THREE

Gaia, Island of Rhodos,

Greater Alexandreian

OikoumenCg,

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Rhita Berenik~ Vaskayza grew wild on the shores near the ancient port of Lindos until she was seven years old. Her father and mother let the sun and sea have their way with her, teaching her only what she was curious to know--which was a great deal.

She was a brown, bare-limbed wild thing, wide-eyed and elusive among Page 33

the brown and white and faded gold battlements and columns and steps of the abandoned akropolis. From the bright expanse of the porch of the sanctuary of Athen Lindia, palms pressed against the crumbling walls, she stared down the cliffs into the azure unending sea, counting the steady, gentle march of waves against the rocks.

Sometimes she crept through the wooden door into the shed that housed the giant statue of Athen, rising thick-limbed and serene in the shadows, looking decidedly Asiatic, with her radiant brass crown (once gold) and her man-high stone shield. Few Lindians came up here; many thought it was haunted by the centuries-dead ghosts of Persian defenders, massacred when the Oikoumen regained control of the island. Sometimes there were tourists from Aigyptos or the mainland, but not often.

The Middle Sea was not a place for tourists any more.

The farmers and shepherds of Lindos saw her as Artemis and believed