Free Killing Pythagoras (Mediterranean Prize Winner 2015) by Marcos Chicot Page A

interfere with his priority of protecting Ariadne and trying to ensure her happiness.
    “So be it.” There was a sadness in his words because he had the feeling that Ariadne wouldn’t resume her studies, but at the same time he was glad for her. “What would you think about starting work as a teacher to the school children?”
    Ariadne agreed and began work the next day. She also started going outside the community, running small errands in Croton at first, and finally in other cities, as Pythagoras’ emissary.
    In the years that followed, she traveled all over Magna Graecia. Nonetheless, the mission to contact Akenon had been the first to take her to Sybaris.
    Reawakening from her memories, she crossed her legs on the bed and adjusted her back more comfortably against the wall. Then she cast another glance at the wax tablet on which she had drawn the method of construction of the dodecahedron. She smiled and erased the drawing, meticulously smoothing the wax.
    There was an hour left before dinner. She laid the tablet on the bed, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, ready to put into practice the other faculty at which, along with geometry, she had become highly skilled thanks to her father.
    She let her mind go blank and concentrated on her own consciousness. Little by little, she began to perceive all of her mental space until she had total control over it. Then, line by line, she conjured a bright dodecahedron in that space. When it was complete she rotated it, simultaneously aware of each of its angles and edges. After some time, she shifted a small part of her attention and connected with her body, minimizing muscle tension, breathing, heartbeat… Reducing her bodily functions enabled her to intensity consciousness in her mental space. She concentrated on one point until she felt that it contained her whole being , floating in the space her mind had created. She moved slowly around that space, drawing closer to the great dodecahedron which had maintained its slow, silent rotation. Finally, she entered it.
    Surrounded by the dodecahedron, at the very center of its perfect proportions, she was completely insulated from the outside world.
    Ariadne gathered all her mental energy to continue going deeper. Making a supreme effort, she began to enter a realm very few grand masters had ever entered before.

 
     
    CHAPTER 13
    April 18 th , 510 B.C.
     
     
    If Akenon had had any inkling of what he would be facing, he would have boarded the first ship back to Carthage. However, after he awoke he sat up and lingered in bed for a while, enjoying a pleasant feeling of tranquility. His immediate plans went no further than taking a walk with Pythagoras. He intended to avoid the subject of his participation in the murder investigation…or refuse it outright, if necessary.
    He got up and checked the lock on the wooden chest again. It seemed very strong, which was reassuring. Leaving his room, he crossed a wide internal courtyard lined with rooms similar to his own. In the compound there were four buildings designed to function as dwellings, all of which were single-story with rooms arranged around a large courtyard.
    Pythagoras was already waiting for him when he went outside. They greeted each other and walked toward the portico that led out of the community, striking up a casual conversation. Once outside, they turned right, toward the nearby woods.
    Akenon asked Pythagoras about his family, hoping the master would tell him about Ariadne.
    “I have three children, and Ariadne is the eldest,” Pythagoras replied, unable to conceal a hint of pride. “She’s the most gifted of the three in mathematics, but she’s also the least interested in the rest of the doctrine. Maybe it has something to do with her independent spirit. I suppose, just as it’s not easy to be a father and a teacher at the same time, it can’t be easy being a daughter and a disciple.”
    Pythagoras fell silent and stroked his beard distractedly.