Halo

by Zizou Corder

  ‘Do you think there are any other Centaurs?’ Halo asked. It had only just occurred to her that there might be.

  ‘Dunno,’ he said, making little silvery patterns in the water with his fingers. ‘What, you mean elsewhere in Greece?’

  ‘There could be,’ she said.

  He just grunted, and she left it, because at that moment, a dark shape crossed the water at the mouth of the cave.

  Instinctively, they pulled back against the wall of the cave, into the shadows.

  Dark shapes did not cross there. Nothing came there. The other Centaurs didn’t come that way. Only Arko and Halo swam in the sea for fun – the others preferred to play in the fresh-water springs back up in the forest. The dolphins played further out to sea. The birds – the big birds – flew higher, and further from the cliff. The goats and foxes and porcupines – none of them swam, and there was no way to the Caves, except by swimming.

  Or by boat.

  At which thought Halo’s throat dried up and her head began to quiver with fear.

  She’d never seen a human. She knew about them. They looked like her, with black curly hair and smooth brown limbs. They lived on the south end of the island, and their king had a great white marble palace. They took over wild places and made animals move on. They kept animals for their own use. They built cities – Athens! Sparta! – and told stories. Some of them were noble, such as Homer the great poet who had recorded the stories of Gods and heroes from the old old days, and some of the heroes themselves: Odysseus and Achilles. But they were violent. They fought wars. They slashed each other with great iron swords, and speared each other with murderous iron spears, and shot each other with sharp, death-dealing arrows. They had never learned to be peaceful, as the Centaurs had. They took revenge on each other. They killed each other. And they left their little babies out to die.

  Sometimes, from the clifftops, she had seen them sailing past – small boats fishing, or bigger boats heading off to Cephalonia or Ithaca. Once, standing on the clifftop with Kyllarus, she had seen a flock of long, low, swift ships heading north, dark and fast. ‘Triremes,’ Kyllarus had told her. ‘Warships. Do you see all the oars?’ They stuck out along each side, like an insect’s legs, scudding across the water. They looked so determined. She had tried hard to make out the tiny figures on board, but she had seen nothing.

  Now, she so desperately wanted to see nothing.

  Let whatever it was just pass by, she thought, and we will wait, and wait, and be late with the figs but we will be safe.

  But the dark shape had paused. They could see its shadow, just in the sunlight beyond the cave’s mouth.

  They heard movement. A cry, a splash.

  Silently, glancing at each other with quiet desperation, they retreated to the very back of the cavern.

  Poseidon, don’t let them see us, she prayed silently. He might be listening. After all, hadn’t she been blown safely on to the beach, and named ‘Saved by the Sea’?

  ‘Please, Poseidon,’ she murmured.

  A louder splash – bigger, nearer. Voices. Humans!

  They were at the mouth of the cave.

  She glanced at Arko. His chestnut eyes caught hers, and he gestured with his head. She knew what he meant. He knew what she meant.

  Together, they breathed in deeply, and slowly, silently, sank down beneath the water.

  Xαπτερ 4

  It’s a different world underwater. The sudden silence, the adaptation to different, underwater sounds. The stinging saltiness on the eyeballs. The clear heaviness of water all around you that you have to carve your way through.

  Blue light shone down the underwater passage for about fifty metres, and after that they were in the dark. It didn’t matter. They knew this passage as they knew all the caves and passages – for five years now they had been exploring and playing here.

  Halo knew that if she kicked her legs gently and let her breath out bit by bit, she could make it to the Hole. Arko knew that the passage was deep enough to let him pass, and he knew where the rocks were so he could avoid skinning his knees and hooves – he’d skinned them often enough before. They both knew that they couldn’t spend that long in the Hole, because there was no ledge wide enough for Arko to stand on.

