CITY OF THE GODS: FORGOTTEN (53 page)

He took the bow from her and held it in his open hand. It swung slightly back and forth but remained steady in his palm. “Nicely balanced.”

“You’ll need to shoot a few arrows to see if it’s really right for you. This way.” Sophia tucked another bow under her arm and picked up a quiver of arrows as she made for the other door.
 
They followed her through and stepped down to an outside shooting area that Sophia had set up for her customers. It was surrounded on three sides by an eight foot tall wooden fence which connected to the house. There was a gate in the fence to the right. Against the wall furthest from the house, about fifty feet away, were three stacks of hay about seven feet tall.
 
Each haystack had a round, one and a half foot wooden disk mounted on it about eye level with a human head outline in the center. A few stray arrows were stuck in the fence and more lay on the ground near the barrier. All three targets had plenty of holes in them from practice shots, but those arrows had all been removed.

“This is where I test my bows, though I get most of my practice in the woods hunting venison or pheasant. Step up to the line there and see how this bow feels to you.” Sophia pointed at a mark in the moist ground.

“Nice set up you have here,” D’Molay said as he approached the line, which was in fact a thin flat piece of wood that had been pushed level into the mud. Sophia handed him an arrow as he took a shooting stance and pulled on the bow string to see how tight it was.
 

Aavi stood in the open doorway, her hands poised on either side of the doorframe.
 
She was still uncertain what they were about to do. The arrows with their feathers and sharp points looked like little knives. She wondered if they were going to throw them. Reflexively, she gripped the doorframe tighter as the vision of D’Molay throwing a knife at the Mayan flashed through her mind.

“C-can I go inside?”

“No, girl. I don’t want you alone in my workshop. Just sit down on the step and close that door,” Sophia ordered before D’Molay could even get a word out of his mouth. He nodded his encouragement to Aavi, watching as she did what Sophia had asked.

D’Molay and Sophia paid Aavi scant attention once they began the testing. “Aim for the center head.”
 
She pointed at the middle target.

He drew the bowstring back and brought the bow close to his face as he aligned his view with the length of the arrow. He took aim and let loose the arrow which whizzed across the short distance, almost instantly appearing in the center haystack. Aavi let out a gasp. It had happened so fast that she hadn’t even seen the arrow move through the air. One second, D’Molay was holding it in the bow, and the next, it was sticking out of the hay. “How did you do that?” she exclaimed, greatly impressed by what she had just seen.

He looked over his shoulder at Aavi as he smiled. “I’ll show you how it works later.”

Sophia scoffed a little. “You missed. Here, try this one.” She held out the other bow which was a bit smaller then the first.
 

He passed her the first bow and took the other. “All right, but I am a bit rusty. That first bow actually felt pretty good. But I’ll give this one a try.” He notched another arrow into the new bow and took aim. Like the first, this arrow zipped across the distance, but this time it struck the target.

“Better. At least you hit the target. How did it feel?” Sophia asked him.

“Pretty good, but a little constricted. Let me try the first one again.” Sophia handed the original bow back to D’Molay. This time he concentrated and slowed his breathing before pulling back on the bowstring and letting loose. The arrow struck the target near the center.

“That was much better. You still didn’t get dead center, but you did well. For a male,” Sophia added with a slight smile.

“Thanks, this one has a good feel. I’ll take it. How much will it be for the bow and a quiver full of arrows?”

“250 silver for the set. By the way, I think you put too much weight on your front foot. Try to keep your weight balanced. It will make your aim true.
 
Men always have trouble balancing,” Sophia instructed as she started to walk back to the door that led into the workroom.

Seeing her approaching, Aavi quickly stood up. Her hood came off and her golden hair spilled out around her shoulders. As Sophia drew near, she got her first chance to really take a good look at Aavi.

“My. You are a lovely lass. Like a young deer in a forest glade, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

Aavi blushed, more from the fact that she had let her hood fall off than from anything Sophia had said.
 
“No. . . thank you.
 
I don’t mind, I guess.” Then for just a second, Aavi thought she saw something in Sophia’s face that reminded her of the odd way that the men in the slave den had looked at her.

Sophia put her large hands on each side of Aavi’s upper arms and then gently moved her aside.
 
“We’re going in now, Pretty.” Sophia winked at her, then opened the door and walked through.

Aavi stood by the side of the door, slightly taken aback.
 
D’Molay came up and saw that she had an odd look on her face. “You all right?”

“Umm, yes.
 
I . . . yes.” she stammered.

D’Molay patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry, I should have warned you about the arrows. They move very fast. Come on.” He entered the workshop carrying the bow he had chosen and the half empty quiver of arrows. Aavi followed closely behind and closed the door, not certain what had just transpired.

Inside, Sophia had already grabbed a full quiver and presented it to D’Molay. “At least thirty arrows in there. That should do you.”

As he got his coin bag out, he remembered to ask Sophia another question. “By the way, do you know anything about the Sorceress Circe? Someone told me she lives around here.”

“Circe?
 
I haven’t heard her name in years. Her father is Helios.
 
He still rules over this region.
 
