Chapter One
PYTHIA
You must know that, despite all else I am, I am of the People. My
grandfather was a boatbuilder in the Lower City. He built fishing
boats, my mother said, and once worked on one of the great ships
that plied the coast and out to the islands. My mother was his only
daughter. She was fourteen and newly betrothed when the City fell.
The soldiers took her in the front room of the house while her
father's body cooled in the street outside. When they were done with
her she was brought out to where the ships were beached outside the
ring of our harbor, and the Achaians drew lots for her with the
other women of the City.
She fell to the lot of the Old King of Pylos and was brought across
the seas before the winter storms made the trip impossible. She was
ill on the vessel, but thought it was just the motion of the ship.
By the time she got to Pylos it was clear that it was more than ...
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