Meriope still grinned when she watched Decker work.  “Brilliant,” she said.  “Philoletes is a very hard man to bargain with.  No one talks him out of payment.”  Decker returned a smile, and for once, it was not a frightening thing to see.

The old man, as Elder Stow appeared, had a couple of watchers.  Lockhart had three, including the young man that first met them, and the man he called Neoman.  Boston had seven all crowding around.  Not only was she pretty in her slacks and loose fitting top, but she had fascinating red hair.

Of them all, only the young boy helped.

“I’ve had Dog here since…” Lockhart had to think.  “Lincoln would know.  At a guess, I would say about two thousand, five hundred years, give or take.  He is faithful like a dog, and brave.  I will give him that.”

“No,” Neoman said.  “That can’t be.  You’re my age.”

“It’s true,” Elder Stow said, as he walked to Dog’s stall where Lockhart worked.  He limped a little, having done the worst riding bareback because of his short legs.  Decker and Meriope followed, walking side by side, Meriope still smiling and looking hard at her feet.

“Boston,” Lockhart spoke over to the next stall.  “Do you know how long we have had these horses?”

“Twenty-five hundred years sounds about right.  As you said, Lincoln would know.”

“How can you have had your horse for so long?” The young man who first met them protested.  “Horses did not even exist that long ago.  Poseidon just brought them out of the sea, not three hundred years ago.”

“You’re just telling stories,” a third man said, and Lockhart suppressed his smile.

“You’re lying,” Neoman said, and it was said to provoke something.  Lockhart, the former policeman, had been well trained at not being provoked.  Decker and Elder Stow had comparable training somewhere in their background.  But Boston was wet, tired and stressed about everything at the moment.  She jumped, burst out of her stall, and confronted Neoman to his face.

“Are you calling my boss a liar?” she yelled.

He turned to face her, and nodded, and the look on his face appeared so smarmy, she said later she could not help it.  She pulled her wand from her slip and dropped her glamour of humanity.  She got in his face, an unmistakable elf; and he looked terrified.

“You should not talk about things you know nothing about.”  She growled at him, and he ran.  In fact, most of the men ran, and some of them screamed besides.  Meriope caught the young boy and calmed him.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said.  “She really is a very nice person.”

“Mary Riley,” Lockhart scolded her with her real name.  Boston put her wand back and resumed her glamour of humanity.

“Sorry,” she said to Lockhart, and the men still standing there, shocked senseless.  “Sorry,” she told Decker and Elder Stow.  Decker snickered and Elder Stow hid his lips behind his hand.  “Sorry,” she said to Meriope and hugged her right around the young boy.  “I think you are very nice, too.”

The boy, having had time to think about it said, “Do it again.”

Boston rubbed his head while Elder Stow had a suggestion.  “What say we find out what our fat friend is offering to eat.”

“And what swill he has that he calls beer,” Decker added.

###

Katie and Cassandra spied the stag under the failing light of the sun.  Cassandra picked up the trail almost from the beginning, and tracked it for well over an hour.  Katie said nothing, but took more than one look at this ten-year-old who appeared to be able to track animals in the wilderness like the Princess.  Katie thought Cassandra was the Princess’ real name, too, though she had been strictly warned not to call her that.  The Princess hated her name.

“You shoot it,” Cassandra whispered.

“You should try,” Katie said.  “You found it and tracked it.  You should get the credit.”

Cassandra smiled a lovely, somehow knowing smile, and said, “No, you.  I’m not watching.  See?”  She turned away and covered her eyes with her hand.  Katie frowned and smiled at the same time, such as only a mom can do.  She lifted her bow, having learned long since on the journey, where the arrow needed to strike to bring the beast down.  Then she almost lost it as she felt something nudge her on the inside; but she fired, and it made a near perfect shot.  The stag took two wobbly steps before it fell over.

“Wow.  That was great,” Cassandra shouted and ran out before Katie could stop her.  She got up to the stag and screeched to a halt, staring at something in the trees.  She yelled.  “This is mine.  You have to go find your own.”

Katie heard the growl as she caught up to Cassandra.  Katie slipped a protective arm around the girl.  It was a gray wolf.  Cassandra pointed.

