A dreamy look came into his eyes. “Mykenae. I’d like to go there. I’ve heard it’s a finer realm than Athens, and that the king has a taste for beautiful things. My mother was no ordinary slave. She had a gift for painting pottery and images of the gods. She taught me her skills when I was little, and I loved it. I think I could recapture the art if I had the chance.”
The two of us were standing still, talking like the friends we’d become instead of like the future queen and the despised guardsman. Suddenly I was aware that there were too many eyes on us, too many tongues keen to carry false tales to Lady Aithra’s ears, and Lady Aithra was much too eager herself to hear bad things about Telys.
I turned and doubled back the way we’d come, walking briskly. Telys fell into step in a guard’s proper place, right behind me.
“Lady Helen, where are you going?” he asked, flustered. “The queen’s waiting for you with her women.”
“The queen can wait. All she ever wants to do is force a spindle into my hands, then tsk-tsk-tsk over how badly I tangle the wool.” I widened my eyes and tuned my voice to imitate Lady Aithra’s. “‘My goodness, child, how do they raise girls in Sparta?’” I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
“Then where—?”
“Somewhere we won’t attract notice,” I said. “Around people who’ve got too much honest work to do to bother listening to conversations that don’t concern them. We’re going to the kitchen.” Telys looked doubtful, but he trusted me.
The palace kitchen was bustling. Kitchens that need to feed many people always are. As soon as we walked in, I asked for food to give us a reason to be there, then settled myself in one corner of the busy room. The head cook himself brought me a plate of broiled quail, but hurried back to his work almost before I could thank him. Telys and I were left entirely to ourselves.
“Just the way you said it would be,” Telys remarked. “Amazing!”
I flashed him a smile and bit into one of the crisp-skinned quail on my plate. “I just hope I’ll be able to come up with some equally amazing way to find us a safe place for your lessons. I’m going to teach you how to fight, Telys.”
He brightened at once. “My lady, I’ve got just the place, if you don’t mind a bit of a climb. There’s a part of the citadel walls that encloses older stone-work. No one’s sure if it’s a ruined tower, or a shrine, or just the last remnant of the fortress built by Lord Kekrops, the first king of Athens. An ancient oak stands there too, a huge one, and between that and the old wall there’s a small, well-hidden space that might do.”
“Is it big enough to swing a sword?”
Telys smiled. “We can find out.”
I nibbled the last bit of meat off a quail’s tiny leg bone. “When the night guard comes to take your place at my door, you’ll have to find us a pair of wooden swords to practice with and bring them to that place. You can’t let anyone catch you, Telys.”
“The place I have in mind is always deserted. No one likes to go there. They think the place is haunted by the old king’s spirit.”
“Theseus’s warriors fear ghosts?” I wanted to laugh.
“Lord Kekrops’s ghost is different. He was a dragon from the waist down.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Better that than from the waist up, I suppose.”
I decided that the best course to take would be spending two days in Lady Aithra’s tedious company for every one that I’d spend teaching Telys, so that she wouldn’t be too quick to suspect anything odd about my absences. I put this plan into effect at once.
When those first two spindle-cursed days passed and Telys and I were finally able to begin our lessons, I couldn’t tell which of us was happier. I knew I’d never seen him walk with such a light step as when he led me to the hidden place he’d spoken of, between the old walls and the new. He ducked behind the great oak tree and brought out a cloth bundle.
“I couldn’t find wooden practice swords,” he said. “You’ll have to teach me using this.” With a surprisingly graceful move, he whipped the cloth away, revealing my own sword, which my teacher, Glaucus, had given me. I was so thrilled to see it, safe in that familiar sheath with its pattern of golden leopards, that I wanted to fill the sky with cries of happiness.
I contented myself with grabbing it with both hands and hugging it fiercely to my chest. “Oh, Telys, I can’t thank you enough for this,” I said quietly. “How did you get it?”
“After Lord Theseus recognized you, he ordered one of the guards to fetch all your belongings from the inn where you and—where you were staying. He said it wouldn’t do for a common innkeeper to own anything that was the property of a princess. I was there when the man returned, so I saw where he put your things.”
“Do you think you could go back there again without anyone seeing you?” I asked. “I could use one of my tunics. It’ll be hard to teach you swordsmanship if I’m forced to wear a dress all the time.”
“I can do it. I’ll bring a sturdy box too, so you can keep everything here.”
Telys’s confidence stirred me with a fresh hope. “I want you to look for one thing more,” I told him. “I had a belt-pouch holding a little gold and silver. If we’re lucky, it’s untouched.”
Telys smiled. “I remember that pouch. I came across it while searching for your sword. It was so wrapped up in your clothes I doubt anyone else noticed it.”
“The gods grant that’s true.” I took a deep breath and slowly drew my sword. The day was cold but bright. Sunlight sifted through the oak branches and dappled the blade. I looked at Telys. “Let’s begin.”