As for the willing, that is another matter entirely.
Ω
Of the fourteen Athenian tributes, only six—including Theseus—clambered out of that dreadful place alive.
We emerged into a palace that had fared little better than the labyrinth itself. Much of it was in ruins. Walls and ceilings had crumbled, tumbling broken remains of frescoes to the cracked mosaic floor. Fire had broken out and was clearly out of control. There were dead or dying bodies everywhere, many crushed by falling pillars and other debris.
It was a scene of unbridled chaos and confusion. Guards ran everywhere. None paid Theseus or the surviving tributes any attention. Several however glanced fearfully at me. Thankfully, none moved to attack. The earthquake had drained whatever fight was left in them.
We helped the tributes outside, moving away from the palace. As soon as I set foot outside, I stopped dead. It was the first time I had been in the open air for well over a year. It was early evening. I looked up. Even though smoke from the burning palace obscured my vision, I still caught glimpses of glittering stars. This night sky was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen.
Other sensations impinged on my awareness. The wind moving through the trees, the same wind that was even now caressing the faceplate of my helmet. The smell of flowers, redolent with the sweet scent of spring. I felt suddenly alive, free. But also curiously exposed, as if my soul had been bared for everyone to see.
It was strange to experience such a rush of emotions all at once. I was a little overcome. I think if Theseus hadn’t physically kept me moving, I would’ve stayed there for hours.
Eventually we found an open space in the palace gardens that appeared relatively safe. I sat down and tore a piece off my loincloth, using it to bind the wound in my side. At least it stopped the bleeding.
“We have unfinished business here,” said Theseus, grasping the hilt of his weapon. If his wounds affected him, he certainly didn’t show it. “I came to kill Minos. I’m not leaving without first separating his head from his shoulders.”
“I need to find Phaedra,” I said, groaning as I got to my feet.
Theseus shook his head. “Minos first. Then Phaedra.”
I agreed reluctantly. I was in no condition to attempt a rescue mission by myself and needed his help. Phaedra would have to wait until Theseus’s thirst for vengeance was satisfied. I’d learnt that once Theseus got an idea in his head, there was no point trying to change his mind.
What’s more, Theseus needed me. The palace at Knossos was vast. Strangers had been known to get lost for days inside. Now that it was in ruins, it would be even harder to find his way around. He wouldn’t be able to find Minos without me.
We picked our way through the ruins slowly. I knew, of course, where Minos’s chambers were, but there were no guarantees that he would be there. For all I knew, he had been near the trapdoor, gloating as his guards flooded into the labyrinth.
We eventually found what had once been Minos’s extensive and lavish royal chambers. They weren’t so lavish anymore. The earthquake had left very little intact. Smoke clouded the room, rising up from the now out of control fires below. I watched it spiral into the sky through the smashed roof. In hindsight, it was probably foolish to attempt to climb up to his chambers given the state of the palace. I was still surprised that parts of it remained standing. But much of what Theseus and I did was foolish. And Theseus was not to be denied.
Minos was there. Three guards were with him. Theseus brandished his sword, and that was enough for them. Evidentially, their lives were more valuable than that of their king. They edged around us under the watchful gaze of Theseus. Once they reached the door now hanging partially off its hinges, they took to their heels and ran. It was only this action that saved their lives. Theseus wouldn’t have spared them otherwise. I think he was a little disappointed that he didn’t get to kill them.
Minos only vaguely resembled the man I remembered. It had been over a year since I had last seen him, and time had not been kind to him. I had thought him a huge man with a size to rival my own, but that was an image painted by a boy. His presence suddenly rekindled memories of him hitting me. His cold manner toward me. The way he’d studied me from afar. I felt the old fear resurface for a moment, but then I remembered who I was now and what I had become. I was a boy no longer. What I saw before me now was an old man, possibly of average height, slightly stooped about the shoulders. He appeared a shriveled shell of his former self. The price of his revenge against me was a weight not easily borne.