He has a palace in Lake Perse on the other side of the mountains. If anyone has heard about Circe, it’ll be someone in those parts.” Sophia gave D’Molay a word of warning. “I’d be very careful about who you ask. They protect their kin well.”

“Thanks for the information. Here’s two hundred and seventy silver. The extra twenty is for your trouble.” He smiled at Sophia.

“You needn’t have done that, but things have been slow, at least until yesterday.”
 
She took the money. “So, will I ever know your names?” she asked.

D’Molay paused a second, weighing the risk. “For now, Sophia, no. I hope you’ll understand.”
 
He was sorely tempted to tell her, but resisted the urge as he picked up the quiver and handed the bow to Aavi to carry.

“Well then, take care of the pretty one and remember what I told you about staying balanced.”
 
She returned to her table and picked up her hammer.

“Thanks for the tip. I’ll try to remember.” D’Molay waved a hand over his shoulder as they walked out of the stable. Before they had gotten too far, D’Molay stopped by an old wooden barrel and bent down to pick something up.
 

“What’s that?” Aavi asked as he held up the metal object.

“It’s a horseshoe that’s never been used. See the crack in the metal?”
 
He pointed to a crack that ran down one side of the ‘U’ shaped object, right through the holes that had been placed there.

“Oh, I see. Is that important?” Aavi didn’t really see at all, and had no idea why a shoe for a horse would be of any interest to either of them, since they didn’t even have a horse to ride, let alone to put shoes on.

“Sophia made this shoe. The round edges at the ends make it look different from many other horseshoes. She also sold five horses to the Mayans. Odds are at least some of those horses are wearing shoes just like this one. We might be able to track them by looking for the hoof prints, if we can find their trail.” D’Molay took the shoe and put it in their knapsack.

“Now I understand! That’s clever, D’Molay.” She smiled at him with admiration. Then worry passed over her as she thought about why the horseshoe was important. “The Mayans are here to get us, aren’t they?”

D’Molay started walking again and Aavi stayed even with him as he spoke. “I’m not sure. I don’t see how they could have known we were going to be here, unless a deity they worship can see the future. But if they knew we would be here, where are they? Why didn’t they just ambush us as soon as we got off the Hektor? Instead, they got some horses and left town.
 
None of it makes sense. For now, we’ll just have to keep an eye out for Mayans and do what we need to do - get you to the beast.”

“Do you really think that creature is the companion that the Oracle told me about?”

“I don’t know for sure, but it’s the only thing we have to go on. I’m certain that had we stayed in the City it would have been just a matter of time before Set’s followers tracked us down. They’ll have a tougher time of it since we’ve been on the move.”
   

The two of them walked back along the little road that followed the shoreline. As they came around a bend, they had a clear view of the dock where the Hektor had arrived, but something was wrong.
 
Aavi noticed it first.

“What is that? What’s happening to the ship?” Aavi cried out in a bit of a panic.

D’Molay squinted at the dock. He could see the Hektor, but it was engulfed in a black, swirling cloud. “I don’t know. Come on, let’s get a closer look.” He ran on ahead, Aavi at his heels. They passed by the large stone workings by the shore, but paid them little notice.
 
Seconds later, D’Molay could see that it wasn’t a cloud at all, but a swarm of large birds swooping and flying around the ship. He could see a few townsfolk running for cover and others watching the odd spectacle. As they reached the dock, D’Molay got behind a pile of crates about two hundred feet from the ship. Aavi scooted in next to him. They could see that the birds were a large as men. However, their shapes were vague silhouettes due to the low position of the morning sun.

They watched as the flapping creatures attacked members of the crew, but Aavi realized it was something else they were interested in.

“The urns! They’re taking the urns!” She shot up and started running toward the ship.

“Aavi, no!” D’Molay cried out, but she was halfway to the dock by the time he scrambled up to rush after her. Some of the birds were starting to fly away, each carrying one urn.
 
One of them flew right over him and finally he could see what they were. “Harpies!”

Aavi was right. The harpy was carrying one of the urns that been on the deck of the Hektor. He caught up with Aavi and put his hand on her shoulder, partly to let her know he was there and partly to make sure she didn’t try to run any closer to the ship and the harpies. “You have to be careful. You don’t want to be carried off again, do you?” he chided her. Had she been anyone else he would have yelled at her, but he decided she’d been through enough already.

Even if he had yelled, Aavi might not have noticed. She couldn’t turn her gaze away from the scene as one by one, the harpies each snatched an urn and flew off with it.

“What would those bird women do with them?” she asked desperately.

“I don’t know.
 
My guess is that the harpies are under order from some god or goddess. Harpies don’t usually work together like that. And they don’t store things, so I can’t think they would need or want urns full of anything. They take what they want from the land. They’re scavengers.”

“Can we follow them?” she asked hopefully.

D’Molay put his arm round her shoulder, “Not until we find a way out of town. Let’s check in with that Hindu woman. We don’t want to miss out on a ride with her brother.”

Back at the stall, they waited while the woman finished up with a local customer.
 
D’Molay overheard a fragment of conversation between the two of them.

“. . . and all that flapping! Well, at least they didn’t stay long. May Athena grant you good health.” The man left, carrying a small basket of assorted fruits. Seeing Aavi and D’Molay, the Hindu woman bowed slightly.