The Eye of the Falcon (23 page)

Just beyond Turonija, they found a secluded cove, where they agreed that Hylas would wait with Havoc, while Pirra slipped back and tried yet again to learn something of Userref.

Havoc was scared of the Sea, so to put her at her ease, Hylas crouched down and let the waves lap his feet. The cub edged forward and pawed the water—but fled when it came surging in. Then Echo swooped, her wingtips skimming the waves, and this seemed to give Havoc courage. Soon she was happily splashing about, and Hylas was trailing seaweed for her to hunt.

Pirra came back at a run, looking fraught. “He's gone!” she panted.

“What? Where?”

She met his eyes. “Egypt.”

“
Egypt?
” He was appalled. “Are you sure?”

“He bought passage on a ship a few days ago.”

“But—Egypt! That's at the end of the world.”

“I should have realized. He thinks I'm dead, and I made him swear to keep it safe . . .”

Hylas stared out to Sea. “I suppose—he will try to destroy it?”

“Yes, but he's Egyptian; his way of doing that will be simply to wait and let things take their course!”

He nodded. “And it's only a matter of time before the Crows find out where it is, and go after him.”

“We can't risk it. So I suppose—this means we go to Egypt.”

Hylas didn't reply. However hard he tried to get back to Akea and find Issi, the gods always sent him farther away. First the Island of the Fin People, then Thalakrea, then Keftiu, and now—“
Egypt,
” he said out loud. “How are we ever going to get there?”

Pirra gave him a strange look. “Well, at least buying our passage isn't going to be hard.” Taking her bag from her shoulder, she tipped a clinking river of jewels onto the seaweed.

Hylas stared at great golden collars hung with flashing scarlet and leaf-green stones, silver anklets and long ropes of amethyst and lapis lazuli.

Pirra was trying not to look smug.

“You brought these from Kunisu,” he said in disbelief.

She broke into a smile. “Of course I did. You're always telling me the first rule of survival is to sort your day's food and water. I just went a bit further.”

Hylas scratched his head. Then he snorted a laugh. “I can't believe I didn't think of that.”

“I can't believe you didn't either,” said Pirra, elbowing him in the ribs.

He elbowed her back, and with a yelp she fell over, then chucked a handful of seaweed at him. Soon they were staggering about, pelting each other. Havoc bounded up from the Sea to join in, and shook herself, soaking them both.

“Although there is one problem,” said Pirra a bit later as she was brushing herself off.

“What's that?” said Hylas, pushing Havoc's cold wet muzzle out of his face.

“How are we going to get Havoc on a ship?”

Hylas blinked.

The lion cub glanced from him to Pirra, as if she knew they were talking about her.

“She hated the voyage to Keftiu,” said Pirra, “she was seasick the whole journey.”

Hylas looked at Havoc; then at Echo, soaring overhead, and finally at Pirra—and his spirits lifted. He felt that as long as they all stayed together, he could do anything and journey anywhere, yes, even to Egypt.

Stooping for a pebble, he sent it skimming across the waves. Then he smiled at Pirra. “We'll find a way,” he said.

Author's Note

T
he Eye of the Falcon
takes place three and a half thousand years ago in the Bronze Age, in what we call ancient Greece. But this was long before the time of marble temples with which you may be familiar. It was even before the Greeks ranged their gods into an orderly pantheon of Zeus, Hera, Hades, and others.

We don't know as much about Bronze Age Greece, because its people left so few written records, but we know something about their astonishing cultures, which we call the Mycenaeans and the Minoans. Theirs is the world of Gods and Warriors. It's thought that this was a world of scattered chieftaincies, separated by mountain ranges and forests, and that it was wetter and greener than today, with far more wild animals in both land and sea.

To create the world of Hylas and Pirra, I've studied the archaeology of the Greek Bronze Age. To get an idea of people's thoughts and beliefs, I've drawn on those of more recent peoples who still live in traditional ways, as I did in my Stone Age series, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. And although people in Hylas' time lived mostly by farming or fishing, I've no doubt that much of the knowledge and beliefs of the Stone Age hunter-gatherers lived on into the Bronze Age, particularly among the poorer people, such as Hylas himself.

A quick word about place-names: Akea (or Achaea, as it's often spelled) is the ancient name for mainland Greece; Lykonia is my name for present-day Lakonia. I've kept the name Mycenae unchanged, as it's so well-known, and adopted the name “Keftian” for the great Cretan civilization we call Minoan. (We don't know what they called themselves; depending on which book you read, their name may have been Keftians, or that may just have been a name given them by the ancient Egyptians.) As for Egypt, although that name derives from the Greeks, I've kept it because, like Mycenae, it felt too artificial to change.

