Marion Zimmer Bradley by The Firebrand

Author:The Firebrand
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2011-11-23T22:02:53+00:00

13

KASSANDRA HAD believed that once she made the decision to travel to Colchis, it would be a simple matter of getting leave of the chief priest and priestess, gathering together the clothing she wished to take with her, choosing a traveling companion (or perhaps two) and setting forth.

But it was not nearly so easy as that. She was reminded that there was officially a state of war between the Akhaians and Troy, so that it must be arranged (by lengthy messages sent back and forth from one Temple of Apollo to the next) that she travel under the Peace of Apollo, being a woman and a sworn priestess and having nothing to do with the war on either side; and she was given to understand that this was more difficult because she was Priam’s daughter and closely related to the main combatants of the war. Long before the official safe-conducts and permissions could be arranged, Kassandra was heartily sick of the whole idea and wished she had never thought of it. In the end, she swore a sacred oath by every God she had ever heard of (and some she hadn’t) that she would deliver no messages relating to the war from either party, and she was declared an official messenger of Apollo and permitted to travel wherever she wished.

Khryse wished to travel with her, and she had some sympathy for him; he was still mourning the fate of his daughter in the Akhaian camp, and knowing that Agamemnon had chosen the girl for his own mistress did not help. However, though Khryse swore to Kassandra that he would respect her virginity as if she were his own child, she did not trust even his oath, and refused to have him in her party. Since he was a highly respected priest of Apollo, it seemed for a time that she would not be allowed to travel without his escort; but she finally appealed to Charis, saying she would remain within walls till her hair turned gray rather than travel a single step in his company; and at last the matter was dropped.

Then Priam wished to send messages to many friends along her path, and she had to swear that they were family matters, or religious matters with nothing to do with the war; she could see reason in this because travelers under religious immunity had often taken advantage of it to spy on one side or the other. And finally her mother refused to allow her to travel without adequate chaperonage, so that in the end Kassandra, who would have preferred to travel alone or with a single companion, preferably an Amazon rider like Penthesilea, had to accept two of her mother’s oldest and most timid waiting-women, Kara and Adrea, and to promise that on the road she would always share her bed with them.

What can she be thinking of? she asked herself. If I wished to indulge myself in lechery, I would certainly not wish to travel to the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.