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only
as a kind of transparent wraith of a small boat. At the time, we reassured
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our
guide as best we could, and followed him on.
We were conducted first to the palace, where we had scarcely arrived before
being told that Queen Phaedra had been informed of our arrival and was
awaiting
us impatiently.
As Enkidu and I walked along, we kept half-expecting to catch a glimpse of
the
divine Dionysus somewhere; but then we were told that neither he nor his
bride,
the princess Ariadne, were on the island.
The queen of Corycus received us privately. She was an attractive woman in
her
early twenties, with dark hair and a compact figure. The general assumption
among her people was that she would not long remain unmarried, but naturally
any
match she made would have to be carefully considered.
Given the prominence of some of our relatives in Cadmia, neither Enkidu nor I
were utter strangers to royalty, or to the procedures expected of visitors at
court. So we were not as completely awed as many youths of our age might have
been; and the young queen seemed to go out of her way to be friendly and
gracious.
The queen concluded: "My brother feels an urgent need to see you, and I must
send you on to him. But there is one other here who must speak with you
first."
Now a familiar voice sounded, and a figure appeared whom we immediately
recognized. And Enkidu and I saw, to our considerable surprise, that the
Artisan
had somehow got to Corycus ahead of us and was watching us with some
amusement.
At first I blinked at Daedalus and was unable to believe my eyes. In the next
moment, anger and suspicion surged up in me, and I was convinced that the
apparition before me had to be some kind of a deception.
Jumping to my feet, I grasped the figure by one arm, taking care not to crush
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flesh and bone, but forestalling any attempt the man might make to pull away.
"Majesty," I cried, turning to the queen, "this cannot be truly Daedalus. We
left him behind on the mainland, and we came here faster than any other boat
could travel."
The queen and her attendants were at first greatly alarmed at my energetic
action, and guards with spears leveled came bustling in. But in a few moments
the cooler heads in the royal party had understood where the difficulty lay.
They left it up to the Artisan himself to explain it to me.
"Swift as your little boat must be, Hercules, you should accept the fact that
the transport which brought me here was even faster."
"How can that be?"
He looked around before speaking, and lowered his voice. "You should keep the
matter a secret for now, but I actually came here in the chariot of
Dionysus."
For a moment I thought the Artisan was joking; but then I saw that he was
perfectly serious. It was evidently not the first time that Daedalus had
ridden
in the chariot, for he seemed to take the whole business with amazing calm.
And a little later, I was actually able to catch a glimpse of the
supernatural
leopards and the chariot, waiting inside the palace, at the end of a dim
hall,
even though the god whose property they were was somewhere else.
"Where is Dionysus?" I heard myself whispering to Daedalus, who walked beside
me.
The Artisan looked at me severely. "I do not question the comings and goings
of
such a one. He may be very far away by now; the chariot will not be his only
means of getting around."
I walked on in silence, past uniformed guards and lovely statues, all the
panoply of wealth and power. Enkidu, trailing me by a step, had not uttered a
word for a long time. We had come a long way from the herders' camp in
Cadmia.
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THIRTEEN
Talking to the Minotaur
While I was waiting to hear word that Prince Asterion was ready to see me, I
took the opportunity of seeking out the Artisan. Though I knew Daedalus only
slightly, I had begun to trust him, and there were several matters on which I
wanted his advice.
Meanwhile Enkidu, who was usually not given to worrying about anything more
profound than the size of his muscles or the amount of gold he might someday
manage to accumulate, had disappeared into the palace kitchen. I felt
confident
of being able to find him there, telling stories, eating, or chasing wenches,
when I wanted him.
I had no problem locating Daedalus. He sat alone on a rooftop terrace of the
palace, staring blankly at the surface of a table before him, on which he had
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