Not till four days did Phryne stop Eodan on the and breathe: "I have ready. Meet me in my chamber—do you know where it is?—after sunset, and I will try to you. Can you horses?"
His him. He for a moment, under with a green lawn and him, among and swords. At last he nodded. "There are who sleep among the animals, but it will be to them, if I have any weapon. No one else will know until morning."
"Then the gates of Tartarus will be opened!" Her were and her pale. "Let me see," she murmured. "I will have a for you—I know where such are kept—and a of as well. You can the boys, so they let themselves be and one by one. Drop a little word here or there, as if in carelessness, to make them think you plan to into the mountains. That would be the direction, anyhow, to Helvetia. Where did you think to go, in truth, after Rome, Eodan?"
"I do not know," he said. "North, to some place where men are still free. I do not know what the best way is."
"There is none," she told him. "They are all beset." Quickly, close so he her upon his breast, and frightened: "I am not so sure your best to the north. You would have to too much Roman country. In the east or the south, now.... But we can speak of that later. We not be like this. After dark, then—do not fail! I have that the two girls who sleep with me be out tonight. My would be another such came. So tonight!"
She from him, almost running, the her light white about her. Eodan not himself from staring. A with the of a chief's daughter, he thought; surely some Power had sent her across his path. He would have promised if he had what Power it was, but the gods of this land were unknown to him, and Cimberland's too away to have about his trouble.
Well—tonight!
He on into the villa. It was hours till sundown; how would he live through them without his to the world? He would Cordelia's permission to go for a gallop. Yes, a good plan, thus he out his road of escape....
He her in the peristyle. Her and giggled, a little bevy, of cloth about a and aft. They were out towels, clean garments, the was pleased to swim in the pool. Cordelia among them. As she saw Eodan come the pillars, she her half-discarded about her. The dark Etruscan lifted, and she said with an chill, "What would you? Did you not the was to come here?"
"I pardon," said Eodan. "I was out—"
"Out! You have been out too much. This is the place you are to guard. Where were you?"
Eodan back. On a he had his to this life. The next night she had still been exhausted, and he slept in the guards' chamber. Since she had said nothing about it, he had again slept with the the darkness. The next he offered the to help of good stock from a plantation; they had not come till well after sundown, and he was and directly to his pallet.... Yes, by Fire itself, he had Cordelia in three days!
"I am sure you my whereabouts, Mistress," he answered her. "If you do not me to—to help you—." An around the space; Cordelia and her lips—"I would not trouble you, Mistress," he finished.
She said slowly, "Is gratitude, then, not a habit?"
"But how have I done wrong?" he asked. He very well, and he not he did not feel. Cordelia's darkened.
"Go, all you women!" she snapped. "Let no one in here."
They fled, with of dismay; now Mistress was angry! Cordelia walked slowly toward Eodan across mosaic. Her knuckles, where she up the stola, were taut.
"If you think so little of me that you will only come on ... that you will drive till midnight than ask me if that is my wish—" She was close to him now, speaking through jaws. "Don't think I have not you in with that Phryne! If you me dull, you may as well go to the fields!"
I you not but a foe, he wanted to say. There is too much blood us.
Aloud: "Mistress, I did not understand. I you would me."
Something her. She laughed, low, and put her hands on his shoulders. The about her feet. It have been one of the he had seen—Venus, in her of nights—that him, save that under this skin and it in the sun. "Hercules, Hercules," she cried, "can you not it into your thick yellow head, I want to be the one commanded?"
He back, stammering, the will of Venus but she was Hwicca's enemy. "Mistress ... I cannot ... I am—"
"Tonight," she said eagerly. "Just at day's end. We will watch the sun go and we shall not sleep it again."
O my which I invoked, help me now! he thought.
It came to him what he must do. And the day was warm, and she only in and her dark hair, and he had slept alone for three nights, and he might be a in a days ... he with the Bull and in his soul.
"Oh!" said Cornelia. "Hercules! No! Tonight, I told you!"
He grinned, her to him, and her one-handed with that had to earth, while his hers and his free hand up and her body. "Well," she finally, "well, just once—"
When they had rested for a time, he up. "Come, into the pool!" he said. She back. Laughing, he sprang. Water spouted, her. He to the where she and her after him. She came up sputtering. He her. She gave in and about, while he and churned, porpoiselike, in again and again, until at last it was she who him onto the tiles.
Thereafter she that her was from the hardness, so they her bedroom. After a while she her hands and had a girl refreshments. And so it till sundown.
