Page 91 of This Divine Revelry

‘What?’ Phaedra asks, breathless.

‘She’s lying,’ Theseus snarls. ‘I’ve had no such missives.’

‘Dionysus and I encountered a messenger at the docks as we set out to leave. He said he was under Theseus’s employ, but the letters were addressed to you, Father, dozens of proposals from kingdoms far and wide. I have them here.’

Theseus lunges for the papyrus, but Phaedra is quicker. Deucalion steps between her and Theseus, looking over her shoulder as she rummages through them.

‘That’s the seal of Corinth,’ he says.

Phaedra nods, turning over the next – and then the next. ‘Midea, Pilos, Orchomenos, Ephesus.’

Everyone turns to my father – whose anger, now brought forth, is turned wholly on Theseus.

‘Explain yourself,’ he demands.

Theseus’s nostrils flare as he takes a careful breath. ‘I’ve never seen those letters in my life. I suspect they’re forgeries – you would ruin our negotiations and all we might achieve in the hope of false promises.’

‘I’ve been told gifts are following, you need only wait a couple of days,’ I say.

‘Deucalion, lead the guards to search King Theseus’s rooms,’ my father declares. My brother does not wait, and the guards follow at his call.

Theseus’s eyes are alight with panic. There’s something he doesn’t want them finding even beyond the falsehoods we have planted.

‘What are you hiding?’ I hiss, smiling as it all comes together. This is it, whatever he dreads, coming to pass.

I promised I’d ruin you.

His eyes flash. ‘Don’t think I can’t destroy you too.’

‘By all means.’

He turns to my father. ‘Would you care to hear the truth of how she betrayed you?’ My blood drains from my face – that is not the direction I’d expected him to go in.

Where is Dionysus? Shouldn’t he be done by now? Icarus, Daedalus and Zosime safely stowed on the ship?

‘She disguised herself as a priestess of Poseidon and came to us in the stables. She told us every secret of the palace. Every route out, every path, every place to hide.’

Unlike him, I don’t waste my breath to declare it false. Father never cared much for a verdict – the accusation was enough.

‘She gave me a sword and armed the rest of us with daggers.’ He is revelling in his relaying of the tale and he steps closer to me, utterly gleeful.

I glower up at him. ‘For someone who cares so much for a story, I thought you’d be better at telling it.’ And then – why not? Father thinks me guilty anyway. ‘They were crying in the stables. Wailing so loudly I had to explain myself several times over. Theseus implored me to help, got down on his knees and pleaded.’

He shoves me back and the only sign of protest is my mother’s startled shriek. ‘She fell in love with me the first moment she saw me. She professed herself in that dirty jail, urged me to carry her away when she freed us and promised her fealty to me before I even spoke my first word.’

‘On that boat he told me he’d never lain with a woman before. He begged me to show him how.’

Theseus slams me back against the wall, his hand curling in my chiton. I reach out and pluck his dagger from his side – the one he once pushed across the table while declaring our union.

‘Stop him,’ my mother begs, her eyes glowing and bright.

‘She’s built her pyre,’ my father dismisses. ‘Let her finally burn upon it.’

Theseus looms over me like I might cower before him.

How ludicrous – this man who would be a hero of legend, outraged by the thought of tears and virginity. Like his strength lies only in heartless conquest. What a miserable life – and I see now what Dionysus meant when he explained why men too join the thiasus, because this ruins us all.

His lip curls. ‘And she’d been with so many men she was quite the expert.’