Voyage of the Snake Lady

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Chapter One

The Last Salute

Myrina gritted her teeth; the rocking of the galley made her feel sick. All the captive women were in great discomfort, crammed into narrow corridors beneath the thwarts, stowed like baggage around the edges of the ship. Myrina's daughter Tamsin clung to her, white faced, but there was little that she could do to comfort the child in that confined space. They were roped together by the ankles, Iphigenia on one side of her and Coronilla on the other; only the young girls were free. Myrina hugged Tamsin tightly. Keeping her daughter safe must be her main purpose now, but she was concerned about Coronilla, who was suffering from a battered head and seemed to be falling into a deathlike sleep.

Despite everything, Myrina felt that she must make one last farewell. "I may never see this land again," she muttered. She twisted around so that she could look up through the oar holes, as the galley pulled away from the shore. Though her view was restricted, she managed to glimpse two grave markers standing out stark on the horizon. She had raised those markers herself—one for Hati, her grandmother, and the other for Atisha, the old leader of the Moon Riders. Both old women had died within a few days of each other in the Month of Falling Leaves. Myrina had taken their ashes from the pyre and buried them side by side above the River Thermodon.

"Good-bye, Hati, warrior grandmother," she whispered. "Good-bye, Atisha, wise old woman. Though I crouch here in shame I salute you both: you will always be here with me in my heart." Then she said fiercely, "I am glad you are not here to see what has become of the once-honored Moon Riders!"

As the two boats moved farther away from the shore, she craned her neck to see the other riverbank, searching for yet another marker. Myrina's horse Isatis had been her faithful companion since the blue-black foal was born into her arms when she was five. Myrina had seen only thirteen springs when she'd ridden away from her home tent on Isatis's back to join the Moon Riders, warrior priestesses of Earth Mother Maa.

But both horse and rider had suffered many years of hard struggle since then, and as they grew older together, Isatis had developed a breathing sickness that gradually made every movement difficult. When the sight of the suffering mare became too much, it was Myrina herself who'd hammered a sharpened spearpoint into Isatis's forehead, so that death came instantly. Her friends had offered to relieve her of the terrible job, but for no other Moon Rider would Isatis drop her head in perfect trust and stillness. So Myrina had forced herself to strike the one powerful blow. She had cremated the carcass and buried Isatis's ashes along with the fine snake-patterned harness that her father had made.

At last, as she craned her neck, she saw the hillock on the shore with the small cairn of stones piled up carefully to mark the spot. Her lips twisted with bitterness and it was hard to get the words out, but they had to be said: "Sleep well, my brave Isatis." She lifted her hand from Tamsin's head in salute.

Deep anger at what had happened kept her eyes dry. Two hundred and fifty women had lived with their children beside the River Thermodon; they were all that was left of the Moon Riders, who'd long been respected for their sacred dancing and warrior skills. Many of the women had once been slaves in the city of Troy, but they had escaped and regained their sense of worth and dignity by joining the ranks of the Moon Riders. Their Achaean enemies had feared these warrior women and called them Amazons, but they'd lived peacefully enough during these years, in harmony with the fisher folk who inhabited that shoreline by the Thermodon. Then, in the Month of New Leaves, news had come of a fleet of warships sailing northward through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, bearing the much-feared symbol of the ant. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, had recovered from the long struggle of the Trojan War and, being still an energetic man, he came raiding along the southern coast, looting all those who'd tried to defend the city of Troy and the Anatolian tribal lands.

Myrina had set up a system of beacons to give warning of their approach. When at last Neoptolemus arrived, it had been in a light, fast flagship, and though he'd sailed close to the land at the mouth of the Thermodon, he'd looked carefully at the landing places and then sailed on. There had been a day of uncertainty and then relief followed, for it seemed that they were not worth the trouble of an attack. But the following morning black dots appeared on the horizon and the sea soon darkened with the shapes of sails, while Myrina rushed to reorganize their defenses. Neoptolemus had sailed ahead of a huge navy, spying out the land, leaving the real dirty work to his followers.

When the battle came at last, both warrior priestesses and fisher folk fought bravely, but this new generation of Achaeans were huge in number. Jealous of their fathers' stories of the Trojan War, they burned with their own desire for adventure and riches. Moon Riders who did not die fighting were taken captive, their boy children slaughtered before their eyes. Among the young girls who had survived were Leti and Fara, but their mothers had died in the battle, and now the older Moon Riders tried hard to care for them and watch them with motherly concern.

The horses had been slaughtered, too, for the seafaring Achaeans had little use for the beasts. The captives were stripped of their weapons, their sheep and goats herded aboard the young Ant Man's ships, while the main fleet sailed onward to the west, still eager for more plunder, leaving two smaller vessels packed with prisoners to be taken they knew not where.

---

Excerpted from Voyage of the Snake Lady by Theresa Tomlinson
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.