Tommy Nightmare(35)

“This is the girl?” the king asked the priest.

“We have studied her,” the old priest said. “I have seen with my own eyes. She has a gift from Aphrodite Areia. The power lies in her touch.”

“Is this true?” the king asked Jenny.

“Great king, the war goddess has blessed me,” Jenny heard herself say.

“Give us a demonstration,” said the man in white and green. He offered his chair to the priest, who sat.

Jenny held up her hand and splayed her fingers. Her hand turned a feverish red, and then pustules and ulcers broke out across her palm and along the insides of her fingers.

The man in the green-edged tunic, who was the king’s advisor, turned pale and gaped. The old priest, having seen far more than this, was interested only in the king’s reaction.

The king leaned forward to the edge of his stool. “Come closer.”

Jenny took two steps toward him. The advisor stepped back, as far away from her as he could manage.

“Great Archidamus,” the old priest said to the king. “The touch of the goddess slays all. No man can touch her and long survive.”

“That is a great shame.” The king favored Jenny with a smile. “Come closer,” he said, and Jenny stepped toward him.

“Careful,” the advisor said. “She is a helot.”

“You would not wish to slay your rightful sovereign?” the king asked Jenny.

“I would not,” Jenny said. “But I am a slave to the goddess, as I am a slave to Sparta. She chooses whom to slay. I do not. I am merely her vessel.”

“I have sacrificed many fine rams and ewes at the temple of Aphrodite Areia,” the king said. “The goddess loves me. She bears me no wrath.” The king reached for her hand.

“Do not touch her!” the priest shouted.

The king scowled at the old priest. “Do not command your king!”

“Neither beast nor man are spared,” the old priest said. “The goddess destroys all that the girl touches.”

“If the goddess harms me,” the king said, “then the rites of your priesthood are false.”

The old priest said nothing.

The king took Jenny by the wrist and brought her hand closer to inspect the signs of disease.

Jenny shivered in fright. She waited for the touch of Aphrodite Areia to flow into him, for sores and ulcers to break out on his hand and spread up his arm, across his body. Then the king would scream, the old priest would shout, and perhaps the advisor would draw the short sword at his waist and attack Jenny.

But this did not happen. The king studied her fevered, ulcerated hand. The plague did not spread into him, and she marveled. And she trembled, for now she knew the king was no ordinary man. The gods must have favored him.

“It looks strong,” the king said. He looked up at her. The irises of his eyes were a deep, rich amber color. “And you may inflict a deadly suffering upon men, if you wish?”

“If the goddess wishes,” Jenny whispered. In all of her fifteen years, she had never touched another without causing disease.

The king released her.

“You spoke falsely,” the king said to the priest. “The goddess loves me, yet you said she would do me harm.”

“I have never seen otherwise,” the old priest said. He was pale now, frightened at having displeased the king. “I only sought to protect the king.”

The king eased back on his stool, which was cushioned by woolen fleeces. He studied Jenny.

“You must know of the recent evils of Athens,” the king said to Jenny. “The Athenians formed the Delian League under pretense of constructing a shield between Persia and Greece. Yet Athens has reduced her allies to mere subjects, and thinks only of expanding her influence, not of protecting Greece. She will not cease until the world lies prostrate under the sword of the Athenian tyrant. Do you know of these things, helot?”

“I have heard such talk,” Jenny said. “But it is not my place.”

The king smiled at her, and she trembled at the powerful energy in his gaze.

“The Athenians hide now behind their walls,” the king said. “The walls reach all the way to the sea. We have ravaged the Attica countryside, yet Athens remains free to command the seas. No army may enter the city.”

He paused, looking at her. Jenny did not know what she might say to this, so she remained silent.

“We cannot assault her from without,” the king said. “But my priests advise me that you may assault her from within.”

“We should not put any trust in a helot,” the advisor said, but the king ignored him.

“The priests tell me they have prepared you for this,” the king said.