Serpent Goddess: The Horse Lords Book 1 Read online

  “Excellent. Thank you Mikon.”

  “Now as for my daughter, what are your intentions for her Sava?”

  “I uh, right now I am not sure. She is very beautiful.” He muttered, taken aback. I should have known he would ask.

  “So you are just playing with her heart for the short time you are here?”

  “Nay, it’s not like that….” Sava’s eyes dropped. I cannot help myself. Kleo is irresistible.

  “Polydorus, you will sleep outside Kleo’s door tonight,” Mikon called to a servant. “No one is to enter or leave her room.”

  Shaking his head Sava attempted to reassure the Geloni arkhon – “Mikon, I have no intention…” He trailed off, embarrassed.

  “Just a simple precaution.” Mikon waved his hand dismissively. “I know how these things can happen. My daughter is young and impulsive.

  Mikon put his arm around Sava’s shoulders and gave him a comforting shake. But there was a steely glint in his eyes as he said in low voice –

  “Did you know that Arkon Makarios’ eldest son Gogi has been courting Kleo? He is away right now or he would have been here tonight. I know Kleo has been teasing you, tempting you. And my question to you is – Have you been leading her on?”

  Looking Mikon in the eye, Sava waited for the ax to fall.

  “If Kleo becomes anymore attached to you, she might spurn Gogi. Then when you leave here, Kleo will be left with nothing but a broken heart and perhaps a swelling belly. Is that what you want for my daughter Sava? I would be very upset if that were to happen.”

  “Mikon, I assure you that if Kleo were to get with child I would marry her. We were only enjoying a bit of flirtation.” Heavy flirtation. Mikon is right. Kleo is not the only one who has been playing with fire.

  “That’s what worries me – It sounds like you have no intention to form a permanent relationship with Kleo.”

  “It’s not that…” Sava shook his head.

  “What is it then? Is there someone else at home?”

  Sava could only nod, his heart sinking. “But we are not yet formally betrothed.”

  “Oh so you think to play a little before you go back to your promised one?”

  “Mikon I have a long road ahead, I don’t even know if I will survive what is to come...I am too young to marry…”

  “Ah - all the usual excuses,” Mikon glared at him.

  “I give you my word,” Sava pressed palm over heart. “I swear to you that I will not fail you on this. I will not pursue Kleo anymore. Our dalliance is over from this moment on.” He felt as if a part of himself had been irrevocably severed.

  The Geloni arkhon nodded. “I understand how it is Sava. Now let your heart be at ease. Go and sleep in peace. Remember, you are safe with us, eh my friend? And for tomorrow I have arranged something special - a Nekromanteion.

  “What is that?”

  “An Oracle of the Dead.”

  Chapter 19 - Serpent of Health

  The noble serpent clings

  In slippery embrace

  To the Physician-God's staff

  The one he carries all knotty

  With half-amputated branches -

  Apuleius, The Golden Ass c. 200 AD

  At crack of dawn the next morning Sava strode out to the barn. Zlatna was already standing by the door, ready for his morning feed of grain and hay. After feeding and grooming his horse, Sava’s unwilling feet led him in search of Kleo.

  This will not go well.

  At first sight of her in the sunny atrium, hips swaying gracefully under her white linen chiton, his libido shot up. Kleo carried a small bowl in both hands. Aware of Sava’s lascivious eye upon her, she knelt before the life-size statue of a majestic figure.

  Partly hidden by decorative plants, the statue’s muscular physique was loosely swathed in a robe, one end slung over a shoulder. The god had a calm aura and far-seeing eyes. His regal features were framed by luxurious curling hair and beard. He held a thick staff around which a large serpent was coiled. Reverently placing the bowl at the statue’s feet, Kleo prayed:

  O Great Asklepios, skilled to heal mankind

  Strong, lenient God, regard my suppliant prayer,

  Bring gentle health, adorned with lovely hair

  O power abundant, bright God of Light

  O constant foe of dread disease

  Come blessed savior, our health to defend.

  She touched three fingers to forehead and heart. After tapping the stone floor three times with a fingernail she stepped back a few paces.

