With my wand at the ready, I stepped out of the house and looked around. To my great relief, no one noticed that I left the room. Fortunately, they were still busy getting drunk on father’s retsina. The air was balmy and there was an ever so gentle breeze playing with the olive trees. I could smell the sea and I wanted to take a ride on the shore, but father forbade me to ride at night and he was right. Zotikos could trip and I wouldn’t want them to put my favourite horse to sleep.
I made my way to the stables, hoping that all the men would be celebrating in the house and I wouldn’t find anyone with the horses. I knew that Alkaios would be there, but he was usually sleeping at this time of the day and he wouldn’t rat me out to father. I still didn’t know how father managed to keep this very talented, renowned breeder here. They knew his name all over the Dodecanese and I daresay even in Pella and Athens. I knew why Alkaios detested father, but I could only guess why father was able to keep him here. He had to know something about Alkaios’ past or some other secret this kind man was too ashamed of to tell me, even though I considered him my friend.
I entered the stables and passed the donkeys and horses. Father kept them close to the main entrance. He said that if any thieves wanted to steal his Pegasi they would face difficulties doing so, because the donkeys were trained to make a rumpus when they sensed strangers. I went straight to Photios’ stall, not even looking at Zosimos or Agape, though both of them wanted to greet me. I knew they would make me pay for my impoliteness, but they didn’t need me, not the way Photios did.
I almost cried as I stepped into his stall. He was skin and bone and he looked very ugly. He had been the best of the best once, my father’s favourite, until the day mother wanted to ride him. She knew that Photios didn’t like her, but he was the most beautiful and the most intelligent Pegasus I had ever seen and mother always wanted the best. It was one of her flaws that I was aware of, and one that father almost found amusing. He was an egoist himself, so I wasn’t surprised.
We gathered that Photios had brought mother out to the sea, the neighbours had seen them flying along the shore. Maybe she could have saved herself had she had her wand. She was never good at spells and charms and had a tendency to leave her wand lying around. That was another thing that made my father laugh, while I only wondered what kind of witch would forget her wand. We found the wand in Photios’ stall two days later, but never found her body. We assumed that she found her end under the white foam on the breaking waves around our island.
I approached Photios with great care for he knew me, but day by day he became more and more rogue. His stall was bare, robbed of all of the comfort the other Pegasi, like Zosimos and Agape, enjoyed. Photios snorted as I stepped closer to him, and his bloodshot eyes were full of reproach. I still didn’t manage to lift the charms father put on his stall. I wanted to set him free or at least bring him some food, but every time I tried that my father’s charm sent me backwards, as if an invisible force pushed me away.
“I can’t bring you anything to eat, my little sunbeam.” I used my old term of endearment, trying to remind him that we were once friends. He nudged me with his wet nose, and I wanted to recoil, but I knew that I would hurt his feelings if I did. Instead I caressed him and I felt every bone while I was stroking his neck.
“Your father is coming,” I heard the familiar voice of Alkaios say some ten minutes later. I patted Photios’ back one last time before I slipped out of the stables through the secret door and hurried back to the house. I went back to my room and couldn’t stop my tears from falling. I was still sobbing when I heard footsteps nearing my room. I pulled the blanket over my head and pretended to be asleep when my father entered.
“I know that you are awake, Thais!” he cried. “Now, tell me at once! Where is he?”
“Where is who?” I asked back, not knowing what he was speaking about.
“You know very well whom I’m speaking about,” he said, looking at me with a menacing glare. The tip of his wand was lit, and his handsome face appeared almost cruel in the magical light. Maybe it showed his real face, I think that was nearer to the truth.
I shook my head and climbed out of bed. I knew that this could last a while.
“I’m speaking of that horse of yours,” he spat out the words with great detestation.
“Zotikos?” I asked, taken aback. I hadn’t been aware that my father didn’t like my horse. “He was in his stall the last time I saw him.”
“Not Zotikos, the other one,” he said impatiently.
“Photios?” I asked with trepidation. My night-time visits were apparently no longer a secret or else he wouldn’t have come here. “He is missing?”
“Yes, he is gone!” Father raised his voice. It was never a good sign when he did that. “And I know that you were with him! Alkaios told me that you visit that pitiful creature every night.”
Alkaios had betrayed me? It was very unlikely, but I guess father must have blackmailed him, or worse, made him drink mother’s truth potion. My suspicions were confirmed when father produced a little vial from his pocket and I knew that resistance was futile. He made me take one drop and while I was waiting for father’s interrogative questions I wondered where Photios was. It was a mystery, for my departure and father’s arrival at his stall had happened within mere seconds.
I literally felt the potion working its way into my veins as I was escorted back to the stables. The house and the stables were lit by many torches; my father must have conducted a thorough search for Photios. I didn’t know why he took me there, but I guess he wanted to question me at the spot of the supposed crime, hoping that I would break sooner. The potion took care of that. Once there, I babbled about Photios and my visits to him. Father finally asked me where Photios was, but I didn’t know the answer to that question. Alkaios was standing by Agape's stall, looking relieved and ashamed at the same time. I wanted to say something to him. I wanted to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, but there was a gush of wind and a sudden force took father by surprise.
Suddenly, I caught sight of Photios. I noticed first how his blue eyes had become white and his wings had lost the last of their feathers. He was galloping through the stables, towards the main entrance.
He had been there the entire time, he had just somehow become invisible. The thought ran through my mind within the space of mere seconds, before I realized that if he had been able to break through the magical barrier my father had set, then my father must have… died.
Alkaios ran after Photios, leaving me alone with my father’s lifeless body. I looked up and saw someone towering above us. His body shimmered and his head looked as if instead of hair he wore a cap woven with sunbeams. I understood that my father had been punished for his cruel deeds, but nonetheless it caused me pain to see him lying there, deprived of life.
“Your father was a very cruel man, just Thais,” he addressed me. “For his deeds he was punished several times. Apparently, he didn’t take those lessons to heart, not even the deaths of your mother or brother. He knew that I disapproved of what he did to one of my beloved Pegasi but he continued torturing him, and you, my child,” Apollo added with a sad smile. “Photios is my creation and he must stay in this form to remind everyone what cruelty can cause. You, you’ll be free at last.”
With that the deity faded away and Alkaios arrived, panting. He was accompanied by the two stable boys who both looked rather disturbed.
“They couldn’t see him,” Alkaios imparted, as if that would explain everything.
Back then, I didn’t understand why, but now I do. It’s only those who have seen death that can spot him and his foals.
I’m telling this tale because Photios came back to me today, and he brought his family with him. His mate is a wild Pegasus who has lost one of her wings and their foals all look like Photios did the last time I saw him. They have white eyes and their skeletal bodies are as black as the night, a memory of the fateful night when Photios became the monster he is now.