The Sullen Face of a Forgotten God

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Miriam found Pericles in the garden again, staring off into space. It was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of the palace, she thought. She would be glad now that the Festival of the Seven Moons would be over and she could finally see life settle back into its familiar routine. Better yet, she was starting to fret again. She felt somehow that Deianera needed her. She knew of course that no matter what her feelings were, the most important thing was retrieving the stone, this magical stone which was so highly prized by the gods. Once she got her hands on it, she would have to work out what to do. She knew there was a great responsibility that she had to fulfill. Sometimes she wondered why she was chosen for this. Why not somebody else? She thought that she desperately needed to talk to somebody about it and somehow, she felt comfortable talking to Pericles.
She saw such a sad look in his eyes then and her heart ached. It was a similar sadness to what she felt when she had seen Pericles with Tanith, only instead of the wounded hurt (they had never spoken of that day again) this time she wanted to take him in her arms and make him believe that everything would be all right. Or perhaps, she thought resignedly, she was trying to make herself feel that way.
"Why are you so sad, my dear?" she asked and fought to keep the tenderness out of her voice. It was harder than she realized. She was feeling true closeness for him these days.
Pericles looked at her and smiled, but his smile was tinged with sadness. "Hello," he said softly.
Without thinking, she reached out and stroked his hair. As she did, a flash came to her. Kisses and caresses.. Intimacies. Skin that glistened with sweat. Writhing on a bed. She blinked and looked at him, as if seeing him for the first time.
He turned at her touch and leaned over to kiss her. It was nothing like the kiss they had shared on the ship. This kiss was knowing somehow, this mouth that threatened to engulf hers more demanding. She pulled away, feeling as if he intended to suck the very life out of her, She had difficulty breathing.
"I'm sorry," Pericles whispered. "I don't know what came over me." He turned to get up but she pulled on his hand.
"Please don't go," she begged him. "Please. Have I done something to offend you?" Her eyes filled with tears unexpectedly. He sat back down with a great sigh.
"I need to let you know that nothing happened with Tanith. I swear." He cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him and her heart began to pound. There was an almost desperate quality to him that she was starting to find disconcerting, but she didn't struggle out of his arms.
She swallowed hard. "I believe you." She knew that she did.
"Do you remember anything that might have happened last night?" Pericles continued. He was still holding her gaze.
"What was supposed to have happened?" she asked trying to break the intensity by laughing it off. "We both felt very sleepy and decided to go to bed."
Pericles shook his head. "That wasn't all that happened." He looked at her and then it hit her. She stared at him.
"Did we...." She began and couldn't finish the thought.
Pericles nodded his head. "There's a reason why we don't remember what happened. I think they put something in our drinks or food. It's like we're puppets on a string. I think we had better get off this island before tonight. I think this whole so called festival is a cover up for something else."
Miriam looked at him, perplexed. "Whatever do you mean?" But somehow, she knew that Pericles' words rang true. She closed her eyes and saw blood, heard screams and the sound of a booming voice, laughing maniacally. She opened her eyes in real fear and stared at Pericles. "What do we do?" she asked. "How do we leave? The way is barred to us." And for some reason, her hand flew protectively to her stomach and she wasn't sure why. "What do they want from us?" she whispered.
Pericles looked at her sadly. "I don't know," he whispered back.

Miriam tried all day to call for Cronos but couldn't seem to be able to. She realized at one point that in the past whenever they had spoken Cronos had always appeared to her whenever it had suited him. She had never had the power to call him to her. She wondered why he had not appeared to her in so long? Was he angry? But why would he be? Perhaps he no longer had any use for her? But that didn't make sense either, she decided. After all, she hadn't retrieved the stone for him yet. How was she supposed to harness its powers anyway? Was it really up to her to harness its powers?
Her hands went to her stomach again, in another protective gesture. She thought back to her earlier conversation with Pericles. He thought they should get off the island and deep down inside, she agreed with him. It was funny really. The same emotions of anxiety and fear that she had at first experienced when first arriving at the island came back tenfold, only this time, Pericles experienced those emotions as well. For a few weeks, it was as if she had been living in a dream and had only just now woken up. She was pleased to see that Cronos had woken up from his dream as well.
