Cassandra (38 page)

There was a shout of approval from the men. Nestor, the old man, commented, `Any man who leaves before he has captured

a Trojan woman and loaded himself with gold is a fool.

Now, Agamemnon, I have some advice. Let us sacrifice, and then if the omens are right, go forth to a challenge and a parley. Let us shame these city-hugging maidens into coming out to fight like men.'

Calchas the High Priest, with his blood-streaked robes and hungry eyes, cut the throat of a lamb and flayed it, wrapping chunks from the thighs in fat and burning them on a hot fire. He announced that the omens were excellent for bringing the Trojans to battle.

Then Agamemnon knelt before the gods and I heard his prayer:

`Most glorious Zeus, Thunderer, grant that the sun may not set before I bring down the palace of Priam, burn the gates, slaughter the men of Troy, and rip the breast of Hector's tunic with bronze. Lord of High Heaven, let this be.'

Sunlight spilled over his bearded head, turning his profile to gold. Men murmured at this sign of favour.

I went back to the tent of the healers to prepare bandages and splints, boil sea water and whet surgical knives.

The allies started to arrive, first from Caria, then Phrygia and Thrace and finally the Amazons led by Myrine.

I saw them swoop in from the west, and at first I thought that they were a mob of wild unmounted horses, so low did the riders crouch and so magnificently did they blend with their steeds. They came to the Dardanian Gate with much splashing and were admitted; I ran down to welcome them.

`Myrine,' I said, `welcome and thrice welcome for the help you bring.'

`Cassandra, here is my lady Penthesileia, our queen, and Charis my sister. Twelve were all of our people I could find. We do not dwell in cities and our virtue is that it is very hard to locate us.'

The lady of the Amazons was tall, thin, dark-eyed and strong. She wore goatskin breeches even more noisome than those of the Scythians and she laughed when she saw my nose wrinkle.

`Yes, a bath, I think - where shall we lie? Myrine, we are going to need a wash before we encounter those who live in cities. Princess, I greet you. Where is Hector? How goes the siege? We met some of those Achaean pirates raiding a seaside village as we rode in, so we took a long way; first removing them from troubling the world, of course.'

`Lady,' I bowed to her, `lodge, if you will, with Myrine and Eris. I shall call Hector when you are bathed and rested. The Argive army has not stirred from their camp for a week, and we will be warned if they move.'

I explained the trumpet signals and the sequence of watches as they led their horses to the stables. The Amazon's mounts were remarkably tame - Charis could lift hoofs and pull back tails without the suggestion of a snap or kick - but both the Amazons and the horses seemed dirty, worn and underfed.

When they were quite certain that the horses were comfortable, they followed me to the Amazon's chamber next to the Temple of the Maiden. There they stripped and scrubbed themselves with oatmeal and soap-leaf. I had never seen women like them.

The women of Troy were all strong and skilled yet, save for rarely-seen peasants who tilled fields, those in the city stayed out of the direct sun.

These Amazons, whatever their stature, were tanned in the same places; throat and half the face which the helmet did not cover, arms where the armoured shirt did not shade, their legs were pale. They were patchwork women with alert, wary eyes and the crowsfeet of those who stare over long distances.

They were also diverse. Eris, of the dark scowl, had a head cropped close as a ball, the flat scar where her breast had been removed, and the strings of enemy's teeth around her neck. She was the picture which most of us had of an Amazon who fights like a man or, as Eris would say, much better than a man.

Myrine was a small, light woman, with long brown hair which she was proud of and combed as carefully as her horse's tail; a good archer whom I had sighted in the Dionysiad, hunting men through the mob.

Charis was beautiful; her thighs and arms were long, muscled and straight, her body was ivory patched with gold and her black hair was cut raggedly at shoulder level, long enough to pad her helmet. Her body bore no marks of childbearing, but she did not touch her comrades in the same way as did Myrine and Eris, or the horse-lady Hippia and her lover Aigleia.

These two kissed cordially when they had washed. Aigleia commented, `Well, there was a face under all that mud! Welcome back, my love!' Therefore I was more surprised when one of Hippia's bundles moved and let out a small cry.

