The king said some something to Eleni and then we were allowed to go. We walked slowly back to our bench, then crept away under Pariki's knowing smile. I did not need a gift for prophecy to tell us that it was Pariki who had told our parents of our forbidden closeness.
That night we kissed and kissed and made love within our laws and fell asleep only when the sun glared over the walls.
But it felt different. Since the goddess had come in Andromache's shape, Eleni's love was not inclined to me, not the love of his body I had possessed before, though I could still please him.
In the next eight days we clung close yet were not close. We ate little and slept less. Nyssa scolded Eleni and made him chicken broth and told him that the love of women was different from that of a sister. Tithone dosed me with poppy and mistletoe and explained that the love of a man was different from the love of a brother. I did not listen. I would go to the Mother and Eleni would lie down with a masked priestess in the temple of Dionysius the Father, and things would never, never be safe again.
Perhaps it was worse for Eleni. I had no lover now except the god, whereas Andromache existed and loved Hector and could never be his.
I was lying in bed with Eleni's head on my shoulder and we were watching the sun come up on the sacrifice day. We had run out of tears.
`I see a vision,' I said suddenly. `Eleni, I smell burning, and I see a warrior in gold armour - who would make armour of gold? - lying dead; his enemy laughing and you taking... Can you see?'
`Yes,' he said eagerly, `I'm taking a woman in a saffron chiton by the hand. Turn around, I can't see your face... turn, maiden...'
I had already recognised her. Andromache, grown up, tall, smiling. I could not imagine how this could happen. Eleni still could not see her face.
`Turn, maiden, fair woman,' he whispered, then clenched his fist. `Oh, no, has it gone for you too, twin?' I nodded. `Did you see her face?' I shook my head. I knew who it was by her shape and her colouring, I did not need to see her face. But I did not tell Eleni.
Nyssa had plaited horsehair bands for us both. She dressed us and brushed our hair and we did not exclaim because then she would cry and so would we. We walked to the Place of Maidens, I kissed Nyssa and she hugged me. Then I laid one hand on my brother's face, cupping his cheek in my hand. He did the same for me; it had always been our greeting as children. We did not kiss.
Our minds had always been one until the gods intervened between us. For a moment, we regained our oneness. I knew Eleni, and he knew me, far closer than any coupling. He was inside me. I was inside him. No lover would ever be as close to me as my twin. Nothing was lost. Just everything.
Our hands dropped simultaneously. I walked into the garden which is called the Place of Maidens, and Eleni and Nyssa climbed further up the street to the Temple of Dionysius. I could hear Nyssa crying as she went, but my eyes were dry.
The garden was bright with flowers and the coloured tunics of the maidens and surrounded with scented hollows under the bay trees. I sat down with my hands in my lap, noticing that Nyssa had dressed me in a pure white chiton. Several voices greeted me but I said nothing. I felt achingly empty. I hoped the stranger would come soon, and not hurt me too badly. But it scarcely mattered if he did. I was halved like a fruit. Part of me had been cut away.
Perhaps an hour later a golden coin dropped into my lap and a deep voice said, `In the name of Gaia.' Obediently I rose, and the stranger took my hand.
He was tall and dark. The mask covered his face. His black hair flowed across broad bare shoulders. I noticed that one lock had been carefully braided and a blue bead bobbed at the end. He was no Achaean; maybe an Egyptian. I did not know if I should speak to him but I tried a greeting in that language. He shook his head. As we crossed the Place of Maidens I tried three other phrases, but at each one the blue bead danced. Perhaps he was mute. The god had found me a stranger who would take the curse of the Maiden without a word between us.
We came to the dark hollow and I lay down, as I had been taught. He knelt and took off my chiton. I closed my eyes. Involuntarily, my body stiffened. I was afraid.
Hands caressed me, stroking along and down. He smelt of olive oil and a spicy aroma which I had never smelt before. The hands slid between my thighs as Eleni's had often done and I felt some response. I sighed, and so did the stranger.
