Hades' Daughter

  And, as my sons (Brutus’ sons, really, they had never been mine) gathered about the bed, and the court pressed close, paying their final respects, I rose from the bed and backed away, walking from the room, walking to that small chamber where I spent my days sewing and listening to the gossip of Brutus’ concubines.

  There, in a box hidden under layers of colourful linen thread, was the knife with which I had murdered Genvissa.

  Asterion’s dagger. Oh, yes, I knew who it belonged to, and I knew of the dark alliance between him and Mag. I also knew what Mag had planned for that alliance.

  It made me weep, knowing what lay ahead.

  I lifted the knife from its hiding place, the bright threads tumbling about my feet.

  “Brutus,” I said on a sob, and desolate, wretched, more lonely than I think anyone has ever been or ever will be, I put the knife to my throat in that same place where I had sunk it into Genvissa’s neck, and thrust it through my skin and flesh with all the strength I could muster.

  The pain…the pain was dreadful and yet, somehow, merciful…

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  They took them, the washed and carefully bundled corpses of Brutus and his hated wife Cornelia, to the well sunk deep into the White Mount from the basements of the palace. There they were lowered, and placed into a chamber that had been hollowed out in the heart of the mound.

  Their mourners thought that the gods would take Brutus and Cornelia into their care, but instead they were taken by the Troy Game, and it was not into care at all.

  Drawn through death, trapped by Genvissa’s curse and the desperateness of love and ambition and the need of a great city both trapped and blessed by the enchantment that had birthed it, the Game played on.

  And, unrestrained as it was by the incompletion of the Flower Dance, the Game grew.

  Six months later a man led an invasion force across the Narrow Seas. He stood in the prow of his ship, uncaring of the sea spray that drenched him, staring at the faint smudge of the white cliffs in the distance before him.

  Naked, and daubed with intricate swirling patterns made with blue clay, he was a young man of uncommon dark beauty, and a man who radiated strength and power and purpose.

  In the belly of his ship, and in the scores of ships that surged in his wake, crouched thousands of weaponed men who would lay down their lives for him without an instant’s hesitation.

  Their king. Goffar’s son, Amorian.

  Asterion reborn.

  They attacked Troia Nova within two days of landing on Llangarlia’s shores.

  Achates and his brothers put up a brave defence, for Brutus had warned them that such an attack was likely, but nothing had prepared them for the viciousness and madness of the Poiterans.

  These crazed and naked, blue-daubed warriors feared nothing, and it was as if they were protected by some dark enchantment, for whenever a Trojan or Llangarlian sword aimed directly for Poiteran flesh something turned it away at the last moment, and instead it was the Poiteran blades that sank successfully into their destination.

  The Poiterans initially attacked the main western gate, and Achates concentrated his defences there, but unbeknown to him Amorian knew of the low, hidden arch in the northern wall of the city which allowed the Wal River entry into Troia Nova. Through this arch Amorian led a band of some several hundred Poiterans, and they attacked Achates from behind, surprising him so greatly that it took only the work of an hour to open the gates of the city to the main Poiteran force.

  The remnants of the Trojan and Llangarlian force fought their attackers for an entire day through the streets of Troia Nova, the Poiterans slowly driving Achates and his men back towards Brutus’ palace atop the White Mount.

  In the evening, when the defenders were exhausted and the Poiterans, unbelievably, appeared as fresh as when they had first launched their attack, Amorian himself cornered Achates in Brutus’ megaron.

  He laughed in joy when he saw what Achates carried in his hand: the twisted-horn handled knife. A simple feint, a distracting scream, and the knife was back in Amorian’s hand.

  Amorian killed Achates with it, slowly, that he might feed from the power of Achates’ life force seeping from his body.

  And then Amorian raged, unbelieving, for when he cut away Achates’ clothes, he saw that the man’s limbs were bare.

  Brutus was dead. Achates should wear the kingship bands! Where were they? Where were they?

  What had Brutus done with them?

  A shiver of fear run through Amorian. How was it he had not known that Brutus did not pass on the bands to his son? Where had Brutus put them? Where?

