The Voyage of Odysseus (The Adventures of Odysseus Book 5) by Glyn Iliffe

Author:Glyn Iliffe [Iliffe, Glyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910100738
Publisher: Glyn Iliffe
Published: 2016-01-21T02:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

THE RULER OF THE WINDS

Odysseus’s first action on their return to the wide bay where the rest of the fleet lay at anchor was to sacrifice the ram that had brought him safely out of the cave. He offered its life to Poseidon, asking the god for safe passage to Aeolus’s island. Eperitus felt the sacrifice was more an appeasement than an appeal and doubted the Earthshaker would be mollified.

The next day they awoke before dawn and were pulling at the oars by the time the sun rimmed the eastern horizon. Having tricked Polyphemus into telling him that Aeolus’s island was within sight of the cliffs above his cave, and that the morning sun reflected on the bronze walls of the palace, Odysseus had deduced that the island could only be a short distance to the west. Sure enough they soon spotted a small island to the north with a flattened peak on its western side. A metallic glint from the top of the hill had to be the battlements of Aeolus’s palace. Taking heart from the sight, the steersmen ordered the sails to be raised to the full and pointed their prows to the north-west.

It did not take long before Eperitus could see high cliffs sheering up from the waves that frothed at their base. On the south side two stone spurs reached out to form a natural anchorage large enough to protect the whole fleet. And yet there were no vessels of any size in the bay or on the sandy beach that rimmed it, and no houses on the clifftops above. Only a single path winding up the face of the cliff suggested habitation, and that might just as easily have been trodden out by the wild sheep visible on the plateau above.

He reported what he had seen to Odysseus and returned to the bench where Astynome sat with her gaggle of orphans. Catching her eye, he noted the evasive look she had been trying to conquer since the morning before. Something was wrong, but so far she had avoided his questions. She would tell him in her own time, he thought, slipping his arm about her waist and pulling her close. After the horror of the cave and his grief for Antiphus, he had found a new comfort in being with her. And as she laid her head on his shoulder and her pleasant, familiar scent filled his nostrils, he hoped that everything Odysseus had drawn out of Polyphemus was true: that the island’s ruler could tell them the way back to Ithaca and that the years in the wilderness would soon be over. Then, for the first time since his youth, he would know the pleasure of having a family again.

The air was strangely still as the twelve galleys rowed into the bay and dropped their anchors. Eperitus joined Odysseus, Polites, Omeros and half a dozen others in the shore boat. The king had also ordered Eurylochus to join them, preferring to have him close at hand than leave him on the galley where he could foment trouble.

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