Despite the Angels (5 page)

Alessia looked around the familiar room. She had been here only a few months now, but it seemed so comforting, so ordinary, so home. But now, with her baby on the way, could she call it home? Rasifi was kind and generous, but she might not want to support a woman who could not work, not to mention her child. What would happen if Danthys was not happy? She would have to go home and although she would be welcomed there, she would not be able to work with the gold anymore. Never to learn all the wonderful techniques that she had watched but not yet been allowed to try. A tear slid slowly down her face and she brushed it quickly away as Rasifi came back into the room.

“Why the tears?” Rasifi really did see everything. When Alessia explained Rasifi laughed.

“Even if you can’t work the gold for a while, you can help us by being here and doing the gentle work around the place. You are going to be a great goldsmith. I won’t let you give up so easily. But I don’t think you’ll be here, I think Danthys will want his woman by his side. So don’t worry until you see how things turn out. Now come on, the others have gone ahead, they’ll be wondering where we are.”

“I don’t think Kadmos will wonder for long. He’s like you, Rasifi, he notices everything!”

At the midday break time it was still warm enough to take their food out into the yard outside the workshops. Danthys and his parents were there too. Danthys smiled broadly at Alessia and moved over to sit beside her. Everyone was used to this now and not even Kadmos made any comment. Alessia whispered to Danthys, “Can we go outside, down to the beach?” Danthys looked at her pretending to be shocked.

“You can’t want to do that in broad daylight? I know they all know, but still…”

“I just want to talk to you without having everyone pretending not to listen and hearing everything. Just for a few minutes.” Danthys agreed, so they quickly finished eating and went out past the guards and turned down the path towards the beach. There was a wind off the sea and the noise of the surf pounded in their ears. They walked along the sand, enjoying the feeling of it between their toes. Alessia wondered how best to tell her news. She was so happy and excited, Danthys should be too. She looked up at him and took his hands.

“Something wonderful has happened. Something that makes us special to each other. We are truly blessed by the Mother!” and she stood, smiling up at him.

Danthys looked at her, puzzled. Certainly he felt blessed, to have found such a beautiful woman who seemed to love him as much as he loved her. Certainly, they were special to each other. He’d known that the first time they met outside the workshops and she had smiled back at him, such an open smile that the whole world had lit up. He put out his arms and drew her to him and kissed her, caressing her in the way that usually made her soften against him. But although she returned his kiss there was no softening and in a moment she pulled back from him and spoke.

“So you don’t mind then? You’re pleased?”

“Pleased about what? Certainly I’m pleased that I know you; that we have found each other. What could please me more?”

“Oh, for goodness sake, you dunderhead!” Jotin was standing beside Alessia in front of Danthys. “It is no wonder I can’t get through to you when a solid flesh and blood girl standing here hinting her heart out means nothing to you.” He started speaking slowly and clearly as though to the feebleminded. “Think, boy! Concentrate. And listen, to me too, but at least to Alessia.” He sighed and stepped back.

“Our baby”

“Our…..so soon?” Danthys’ hand shot up to his wide-open mouth. “The Mother blessed us, so soon? Oh, Alessia!” He was off, running, jumping, spinning on the spot and laughing. Alessia laughed too and joined him in his impromptu dance to the spirits: one that had never been choreographed but came straight from the soul and flew into the waiting arms, she hoped, of whatever spirits were looking out for her and her baby. After a while, they ran out of breath and slowed to a walk along the line where the sea met the land, so the waves washed over their feet.  They walked for an hour, to and fro, talking of the future and their plans and hopes for their child: the ‘greatest goldsmith in Crete’. The fishermen, pulling up their boats onto the sand and sorting their catches, watched in amusement and called out ribald suggestions for the cause of such happiness. When Alessia told them the real news they shouted blessings and grinned to each other. Eventually Alessia and Danthys realised that they had been out a long time, so they held hands and ran back to the workshops, where Danthys pulled Alessia into his parents’ shop.