She went to Pericles and helplessly shrugged her shoulders. "Have you figured out a way for us to get off this island? I can't work it out."
Pericles shook his head sadly. Then a thoughtful expression crossed his face. "Do you know anything about this place? I mean, apart from what we've been told, which hasn't been much, do we really know anything about these people? What kind of a country is this anyway?"
Miriam shook her head and then stared at him. "You're right of course. You're absolutely right." She chewed her lip before continuing. "I've always felt that there is some strange kind of energy surrounding this place but I can't quite put my finger on it."
Pericles stood up then and walking towards her, took her hand. "I've got something to show you."
Without question, Miriam followed him. They walked down the hall way of the palace, until they came to a great room, which looked like a study or library. Shelves upon shelves lined the walls, covered in books. There were study tables everywhere but it really did look as if the place hadn't been used in a while. Thick layers of dust seemed to cover every nook and cranny.
Miriam looked around her. "What is this place?" she asked.
Pericles shrugged his shoulders. "It looks like a study or something. I only discovered this place yesterday and I was going to tell you about it but we got sidetracked with all these festival preparations. But I thought you might find this interesting." He pulled out one book from off one of the shelves and opened it to a page in particular, He pushed the book at her. "Read what it says."
She looked at him questioningly before looking down at the book. The page was entitled The History of the World and had a sub heading underneath it, entitled The Festival of the Seven Moons – a brief summary.

It began: "The Isle of Atlantis is cut off from the rest of the world due to the energy levels that the island itself emits. These energies or magiks as some believe, contribute greatly to the island's survival. The people themselves correctly believe that they are descendants of the gods and therefore should not exist with other lower forms of human being on the planet. As a result of this belief and the fact that they so carefully guard their knowledge, a story was invented that Atlantis was destroyed in a single day and single night by a great catastrophe taking most of its citizens with it, though some people have been thought to have survived and scattered to the ends of the earth. Plato, one of the great Athenian philosophers, first broached the story of Atlantis as a hypothetical concept of utopia; the perfect society, which was ruined by corruption and greed displayed by the citizens, who so greatly angered the gods with their arrogance, that they sent forth their swift punishment. As we know and the outside world do not, nothing could be further from the truth. Atlantis still stands, as proud as when the god Poseidon chose to bless this land with his seed. The Atlanteans are the gods' chosen people and it is with the help of the gods that no mortal who exists outside this realm, will ever find it unless they are chosen for a special purpose. The Festival of the Seven Moons is an important reminder of this. Every year, for this auspicious event, two mortals – albeit mortals with special gifts – are chosen and brought to the island seemingly randomly, though it is the gods themselves who guide them here. The chosen mortals must always be a man and a woman. They must both be young but both of child bearing years. And it is on this special night of the year that the man and the woman must both be sacrificed upon the Great Altar at the ordained moment. What is most important is that the man and the woman must have made love the previous night and that the woman has already conceived a child. It is important that the sacrificed to be are fertile. If one or both of the couple are infertile, the sacrifice can never work. Though it is regrettable that such a thing should take place – that is the deaths of two people – it is for the greater good and their deaths will enrich the lives of all Atlanteans and once again demonstrate their great glory to the gods...."
Miriam looked at Pericles and tried to stop her hands from shaking. "That's what they're going to do? How could this place possibly be Atlantis? It is nothing more than a myth and even if it did exist, it was destroyed centuries ago. Tanos himself told me when we first arrived."
Pericles shook his head, somewhat wearily. " I don't know what else to tell you. Whether this place really is Atlantis or not, one thing is definitely clear." He walked towards her and took her face in his hands. "They've led us into a trap. We have got to get out of here."
Miriam nodded her head fervently. "You're right." She stared around her. "I don't know what to do!"
"There is nothing to do," a voice intoned from behind them. They both whirled around to see Tanith and Tanos standing at the door staring at them, strange looks on their faces which seemed to be a mixture of sadness, anger and regret. "We meant to surprise you with the great honour that had been bestowed upon you but you both chose to scurry like rats in the cooking pot, going behind our backs, questioning us, demanding to know our secrets, Shame on you!" It was Tanith who spoke and she shook her head sadly.
"Shame on us?" demanded Miriam, her sense of outrage outweighing her sense of fear. "You're plotting to murder us and you're acting like you're the ones being betrayed?"
