Lost in the Labyrinth Read Free

have no intention of letting that fat Graia lay one finger on me," said Ariadne.
    "Oh, very well," I said, and, bidding our brother good-bye, I followed in Ariadne's train.

CHAPTER TWO
ICARUS
    W HEN I WAS A SMALL CHILD I DETERMINED THAT I WOULD never marry if I could not have Icarus, son of Daedalus and Naucrate, as my husband, and so I think to this day.
    I have not yet had the courage to inform my mother, or Icarus himself, of this decision. I did tell Ariadne, who laughed.
    "You, a royal princess of Knossos, marry the son of a palace workman and an Athenian slave? Our mother will give you in marriage to a wild goat before she lets you marry Icarus."
    I was a fool to speak of my love to Ariadne. I spoke as a child does, a child who still believes that what she wants she must have.
    "Daedalus is no common palace workman!" I protested. "He is a distinguished inventor and artist. And Naucrate was a wise woman whose counsel our mother valued."
    "Oh, and what marriage settlements could we expect your husband to make? Of what political use would such a marriage be? Don't be such a baby, Xenodice. Leave Icarus to the goldsmith's daughter. She has had her eye upon him for some time."
    Not the goldsmith's daughter alone, as Ariadne knew quite well. Nearly every woman in all of Knossos had at one time or another found her eyes turning toward Icarus, as flowers will turn toward the sun.
    He was so beautiful! I am not myself beautiful, but it is a trait I admire in others, particularly in men.
    Ariadne's gaze had strayed in his direction not a year ago, though she might not be pleased to know that I was aware of it. Everything that concerned Icarus concerned me; I had therefore seen and noted every step of her infatuation with him. I watched her as she came upon him sleeping on a wall one day, his black curls spilling down the stones, his body washed with sunshine. She stood silent for a long moment, contemplating perfection.
    Thereafter she was attentive to him, trying to engage him in conversation. He had responded as he always did: he was gentle and courteous, but his eyes were remote. I knew the very moment when she began to doubt her power to ensnare him, the moment when she decided that he was beneath her notice because he did not notice her.
    Now Ariadne's unusual interest in my brother's servants gave me an excuse to seek Icarus out and talk to him. He was himself more than half Athenian, though one of us, a Keftiu, by birth and training. His mother, Naucrate, had been an Athenian woman, a slave. Minos, our father, had given her to Daedalus the inventor in recognition of his skill, and Daedalus, half Athenian himself, had loved her and married her. It was therefore natural that Icarus would understand the language and customs of my brother's servants.
    I lay in wait for him by the paint-grinding shed, where he often did work for his father.
    His face lightened when he saw me. If he did not love me as a man loves a woman, he did at least like me.
    "Hello, little mouse," he said, smiling.
    "I am the Princess Xenodice," I said, "You should not address me so."
    "No?"
    "No. And you should stand up and salute me properly. Icarus, why do you suppose that Ariadne is so interested in the Athenians? Not the ones that are coming, but the ones from last year." I told him of Ariadne making us late for dancing class in order to inspect them. "What is she up to, do you think?"
    "Perhaps it is because your mother has promised that Ariadne may choose one as her personal servant when the new lot comes in," Icarus said. He shook several small charred animal bones out of a leather sack onto his worktable.
    "Oh! Has she?"
    "I am not certain, but that is what they believe," he said. "They have been arguing amongst themselves about which one she will pick."
    It was reasonable. Any of them would be pleased to be the trusted servant of the next Queen of the Keftiu. The work of such a one would be light, his bed soft. For the ambitious, there was also