“Mother, Father! We have wonderful news! Alessia is to be a mother!”

“Oh yes,” rumbled Bullneck, “and how does that concern us?” Alessia looked at him, startled and anxious, but was relieved to see he was beaming all over his broad face and immediately swept her into his arms in a huge embrace.

“Careful, Father, you might squash my daughter!” said Danthys as he hugged his mother.  Bullneck bent down, searching in a cupboard in a corner of the shop. At last he came out slightly out of breath but triumphantly waving a wine jar.

“Kept to celebrate the choosing of our cup, but we can get another one for that. Go and fetch the others, we must drink to this.”

So after pouring a small amount of the wine onto the feet of the statue of the Mother, to thank her for her blessing, the two families happily toasted the expected arrival.

Alessia moved to live with Danthys’ family a few weeks later, because a pregnant woman should be with her man and her mother. Danthys’ mother insisted that she was the nearest thing to a mother Alessia had in Malatos, although Alessia herself would have chosen Rasifi for the job. However, Danthys’ house was not far and his parents were welcoming. Alessia still worked with Mikolos and Rasifi, so she felt included and happy. She and Danthys spent all their free time together, discussing the future and telling each other how special they were and how no-one had ever been so blessed, so beautiful, so special.

Hetrion, with whom she had travelled from her home in the west, passed the town with his
troupe of bull dancers not long after Alessia realised she was pregnant and sent a messenger into the narrow streets to find her. She ran out to the road to see him and asked him to bring the good news to her family, along with a gift for her mother, a ring of gold wire that she had made herself. Alessia made sure Hetrion knew how hard it was to make the wire, so he could explain to her family. Just before the midwinter festival he returned, going east once again to dance for the festivities. This time he had gifts for Alessia, some pottery cups and plates for the baby and some baby clothes, one with slightly haphazard decoration on it that she guessed to have been made by her tiny sister. She pressed him for news, but the stories made her sad, as she knew that it would be even longer now until she saw her own family again. That evening she sat a long time holding her pottery picture, wondering how much everyone had changed. Danthys sat with her, his arm around her waist, letting her talk about them all. Then he told her stories of his mother’s people, so far away in Egypt and he described a river so big it was as important as the sea. He promised to bring her and their child there some day, to take part in the dramatic ceremonies in the temple, as he had done.

Rasifi was beside herself with joy when her daughter Elena arrived with her family to visit for the Midwinter festival. It had been two years since Rasifi and Mikolos had seen their daughter and the grandchildren were grown ‘beyond recognition, you’re all such big little people’. Elena had married a farmer from the high plains, so they brought gifts of leather, wheat, apples and carrots. They had three children, one a girl just about the size that little Paslona had been when Alessia saw her last. Alessia loved the child immediately and played with her whenever she got the chance. One of Danthys’ sisters also visited with her husband and toddler. Alessia revelled in all the female company and was fascinated by all their advice about pregnancy and childbirth. The women all agreed that the sanctuary cave on the high plain had powerful spirits, who looked after pregnant women and helped to guide babies into the world.

“Of course, it was easy for me” said Elena, “that’s why I have three children so close in age. We live close to the caves, so I was able to visit often. The spirits of the cave are strong, you can see that in their pillars. It is too far to travel when you are pregnant, but I can bring an offering there for you.”

So Alessia begged a piece of clay from a nearby potter and made a small baby out of it, to be left at the foot of one of the cave pillars. The potter agreed to fire it in his kiln; it would be ready for Elena to take with her after the festival. But five days before the midwinter festival they were all to be present at the palace with their cups. It was a strange morning for Alessia as she woke beside Danthys, both of them excited, but belonging to different teams. She decided to go and have her breakfast with Mikolos and Rasifi.

“But you should be with me, you are my woman. You live here,” Danthys protested.

“No, Alessia is right,” Bullneck rumbled, “she belongs to Mikolos this morning. She has helped with his cup. Off you go, Alessia, we’ll see you at the palace.”

