Oracle by Jackie French Page B

angrily from one pen. The other sections held animals Nikko had never seen before, bigger than mountain lions, with horns even longer and sharper than a buck’s.
    ‘They’re cattle,’ said Orkestres, seeing Nikko’s stare. ‘Cows and bulls. The cows give milk—more than goats—and the bulls pull the plough.’
    Nikko frowned. ‘Women push the plough,’ he said.
    Orkestres laughed. ‘Only in poor mountain villages. Women down here look after their households. They don’t sweat outdoors.’ He shrugged. ‘Except for slaves, of course.’ Orkestres wore his smile again now, and had put on a cloak with a gold border. Gold shone again at his wrists and ears.
    He slid off his pony then helped Thetis down. He nodded to Nikko to get off his pony too. The guards had already dismounted, heading over to the pens to inspect the livestock, and talk with friends. ‘Lord Pittaneous has kindly let us use his hall.’
    ‘Lord?’ Nikko had never heard the word.
    Orkestres gave him his real smile, not his public one. ‘A lord is like your headman, but he rules a bigger village. The High King rules the world, except the bits we don’t mention, and then there are minor kings, who rule their own lands, but send tributes to the High King, as well as warriors when he goes to war. Then there are lords, then chiefs, and then ordinary people. Oh, and slaves…’
    ‘Are we slaves?’ Nikko held his breath.
    ‘Perhaps,’ said Orkestres lightly, as two men in leather tunics came out to take the ponies and lead them to astall. ‘I hope not. It would not look good for me, back in Mycenae, to have traded the High King’s harvest for two slaves. But boy…what is your name? Nikko?’ The acrobat looked at Nikko steadily. ‘Nikko, I will not lie to you. Not to the boy who sang up on the mountain.’
    ‘Do you lie to other people?’ Nikko flushed. He had spoken without thinking. Is this what Thetis does? he thought. But no. She thought before she spoke—that was the problem.
    Orkestres looked amused, not angry, as his father would have been. ‘Yes, Nikko. My whole life is based on illusion. I have skill, but part of that talent is making what I do look impossible for anyone but me.’ He grinned. ‘I lie to my wife, when I tell her she looks as slender as she did when she was fifteen. I lie to the High King. We all do, everyone in the palace, pretending he is the most heroic, the greatest ruler on the earth, mightier even than the Pharoah of Egypt, who could swallow our kingdom for breakfast and never notice. Perhaps,’ he added thoughtfully, ‘many at court actually believe it. But make-believe is my job. You need to know the truth to create good make-believe.’
    ‘Sir…you were talking about what was going to happen to us.’
    ‘I was, wasn’t I? There is something about you two that makes me talk as I never have before. And act, for I have never bartered away the King’s tribute for two mountain children either. Very well—here is the truth. I think you and your sister have the talent to be great acrobats. But your fate depends on the will of the High King when we reach Mycenae. This is a gamble, for you and for me too.’
    Nikko caught his breath. It was better than he had hoped. At least they weren’t to be sacrificed. At least they had a chance. Or did they? Could he ever learn to twist his body like Orkestres?
    He glanced over at Thetis. She stared around the village, giving no sign that she’d heard Orkestres’s words. But Thetis noticed everything.
    Orkestres followed Nikko’s gaze. ‘They said in your village that your sister couldn’t speak, but that now she can. Is that true?’ He reached over and ruffled Thetis’s hair. She looked up, and smiled faintly at him. ‘She hasn’t spoken a word all day.’
    Nikko tried to find an answer that was truthful, but wouldn’t make Thetis seem touched by the Night Ones, as so many in the village had suspected. ‘She couldn’t speak until this summer, and then