Song of Princes (Homeric Chronicles #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

wounded heart. He wondered why Apollo betrayed him. Secretly, he thought perhaps he took too much pleasure from his mortal life. Have I not made all sacrifices? Conducted all necessary festivals? And now by divination of Iphicrates, Priam found his own hand forced to pay a price more valuable than the lavish votive offering he brought. The life of a prince in exchange for a handful of pearls and gold seemed an iniquitous exchange. Would Apollo take anything less than the blood he demanded? At that moment, it occurred to him how precious the life of this unborn child was. Priam possessed more gold and treasure than any king in Asia. He would give all, if necessary, to save his son. An errant pearl bounced behind the wall of blue curtains where Apollo’s secrets floated as whispers into the ears of eager priests. Sheer blue fabric shielded the adyton from direct gaze preserving the sanctity and the absolute mystery of the god. Priam heard the pearl roll to silence. I have not brought nearly enough. I cannot carry the entire treasury on my back , he argued with himself as fear and doubt threatened to overtake him.
    A priestess with hair as pale as summer honey emerged with the errant pearl in her palm. Her dark gray eyes looked on him with pity. “I believe this is for the votive my lord offers.” Her whispered greeting sounded around him. Priam detected no movement from her lips at all.
    He plucked the pearl from her palm, placing it back with the others with more care this time. “Yes. Gratitude.”
    “You are particularly troubled today, King Priam.” When her steady gaze probed his face, the black ice of her pupils pierced through all his thoughts.
    Priam hesitated to give life to the words. “There has been a…the queen dreamt…Iphicrates said—”
    “You have been told that the child the queen carries brings destruction to our great city.” The priestess made no indication of whether or not the divination was true.
    “So you have heard from the seer,” Priam responded. Fucking Iphicrates! I told him to keep his tongue in his mouth!
    “I have heard it from Apollo’s own lips.”
    Priam’s hopes plummeted. His stomach twisted and bile soured his tongue. He clenched his jaw against the rising bitterness. Apollo. She’s heard from Apollo!
    “Smoke surrounds you, King Priam. It is true. Apollo decrees that your unborn son be sacrificed to him or the city of Troy will fall before a descendant of Aeacus, the mortal wall builder.”
    “Aeacus? But Troy has no quarrel with the western tribes. Pirating along the southern coast of the Troad has died down to nothing. We bear the west no ill will,” Priam argued.
    The Priestess folded her hands. “You agree that your sister is well tended?”
    Priam’s resolve began to falter. He frowned. “Hesione?” The prick of that awful day stung his pride. The deaths of his father and brothers, the loss of his sister at the hands of Herakles...he could still see her pale sky gown fluttering in the wind. “She sends me no word at all. What of her?”
    “You are satisfied that Herakles took her because of your cowardice? Your heart is no longer troubled that a daughter of Troy yet lives among the Greeks against her will?”
    Priam’s face reddened. The match had been unfair. Certain death for him. “How could I fight Herakles?”
    “Apollo answers that you did not even try. The gods test mortals in many ways. It is for you to follow the path Fate stretches before you, not maneuver to evade it.”
    Priam’s hope of saving his unborn son slipped from his fingers. “Is there no other way, priestess? I will give Apollo anything else. I beg him to allow my son to live.”
    “If he lives, Troy will fall. It is that simple.” She spoke Apollo’s will with iron words, and disappeared back behind the blue veil.
    No compromise would be struck between the king and the god. Priam understood, now, his complicity in the episode looming before his family and city. Years ago,