He stood before us, clearly a little shocked by recent events. His hair was disheveled, and there was a wild look in his eyes.
He spared Theseus only the briefest of glances. Then, he fixed his cold eyes on me. They widened, and his face twisted into something far more intense than plain anger. Anger could not even begin to describe the look on his face. “You!” he screamed. “Hades born creature. You are responsible for this.” He drew his sword and charged.
I’m not sure how Theseus managed to restrain himself. I knew he desperately wanted to kill Minos himself for the humiliation Athens had suffered. But I think he knew that this was between my stepfather and myself. Theseus could have easily stepped in and cut Minos down. Maybe that’s what stopped him. It was too easy. Perhaps he thought Minos was not a worthy opponent even though he deserved Theseus’s special brand of justice. Pick a reason. It hardly matters now.
I doubt whether the old man was conscious of anyone else in the room other than myself. For that reason, it would’ve been a simple matter for anyone else to have killed him. One stroke of his sword, one severed King’s head. In the long run, it probably would’ve been the kindest thing to do. I wish sometimes that Theseus had done it.
As it was, I didn’t even bother using my club. It was unnecessary. Minos swung at me with such wild abandon even I was fast enough to avoid his attack. I stepped to the side and smashed my fist into his face.
To say that I hit him and he fell to the ground would be a gross understatement. I hit him with a force nurtured by years of physical and emotional abuse. A force channeled into furious action. I’m actually surprised that I didn’t kill him, but, according to some accounts, he was a son of Zeus. Demi-gods, as I may have mentioned, don’t die easily.
Theseus told me that as I struck, I roared so loudly that he was forced to cover his ears. I don’t remember. I do, however, remember the outcome. Minos actually flew off my fist. His robes fluttered around him as he sailed through the air. He hit the floor with bone breaking force and skidded along the broken tiles.
Minos was the cause of everything bad that happened in my life. The flaws that exist within me exist because of him. The insecurities, the fears, the remarkable lack of self-worth. I spent over a year locked in a labyrinth because of his pride, arrogance, and desire for vengeance.
If he had accepted me as I was, I have no doubts I would’ve been a much greater man than I am today. My life would’ve been completely different. Better.
Hitting him went some way to sooth my traumatized soul. To be honest, nothing I have done before or after has ever felt so good.
Perhaps as a testimony to his semi-divine heritage, Minos sat up moments after his body came to a halt. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. I know first-hand what happens to a normal human when I hit them with my not inconsiderable strength. And not one of them ever sat up afterwards like he did.
“Where is my mother?” I roared. I knew where Phaedra was and hoped my brothers were imprisoned with her. I hoped that my mother still lived.
Minos flinched at the sound. His nose was broken, blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.
“A place where you will never find her,” he spat. A gobbet of blood splattered on the floor.
I stepped toward him threateningly and raised my club. “Tell me,” I demanded.
He laughed at me, the sound gradually rising in
pitch. I realized that Minos was probably mad. His madness possibly exceeding my own. Unlike mine, his was entirely of his own making.
“Never,” he said and laughed again. I think I probably could’ve killed him then, but Theseus intervened, for once setting aside his own rage filled desires.
He joined us and knelt down next to Minos, whispering in his ear words that I couldn’t catch, but I could guess at. Minos’s eyes went wide. Theseus stood and looked down at the King of Crete. Something passed between them. Minos saw something in Theseus’s cold, dispassionate look that he feared even more than I. I had seen the form that Theseus’s vengeance took in the past. I knew what he was capable of. Minos had just been enlightened.
“With the others,” stammered Minos. I took this to mean that he had imprisoned her along with Phaedra, my brothers, and the two craftsmen.
With this admission, Theseus raised his sword, his intent clear.
