Voyage of the Snake Lady Read Online Free PDF

battered drum they had taken from the Apollo and an old wooden pipe. Another girl pushed a bundle of wooden spoons into their hands.
    “See!” Iphigenia said. “Maa heard your complaints and provided you with instruments.”
    “Give the pipe to Coronilla,” Myrina told them. “She can make a simple pipe sound like the song of the goddess!”
    Coronilla took the old chipped pipe and put it to her lips.
    Myrina began to beat the drum in a familiar rhythm that made all the Moon Riders smile; they picked up their feet and danced with renewed energy. Iphigenia snatched the wooden spoons and quickly set them clacking in time with the rhythm, two in each hand. Those who were too badly injured to dance clapped and sang. Myrina’s spirits soared. Everyone went to sleep feeling warm and exhausted and safe—for a little while at least.
    In the cold light of the morning Myrina and Kora tried to explain to the islanders what they wished to do. When they heard Myrina’s plans, they shook their heads. Fear gleamed in their eyes, their fingers flicking northward to ward off the evil they believed might come from that direction.
    “No, no. It’s a terrible journey. We call it the Inhospitable Sea!”
    “It’s a big voyage.”
    “The weather changes with a flick of Maa’s fingers.”
    “The winds and waves rise like mountains—and they crash down onto a deck like knives!”
    “They kill people there—kill strangers! They sacrifice them to their gods! They are barbarians!”
    “Wild men, who drink the blood of horses!”
    Myrina smiled. “When I went to Troy as a young girl, I discovered that my tribe, the Mazagardi, were thought to be barbarians by the well-fed city dwellers.”
    The fisherfolk still shook their heads. “The storms that rage in the northern parts of the Inhospitable Sea will tear a boat apart. We know—our men who have ventured too far do not come back!”
    “Better to face storms and barbarians than live beneath the yoke of Achilles’ whelp!” Myrina insisted fiercely.
    Iphigenia touched her arm in a soothing gesture and began explaining to the islanders more gently. “The young Ant Man will demand tribute from you fisherfolk, which will be harsh enough; but from us he will demand our lives. We warrior women are a threat to him—he will never let us stay here in safety. To us, who love to ride and dance, it will be misery indeed if we are forced to live in hiding.”
    “We would keep you safe,” the shout went up. “Stay here with us!”
    “Moon Riders bring the blessings of Maa on our crops and our harvests from the sea!”
    “We would guard you with our lives!”
    Myrina and Iphigenia were both silenced by such loyalty.
    Kora intervened. “Your honor to Maa is not in doubt,” she told them, “but I have seen how fiercely these women fight against oppressors. They cannot thrive without their freedom! If they wish to go venturing across the dark sea, I say we should help them!”
    There was disappointment but subdued agreement. Aid was offered and determined, practical advice, along with provisions for the voyage, but it was clear that the people of Lunardia were sad to lose their strange and magical visitors so soon.
    They all set to work to prepare for the voyage. Kora helped tirelessly, instructing the younger, stronger Moon Riders in the work of hauling in the loose-footed brail sail and turning it to catch the wind. Akasya and Coronilla, now much recovered, learned how to direct the heavy steering oars. Two teams of oarswomen rowed the boats back and forth along the shoreline until they had regained much of their muscular strength and pulled on the oars in perfect harmony.
    Phoebe recovered so well that she was soon beating all the fisher boys at races along the beach. She and Tamsin were sent off with their new friends to pick the dark red cherries that grew all around. They would return in the evening, their hands and faces stained with juice, weighed down with the sweet harvest