An Excerpt

The following excerpt is from the first chapter of Aegea, the first book of The Promethiad.

“Mitri, you better get your ass down here before you break your neck,” said Sister Agatha. “Or by the gods, I swear I’ll break it for you.”

Sister Agatha, an old, yet imposing woman, was standing at the foot of a five-storey tower, peering up at a man perched on its summit. Around her was a crowd of poor and destitute onlookers. And beyond them, a sea of equally shabby shanties.

She wore a thread-worn blue dress that hung carelessly over her solid frame.  Her silver hair was pulled back to a bun. Her hazel eyes, soft enough to melt the hardest of hearts, now blazed with the fury of Zeus himself.

Beside her stood Caspar, her self-appointed, yet almost unnecessary bodyguard. He was a veteran of many wars, and was scarred like most vets. He had closely-cropped white hair and dark-brown eyes. His skin was brown and leathery, only a shade lighter than his jerkin.

“You heard Sister, now get down,” Caspar said.

“You dare to address me? I am Zeus, master of the world!”

“You’re a world-class jackass, Mitri,” Sister Agatha replied.

“I shall strike you down, old woman!”

Caspar stepped forward, opening his arms out wide.

“Why don’t you strike me down?”

“Zeus does not lower him self to Mortals.” He looked around the roof. “I must find my thunderbolts.” He disappeared from the edge.

Sister kept her eye on the roof. She shook her head. Her tough look on her face melted to concern.

“Why did he do this?” Sister said, her voice cracking. “He’s been free of the stuff for six months now.”

“I told you,” Caspar said. “There’s a new batch of Amber spreading through the Green. Cheaper and stronger. And Deadlier.”

A young boy approached Sister. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked.

Sister knelt down to face the boy.

“We’re trying, Niko. When did you father started acting like this?”

“In the middle of the night. He was yelling and throwing stuff and woke me up.”

Sister looked at the sun. “Around eight hours then. Which means he’s going to crash soon.”

“I’ll just climb up there.” Caspar asked.

“That’ll just agitate the fool.” She looked the tower up and down. “We need a big blanket, and a half-dozen strong men.”

“We have one at home,” the young boy said.

“Hurry and get it,” Sister said.

Caspar leaned closed to Sister’s ear.

“You know we’re already late, Sister,” he whispered.

“I know. But I’m not going to lose him.” She thinks a second, then she lightly pulls him away from the crowd.

“Listen. Go back and tell Elli. She can go.”

“Elli? You sure?”

“Yes. She’s old enough now.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“You can’t. You need to stay at the sickhouse. I don’t want the other two girls there alone.”

“So you want Elli to go by herself?”

“She just needs to pick up a donation.”

“Which means she’ll be traveling with money.”

“In the good part of Athens.”

“Athens doesn’t have a good part.”

Then she grabbed him by the arm. Her touch came with firm comfort and recognition of long, close friends.

“Elli needs to start learning to do stuff like this now.” She looked him in the eyes. “Doesn’t she?”

He frowns.

“You’re not dead yet, Agatha.”

He rarely used her first name. And when he did, it made her shudder. But she didn’t back down.

Caspar looked back up at the tower. He took a deep breath.

“I’ll tell her.”

“Thank you,” Sister said, patting him on the arm. “And tell her that this patron is one of us. She may or may not bring it up. But I don’t want Elli to be startled if she does.”

“I will,” he said and left.

A few moments later, Niko returned with a blanket.

“This good enough?” he asked, holding it apart with two hands.

“It’ll be fine,” she said, smiling. She took the blanket and patted the boy on the head.

Then a roof tile crashed right near her feet. She looked up and sees Mitri shaking his fist.

“Feel my wrath, puny mortals!”

Agatha tossed the blanket to the closest able-bodied man she could find. Then she stepped toward the tower and put her business face back on.

“Alright, Mitri. I’ve been patient this far. But now you’re really starting to piss me off.”

She looked around at the crowd. Many of them downright scary-looking. But at the moment, they were like little, lost kittens, waiting for Sister Agatha to tell them what to do.

“Honest citizens of the Green,” she started, and a bit sarcastically. “You know, and I know, that our community has its fair share of cutpurses, mercenaries, and assasins.

Some smiled. Others looked puzzled.

“So somebody get me a blowgun so I can tranq this bastard.”

————————

Aegea by William Bittner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.