"Roberta Gellis - Bull God" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gellis Roberta)

had turned away from him, stopped Calling. He had missed talking to her for she was very wise and
could often make sense of the Visions that tormented him. Once he had gone to the shrine without being
Called, to ask the priestess why she was angry with him, but there had been a strange woman there who
said she was queen and priestess and shrieked and threatened him. He should have torn her apart, but he
hadn't been in the throes of frenzy, only startled, and he had "leapt" home to Olympus.

Later he had realized that his priestess no longer presided in the shrine. He had thought of returning, of
demanding that his own priestess be brought back, but then he had become embroiled with Pentheus
who was persecuting his followers and by the time he had seen to Pentheus' punishment, it had occurred
to him that natives had far, far shorter lives than Olympians, that his priestess had not been young when
she first Called him; she must be dead. His throat tightened. He still missed her.

He turned away from the cup, eyes staring blindly, sorry he had answered the Call. Mingling with
natives . . . He had been warned against that, warned that they were always troubleтАФand it had been
true. Dionysus turned his head fretfully, and his full lips thinned. But he had said he would come. He
hesitated, knowing that the other Olympians did not regard a promise to the native folk very seriously.
Perhaps, he thought, buthe did not lie, not even to natives. And then a slow smile curved his lips, which
parted to say the words that initiated the spell to translocate him to his shrine at Knossos. The woman's
face had been very beautiful, very different from the beauty of the Olympians. They were all bright gold,
she a dark mystery with her shining black hair and the bottomless black pools that were her eyes. If she
were the new priestess . . .
***

For some time after the face disappeared from the scrying bowl, Ariadne remained on her knees staring
into the blank surface of the wine. Had she really seen that strange face, so different from any she had
ever seen before? On the still surface of the wine she painted the face again. His skin was pale, almost as
white as polished limestone, and his hair a mass of golden curls tumbling down to touch darker golden
brows. Below those his eyes, too large, too brilliant, glinted a blue paler than the ocean. Between those
startling eyes a fine, straight nose, and below it the generous mouth with beautifully shaped lips that had
parted a little with surprise when the eyes focused on her and then smiled sweetly. When she had seen
that smile, she had Called with all her heart, "Come, godly Dionysus, come to me." And she had heard
him reply. Surely she hadn't imagined thatтАФbut then the face was gone.

A hand touched Ariadne's shoulder and she blinked, realizing she had been staring into the scrying bowl
for a long time. Slowly she rose to her feet, lifted the bowl and handed it to one of the priestesses, who
poured from it into a cup, which she offered Ariadne. Automatically, still wondering if she had seen or
imagined that face in the bowl, and how she could have imagined something she had never seen before,
Ariadne sipped the wine. When she had drunk a little from the cup, she held it out and the priest who still
held the rhyton took it from her. The other took the scrying bowl from the priestess and both walked
back to the door behind the altar.

The worshipers began to sing again and the priestesses advanced on Ariadne. At first, she didn't
understand their purpose, all she saw was their serene and indifferent expressions and her chest suddenly
felt hollow. They hadn't seen anything in the scrying bowl and they hadn't heard the voice answering her.
Her head drooped and tears stung her eyes. For a moment she had thought she had touched the god,
that he would answer her Call. And then she felt the hands on the laces of her bodice, on the tie of her
belt. They were going to undress her, lay her naked on the altar to wait for a god who would never
come!

Ariadne's eyes flashed over the heads of the priestesses to the witnesses below: her mother, half smiling