  Infuriated, blind with hatred, Amorian allowed his men free rein through the city. The slaughter was terrible: infants were thrown to the flames or tossed from blade to blade amid Poiteran laughter; women were raped, the prettiest kept for later amusement, the older or the very young used eight or nine times before having their throats cut; men and boys were savaged, slowly and terribly, and left to die in gutters.

  Amorian left the corpse of Achates and walked through the butchery. His mind was consumed with thoughts of the kingship bands, but his outward demeanour was that of the victor. His body glistened with sweat and blue clay and blood, his head was thrown back, eyes and laughing mouth screaming encouragement to his men. Sometimes he paused to take his turn with a woman; sometimes he delayed to murder a child, or its father, and drink of the blood that pumped from the death wound.

  As Amorian walked, so evil followed unhindered in his footsteps.

  When dawn came, Amorian began a systematic search for the golden bands of Troy. It surely would be no trouble to scry out their location, nor, come to it, that of the labyrinth.

  Brutus did not have that much power, surely.

  And yet a niggling memory that Brutus was powerful. Had Amorian not once thought of Brutus as a “fine adversary”?

  Too fine an adversary, as it turned out. Once Amorian started searching, it did not take him long to realise that both the bands and the labyrinth had been disguised in such a cunning fashion that they repelled any enchantment he used to discover them. Every time he sent out his power it was reflected—repulsed—back to him. Where were they? By the gate to the city? Under the palace? On one of the hills enclosed by the city’s walls? Where? Where? Where?

  Nowhere that Amorian could discern.

  And yet the golden bands, as the labyrinth, were here. Amorian could feel them in his gut…but whatever Brutus had done to disguise them had been so cunning that nothing Amorian could do could discover them. Brutus’ enchantment even confused the memories of Troia Nova’s inhabitants. No one knew where the labyrinth was, let alone the golden bands.

  Finally, enraged, Amorian screamed at his men to destroy the city, to raze it stone by stone, to tear it apart.

  Then, surely, he would find the bands and the labyrinth.

  They could not be far away.

  But, over the next few weeks as his men carried out his will, and Troia Nova fell to the hands and muscles of the Poiterans and the darkcraft that Amorian used to speed their work, Amorian finally, grudgingly, admitted to himself that Brutus had woven such an extraordinary disguising about both bands and labyrinth that he would not find them.

  Not on his own.

  It would have to wait until the Gathering, until both Genvissa and Brutus were reborn and cowering before him.

  Then the blood would flow as it never had before…

  “Well,” Amorian said one morning as he walked over the rubble covering the most westerly hill within the city, “I admit you have outfoxed me for this moment. But this is a temporary reprieve only. When I bring you back, when I convene the Gathering, you will grovel before me and you will tell me where you have hidden the kingship bands and the labyrinth. You will. You will!”

  He turned around, and surveyed the destruction about him. The entire city was now nothing more than massive piles of masonry, stained here and there with blood, softened elsewhere with the
thin smoke of the fires that still burned in buried chambers under the rubble.

  Over all hung the stench of well-rotted corpses.

  “No one will ever be safe,” he whispered, “not until I have those bands.”

  Epilogue

  London, March 1939

  London’s streets were cold and bitter, a mortar-and-brick echo of Jack Skelton’s heart. He strode towards St Paul’s underground station, a small, uninterested part of his mind hoping there would still be a late train to get him back to Bentley’s house.

  Mostly, however, he thought of Cornelia and of the Game. How he had betrayed both of them, one way or the other. How he had allowed his stupidity and his pride to dictate his actions when he should have listened to his reason and to his heart.

  He reached the station, and saw that it was closed. He would have to find a cab to take him back to Highbury.

  Skelton turned back to the street. He crossed his arms, as if against the cold, but his hands moved to his biceps as if he sought those ancient golden bands that had once adorned them.

  Asterion had four of them. The other two…

  “Cornelia,” Skelton whispered, “where are you?”

  “Gone,” whispered Asterion, rising out of the shadows behind Skelton. “Gone.”

  GLOSSARY

  ACHATES: first-born son of cornelia and brutus.

