someone else to have an explanation, but no one did.
“Pallas, do you remember how Ajax and I hated each other, more than just the rage of the Furies could account for, but at the same time we wouldn’t allow ourselves be parted? Do you remember how we used to seek each other out, like we couldn’t bear to be separated for even a moment?” Daphne asked in a softer tone.
“You were his obsession,” Pallas said darkly, his eyes shooting briefly over to Lucas.
“And he was mine. Eventually, we fought, but at the last moment, instead of killing each other, there was a terrible accident. We ended up saving each other’s lives. When we did that, I paid my debt to the House of Thebes. And he paid his debt to the House of Atreus. After that, Ajax could be with my family without inciting the Furies, and I could be with his. How could I stand in front of you if this weren’t the truth?” Daphne motioned to Helen and Lucas. “You’ve seen it happen again, right in front of your eyes, and you all already know what the outcome is. Once the Furies were gone, Ajax and I fell in love.”
“Liar!” Pandora hissed.
“No,” Lucas said, shaking his head with a stricken, almost fearful look in his eyes. “She’s telling the truth.”
“I touched his body with my own hand,” Pandora screamed, tears tangling her pretty pixie face into a snarl. “He was dead!”
“I think we were both dead for a few seconds,” Daphne said compassionately. She was trying to get Pandora to listen to her, but in vain. Pandora shook her head at everything Daphne tried to tell her. “Ajax and I never really understood exactly what happened, but I swear to you, I didn’t kill him.”
Pandora whirled away from Daphne, turning her back and still shaking her head in denial. Ariadne went and stood next to her and took her hand, but Pandora would accept no comfort. She dropped Ariadne’s hand and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, like her insides hurt, her left hand cupping the cuff-locket on her right wrist.
“Oh, how typical! The House of Thebes thinks it knows everything because it’s the House of the Oracle,” Daphne said to Pandora’s back, almost pleading with her. “And the irony is that it’s because you think you know it all that the other Houses have been able to hide so much from you—our relics, like the cestus—even our very existence. You thought the House of Atreus was extinct, but here I am. Open your eyes! Whether you want to believe it or not, Pandora, Ajax and I saved each other’s lives that night, and then we fell deeply in love.”
“Then the two of you ran away together?” Castor asked, shocking everyone with his sympathetic tone.
“We had no choice. Even though I had paid my debt to the House of Thebes, and I could be near any of you without inciting the Furies, you all still wanted me dead,” Daphne replied with a shrug. “Ajax said that if we could explain what had happened to Tantalus, he would take our side. He really believed your brother would help us. We were so young, only seventeen.” A powerful emotion overwhelmed her and she suddenly clenched her fists and her jaw, as if she was refusing to cry.
“Finish your story,” Lucas said evenly.
“’Jax and I were living on a sailboat, hiding at sea. Tantalus rowed out to meet us because we were too frightened of an ambush to come ashore. As soon as Tantalus saw my face he went mad. They fought over me in the rowboat. I can’t swim—I swear, I couldn’t get to them. Ajax lost,” Daphne said. She stared directly into Lucas’s eyes. “Tantalus claimed that he killed me that day, but obviously that’s a lie. He has been chasing me ever since, maybe because he wants me for himself, or maybe because he intends to kill me and he doesn’t want anyone else coming after me for the sake of a Triumph. I’m not entirely sure what he wants anymore.”
“I don’t believe it, no matter what you say, Lucas,” Pallas said, shaking his head in denial. “Tantalus loved Ajax.”
“Yes, he did. He loved his brother, and then he killed him,” Daphne said, frustrated to the point of cruelty. “Now, as a kin-killer, he’s an Outcast, and he can’t have contact with anyone from the House of Thebes without the Furies revealing his sin to you.”