She considered it a moment. “Perhaps if I act as if I’m the only performer, rather than accompaniment, they will let down their guard long enough for you to jump in and take over without interference.”
“It’s as good a thought as any I’ve had. What do you plan on doing?”
“I haven’t the slightest. I’m hoping my muse will strike me with sudden inspiration.” She gave Penelope a wry smile then realized her expression was obscured by the veil. “But I’m sure I’ll think of something.” She added as assurance.
She wasn’t completely sure about it herself, but she was as confident as she could be given the circumstances. She’d lost count of how many times she’d played for her sisters, and more than once been party to some clever ploy to sway eyes in their direction. If she couldn’t come up with anything between the corridor and the feast hall on her own, then she’d just fall back on some trick her sister Xanthippe, or even Helena, had used to use to pull the attention of the room.
They agreed to enter separately, and for Calliope to make a move as soon as she saw an opening. The signal to start in earnest would be the tossing of a bracelet Penelope had lent her into the center. It would be an unmistakable, and hopefully distracting, gesture and would allow the dancer to get into position as she slipped in to retrieve it.
Calliope waited a moment in the hall, allowing Penelope to lose herself in the crowd. She was going over the song she intended to play but was distracted by harsh voices at the end of the corridor. They were coming from the other end of the hallway… that is, away from the entrance of the feast hall.
Curious, she moved slowly closer to the voices. As she neared she could make out three distinct voices. They sounded insistent and upset. She considered letting it alone but amidst the half intelligible garble she heard a few recognizable words, and one of them was “Thelios.” It wasn’t something she could ignore.
She moved that much closer, dangerously so, straining to hear what was being said.
“–scaped by ship? Ship!? He could be anywhere. Once he gets to water he’ll have such an advantage… even you could not work magic to counter his.” The words were spoken in an anxious rush.
“Anywhere but at sea I could… it’s most vexing. Curse him and his dam both. Bloody Nereid.” A female voice this time.
“But I thought you said they’d cornered him in Priene? I thought this was taken care of?” It was the first, anxious voice again.
Priene she recognized… it was a city very near hers, and one which had participated in the sacrifice she herself had been part of. Who was it they’d found there? What did Thelios have to do with it… and who were these people to be speaking his name like that… what if someone overheard who shouldn’t? After all if she heard it, who else might?
Most vexing indeed.
“Cornered is not caught. They tracked him there, but he’s apparently eluded them. If we do not get to him first…” the speaker, the woman again, trailed off, but the threat was clear in her voice. The outcome would not be good, whatever it was.
“There is one who could find him. In truth I wouldn’t mind finding a reason to get rid of him. I’m sick of him breathing down our necks.”
“Absolutely not… that would be the worst thing we could do. Why do you think he’s here?” Muttered the woman again.
“I don’t see why.”
“And what was he doing that far north, do you think?” She hissed in reply
“Calm yourself sister. It may not be as it appears.”
“I fear it is exactly as it appears.” A third voice interrupted. It sounded strangely familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it as they had begun to speak in softer, more normalized tones.
“Both of you now? You’re paranoid. Besides, what would happen if the little brat said something before we could stop him. It’s his word against ours after all.”
“And who do you think he’ll be inclined to believe? Us? He has no love for us.” The woman again, and sounding as insistent as before.
“Pfft. He has no love for anyone… but we can at least take consolation that Phineas is not one of us, one of our kind, as much as he plays at it. Why would any of us listen to him?”
“Enough you two. She’s correct… that pig headed bastard will side against us if given the option… and for precisely the reason you believe he won’t. Neither of them is quite one of us. They are both outsiders, if for different reasons… but that gives them shared ground, and makes them both dangerous. Not to mention their mothers. There is only one thing to be done.”
“But not yet, surely… it’s too early to…”
the voices hushed, and she only caught snippets once more.
“.. and if he believed it was…”
“Never…”
“It’s just a matter of finding it.”
“I suppose if there is nothing else to be done…”
“… and see…”
Their voices dropped once more, and though she strained again to hear, she couldn’t make anything out. Instead she opted to back away, seeing as how nothing was gained by staying so close but being caught in the act of eavesdropping.
It was lucky she did as only a moment later a women appeared from around the corner and swept past her in the hall. Calliope recognized her instantly as the sister of Thelios with the burning red hair… the daughter of Hecate supposedly. At a glance, and through the obscuring veil, her hair did look suspiciously flame like.
The woman didn’t seem to notice the veiled slave, thankfully, but Calliope bowed low as she moved by her, as any god fearing slave might. Literally in this case perhaps. She didn’t seem to notice that either. So much the better.