Avernine woods, all three heads howling together under the light of the full moon. On the other nights the dreaded lemures escape from Lake Avernus, malicious spirits of the dead who haunt the woods and inhabit the bodies of wolves. Still, Pluto always draws them back by morning. No one escapes his realm for long.' She turned her face from the ghastly vista below to glance at Eco, who stared back at her, wide-eyed.
'Strange, isn't it,' she said, 'to think that all this exists so near to the civility and comfort of Baiae and its villas? At Gelina's house the world seems to be a place made of sunlight dancing on water, and fresh salty air; it's easy to forget the gods who live under dank stones and the lemures that dwell beneath the sulphurous pits. Lake Avernus was here before the Romans, before the Greeks. These woods were here, and so were all the steaming fumaroles and the boiling pits filled with stench that circle the Cup. This is the place where the Underworld comes closest to the world of the living. All the beautiful houses and bright lights that ring the Cup are like a mask, a charade, as insubstantial as the skin of a bubble; beneath them the sulphur rumbles and boils, as it has forever. Long after the pretty houses rot and the lights grow dim, the belching Jaws of Hades will still be gaping open to receive the shades of the dead.'
I looked at her in wonder, bewildered that such words could come from the Lips of a creature so young and full of life. She met my eyes for an instant and smiled her cryptic smile, then spun her horse around. 'It's not good to look too long at the face of Avernus, or to breath the fumes.'
Our course began gradually to descend. At length we left the woods for a grassy landscape of low hills pierced by jagged white rocks. The hills became more and more windswept and barren as we neared the sea; the fog lifted and hung above our heads in tatters. The rocks grew as big as houses and lay scattered about us like the broken and weathered bones of giants. They took on fantastic shapes, bristling with sharp edges and shot through with swirling tunnels and wormholes.
We passed through the maze of rocks for a time, until we came to a hidden hollow set into a steep hillside, like the crook of an elbow. The narrow defile was strewn with tumbled rocks and trees weirdly sculpted by the wind.
'This is where I leave you,' said Olympias. 'Find a place to tie your hone, and wait. The priestess will come for you.'
'But where is the temple?'
'The priestess will take you to the temple.'
'But I thought there was a great temple to mark the site of the Sibyl's shrine.'
Olympias nodded. 'You mean the temple that Daedalus built when he came to earth on this spot after his long flight. Daedalus built it in honour of Apollo, and decorated it with panels all in hammered gold and covered it with a golden roof. So they say in the village of Cumae. But the golden temple is only a legend, or else the earth swallowed it up long ago. That happens here sometimes — the earth gapes open and devours whole houses. Nowadays the temple is in a hidden, rocky place near the mouth of the Sibyl's cave. Don't worry, the priestess will come. You brought a token gift of gold or silver?'
'I brought the few coins I had with me in my room.'
'It will be enough. Now I leave you.' She tugged impatiently at the reins of her horse.
'But wait! How shall we find you again?'
'Why must you find me at all?' There was an unpleasant edge in her voice. 'I brought you here, as you asked. Can't you find your own way back?'
I looked at the maze of rocks. The descending fog swirled overhead and a low wind moaned amid the stones. I shrugged uncertainly.
'Very well,' she said, 'when the Sibyl is done with you, ride on a short distance towards the sea. Over the crest of a grassy hill you'll come upon the village of Cumae. Iaia's house is at the far end of the village. One of the slaves will let you in, if — she paused uncertainly — 'if I'm not there. Wait for me.'
'And where else would you be?'
She rode away without answering, and quickly vanished amid the boulders.
'What vital business draws her to Cumae every day?' I said to myself. 'And why is she so eager to be rid of us? Well, Eco, what do you think of this place?'
Eco clutched himself and shivered, not from the cold.
'I agree. There is something here that sets my teeth on edge.' I looked at the maze of rocks all around us. The wind moaned and whistled through the wormholes. 'You can't see farther than a few feet in any direction, thanks to all these jagged boulders. A whole army could be hidden out of sight, an assassin behind every rock.'
We dismounted and led the horses deeper into the crook of the hill. A bald band had been worn into a twisted branch, showing where many others before us had tethered their horses. I secured the beasts, then felt Eco tugging urgently at my sleeve.
'Yes, what do you-'
I stopped short. From nowhere, it seemed, a figure passed between two nearby stones, following the same path that Olympias had taken. The descending fog swallowed all noise of his horse's footfalls, so that the figure passed by as silently as a phantom. He was visible for only an instant, draped in a dark hooded cloak. 'What do you make of that?' I whispered.
Eco leaped to the tallest of the nearby rocks and scrambled atop it, finding holds for his fingers amid the wormholes. He peered into the middle distance. For an instant his face lit up and then darkened again. He waved to me but kept his eyes on the maze of rocks. By way of signal, he pinched his chin and drew his fingers away to a point.
'A long beard?' I said. Eco nodded. 'Do you mean the rider is Dionysius, the philosopher?' He nodded again. 'How peculiar. Can you still see him?' Eco frowned and shook his head. Then he brightened again. He pointed his finger as the arrow flies, in an arc that ascended and then fell, indicating something farther afield. He made his sign for Olympias's tresses. 'You can see the girl?' He nodded yes, then no as she passed from sight. 'And does it seem that the philosopher follows her?' Eco watched for a moment longer, then looked down at me with an expression of grave concern and slowly nodded.
'How odd. How very odd. If you can see no more, come down.' Eco watched for a moment longer, then sat on the rock and pushed himself off, landing with a grunt. He hurried to the horses and indicated the knotted tethers.
'Ride after them? Don't be ridiculous. There's no reason to assume that Dionysius means her any harm. Perhaps he isn't following her at all.' Eco put his hands on his hips and looked at me the way that Bethesda so often does, as if I were a foolish child. 'Very well, I'll admit it's odd that he should pass by on the same obscure path only moments behind us, unless he has some secret reason. Perhaps it was us he was following, and not Olympias, in which case we've given him the slip.'
Eco was not satisfied. He crossed his arms and fretted. 'No,' I said firmly. 'We are not going after them. And no, you are not going off on your own. By now Olympias is probably already in Cumae. Besides, I doubt that a young woman as strong and capable as Olympias is in need of protection from an old greybeard like Dionysius.'
Eco wrinkled his brow and kicked at a stone. With his arms still crossed he began to walk toward the tall rock, as if he meant to climb it again. An instant later he froze and spun around, as did I.
The voice was strange and unnerving — gruff, wheezing, barely recognizable as that of a woman. Its owner wore a blood-red hooded cloak and stood with her hands joined within the voluminous sleeves so that no part of her body was visible. From the deep shadow that hid her face the voice issued like the moaning of a phantom from the Jaws of Hades.
'Come back, young man! The girl is safe. You, on the other hand, are an intruder here, and in constant danger until the god sees your naked face and judges whether to blast you with lightning or open your ears to the voice of the Sibyl. Both of you, gather your courage and follow me. Now!'
XII
Very long ago there was a king of the Romans called Tarquinius the Proud. One day a sorceress came up to Rome from her cave at Cumae and offered to Tarquinius nine books of occult knowledge. These books were made of palm leaves and were not bound as a scroll, so that the pages could be put in any order. This Tarquinius found
