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.Hades spoke to a young priest who followed behind him like a shadow,and the shadow carried the message to another black-robed shadow, whobrought it back to the galleon at the dock where another priest in a blackrobe, his face invisible beneath his spread hood, cried out: Bring forth thesacrifices."With the beating of drums they were led out, their hands tied with rope,stumbling down the gangway, blinking in the fierce sunlight, marchingtoward the Land of the Dead behind the soldiers who were carrying Sam.Hephaestus moaned as he watched.Then in the distance he saw Aphrodite, standing on a rock, her gossamerrobes blowing around her like the wind itself.The slaves passed beforeher, not daring to look up at the vision of beauty. But she was not watching them, nor the mob that followed.Her eyeswere fixed on Hephaestus, half-kneeling on the sand, his brown skin turnedashen, a rivulet of blood trickling down the side of his face.Her lips curvedinto a small smile.chapter 14.SAM sat ALONE AGAIN IN THE DARKNESS.SOMEWHERE BEYOND, HE COULDhear the low murmur of voices.He was in a small cubicle in the depths of the death pyramid.He hadbeen dragged into this black room past hundreds of men crowded togetherin a vast, stinking outer chamber which he reasoned must be the holdingarea for slaves.They had all looked so different, he remembered.Some were very tall,while others appeared to be almost miniature human beings.Some wereextraordinarily hairy, their arms long, their foreheads sloped back.Mostwere dressed in skins, although a few wore fabric tunics or garments wovenof reeds.They spoke a babel of tongues.But Sam knew they had one thing in common with each other, and withhim.They were all going to die.The Great Sacrifice had begun.With each scream, as a slave's heart wascut out by a sacrificial bronze knife, the voices inside the pyramid stilledas these men, so different from one another, joined in mourning the fatethey would all share.Sam leaned his head back against the cold stone.A few weeks ago, hemight have convinced himself that this, too, was part of the nightmare hewas experiencing.But he knew now that there was no hope of waking upto find himself safe in a hospital bed.He had come to Atlantis through someundersea window in time, and he would never be permitted to go back.Athena, he thought, remembering her somber gray eyes.Athena hadwarned him that his life would end here.We cannot change the course of things to come.Maybe he had known, somewhere deep in his mind, that he could notchange that course.But he had never thought he would die so far from her.Did he regret it, then? Was he sorry he had allowed Reba, offering tobring him back to his own world, to slip away when he'd had the chance?Sam turned his face to touch the damp wall.No, no regrets.For themoment of love they had shared together, he had relinquished his existencein two lifetimes.But they had shared that moment.Athena," he whispered, and the name brought him comfort./Vthena stood proudly in the barge slowly making its way across the narrowcanal to the Land of the Dead.The sun reflected off her silver headband inbrilliant light.Why is she coming?" Ares asked nervously.He had stood beside thehigh priest during the sacrifices as a symbol of the royal house.SinceHades'sdramatic welcome of the returning slave ships, the public knew that timeshad changed.Zeus was a pariah to his own people; Ares would soon replacehim as king.Hades smiled.She's about to launch a protest, I imagine.The foreigneris her lover, you know."Ares looked up sharply.She'll want me to release him." He laughed softly.I don't see what's so funny," Ares said uncomfortably.The king probablysent her."The king? What power does he wield? The kingdom he stole from meis in ruins.The people hate him.The army belongs to you." He watched the small boat reach the shore, its lone passenger standinglike a goddess.Look at her," Hades said with scorn.So arrogant, so sureof herself." He descended the steps to await her arrival.Come with me,Ares," he said.I think we should prepare a special welcome for the princess."Athena walked up the long flight of stone steps which branched halfwayup the structure's side.One way led straight to the apex where the sacrificeswere being made; the other wound downward into the pyramid itself,through a small door into a labrynth of corridors lit by smoky torches.Hephaestus had designed this well, she noted.Without a single visible markon the exterior, the building was actually honeycombed with entrances andstairways, leading in all directions.Deep in the interior, in a spacious chamber that was dry despite the lackof windows and the enormous stone wall blocks, she found Hades waitingfor her.His hands, she saw, were brown with dried blood.The odor ofdeath was strong on him.I have come to ask that you release Sam Nowar," she said withoutpreamble.Hades did not answer for a moment, instead staring at her, his blue eyespale in the torchlight.It is not within your province to detain him," she reminded him.He made a small gesture conveying his indifference.In these times, thelaw is of small moment."It is nevertheless the law."According to whom?" he bellowed with a sudden anger that made Athena's heartthump.Your father, who no longer has even the respect of hispeople? Let me tell you, Athena, they do not object to your lover's fate."The people have become a mob," Athena said.A mob which followsthe loudest voice.Today that voice is yours.But what happens when theearthquakes begin again? They will turn against you, just as they are turningagainst Zeus "It is not my voice, but your father's own incompetence that has turnedthe people against him," Hades said coldly
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