Chloe frowned as she saw slaves coming forward, each carrying an item in his or her hands. She realized what the items were as they placed instruments onto a mat on the ground nearby. She saw lyres and trumpets, tambourines and citharas, with an astonishing variety of each. Some were big and some small; there were instruments displaying fine workmanship while others were ancient relics.

‘The gods have revealed a way to test your skills and your training. You listed music as one of your talents. Take your instrument and play. If the sun god is angered here, in this place, we will know.’

Chloe knew she wasn’t being given a choice. She scanned the assortment until she found a copper flute, a little larger than she was used to, but not dissimilar to her own.

‘Play,’ Solon instructed as she crouched to pick it up.

Chloe straightened, swallowed, and put the mouthpiece to her lips. She began to play.

The first notes were uncertain and Solon frowned, but then she found her rhythm. As she had done so many times before, she made herself forget about where she was, playing for herself alone. Closing her eyes, her chest rose and fell as she played a song of her own devising, moving up the scale to find the key she felt most accustomed to with the unfamiliar instrument.

Each note bled into another as she used a breathing technique she had learned at the temple to make continuous sound without interruption. Her cheeks ballooned as she used a last puff of air at the end of each breath to inhale the next, evacuating the air in her cheeks to eke out the music while she expanded her chest.

Finding her key, she moved into the ‘Ballad of Aeris’, a song about the goddess’s love for the heroic warrior Korax. When Korax died defending the Temple of Aeris in Sarsica from the ravaging of northern barbarians, Aeris tried to bring him back to life but his wounds were too dire even for the goddess. Her heartbreak was evident in the low bass while the trickling away of his blood formed a sad lilting melody of high notes.

Chloe opened her eyes as she approached the end of the ballad. She saw that Solon was watching intently, his expression thoughtful but giving nothing away. The dark clouds overhead had continued to gather, casting the pyramid in shadow.

Without halting, she continued on to the ‘Tragedy of Aleuthea’, a complex song describing the sinking of the great king Palemon’s civilization beneath the waves. It was at the limit of her skill to execute the dancing trills and low throaty rumbles. Without the words, she had to tell the story entirely with the flute, hearing the stanzas in her mind but conducting them with her instrument.