Voyage of the Snake Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

they’d gathered. All the women set about gathering wood, to make new bows, and feathers for fletchings to make their arrows fly true.
    Myrina was heartened by it all but worried about her old friend Centaurea. One of the fisherwomen had made her comfortable in a clean and cozy cottage, hidden among the cherry groves, but though she was nursed with care, her wound was slow to heal and it was clear that her spirits were low.
    “You’d best bang a spike through my head as you would a horse,” Centaurea told Myrina gruffly when she went to see how she fared. “Or give me a sharp knife and I’ll despatch myself.”
    “Don’t you dare speak so,” Myrina said, but at the same time her concern grew. How could she take so sick a woman off on a dangerous sea voyage, uncertain whether they would ever find safety at the end of it? To do such a thing might truly make her responsible for her friend’s death. She had seen so much death lately that the thought of bringing about one more was terrible.
    After seven days of hard work, the Artemis and the Apollo were ready to set sail, stocked well with grain, salt meat, goat cheese, and cherries. The islanders brought them two pairs of breeding goats and a pair of sheep so that if they could manage to struggle through the winter, they’d have the means to start new herds in the spring.
    Kora and four of her friends who lived near the mouth of the Thermodon wished them well and set off in a fishing boat to sail back to their homes. Myrina missed the bossy, capable woman as soon as she had gone and quickly realized how much she had been depending on her sensible, down-to-earth advice.
    The younger Moon Riders danced energetically on the shore, hoping to bring a steady southerly wind. Despite the hardships they had suffered, they were eager to be setting sail for the voyage northward across the unknown sea, ready for an adventure after the hopeless despair they’d felt as they faced slavery.

Chapter Five
A Southerly Wind
    I PHIGENIA AND MYRINA sat by Centaurea’s bedside, watching her as she slept; her breathing was light and shallow. Ida, the daughter of the house, hovered shyly in the doorway.
    “May I speak?” she asked respectfully.
    “Of course you may,” Myrina told her. “We cannot say how grateful we are for the tender care you’ve given our friend.”
    The girl took a deep breath and began nervously: “We have been talking, my parents and some of the others.”
    “Yes?” Myrina was a little impatient.
    “Well . . . we have a suggestion to make and if you answer yes, it would please us greatly.”
    Iphigenia and Myrina looked up at each other uncertainly.
    Ida went on, “We wonder if you would think of leaving the sick priestess here with us?”
    Myrina shook her head at once, but the girl hurried to explain more fully. “I have always wanted so much to join the ranks of the Moon maidens,” she whispered. “I wish to learn herb lore and the beautiful sacred dances. Were you to leave the priestess in our care, we would nurse her back to health and give her all the honor that is due to an aging Moon Rider.”
    Myrina and Iphigenia smiled sadly at each other, touched by the young girl’s respect, but the thought of leaving one of their women behind was dreadful to them.
    But now that she’d found the courage to speak, Ida was determined that they should understand her intention. “Were you to leave the priestess in our care, we would build a temple to Earth Mother Maa, hidden away high up in the mountain caves that have always been sacred to the goddess.”
    “You have been thinking carefully about this,” Myrina said.
    The girl rushed on, sensing that she was at least being listened to. “Should we be blessed with her recovery, the priestess Centaurea would be chief in our country. I would be her devoted servant, and if she judged me worthy, I would be her assistant, too.”
    Myrina still hesitated, but Centaurea, who they’d all thought was sleeping,