked.
"Who is Kazandis?" Athena enquired.
"A bandit," Orion answered, "of the type that I was warning you about. He is a dangerous man who is thought to have murdered a number of people in the valleys."
"They should have hanged him when they had the chance," Madame Argeros said shrilly. "No-one can feel sale in their houses when Kazandis is at large."
"The trouble was that no-one would bear witness against him," Orion said. "They were too frightened of the vengeance he would wreak upon them."
He brought his fist down hard on the table making the glasses rattle.
"How could the Military be so stupid as to allow him to escape ? He was committed to prison for a long sentence."
"From all I hear there is a great deal of corruption in the State Prisons," Argeros said from the head of the table.
"I have heard that too, but it is difficult to prove," Orion replied.
"There must be something wrong when a man like Kazandis can escape," Madame Argeros said sharply. "He is a menace, and if he has managed to free himself from gaol I am quite certain he will have left a number of dead bodies behind him."
Orion turned towards Athena.
"Now you understand why you should not be travelling alone, especially in this part of the world."
"There are always dragons wherever one may travel," she answered, "but perhaps too there is an Apollo, or maybe a Hermes, to save me from them."
She spoke lightly but Orion's expression was serious. "I am worried about you," he said in English. "I shall be all ... right," she answered.
At the same time, because he was so concerned she felt a little flicker of fear within herself.
Up to now she had not thought there might be any dangers other than being prevented from coming to Delphi.
Now it seemed there were indeed dragons that she had not anticipated, but she thought it very unlikely that she would encounter one.
"The whole trouble with the country is that too much attention is paid to what happens in the city and not enough in the Provinces," Dimitrios Argeros said provocatingly.
"That was inevitable while we were a divided nation," Orion replied. "But now we are a Kingdom things should improve, and I understand that representations on that very subject have been made to the King."
"The King!" There was a world of meaning in the way Argeros said it. "He is a good man, but he is not a Greek."
"That is true," Orion agreed.
"Only a Greek can understand Greece," Argeros went on. "Only a Greek can sympathise with us when our crops fail, when the sea does not yield its fish, when the gods withhold the rain, or drown the soil."
Then the arguments started, arguments which Athena thought she had listened to in England, the countryman against the town-dweller, the farmer against the artisan, and all against the Government.
She liked the way each man put his point, concisely and eloquently, and the manner in which as if they fought a duel they tried to make their point and defeat the other with the flash and sparkle of words.
Sometimes Madame Argeros joined in but Nonika listened, wide-eyed, only having to rise to attend to the noisy orders of those outside on the porch.
Finally when the wine and the coffee were finished Orion rose to his feet.
"We agree in principle," he said to his host.
"Which is more than the Government does," Argeros grumbled and Orion laughed.
"Come along, Athena," he said. "You could stay here listening all night to Greek politics, but I doubt if you would be any the wiser at the end of it. The whole trouble with this country is that there is too much talk and not enough 'do'."
He said this as a parting shot at Argeros who laughed and made a remark that Athena did not understand but which made Orion laugh too.
Then they had left the Taverna behind and were descending the road up which they had climbed earlier in the day.
While they had been eating and talking the sun had sunk and the stars had come out in the sky and with them the moon.
It was not yet full, but there was light enough to see the way.
As they passed the houses of the village and came near to the Sacred Shrine Athena could see that a mist hung over the valley so that the Shining Cliffs seemed to be floating over a vast and mysterious chasm.
Now the broken marble columns and the strange shapes lying among the grasses were haloed with silver and acquired a new form and grace that they had not had before.
It was very silent save for a dog barking far away in the village; Athena could hear the water flowing from the chasm and the air was filled with the fragrance of wild thyme.
In silence she and Orion climbed the broken steps and moved through the long flower-filled grasses towards the Temple of Apollo.
He put his hand under her elbow to help her and with the feeling of his fingers on her bare skin she felt a strange little tremor go through her and she thought perhaps it was because the mystery and darkness of the night was so awe-inspiring.
They climbed until they had passed the columns of Apollo and had reached the theatre above it.
Below them it was possible to make out the complete shape of the Temple and the white stones and columns seemed to make a pattern that Athena had not been able to perceive in the daytime.
Now they shone like crystals and there were strange shadows in the sanctuary which made her feel it was peopled with the priests and pilgrims of the past, and with the presence of the god himself.
Far below she could just make out the sea glimmering through the gap in the great dark mountain rocks.
As she looked the moon came out fuller throwing a shimmering icy lightness over the whole valley, and now it seemed to her that the very air was filled with a mysterious quivering and the beating of silver wings.
A light blinded her eyes so that she felt as if Apollo himself materialised before her and she could see him in all his glory surrounded by stars.
