ePublishing by BooksForABuck.com

ISBN: 1-60215-041-9  /  ISBN-13: 978-1-60215-041-6

Copyright 2006 by Kristina O’Donnelly, aka Kristin V. Donnelly all rights reserved.

Dedicated to the Memory of Louise Halley Forshaw

This sample contains the opening scenes to KORINNA only. You can purchase the entire novel, in multiple electronic formats, directly from BooksForABuck.com.

Chapter 1: Prey

PANIC SLAMMED AT KORINNA the instant she burst out of her gray-walled cell. The passage into the vast temple curved before her like a giant necklace strung with cells of the other girls. At its end, like a pendant, stood the many-breasted statue of Artemis, the Virgin Goddess, symbol of the temple but also of abundance, hunting and wild life. Making a quick curtsy as she ran by, she streaked through the sanctuary and out into the street.

Forced to pause, she had to blink several times to clear her sight. The deserted Sacred Way stretched far into the distance, sunlit, its whiteness shimmering with heat, blinding her after the dark temple. The columns bordering it stood like forbidding priestesses. She threw back a worried glance, first at the marble Goddess with her crown and a garland of flowers on her breasts, then at the temple, and smiled with relief: Good, no one was following her! Not even Nefru, the starving, gray calico kitten she had adopted last year and who proved himself invaluable by decimating the mice that plagued the premises. Just as importantly, Nefru intimidated and silenced the many garden spirits – those invisible, mischievous beings that played havoc among the trees, shrubs, stones and fountains of these ancient grounds.

Drawing a deep breath for much needed courage, Korinna set out at a fast jog. Her knee-length green chiton had ample folds, allowing her freedom of movement without getting entangled. She had walked this way only yesterday with other temple servitors in honor of the new governor’s arrival in Ephesus, so she had no fear of getting lost. The sense of suffocating within the musty walls of her cell was still prevalent. Nevertheless, venturing out into the big city terrified her. But her need was worse; it had grown steadily from the time she realized she was kept away from the other girls — for what reason? Thankfully, today her mentor had left her alone for these few hours.

Her mind raced. Driven by terror though she was, she had to know the truth about herself. It was nothing new that she had neither parents nor other family. However, yesterday, Livia had insinuated terrible things about her origin.

Korinna had never been out without a chaperone, yet she knew that in the city footprints carved into the paving would lead her to Melitta’s house, the one person who might enlighten her.

The Sacred Way, a marble-paved road, snaked onward from the Artemiseion to Ephesus, a major coastal city hearkening to the Trojan-era Carians and Lydians, today embracing 250,000 freedmen and slaves ruled by Rome. The Artemiseion, first started by King Croesus, had taken 120 years to complete. Through Ephesus, hailed goods from exotic China and the eastern provinces bound for Italy. Wide, paved avenues, huge public buildings, squares, and terraced mansions impressed visitors from the four corners of the world. Thus, the Romans referred to Ephesus as “the first and greatest metropolis of Asia.” She had been along the Sacred Way with other novices on festival days — always guarded by mentors.

The Way into the city was long, dotted with small shrines, statues and foliage along the sides, and when she arrived there at last, she was perspiring and winded. The marble city and the smooth street were far larger and broader than she remembered from her last foray, disturbing her. The raised walkway was terrifyingly close to the houses that bordered it. Windows, some of glass and others covered with translucent rice paper framed in wooden latticework, stared blankly at her. Everyone was sleeping away the blistering noon hours. Korinna scarcely recognized herself as she glimpsed her flustered image in an occasional glassed window, her face pinched with worry behind her flying veil. Her heart fluttered beneath her throat, a terrified bird desperate to break free from its cage.

No, no, it could not be true that she belonged to that other place, the Grove! The Grove of Venus-Aphrodite.

The girls had whispered, looking at her as pale-eyed Livia snickered knowingly. When stern-faced, gray-haired High Priestess Thenis came into the courtyard, they had scattered, but giggling behind hands covering their sly mouths. In all the fifteen years of her life, Korinna had not wondered about her parentage. There had been no need to. The other girls too were either waifs like her, or unwanted daughters brought to the shrine by their parents, as offering to the Goddess. That other place, the Grove, was where girls considered surpluses were sent upon reaching womanhood. But in the Temple, she had had the good fortune of an extensive training to read and write in several languages as well as cipher, and now reminded herself that Melitta might help her find such work to support herself. Laconic Thenis, though never one to easily hand out compliments, did brag that Korinna was one of the best students in the Temple’s long history, fluent in several languages, even able to translate many of the ancient cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts. Thenis had told her that she was named after Korinna, the ancient Greek poetess from Boeotia, renowned as the instructress and rival of the Theban poet Pindar, whom she had beaten without trouble in a poetry contest. Unlike Pindar, Korinna’s poems had focused on local myths, drawing parallels between the world of mythology and ordinary human behavior. In honor of her win, a monument had been erected to her, unleashing malicious gossip. A sore loser, Pindar had claimed that she’d won due to her beauty and not talent, and had called her a sow. But even though hundreds of years had passed since her death, her poems were still being read, and recently Antipater of Thessalonica had listed Korinna the Poetess in his catalogue of Nine Mortal Muses.

Uplifted by the thought of her namesake’s victory over colicky Pindar, Korinna smiled to herself. She had always looked up to this poetess, a self-assured, strong, independent-minded woman, and strived to be worthy of being given her name.

Walking along at a more normal pace, her mind switched to other things that Thenis had hinted about Melitta. Yet, strangely, Thenis had taken her there often enough, on visits imbued with secrecy. She had listened to them discussing the invasions of Greek colonies by Roman and Pontine armies. Silently she had wondered what these two women had to do with military concerns. Ephesus was securely ruled by Rome, under a Roman governor. However, these visits gave her the sense that Melitta cared about her, and would help when asked. Indeed, Melitta, wealthy and influential, must know of someone who would hire her away from the Artemiseion….

Everything was eerily quiet when Korinna reached the agora – marketplace. Built as a square, the agora was surrounded by columns. It had three gates, one from the front of the theatre on the northeast, the other one opening to the harbor on the west, and the third one from the library. The north side of the agora was left open, and a portico, filled with rows of shops, surrounded the other three sides. At the center of it were a sundial and a water clock. The stalls were shuttered, of course, for it was the time of afternoon rest. They would open again in the cool of the early evening. By then she would be back, enriched by the knowledge of her origin and with the hope of independence as well.

Korinna looked for the footprints carved into the street leading from the harbor to the Street of Joy. Often had she overheard Melitta tell Thenis that anyone could find her by following the scarred ones – “Scarred from so much use,” she had laughed meaningfully.

“If the child ever gets bored with that drab life she has with you, Thenis, look out!” Melitta had added, “There’s fire in her. She will be at the end of those backwards footprints yet! They lead to the same freedom that I enjoy.” She had laughed again, looking pleased by the older woman’s shocked denial.

As her memory tripped, Korinna made a connection with Livia’s taunt. The urgency gnawing at her insides, increased manifold. Aghh, she had to find Melitta! Besides, she admitted, Melitta was the only person she knew outside the sequestered Temple.

Now she saw the marks. They were cut deeply into the white marble street, and crossed the vast