  In moments a long forked red tongue flickered out from between the statue and a large feathery green fern. The red tongue tested the air. Then a V-shaped head with round golden eyes centered with large black pupils came flowing out.

  The serpent’s head rose into the air as the rest of its body emerged and coiled. It was a big snake. Longer than a man and thick. Its body was light brown with a golden belly. The serpent’s golden eyes swept the room. Very aware. Very alert.

  Sava’s mind and body went into a state of high awareness. The pupils of his eyes widened, intently focused. Everything went still. Strange how a big snake can do that, bring all instincts to the fore. Snap the world into crystal clarity. The fangs of Sauromatian vipers carried a lethal venom used to poison arrow heads. He had never seen people living with snakes before. Let alone keeping them as revered pets.

  “All is well Soosna…,” Kleo crooned to the serpent in soft vibrating tones. “Come. Drink. I bring you cool water.”

  Dipping its alert head, the serpent’s long forked tongue began flickering into the water. Kleo rose and came to stand by Sava. He felt her succulent presence like a body blow. It had been hard to resist climbing through the window into her room last night. But Mikon had laid down the law and he would respect it. Come what may.

  Now seeing how Kleo was at ease with the serpent, he gazed at her with new eyes.

  “Soosna is our house snake,” she answered his silent question. “He came when I called him – a good omen. You men should learn to do the same.”

  “You think I was not dying to melt in your embrace last night?” Sava could only shake his head. “Kleo, your father has forbidden me to pursue this… flirtation with you any further.”

  “Oh Sava…I feared as much.”

  “Your father is right. It is for the best. I will be leaving soon and have far to go, perhaps never to return. A great war is coming. The Sauromatae are sure to be in the forefront of it. Besides you did not tell me that you already have a suitor - Gogi.” He gave her a wry smile, inwardly cursing himself for his cowardice at not telling her about Bari.

  “Who told you about Gogi?”

  “What does it matter? Is it true?”

  Her gaze dropped. “Gogi has already asked for my hand in marriage. But I will never forget you Sava. As long as I live I will remember our times together. Some of the happiest days of my life…” Her amber eyes glistened with unshed tears.

  “I feel the same Kleo…”

  Am I making a great mistake here? He longed to take her in his arms. To lose himself one more time in the intoxicating honey of her mouth and body…With great effort Sava pulled himself together.

  “Tell me, why do you keep a serpent in your house?” He asked to change the subject.

  “The serpent is the messenger of healing for Lord Asklepios.” Averting her eyes Kleo swiped at her tears, embarrassed.

  “Ahh Kleo…” He took her chin with two fingers and gazed into glistening amber eyes. Struggling to control his own sadness he wiped away her tears with his thumb.

  “Oh Sava we had so much fun together. I loved being in your presence, your stories, your songs, your warm lips…There will never be anyone like you…” Golden brown eyes glistened with the sting of deeply felt loss.

  His heart cried out to open his arms, to merge with her essence. Instead he shook his head wordlessly. Unable to express his real feelings, he persisted asking about the serpent -

  “
Is Soosna poisonous?”

  Head bowed, wiping her eyes, Kleo pulled herself together. “Soosna is a good snake. He eats rats and mice and brings healing dreams from Asklepios.”

  As they stood together exchanging needy, desolate looks, Mikon strode in.

  “Sava, come to the well with me. We must bathe before the Nekromanteion. Strategos Nikos will be waiting for us at the temple of Goddess Athene. He will invoke the shade of his father to request an oracle on the alliance against Persia. Will you also request an oracle?”

  “I will.”

  “Come then, we must ready ourselves to receive the Spirits of Haides.“

  On his way out Sava glanced back at Kleo. Their eyes held for an intense moment. There was so much more he wanted to say, but it was no use. The eagle of destiny had him in its talons and was flying away with his life…

  Chapter 20 - Nekromanteion – Death Oracle

  The ghosts trailed after him

  With high thin cries

  As bats cry in the depths of a haunted cavern.