Minos threw up warding hands. “Please don’t,” he pleaded. He began to snivel and raised himself to his hands and knees. He clutched Theseus’s ankle. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll give you anything. Athens is now free. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? No more tributes. I will pay you gold. Enough gold to make Athens the richest city in Greece. In the world. Just don’t kill me.”
I saw the disgust on Theseus’s face. The loathing. Suddenly, I felt a wave of pity for Minos even though I knew he didn’t deserve it. He was just a sad, bitter old man. He wasn’t worthy of a quick death, especially a noble one at the hands of a hero like Theseus. He deserved to die alone and in poverty.
Theseus shook him off. “Shall we kill him, Asterion?” he asked. I wanted to say yes, but that would make me worse than Minos. I wasn’t like him. I would never be like him. It was also Theseus’s way to seek revenge, to do to others what they had forced upon their victims. I suspect that if the labyrinth had still been intact, Theseus would’ve forced Minos to live out the rest of his days there. As it was, he didn’t have that option. As much as Theseus was my friend, I didn’t want to become like him either.
After long moments of consideration, moments where Minos looked fearfully from me to Theseus, I finally made up my mind.
“No,” I said. “His hold over Athens is now broken. His death will serve no purpose other than to satisfy my thirst for revenge. Death will not change anything. He has nothing now. No kingdom, no crown. His children have deserted him. I can’t think of a worst fate. Leave him with his madness.”
I locked gazes with Theseus for a moment. Suddenly, he shrugged. “As you will, Asterion. He is your stepfather after all.” He smiled brightly. That was the thing about Theseus. He could be cold and rage filled in one moment, relaxed and carefree in the next. He was not a forgiving man, but he believed that a punishment should fit the crime. Evidentially, he thought that Minos had gotten what he deserved. And that was enough for him.
“Come,” he said. “Let’s go rescue your family.”
Chapter 18
That was the last time I saw King Minos. If you think perhaps I was too gentle with him, have no fear that he got his just desserts in time. Now I am glad I didn’t kill him. If I had, I believe I would have deserved to join him in Tartarus. Because that’s where he is now.
The earthquake marked the end of Crete as a power. Most of the towns and cities in Crete were destroyed. Many soldiers were killed and her navy smashed by a huge wave that could have only been the rage of Poseidon.
Minos eventually left the island to pursue his vengeance against Daedalus. It was Daedalus who had betrayed him, who had given up the secrets of the labyrinth to Phaedra. You may wonder why he switched his attention from me to Daedalus. There is a simple reason for that. As far as Minos was concerned, I was dead.
As for the King of Crete, he eventually met his end rather ignominiously at the hand of the daughter of Cocalus, the King of Agrigentum. She poured boiling water over him while he was taking a bath. When I heard this news, I remember feeling nothing at all. No grim satisfaction, no joy. Nothing. When all is said and done, Minos was nothing to me.
His remains were sent back to Crete. The few loyal Cretans who remained built him a sarcophagus and inscribed it with “the tomb of Minos, the son of Zeus.” I would’ve preferred something else. Maybe “Minos, bitter tyrant. Petty seeker of vengeance.”
I actually remember his tomb being built. At the time, I had to wrestle with an impulse not to deface it but managed to resist mostly because it would’ve been beneath me. I sometimes go there still. Seeing it helps me remember. The memories are painful but they are a part of me. For good or ill, they have made me what I am.
Ω
Hurrying as quickly as our injuries would allow, Theseus and I made our way to the tower where Phaedra and the others were imprisoned. It would’ve been quicker and far more efficient to take horses but any that had been housed in or around the palace had been scattered by the earthquake.
I’d been to the tower a few times before when I was younger, more out of curiosity than anything else. It was a large stone structure Minos used to imprison those he particularly despised. I remember being a little scared by the place. It was on an isolated part of the island, a league or two from the palace. Windswept and desolate, it had always seemed an appropriate place for misery and suffering.
