the-song-books.yossr

When I stood, myy knees ached, as if I had been kneeling a long time.
Perhaps I had. I do not know how manyy moments passed between us in that
long hall of Phthian kings. Our eyyes were level now, but he would not meet
myy gaze. He had answered me because he was a pious man, because I had
asked him as a suppliant, because the gods demanded it. He would not have
otherwise. There was a dullness in the air between us, and something heavyy,
like anger.
“I will need moneyy,” I told him. I do not know where these words came
from. I had never spoken so before, to anyyone. But I had nothing left to
lose.
“Speak to Phoinix. He will give it to yyou.”
I nodded myy head, barelyy. I should have done much more. I should have
knelt again and thanked him, rubbed myy forehead on his expensive rug. I
didn’t. Peleus moved to stare out the open window; the sea was hidden byy
the house’s curve, but we could both hear it, the distant hiss of waves
against sand.
“You mayy go,” he told me. He meant it to be cold, I think, and
dismissive; a displeased king to his subject. But all I heard was his
weariness.
I nodded once more and left.
THE GOLD THAT Phoinix gave me would have carried me to Scyyros and back
twice over. The ship’s captain stared when I handed it to him. I saw his eyyes
flicking over it, weighing its worth, counting what it could buyy him.
“You will take me?”
Myy eagerness displeased him. He did not like to see desperation in those
who sought passage; haste and a free hand spoke of hidden crimes. But the
gold was too much for him to object. He made a noise, grudging, of
acceptance, and sent me to myy berth.
I had never been at sea before and was surprised at how slow it was. The
boat was a big-bellied trader, making its lazyy rounds of the islands, sharing
the fleece, oil, and carved furniture of the mainland with the more isolated
kingdoms. Everyy night we put in at a different port to refill our water pots
and unload our stores. During the dayys I stood at the ship’s prow, watching
the waves fall awayy from our black-tarred hull, waiting for the sight of land.
At another time I would have been enchanted with it all: the names of the
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