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Like some wild animal had gotten her. It took ages to find all the bits.”

C HAPTER F OUR
     
    N O WONDER D ORIS had been upset, back in Athens, when we asked her how Allike died. Doris had been first to see the body of Allike. She must have been one of the ones who had to pick up what was left of her former student and put the pieces in a sack.
    After that revelation, no one was inclined to say anything more.
    As we emerged from Thea’s room, a skinny, naked woman with hair flying behind her leaped over the fallen logs that served as a boundary to the sanctuary. She skidded to a halt. She was breathing heavily, and not merely at the sight of me. Her hair was straggly and unkempt, her face thin and dripping. She was the runner from the woods.
    We all stopped dead; it was that or walk into each other in the narrow corridor. She eyed me up and down. A slight smile crossed her lips.
    “This is Gaïs, the youngest of our priestesses,” Doris said helpfully. “Gaïs, do you remember Diotima? You were both children the last time you met. And Gaïs, this man is Nicolaos son of Sophroniscus. Nicolaos and Diotima are to marry next month.”
    “I remember her, and no, they won’t marry,” Gaïs said at once.
    They were the first words I ever heard Gaïs speak, and I was taken aback by her strange ferocity. It was like I’d been dropped into a conversation whose first half I’d missed.
    “What did you say?” I said.
    She ignored me. Gaïs transferred her attention to Diotima. “The Goddess will stop you.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Diotima said. “Nico’s the most important thing in my life. Nothing will stop me marrying him.” But somehow, though her words were strong, my betrothed didn’t sound as confident as I expected.
    Everyone but Gaïs turned to look at me. I blushed. Why were we suddenly having this conversation about our private lives with a stranger? What did she care about our marriage?
    Gaïs stayed fixated on Diotima. She said, “If that were true, you’d have given up everything else, wouldn’t you? But I know you didn’t. She’ll stop you, somehow. Maybe she’ll kill one of you. Arrow-shooting Artemis can’t be denied.”
    Diotima stepped back as if Gaïs had struck her.
    “Are you threatening us?” I said, confused and angry at the effect these words had had on my girl.
    Gaïs turned to me, but her eyes looked right through me, and it was clear her mind was in another place.
    I said, to bring her back to reality, “Allike’s dead, and Ophelia’s missing. What do you think happened to them, Gaïs?”
    Gaïs said nothing.
    I repeated, “Gaïs, what happened to the girls?”
    “Do you know what they drink in Hades?” Gaïs asked.
    “What?”
    Gaïs crouched to scrape her hands across the ground between us, then she raised her cupped hands in front of my face.
    “They drink dust.”
    She opened her fingers, and the dry, dry dust fell between us.
    G AÏS HAD WALKED off, after that extraordinary statement, leaving the rest of us to stare at one another. Thea and Doris were obviously embarrassed by their young priestess but said nothing. Sabina seemed to enjoy their discomfort. We made small talk before Diotima pointed out that the sun had fallen below the horizon.
    In a single day, we had hired a cart and donkey, traveled thebreadth of Attica, interviewed men, women, and a crazy priestess, and been attacked by an unknown archer. I reflected that this job didn’t pay enough. In fact, since I was still waiting on Pericles, it didn’t pay anything at all. But now it was evening, there was nothing else we could do, and Diotima and I were exhausted.
    Sabina had assigned us sleeping spaces.
    “You’re not married?” was the first thing she asked.
    “No. Not yet.”
    “Then you certainly won’t be sleeping together.”
    I protested, “But—”
    “I don’t care what you do back in Athens,” Sabina snapped. “Though I’m shocked to hear one of our own, a former Little Bear no less,