“The Cult is gone, Kassandra,” she said, dropping the mask on the floor. She stepped upon it with her sandaled foot, cracking it in two. “I played my part as one of them, but only to aid my own designs.”
“Which are?”
“You heard the legend speak, did you not? Of the need to bring a new order to the world.”
“I don’t know what you heard or saw, Aspasia, but that is not what my father said. He showed me that extremes of order or chaos are not the answer, that balance is crucial.”
“Pythagoras was not strong enough to bring true order to the world,” Aspasia continued as if Kassandra had not spoken, “nor was the Cult. You were a useful ally in sweeping them from the board of this great game.”
“But… you let them kill Perikles.”
“I would have stopped it if I could have,” she said, her face impassive. “But you were there that day. You saw what happened. Deimos and his men would have slain us all had I tried to intervene. In any case, Perikles would have gladly died to bring about the Cult’s end.”
Silence.
“And now?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“Now, the dream.” Aspasia said.
I could not tear my gaze from her eyes—glinting like ice crystals.
“The dream of all Hellas as a republic—no more squabbling city-states. An end to the competing ideologies of democracy and oligarchy. No more blue and red. No more fractious leagues. One realm, controlled—utterly—by a true leader: a philosopher-king to guide us all—a helmsman who will bring order to the world. It will be a lengthy process, like the growth of a new forest, and one best seeded in a bed of ashes… after the fires have raged.”
“Ashes, fire? Aspasia… Hellas is at peace,” I said.
“This sham of an accord? I will see that it does not last,” she purred. “In what forge but that of war can we otherwise hope to craft the dream?” Her face quirked with emotion: the traces of a cold smile. She shrunk back into the shadows, and her next words came from the darkness.
Instinctively, I stepped after her, but found nothing in those shadows.
“The dream of true, complete, unspoiled order…” she whispered from somewhere, the sibilant words fading with an echo. Then I heard the distant patter of departing feet. Gone.
Alone, my mind rocked like a boat in a squall, my hand itching to tear the Leonidas spear from my belt. To chase and challenge Aspasia? And then what—strike her down and fire the vengeance of her well-placed minions? After all that had happened, all I had been through, I realized that it was not over.
It had only just begun.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
Alexios: Kassandra’s younger brother who was cast off Mount Taygetos as a baby, following a damning prophecy by the Oracle of Delphi.
Alkibiades: Cunning and hedonistic ward to Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens.
Anthousa: The senior Hetaera at the Temple of Aphrodite in Korinthia.
Archidamos: The senior of Sparta’s two kings.
Aristeus: The Korinthian strategos.
Aristophanes: Perhaps Athens’s most famous comic playwright.
Aspasia: A brilliant thinker and speaker, and partner to Athens’s leader Perikles, Aspasia enjoys a place at the center of Athens’s vibrant intellectual community.
Barnabas: Loyal friend to Kassandra, a well-traveled seafarer and onetime mercenary with a passion for tall tales.
Brasidas: One of Sparta’s greatest and bravest generals, Brasidas was also an accomplished statesman with the noble objective to help end the war.
Chrysis: A Cultist priestess who raised Deimos to become a weapon of the Cult of Kosmos.
Deimos: Raised within the Cult of Kosmos to become their hero and champion, Deimos is a brutal, living weapon whose extraordinary powers give him a fearsome reputation.
Diona: A Cultist from Kythera.
Dolops: Son of Chrysis and a priest at the Sanctuary of Asklepios.
Elpenor: A rich, powerful businessman from Kirrha.
Erinna: One of Anthousa’s Hetaerae.
Euneas: Navarchos of the Naxian fleet.
Euripides: Famous Athenian tragedian.
Hermippos: A playwright and poet… with dark connections.
Herodotos: “The Father of History,” a chronicler of facts and events, and yet a fine storyteller, who decides to accompany Kassandra on her journey.
Hippokrates: Widely thought of as the father of modern medicine, Hippokrates is famous for his important and lasting contributions to the field.
Hyrkanos: An Athenian-hired mercenary, operating in the Megarid.
Ikaros: Kassandra’s most loyal companion since he was a mere eaglet.
Kassandra: A hardened and formidable misthios.
Kleon: The staunch power-hungry rival of Perikles who believes Athens needs to take an aggressive stance in the war.
Leonidas: Sparta’s legendary king, and Kassandra’s grandfather, best known for leading his three hundred warriors into the battle of Thermopylae.
Lydos: A Helot slave in the service of Sparta’s two kings.
Markos: A shady Kephallonian “businessman.”
Myrrine: Kassandra’s mother, a fierce Spartan.
Nikolaos: Kassandra’s father, a fierce, ruthless general unshakably loyal to Sparta.
Oracle of Delphi: The Oracle, consulted by commoners and the most powerful people of Greece alike, delivers prophecies and insights that can turn the tides of history.
Pausanias: The junior of Sparta’s two kings.
Perikles: The elected leader of Athens.
Phoibe: A young Athenian orphan adopted by Kassandra.
Pythagoras: Legendary philosopher, political theorist and geometrician.
Roxana: One of Anthousa’s Hetaerae.
Silanos: A Cultist who rose to power in Paros thanks to his great naval skill and wealthy supporters.
Sokrates: Famous Athenian philosopher patronized by the intellectual elite of Athens.
Sophocles: Famous Athenian tragedian.
Stentor: Nikolaos’s adopted son and a Spartan officer of some repute.
Testikles: The talented and inebriate pankration champion of Sparta.
The Cyclops: Powerful criminal tyrant of Kephallonia.
The Monger: A Cultist who leads the underground business market, feared for his torture methods.
Thrasymachos: Sokrates’s intellectual sparring partner.
Thucydides: One of Athens’s key generals during the Peloponnesian War and one of the first historians to record an objective account of the struggle.
GLOSSARY OF FOREIGN TERMS