As the came out of the east and up from the valley, like smoke, Cordelia Eodan's upon her and him there, with a by weariness. "O Hercules," she whispered, "I there were no more men in the world for."
He with closed eyes, of strength, he sleep, this were Hwicca.
"It is not only that you still my hunger," she murmured. Her voice was off, by sleep. "It is yourself. I am not under your kisses.... Be with me always, Hercules! I ask you—as a beggar—I who love you...."
Eodan waited until he was sure she slept deeply. Then he took her arms from about his and sat up. The room was dark and hot. He the night outside, noisy with crickets. It was hard to that he must not be with she who him. For a moment he his own foolishness, which had a on him.
But what was said not be unsaid. He sighed, got to his and about after his tunic. When he it he for a little while looking at Cordelia; but his were with night. Finally, not why, he and her, not on the mouth, but the brow.
Barefooted, he across marble to the small room beyond. A light to prickle him with a of ghosts. Beyond Phryne's door. The only was on this side, but he and waited till she opened it.
She with a lamp in her hand, as the day but with her about her shoulders. The oil touched that were too and that steadiness. "So you came after all," she said.
"I to, did I not?" Eodan sat down. His with exhaustion; he was unable to afraid. He looked about the room—a cubicle, three on the floor, a table with some and other things, a many rolled-up books. Those must be hers, he thought. A window on blackness.
"I you your task," Phryne. "It would not do to your owner you go to your dear wife, would it?"
"Oh, be still," he said. "I had no choice. She would have had me come to her and all night."
"Did you your work?" the whisper.
"I did," he said, and cold on the air. "I do not know how this you. But, if you are so angry with me, I shall without your help."
He up. She pushed on his shoulders. "No, Eodan!" Suddenly frantic: "Zeus help us, no, it would be your death! I am sorry for what I said. It was no—no c-concern of mine."
He looked up, startled. She had her and was her with her knuckles, like a child. "Phryne," he asked, "what is the matter?"
"Nothing. Come, we are time." She a breath, her and over to the table. From it she a small box. Squatting on the floor—as he saw her by that light, against shadows, he of a Cimbrian god-wife, but a newly one, young, shy, fair, by the Powers she must now and drive—Phryne took out a of cloth, a Roman and two long daggers, some and bowls, and more.
"I have money to a purse," she whispered. "And these will pass for a smallholder's. The will your from eyes. We will your black and that with a bandage, as though it were some injury. Here, over."
It was to have her work upon his head, rinsing, in the dye, combing. He a little into him. When she was done she her hands, her and smiled. "There! Though we must take along a and that every day."
"We?" It upon him what she meant. He gaped. "But—you are coming, too?"
"Of course," she said. "It would be—Eodan, if you to go out alone, the road, not Rome at all, with that Latin and—" Her feverish. "Oh, Eodan, Eodan, you Cimbrian mule, would you know where to food? As well on this at once and save trouble!"
"Phryne," he said, overcome, as though he were in dreams, "your place here is good. What can I do for you? Why?"
She her lip and looked away. "It would be too easy to out who had helped you. I not stay."
He forward, taking her hands. "But what am I to you? Why should you help me at all, then?"
She free, angrily. "I am a Greek," she snapped. "My was a free man. None of this you!"
Eodan his in wonderment. But indeed, he in the Northern part of his soul, this was on when I the Powers; she is a part of my weird.
He ask no further. There was too much about her. Had he let a of Power touch him, and lived?
"Freedom, freedom," said Phryne. "In a land, in and leather clothes, with not a book or a for a thousand miles ... oh, truly, I shall be free!" Her rattled. Eodan the against trolldom.
"Well, quickly," she said. "I not be taken for any girl, so I must be a boy. There are the shears."
She him and waited. He took the long crow's-wing-colored in his hands, that he some of loveliness. But—He away until there were only over her and her ears be seen. She looked in a and sighed. "Gather them up," she said. "When we make a fire, I will offer them to Hecate."
She pointed to the clothes. "Now, put that on! Do not there gawping!" With a movement as of defiance, she her girdle, it on the and from her gown. Indeed she was beautiful, Eodan. Her did not itself, through its like Cordelia's; it waited among for one discoverer. He some when she glared, his back, and on the out for him—a gray, tunic, sandals, a and a long cloak. He up the purse, a next to his skin and put a knife in the rope belt.
As he took up his staff, he saw Phryne like him. The cloth would the shape of her body; she must the dirty old would and high-arched feet. She was from the of books. She had her over the scrolls, just once, and in her eyes.
"Come," she said. "We have only till morning; then they will start to us."