She almost felt as if she could take wing and fly towards him. Then she heard Orion's deep voice speaking for the first time since they had left the Taverna.
"Tell me what you feel."
"It is wonderful! Lovely! So beautiful," Athena murmured almost beneath her breath, "that I want to ... hold the moonlight in my arms. I want to ... kiss it and make it... mine."
"That is what I want."
Then he turned her round and his lips were on hers.
For a moment Athena was so bemused by her feelings that she could hardly believe that it was Orion kissing her rather than Apollo.
She felt his lips hard and possessive against the softness of her own.
Then as if it was part of the whole magic of the night, the moonlight and the Shining Cliffs, she found herself without conscious volition melt closely against him.
She surrendered her mouth to his, feeling as if everything that was happening was inevitable—pre-ordained and what in the depths of her heart, she had expected.
His arms tightened and now his lips seemed to draw not only her soul from her but also her life itself.
She became one with the moon, the stars and of course Orion.
It was so wonderful that Athena felt as though she was disembodied, and at the same time the moonlight was not only all around but within her.
It was hers and she held it in her arms and in the innermost sanctuary of
her soul.
Time stood still.
She was aware of a rapture and an ecstasy that was not of the world but belonged to Olympus. Orion was not a man but a god, and she was Athena, goddess of love.
How long they stood there it was impossible to know, a century might have passed or more.
Slowly Orion raised his head and looked down at Athena with her eyes shining as they stared up at him, her lips soil and warm from his kisses, and a radiance in her lace that gave her a spiritual beauty that was indescribable.
For a moment (hey looked at each other, then with an inarticulate sound that seemed to come from the very depths of his being he was kissing her again.
Kissing her now demandingly, possessively, until she clung to him even closer, aware of strange sensations within herself which she had not known existed.
Finally when she felt as if he carried her as the eagles had up into the sky so that she no longer had her feet on the ground, he released her so suddenly that she staggered and almost fell.
As he put out his hand to steady her, she sat down on one of the stone seats of the Theatre.
She stared up at him, her fingers entwining themselves as if only by touch could she believe that she was still human, still flesh and blood.
He stood looking at her for a long moment, then sat down beside her. "You have never been kissed before." His voice was very deep and moved.
She shook her head. Her voice had died in her throat from the sheer wonder of what she had just experienced.
"Then you know now that this is how a kiss should be, pure and sacred as only the gods understand purity."
Athena did not reply and after a moment he said in what she knew was a different tone:
"This has been a dream, Athena. We both have to go back to reality, but I think neither of us will ever forget."
Athena drew in her breath.
Somehow it seemed to her as if he was speaking to her from very far away and was difficult to understand.
"Y ... you are ... going away," she managed to say at length and her voice sounded very unlike her own.
"I am leaving early tomorrow morning," he replied, "before you are awake. But I wanted to say goodbye to you here, for nowhere else would have seemed so right."
There was a silence in which the moonlight shining on the pdlars beneath them seemed to look almost like tears. Then Athena said hesitatingly :
"Must ... it be ... goodbye?"
She did not know what she really meant or what alternative she could offer, she only knew that every instinct in her body cried out against losing him, against being separated from the wonder and magic of his lips.
There was a pause. He was looking down into the valley and his clear-cut profile was silhouetted against the broken and moss covered tiers of the theatre, which had once held an enraptured audience1.
"This has been a dream, Athena," he said slowly. "A dream sent to us by the gods and I think neither of us could bear to spoil it."
He drew in his breath as he went on:
"It has been a moment of utter perfection; a moment which is engraved on my heart for all time."
"And on ... mine," Athena whispered.
"That is why there is nothing we can say to each other. There is no need for explanations. I could not bear to ask for them—or make them."
She knew what he was trying to say and she accepted that it was inevitable.
They were strangers, and because they had met in the abode of gods they had for a moment assumed a god-like isolation from the rest of their lives.
They had been swept away from the normal into a spiritual existence which neither of them had ever known before. They had been disembodied, touched with the divinity of the gods themselves and for one ecstatic moment had become divine.
Now they must face reality and Athena wished that she could have died while his lips were on hers.
Then she would have achieved immortality7: there would have been no problems, no difficulties, no human needs to which she must return.
She wanted to cry out at the pain of relinquishing the wonder she had known in Orion's arms, then to weep perhaps with despair. But because she knew that nothing she could say could alter their destiny she kept silent.
"There is no need for me to tell you that this is something which has never happened to me before in my life," Orion was saying, "and which I am certain will never happen again. You were rightly named, Athena, you are the goddess of love and you have brought me love which I believed existed but had never found."
