"This one surely is the most beautiful."
Hector broke in with a shout, "No, she is my wife and the mother of my son!"
Akhilles's mouth drew back in his peculiar lipless grin. "I will fight you for her," he offered.
Hector said, "By no means. She is the daughter of the Queen of Colchis."
"Come, come," said Odysseus uneasily. "This war began over one stolen wife; we can't carry it on with another one. Akhilles, choose one of Priam's virgin daughters, one who is free to marry. Polyxena, who is as beautiful as the Spartan Queen—"
"The offer was not a fair one," Akhilles said spitefully. "I chose not once but twice and was told I could not have either of the ones I wanted. Hector, why will you not fight me fairly for your wife?"
-
Hector chuckled and said, "I will fight you for anything reasonable, whenever you say, but I will not put up my wife in any bargain whatever; she has not deserved that of me."
"So much for Priam's fine offers," said Akhilles with a snarl of rage. "Forget it, then; I shall fight you on the battlefield, and when I have taken the city, I will take your wife."
Hector stepped forward with a menacing gesture.
"Over my dead body!"
"Well, yes; that was the idea," Akhilles said. "And I am sure she would rather have me than you."
Andromache leaned forward and whispered to Hector, who smiled and gently patted her shoulder, saying, "Should that day come, Akhilles, I cannot prevent you. But that battle will be a long time in coming."
"It is ordained by the Gods," said Akhilles,"that if I join in this war, Troy will fall."
Priam said, "Then you refuse me, Akhilles?"
Akhilles snarled, "I do; I would rather be your enemy than your ally, old man, and I will take this city myself and rule it without your help, or Hector's - and with one, two or three of your daughters if I choose."
"My sister Kassandra is a prophetess," Hector said, "and I dare say she can make a better prophecy than any of yours." He turned to Kassandra and said, "Will this bantam rooster take the city, Sister, in Apollo's name?"
Kassandra felt a spiking anger at Hector for drawing all eyes to her this way. She said, "Thus say the Gods: Akhilles will win renown before Troy, but let him beware. Akhilles, when you leave Troy this night you will never enter it again, nor will you rule it."
Now all pretense of courtesy was gone from Akhilles's snarling face.
"Oh, we have prophetesses too," he growled. "For the smallest coin they will give you a dozen prophecies, doom or triumph, whichever you choose; my own mother is as good a prophetess as any, and I'll listen to her prophecy before any Trojan woman of Apollo." He dragged his sword from his sheath and cried, "Here and now, if you wish, Hector, I'll have you off the throne of Troy; why waste time with the war?"
Patroklos grabbed his arms and struggled to pin them behind his back. "Your host is sacred!" he reproached.
And Hector strode forward, saying, "I would fight him here - and now if he wished it; but he is my father's guest."
Priam growled, "Take him out of here, Odysseus; I received him at your request."
Odysseus came to embrace Priam and said, "Forgive me, old friend, that I brought this wild man into your hall. I regret this with all my heart."
Hecuba said graciously, "You did your best for all of us, Odysseus. War or no war, you are always welcome here as our guest. I trust the day will come when you may come here again—and not in secret."
He bent again and lifted her hand to his lips.
"Lady Hecuba," he said, "may the Lady Hera bear witness I wish you nothing but good; and if ever a day should come when I may do you a good turn, I pray her She will show me how to do it."
"The Gods grant it may be so," said Hecuba, smiling kindly at him. Kassandra felt a tremor; she wanted to cry out to her mother, but the moment passed. Odysseus drew on his cloak; Akhilles and Patroklos were already striding from the hall, Hector glaring at them both. Kassandra stood shuddering, for it seemed that the torchlight had become the colour of blood, and blood surrounded Akhilles's fair hair like a halo.
Priam beckoned Kassandra as the Akhaians passed from the hall.
"I received these guests," he said in a tone of angry reproof, "because you asked me. You are not now an Amazon; never again presume to speak to me on such matters."
Kassandra bowed her head. It seemed to her that the smell of blood and carrion flowed out from her father and that he and she stood ankle deep in blood. How was it that he neither saw nor smelled the blood? Besides he had bidden her never speak again to him about the war.
Never. Not while I live. Or after.
CHAPTER 12
For a few days after, Kassandra watched, from the heights of the temple, the arrival of Akhilles's soldiers; they were nicknamed 'Myrmidons'—ants - and from this height they seemed indeed as numerous and ugly as insects swarming over the beach. So far, however, they made no attempt to move on the city, but marched back and forth over the plain, running, drilling and performing military exercises. Akhilles was clearly visible among them, outstanding not only for his brightly dyed cloak, but for his shining silver gilt hair and the straight posture of his body.
A few days later, she went down to visit her mother; she was troubled by the deepening lines of age on Hecuba's face. As she approached the Queen's quarters, she was shocked by the sounds of strife, she could not make out the words, only the sound of women's voices raised in anger. As she came into the main room near the great loom, she heard the sound of a ringing slap, and a muffled cry, then Hecuba's voice, crying out, "Never!"
"Then," said a young voice, "I shall go without your leave, Lady, or your blessing either."
The voices of women fell silent as they recognized Kassandra and drew back to give her room. It seemed that all the women in the palace were crowded there, surrounding Hecuba, who was wearing an old gown, her hair falling down from its usual coil in grey straggly locks, and one of her sewing women, a girl Kassandra did not know by name though she had often admired her expert work.
"Here is the princess! She is a priestess, she will know what to say to her."
Kassandra came into the circle of women, who were suddenly quiet except for a murmur or two.
"What's wrong, Mother?" she asked. "What's happening?"
The young woman, her cheek reddened from the blow, spoke up proudly. She was slender and pretty, with soft brown hair which she had been interrupted in the middle of dressing, so it hung half curled almost to her waist, her big dark eyes shaded by long lashes.
"The God has spoken to me," she said, "and I have chosen my lord."
"This foolish girl," Hercuba said,"this stupid child, has taken it into her head - oh, I am almost ashamed to tell you! That any woman could so degrade, so demean herself - she is no servant or slave but well-born; she is one of my best embroiderers and I have treated her as my own daughter here in the palace. She has wanted for nothing—"
"Well, tell me, what has she done?" asked Kassandra. "Has she opened the gates for the Greeks to invade the city?"
"No, it has not come to that yet," Hecuba admitted.
"She's mad," Creusa said. "At the feast a few days ago she set eyes on Akhilles, and since then she's talked of nothing else; how strong he is, how skilled at arms, how beautiful - if a man can be beautiful - and now something has put it into her head to go down and offer herself—"