I could hear rustling in the other hollows, then a short, cut-off scream of pain. I grew frightened again and the hands soothed me. With my eyes shut tight, I reached for the stranger's body and drew him close, caressing him as I had caressed my brother, almost managing to think that it was Eleni, though the stranger's chest was deep and the shoulders massive and the hair on his body was as coarse as wire. I found the phallus and shrank again. Impossible. I would be torn to pieces by this stranger and even Tithone would never heal me.
Again, the hands, and a gentle murmur from the mouth behind the mask. The clever fingers probed and explored and my excitement grew more intense. Tremors ran along my body.
The stranger judged that the sacrifice was ready. One strong hand was laid over my mouth - this was prescribed for the avatars of Dionysius, so that the other maidens would not be terrified - and something butted the hollow which I had denied my brother. I braced my shoulders against the ground and it struck again, sending strange reverberations through my body. The hands caressed me briefly, calloused hand. I released the breath I was holding and then my scream was smothered.
Something was inside me, very strong, a live thing, a body joined to mine. The torn veil stung and bled. But the stranger was inside me and holding me tightly and my arms went around his neck and my legs around his waist. It hurt. The veil had ripped. The stranger seemed possessed. He thrust like a mating beast, his hip bones thudding into my thighs. I was afraid and in pain. I called for Eleni. For a despairing moment I was utterly lost.
Then I found him.
In a strange double vision, Eleni and I lay inside a masked woman who held us close; at the same time as he reached his ritual climax, I felt our body glow and burn and the stranger's seed fountained inside us.
So I had not lost Eleni. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see the stranger lying on my breast instead of the masked woman.
The stranger got up. I found my chiton and pulled it on. My thighs were dripping with blood which made a huge patch on the white cloth. He helped me to my feet and led me into the sunlight. At the door of the temple a priest took the horsehair band and crowned me with flowers. I knelt down before the statue of the Mother and said the ritual prayers. I cut a lock of my hair and laid it before the image, sore and a little shocked. I had not realised how strong men were. The stranger with the blue bead went into the temple to be purified.
Andromache was waiting for me as I limped out of the temple into the street. She was pale and there was more blood on her tunic than mine.
`Can you walk?' she asked. I nodded.
`Yes, but I'm not going to. Nyssa is coming for me,' I said. `She is coming now.' I could feel her loving, fussy presence coming closer. `They are bringing a litter; sit down with me, Andromache.'
`So it isn't true,' she said, looking at my tunic patched with blood. `You didn't lie with your brother.'
`Did you think I had?' I felt too tired and bruised to take offence. Andromache had always said exactly what she thought and no one had been able to persuade her that this was not necessarily a good idea.
`It was talked about,' she said.
`Who lay with you?' I asked. `Did it hurt?'
`A huge man in a tunic. I think he was a noble - he was wearing a lot of gold bracelets. Yes. It hurt. I hate him. He hurt me. I'm still bleeding. I would never have done this if... if-'
`You had known what it was like?'
Her lips tightened and she lifted her chin. `Yes.'
`Well, then. It is a sacrifice well-made, but I think we had better call Tithone.' I had forgotten my own wound, which had already stopped bleeding. I was no more bruised than I had been wrestling with Eleni. Healing has always been able to make me forget my own hurt. It is a great blessing.
Nyssa came and had us carried to her house, where Tithone was waiting. She washed our lacerations, told us that she had seen worse and anointed us with cooling lotion. I noted the amount of wound herb and comfrey she was slathering onto Andromache. She did not stop bleeding until Tithone applied a styptic made of pounded tree bark.
Hector came to the door while Tithone was busy in the inner room. He embraced me gently, as though I might break and asked, `Is she-'
`She's all right,' I said. `Really.'
`And you, Lady?' he gave me the honorific for a grown woman and I was immediately flattered.
`I'm almost recovered.'
`Hector's glance strayed to my white tunic. He noticed the bloodstain and sighed with what sounded like relief.
`I've spoken to the Lord King,' he said. `I told him that Pariki lied when he said you and your twin were lovers and it seems that I told the truth. Pariki has gone to Sparta. Priam says that you may stay together until tomorrow. That is the best I can do for you, Cassandra.'
I did not run into his arms as I once would have done, but I was very grateful. Tithone came out of the inner room and said briskly. `Andromache is coming home with me, and since you are here, you can carry her, warrior.'
