[Polydeuces]"'Helen,' Polydeuces had said, sitting quietly next to my bed the afternoon after their sudden nighttime appearance. I stirred at the familiar voice and smiled at him through a feverish haze. I felt his hand atop the rough blanket that covered me. He affectionately rubbed my shoulder then felt the bulge of my belly, impossible to ignore. "'What have we here?' he growled. The familiar distress at my pregnancy rushed through me. It was only when I felt well that I could happily anticipate the coming birth. Tears came easily with my sickness so that it was difficult to keep my voice from trembling. 'It was the Goddess,' I said. 'She must have been happy that I rescued her sacred form and blessed me with child.' 'I see,' he said, taking my hand in both of his. 'I see,' he repeated. 'Tell me more.' 'She filled me with such a power, Polydecues. We mated, Theseus and I. It pleasured us so, we could not get enough of each other. Brother,' I added, 'my mating with King Theseus had nothing to do with becoming Queen or not becoming Queen. It was something between the two of us only.' 'And the Goddess?' he asked. 'Oh yes.the Goddess, I agreed'"
[Troy]"'My Queen, I have made several voyages to Troy this spring and summer, always following the practices laid out: Our cargo this last time was fifty stirrup jars of scented olive oil in exchange for fifty bronze ingots. We hurried the process for the weather was fine. If we had been stranded there with high winds, as is very often the case, we would have had to pay in pottery, olives, or holy stones each day we lingered. And if we decided to leave port and beach the boat in some protected place down the cost, outlaws would have attacked us, and not only robbed us of everything, they would have killed us had we resisted. I was surprised when the harbor master told me that I was wanted in the palace. I was taken by chariot to the great white citadel. The huge gates stood open and we entered into city streets alive with people going about their affairs. I was taken to the palace on a hill. It stood all beautiful and glistening white in the afternoon sun'"