“Her mate is over there,” Cassandra said, and Katie saw, but the wolves decided not to argue.  They turned and bounded back into the dark beneath the trees.  Cassandra framed an odd question as she looked up into Katie’s face.  “Was that scary?”

Katie nodded.  “That was scary.”  She wondered why Cassandra would ask such a thing instead of just being scared, but Cassandra moved the conversation before Katie thought about it too hard.

“How are we going to get this beast home?” she asked, genuine concern in her face.  Katie smiled and touched that face with the palm of her hand.

Katie squatted down, slipped the stag over her shoulders, and used her legs to lift it.  She figured as an elect, being strong as a man had to count for something.  “Which way?” Katie asked.  She felt certain she could find her way back, but Cassandra had done well so far, and it turned out she was glad she asked.  Cassandra said they were much closer than Katie imagined because they circled around a bunch of times in the hunt.

“Good,” Katie said.  The Stag was heavy.  And I think you did a great job hunting.  I bet Artemis herself would be proud of you.”

Cassandra looked back at Katie and got a big smile on her face.  “Meriope says I’m a natural.”

Katie returned the smile, but said nothing, wanting to conserve her strength.

###

“You can’t come in,” Hysphagia said.  “Men are not allowed in here.  This sanctuary is dedicated to Artemis, the chaste.”

The man in the doorway laughed.  “You have a sick one, and you have no power to keep me out.  Soon, I may make all of you sick.”  The man shrugged, like it was no concern to him.

Alexis rushed out from behind the curtain.  She had her wand in her hand, and waved it at the doorway, but the man just laughed.

“Little elf, you missed,” the man said with another shrug.  “You have no magic strong enough to touch me.”

“I wasn’t aiming at you,” Alexis said.  “My husband figured you out.”

The man laughed and tried to step into the sanctuary, but something like an invisible wall kept him out.  The man started to roar, but Alexis whipped her wand, and the door slammed shut in the man’s face, cutting off the sound.

“Keep praying,” Alexis told Hysphagia.  “Your prayers are working a far stronger magic than I have.”  She turned to catch Artie.  Lincoln brought her into the sanctuary, and they laid her down on one of the benches, and covered her again with blankets.  Alexis stepped into the other room for Artie’s pillow, and when she put it under Artie’s head, she waved her wand again, this time at the curtain.  The curtain stiffened and became like a door.

Artie spoke in her fevered delirium.  “Mom, I don’t feel well…”

###

“So, what do you have?” Lockhart asked.  He felt frustrated, thinking about it.  Corinth was not that big, being hardly more than a big village, despite having stunted walls of a sort and a couple of gates.  But searching it might take days.  Lockhart felt they did not have days.

Elder Stow burped before he pulled a few small things out of his pocket.  “All they left was a weather ring.  It is raining with a chance of rain.  A simple chronometer with a section for notes, if anything is worth writing down.  Another key hole video camera, as you would call it.  I have a health monitor, which warns of any dangerous radiation in the area, a must for space travel.”  He put them all in his hand.  “Hardly trinkets,”

“Wait.”  Boston faced Meriope, but something grabbed her attention.  “Does that health monitor have a way of tuning in on that radiation to tell you what kind and where the source is?”

“Yes,” Elder Stow nodded.  “Better to avoid the area.  It maps the whole irradiated area.  Why?”

“So, does your equipment, like the scanner and screen device, or maybe the batteries—do they give off energy signals like radiation?”

“Oh yes, I see,” Elder Stow tapped his chin and thought.  “The batteries decay at a certain rate, but it is negligible.  Then again, it might work, even if the equipment is not turned on.  I will try,” he said, and got right to work.

“What language was that you were speaking?” Meriope asked.

“Mixed,” Boston answered honestly.  “But local words for most of it.”  Meriope sipped her drink and it became Boston’s turn to ask a question. “So, you did not seem surprised when you saw me.”

“I think I figured it out,” Meriope said.  “Your eyes and ears were too good for an ordinary person, and you are too graceful, besides.”

“Graceful?”  Boston let out a small laugh.  “My brothers should hear that.  I grew up with a bunch of brothers.  That is why I am the way I am.”

Meriope sighed.  “I had no siblings.  I was an only child.”

“My sympathy,” Elder Stow paused to express his condolences.

Lockhart said, “Most people don’t see being an only child as a bad thing.”

“But family is so important,” Elder Stow countered.  “I was born in a great litter of children.”

