‘I have,’ Aristides said, ‘when I was young. A few times since. There is a drink, yes, though some refuse it. I do not trust my memories from that first time, though they were … vivid. But, Regent Pausanias, I would …’

‘And they teach you a phrase, do they not? I have seen men bend close to the ears of priestesses. They are then let through, into the temple beyond.’

‘That is … true,’ Aristides said. He was afraid the regent might try to demand those words from him, in exchange for what he needed. Was it all just a game to him, while men fought and died? While statues of Athena were being smashed by hammers?

Pausanias saw his concern and chuckled, waving a hand.

‘Oh, don’t worry, Aristides. I will earn the words myself, or not at all. I would not make you tell me. What value would they have then?’

He ran his hand over the wooden door, twice as tall as he was. Aristides felt a flush come to his face at the assumption that he could have been made to give up the secrets of Demeter. With the survival of Athens as the stake, he was not certain he would have refused.

‘I have seen enough of this place,’ Pausanias said. ‘Unless you would like me to rouse up the priestesses, Tisamenus? If you have questions for them, I’m sure they would be willing to answer.’

‘I have been here before,’ Tisamenus said. Aristides saw he did not bow, but answered as one of high status. ‘I completed the dawn chant and gained the greater mysteries. I am forbidden to speak of them, on peril of my immortal soul. It was … glorious.’

Pausanias did not seem pleased at the news that his soothsayer had also entered the temple. The doors were still closed to him, and Aristides watched the regent rap the heel of his hand against the wood, almost in rebuke as he turned away.

The man’s guards stood to one side as Pausanias began to walk back along the main street, the sea on his left shoulder. Aristides considered himself a patient man, but he had waited an age for Pausanias to arrive and now the regent seemed blithely unconcerned by his reasons for being there.

‘Regent, have you considered your support?’ he asked.

Pausanias did not reply, merely walking on, his head nodding as if in deep thought. Why did some men make everything a contest of wills? Aristides hated coming to another as a beggar. Having power over him clearly pleased the Spartan.