At the palace, there was more ceremony than usual. The guards barred their way, crossing their crystal-pommelled swords until Rasifi declared her business within, whereupon the swords were removed and the guards bent one knee. Alessia found it amusing since they all greeted these guards every day, but she hid her smile as they passed. They gathered in the workroom, where Mikolos got out their cup and they all admired it again. Mikolos opened a jar of wine and poured a little into the cup and a little for luck onto the feet of the statue of Mother Diktynna, who stood at one side of the workshop. They handed the cup around, each taking a sip of the wine. Alessia marvelled again at the handles of the cup, that Rasifi had fashioned from Alessia’s excited description. Three large flowers sat on the rim of the cup, some of their petals falling along its rim and one larger petal of each swooping up and out, then curving back in to meet the outside of the cup, forming three handles. At the base of each handle where the petal joined to the cup, Mikolos had placed a gold bee, the symbol of his family’s workshop. It had taken hours of work and was truly beautiful, the flowers and the bees so real you could nearly believe you would be stung.

“Now the cup has been used it is launched on its journey,” Mikolos intoned, “we ask the Mother to bless it and help the Queen look on it with favour.” He dried the cup on a piece of rag and wrapped it again. At that moment there was a knock on the door and a palace page was outside, reciting in a reedy treble that they were commanded into the queen’s presence. They left the workroom in line, with Rasifi at the front and in the courtyard found Danthys’ family similarly lined up. They all grinned self-consciously at each other as they walked after the page towards the ceremonial arena. The sides of the arena were thronged with the palace staff and other tradespeople. The priestesses were beside the queen at one end. The king stood behind his wife on a higher step, his advisors jostling on either side of him. The two goldsmiths were led forward to stand in front of the queen. Then the queen started on what turned out to be half an hour of incantations and prayers and Alessia found herself getting quite dizzy and weak. She was glad it was winter; that she was not standing in burning sun. Eventually the moment came: Rasifi and Bullneck were beckoned forward to unwrap their cups and put them on a small table which had been placed in front of the queen. Alessia’s eyes were on Rasifi’s hands, she was pleased to see the cup catch a beam of sun as Rasifi set it on the table, so it was not for a tiny moment that she heard the gasp that went round the audience.

“What is the meaning of this?” the queen demanded. Alessia looked at the table with more care and gasped herself, for there beside Rasifi’s cup was its replica, with three curved handles in the shape of petals and the other petals lying smoothly along the rim. She felt herself sway and Danthys was there beside her, holding her. She leant against him, a tendril of anxiety curling up through her. Her vision clouded, the world looked grey, she felt herself falling. Then she saw Danthys’ face above her and heard someone offering her water. She struggled upright, muttering apologies. The young page was beside her with a stool, explaining that she should have been sitting, if she was pregnant. “You should have told us,” he hissed, “the queen does not ask pregnant women to stand for ceremonies.”

Rasifi and Bullneck were explaining to the queen and her advisors that it was pure chance that they had chosen the same design; that they had not conferred. But in both their minds there was a doubt. Danthys and Alessia would have some explaining to do. The queen and the other priestesses conferred at length as the goldsmiths waited. At last the queen spoke.

“This is an omen. The Mother is telling us that we must celebrate doubly this year, that next year will be full of wonders,”

“Oh, really! She just knew she couldn’t choose one of two almost identical cups,” said Trynor.

“Yes. Wonderful to be in charge like that, making up the rules as you go along. Now she can blame everything that goes wrong on the cups, or take credit for the things that go right because she ordered a double ceremony. Not that the cups are identical, ours has no bees.”

“No, how could you? They are nothing to do with Danthys and Alessia’s idea, they’re just Mikolos’ trademark added on. They look good though, don’t they?” Trynor laughed, “But we shouldn’t have let our pleasure, our confidence in Alessia and Danthys stop us discussing this, we should have shared the design!”