magician.' All you have to do is leave this room and return to the city. Nothing will be said or done.'
'Yes, my daughter?'
'Do you know how girls sometimes dip a mirror into a spring when the moon is full? When you look into it, in the moonlight… '
'What do you see?'
'Your husband's face. The man who's going to be your husband. The Moon Virgin shows you, if you're a virgin yourself.'
Polyhommes laughed. 'Hopeless for me, I'm afraid. I've four children.'
'I used to be good at it, or I thought I was, and I, uh, showed some other girls how. I don't do it any more.'
'I see. Did you look into the mirror for them, or did you simply show them how to do it for themselves?'
'I showed them how,' Hilaeira said. 'You can't do it for somebody else. Each one has to do it for herself.'
'And did they pay you for your help?'
Hilaeira shook her head.
'Then you're surely not a magician or a soothsayer, my daughter. May I take it you're not a murderess? In that case, you may attend the initial ceremony. That will be… ' He paused, counting on his fingers. 'Just five days from now, in the evening. You're living in the city?'
'I'm staying with a friend.'
'Then it would probably be best for you to return there. There are good inns here, but they're frightfully expensive, I'm told. On the fifth day you may come here just as you did today. We'll assemble at the stele at sunset.'
Hilaeira cleared her throat, a sound like the peep of a little frog. 'I said I was staying in Thought, Holiness. I'm not from Thought.'
Polyhommes laughed again. 'You're from Cowland, my daughter. You're all from Cowland, except for your young friend here, and I can't imagine where he's from. Can't you tell we speak differently here on the Long Coast? We don't double the 'fish' and the 'camel' the way you do, for one thing.'
'That doesn't matter?'
Polyhommes shook his head. 'I said there were three classes who were not admitted. Actually, there is a fourth-those who cannot understand our language well enough to comprehend the ceremonies. But even they are excluded only on practical grounds. If a barbarian learns our speech, he is welcomed.'
'And will I have to make an offering when I come again in five days?'
He shook his head again. 'Most do, but it isn't required. I take it you're not wealthy?'
'No.'
'Then my advice is to make an offering, but a small one. Perhaps one drachma-or an obol, if that's all you can afford. That way you'll have something to put in the krater and need feel no embarrassment.'
'May I ask one more question?'
'A hundred, my daughter, if they're all as sensible as those you've asked thus far.'
'It isn't this way in our city, but here people tell me a woman isn't supposed to go out alone. Will anyone bother me when I try to come back? I don't think Pindaros will be here then, and Kalleos probably won't want Latro to come.'
Polyhommes smiled. 'You won't be alone, my child. Far from it. Recollect that every candidate for initiation this year will be on the Sacred Way with you. No one will molest you, I promise. Nor will the archers stop you and inquire why you've no escort. If you're nervous, you need only find some decent man and put yourself under his protection.'
'Thank you,' Hilaeira said. 'Thank you very much, Holiness.'
'And now, young man, to you. You're not a candidate?'
Pindaros said, 'He merely wishes to present himself to the goddess.'
'Purity is best, just the same. I take it he's no magician or soothsayer. Has he blood guilt?'
'He doesn't remember, as I told you.'
I said, 'I killed three slaves once, I think, though I didn't write it down. You said so later, Pindaros, and I read about it this morning while you and Hilaeira were still asleep.'
'They were slaves of the Rope Makers,' Pindaros explained, 'serving as auxiliaries in their army. Blood spilled in battle doesn't count, does it?'
Polyhommes shook his head. 'There's no guilt. Have you an offering?'
Io whispered, 'The Shining God gave me to him. He can't give me to the goddess, can he?'
'He may if he wishes,' Polyhommes told her. 'Do you, young man? This slave girl would make a fine offering.'
'No. But I've nothing else.'
'I can give him a little money,' Pindaros put in.
'Good. Young man, I'd suggest you use what your friend gives you to purchase an animal for sacrifice. The town is full of people who sell them-you'll have no difficulty. If you're short of funds, a hen is acceptable.'
Pindaros shuddered. 'No. Not a hen.'
'Fine. A more, ah, significant beast is, of course, a better sacrifice. Normally those who sacrifice here desire to improve the fertility of their fields, and a hen is often sufficient. A young pig is the most common gift.'
Pindaros said, 'Like Hilaeira, I have a final question. Are there caves here? I realize you can't reveal the mysteries, but caves connected with the worship of the goddess?'
Polyhommes nodded without speaking.
'Wonderful! Sir, Holiness, you've been very, very kind. We'll go and get the sacrificial animal now. Meanwhile, perhaps a small gift for yourself…?'
'Would be most gratefully accepted.' Polyhommes glanced at his palm and smiled. 'Return at noon with your sacrifice, my son. I will be present to assist you with the liturgy.'
When we were outside, Pindaros said, 'I'm going to follow a hunch. Have you heard of the Lady of Cymbals?'
I shook my head; so did Hilaeira.
'That's the name under which the Great Mother's worshiped in the Tall Cap Country. Not by the sons of Perseus or Medea, but by their slaves-Lydia's people, and so on. They use the lion and the wolf as the Great Mother's badges more than we do. I know you don't remember that the oracle mentioned a wolf, Latro, unless you read that this morning too. But it did, and it said you had to cross the sea, which probably meant to the Tall Cap Country. After one's manhood, the sacrifice most acceptable to the Lady of Cymbals is a bullock.'
Hilaeira asked, 'Do you have enough money?'
'If we can find a cheap one. Kalleos advanced me a bit, and I won a bit more betting with Hypereides.'
Most of the animal sellers had only the smaller ones. Shoats were the creatures most often sacrificed, as Polyhommes had told us, and fowls the cheapest; but there were sheep too, and eventually we came upon a yearling bull for sale.
Io said, 'His horns have only just sprouted,' and patted his muzzle.
'Very tender indeed, young lady,' the farmer promised her. 'You won't find better meat anyplace.'
'That's right,' Io said to Hilaeira. 'We get to keep the meat, don't we? Will they cook it for us at the inn?'
Hilaeira nodded. 'For a share of it. And they'll keep everything and give us something worse unless somebody watches them.'
'I think he'd let me ride on his back, like Kalleos on the sail.'
Pindaros bargained with the farmer and, after starting to walk away twice, bought the bullock for what he said was far too much money. 'The people here laugh at us because we named our country after our cattle,' he told me. 'But we have some good stock, and I wouldn't trade them for all the ships on the Long Coast. You can't eat a ship, or plow anything but the sea.'
There was a cord through the bullock's nose, and it followed us docilely enough while we bought a garland