  Shrilling, flittering,

  Wild when one drops from the chain

  Slipped from the rock face,

  While the rest cling tight –

  Homer, Odysseus descends to Tartarus for an oracle,

  The Odyssey 800 BC

  Standing naked next to the well in the courtyard, Mikon handed Sava a small vessel of white paste.

  “Rub this over your body then wash it off.”

  Sava gave the concoction a sniff. “Smells good. What is it?”

  “A purifying soap made from salt, olive oil and rosemary.”

  Sava rubbed the paste over his lithe body, then poured bucket after bucket of cool fresh well water over his head. After he had dried off Mikon handed Sava a white linen robe to wear in the Greek style. Then they proceeded down the dirt road to the temple.

  Mikon halted before a great temple with massive white pillars. A dramatic frieze of young men galloping horses raced around the upper part. The harrowing face of a woman with venomous fangs and writhing snakes for hair glared down from over the great door.

  “Who is that?” Sava asked.

  “She is a Gorgon, Ancient of Days, Keeper of Secrets in the Dark House. Come, let us ask the goddess’ blessing, then consult the Oracle of the Dead.”

  Mikon handed a silver obol to a priest standing next to the massive temple doors. The priest clapped three times and the doors slowly creaked open, seemingly by themselves. It was the first time Sava had ever been in a temple.

  As they stepped inside the echoing blast of a horn resonated. Sava glanced around but saw no one. What divine magic!

  At the end of the great hall stood a magnificent statue of Pallas Athene. After bowing obeisance to the daughter of Zeus, Mikon led Sava to a shadowed door behind the statue. A priest in black robes opened the door.

  Taking a flickering torch off the wall the priest led them down a long steep flight of stone steps. Down into black, oppressive silence. Their footsteps echoed all the way down.

  At the bottom was a small room lined with stone on all sides. The air was thick and Sava’s lungs seized. Used to the pure open air of the steppes, he choked on the pungent, bitter smoke of wormwood billowing from a brazier.

  A powerfully built man with curly black hair and beard and piercing dark eyes stood with another priest. Mikon made the introductions –

  “Sava, son of Skopasis, this is Rorik, the Hierophant.”

  Hand over heart, Sava inclined his head to the Hierophant in a respectful salute. The priest’s black cloak was trimmed in scarlet. The hood was pulled down, partly covering his eyes, which was disconcerting to Sava.

  The nomad’s breath tightened. He had always distrusted the black robes. There was a ruthless, malevolent essence about this priest that repelled him. He felt himself in the presence of an unknown entity. An entity who would soon reveal his true nature. Whether this `Hierophant’ walked in the way of the light or of darkness remained to be seen.

  “This is our strategos, Nikos, son of Nestor.” Mikon said, turning to the broad shouldered burly individual, clearly a warrior. “He will advise the arkhons as to whether we should join the alliance against Persia.” Nikos studied Sava with acute, assessing eyes.

  After the introductions a priestess brought each of them a drink.

  “What is in this?” Sava’s expression was wary.

  “This is the sacred kykeion. It is made from barley malt, water and mint.” She replied.

  Sava drank of it but not all. After they had drunk the kykeion, the Hierophant spoke. His deep resonant voice echoed off the chamber walls –

  “O Supplicants who wish to commune with the Dead, know this - All that you see before you in our mortal world – All of it comes from one source - the Primordial Source. Here you will connect with the Source, where All is One. Here you will learn to accept Death without Fear.”

  A chill went down Sava’s spine at the Hierophant’s words. That is a powerful thing. But if I lose my fear of Death, will I become too brazen, too reckless with Life?

  Lifting his arms the Hierophant began to chant:

  Death brings Eternal Life

  Death is The Way to Life

  Death is the Rebirth of Life

  Drink not from the River of Forgetfulness, Mikon and Nikos intoned the refrain. Drink instead from the Fountain of Remembrance

  Death brings Eternal Life

  Death is The Way to Life

  Death is the Rebirth of Life

  Hood thrown back, eyes turned up showing the whites, the Hierophant kept chanting...