“I had a brother and a sister,” Lockhart said, as he pointed, and Elder Stow got back to work.  “My brother died in Vietnam.  My sister is in some swinging retirement home in Florida, not that far from my ex-wife.  Don’t tell Katie I said that.”

“Decker?”  Boston had to ask.

Decker took a sip from his cup and said, “This brew really stinks.”

Boston and Lockhart laughed, and Meriope picked up her cup to take a big whiff.

Boston and Meriope rode out front.  Meriope kept a watchful eye on the trail, while Boston watched everything else.  As an elf, her sense concerning humans, especially potentially dangerous humans, had been greatly enhanced.  Her eyes, in daylight, could pick out a hummingbird a half mile away, and if she tuned her ears in that direction, she could hear the little buzz of the wings.

The trail ran right down the road, as Lockhart surmised, and it looked clear enough, even in the drizzling rain, that Lockhart could have followed it himself.  But after a while, he complained.

“They can’t have gotten that much of a head start.”

Lockhart, Decker, and Elder Stow brought up the rear, but rode better on bareback than they thought they could.  Elder Stow slid around a little with his shorter legs, but with the fairy weave they wore, they were able to compensate some for the lack of saddles.  Boston showed them how to separate a piece and have it reach around the horse’s belly, and form into something like a seat.  Elder Stow even managed to make something like stirrups, after he learned how.

“I don’t think we should try to gallop,” Decker said.

“Certainly not,” Elder Stow agreed

“Should not have to,” Lockhart said.  “That wagon has to be pretty slow moving.”

Around two o’clock, the rain slackened off, though the clouds never went away.  Boston shouted, and Meriope looked up at the top of the next hill.  Boston saw a bunch of men, clearly, and the mule drawn wagon stuffed with all their things.  Even Meriope saw the man turn and wave to them. Then the man lifted something.

“Get down,” Boston shouted, just before a bullet creased the trunk of a tree.  People scurried to get themselves and their horses under cover.  The man let off five rounds of automatic fire that tore up the ground and a couple of bushes.  Then Boston saw him wave again and walk off, dipping below the horizon of the hill.

“I don’t understand,” Meriope said.  Decker let out a string of curse words and she said she was not asking about that part.

Lockhart pulled out Katie’s pistol to show.  “They have most of our guns,” he said.  “They work like a compact, all-in-one version of your bow and arrows.  They fire a projectile, like an arrowhead.”  He put a bullet in a tree, and Meriope jumped at the Crack! though her horse remained steady.  “They are very deadly.”

“And they have our two rifles,” Decker added.  “They are much bigger guns and can fire a long distance.”

“How did he figure out how to use it so quickly?” Elder Stow asked.

“The Masters?” Boston suggested.  “I mean, they might work for the Masters.”

“That would be my guess,” Decker said.

“Or help,” Lockhart countered, and pointed toward the sky.  “But I can’t honestly think of any gods in this jurisdiction that we might have pissed off.”

“Come,” Meriope said, lest they talk away their advantage.  “They are not far.  We have a chance to catch them.”

The group rushed as much as they could down the hill they were on and up the gradual incline to where the wagon had been at the top of the next rise.  They stopped when they got there, and stared.  Twice the distance they just traveled, and up at the top of a small ridge, they saw the same wagon and the same man, laughing and waving.  At least, Boston could see them and described them to the group.  She saw the man raise something and she shouted.

“Back down.  Behind the hill.”

No one argued.  They did not see or hear the bullets, but they felt certain some got fired.  They talked while Boston got down and snuck up behind a bush to spy on the enemy.  With a glance at Meriope, she went invisible, but also let the bush hide her for fear the thieves had help, and her being invisible might do her no good at all.

“Help from an outsider I would say,” Elder Stow cast the tie vote.  “But I also cannot think of any gods in this place that we have angered.”

“Well,” Decker said with a look at Meriope.  “They can’t have traveled twice our distance on foot, with a heavy wagon pulled by one mule, without help.”

Meriope nodded for Decker, then looked down.  “I am praying for Artemis to come and guide us to victory in our hunt.”

“And it has been raining for two days now?”  Boston asked as she scooted back down the hill and leapt up on Honey’s back.

“This is the third day without the sun,” Meriope said.