Tanos sighed and shook his head, saying as if to himself, "Simple, foolish child. I had such high hopes for you but that's all done now. And it's not your fault, I know that. Think of this as a great honour...."
"You keep saying that!" Pericles yelled in frustration. "What do you mean to do with us?"
"Please let us go!" Miriam begged pitifully.
Tanith shook her head. "It is for the greater good. Without this ritual our people will perish."
For the greater good were the words that went through Miriam's mind at that point. She glared at both of them. "You can't take us," she snarled. "Do you understand? We are not yours for the taking!"
Tanos called to the guards and turned to look at them one more time, it seemed. "The mark is on you both. You are both perfect specimens for the sacrifice. Please understand," he continued sadly. "We don't have a choice."
A bitterness washed over Miriam then, a bitterness that made her forget her fear. "There are always choices," she said, anger in her voice. "Do you really think that your people, your ridiculous customs, everything about you will be preserved because the gods require this sacrifice?" She closed her eyes then and everything seemed so clear. She understood now. She opened her eyes and the bitterness was gone. A wonderful peace filled her instead and she turned to smile at the delusional siblings whose faces now wore expressions of confusion. "You will never recapture your past glory. You are no longer the shining ones, for that is long past."
She reached out then and touched Pericles' face. "Let's go," she said to him tenderly. "There is no longer a place for us here."
Pericles looked confused but he took her hand and nodded his head. "You're right," he said softly. "We never belonged here. This was just a stopover for us, nothing more."
Tanith and Tanos exchanged looks of utter confusion. Suddenly, Tanith cried out," Guards! Seize them!"
Miriam turned and glared at Tanith. She felt rage boil up inside her and she knew she would lose control at any moment. "Don't do this, Tanith. You called yourself a friend. You were hospitable to us. You made us feel as if we belonged in your world. Don't throw all that away. You have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with here."
Tanith's eyes filled with tears. "I think you're the one who has no idea," she said, shaking her head ruefully. "It's part of our ritual. None of us wanted this. I am sorry."
Miriam let out a shaky sigh. "So am I," she whispered. She turned her head and looked at Pericles and took his hand.
"Do you trust me?" she said softly.
Pericles looked at her and fear haunted his eyes. "What?"
Miriam took his head in her hands and stared deeply into his eyes. "Do you trust me?" she repeated carefully.
Pericles stared back. "Yes," he said.
Miriam then closed her eyes. In her head she could hear agonized screams and she could smell blood. It was a nightmare that she was creating but she knew it couldn't be helped. She had made her choice. She was saving herself. She was saving the man she loved and that was all that mattered, she realized with a sense of bitterness and she put her hands over Pericles' eyes so he wouldn't have to see the horror she was bringing upon this world. This world that had seemed like a safe haven, and was now a trap from which she and Pericles had to escape. She sent out all the energy she could muster, cold and dark and evil. All the cruelty she could possible imagine in the world roared through her body. She heard screams of agony nearby. She wasn't sure if it was Tanith or Tanos or others. She didn't care. It was then that blackness overtook her, sweet oblivion that threatened to take her away from everything.
When she opened her eyes, she was staring at Pericles. She was lying on a beach, not unlike the one where she and Pericles had first arrived at that strange kingdom. Pericles was looking down at her and stroking her hair. There was pain in his eyes, but there seemed to be relief as well.
She sat up and looked at him. "Where are we?" she said.
"I don't know," Pericles replied.  He looked confused. "We must have lost consciousness somehow. I woke up and here we were." He seemed to shift uncomfortably. "What did you do?"
Miriam glared at him, sudden anger animating her. "What do you mean?" she snapped.
""Why are we here?" Pericles cried out. He got up and began pacing. "Why are we here? What did you do?"
Miriam looked at him and shook her head sadly. "I don't know. But I do know one thing. We're alive. We're alive, Pericles! We could have died. They had some insane ritual where they needed a sacrifice. They clearly meant to destroy us. They pretended to be our friends, they pretended hospitality, when all along they were plotting to kill us and you're angry with me?"
She attempted to calm down. "I understand how you must be confused, I do but you need to understand, that I saved our lives and I'm not going to apologise for that! I had a bad feeling about them from the start and it turned out to be true. Why are you angry with me?"
