TODAY, WE ARE THRILLED TO WELCOME OUR GUEST AUTHOR, RHYS HUGHES, WHO IS SHARING AN EXTRACT FROM HIS NOVEL, 'THE DEVIL'S HALO' #RWRTeamBlog #ReadWriteRepeat
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Extract from 'The Devil’s Halo'
THE LABYRINTH
Yes, I am Daedalus, original designer of the Labyrinth of Knossos in which the Minotaur was housed. That was more than three thousand years ago. I am more famous now for inventing the wings that helped me to escape Crete after I fell afoul of King Minos. My son came with me and died when he flew too high. It is often said the sun melted the wax that held together the feathers of his wings but that isn’t true. We know that when we gain altitude the temperature drops. Poor Icarus flew so high that the wax froze and became brittle and the flapping of his arms shattered it. He was unlucky.
My own wings bore me safely to another island. Later, when Icarus’ body was washed ashore there, I buried it and named the island after him. Icaria. But I don’t like to dwell too much on those events. I prefer to talk about what took place later in my life. You know the tale of Prometheus? He gave the secret of fire to humanity and was punished by being chained to a mountain. Every day an eagle arrived to rip open his flesh and devour his liver. But his liver would regrow so the torture could be repeated.
Prometheus was immortal and unable to die. His torture was supposed to be eternal. But many generations later, the great hero Hercules happened to be wandering in the same mountain range and he encountered Prometheus and he used his phenomenal strength to break the chains. That is one of the greatest rescues in mythology! When the eagle turned up the next day, there wasn’t any victim for it to swoop on. It flapped angrily away and pouted for an awfully long time on a remote eyrie. That’s another name for the nest of an eagle and has nothing to do with the word ‘eerie’.
Yes, there’s no need to remind me that we are speaking Esperanto and the pun doesn’t work in that language. It wasn’t a pun anyway, but an observation, and now I observe that you are bewildered. What on earth does Hercules have to do with me, you are wondering? Well, let me instruct you. I decided to make greater use of my wings and tour the world. I happened to be passing right over the mountain range known as the Caucasus when I spied a figure down below that was chained to a rock. It was him!
Prometheus, none other. I reduced my altitude and saw that he was being attacked by an eagle. So then I knew that the account of Hercules rescuing him was false. Prometheus was still in chains, the eagle was ripping his flesh. But it didn’t devour his liver then and there. It grasped it in talons and flew off with it back to its nest, maybe intending to feed some chicks. An idea came to me. My best ideas are always spontaneous. I flapped in pursuit of the eagle and I soon caught it up. My wingspan was wider.
I carried a long pole in my arms that I used to push myself off the ground when I wanted to take off. I now employed this to strike the eagle. It dropped the liver in surprise and I swooped and caught it. Then I flapped away, found a cave and stored the liver inside. The following day I repeated the same action. I kept intercepting that eagle and taking the new liver back to the cave. Because the liver kept regrowing inside Prometheus, I realised it could be exploited as an endless resource. The eagle was destined to keep attacking Prometheus and extracting his liver, so there was no question of me running out of livers. Soon the cave was full of them, all the same liver but multiplied by hundreds. Then I calculated that I had a sufficient quantity.
It took many trips for me to carry the livers back to Crete. Finally the task was done and after resting for a few days I began to construct a new labyrinth from all the perfect copies of the metabolic organ. I mean that I used the livers to make walls. This labyrinth was even more complex in layout than the older one. Working alone was hard, I won’t deny that, but it was the only way to be certain the layout wasn’t known to anyone else. When it was finished I made my way to the capital city of Crete.
I landed on the roof of the palace and hurried down the stairs to the main throne room and I requested an audience with the king. He was one of the less brutal successors of Minos. I told him who I was and he received me with due respect. He knew all about the earlier labyrinth and the Minotaur and how the hero Theseus had killed the monster.
“I am here to make you an offer,” I told him.
My words baffled him.
“Make it from what?” he asked.
Now I was confused.
Then at last I understood. He had assumed an ‘offer’ was an object and it was clear he had never heard the word before. Not all the successors of Minos were as bright as that vicious ruler had been. That is why they aren’t renowned and why you probably don’t know their names. I explained the meaning of the term and he nodded appreciatively.
“How much time do you need to make it?”
“I can do so right now.”
