Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner Page B

exception, but not because they wanted glory. “Lord Oeneus is our uncle!” Castor cried, leaping up from his place at the table. “His queen, Althea, is our mother’s sister.”
    “Our kinsmen need us!” Polydeuces, too, leaped up. He gave our host a wicked grin as he added, “My lord Thyestes, we have no choice. We must go.” I could have kissed him.
    Before the king could open his mouth to offer a word of protest or argument, I rose from my place. “My brothers, the gods bless your bravery.” I pictured myself as Mother at her most queenly as I announced, “I make a sacred vow, by Artemis the huntress, that on the day you kill the boar, I’ll make a thanksgiving sacrifice at her temple in Calydon with my own hands. May the gods destroy me or any other who keeps me from fulfilling this promise.”
    The Mykenaeans cheered my sisterly devotion as I sat down. I stole a sideways look at our host. He wasn’t cheering. Instead, he looked ready to bite through bronze. Between my brothers and me, the old fox had been outfoxed. It was all I could do not to crow in triumph.



          8          
    THE HUNTRESS
    The journey to Calydon was long and grueling, but I felt like singing all the way. Being free of Lord Thyestes was worth a thousand jolts in the oxcart.
    During the trip north, I came to realize that my brothers really were all grown up, men in fact as well as name. As soon as we were out of sight of Mykenae, they began to take precautions for our protection, in case Thyestes decided to try to regain what he’d lost. It made me proud to see how Polydeuces organized our soldiers to stand double watches by night and how he commanded them to scout the land by day. A mouse couldn’t have sneaked up on us.
    As for Castor, he opened all the supplies that Thyestes had given us and called for volunteers to taste a mouthful of everything, down to the smallest clay jar of water. Even then, he insisted that half of our men eat first while the other half waited to see if the food and drink had any ill effects. (They didn’t. Lord Thyestes wasn’t
that
desperate to recapture me.)
    All of this made it slow going for us until we reached Corinth, where we were able to get supplies we could trust. It was also in Corinth that my brothers suggested I go home.
    “Go back?” I said. “You might as well have handed me over to Thyestes in the first place.”
    “You won’t have to go through Mykenaean territory,” Castor argued. “You can go home by ship; we’ll send word to Mother and Father to have you met at the coast—”
    “And break my vow to Artemis?” I asked sweetly. I had him there. A messenger was sent to Sparta to let our parents know that I would be traveling safely with my brothers, returning to Mother’s homeland.
    From Corinth, we were lucky enough to find a ship that was ready to sail for Calydon. My brothers and I had never traveled by sea, but Poseidon blessed us with a calm, swift, comfortable voyage, a real relief after that miserable, tooth-clattering oxcart.
I could get used to this,
I thought as I stood in the prow and watched sunlight glint across the water.
    We arrived safely in Calydon and were welcomed by our aunt, Lady Althea, and her husband, Lord Oeneus. The king beamed when he saw how tall and strong my brothers were, worthy additions to his hunting party. He took them away at once to introduce them to the other warriors and to see what they could do on the training field.
    My aunt took care of me, which meant she led me to my room, summoned a slave to attend me, told me that someone would come for me when it was time to eat, and left. I felt I’d been dropped like a bundle of old clothes.
    “Tsk, poor Lady Althea,” the slave muttered while she shook dust from my mattress. She was a fat, gray-haired woman, sweet-faced and motherly. “She has so much to do these days, I pity her.”
    A slave pitying a queen? This was new. “What’s keeping her that busy?” I