Pericles shook his head. "I know what you're capable of," he said. "I've seen your powers, remember?" He looked Miriam straight in the eye. "Are they dead, Miriam? Did you destroy them?"
Miriam sighed and looked away. She picked up sand and allowed it to sift through her fingers slowly before replying. "I don't know," she said truthfully.
Pericles grabbed her hand and dragged her up. "Come on," he snapped. "We have to get moving. We need to get out of here."
Miriam allowed herself to be pulled up. She felt confused and frightened. What had she wrought? Were all those people dead? Did she somehow manage to destroy the entire kingdom? She tried to pray to the gods for guidance but could not find the words. Which god was she to pray to anyway? Or should she pray to all of them?
There seemed to be nothing but miles of endless beach. It was the middle of the day and the sun beat down. Miriam was beginning to feel hot and sweaty. Then further ahead, she thought she spotted an oasis and crying out to Pericles, she pointed excitedly.
Pericles squinted through the shimmering heat. "I don't see anything. I think what you're seeing is nothing more than a mirage."
Miriam turned to look back at the oasis, determined to prove Pericles wrong. She gasped when she saw that the oasis from a few minutes ago was completely gone. She turned to look back at Pericles, trying to hide the disappointment in her eyes and failing miserably.
Pericles smiled at her gently. "It's all right," he said softly. "We'll find something." As they continued walking, Miriam tried to think back to what had happened. She chewed her lip and looked at Pericles. "Do you think we really were at Atlantis?" she suddenly asked Pericles.
Pericles shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he answered.
"All I wanted to do was keep us safe," Miriam continued. "I didn't want us to die. Those people were mad, Pericles. They wanted to sacrifice us. I didn't want to kill them. I just wanted to keep us safe. Was that so wrong?"
Pericles turned and looked her in the eye. "Is that all you wanted?" he demanded.
"What do you mean?" Miriam snapped. "Of course that's all I wanted! What else do you think I wanted!"
Pericles gave a great sigh. "Miriam, sometimes I feel like you're just like every other young woman I've ever met and then there are other times when I don't know what to think. The look in your eyes when we were with Tanith and Tanos. It frightened me. It's like there was this mad blood lust which needed to be sated."
Miriam looked away. She felt a mix of emotions and was sick of trying to understand them. "We need to find out where we are," she snapped. "Let's go." And she started marching, not bothering to look back. She was so angry with him right now, she wasn't sure she could even look at him.
They kept on walking until they reached a forest. It was the strangest thing. Up until then, she had been walking through hot desert sands, with the sun beating down and then all of a sudden, it was as if a dark forest seemed to rise out of the desert sands. Even the weather changed suddenly. The heat of the day seemed to melt away and a sudden chill seemed to encompass the air, raising goosebumps on Miriam's skin. She shivered as a result and then turned to look at Pericles questioningly.
"Now what do we do?" she asked him in frustration.
Pericles shrugged his shoulders. "What can we do?" he asked, somewhat wearily. "We just keep walking, I suppose." As if to reassure her, he took her hand.
She blew her breath out in frustration but didn't shake him off. "Pericles, I'm frightened," she said. "I don't know what's going on or where we are. In a way, I'm even more frightened then I was before when we were with Tanos and Tanith. I can't explain anything about what is happening!"
He reached out then and stroked her hair. "Please don't worry," he said softly. "I'm sorry about what I said before. Everything is going to be all right."
She bit her lip, fighting tears. "But how could you possibly know that."
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know why but I just do."
She sighed wearily. "Let's just keep walking," she said.
They began to walk through the woods and the trees grew so thick that the sun wasn't able to penetrate the shadows and darkness. It was as if it were already night, even though Miriam knew it was still only daytime. That made the darkness seem somewhat eerier. But still they kept walking. Miriam remembered the way she felt when they had first arrived at the island; the sense of dread, as if they were walking into a trap. It felt that way this time as well but it was even stranger this time. She almost felt as if she were entering into familiar territory. Without thinking, she squeezed Pericles' arm and he squeezed, though whether it was merely to reassure her or whether he was feeling the same way, she couldn't know.
She turned and looked at Pericles, fighting exhaustion. "I feel so tired," she sighed. "We seem to have been walking for hours and hours and not getting anywhere and I'm...."she stifled a yawn ...."so tired."