`Carry her? How is she? Poor little maiden...'
`Just a flesh wound,' grinned Tithone. `Maiden no more. This sacrifice was in your honour, Prince. Go in. Pick her up. Gently. And come along. Cassandra, I am very proud of you,' she added, as she preceded my brother Hector out of the door and into the street. He followed, carrying Andromache as though she weighed just a feather. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. I have never seen a face so expressive of trust and love.
Eleni and I put ourselves to bed early. We had a lot to talk about.
`I felt you,' he said excitedly. `It hurt, he was hurting you, but it was part of my pleasure, you felt me, didn't you?'
`Yes. I was in pain and he was frightening me, he was so rough and urgent, look, I'm bruised.'
Eleni inspected my bruises, kissed them, and very gently slid his fingers inside, careful of the raw edge of the wound. He lay down with his face on my belly. I could smell the sweet scent of his hair as I stroked his head.
`What about you, Eleni?'
`There was a woman in a mask, she smelt stale, old, but she stroked me and then she knelt over me... like... like the goddess did. I was trying to find the goddess when I found you, twin. I felt your hurt.' He stroked the outraged flesh again. `I felt something break and bleed and I screamed, as though he was inside me, yet I was inside her. Did I comfort you, twin?'
`Yes,' I said, `Eleni, my golden one. I wasn't alone.'
He thought about this, covering my bruises with his warm hands.
`I will always be there when you lie down with a man,' he said quietly. `Though I may never lie with you again.'
`And I will always be there when you lie with a woman,' I agreed, `though I may never lie with you again.'
`Until we die we will never be alone,' he intoned our ritual, and I completed it, drawing him up to lie beside me, our heads on the same pillow for the last time.
`And only death will sever us.'
I woke. Someone was kissing me. A beard scratched my chin. I returned the kiss in confusion and opened my eyes.
Arion the singer hauled me to my feet and laughed at my expression.
`Come along, God-Touched,' he whispered. `Early morning's best for travellers, especially if there is an army approaching. Should the apprentice sleep while the master wakes?'
My master Glaucus was not only awake but dressed and ready to go. I pulled on my cloak, bundled my healer's tunic into my belongings, and washed my face. Arion gave me a cup of red wine and a piece of bread and bade me hurry and be silent.
Glaucus was listening at the open doorway. Cool light was leaking in through the bowslits and under the keystones. We took up our baggage and carried it carefully through the corridor and down the stairs. Dikaos was standing at the gate, under the gods who ruled Tiryns.
`Fare well, little asclepid,' he said gravely. `Good fortune on the road and come safe to your destination.' This was the formal dismissal of a king to a subject and it was perfectly proper, but there was an extra stiffness in the spare man, as though he was reluctantly acknowledging that I had done an immoral but terribly useful task for him. Still dazed with sleep, I answered as custom required and they let the three of us out of Tiryns and into the grey light of dawn.
My master looked unwell, but Arion was bursting with rude health. Something was amusing him immensely. His beard was waggling as he formed words under his breath. He did not speak, however, until we had climbed up onto the ridge and descended into the valley to the north, which would take us by goat track to Mycenae.
The litter carrying Elene and her maidens, with its escort of soldiers, and the Atreidae would have to take the road. Three days to Mycenae, before I could see her once more. I did not expect to lie with her ever again. I just wanted to see her, from a distance, a slave not worthy to touch her hand.
I lost myself in dreams of Elene.
Then I was nudged hard and nearly fell off Pyla. Arion declared in his robust voice, `I have a boast, Asclepid. I have kissed the lips of one who kissed the lips of the most beautiful woman in the world.'
I gaped in astonishment. I came back to the present. We were in a dark valley full of stones the size of chariots, barren and cold, cut off from the sunlight. I was suddenly afraid. What would they do to me, my master and this singer? I had broken the first vow of the Asclepidae, never to enter the house of a woman-patient and lie with her.
My master must be angry; he had cared for me and loved me and I had betrayed him. And this singer, this strong-voiced man with no fear of rank; would he not trumpet Elene's and my sweet and sacred love as a shame and a raucous tavern song over the length of the land of the Argives?