"Not if she travelled under Apollo's truce," said Queen Imandra, "I know something of that, dear boy." She turned back to Kassandra. "Even so, you need not break your pledge if you have made it; without any asking, I will send to Priam all the soldiers I can find, men or women, and as much as wagons can carry of metals and weapons too."
"You are more than generous," Kassandra said, and explained her errand. Imandra smiled and kissed her.
"My own priestesses and masters of serpents shall be consulted early on the morrow," she said, "or as soon as they tell me it is an auspicious day for such things. I need hardly say that all the wisdom to be found in all our city is at your command and at the command of the Trojan Apollo. You shall be free to speak with them at any time; but you must promise to pay me a long visit."
"Your Majesty is gracious," Kassandra said; she was weary of travelling and at the moment desired nothing more than a long stay in Colchis.
"Not at all, kinswoman," Imandra replied. "Are you not my fellow priestess, and nearest of all in kin to my daughter? And my soothsayers say the child I bear now will be another daughter, and I find it a good omen that you should be here for the birth."
Kassandra had not had the faintest inkling that the Lady was pregnant; indeed if she had given a moment's thought to the matter she would have believed Imandra old beyond the age of bearing. But now she looked closely she saw indeed that the Queen was indeed in the early stages of pregnancy. When she had taken this in, she complimented the Queen upon her expectations, and asked, "Will this then be heir to Colchis in Andromache's place?"
"It will; Andromache cares nothing for queenship; you must have found that out by now," Imandra said, "and it is not hard to forget about the business of being a queen when a woman is-happy; even if that woman is a queen. Have I not said this to you before, Agon?" she demanded.
And the handsome young man said, "Indeed, my Lady."
Imandra's broad face was wreathed in a grin Kassandra could only describe as 'foolish' as her eyes rested on her favourite, and Kassandra, abruptly understanding the state of affairs, was shocked; the independent Queen Imandra, Lady of Colchis, besotted with a handsome boy no older than her daughter? And besotted she certainly was; the very tone of her voice said so. He shared her plate and wine-cup, and she sought out all the finest delicacies to offer to him.
When they had dined, Kassandra sent for the chests she had carried with her and brought out the gifts which Andromache had sent to her mother; embroidered hangings, bolts of richly dyed fabric, even richly decorated bronze swords and knives; several of these, the Queen, with an indifferent gesture, bestowed at once on her consort.
"But don't tell me you want to go and fight in Troy," she said firmly. "I need you at my side to help me bring up our daughter; and even more if the soothsayers are wrong and it is a son."
"I wouldn't think of leaving you, my Lady," he said, "certainly not to fight in some faraway country. If Agamemnon or any of those fellows comes here trying to take Colchis, that would be quite another matter."
Imandra turned to Kassandra. "Tell me about this war, and this Spartan Queen," she said. "Distant as we are, I know something about her family, of course. What sort of person can she be, to have touched off such a widespread war as this?"
Kassandra said slowly, "I had not expected to like her or respect her. But I do; I think the Gods dealt harshly by her when they put her in the way of my brother Paris."
"Well, she had every right to take a consort," said Imandra, with a sly smile at young Agon, "but it was her mistake that she did not dismiss Menelaus - or have the old sacrifice! These things should be done in order. Her mother was Queen by right in Mykenae, and Sparta was Helen's to rule; her crime - and it was truly a crime for a queen - was leaving Sparta for Menelaus to seize, and this has confused the issue. Have they given it over to her daughter to rule after her? I'll warrant they have not; Hermione is too young to be aware of her queenship. These Akhaian savages try to bring their prattle of "kings" into our civilized world; and their mighty talk of fathering - as if any man could create life. The Goddess alone breathes life into children; yet some of these men are arrogant enough to say that the woman is no more than an oven in which their child—their child, did you ever hear such nonsense—is cooked. That Agamemnon—may he be cursed by every Goddess and all the Furies!" Imandra exclaimed.
"He is the leader of the Akhaian armies from Mykenae itself—" Kassandra said.
"Yes; you knew he was married to Helen's sister, who succeeded her mother in Mykenae? Klytemnestra was the elder twin, and very beautiful, but nothing like Helen. Well, Agamemnon managed to get himself married to Klytemnestra, and they had a daughter, Iphigenia - dedicated to Serpent Mother, and of course Keeper of the Shrine and High Priestess from the time she was still a child. Well, when this war came along, Agamemnon had sworn to come to his brother's aid in all things, and so he had to leave Mykenae; and he was afraid that Klytemnestra would replace him as her consort; she was angry that he had dared to swear such an oath without her leave and so she threatened that if he left her she would take her cousin Aegisthus to her bed. Agamemnon threatened to take away their son Orestes - Klytemnestra told him he might do as he would with the boy, but if he perverted any of her children with his evil Gods she would cast his son out after him. So he made the lad a priest of Poseidon—I think it was Poseidon, the horse God, and sent him to be fostered among the Kentaurs. When his armies were gathered to sail to Troy, he was delayed on shore with poor winds, and he sent to Klytemnestra that her daughter Iphigenia should come and conduct the appointed sacrifices to the winds. So she came, as priestess; and what should he do but sacrifice Iphigenia herself, on false oracles; so that Klytemnestra could not take another consort because her younger daughter was too young to be her successor. And I have heard that this younger daughter Electra has been turned against the worship of Earth Mother; and who could blame her? If she became a priestess like her sister, she might die too. But Klytemnestra has sworn vengeance; and Agamemnon will one day face the vengeance of Earth Mother. And, mistake me not, he will die. The Gods are not mocked in this fashion."
"So then it is all a matter of whether the land shall be ordered by kings or queens?"
"What else? Why should men rule the hearth or the city, where-woman has commanded since first Earth Mother brought forth life? The old way was best; where the king was led out every year to die for his people and there was no question of any man setting up his son to follow him. For thousands of years, until these Akhaian savages came to try and change our ways, that was the rule of life—
"And then, who knows? Perhaps there was war and a king was too skilled a leader to be made to die; or some foolish woman like myself did not wish to lose her young lover." She turned an affectionate look on young Agon. "Then these horse-folk came, and the first kings, and set up their arrogant Gods, even the Sunlord who claimed to have slain Serpent Mother." Imandra yawned. "The world is changing, I tell you; but it is the fault of the women who did not keep their men in their place."
"And you think, then, this is the cause of this war?" Kassandra asked.
"My dear, I am sure of it," said the Queen. "It could never have happened to Colchis."
CHAPTER 16
A few days later Kassandra, lodged in the suite in the palace once allotted to the royal daughters, that same room where once she and Andromache had lain awake one night watching stars falling, was wakened by Queen Imandra herself.