  Eyes alert, Halo spotted the light ahead, filtering through from the Hole. She speeded up towards the pale turquoise glow. In truth, she was scared, and as a result she went faster than she might have, and used too much breath, and it was with relief that she burst to the surface, salt on her face, the heat of the sun overhead, the blue sky at the top of the Hole, many metres up, and the joy of air flooding into her tight, empty lungs. Behind her, Arko burst up too, splashing and gasping. He swam straight to the wall with the jutting rock he could cling on to, and rested his hooves as best he could against the wall, trying to support his big body. Halo swam over to him and perched on the little rock shelf she always used.

  ‘What do we do now?’ she panted, as she got her breath back.

  ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘We wait.’

  ‘Do you think they saw us?’ she said.

  ‘No idea,’ he replied, his breath returning. ‘But I don’t see how they could have. I think we went soon enough. If they saw movement in the water, bubbles and so on, they’d assume it was an octopus, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Yes, or a big fish,’ she said.

  They were silent for a moment, as it occurred to each of them that the humans were almost certainly fishermen, and that a big octopus or a big fish was probably exactly the kind of thing they were after.

  ‘How will we be able to tell that they’ve gone?’ she asked after a while.

  ‘Don’t know,’ said Arko, swapping arms and paddling his legs.

  ‘Shall I go and look?’ she said.

  ‘No!’ he said firmly.

  ‘Or I could…’ She glanced up the high rock walls of the Hole. Years ago, the Hole had been a cave like any other, but almost as many years ago the roof had caved in, leaving a deep shaft, about ten metres across, with deep water at the bottom, connected via the underwater tunnel to the sea. The walls were mostly bare rock but there were plenty of ledges, and various small trees that clung on.

  ‘Perhaps I could climb up,’ she said.

  Arko glanced at the almost sheer walls. ‘Perhaps,’ he said drily. ‘Probably best to wait. You can’t swim out again with a broken leg.’

  ‘How long can you hold on for?’ she asked.

  ‘As long as it takes,’ he said, with a cheerful grin, but she knew from the way he was shifting around that he was already uncomfortable. He couldn’t tread water, or hang by his arms, forever. And nor could she stay in the water forever. The sun was already passing from overhead, and without it the sea was cold and the bottom of the shaft chilly even out of the water.

  It was beginning to dawn on her that they were in a very tricky situation.

  She climbed a little way up the wall, to be out of the water at least. It became apparent that she would not be able to climb to the top. The little plants she grabbed at came out in her hand; rocks tumbled down into the water below, and she scraped her knee quite badly before realizing that there just weren’t enough things for her to hold on to. She couldn’t get a grip.

  ‘Halo,’ he said, when they had been there for about twenty minutes. ‘I’m going to swim back, and see if they’re gone. I’ll be very quiet…’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘How can you come up for air quietly after a swim like that?’

  ‘But what’s the alternative?’ he said.

  ‘I’ll go,’ she said. ‘I’m smaller, and quieter. I’ll just peek out of the darkness…’

  ‘You can’t,’ he said. ‘I can’t let you.’

  ‘I can’t let you,’ she said. And they stared at each other.

  Then, in a swift movement, Arko hurled himself off the wall, and down under the water, heading in a stream of silver bubbles for the entrance to the tunnel.

  ‘No!’ shouted Halo, furiously, and she div
ed in after him, and snaked her way swiftly into the tunnel ahead of him, dodging his strong legs in the cool water, swimming too fast, but determined not to let him get there first.

  You fool, you’re a Centaur! she was thinking, as she kicked ahead into the darkness. What would they do with you? They’d kill you like at the wedding, they’d put you in a muzzle on a cart, they’d send you away or sell you as a freak – She turned suddenly, in the first blue light of the cave opening, and tried to shout to him, to mouth at him, to make it clear to him, that he must go back, and wait, and she would bring him news, and never desert him…

  But she couldn’t see him.

  Could he have turned? Was the passage wide enough?

  She couldn’t see. All was dark.

  She had to breathe. Her face was beginning to burst, and shoots of pain crossed her chest like acid in her lungs.

  She kicked herself round, and thrust herself forward. The turquoise light was just ahead of her.

  And she came up, gagging and gasping, spitting and aching.