He nodded his head. "Miriam, this may sound like an odd question, but do you know what you were thinking of just before we....left Tanos and Tanith."
She looked at him oddly. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how else to put it. I guess what I'm really asking is, were you wishing you were somewhere else? Were you thinking of any place in particular?" She chewed her lip. "I don't know," she said. "I honestly don't remember."
Pericles looked as if here about so say something else but then he spied something over her shoulder which seemed to take him completely by surprise. Following his gaze, she turned to see a cozy house, tucked away in the dark woods. Smoke was coming out of the chimney and it looked so warm and inviting, she felt her stomach growl, reminding her that she must not have eaten anything in hours. She turned to look back at Pericles. "A house!" she exclaimed. "A house in the middle of the woods!"
Her voice echoed. She realized then with a sense of panic how utterly strange it was that up until then, they hadn't heard any animal sounds. That was why her sense of unease kept growing, she realized. The place didn't feel natural somehow. Or did it? Nothing to her, felt natural anymore.
"What do you think we should do?" Miriam asked. "Should we seek shelter there?"
"It's not as if we have any other choice," Pericles said. "Let's go. We have been walking for hours, like you said, and there isn't any point in making ourselves ill and weak with exhaustion. Surely the people there will be kind enough to offer some food and shelter for the night."
Miriam fought a sense of apprehension and nodded her head. Logic prevailed. "Yes you're right," she said. "You're absolutely right."
They walked towards the front door. Such a simple little house, when one thought about it, a simple little house, filled with simple unassuming people. Nothing to be afraid of.
Pericles knocked on the door and they waited. Slowly the door opened and a woman wearing peasant clothes looked out at them, surprise on her face.
Miriam looked at the woman and gasped. She wanted to cry out. For that woman was as familiar to her as the back of her hand. A rush of emotion swept over her and she cried out.
"Mama!"
The woman looked at her, curiosity on her face and then as the dawn of recognition came over her, she cried out as well and took Miriam in her arms. "My darling child," she cried out. "Whatever are you doing here?" She took Miriam's face in her hands. "I thought you were dead," she whispered. "I thought I had lost you forever. I thought I would never see you again."
Tears fell from her eyes. "Every day I prayed to the gods," she whispered. "And my dreams finally came true. They heard! The gods heard." She stroked Miriam's hair lovingly. "Not only did they hear my prayers but they answered them too. Please get of the dark cold woods and come inside, where it's lovely and warm. You both look exhausted." Without further invitation, they followed her into the house, where she shut the door behind them.
The inside of the cottage looked as inviting and warm as it had from the outside. They were quickly ushered to the kitchen table and made to sit down, where almost immediately they were offered bowls of warm food. Miriam took the bowl and taking a spoon greedily ate the food, not even looking up from the bowl until it was empty. She looked up at her mother then. Confusion filled her and grief and so many other emotions, that she couldn't even begin to describe. She tried to look at Pericles but for some reason, he wasn't making any kind of eye contact with her, he was merely concentrating on his food.
It was as if her mother could read her mind. "You're confused," she said. There was no question in her tone.
Miriam nodded her head. "Yes," she said softly. "I have so many questions for you." Her mother nodded and taking her hand, sat beside her at the table. She sighed. "On the day I lost you," she said, a trace of bitterness in her voice," I went out of my mind with grief. It all happened so quickly and your father had barely enough time to hide you before facing the soldiers. They were monsters. They had these horrible swords and," she took a shuddery breath, desperately fighting back tears," they cut your father down, without giving him a chance." Miriam closed her eyes, trying to imagine the horror. "They cut me down and moved on but by some miracle, I survived." She stopped speaking and looked Miriam in the eye. "But how could I live without my family? My husband, my child..."She shook her head and sighed. "When I came to, I was weak from loss of blood. I saw your father lying dead next to me. I screamed in agony. I tried to wake him up but I knew he never would. I looked for you and I couldn't find you. That was the worst, even worse than the loss of your father."
"Where did you go from there? What happened to you?" Miriam looked at her.
