David Drake - Out of the waters

"What did your Sages have to do with my mother's abduction?" Varus said, attacking the problem from another angle.

"Your mother?" said Tardus in surprise. "You mean Lady Hedia? Has she disappeared also?"

He grimaced and made a gesture with both hands. "I don't know where she's gone," he said. "I don't know where the Sages went, or Pandareus or this Corylus. The others don't matter, but the Sages do."

Tardus looked up at Varus. The terror in his expression was unmistakable. This time it had nothing to do with the youth whom he thought was a magician.

"If the Sages can't control Uktena, they'll try to release him somewhere far away from their Western Isles," Tardus said. "You know what the monster will do-you showed us all the vision of what would happen if he got free."

He swallowed and said, "The Sages will release Uktena here in Carce."

Hedia turned. She was draped in three nets which were being dragged in slightly different directions, but she drew herself up as straight as she could. The hunters chattered excitedly to one another in-bad-Greek, so it was in that language which she said, "I am Lady Hedia, wife of Lord Gaius Alphenus Saxa, Consul of Carce. Take these cords off me at once and bring me proper clothing!"

It was a challenge to be regally disdainful while naked, limping, and covered with cuts and scratches, but Hedia had generations of noble ancestors to fall back on. She didn't expect her captors to pay attention, but at least she wasn't disgracing her family.

Somewhat to her surprise, the hunters-servants, obviously-fell silent and slacked the net ropes enough that Hedia could straighten fully. Along with tunics that left the right shoulder bare, they wore ankle-length boots of some supple material. Some of them glanced back to the taller man in fiery armor who was walking toward them.

"Are you in charge of this rabble?" Hedia said. "What do you mean by behaving in this fashion?"

The man smirked at her in a comfortable, arrogant fashion. That wasn't an unfamiliar expression on the faces of men who were seeing Hedia nude; though usually her appearance was less bedraggled.

"I am the Minos Serdain," he said. "Kalpos and I-"

He nodded toward the similarly armored man who remained in the more distant of the two ships.

"-were sent by the Council of the Minoi to bring you back when the Servitors botched the job."

Serdain made a sour face. "Using the Servitors was a bad choice but a necessary one," he said. "Even the most powerful of us couldn't have gone to the Underworld and returned… but you did, Minos Hedia. Which is why we need you."

He wasn't speaking bad Greek, she realized, but rather a very foreign Greek. Among Saxa's recent visitors had been a delegation from the ancient Greek colony of Vipasca in Lusitania. Their speech had some of the same rhythms as this Serdain's did; perhaps it was the Phoenician influence.

"Release me, then," Hedia said, sounding as haughty as she could while naked and looking-literally-like a sparrow which cats had been playing with. "When you've done that, we can discuss my terms for helping you."

She was no more a magician than she was Emperor, but if these Minoi wanted to think otherwise, then perhaps that would give her some bargaining power.

Serdain chuckled. "No, I don't think I'll do that, my dear," he said, "since I'm not a mindless automaton like the Servitors. We might not be lucky enough to get you back the next time. And you-"

His grin became suddenly cruel.

"-might not be so lucky either. The jungle can be dangerous, particularly where you were, in the ruins of Lann's keep after Procron destroyed it. Procron played with Lann's dependants, you see. Some of the results may still be alive, in which case they're worse than the creatures that nature herself created."

The ape with a human head, Hedia realized. But that- Aloud she said, "Your forehead."

She tried to point, but she couldn't raise her arm high enough to make the gesture more than a hint of her intention. "The tattoo there. What does it mean?"

"Mean?" said Serdain. He raised his free hand-the other held the flaring helmet that covered even his face behind a mesh of the same metal as the remainder of his armor. His gauntleted finger stopped just short of touching the pentagram. "It means that I'm a Minos, of course. It's a sign of the favor of Zeus. But I see-"

His eyes narrowed.

"-that you do not have the mark. Has the Council made a mistake, I wonder?"

"You'll learn what a mistake you've made if you continue to treat me with disrespect!" Hedia said.

Serdain chuckled. "No doubt, no doubt," he said in a mocking voice.

A pair of glass men-Servitors-had come from the nearer ship. They reached under the tangled nets and locked hobbles around her ankles.

The restraints appeared to be made of the same translucent substance as the Servitors themselves. To Hedia's amazement they weighed as little as silk leggings, but when she tried to kick, they were as constraining as steel. They would allow her to take only shuffling, eighteen-inch steps.

When the hobbles were in place, the servants began to remove their nets. Their task was more difficult because they seemed afraid to touch Hedia. Some of the cords were looped on her elbows and even chin.

She glared at Serdain, refusing to help or even recognize the servants. He continued to smirk. That appeared to be his normal expression.

The nets came free, one after the other in quick succession. The servants retreated in pairs and began to roll the nets without letting them touch the coarse grass. Serdain said, "Come to the ship and we'll be off, Minos Hedia. If you really are a Minos."

"Carry me," Hedia said, her arms crossed. It was a petty response, but she had noticed that the servants were afraid of her. "Since you've made it impossible for me to walk."

She could walk, of course, but she couldn't walk in a dignified manner. There was almost nothing she could do with dignity in her present condition, but she didn't intend to stagger along like a hunched beldame in addition to the other degradations.

Instead of responding, Serdain turned his back and stalked back toward the nearer vessel. The servants followed, murmuring among themselves again.

Are they going to leave me? Hedia thought. The two Servitors gripped her by the upper arms and lifted off the ground. The walked toward the ship in perfect unison; they could have been one another's mirror images.

Hedia drew her legs up under her to kick but restrained the reflex in time to save herself a broken toe-or worse. It'd be like kicking marble statues. She held herself silent and upright as the creatures paced on.

The ship lay on its port side, canted at about a thirty degree angle. That put the railing low enough for the servants to clamber aboard easily; despite his armor, Serdain mounted without apparent difficulty. He walked to the stern and used both hands to settle the helmet back onto his head.

With the helmet in place, Serdain took an object-it looked to Hedia like a simple pebble-out of a pouch of silvery cloth hanging from a stud on his breastplate. She had noticed it but had assumed it was simply a bangle.

The Servitors stepped aboard with Hedia between them and stood her against the single mast. One held her in place while the other bent at her feet. She heard a click and found her hobble was firmly attached to the mast step.

The ship trembled, then rocked upright on its keel. The crew didn't have anything to do with it, so far as Hedia could see. The humans, the hunters who had caught her, squatted along the rails. Other than shifting slightly, presumably for balance, and talking among themselves in low voices, they didn't seem concerned or even interested.

The Servitors-two on this ship with Hedia, but four on the deck of the other vessel-stepped into the bow and didn't move after that. She might have taken them for glass decorations if she hadn't seen them previously.