Theano sat in the ship's hold, tied up like a sheep.
And she was a sheep, a total idiot.
How could she leave her home village, especially with a stranger!
But that kid had seemed so nice at first. He'd given her a whole handful of dates, and she'd followed him like she was under a spell.
She'd been impossibly hungry!
She ate it all right away, greedily choking and smacking from impatience. And he'd promised to give her a flatbread too if she pleased him properly.
At that moment it was like she'd lost her mind.
Of course! A whole flatbread for such a small thing!
Idiot! Idiot!
"I'd scratch that lying bastard's eyes out!" she whispered. "He tricked me!"
But he'd smiled so much! His smile had won over her heart.
Nobody smiled at her at home, not even her father, who couldn't wait to get rid of her.
Mother was who knows where, and father's new wife, that bitch, had disliked Theano from the start. Because Theano was beautiful, way more beautiful than she was.
So she kept pushing father to marry her off, but he was in no hurry—he wanted to get a bigger bride price for her.
Well, he got one alright, the old greedy goat.
She should've married Khalba from the neighboring village. Solid guy, hard worker. And he would've at least felt sorry for her sometimes, instead of grinding her down in the fields under the merciless sun.
He really liked her, everyone knew that.
Ugh!
When the marriage thing didn't work out, her stepmother didn't waste time—she borrowed grain from the royal palace on credit and wasn't planning to pay it back.
She twisted father around her finger however she wanted—he was old and completely sick.
And when the royal scribe came for the debt with interest, what would they pay with?
They'd hand over the eldest daughter, for sure.
Theano had immediately figured out that simple plan. The stepmother's brats had eaten the grain, and she'd have to go into slavery for it.
"You mangy goat! I hope you die! I hate you!" the girl said out loud.
Theano started thinking seriously.
These bastards would sell her now. But to whom?
If only they'd sell her to some nobleman, or to King Suppiluliuma. Though that was just a fantasy. To the king! Yeah right.
Even getting to a rich merchant wouldn't be bad. You'd put up with a little, spreading your legs, and then you'd just sit there spinning and chat with the other concubines.
She'd been taught to spin thread since she was little, and she took care of her younger brothers and sisters like a nanny. There was no break from them. That bitch of a father's wife popped out a kid almost every year.
Yeah, getting into a rich household—now that was a dream!
And then the merchant would sail off somewhere for six months, and then basically, aside from light housework, no worries at all. Nobody would drive an expensive concubine into the fields, they'd just make her weave so she wouldn't sit idle.
Well, that wasn't scary, and Theano had absolutely no illusions about a woman's lot.
They all slept together in a pile on reeds in father's hut. Everything she needed to know, she'd seen and heard many times since she was little.
It wasn't complicated, she'd definitely manage.
At least she'd immediately screamed that she was untouched, otherwise—disaster! They would've used her up completely then.
She'd seen that happen when a gang of Achaeans on two ships attacked their village. They took mother away then, and the warriors took neighbor Mina all together. She bled out afterward.
Theano had hidden in the bushes and saw everything.
A terrible fate, there was no worse.
The girl looked around curiously.
She'd never been on a ship before.
Here in the shallow hold, where she could barely stand at full height, lay unimaginable wealth.
Four logs of some strange wood, very dark, almost black when cut, huge amphorae with who knows what, vases made of some white stone with carved flat figures standing sideways, dozens of small jugs and jars, chunks of cloudy glass in wide pots, a pile of tanned hides, and a huge mountain of copper.
The ingots looked like little ox hides—she'd seen them many times.
Her father worked as a blacksmith for the king of Lesbos. He got copper by weight, then returned bronze items the same way by weight. The royal scribe gave him grain, oil, and wine for this.
Except lately they had little grain, father lay around more than he worked.
He coughed all the time and got so skinny his ribs would soon break through the skin. He'd die any day now.
Blacksmiths didn't live long.
When they melted copper, they threw in crushed arsenic. From that arsenic an evil spirit came out, and it ate the blacksmith from inside like some kind of worm.
They said when they used to add honest tin to copper, this didn't happen. But there was little tin now, and it was expensive.
That's why blacksmiths got sick, and her father was fading before their eyes. That's why he was so mean.
Father had a hut full of kids, and when he died, who would feed them? They already ate once a day, which was why the younger ones were so thin they seemed almost transparent.
When fish appeared in their house—that was great happiness. And who would go to sea for it now?
Father was in really bad shape, and lately he'd even started limping like the Achaean god Hephaestus. He must've also breathed in arsenic.
Their king wasn't rich, because the island itself wasn't rich. That's what people who'd been to Mycenae, Pylos, and Hattusa itself said.
Though the king still lived better than they did. His house was behind a stone wall, standing on a high, impregnable mountain. He had lots of chickens and pigs, and a dozen slaves herded goats.
Oh! If only they'd sell me to the king's house! the girl fantasized. That'd be way better than marrying some pauper. I'd always be fed. And if I bore him a strong son, maybe they wouldn't kick me out when I became a toothless old hag.
No, things at home were really bad, Theano thought sensibly, and so hungry that they'd take you into slavery for debts anyway.
But here at least they fed me till I was stuffed.
Her new master had undressed her, examined her critically, but found only one flaw: she was too skinny. He gave her so much bread and porridge that she was already dazed from the unaccustomed fullness.
Probably wanted to fatten her up before selling her.
She was fine with that. Better to be sold plump than starving.
"Have we arrived or what?" she raised her head and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Hey, you there! Take me to take a leak! Everything's gonna burst! I won't run away! I've got nowhere to run!"