Her mother smiled grimly. "I looked for you all over," she said. "I couldn't stop. Over the years I would see someone I thought was you and approach you but of course it wasn't you. I moved around. I did what I could to survive. But I never gave up hope of finding you. I prayed to the gods, demanded they bring you back to me. They owed me...." Her voice trailed off. "But no matter, you're here now. And I want you both to listen to me very carefully. That includes you, Pericles." Her voice had taken on a hard edge. Pericles looked up at her. Miriam's mother nodded her head as if to herself and then began to speak.
"Miriam, you have been visited before in your dreams by a woman claiming to be me, your mother. She is not. She is part of a greater source of evil, an entity if you will, who is trying to seduce you into selling your very soul. There is no name for this source. This energy has been around since the dawn of time, long before the gods ever came into being and will continue to reign long after their twilight. It is a cynical source of energy, wanting nothing more than to bring corruption into the world. It can take any form it wishes, whether it be a person who is living or dead. It will tell you anything you want to hear, so long as you are prepared to hear it. Cronos is a being who did its bidding but I know he has broken free from its power. Only the truly strong can break away from some energy, so he must be very powerful." She turned then, her eyes boring into Pericles, as if wishing to dissect him with her glare alone. "And you, Pericles, whose side will you take? Will you continue to act as a servant to this nightmare or will you decide to break free? I know you love my daughter. I know she's carrying your child." A gasp from Pericles. Miriam merely sat there, numb.
Her mother held her hands tightly and continued speaking. "My darling child, I don't have much time," she said. "The gods have granted me this much so I can warn you. You need to harness your powers and quickly. You need to protect your life and the life of your unborn baby. Do you understand?"
"Mama," Miriam's voice was barely a whisper. "Are we really here? Is this place real?"
Her mother shook her head. "No, my darling," she said softly. "You need to go back. You and Pericles both need to go back."
"But how...."Miriam began but her mother cut her off. "You need to go back." She said it firmly. "You must go back."
Miriam nodded her head. Suddenly everything was making sense to her. "Are we still there?"
Pericles spoke for the first time. "We are, aren't we? We're not really here. This place...."
"Enough!" her mother cried out, now in an angry tone. "You must wake up. Do you hear me, you silly children? WAKE UP!"
Miriam's eyes flew open and she found she was lying down on a giant altar, dressed in regal robes, wearing jewelry. She felt tired and sore. Next to her on an identical altar, lay Pericles, in the repose of the dead, also wearing regal robes and jewels. She gasped as she saw Tanith and Tanos dressed in identical robes standing and looking at them. What the hell happened? Miriam wanted to scream but she couldn't find her voice. Enraged, she sat up and pointing an accusing finger at Tanith, she began to chant inside her head.

Gods spare me and my beloved.
For this is not our destiny.
May we be safe.
May our child be safe.

Tanith stood and stared at her in horror. "What are you doing?" she gasped.
Miriam finally found her voice. "Destroying your people," she said simply. "Saving me and my beloved. Saving my child." And this time it's really happening, she thought sardonically.
Amongst the chaos that followed – the howling winds, the raging volcanoes that suddenly sprang up on the four corners of the island kingdom – she calmly untied Pericles and helped him to his feet. Holding hands, she closed her eyes and wished for them to be back on their boat. Minutes later, the boat set sail on the choppy seas and she and Pericles were both watching, with a sense of wonder and horror, the destruction of the isle of Atlantis. The destruction was real this time as well, she thought bitterly, not just a tale invented as protection against foreigners. Perhaps the world was not ready for the great knowledge that Atlantis would bestow on it. It didn't matter. She turned her back and drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I'm ready for whatever comes next, she thought, the certainty of it making her feel strong. Thank you, mama, she thought to herself.
She turned and looked at Pericles. "I know about you," she said. "I suspected somehow, felt that you were an enemy. What do you know of this entity, Pericles? What can I do?"
Pericles sighed and shook his head. "I don't know as much as you think," he said. "Your mother seemed to know more than me. Was it all real, Miriam. Was it all real?"
Miriam shrugged her shoulders. "It was as real as it could ever be," she replied. "How did you come to be in my life, Pericles? Please, I need you to be honest with me."