She unearthed the bag and removed a baby, perhaps three months old; plump and well cared for, if filthy. Hippia took the baby and her lover into the pool of the Maiden once they had been cleansed and they lay together in a close embrace, luxuriating in the clean water. I was puzzled.

`Do not be concerned, daughter of Priam,' said Myrine. `We are the only free women and we live as we please. And we bear children, such of us who either like or can endure men, for we need new Amazons to replace us.'

`And do you really expose the male babies, as the Achaeans say?'

She snorted. `There is no truth in the Argive pirates, you should know that. We give the boy-children back to their fathers. In some places we have almost settled down, though never quite; for an Amazon may sleep under a roof but she must not ever be buried in a city.

`We lie with the men of a certain village at the Dionysiad, then bring or send them the male offspring. The villagers like this - they value sons more than daughters, the fools. Thus everyone is happy. As for us - our lady is a dedicated Maiden, I like men, some like women and men, Tydia and her lovers only like women. The only pure Amazon is Charis. She doesn't want anyone - or rather, she is complete in herself.' Charis grinned, sluicing down her indescribably filthy breeches and flinging them to soak in a tub along with the others.

Penthesileia dropped her tunic and walked into the pool, laying her head back against someone's breast with a sigh. `Ah, water; it is nice to visit civilisation occasionally.' She dipped her head under and sat up, wiping her long black hair out of her eyes. `So,' she said, `you have seen fighting. The battles, Princess Cassandra. Tell us.'

I sat down on the tiles and dabbled my feet in the water, soaking my ink-stained hands, and told the tale of three attacks on the city and how they had been driven off. As I described the defences of the city and the rules made by Hector, the lady of the Amazons nodded approvingly.

`This is a good prince - almost as intelligent as an Amazon, though you need not tell him I said that. Sit in the marsh and eat frogs, indeed! You were quite right, Myrine. While the Argives squat on the plain and the gates are shut, they could wait outside the city until their hair turns grey. Their army numbers about nine hundred; too many for open battle, especially if there are many chariots. However, there was some mutiny in their camp this morning - so that bandit said before I killed him.

`Well, sisters, we have until the noon watch to lie around and imitate concubines, after which we must dress and call on the lord of the city. Myrine, can you clothe us?'

`Hector is a generous prince,' said Myrine. `I have breeches for all of us.'

As I withdrew my feet and dried them, I saw the queen of the Amazons with a spear in her breast.

I had found that if I stared at the visions hard enough they went away. I gazed at Penthesileia, and she looked into my eyes; her hair falling, her joints loosening, lying back to die as if she were sleeping. I said in my heart,
I acknowledge that she will die
, and the sending dissolved. They never faded; they came and went.

`I must go - I have to see the arrow-makers,' I said shakily, finding my papyrus list of tasks, my inkpot and my stylus. `I will see you at noon.'

I left them laughing and splashing in the pool of the Maiden and went off to argue with the arrow-makers, who were complaining about not being able to go into the marsh to harvest reeds and about a lack of arrowheads. This sent me to have another argument with the bronzesmiths who said that the arrow-makers wanted impossible precision and returned three out of every five heads, saying that they were misshapen.

This took me a whole watch to sort out. The city was nervous, tempers were fraying. Once I had persuaded the fletchers to accept that a little sanding and paring would perfect most of the heads and the smiths to be a little more careful with cleaning their moulds, I was tired and irritated, but I had the promise of more arrows.

Then three soldiers begged leave because their wives were giving birth, and I engaged the priestess of Gaia in a theological debate about the extent to which the goddess would allow her rites to be ignored in a city under siege. Finally she agreed to ask the goddess about it; and I sent the soldiers back to their places.

In a narrow alley near the Scaean Gate I found Dion. He was wearing Poseidon's robes, the green and blue of the sea, and he smelt of kelp. I glanced sidelong at him, but there was no vision. I walked into his arms and rested my face against his shoulder.

`Cassandra,' he drew me into the little temple which he and Maeles had built. `I have not seen you for so long I was wondering if I had imagined you.'

`There is the defence of Troy,' I said stiffly, but he did not mean to chide me. Instead he kissed me and I lay down in his arms.

A different vision came as I held him close, and felt his caresses loosen my joints; Dion and several goats huddled together in hollow ship; a small vessel on a vast sea, sailing on until it was a black dot which was swallowed up by the distance.