“Boy,’ Boston said, when Honey settled down.  “Apollo has to be unhappy.”

“Why?” Lockhart asked.  “I thought Katie said he was the god of healing?”

“And music and poetry, truth and prophecy, and other things,” Meriope said.

“His chief job is god of the sun,” Boston said.

“No.  Light and warmth, but Helios drives the sun,” Meriope corrected her.  “Every day, Helios drive the golden chariot of the gods across the sky.  Over the ocean, they say the dwarfs of the mountains dig out the gold.  The nymphs in the dark fashion it to make the chariot.  The nymphs of light make the harness and the reins.  And every day, Helios hitches up his fiery horses and rises in a new chariot.”

“The day comes up fresh and new every morning,” Decker encouraged her, and Meriope smiled and looked again at the ground.

“We should move before we lose the trail,” she said.

“Right,” Boston agreed, but Lockhart teased her, having guessed at something.

“Everyone, follow the nymph.”

“Not funny,” Boston groused.

The trail remained easy, and after some thought, Boston asked how Meriope knew so much about the gods, and in particular, Apollo.  She confessed.

“When I was young, my father brought us out of Thessaly and into this land.  We were pushed out from our land by new people, great horsemen in their own way.  My mother died when we came to Corinth.  Father brought her to the temple of Apollo, seeking help, but the healers could do nothing for her.  My father stayed in the temple to pray, and when he was done, he dedicated his life to the god.”

“You were orphaned?”

“No,” Meriope laughed at the thought.  “But I was raised in the temple, and around the priests, and the few priestesses who served in the alcove dedicated to Apollo’s sister, Artemis.”  Meriope shrugged.  “I suppose it was my destiny to serve Artemis, but I don’t mind.”

“So, how did you end up living in the wilderness?”  Boston asked.

“I was driven.  I was young.  But I kissed my father and left without anyone the wiser.  I walked on the road to see where it would take me, and as the day was coming to an end, I found myself outside the shrine.  One old woman was the last, and she told me the story before she died.”

“Good,” Boston said.  Since entering into a world with no television, no internet, and not even any printed books, she had come to appreciate a good story.

“Out behind the sanctuary, there is a spring that makes a small pool before it becomes a stream and runs down the hills to join the river and flow to the sea.  One day, Artemis came to that spot and thought to refresh and relax herself after her hunt.  She stripped naked and entered the clean water, and her nymphs attended her.  Shortly, a hunter came, following his hunting dogs.  The dogs were attracted to the goddess, as all such dogs are.  The hunter spied on Artemis in all her beauty and decided he would rape her.  She kindly put out his eyes and charged his dogs to take him home where he would live out the rest of his days a blind man, whose last sight was that of the goddess, Artemis, in all her glory.”

“I heard she turned him into a stag and his own dogs did not recognize him and tore him apart,” Boston said.

Meriope shook her head.  “That is not the story I was told by the old woman who claimed to have seen Artemis herself in that place.”

Boston shrugged and asked the question she really wanted to ask.  “So, tell me about the nymphs.  What are they like?  What do they look like?”

“How can you not know?” Meriope sounded surprised.  “The people in the villages and small homes in the wilderness all pay homage to the nymphs of the wild.  They seek their protection and help in time of trouble, and leave regular offerings so the nymphs do not turn against them.  Some are tall as men, but thin, like they have little substance.  They have sharp eyes and sharp ears, even such as yours…” Meriope paused, and Boston had to prompt her

“Go on, or is that all you know?”

“No.  There are small ones, too.  No longer than my forearm, and they dance in the air on gossamer wings, or wings like the butterfly.  They all have great magic, and play tricks on poor mortals when they get cross.”

“Go on.  You mentioned dark ones, and dwarfs.”

“Yes, dwarfs.  They are said to stand no taller than half human height, but they are strong like stone, and they are all covered in long fur, though many believe it is hair…”  Meriope paused again, but this time she appeared to be thinking.  “The dark ones I cannot say.  They are great craftsmen, but I have heard they can be frightening to look at.  I would rather not meet one, if it is all the same to you.”

“I thought so,” Boston said, without explaining.  “But the ones of the light would not be so bad.”

“Indeed,” Meriope replied.  “It must be wonderful to be so close to the gods, to serve them day and night.”