  And right there, two wet, hairy, bearded creatures were sitting on her and Arko’s ledge, short fishing spears raised, eyes wide with alarm.

  They looked kind of like Centaurs, but they had human legs. Humans.

  One had been so nearly about to hurl his spear that he dropped it at the sight of her. It clattered on the rock, and fell into the water beside her.

  ‘What the…’ said one.

  ‘Sweet Aphrodite, it’s a girl!’ said the other.

  ‘It’s a nymph!’ said the first.

  Halo breathed hugely, turned again, and went under.

  And as she sank down beneath the salty surface, she knew she couldn’t make it. Physically, she couldn’t make it back to the Hole. She was too tired, too short of air. And also – if she swam back, they would follow her. Or they would wait. Or they would send one of them to get help. They had seen her, and they wouldn’t let her go. And that meant they would find Arko too.

  Arko! Artemis helper of maidens where was he?

  She couldn’t let them find Arko.

  So just as they were jumping in after her, she turned tail again, and with a hard strong push headed for the mouth of the cave, out to the sea, swimming crawl, as fast and clean as she could, breathing well, striking the water smoothly with her long capable arms, pulling ahead…

  And she was quick. The fishermen in the cave, even though they were strong grown men and she was only a young girl, might not have caught her. But in the boat outside were two more fishermen, and the moment they saw her they leapt on her, and the others caught up, and she was a scramble of limbs and water and fighting and struggling to get away from them, though she knew she had no chance. They dragged her into the boat like a hooked fish, and rolled her up in a net because she wouldn’t keep still.

  She lay there, finally, panting, weeping, furious, with fish in her hair, cursing Poseidon. Once again, the sea had stolen her and thrown her up into a new life

  Xαπτερ 5

  The wet salty ropes were horrible against her skin, and the bottom of the boat stank of fish. She badly wanted to rinse her mouth with fresh water. The fishermen had a water jar and were swigging from it. They were pleased with themselves, chatting away about their catch. She was too proud to ask for water, and they didn’t offer her any.

  At least, she thought, she had lured them away from Arko. He was safe, and the Centaurs were safe, and she would never give them away. In due course he would realize that she wasn’t coming back, and he would guess that the coast was clear, and he would come out, and swim back to the bay, and go home, without the figs, and without her, and…

  And tell everyone that she was gone, and lost.

  She didn’t know if the salt on her face was the sea or her tears.

  She couldn’t bear it. Chariklo! Kyllarus!

  She wept silently all the time they were at sea. She was still weeping when they lifted her out of the boat on to a wooden jetty, an hour or so later. She stood, weeping, wrapped still in the fishing net, arms trapped at her side, on dry land at the dock of Zakynthos Town. She raised her weeping head, unable to dry her eyes, and looked for the first time on the world of men.

  She saw buildings of mud and stone, with red-tiled roofs. She saw boats, with oars and sails. She saw a road, where the red earth had been packed down tight, with two big ruts to guide cartwheels. She saw carts and donkeys, stalls and crates, and land flatter than she had ever seen before. And she saw people. Men.

  She flinched.

  They saw her too. Zakynthos, large and strange as it seemed to Halo, was not a large town, and not much happened there. The arrival of a furious weeping girl rolled in a fishing net was of great interest to everybody, and soon half the town was gathered round, squawking and exclaiming and trying to touch her and poke her.

  She stood silent, her head high and her teeth clenched. She was in shock. She should just be getting back home now, laden with figs and honey. She should be washing in the spring and oiling herself for her party. She should be laughing with Pearl and Lucy, and thanking Chariklo for the lovely new chiton she knew was being made for her but which she had been pretending not to know about. She shouldn’t be here.

  ‘Look at her!’ the men were shouting, as if everybody wasn’t looking at her already. ‘Where’s she from? What is she? Is she a nymph? What’s that on her forehead? Where did you find her?’

  How rude and stupid! Well, she wasn’t going to answer their questions. She would never tell them where she was from. She would tell them nothing.

