Elementary Read Online Free PDF

of dull green brush and pasture where the grass was ripening to gold. Some five leagues to the east, the double peaks of Vesouvios floated on the horizon. She had to believe that somewhere along the curving coastline they would find a ship. Empedocles was already scrambling back up the slope. With a sigh, she followed him.
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    The fugitives kept moving throughout that day. For a time the road edged the coast, but they found no one with a boat big enough to carry all of them. Now the track led inland. The boys ranged ahead to watch for other travelers, and the more identifiable members of the party were usually able to hide before they were seen. From time to time they saw shepherds on the hillside, but by the time any news got to the rebels, surely the fugitives would be gone.
    As the sun sank westward, their footsteps slowed. Empedocles’ enthusiasm for running had failed long ago. Kyria’s nostrils flared at a whiff of sulfur on the wind. “You’re tired, little man.” She jiggled him in her arms, wondering how much farther she could carry him.
    â€œWhat cannot be changed must be endured,” said her father, but he, too, sounded weary.
    The country here was ridged and broken, good only for goats. She hoped they would find a source of good water soon. The last spring had had an odd mineral taste, and the nymph was a sickly creature who snarled at her.
    â€œHow much will Thymoteles care that you escaped?” she asked softly.
    Archilaus’ brow furrowed. “Logically, their first concern should be to secure the city.” The tall cypresses laid bars of shadow across his face as they passed.
    â€œBut most men are not logical, I have heard you say—”
    He sighed. “Some of them desire to obliterate everything Aristodemus achieved.”
    â€œAnd you fear they will identify the tyrant’s philosopher with the tyrant?”
    â€œPerhaps, though the gods know Aristodemus was not willing to learn very much from me. But Thymoteles has a more practical reason to want me out of the way. I told him that if he murdered Aristodemus instead of giving him a trial, his name would be despised in every city where Greek is spoken.”
    â€œAnd he knows that you will bear witness against him if you live,” Kyria said.
    She had no illusions regarding their fate if they were captured. Her parents would be killed. She herself would fetch a good price in a slave market somewhere far away. And her son—would she see his bright spirit extinguished by fetters, or watch him die as Andromache had watched when her child was thrown from the walls of Troy?
    Her arms tightened protectively around Empodecles, who stirred. His eyes grew bright as he looked around him. Ahead, the road crossed a ridge of land that swelled upward, where the rim of a caldera showed above the trees. When they came to the crest, they paused.
    â€œMaster, is that the place you spoke of, where Hephaestus has his forge?” asked Lysander.
    â€œOr Hestia her cauldron.” Archilaus smiled. “Vesouvios is another.” He nodded toward the distant mountain.
    â€œAnd Aitne in Sikelia, where I live now,” added Kyria. For some time she had been feeling a deep throbbing beneath the ground. When she extended her awareness downward, she sensed water, but it was strangely blended with earth and fire.
This is a country for Titans or gods, not men,
she thought with a sudden unease.
I want to go back to the sea.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Picus was looking back the way they had come. A moving haze of dust veiled the road.
    â€œLysander, you have the best eyes.” Nico lifted him. “What do you see?”
    â€œMounted soldiers,” the boy squeaked, “coming fast!”
    â€œGet off the road!” To the left, there was a gap in the brush. Kyria started downward, her sandals slipping in the loose pale soil, and the others followed.
    It was no more than