"Nothing. Come, we are spilling time." She drew a shaky breath, squared
her shoulders and went over to the table. From beneath it she dragged
a small wooden box. Squatting on the floor--as he saw her by that
guttering light, against monstrous unrestful shadows, he thought of a
Cimbrian god-wife, but a newly initiated one, young, shy, fair, riven
by the Powers she must now rein and drive--Phryne took out a bundle of
harsh gray cloth, a sheathed Roman sword and two long daggers, some
pots and bowls, and more.
"I have stolen enough money to fill a purse," she whispered. "And
these clothes will pass for a poor smallholder's. The hat will shade
your face from chance eyes. We will dye your hair black and cover that
barbarous tattoo with a bandage, as though it were some injury. Here,
bend over."
It was soothing to have her work upon his head, rinsing, rubbing in
the dye, combing. He felt a little strength flow into him. When she
was done she washed her blackened hands, cocked her head and smiled.
"There! Though we must take along a razor and shave that flax stubble
every day."
"We?" It grew upon him what she meant. He gaped. "But--you are coming,
too?"
"Of course," she said. "It would be--Eodan, if you tried to go out
alone, hardly knowing the road, not knowing Rome at all, with that
atrocious Latin and--" Her words became feverish. "Oh, Eodan, Eodan,
you Cimbrian mule, would you even know where to buy food? As well fall
on this sword at once and save everyone trouble!"
"Phryne," he said, wholly overcome, as though he were caught in
floating dreams, "your place here is good. What can I do for you? Why?"
She bit her lip and looked away. "It would be too easy to find out who
had helped you. I dare not stay."
He leaned forward, taking her hands. "But what am I to you? Why should
you help me at all, then?"
She jerked free, angrily. "I am a Greek," she snapped. "My grandfather
was a free man. None of this concerns _you_!"
Eodan shook his head in wonderment. But indeed, he thought in the
darkling Northern part of his soul, this was brought on when I invoked
the Powers; she is a part of my weird.
He dared ask no further. There was too much awe about her. Had he
indeed let a vessel of Power touch him, and lived?
"Freedom, freedom," said Phryne. "In a barbarous land, in sod huts and
stinking leather clothes, with not a book or a harp for a thousand
miles ... oh, truly, I shall be free!" Her laughter rattled. Eodan made
the sign against trolldom.
"Well, quickly," she said. "I could not be taken for any peasant girl,
so I must be a boy. There are the shears."
She crouched before him and waited. He took the long
crow's-wing-colored tresses in his hands, feeling that he offended some
spirit of loveliness. But--He cropped away until there were only ragged
bangs falling over her brow and her ears could be seen. She looked in a
mirror and sighed. "Gather them up," she said. "When we make a fire, I
will offer them to Hecate."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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