  The fishermen were extremely pleased with themselves. No one had paid them so much attention for years. Catching a person was much more fun than catching a fish.

  ‘It’s a girl,’ they said. ‘We found her in a cave. She burst out of the water like a nymph! We thought she was a nymph – but she’s too ugly. Anyway, she bites like an animal. She was just there, under the water!’

  ‘A nymph! A nymph!’ the people murmured, and Halo shook her head furiously to get her wet hair off her face. Stupid people! If they couldn’t tell a nymph from a girl they really were stupid.

  ‘But where’s she from? Who’s her family? Did she grow there?’ they were crying now.

  ‘What are you going to do with her?’ called a man at the back of the crowd.

  ‘We’re going to ask Aristides!’ said one of the fishermen, and everybody started nodding and agreeing that this was the right thing to do. Except that Aristides, whoever he was, didn’t seem to be around, so they all just carried on standing about, staring at her.

  Two hours later, she was still standing there, still wrapped in the fishing net, still furious, but colder and even more angry, when news came that the famous Aristides had returned from wherever he had been, and that the nymph was to be taken to his house to be explained. The fishermen picked her up and carried her between them like a rolled-up rug. It did nothing to improve her mood.

  Aristides, when she was plonked down in front of him, turned out to be tall and fat, with an air of authority and impatience.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he said, looking up wearily. ‘What is all this fuss?’

  Half the town had crowded into the courtyard of his house.

  ‘Go away, you lot,’ he said. ‘Only stay if you’ve got something useful to say. Who’s bringing this –’ here he stopped to peer at her – ‘this creature?’

  ‘Us, Aristides,’ yelped the fishermen, jumping up in their importance. ‘We found her, in a cave. We don’t know what she is…’

  ‘She’s a girl,’ said Aristides. ‘What’s so extraordinary about that?’

  The fishermen were not so easily deflated.

  ‘She’s all sun-burned and wild-looking,’ said one. ‘With that tattoo. And she had no clothes on.’

  ‘And what was she doing up there?’ asked another cunningly.

  ‘Having a swim?’ suggested Aristides.

  ‘But why up there?’ said another fisherman.

 
‘Perhaps she lives up there,’ said Aristides.

  ‘But no one lives up there,’ objected the fisherman. ‘Well, no one except the –’

  ‘If you were thinking of saying Centaurs, you old woman, then don’t,’ broke in Aristides. ‘Centaurs don’t exist.’

  Halo blinked. Was this what humans were like, after all? Argumentative, rude, and completely ignorant? At least they didn’t seem likely to get out their swords and start killing each other right now… But they were so rude! And – they were all men. Where were the females?

  ‘But you’re right, nobody does live up there,’ Aristides was continuing. ‘Well, leave her with me. If anyone’s missing her, they can come and ask. Girl!’ he snapped.

  She stared at him.

  ‘Who are you?’

  She pressed her lips together and breathed through her nose.

  He stared at her for a moment and then snapped, ‘Oh, for Hera’s sake, give her to the women so they can unwrap her from that fishing net, and put some clothes on her. She’s not going to run away…’

  ‘She might!’ said the fisherman, and indeed Halo was thinking about it, but the door to the courtyard was closed, and she was shaking with exhaustion. She would run away later. After they had fed her. And she would look at the stars and see where north was4 and Orion would smile down on her as she ran back to her family, and she wouldn’t get there in time for the party but they wouldn’t have held the party anyway, with her not being there – and how happy they would be when she ran into the agora, crying out, ‘I’m back, I’m back!’

  ‘She’s practically fainting,’ pointed out Aristides. ‘Give her to the women till her father or her owner comes for her. Now off you go…’

  Only after the fishermen had left did the women appear. They had been somewhere else in the house, but now they filed out. There were five of them. An old lady, a smarter youngish lady, a girl, and two plainly dressed, tired-looking women who could have been any age. Halo tried to keep her nose in the air but she couldn’t stop herself from staring at them. They were strange! She pursed her lips and looked away.