Read Online Hellenic Immortal by Gene Doucette - Free Book Online Page A

AND ALTHOUGH HE WAS SLIGHT OF BUILD AND THEIR CAPTORS STURDY, ROUGH AND LARGE, SILENUS DID NOT DOUBT HIM.
    “WHAT OF THOSE EARS?” THE STRANGER ASKED SILENUS. “DO THEY ENABLE YOU TO HEAR BETTER THAN A MAN MIGHT?”
    “I CAN HEAR THE BRISTLE OF A FLY’S WING AS HE TAKES FLIGHT A LEAGUE AWAY. I CAN OVERHEAR THE STRATAGEMS OF ENEMY ARMIES WHILE SAFELY BEHIND MY OWN FORCE. I HAVE . . .”
    “THEN, YES?”
    “YOU HAVE A CAPACITY FOR INTERRUPTION THAT QUALIFIES AS A TALENT UNTO ITSELF.”
    THE STRANGE MAN SMILED. “MY FORGIVENESS, STORYTELLER; I FEARED IF I DID NOT INTERCEDE WE WOULD HAVE BEEN RANSOMED BEFORE YOU HAD COMPLETED YOUR TALE-TELLING. NOW TELL ME, WITH YOUR MAGNIFICENT EARS, CAN YOU ASCERTAIN THE LOCATION OF THE KEYS TO THESE MANACLES?”
    “I CAN! THE LARGE ONE CARRIES THEM,” SILENUS SAID WITH PRIDE.
    “AN OVERLY GENERAL DESCRIPTION. WHICH LARGE ONE?”
    “THE ONE WITH THE SCAR ABOVE HIS RIGHT EYE AND THE RINGLET CARVING ON HIS NECK, WITH HOOP RINGS IN HIS LOBE AND SHAVED HEAD. HIS GRIN’S THIRD TOOTH ON HIS EASTERN SIDE IS BLACKED. HE IS ALSO QUITE UGLY; WOULD YOU LIKE FOR ME TO QUANTIFY HIS UGLINESS IN AN HISTORICAL CONTEXT?”
    LAUGHING NOW, THE STRANGE MAN SAID, “SHOULD YOU EVER FIND THE MEAN DISTANCE BETWEEN TOO MANY WORDS AND TOO FEW, YOU MIGHT JUST SUCCEED IN BEING A TOLERABLE COMPANION. WHERE ON HIS PERSON ARE THE KEYS?”
    “IT IS A SMALL METAL RING TIED BY A CORD TO HIS ROPE BELT. NOW, WHAT MAGIC WILL YOU BE EMPLOYING TO OBTAIN THESE KEYS?”
    “HE WILL REQUIRE A REASON TO COME TO US, AND ANOTHER REASON STILL TO USE THE KEYS,” THE STRANGE MAN SAID. “I EXPECT TO GIVE HIM REASON ENOUGH, BUT IF HE DISAGREES WITH MY LOGIC I WILL BE FORCED TO REMOVE THE KEYS MYSELF, AND SO IT IS A GREAT HELP TO KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE. I THANK YOU.”
    “AND WHAT REASON WILL YOU GIVE HIM TO USE THE KEYS?” SILENUS ASKED.
    “YOU SHALL PROVIDE HIM WITH ONE YOURSELF, GREAT SILENUS.” AND WITH TREMENDOUS SWIFTNESS, THE STRANGER FLUNG SILENUS OVERBOARD.
    THE MIGHTY SILENUS DID FLAIL AND FUMBLE IN THE SEA, FOR SWIMMING WAS NOT A SKILL AT WHICH HE EXCELLED. HIS WRISTS STILL CHAINED, HE COULD DO LITTLE BUT KEEP HIS FACE ABOVE WATER AS THE SLOW BOAT DRAGGED HIM ALONG.
    AN ETERNITY TRANSPIRED ERE THE STRANGER APPEARED AT THE AFT OF THE BOAT AND IMPLORED SILENUS TO FLOUNDER HIMSELF TOWARD THE DECK AS HE PULLED THE CHAIN TO GUIDE SILENUS’S PASSAGE UNTIL, WITH GREAT EFFORT, HE MANAGED TO EXTRICATE HIM FROM THE DEEP.
    “DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SAIL?” THE STRANGE MAN ASKED AS HE UNLATCHED THE MANACLES THAT HAD SERVED AS BOTH SILENUS’S BURDEN AND SALVATION.
    SILENUS WAS STRUCK DUMB BY THE SIGHT OF A VACANT SHIP, SAVE FOR THE TWO RANSOMS AND CARGO. “HOW CAN THIS BE?” HE ASKED.
    “THE BOLT ON THE DECK WAS LOOSE, AND WOULD HAVE SOON TORN FREE AND TAKEN ME INTO THE WATER, AND THEN WE WOULD HAVE BOTH JOINED THE EMBRACE OF YOUR FRIEND PROTEUS. WHEN YOUR DEPARTURE CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF OUR JAILOR, I CONVINCED HIM IT WOULD BE EASIER TO UNLOCK MY CHAIN AND REMOVE THE BOLT THAN TO PULL YOU ABOARD AS CLEARLY YOU WISHED TO DROWN.”
    “I DID NOT WISH TO DROWN!” SILENUS PROTESTED.
    “BUT SURELY YOU MUST HAVE, AS YOU HAD LEAPT OVERBOARD SO STRIDENTLY. YOU EVEN TOLD ME BEFORE YOUR DEPARTURE HOW CONTENT YOU WERE TO DRAG THE VESSEL DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS WITH YOU.”
    SILENUS CLIMBED TO HIS FEET AND REAPPRAISED THE SHIP. “BUT WHERE DID THEY ALL GO?” HE ASKED THE MAN.
    THE STRANGER STRETCHED HIS HAND OVER THE WATERS. “A BEING OF SUCH VAST IMAGINATION AS YOURSELF CAN SURELY CONSPIRE AN EXPLANATION.”
    AND SILENUS DID LOOK OUT UPON THE SEA. IN THE DISTANCE A FLEET OF DOLPHINS BERTHED, AND AN EXPLANATION DID COME UPON HIM.
    “WHAT SHALL I CALL YOU, MY LORD?” HE ASKED THE STRANGER.
    “YOU HAIL FROM THE COURT OF PERGAMON, DO YOU NOT?”  
    “I CALL NO KINGDOM HOME, AND ALL KINGDOMS HOME,” SILENUS SAID. “BUT THAT IS WHERE I LAST PAUSED.”
    “IN THOSE PARTS, THE NAME I AM KNOWN BY IS DIONYSOS,” THE STRANGER