I said nothing, but held him tighter. I was going to lose all that I had; Dion, as well.

 

At noon, the Amazons came to the king's council, were introduced to Priam and Hecube, and had just begun to discuss the situation when a trumpet called from Scamander Gate and a runner came for Hector.

He went, with Státhi on his shoulder and me scuttling at his heels. It was Talthybius again, his deep voice echoing off the walls. `Hector, Prince of Troy, I bring an offer of parley and truce from the most mighty Atreidae,' he said, more politely than usual. `Assemble with your army and allies and all your champions on the plain to meet with Menelaus and Agamemnon. What is your reply?'

`I must consult with the Lords of my city,' said Hector. `Return for my answer before night falls.'

We went back to the council and reported the Argive terms to the king and his counsellors.

`I say we ignore them,' said Hector. `If they want a truce let them declare it to the walls. They are trying to tempt us into open battle. As the Amazon says, there are too many of them for us to safely join on the plain.'

`Safety!' mocked Pariki. `Always you speak of safety, my brother! I will offer single combat. Then I will kill Menelaus, and they will go home.'

`And if Menelaus kills you,' growled Hector, while Státhi rose on his shoulder and hissed, `will you surrender the city and all the people we have sworn to guard?'

`Yet there might be some use in a parley,' mused the old man, Anchises. A lightning bolt had scarred and twisted him, but once he had been so beautiful that the goddess Ishtar had borne him a son - Aeneas the handsome, fully as beautiful as Pariki and a gentle character as well. `As you say, Prince Hector, they will not go home without some sort of ceremony. We may be able to persuade them that it is late for sailing to Pelop's land and that they do not want to endure a winter here.'

`They will not endure it here - they will go and raid Caria or Mysia for warm lodging,' said Polites. `They are ravaging the coasts, drawing off our allies to fight the raiders. We have to reach some arrangement with them, though we cannot risk open battle.'

`Cannot risk! Are we men?' sneered Pariki, and Pandarus added, `Just let us fight them, without all these words such as old men and children use! The people will laugh at me if I do not strike a blow in anger.'

`I hope so,' said Hector. `I prefer them laughing to weeping in Argive chains.'

`Enough,' said Priam wearily. `If they want a parley with an army, then we will go out, tomorrow, at noon, in as much array as we can. Chariots and riding horses, every soldier armoured and with as many weapons as is proper. Hector, you will decide which gate we shall issue from and where we will take our stand. Midway between the city and the camp, perhaps, with Scamander at our backs.'

`Father, no, I do not think that wise. Armoured men cannot swim and the Scamander is treacherous.'

`Arrange it as you will, my son,' said the king. `But tomorrow I walk out to speak to the Atreidae; alone, if I have to.'

Hector bowed and the king waved a hand to show that the audience was ended.

For some reason Hector then collected all the spearsmen he could find, and they marched the palace roof for two watches, practising a three-rank advance, bristling with bronze.

 

The next morning the army of Troy issued forth from the Scamander Gate and walked into position on the plain between the river and the city.

In tunic and gambeson I walked behind Hector, as his right hand. I had a bow and a quiver of arrows; the heavy helmet hid my face and was cushioned by my hair. On the flanks skirmished the Amazons, while the allies marched under their own captains in groups in the middle; and before us all went three ranks of spearsmen.

I had not been out of the city since the siege began. The plain seemed terribly big and flat, stretching all the way to the sea. Over the miles between, the Achaeans were marching - a dust cloud rolled over them, blurring the details on banners and shields. By the bigger shadows in the middle, I guessed that the Atreidae were riding in chariots to this parley. We stopped when Hector gave the order and sat down in our places.

The sun grew hotter and the sweat dripping down under my helmet made my scalp itch. I wished I had thought to bring more water. I wondered if I was waiting to be killed.

The Argives came within a bowshot of us, making a noise like a storm. Uncouth cries like birds rose clamouring from our allies, the Mysians and Carians, who hated the Argives fiercely for the damage they had done to their villages. The Achaeans made no sound or reply. We stood up. Priam tottered forward, hands open, Polites at his elbow ready to support him.