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Clara's smooth skin showed through holes. "She and Prince Theseus are busy
keeping warm together."
"I understand. And do you have a plan for keeping yourself warm tonight?"
"Not really, sir." Her long eyelashes flickered. "But I am open to
suggestions."
In the other cave, there came an interval of sleepy rest, and relaxed
murmuring.
"I am glad, Prince Theseus," whispered the Princess Ariadne, "that your plans
for the future include me."
"Absolutely certainly they do." His voice sounded vague and tired, as well it
might, after all he had been through.
"Isn't it strange?" the young woman mused. "A year ago six months ago I had
no
idea that anything like this was going to happen."
"How could you have had?"
"Did you?"
"Did I expect to meet the woman who would become dearer to me than my own
life?
No."
The princess moved a little, snuggling herself more comfortably against her
lover. "Where were you a year ago? I suppose you were safe at home, in your
father's palace."
That brought a chuckle from Theseus. "My father doesn't have a palace."
"You said he was a king."
"Well, yes, but . . ." The prince seemed to be groping for words. "He has a
nice
big house. Even if he had a palace, neither he nor I would spend much time in
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it. We are both men with many affairs affairs of state, I mean to keep us
busy."
Ariadne raised herself on one elbow. "I want to know all about your family.
So
far you've told me practically nothing. What is your mother's name? What's
she
like?"
"She's been dead for many years."
"Ah. Like my own mother. I'm so sorry for you. How about your brothers,
sisters?
Tell me everything. I can't believe I don't even know the name of your
country,
or how far away it is."
"All that can wait. Right now isn't it enough that we are both alive? And
that
we have each other?"
Theseus and the princess who loved him lay together in the soft, clean sand
of
the cave floor, keeping warm through the night. Ariadne kept exchanging
whispers
with her lover in periods of sleepy talk, between the bouts of feverish
activity.
"If you don't want to talk about your family, then we can at least plan what
kind of wedding we are going to have. I mean when we have finally reached
your
mysterious homeland."
"All in good time. You know what I would much prefer to think about right
now."
"Tell me."
"This."
"Ahh."
And still later, the princess returned yet again to the subject of her
lover's
family and home. But the more Ariadne tried to press him for the relevant
details that she so craved to hear, the more he put her off.
When she pressed harder, Theseus curtly broke off the discussion. "I don't
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want
to talk about all that just now."
"Really? Then when?"
"When I feel we are truly safe, my princess. Then I'll be able to relax."
The best way to break off the discussion was to change the subject. Fervently
Theseus protested his love for Ariadne, doing all he could to insure that she
remained devoted to him. He never ceased to marvel at her beauty for a few
seconds at a time.
Privately he also marveled at the fact that she seemed really to have been a
virgin until this night. But then he supposed that was not really surprising
in
a princess.
Theseus slept fitfully, between bouts of passion and sleepy intervals of
talk.
Whenever his attention was not totally engaged with the body of the princess,
he
nursed his dreams and plans, which in general had little to do with her.
Meanwhile he never entirely gave up watching and listening for the patrol of
Minoan soldiers, who wouldn't be making much noise when they came, but would
be
carrying plenty of power of their own, in the form of weapons. It was
important
not to sleep too soundly.
Under a brilliant moon and piercing stars, Theseus stood confronting
Asterion,
deep inside the Maze. A night breeze whispered, and there was as always the
faint sound of running water.
But he wasn't even thinking about Asterion at first. Instead his thoughts
were
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