He was impressed. “Then please do.”
I held myself straight, which wasn't so easy, for I was an old man by then. I told him that my original labyrinth had been a prison for both Minotaurs and any human who ventured into it. What was needed was a prison that Minotaurs were unable to escape from but which would present no problems for men and women. At least, not for men and women of that time, with a few exceptions. I will explain this in a few moments.
“Well, that sounds absolutely delightful,” he said, “for although we don’t have any Minotaurs at the moment, there’s no telling when we might acquire a few fresh ones. A place to keep them safe is much needed. But explain to me the theory behind your new prison.”
“It’s another labyrinth but with walls made from different materials. Stone walls trap monsters and people indiscriminately, but walls made of liver will be impassable to vegetarians like the Minotaur, whereas heroes like Theseus can simply eat their way to freedom in a straight line. No need to grope down dark passages. Just put your face to the wall and chew until you break through into the adjacent corridor, and then immediately start biting your way through the next wall. This is something that a Minotaur, who has the head of a bull, will never attempt, because that head is herbivorous. A labyrinth with liver walls can permanently imprison beings with bulls’ heads but it will allow men like Theseus to escape gastronomically.”
The king considered my words. He frowned and said, “But I have heard it said that some people, like Pythagoras, are vegetarians too. What about them? I shudder to think of that marvellous mathematician trapped inside it because he is averse in principle to a carnivorous diet. That seems unfair to the man who
knows so much about triangles.”
“Never fear,” I responded to this criticism.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” I said, and this sly and ultimately meaningless answer seemed to reassure him. Then I told him that my new labyrinth was already finished and was standing on a remote part of the remotest peninsula of the island.
“You can buy it from me for one thousand gold coins,” I said, and waited for him to try to haggle the price down. But he was rather foolish and declared it was worth two thousand instead!
I didn’t argue with that. I gave him the location of the labyrinth, took the money and I tried to fly away with it. But although I am an ingenious fellow I had forgotten that gold is one of the heaviest metals. I managed to get airborne but only flapped erratically for a few minutes before crashing into the side of a mountain. I expired in a splat and now I am here. I have been waiting for ages. I have no idea if any new Minotaur occupied the liver labyrinth. Nor do I know if anyone found the gold coins I spilled when I collided with that rockface. It’s all just a memory now, a fading set of images in my mind. You are wondering why the liver didn’t go rotten, yes?
It was the liver of Prometheus, remember, and he was immortal, so it was able to constantly refresh itself. That liver would never decay. It could be eaten but it would always reform the following day. Now I can see you are agitated. I think I know why, it’s the same reason that everyone I tell this story to pulls an ugly face. You think I was cruel and selfish because I made no attempt to free Prometheus from his chains? Let me correct your ideas on this subject. After I departed Crete for the second time, I intended to stash the gold and then return to the place where he was secured.
I was going to break those chains and do what Hercules should have done and there’s no way I would have allowed Prometheus to continue suffering. It is true that I benefited from his appalling situation but I am amoral rather than immoral and I always intended to give him his liberty. But I never had a chance thanks to my fatal crash. Ironic, no?
Maybe my liver labyrinth is still there. I suppose it might be covered now by drifting soil and leaves blown from the trees over the centuries. In another few generations, an archaeologist might discover it and history will have to be rewritten until it is more in accord with mythology. I died and here I am. Yet I am still an inventor. The Devil advised me to give up my hobby but I told him that it was impossible for me to abandon tinkering. It’s not a hobby, I said, but my entire reason for existence. And I do exist, don’t I? Even though I am dead I still exist. He conceded the point.
How could he not? I am nearly always right.
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AUTHOR BIO
Rhys Hughes was born in Wales but has lived in many different countries. He began writing at an early age and his first book, Worming the Harpy, was published in 1995. Since that time he has published more than fifty other books and his work has been translated into twelve languages. He recently completed an ambitious project that involved writing exactly 1000 linked short stories. He is currently working on a novel and several new collections of prose and verse.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhys_Hughes
My social media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhysaurus/
BlueSky: @rhysaurus.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhysaurus
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COMING SOON: On Monday, 2nd March, we are thrilled to have our team leader, author Lorraine Carey, who is sharing Chapter 4 of her novel, 'Toads By Midnight' which was co-written with author, Becky Robbins.
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