  Death brings Eternal Life

  Death is The Way to Life

  Death is the Rebirth of Life

  Drink not from the River of Forgetfulness

  Drink instead from the Fountain of Remembrance

  Sava joined in, chanting the refrain, their bodies swaying, heads nodding. The priest threw hemp buds onto the burning brazier. Bluish-red flames flared. A familiar pungent scent filled the room.

  Within the haze of smoke and torchlit gloom Sava could barely see the hand in front of his face. His mind was shutting down. He was floating, disconnected from his body. The walls seemed to be moving, rippling.

  That drink must have been drugged. Or this is the most powerful hemp I have ever inhaled.

  “To speak with the Dead, you must face Death. Alone.” The Hierophant pointed at a door bound in bronze. “You will know what it is to be a lost soul. Searching for The Way. Beyond this door lie the streets of Haides. You must find your way through the darkness, blind and alone.”

  The priest thrust three gold coins into each man’s hand saying –

  “You will come to three iron gates. At each gate you will be asked a question. If you answer correctly the gate will open. Drop a coin into the Mind of Death that sits on a tripod and pass through. Above all, keep heart. As you walk the streets of Haides, you will see things. Hear things. Say nothing. Make no move. Stay here until I call upon you. Until then, meditate upon your death.”

  Sava leaned against the wall. Images flitted across his mind, coalescing, swirling into colorful visions, then dissipating into blackness. In the deep silence he heard himself breathing. An ominous, brooding tension oppressed him. And then for the first time in Sava’s young life, the realization of his own mortality hit him like a crack of lightning –

  I am going to DIE. Maybe not today or tomorrow but Death WILL come for me. But I don’t know how to die.

  He had grown up surrounded by the rancid specter of death, of heads on pikes, scalps on bridle reins. But his mind had erected barriers shielding him from the cold reality of his own death. Now these barriers came crashing down.

  Will I end my life as an old man having failed, like a dog howling at the moon? Will I ever pierce the veil that separates Man from the Great Mystery?

  A sobbing scream pierced the air. An agonized lament for a lost life, the shriek resonated, vibrating the stone walls.

 
Some lost suffering soul blindly searching for the Way…

  As the last echoes were dying away, the bronze bound door opened to darkness. The Hierophant tapped Nikos on the shoulder. The strategos rose and walked through the door into the labyrinth of Haides. The door shut after him with a resounding thud.

  After a time the high priest came for Mikon. Then it was Sava’s turn. The priest opened the door and Sava passed through. With a hollow grating sound the door slammed shut behind him.

  Smoke pungent with the stink of sulfur swirled. It was so dark Sava had to feel his way along. Suddenly pounding footsteps came running out of nowhere. Someone bowled him aside, nearly knocking him down.

  A voice screamed – “Wait! Wait for me! Don’t leave me!”

  Chapter 21 – What is this Sleep?

  What is this sleep that has seized you?

  This sleep that has darkened your face

  And stopped your breath?

  As long as I breathe I will sob for you

  Like a woman who has lost her only child -

  Epic of Gilgamesh, 1500 BC

  Feeling his way blindly along the labyrinth of Lord Haides’ domain, Sava heard the furious clanging of swords striking shields. A violent battle was raging somewhere nearby. The air was shot through with screams of fury, fear and pain. His anxious seeking fingers touched iron bars.

  The first gate.

  In the darkness a blacker shadow moved. Sava stepped back. His eyes made out the image of a tall shrouded figure. Next to the figure a small oil lamp cast flickering shadows on a skull sitting on a tripod.

  A sibilant Voice asked – “What is Death?”

  “Death is The Way to Life.” Sava answered.

  The iron gate creaked open. Sava dropped one of the three gold coins into a hole in the Mind of Death and passed through.

  He had taken only a few steps when a fierce growling rent the air. Startled, he jumped back. The animal set up a cacophony of barking. The barking was so loud it made the stone walls ring. Any moment the furious animal would attack.

  Sava crouched, bracing himself for the charge, cursing as he did so that he had no knife, no sword. Nothing to protect himself but his bare hands.