“Sometimes being that close to the gods is not a safe place to be,” Boston said, softly, and Meriope stopped her horse half-way up the ridge.  “Tell me what you know of the gods,” Boston asked.  “I know Artemis is a wonderful person.  Most of them are good, but do you know any that are maybe not so good, or inclined to do some not so good things?”

Meriope shook her head.  “Even if I knew of one or two, I am afraid even to think of them, and I will never say their names out loud.”

Boston nodded and kicked her horse to make the top of the ridge.  She looked ahead, but saw no wagon this time.  She saw Corinth instead, and after judging the sun, she shouted behind her.  The city is up ahead.  I bet that is where they have gone.  We should be able to make it before the sun sets.”

Elder Stow straggled up from the back to stop with Deker and Lockhart where Meriope stopped.  “What is up ahead?” he asked.

“Corinth,” Meriope said.

*************************

Monday, Christmas Day, Only a Merry Christmas post.

The second half of Avalon, episode 5.5, Artemis Home will post on Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday.  Don’t forget Thursday this coming week to read the conclusion of the episode.

Meanwhile:

A bit late, but like Christmas, it’s the thought that counts…

*

The sanctuary for Artemis looked small, much smaller than the temple of Amphitrite they had seen.  It had a center aisle between several plain wooden benches, and they faced a table at the other end that held some flowers and wood carvings of animals associated with the goddess.  The bear looked prominent, but also the wolf, the stag, and the boar.  A bow and arrows hung on the wall over the table, and Meriope explained about the bow and arrows, like she recited a worship lesson.

“The bow, she chose for her husband.  The arrows, she chose for her sons.”

Lockhart nodded, but led the others straight to the back, covering the distance between the door and the back curtain in seven long steps.  “How is she?” he asked, as Lincoln scooted around him with Alexis’ bag.

“She is burning up with fever,” Katie looked up.  They had Artie on a straw covered cot, covered with plenty of blankets, and Katie sat on one side, while Alexis sat on the other.

Alexis got out her stethoscope and listened to Artie’s heart and breathing.  She made Artie sit up and face her, and Katie got up to help the men go back out into the main room.  Alexis had Artie pull up her fairy weave top to listen better to her breathing.

Katie spoke quietly to them all, but mostly to Lockhart.  “Bronchitis, definitely.  Maybe Pneumonia.  We may be here for a few days.”

“This was sudden,” Lockhart said.

“All day yesterday in the rain, and again today,” Katie said.  “It may have been something she caught in Egypt and it just showed up after we got here.”

Lockhart nodded.  The housing area by the Nile, the one that Rachel called the slums, was filled with substandard housing and filth, and ripe with coughing, hacking, and people laid up with colds, and the flu, and some worse diseases.  “We should have kept her away from the slums,” he said.

Katie shook her head.  “Alexis said she was not too worried, and from here forward we should be all right, because we all had our immunizations.  She said a tetanus booster would not hurt, and some diseases we should avoid, but generally we should have a good resistance to most things.  It occurred to me, Artie never had any baby shots.”

“An oversight on Amphitrite’s part?”

“No, I don’t think so.  With the Storyteller still missing, I think the Kairos’ connection to the future is tenuous.  It maybe comes and goes.”

“So, what can we do?”

Katie shook her head again.  “Nothing.  Alexis believes she can stabilize her, and after some chicken soup, and a few days of warmth and rest, she should throw it off herself.  That is what we hope.”

“Hey guys,” Boston interrupted.  Everyone looked up, including Meriope, who had been sitting beside Decker and listening intently.  “Meet the rest of the crew, Hysphagia and Cassandra.”  Boston grinned as Cassandra marveled at Boston’s red hair.

Hysphagia looked like she might be twenty, the eldest, but she was also as blonde as Katie, and came across like she might model for blonde jokes.  Cassandra seemed smart, and looked like a normal enough, brown hair, brown-eyed Greek, but she had to be ten, twelve at the most.

“Hysphagia says we should take Artie to Artemis’ brother’s temple in Corinth.  That’s Apollo.  He is the healer in Greece,” Boston said.

“In this age, yes,” Katie said.  “I imagine Asclepius is not born yet.”

“Corinth is another hour, a bit less,” Lincoln reminded everyone.

They heard Artie coughing from behind the curtain, and Katie spoke.  “I don’t think we should move her right now.  Her fever is high and she seems pretty weak.”

