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Insulted, he stepped back. "Do you think we lack courage?"
"Certainly not, but we must thank the gods for the splendid timing of your arrival."
She stepped around the blood spilled upon the courtyard. Servants were dragging bodies into a heap for a funeral pyre. Emalia was among them, and when she paused to wipe her bloody hands on a rag, Helen caught Pollux's arm. "Is there room in your boat for a couple more?" she asked.
Pollux stopped beside her. "Whom do you mean?"
"The girl closest to us and her brother were kind to me. May I bring them?"
"If you can hurry them along."
Helen gestured for Emalia, and the disheveled serving maid looked over her shoulder at the other servants before running to her. Her worn sandals were splattered with blood, and she appeared terrified death might soon overtake her. "Yes, my lady?"
"I want you to come with us. Find Oron, bundle your belongings and hurry to our ship."
The girl's already large eyes grew huge. "Go with you to Sparta?"
"Why not? Do you enjoy the drudgery here in the hot kitchen? There will be a better life for you in my home. Aethra will need a maid, and you'll not scrub another grimy kettle."
The girl wrung her chapped hands. "I hate it here."
"Then fetch your brother and your things and come with us. I'll wait for you here for only a moment. Hurry or you'll be too late."
Emalia bit her lip, and her decision quickly made, she nodded and ran into the fortress. Helen looked up at the glorious blue sky and thought she'd never seen a finer morning for travel.
* * *
Emalia and Oron were painfully thin and possessed so few belongings they added little weight to the boat. They huddled near Helen in the prow and watched as the fortress faded in the distance. When only the mountains remained clear, they turned their attention to the bay and sat clutching each other's hands as the sleek boat sped through the water with swift strong strokes of the fine-muscled Spartan seamen.
Castor leaned close to whisper in Helen's ear. "They rushed to our boat, and Theseus's whole household might have sailed with us had there been room for them. How did you make pets of his people?"
"They're far from pets. I treated them respectfully, and they were so eager to please me, I hated to leave them behind."
Aethra sat stiff-backed in the ekrion, the canopy covered stern castle where Pollux made certain she had no opportunity to hurl herself into the sea. Helen nodded toward her. "Aethra will be our guest, and I doubt she'll beg to return home."
"When you subdue the enemy so easily, maybe we should fight with a legion of beautiful women rather than armed warriors."
Helen thought the idea daft. "Your swords set me free, rather than my own efforts. Besides, men are stronger and much better suited for a warrior's bloody trade."
The wind billowed their great sail, displaying the royal emblem of Sparta. Castor brushed her cheek with his fingertips. "You don't appear to have suffered too greatly."
She pulled away. "More than you can imagine."
"I can imagine more than enough, but you've survived as yourself. I told Mother you're a strong girl. You've proved it today."
Her hair blew free in the sea breeze. "We're all born strong, Castor. Theseus was a fool to believe otherwise." She doubted she looked the same, however, when she felt so different inside. It wasn't merely her innocence that had been stolen, but something deeper, and something far more precious had been lost forever.
* * *
Confident they'd not be pursued, the Spartans pulled their ship into shore that night, and built a fire to roast the tunny fish they'd caught in their nets. Aethra refused to eat, but Emalia and Oron didn't have to be coaxed to have their fill. The siblings weren't much older than Helen, and their simple joy over having ample fare amazed her.
"Why would anyone starve his servants?" she asked Castor. "They'll do far better work if they're well-fed."
"Perhaps Theseus is too mean to care." Castor passed her a kylix of wine. "I'd not thought you ever concerned yourself with the management of a household. Have Mothe
r's lessons finally taken hold?"
Everything her mother had taught her had been of little value in the fortress. "Perhaps. She'll see I marry well, and what man would want a wife who couldn't manage their household?"
