Athenian Steel (Book I of the The Hellennium) Read Online Free PDF Page B

palm.  She
might as well have been part of the ancient masonry for all that
the flurry of motion affected her balance.
    "Why?" Styphon demanded in a harsh
whisper.
    "It's time."  Thalassia's face was
expressionless in the moonlight.  "Blow it."
    Anger fled Styphon.  "Just a little
longer," he said.  "If the men wake and see nothing, how will
I explain?  Let me climb to the heights and look for
myself."
    Even as he spoke, he knew it was only an
excuse to delay the his first step down an irreversible course, the
defiance of Fate.
    "By then, it will be too late," Thalassia
said.  She reached down into a corner of her sanctuary, where
Styphon now noted the presence of provisions in excess of what he
had brought her.  She must have crept through the camp,
stealing food.  From a pile large enough to feed three men for
three days, she plucked two cakes of honey and poppy seed and
pushed them one after the other into her mouth.
    "You have told me how this siege is meant to
end," Styphon said, ignoring her breach of the common good.
 "But what of the war?  We are but a few hundred, of no
significance.  If we fall today, what becomes of our city?
"
    Thalassia finished chewing and hung her
head.  "I could lie to you," she said.  "If you were a
less decent man, I would.  But the truth is... you'll win.
 Twenty years from now, and at such terrible cost that other
cities will eclipse yours within a generation."
    Styphon's heart, briefly stilled, took
halting and tentative flight.  "But Sparta will be
victorious?" he asked in disbelief.
    "Yes."  Her admission was reluctant.
 "Barely.  Only barbarians benefit when Greeks slaughter
each other.  A victory here might shorten the war and—."
    "' Might '?" Styphon echoed, receiving
in reply only a dismissive flick of Thalassia's starlit
features.
    Thalassia groaned.  "With my help,
victory will be all but certain.  I can give you ideas,
weapons, that will put you far beyond any who might challenge you.
 I  am  a weapon," she added with sudden
ferocity.  "The most dangerous fucking weapon on this earth,
and you sit there looking at me like—"
    She drew a sharp, calming breath, and
smiled.
    "Never mind," she said sweetly.  "Just
blow the horn like we agreed.  You won't regret it."
    "I will not," Styphon said.  He had
seen and heard enough.  The glimpse of rage he had just
witnessed escape through Thalassia's carefully controlled facade
made him even more certain what his decision must be.  Yes,
this creature was dangerous, he was sure of that.  She would
be the ruin of every man who came in contact with her.
    Styphon pulled the horn from his belt, drew
back and hurled it into the darkness over the fort's half-crumbled
wall.
    Thalassia's head hung once more.  When
she looked up, she said calmly, "I was afraid you might do that.
 That's why I climbed the heights a while ago and a had a chat
with your watchmen.  They're much more superstitious than
you."
    Breathless, Styphon demanded, "What have you
done?"
    Instead of answering, she craned her neck to
the north and up to the crown of the heights which loomed black
against the nighttime sky.  Styphon followed her gaze and saw
what she saw: a spark of light, a thin finger of smoke cutting the
cloudless sky.  It was the watchmen's flame, the signal of an
Athenian assault.
    Her pale eyes returned to him, and Thalassia
said, tauntingly, "If you don't sound the alarm now, you'll be
shirking your duty, no?"
    "You bitch..." Styphon said, but there was
little fire in his voice.  She was right, of course.  The
warning beacon having been lit, it was his responsibility to raise
the alarm.
    He knitted the fingers of one hand into his
long, unkempt locks and tugged them in frustration before
clambering over the wall to hunt for the horn.
    To a Spartan, duty trumped even Fate.

I. PYLOS \ 6. Invasion
    Well before dawn's glow obscured the dome of
stars over Pylos harbor, four red-beaked, angry-eyed Athenian
triremes churned