The map of the World of Gods and Warriors shows the world as Hylas and Pirra experience it, so it leaves out some islands that aren't part of the story, and includes others which I've made up, such as the Island of the Fin People, and Thalakrea. The same goes for the map of Keftiu: I've included only those places important to the story, such as Taka Zimi (which I've moved from the site of its real counterpart). In reality, Minoan Crete had many more settlements, palaces, and so on than I've shown, but I've left these out, as they would have cluttered up the map.

To create Keftiu as Hylas and Pirra know it, I've been to Crete several times and explored many Minoan sites, including Knossos, Phaestos, Gournia, Petras, Zakros and the cave at Psyhro. I climbed to the incredibly windy peak sanctuary at Juktas, which gave me ideas for Setoya. I found my way through the Gorge of the Dead at the extreme east of the island. The fact that its caves contain unexcavated tombs gives it a rather spooky feel, and on the day I walked the length of the gorge, the only other creatures I saw (apart from goats) was a pair of peregrine falcons having a noisy spat with a couple of ravens.

To get ideas for Taka Zimi, I visited the ruined sanctuary at Kato Syme on the flanks of Mount Dikte. Even today it's hard to find, and feels astonishingly remote. I was there on a misty, overcast day with clouds seeping over the crags. It was easy to imagine Pirra's feelings on being imprisoned there.

The House of the Goddess, or Kunisu, is
based
on Knossos, the greatest of the Minoan “palaces” (that's what we call them today, although we're not sure how they were used)—but I need to make clear that I've changed it to suit the story. The layout is different and so are the rooms. Also, I've added details from other Minoan ruins; for example, the loo comes from one in Akrotiri on present-day Santorini (which I also visited). I've visited the real Knossos several times, and my most useful visit by far was when Professor Todd Whitelaw kindly took time out from fieldwork at Knossos to show me over the site, including the Little Palace and the Unexplored Mansion, and let me examine some of his recent finds. One of the many valuable insights I gained was that the hills surrounding the site are riddled with as yet unexcavated tombs. This gave me a powerful sense of how Pirra feels at the thought of her mother looking down at her from the Ridge of the Dead.

Many of the features which Hylas and Pirra encounter inside Kunisu, such as the wall paintings, the sacrificial vessel shaped like a bull's head, and the ivory god, are based on real Minoan artefacts I've seen in the museums at Heraklion, Athens, and Archanes, and others. The ivory god was inspired by the “Palaikastro Kouros” in the Archaeological Museum in Sitia. This figure was made of gold, rock crystal, serpentine, and hippopotamus ivory. It was smashed and burned three and a half thousand years ago, but even in his damaged form, he remains an astonishing masterpiece of Minoan sculpture.

To get a feel for how Havoc experiences life, I've spent time with four Asiatic lion cubs at Paignton Zoo, where Senior Keeper Helen Neighbour kindly let me get as close to them as even she could get, given the presence of their enormous and very watchful mother; she also answered my myriad questions about their habits and characters. To gain insights into how Echo perceives the world, I've visited several falconries and watched countless displays, as well as spending time with peregrine falcons and their falconers at close quarters, to understand the birds' habits and characteristics. Needless to say, the way Pirra brings up Echo is a bit different from the ways of western falconry as practiced today. I've incorporated methods from falconry as practiced in different parts of the world, and also simplified things a bit, to suit the needs of the story.

I want to thank the many people (too numerous to name) who gave me advice and assistance while I was in Crete and Santorini, and in particular, Irini Kouraki and Manolis Melissourgakis, who were my guide and driver respectively in Crete, and without whose local knowledge and kindness I would never have found Kato Syme. I also want to thank Sarah Hesford at the English School of Falconry for letting me get near some fascinating peregrine falcons and for answering my many questions; and Helen Neighbour, Senior Keeper at Paignton Zoo, for giving so generously of her time and letting me get so close to those gorgeous lion cubs. I'm also extremely grateful, as always, to Todd Whitelaw, Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, for showing me over Knossos and answering my endless questions on the prehistoric Aegean, as well as providing invaluable guidance on the various Cretan sites I visited alone, and the significance of what I might see there.

Finally, and as always, I want to thank my wonderful agent Peter Cox for his indefatigable commitment and support, and my hugely talented editor at Puffin Books, Ben Horslen, for his lively and imaginative response to the story of Hylas and Pirra.

Michelle Paver, 2014

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MICHELLE PAVER

is an avid researcher who tirelessly investigates the worlds she creates—traveling extensively in the wild, encountering bears, boars, and wolves, and swimming with dolphins and killer whales. Her bestselling novels bring the past vividly and excitingly to life, including the critically acclaimed
Wolf Brother,
the first book in her award-winning Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.

www.michellepaver.com

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