Pericles paced the length of the boat and then finally sat down on the floor. For a moment, Miriam thought that he was crying but when he looked up at her, all she saw was weariness and sadness. "I come from a fisherman's village," he began. "My people were simple people. My father was a fisherman and my mother raised me and my younger sisters. I would often go fishing with my father. It was the expected thing in my family. My father's father was a fisherman and his father before him and so on. I expected I would also be a fisherman and my son and his son after him. There was never any doubt in my mind that this would be my destiny." He took a deep breath and sighed. "I never expected anything to change. Imagine my surprise when one day as I was out on the shore cleaning some fish my father had just caught that I saw Cronos suddenly standing before me, amusement in his eyes. I'd never seen such a man before, the way he was dressed and the look on his face....it was just so strange. I felt as if he had been watching me for a long time, even though I knew that couldn't possibly be the case. At least not that I knew of. I asked him who he was and he just laughed. I felt angry then, for he was indeed mocking me but he just said that he had a task for me, a great arduous task that would take me across the ends of the ocean, the world in fact. I asked him what I would gain in exchange for such a task and he looked me dead in the eye and said: 'Riches beyond your wildest imagining.' "
"When I asked him why me and what the task actually was he merely shrugged at first but after much coaxing – as if he wasn't going to eventually tell me! – he said he wanted me to kill a girl. This girl, he claimed, was a danger to the whole world and had such powers that were not to be unleashed under any circumstances. Then he told me to go to Athens and find you. And I did." He looked at Miriam, almost pleadingly.
"Just like that, you decided to go?" Miriam snapped.
Pericles shook his head. "You know Cronos, right? You know how seductive he can be. Not just to women but to men, too." He shook his head. "He's not human but he's not a god. He's immortal, I guess, but not in the way that gods are. He has powers. He can get inside your mind and make you think and feel things that you never thought you would. It's frightening." He sighed. "While I was on my way to Athens he approached me again – or came to me, which is the best way of describing it. He told me that plans had changed and I wasn't supposed to kill you but assist you on your journey to find this stone. And I was supposed to be your protector, no matter what happened. I had to be willing to sacrifice myself for you, to die for you, if need be. He was going to use you as his tool. He had developed some sort of affection for you. He sent me an image of what you were supposed to look like in my dreams and told me that I was to meet you in the market place where you would be visiting with your friend."
It was now Miriam's turn to sigh. "You basically led me into this trap, I presume. Was Atlantis your idea?"
Pericles shook his head, vehemently. "No it wasn't."
"And that monster on the boat?" Miriam spat out.
Pericles looked at her pleadingly. "Miriam, I'm as clueless as you are."
"Somehow, I doubt that very much." Miriam fought to keep the anger out of her voice. "You were sent to kill me. Am I supposed to be grateful for that? Just because you and Cronos had a sudden change of heart?"
"It's not that simple," Pericles said softly.
" I hate you!" Miriam suddenly screamed and launched herself at him, pummeling his chest with her fists. She hit him over and over again and the strange thing was, he didn't even try to fight back, he allowed the abuse to go on, as if he thought he deserved it.
When she was finally spent, she collapsed on the floor in a heap and began sobbing. After a while, Pericles got up and began stroking her hair. When she didn't move, he gently helped her to her feet, wiping away her tears with his hand and she let him. He led her below deck down to one of the cabins and lay her down in the bed. He covered her with a blanket and went to leave but she reached out and pulled him towards her. "Please don't go," she said softly. "I want to sleep now. Can't you just stay with me until I fall asleep?"
He took her hand in his and gently pressed his lips to it and nodded his head. "You know I could never hurt you." He squeezed her hand. "You are carrying my child."
"I can't believe whether that's true or not." Miriam smiled uncertainly. "It all feels completely unreal to me."
He nodded his head. "To me as well," he said softly. "And yet I do believe it."
Miriam looked at him. "I don't remember anything about our child having been conceived. How is that possible? How can that be?"
Pericles stared thoughtfully into the distance and then shrugged his shoulders. He looked back at her. "My only thought is we were not supposed to remember anything. That's what I think. We were both seduced. I don't know anything more...."
He was interrupted then by a sudden flash and before they knew it, there stood Cronos himself and this time, he wasn't wearing his usual amused expression. He appeared to be very angry.
"Well if it isn't my self righteous lovers," he snapped. He had the demeanor of a savage beast, one that was circling its prey, waiting for the right moment to pounce. "Are we all friends now? My perfect, precious little family."