"That is how ... love should ... be," Athena murmured.
"That is why the pilgrims came here," he said. "That is why there are pilgrims all over the world seeking love, the love which has led, guided and inspired man since the beginning of time."
"It was the ... love they gave ... Apollo," Athena said softly.
"And the love Athena gave to them."
They sat looking down at the ruined Temple and the valley beyond it and although he was not touching her Athena felt as if she was still in his arms.
Finally with a sigh he rose to his feet. "I must take you back."
She rose too to stand looking al him, her lace raised to his, the moon light shining in her eyes.
He knew without words what she asked and what she wanted of him and he said quietly :
"I will not kiss you again because after tonight our paths will never cross each other's and I dare not repeat that moment when we both reached the heights of bliss and were one with the gods."
Athena's eyes were on his and he looked at her as if he was spellbound and he could not look away.
"I am after all only a man," he said, "and if as a man I kissed you again I might try to change the pattern of our lives, and that would be a mistake."
Athena wanted to protest, wanted to tell him that she wanted above all things, the pattern of her life to be changed, to be with him, to have him kiss her and that nothing else was of any consequence in the whole world.
"You are lovely!" he said hoarsely, "more lovely than I believed any woman could be. That is why, having known you, I am convinced that no other woman will ever matter to me again."
Athena felt her heart leap.
It was like a streak of joy running through her and he must have seen it in her eyes, for almost as if she had spoken he said firmly: "No! No, Athena!"
Then he turned and walked back down the twisting stone path that led to the road.
After a moment she followed him because there was nothing else she could do.
As she went, finding it difficult at times to keep her balance without his supporting hand, she felt that he would disappear away from her into the shadows so that she would never find him.
"Perhaps," she thought wildly, "he never existed. Perhaps he is part of my dreams or perhaps he is in fact not human, but has come from the constellation of stars whose name he bears."
But he was waiting for her when she reached the road.
She thought his expression was stern and that his jaw was set so that it seemed as if he had already left her and she was alone as she had been alone before they met.
They walked up the road without speaking, past the shuttered village, and although light gleamed in many of the windows there was a silence that seemed now to Athena not magical, but oppressive.
Several dogs barked as they passed and Athena felt that they were hostile because she was an intruder and did not belong.
After the steep climb to the Taverna, they could see the lights glowing golden from its windows. But the porch was empty and the old men had gone home.
The chairs were stacked tidily on the tables as Orion opened the door into the house. The warmth of the kitchen after the cold of the moonlight was almost like a shock.
Madame Argeros and her husband were sitting at the table. He was smoking and they each had a cup of coffee in front of them, but there was no sign of Nonika.
Madame smiled as they entered.
"You are back!
" she exclaimed. "That is good. I have kept some coffee warm for you."
"How kind of you, Madame," Orion said conventionally.
Athena moved towards the other door which led to the stairs.
"I think I will go to bed," she said in a voice which sounded strangled in her throat.
"You wdil not have some coffee?" Madame Argeros asked.
"No... thank you... I am tired... it has been a... long day."
She did not look at Orion although she was vividly conscious that he had walked to the table. He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Dimitrios Argeros.
She wanted to stay beside him. She wanted to eke out the last minutes that she could be with him, but she felt it might somehow spoil the wonder of all they had experienced.
The glory of his kiss still pulsated within her, even while she knew inevitably the rapture of it was fading.
Soon it would be gone and she felt despairingly that there would be nothing but an aching void that would be with her all the rest of her life.
"We wish you good-night," Madame said. "May you sleep well."
"Thank you," Athena answered.
Then as she would have turned away the door of the Taverna was flung violently open.
The noise of it made them all turn instinctively to see entering the kitchen a huge man.
He was wearing a short sheep-skin coat with a fur hat set jauntily on the side of his head.
He was very dark with bushy eye-brows, a long curling moustache, the ends of it reaching almost to his chin where they had been curled fastidiously.
There was a pistol stuck in his belt, besides a long knife, and as his black eyes looked around the kitchen searchingly and somehow insolently Madame Argeros gave a scream.
"Kazandis!"
"Yes, Kazandis," the Bandit answered. "Are you surprised to see me? You should have expected me, for where else in these regions can I get better food?"
He walked forward as he spoke and pulling out a chair from the table sat down at the end of it.
"I want food," he said, "money and ..." he paused for a moment and he stared towards Athena.
Mesmerised she stood in the open doorway, her hair golden in the light from the lamp, her skin very white against the dark walls of the kitchen.
She felt as Kazandis looked at her that somehow he stripped her naked and her heart gave a frightened leap as he finished his sentence. "... and a woman!"
Kiss the Moonlight Page 6