  ACHERON, RIVER: a river of the western coast of Greece, the Acheron rises from HADES’ Underworld, then flows underground for many kilometres, eventually rising to the surface and emptying into the Ionian Sea close to the city of MESOPOTAMA.

  AEGEAN SEA: the sea which lies between the eastern coast of Greece and the western coast of present-day Turkey (ancient ANATOLIA).

  AEGEAN WORLD, the: a term that refers to the ancient lands and civilisations grouped about the AEGEAN SEA. Principally the Greek (or MYCENAEAN) civilisation; the Cretan (MINOAN) civilisation; and the Trojan civilisation.

  AENEAS: a hero of the Trojan war against the Greeks and beloved of the gods, Aeneas was the son of a goddess, APHRODITE, and a mortal man, Anchises. Aeneas fled the destruction of TROY to Alba on the River Tiber in Italy. He is the great-grandfather of BRUTUS. Aeneas is now dead.

  AERNE: the GORMAGOG (living representative of the stag god OG) of LLANGARLIA. His son by BLANGAN is LOTH. With GENVISSA he has three daughters.

  AETHYLLA: a Trojan woman from MESOPOTAMA, companion to CORNELIA.

  ALBION: an ancient name for the main island in the British Isles.

  ALDROS: captain of BRUTUS’ warship.

  AMORIAN: son of GOFFAR and king of POITERAN.

  ANATOLIA: now known as Turkey. On its west coast stood TROY, as well as many other magnificent cities.

  ANDRON: the dining room of a Greek house. Generally the room where men gathered to talk.

  ANTIGONUS: brother of PANDRASUS, father of MELANTHUS, Peleus and Andronus.

  APHRODITE: goddess of love, mother of AENEAS and great-great-grandmother of BRUTUS.

  ARIADNE: Mistress (or High Priestess) of the LABYRINTH on Crete. Ariadne is the daughter of King Minos and half-sister to the Minotaur ASTERION. Her lover is THESEUS, and her sister is Phaedre.

  ARTEMIS: Greek virgin goddess of the moon and of the hunt, sister to Apollo.

  ARIADNE’S DANCING FLOOR: the labyrinth as laid out in a pattern in a stone dancing floor. See also LABYRINTH.

  ASSARACUS: a Dorian Greek of the city of MESOPOTAMA. Born of a Trojan mother, Assaracus is allied with BRUTUS.

  ASTERION: the name of the Minotaur at the heart of the Cretan labyrinth, son of King Minos’ wife and a white bull, and thus half-brother to ARIADNE, the MISTRESS OF THE LABYRINTH.

  AUROCHS: massive prehistoric cattle.

  BLADUD: a Llangarlian warrior.

  BLANGAN: daughter of HERRON and AERNE, sister to GENVISSA, wife to CORINEUS, mother of LOTH.

  BRUTUS: son of SILVIUS, great-grandson of AENEAS. An exiled Trojan.

  CADOR: son of ERITH.

  CATASTROPHE, the: in the late Bronze Age the cities and civilisations of the MINOANS (CRETE), the MYCENAEANS (Greece) and the Anatolians (Turkey) suffered a catastrophe so severe it destroyed most cities and ended higher civilisation: for instance, Greeks lost the art of reading and writing for almost a thousand years. Some of the cities destroyed during the Catastrophe were TROY (the most famous of all), Knossos, Tarsus, Pylos, Iolkos, Thebes, Midea and Nichoria. Although there are many theories, no one truly knows what precipitated this catastrophe.

  COEL: a Llangarlian warrior and nobleman, son of ERITH.

  CORINEUS: a Trojan of the line of Locrinus, husband of BLANGAN, the leading citizen of the city of LOCRINIA.

  CORNELIA: a Dorian Greek woman, daughter of PANDRASUS, princess of MESOPOTAMA.

  CRETE: large island in the central eastern Mediterranean. It is the centre of the MINOAN civilisation and the home of the LABYRINTH; its capital is Knossos.

  DANCE OF THE FLOWERS: one of two dances involved in creating the GAME, the Dance of the Flowers is performed at the end of the ceremonies and enchantments used to establish the GAME.

  DANCE OF THE TORCHES: the magical dance used to commence the GAME.