Miriam and Pericles turned and exchanged startled glances before staring at Cronos. Neither of them said a word.
"Aren't my humble little servants going to say anything?" Cronos demanded. "Well I suppose when the cat's away, the mice do indeed play." He sneered in apparent disgust. "And mate like dirty monkeys as well." He turned and looked at Pericles. "Who said you could take this girl's virginity? What the hell gave you the right? She needed to be pure!"
"Address me if you will, Cronos," Miriam stated loudly. She got up and her earlier fear dissolving, she walked towards Cronos glaring at him as best she could. "How dare you speak to him this way? How dare you speak of me in this way? Depsite what you may think I am not your possession and never was!" Cronos remained silent, a glint of his usual amusement dancing in his eyes, as he allowed her to continue. "From the very beginning, you have done nothing but manipulate me and lie to me, and force others to lie to me as well. I have been a complete and utter fool, listening to your rants and raves about how you are nothing more than a lowly god and quite frankly, I couldn't care less anymore. I have no intention of finding this precious stone of yours. You have not explained your motives to me in any way shape or form and until you do, I refuse to do your bidding." She turned and looked at Pericles. "Pericles, I'd like to go home. I've had enough of the world and if it's anything like Atlantis was, I want nothing more to do with it. Athens is home and it's where I intend to stay." She looked at Pericles, waiting for a response, but it was Cronos who broke the silence.
"They'll never accept you back in the Temple as a priestess. You are with child. You have not take part in a marriage ceremony with the father of your baby which has been blessed by the gods. People will not tolerate such relaxed morals. They barely tolerated you before. What makes you think, foolish little slut, that they will tolerate you now?"
"Go to Hades, Cronos," Miriam snapped. I am not your servant to do your bidding. What you want or need means nothing to me. I refuse to retrieve something for you which you will only use for your own means. Get it yourself."
Cronos' expression appeared shuttered. "You are making a mistake, you arrogant little bitch."
Miriam shrugged in anger. "The only mistake I made was thinking that I could ever trust you by going on this foolhardy little quest of yours. I won't be doing that again in a hurry."
Cronos wore a thin smile as he turned to look at Pericles. "And you foolish boy, whose side will you take."
Pericles spat in Cronos' direction before taking Miriam's hand. "My decision has already been made." He looked Cronos directly in the eye. "I intend to make an honest woman of the mother of my child. The woman I love." He glared at Cronos defiantly.
Cronos sighed as if he'd merely been admonishing a petulant child. "Humans," he said, with a shrug. "They always were and always have been a trial and a tribulation. Hormones, pheromones, always there to mar logical thinking. What can one do? The gods created you as imperfect." His smile grew wider. It made chills go up and down Miriam's spine, though she tried to swallow her fear. "We shall meet again of course my children. That is a promise." He looked pointedly at Miriam's uterus. "There are many accidents that can befall unborn children," he continued spitefully. Miriam's hand instinctively flew to her abdomen and she stared at Cronos. "You already have blood on your hands, hypocrite. What about all the children, unborn and otherwise, who you murdered in Atlantis? What makes your child any more precious than them? Because you have this gift?" His lip curled. "I really shall go now." And with that, he vanished.
A dull shock went through Miriam at Cronos' final words. "He's right, of course," she said in a whisper. "I do have blood on my hands. I killed all those people. I didn't have the right to do that, surely."
Pericles kissed her cheek and then turned her face, forcing her to look at him. "You did what you thought was right," he said tenderly. "You were trying to protect us all. That is not anything to be ashamed of."
Miriam lay down again. "He threatened our child," she said, simply.
"You have the power to protect our child," he said gently. "I have confidence in you, Miriam. His words were nothing more than theatrics. He was just trying to frighten you, that's all."
Miriam squeezed her eyes shut and felt her heart hammering. "He does have the power to hurt us Pericles. Make no mistake of it. He is cunning and manipulative, and god or no god, he is an immortal. He frightens me to no end. We are both just children, in comparison to him. The gods only know how old he truly is. And despite my bravado earlier, I don't know how I'm supposed to protect any of us."
Pericles lay down beside her without another word and put his arms around her. She leaned her head on his chest and despite her fears, after a few more minutes of listening to the reassuring sound of his heartbeat, she fell asleep.