"Oh, if what you want is a wife," she said with an angry laugh,"there are women enough and to spare in Troy."
"You know that for me there is no woman save you alone—" Khryse said.
"Then I fear you will live and die unwed," Kassandra said firmly, "even if yonder gold were your own and you could dower me with it." She slid to her feet, looking at the heap of gold which equalled her weight. She had never cared for jewellery, and she could only marvel that this cold stuff excited so much greed in so many people. Somehow, even knowing Akhilles as she did, she had not thought he could be swayed with gold alone; she had thought he might attempt some additional humiliation on the royal house of Troy.
Above them, lighting the top of the stones, the sun was rising; Kassandra stepped to the top of the wall and extended her arms silently in the morning salutation to the Sunlord.
"Sing the morning hymn, Kassandra," Khryse urged. "Your voice is sweet but we so seldom hear it lent to us now, even for Apollo's sake."
Stubbornly she shook her head; if she sang, he would accuse her again of trying to entice him. "I prefer to sing but in the presence of the God alone," she murmured and was silent.
Priam, coming with his servants and another basketful of gold - even though the precious stuff barely covered the bottom of the basket it was so heavy that it had to be carried between two men - said, "Well, priest, are the scales ready?"
"They await your pleasure, my lord."
"My pleasure? You fool, do you think I take any pleasure in this business?" Priam demanded crustily. He was still wearing the white robe of a suppliant, streaked with mud from the earthworks; his bare feet were caked with mud.
Polyxena whispered to him, but Priam said aloud, "Are you saying that for that villain Akhilles I should bathe and comb my hair and put on fair garments, as if this were a wedding and not a funeral? And I care not if this is the chief among the Sunlord's priests, he is no less a fool for all that!"
Kassandra covered her mouth with her fingertips; it would be unseemly to smile at this moment. Surely there was little to smile about, except the discomfiture on Khryse's face; it seemed to her that her father spoke with the peevish sound of senility.
Priam motioned to the servants to put the basket down by the rest of the gold. "Now we await Akhilles's will. It would be like him to make such a degrading bargain as this and make us wait all day - or not to come at all."
He made the bargain before witnesses," Polyxena reminded her father."They will make him come. They are eager to get on with this war, now they don't have Hector to face."
There was silence while the King's household slowly gathered below the wall; Hecuba and Andromache stood on either side of the King.
Kassandra was not sure exactly what it was that she expected; perhaps Akhilles's chariot galloping at his usual breakneck speed toward the walls. She looked into the rising sun till her eyes ached.
Khryse stood at her side and put his arm under hers as if to lend her support; she was exasperated but did not want to draw attention to herself by moving away. The priest said, "They are astir in the Argive camp; what are they waiting for?"
"Perhaps to humble my father further by seeing him faint with exhaustion from the heat," she murmured. "I swear to you, Khryse, compared to Akhilles, Agamemnon is noble and kindly."
"I know little of him," Khryse said, "but enough to know I would not willingly see the fate of Troy in his hands; and Priam's health and strength are now all the hope we have for Troy."
Little hope that is, she thought, but remained silent. She had no wish to discuss her fears for her father with anyone, and certainly not with a man she distrusted.
"Look," Polyxena said, and pointed, barely raising her arm. Far out on the plain, figures were moving; as they came nearer, Kassandra made out Akhilles, his pale hair shining in a blinding streak of sunlight. He was walking at the head of a small procession; behind him, eight of his soldiers carried a body on a pallet - it could only be that of Hector - and behind them came a half dozen Akhaian chieftains, in full armor, but bearing no weapons.
At least for once Akhilles has kept his word. She let out her breath, only now realizing that until she saw Hector's body she had not for a moment expected him to do so.
They were nearer now; she could make out individual faces and even see the details of the embroideries on the pall that covered Hector's body. Akhilles bowed before Priam and said, "As I promised, my Lord of Troy, behold the body of your son."
"The ransom awaits you, Prince Akhilles," Priam said, and went to the pall, folding back the heavy covering to expose the face. "First let me make certain that it is truly the body of my son—"
Hecuba came to stand beside him as he rolled back the pall, with Penthesilea ready beside her should she need support. Kassandra was braced to hear her mother break into wailing or shrieking, but she simply nodded gravely and bent to kiss the cold white forehead. Priam said, "The scales have been set up by a priest of Apollo Sunlord who is skilled in such things. If you would like to check the weights for yourself—"
"No, no," said Akhilles with a bizarre geniality, "I know very little of such things, my lord."
Khryse said, conducting Akhilles to the edge of the scales. "You worked against your own best interest, Prince Akhilles, when you allowed Hector's body to become so mangled; in perfect condition it would have brought you more gold." The jest seemed gross and inappropriate. Kassandra wondered, looking at Khryse's shaking hands and the over-brilliant pupils of his eyes, if he had been drinking unmixed wine, or a brew of wine and poppy-seeds so early in the day that he had forgotten in whose presence he was.
Priam turned pale and said stiffly, "Let's get on with this." He gestured, and the body of Hector was hoisted up to lie on the platform. Priam's slaves began to scoop out the gold on to the other platform, a few pieces at a time. Akhilles watched, barely smiling, as the platform bearing the body trembled and began to rise from the ground. Kassandra wondered if the other watchers found the scene as grotesque as she did.
The scale quivered and briefly, shook hard so that the bound corpse slid to one side, but it did not fall off. On the heights above Troy the wind was rising, but here below the walls the air was agonizingly still—still enough to smother breath. It occurred to Kassandra that nowhere in the city did she hear the sound of a single bird's song. Was this a part of the warning such as she had been given before? Was Poseidon about to strike? Let him strike then and end this obscenity, this travesty of decency and honor. She fixed her gaze firmly on one of the pulley ropes and would not look away. The rope trembled as she watched, and a few gold ornaments fell off; oh, come, Poseidon, is that the best you can do for Hector?
One of Priam's slaves scooped up the ornaments and replaced them. He added a heavy gold breastplate, and the platform containing the gold sagged down, now obviously outweighing the body.
Too heavy," Priam said and removed it, replacing it with a multistranded gold necklace.
"A hair too light now," said Akhilles, his eyes dwelling covetously on the breastplate. Polyxena stepped forward, pulled her long gold-wire earrings from her earlobes and flung them on the platform. The scales trembled, then stopped still, evenly balanced.
"There," she said, "it is enough. Take your gold, and go."
Akhilles looked from the gold to Polyxena, his eyes brightening as he looked.
"For the gold, a golden girl would suffice," he said. "King Priam, I will forgive you half the ransom for this woman, even if she is one of your slaves or concubines."
"I am Priam's daughter," Polyxena said, "and I serve the Maiden, who is no friend to lust even in a king or a king's son. Be content with your gold and your pledged word, Prince Akhilles, and leave us with our dead."