It took longer than expected to get there. It must have been almost midnight by the time we reached our destination. I was completely shattered, feeling weaker by the minute. The events of the last few hours had also taken their toll emotionally. In addition, I knew that if the arrow in my back wasn’t seen to shortly, it might well kill me.
The tower, although still largely intact, had not escaped unscathed from the destruction wrought by the earthquake. Large blocks had toppled from its battlements to lie scattered around the base. As we approached, I could see a group of figures clustered around the entrance, carrying torches. In the darkness, it was difficult to make out who they were.
I had hoped it might be Phaedra and the other prisoners already making their escape. It wasn’t. As we neared the base of the tower, I could see that it was four guards.
They challenged us as we strode up.
“Who are you, and what is your business?” asked the oldest of the guards, a grizzled veteran in his middle years. He recognized me of course and probably suspected that I’d escaped from the labyrinth rather than being released. He may well have known who Theseus was too, which was probably why he didn’t give the order to attack straight away. The years had given him wisdom. Even with the odds in his favor, the fight could go either way.
“Our business is our own,” said Theseus in a tone that brooked no argument. “Stand aside or face the consequences.” He laid a hand on his sword hilt and grinned.
“Have a care with that tongue,” said the guard. “Lest you lose it.”
I saw Theseus stiffen and his grin widen. I placed a cautionary hand on his arm to forestall his predictable reaction.
“Your work is done here,” I said to the guard. “The palace is destroyed, Minos is dead.” The lies came easily and were much preferable to the alternative. Theseus may still have had a desire for battle, but I was all but spent. It was unlikely that the guards knew exactly what had taken place at the palace.
“Your loyalty now lies with those inside this tower. Catreus and Deucalion are now the rightful rulers of Crete. Before he died, Minos commanded us to free them.” At this point, I wasn’t even sure that Catreus and Deucalion were inside, but the guard’s reaction confirmed that was the case.
The guard looked me up and down in disbelief. “He commanded you? Minotaur? King Minos sent the creature he most despises in the world on an errand? I don’t think so. Go back the way you came or blood will be spilt.” His lip curled disdainfully, and he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.
I gambled and lost. Perhaps if the words had come from someone other than myself, it might have worked. It had been a bad idea for me t
o go there. I should have sent Theseus alone. Or perhaps not.
I believe that the situation would certainly have degenerated into bloodshed. But then a voice rang out from the darkness. A woman’s voice.
“He speaks the truth. Do what he says.”
Two figures emerged on horseback. As they trotted up, I finally saw who was riding them. Ariadne and Glaucus. My mouth fell open in amazement.
“What?” said Ariadne defensively, catching my eye. “I’m allowed to help.”
I knew immediately that she was up to something, and it troubled me. Ariadne never did anything that didn’t serve her own interests. She wanted something. Suddenly, I knew what. Crete as a power was finished. Minos was finished. Ariadne was no longer in a privileged position. But she knew someone who was. Theseus, Prince of Athens. And Theseus and I knew nothing of her betrayal at that point. How it had been her who had revealed the secret entrance to the labyrinth.
I think she realized that Theseus was her only option. Even though he clearly didn’t want her, once back in Athens, she would be in a position to start her power play. I wasn’t worried about Glaucus though. Although fifteen now and almost a man, he was overweight and certainly no warrior. Besides, he followed Ariadne’s lead in almost everything.
“Your father did say that no one was to enter,” said the guard hesitantly.
“That was before,” said Ariadne curtly. “His last command before he died was to free those in the tower.”
“Well, if you say so, Princess,” said the guard. He shrugged and stepped aside. If Crete’s power had just been destroyed, then it was probably a good time to seek employment elsewhere. Become a mercenary. Blocking access to the tower was no longer in the guards’ best interests.
Ariadne and Glaucus dismounted, and we followed as Theseus led the way inside. The interior was a shambolic mess. A table had fallen over, spilling the remains of the guard’s meal onto the floor. A weapons rack had buckled and loosed its contents.
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