One day, choosing a time when Priam was in a good humour, she went to him and carefully emulating Polyxena's kittenish behaviour, asked softly, "Please tell me, Father, how far Paris is going, and how long a journey is it till he will be back?"
Priam smiled indulgently, and said, "Look, my dear. Here we are on the shores of the straits. Ten days' sail this way, southward, and there is a cluster of islands ruled by the Akhaians. If he avoids shipwreck on reefs here—" he sketched a coastline, "he can sail southward to Crete, or northwesterly to the mainland of the Athenians and the Mykenaeans. If he has fair winds and no shipbreaking storms, he could return before the summer's end; but he will be trading and perhaps staying as a guest with one or more of the Akhaian kings… as they call themselves. They are newcomers to this country; some of them have been there no more than their father's lifetimes. Their cities are new; ours is ancient. There was another Troy here before my forefathers built our city, you know, daughter."
"Really?" She made her voice soft and admiring like Polyxena's, and he smiled and told her of the ancient Cretan city which once had risen not more than a day's sail south along the coast. "In this city," he said, "were great storehouses of wine and oil, and they think this may have been why the city burned when great Poseidon Earthshaker made the sea rise and the ground tremble. For a day and a night there was a great darkness over the whole world, as far south as Egypt; and the beautiful island Kallistos fell into the sea, drowning the temple of Serpent Mother and leaving the temples of Zeus the Thunderer and Apollo Sunlord untouched. That is why there is now less worship, in the civilized lands, of the Serpent Mother."
"But how do we know it is the Gods who have shaken the lands?" Kassandra asked. "Have they sent messengers to tell us so?"
"We do not know," Priam said, "but what else could it be? If it is not the Gods, there would be nothing but Chaos. Poseidon is one of the greatest Gods here in Troy, and we petition him to keep the earth solid beneath our feet."
"May he long do so," Kassandra murmured fervently, and since she saw that her father's attention had wandered to his wine cup, murmured a courteous request to go; her father nodded permission and she went out into the courtyard, with much to think about. If indeed it had been the great earthquake (which she had heard about during her childhood - it had been several years before Priam's birth) then perhaps this was sufficient reason that the worship of Earth Mother had been discredited, except among the tribeswomen.
The courtyard was a-bustle; it was a brilliant day. Workmen were moving about; the people painting friezes high up in the rooms assigned to Oenone for Paris were grinding new pigments and mixing them with oil, tally-men were counting jars of oil brought in as tithes on one of the ships lying out in the harbor; some of the soldiers were practicing at arms, and far out beyond the city, she could see a cloud of dust which was probably Hector exercising the horses of his new chariot. She wandered among them like a ghost unseen. It is as if I were a sorceress and bad made myself invisible, she thought, and wondered if she could make herself so in truth, and if it would make any difference if she did.
For no reason at all her eyes fell idly on a young man who was dutifully marking tallies with a notched stick and pressing wax on the sealing ropes of great jars, oil or wine, pressing the seal that indicated these had been taken for the King's household.
He seemed a bit restless under her scrutiny, turning his eyes away, and Kassandra, blushing - she had been taught it was unmaidenly to stare at young men - looked away. Then her eyes were drawn back; the young man seemed to glow, his eyes grew very strange, almost vacant; then they focused and he drew upright. He seemed to grow taller, looming over her; yes, it was she, Kassandra, whom he fixed with his eyes, and in a flash she recognized what God possessed him, for she was looking again into the face of Apollo Sunlord.
His voice reverberated as thunder, so that she wondered, with a scrap of wandering consciousness, how the other workers could go on quietly with their work.
Kassandra, daughter of Priam, have you forgotten me?
She whispered under her breath, "Never, Lord."
Have you forgotten that I have set my hand upon you and called you for my own?
Again she whispered, "Never."
Your place is in my Temple; come, I bid you.
"I will come," she said, half aloud, gazing on the luminous form. Then the overseer strode through the yard, and the young man shimmered, wavered in the sun which blurred Kassandra's eyes…
The vision was gone. For a moment Kassandra wondered if she had indeed been bidden to the Sunlord's Temple? Should she fetch her cloak and her serpent, climb up to the High Place of the Gods at once? She hesitated - if she had actually dreamed it and it had never happened, what would she say in the Temple to the priests and priestesses? Surely there were penalties for blasphemy of that kind…
No. She was Priam's daughter, a princess of Troy, and she had been made a priestess of the Great Mother. She might be mistaken, but it was certainly no blasphemy nor anything to be ignored. Silently she went into the palace, under her breath whispering, "If I have not been called, Sunlord, send me a sign."
On the great stairway, she encountered Hecuba, wrapped in a workaday smock, frown lines drawn between her brows making her look older.
"You are idle, daughter," Hecuba rebuked her. "If you cannot find any reason to keep yourself occupied, I will myself find you some task; henceforth you will not leave the women's quarters on any morning until your share of spinning and weaving is done. For shame, to leave your work to your sister. Was it only laziness you learned among the women of my tribe?"
"I am not idle!" Kassandra replied angrily. Was this the sign for which she had asked? 'I have been sent for by the God, and I am required in his Temple."
Hecuba frowned at her, narrowing her eyes.
"Kassandra, the Gods choose their priestesses from among simple folk; they do not call to a princess of Troy."
"Do you think me less worthy than another?" Kassandra flared out. "I have known since I was a child that Apollo Sunlord wanted me for his own, and now he has summoned me!"
"Oh, Kassandra!" Hecuba sighed. "Why do you talk such nonsense?" but Kassandra was no longer listening to her. She turned away and ran down the stairs and out through the great gates, hurrying up the hill toward Apollo's Temple.
CHAPTER 18
Kassandra ran up the steps of the street which traversed the city from lower to highest ground, hardly realizing that the women who dwelled in the crowded houses built along the steep street had come crowding out of the houses, in a flutter of brightly dyed dresses, to watch her precipitous flight. The pounding of her heart forced her to slow her steps to a walk, and then to a full stop.
She bent over, half sick. She had been rigidly schooled always to maintain her decorum before strangers; she pressed the loose sleeve of her dress over her lips, trying to control the nausea and sharp pain in her chest, and sought a step where she could catch her breath. She did not want to appear on the doorstep of the God as a dishevelled fugitive.
A kindly voice said 'Princess—" and she looked up to see an aging woman bent over her, holding a clay cup in her hand. "You have climbed too far, and too swiftly, in this sun. May I offer you a drink of water? Or I can fetch you some cooled wine, if it would please you to step inside."
The thought of going into the cool shaded interior was tempting, but Kassandra was ashamed to show or admit weakness.