  DEIMAS: leader of the Trojans enslaved in MESOPOTAMA.

  ECUB: MOTHER of a village near MAG’S DANCE.

  ERITH: mother of COEL, and MOTHER of a Llangarlian House.

  GAME, the: in the ancient world most major cities were protected by a mysterious rite called the Game. The Game was based on the secrets of the LABYRINTH, originating within the Cretan Labyrinth before its secrets were shared among the Bronze Age Greek and Anatolian worlds. The Game is controlled by a KINGMAN and MISTRESS OF THE LABYRINTH. For each city there is a slightly different version of the Game; thus the Game used to protect Troy is known as the Troy Game. The Mistress of the Labyrinth and the Kingman work the magic of the Labyrinth mainly through the performance of two dances, the DANCE OF THE TORCHES and the DANCE OF THE FLOWERS.

  GENVISSA: daughter of HERRON, and the current MAGALLAN (female representative of the goddess MAG) of LLANGARLIA.

  GOFFAR: king of POITERAN.

  GORMAGOG: living representative of the god OG, also called the Giant of Madog. The current Gormagog is AERNE, father of LOTH.

  HADES: god of the Underworld.

  HERA: wife of Zeus, queen of Olympus, first among all the female gods, and patron of CORNELIA, princess of MESOPOTAMA.

  HERRON: GENVISSA and BLANGAN’S mother, and a former MAGALLAN.

  HICETAON: one of BRUTUS’ commanders.

  HOEL: son of ERITH.

  IDAEUS: one of BRUTUS’ commanders.

  JAGO: a young Llangarlian warrior.

  LABYRINTH: the symbol of the labyrinth occurs throughout the ancient world, never more so than in the MINOAN civilisation of CRETE where it was deeply associated with both political and religious cultures. The ancient labyrinth is a unicursal labyrinth, not a maze. There is a single pathway leading into the heart, with no dead ends or false turns. When the labyrinth is laid out as a stone pattern in a floor it is called (and used as) a “dancing floor”, thus in Hades’ Daughter the labyrinth on Og’s Hill (see THE VEILED HILLS) is occasionally referred to as ARIADNE’S DANCING FLOOR.

  KINGMAN, the: Kingmen were the princes of the ancient world who were trained in the skills of the GAME. They knew the dances and the paths of the LABYRINTH, and were trained to combat whatever it was they encountered in the heart of the labyrinth.

  LEVANT, the: the Holy Lands, specifically what is now Israel and Lebanon.

  LLAN: the great river of LLANGARLIA. Now called the Thames.

  LLANA: the eldest of GENVISSA’S daughters.

  LLANBANK: the market town on the eastern shores of the LLAN across the river from Thorney Island.

  LLANGARLIA: the prosperous country in the south-east of what is now England, encompassing the south-eastern counties and centred on the Thames (or LLAN) Valley. It is a matriarchal society, governed by the MOTHERS of each House, or tribe. Llangar
lia is a pre-Celtic society; the Celts did not begin to infiltrate the British Islands until some six hundred years after the events of Hades’ Daughter.

  LOCRINIA: a Trojan city on the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

  LOTH: sometimes called the Llangarlian Bull, son of AERNE and BLANGAN, heir to the title and position of GORMAGOG.

  MAG: the mother goddess worshipped by the Llangarlians, Mag is particularly associated with the waters of the land, with birth and with growth. She is the mate of OG, the stag, forest god of LLANGARLIA. Mag’s high priestess among the Llangarlians is known as the MAGALLAN.

  MAGALLAN: the high priestess of MAG in LLANGARLIA. The current MagaLlan is GENVISSA.

  MAG’S DANCE: Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

  MAIS: MOTHER of a Llangarlian House, allied with LOTH.

  MAURITANIA: a land in North Africa, close to what is now Morocco.

  MAZA: a porridge made of flour, honey, salt, oil and water. One of the staples of the Bronze Age Greek diet.

  MEGARON: the throne room of a Greek palace.

  MELANTHUS: son of ANTIGONUS, nephew of PANDRASUS. Melanthus is the erstwhile lover of CORNELIA.