“We can pray,” Cassandra suggested, and looked up at Katie like it was a question.

“And that would be a wonderful thing to do,” Katie said.  She smiled, looked down, and brushed Cassandra’s hair back where it had fallen in her face.  Lockhart thought, we already have two adopted daughters.  Let’s not get another.

“Oh, what am I thinking,” Elder Stow interrupted with some volume.  “I should fetch my scanner.  We can get all her readings and maybe even pinpoint the virus to make an anti-virus.  I’ll just be a minute.”  He stepped to the door, and only hesitated a second before he stepped out into the rain.

“Lovely place you have here,” Decker said to Meriope.  With the clouds and rain, the whole place had a dark and gloomy look.

Meriope, who sat on the bench where Decker placed his foot, looked up at him and almost smiled, but again, she had no chance to respond as Elder Stow came charging back inside.

“It’s gone.  Everything is gone.”

“What?”

“It has been stolen, again,” Elder Stow showed some anger.  “Right from under our faces.”

“Noses,” Lincoln absentmindedly corrected the Gott-Druk, while he tried to think of what to do.  They all thought while Lockhart, Katie, and Decker moved.  As soon as they got outside, Lockhart whistled for the horse he named Dog.  Dog came trotting up, and Lockhart was glad to see that this time he still had his reins.  Other horses followed Dog, but Katie’s Black Beauty, Lincoln’s Cortez, and Alexis’ Misty Gray seemed to be missing.

“Beauty,” Katie called.  “Beauty.”  The horse did not come.

“We have to get our stuff back,” Decker said to Meriope, who came out with the travelers.  “Some of our things are very dangerous, and would be terrible in the wrong hands.”

“We should ride after them,” Meriope said, like the obvious solution.

“No saddles,” Elder Stow pointed out.  It came as a slim protest.  He knew they would ride, anyway.

“What about Artie?” Katie asked.

Lockhart did not hesitate to make a decision.  “It seems like that dilemma is already solved.  You, Alexis and Lincoln are without transportation.  You need to be here for Artie, and to defend the home and all, if necessary.  I hope it isn’t necessary.”

“How will you track them?” Katie asked the practical question.  “You are not a hunter.”

“I am,” Boston shouted.

Katie frowned.  “We are not hunting bears in Canada.”

“Listen,” Lockhart said.  “They have to have a wagon to carry everything.  They should stick to the road.  It should not be hard to find them.”

“Road is becoming roads, the further into the future we go,” Katie said.  “And this is their home.  What if they go off-road?”

Lockhart was not going to argue.  “You keep Artie’s horse, Freedom.”

Meriope interrupted as she stormed out of the sanctuary, the bow and arrows from the back wall in her hands.  “I am coming.  I am from Thessaly.  I know how to ride, and I am a hunter.”  Decker helped her get up on Freedom, as he helped Elder Stow mount his horse.  Katie and Lockhart held their breath for a second, but Freedom did not seem to mind the replacement rider.  From her height, Meriope got a good look at the ground.  “I see two wagons.  Odd, I cannot tell where they came from, but they are headed to the main road.”  She pointed down the path.

“Wait,” Alexis’ voice came from the door, and she stepped out with Artie’s Anazi handgun.  She walked up to Decker.  “Artie says she showed you how to use this.”  She handed him the weapon, holstered, on the belt.

“I got my bow and my wand,” Boston said to Alexis, who waved to her.

“Use them wisely,” Alexis instructed before she went back inside.

Lincoln passed her in the doorway as he came out.  “Do you want to take the database?”

“Here,” Katie handed Lockhart her gun belt.

“Don’t risk it,” Lockhart said as he spoke softly to Katie.  “You might need this if they come back,” he said, but he began to lengthen the belt.

“We will be all right.  They have the rifles and the other guns, and if they figure out how to use them, you will need something.”  Katie looked at Elder Stow.  The Elder turned slightly red.

“I forgot I had my weapon in my pocket.”  He shrugged.

“Lincoln,” Lockhart got Lincoln’s attention.  “You may need the database if something should happen.  Katie has the back-up amulet so you can find the next time gate.”

“Come on,” Boston shouted, impatient.  Lockhart kissed Katie before he climbed up on Dog’s back and they headed out.