But the moment had to take place without the Oracle.
One by one the priestesses filed out and took their places on the stairs, their positions echoing the triangle of the pediment, with Bridget in the place of the star at the summit. Ethne should have been at the centre — but the centre was empty.
The crowd did not at first notice her absence, no doubt thinking that she would appear at some more dramatic moment in the proceedings, but Megan, pushing in late from the riverside, wondered. Demosthenes did not, for he alone knew where she was.
Late the previous night a little boat had drawn up at the steps of Aulus farm, and a weary, frightened young woman had hammered at the door of the house. Lucius had found her first and when the Greek reached the place she was already folded in his arm
