Helen too stood composed among the many hysterical women. Every lock of hair was in place and she looked as if she had this moment come from the hands of her bath attendant. She was holding a small boy of five or six by the hand; he was neatly dressed, his hair combed into place, and though his knuckles • were white as he clung to her fingers, his face was scrubbed clean and he was not crying.
She looked across the room with great composure and her eyes met Kassandra's. Then she crossed the room, threading her way quietly through the crowding, wailing women, and came toward Kassandra.
"I remember you," she said, "you are my husband's twin sister. It is good to see someone who is not turned foolish with terror. Why are you not weeping and screaming like everyone else?"
"I don't know," Kassandra said. "Perhaps I am not as easily frightened; and perhaps I prefer not to cry until I am hurt."
Helen smiled. "Ah, good. Most women are such fools. Is there danger, do you think?"
"Why do you ask me?" Kassandra countered. "Surely they have not neglected to tell you that I am mad." a 2.
"You do not have the look of a madwoman," Helen said. "In any case I prefer to make up my own mind."
Kassandra frowned a little and turned away. She did not want to like this woman or to find anything admirable in her. It was bad enough that when she looked at her she saw something of what Paris saw.
"Then you can make up your own mind as to whether there is danger," she said curtly. "I know only that I was awakened by the watchman's rattle, and I came down here to obey. I suppose, since I saw Akhaian ships in the harbor, that it has something to do with you; and so, though there may be something for us to fear, there is certainly nothing for you to be afraid of."
"You think not?" Helen said. "Agamemnon is certainly no friend of mine; his only thought would be to turn me over to Menelaus, and he would certainly stand by to see that I did not escape unscathed."
The unnaturally neat little boy clinging to Helen's hand flinched; Helen felt it, and looked gently down at him. Kassandra did not know why this surprised her; why had she thought that the Spartan woman could not also be a tender and concerned mother?
She asked, "How old is your son?"
"Five years old at midsummer," Helen said, and beckoned across the crowded room to a thin, aristocratic-looking woman dressed in the full skirt and low-cut bodice of a Cretan woman. "Aithra, will you take Nikos and put him down somewhere to sleep, my dear?" She kissed the child, who clung to her; but she said gently, "Go, now, and sleep like a good boy," and he went without protest, trotting along obediently at the tall woman's side.
"Is that Menelaus's son?" asked Kassandra.
"Perhaps you would say so," Helen said indifferently. "I say he is my son. In any case I do not choose to leave him with his father; I do not like the way he treats his children. It will not harm Hermione to be nothing but his precious gilded toy; but the only thought in Menelaus's mind is to make Nikos over in his own image—or worse yet, in the image of his wonderful brother. I sent Nikos away because someone unwisely said in his hearing that if his father came after us, he would kill us both; and Aithra also has cause to fear."
"Aithra looks more like a queen than a waiting-woman," said Kassandra.
"She is a queen," said Helen. "She is the mother of Theseus; and he sent her to me… she stays with me out of love. I think somehow they quarrelled; and Aithra prefers to remain with me; and she treats my son as her own grandchild, which she would not do for the son of the Horse Queen," Helen said. "Now that the child is safe, I would like to know what is going on."
Kassandra said, "There is no danger here, not now; I think it would have been more sensible to leave the women of the God's house up there. Surely they will not get higher than the palace keep." At Helen's side she went out into the courtyard room which looked down over all of Troy and the harbor.
The sun was just rising; Kassandra could see men fighting-upward through the city.
"Look," Helen said, "your Trojan soldiers under Hector have cut off the upward path to the palace; and now the Akhaians are looting and burning in the lower city. That is one of Agamemnon's ships and I doubt not that Menelaus is with him." The indifferent tone in which Helen spoke fascinated Kassandra; had she no feeling whatever for her previous husband?
Flames were rising now from the seaside houses and buildings down below; houses of the poorer sort built of stacked logs and timbers were going up in flames. The houses built higher up on the hill were all of stone, and there was no way they could be set afire, but the Akhaian soldiers were running into the houses and carrying out everything they could find.
"They won't find much treasure or plunder down there," Kassandra said, and Helen nodded.
They leaned on the railing, watching the men below. Kassandra recognized one of the Akhaians, a big man who stood out as almost a head taller than his men, his crested helmet glittering as if washed with gold in the rising sunlight. He had once invaded the palace and borne off the struggling Hesione. That had been - how long? Seven years ago perhaps? Still she shuddered and felt her stomach clench tight.
Helen said, "That is Agamemnon," and Kassandra said, her voice only a whisper, "Yes, I know."
"Look; Hector and his men are trying to cut him off from his ship; will they burn it, do you think?"
"They'll try," Kassandra said, watching the Trojan soldiers trying to cut off the Akhaians' leader and making him fight every step of the way back to his ship. The sun was higher now and they could not see into the burning glare reflected off the ocean; Kassandra turned away, shading her eyes.
"Let's go inside; it's cold. It is not at Agamemnon's hands that Hector will meet his fate," she said. They went into the room where the other women were quieter now; the children had fallen asleep on blankets and half a dozen midwives were gathered around Creusa who was trying to tell them that she was perfectly well and was not going to go into labour just to provide them with amusement for this night.
Hecuba, wrapped in one of her oldest shawls over a ragged old house gown, had found some scraps of wool and was twirling a distaff idly; Kassandra gauged by the unevenness of the thread that it was only to pass the time.
"Oh, there you are, girls - I wondered where you had gone. What is happening down there, daughter? Your eyes are better than mine. What was it you said about Hector, Kassandra?"
"I said it is not at the hands of Agamemnon that he will meet his fate, Mother."
"I should hope not," said Hecuba irritably. "That great Akhaian brute would be well advised to avoid our Hector!"
Some of the women had gone out on the balcony and now Kassandra heard them raise a cheer.
"They are going away; they have reached their boat and are making sail! The Akhaians are gone!"
"And they cannot have got much plunder from the houses along the shore; a few sacks of olives, a few goats perhaps - you are safe, Helen," said Hecuba.
"Oh, they will surely be back again," Helen said, and Kassandra, who had been on the very point of saying the same thing, wondered how she knew. She was no fool, this Akhaian woman, and this troubled Kassandra. The last thing she wanted was to like or to respect Helen; yet she could not help liking her.
Chryseis came up to Kassandra, and whispered, "Charis has said that we may go back to the shrine; are you ready?"
"No, dear; I will stay for a while with my mother and sisters and my brothers' wives, if Charis will permit me," Kassandra said. "I will return when I can."
"Oh, they always let you do whatever you want," said Chryseis spitefully. "I am sure they would not chide you if you wanted to stay away altogether."