Cassandra (44 page)

`Here,' the princess said, offering me the wooden box. `I feared that your comrades might not come in time. It is a terrible thing to allow a body to rot; his spirit cannot reach heaven without special ceremony, but will wander and become a wailing ghost. He was brave and he did no harm to us; I did not think it right to leave him among the soldiers.'

I moved closer to take the chest and I heard the creak as the archers above me bent their bows. I took the ashes, although burning was considered by the Achaeans as a terrible insult to the dead. It was only done with slaves and people who had died of some plague, cursed by the gods; or, of course, with kings on their way to becoming demigods. Macaon, being dead, would not mind however; and Cassandra was not to know of the customs of Achaea. She had meant it as an honour. And it was going to be much easier to send him home like this.

`That was gently done,' I said. She was close to me, red tunic against green. She smelt of healing herbs, olive and amber oils. I reached out very carefully and touched the bruise.

`Have you been treated for that, Lady of the Trojans?'

`Yes; a comfrey poultice. The bone is not damaged.'

`What did it? A fall? A stone over the walls?'

`An Argive spear when I rode behind my brother.'

I was taken aback. I had no idea that a princess of Troy would have been in the battle. I did not know what to say.

`The women of Troy have a part in their own defence,' she told me. `It is our city too.' She touched my hand. `Don't come under our walls with the fighters again, Asclepid Priest; we cannot tell if you are a healer in the dust of battle. Wait for the wounded out of bowshot. Fare well,' and she bowed to me like a soldier or a man, both hands crossed on her undefended breast.

`Wait, Lady... shall I speak to you again?'

She raised her eyebrow, looking at her brother. A smile was turning up the corners of the warrior's mouth.

Hector's deep voice was the one I had heard behind the wall. `As you wish, sister, but you must have an escort. I have no time to spare for supervising conferences between healers. And we cannot let him in. He may be honourable,' he smiled at me, `but Agamemnon needs to know about our defences, and the healer's allegiance is with the Atreidae who, might I remind you, sister, are here to kill us and sack our city.'

`My allegiance is to Epidavros, to Asclepius and to Apollo,' I said. `I came to heal, not to fight. Let me come to the walls, Lord of the Trojans, and speak to your sister again. I bear no weapon.'

`That is for her to decide,' he was definitely smiling now. `Women own themselves in Troy, Asclepid, and their society is their own to dispose of. Speak to Cassandra the princess, not to me, or you will make her angry.'

I was confused. Did the unmarried maiden not belong to her father and brother in this strange city? But I did not want to offend a fellow healer, and I very much wanted to talk to Cassandra again.

`I beg your pardon, Lady. I am an ignorant Carian and know nothing of Trojan manners. May I speak with you again?'

`Yes,' she decided. `But the prince is right, we cannot let you into the city. Come to the Dardanian Gate and ask for me. Make sure you keep out of bowshot and in clear view as you circle the walls and I will talk to you.'

I bowed low. When I looked up the princess and the warrior were gone and the gate was creaking shut.

 

`You must go home,' I insisted to Polidarius. `My master cannot lose both his sons. You must take Macaon to your father.'

`But Chryse, how will you manage?'

`Surgery is not your field anyway, brother, and there is not much scope in this slaughterhouse for medicine. I will recruit some helpers from the mature men who have lost their friends; their hearts are broken and cannot be further wounded, and they will be gentle with the injured. I will manage, Polidarius. Now, there is a boat waiting, Macaon's ashes are here, and your bundle is here.' I shoved his rolled cloak into his arms. `There will not be many ships into this harbour now that the autumn gales have begun. Go now; it would break your father's heart if both of his sons died.'

I pushed him out of the hut and led him down the beach to a hollow ship of Corinth with its complement of forty rowers. They were anxious to leave while the south wind lasted.

He was still protesting that he could not leave me when the ship gave a wriggle and a rush, slid down the launching gouge in the sand into the water and was rowed away towards the mouth of the bay of Troy.

I walked back through the encampment to my hut and sat down, listening to the men wailing for Macaon. `One thousand and one the Amazon killed,' I heard a voice chanting:

 

The one slain which was the man
And the thousand he might have saved.
Alas, our grief for Asclepius' son,
Macaon son of Glaucus, peerless among surgeons,
Healer of battle-wounds, comforter of the dying...

 

Arion stumped into my hut and gave his lyre to Menon, who sat at his feet.

`So the Trojans burned him, hmm?' he commented. `How do you feel about that, Chryse?'

`It was intended to be an honour,' I answered. `I took it as such. Macaon has not said a word about it'

Arion laughed grimly. The bard had aged. His hair was almost all white now, and his face was lined like carved wood.

`And you have sent Polidarius home,' he added. `That was wise, Healer, and kind. But what of yourself?'

`I will continue,' I said.

I realised that I was telling the truth. Chryseis' memory had faded. I could remember her vividly, even painfully, but I had been so exhausted by the many who had died under my hands, by the problems presented to me every day of healing the helpless, that my pain had joined with theirs and I was not seeking death any more. Chryseis was faithful; she would wait for me.

`Yes, in a sea of agony, one small spark is quickly drowned,' commented Arion, reading my thoughts. `I hear that you conferred with the Princess Cassandra. Is she as beautiful as they say?'

`She is golden haired and grey eyed, though marred with a bruise from an Achaean spear; she was in the battle, riding behind her brother Hector. Now there is a warrior for your song, Arion, bigger even than Agamemnon, tall as a tree, broad as a shield.'

Arion grinned at me. `Not a song for the Atreidae, Asclepid. They would rather Hector was feeble, cowering behind his walls.'

`But the brother and sister are gentle, even indulgent with each other; it was interesting to see them together. He told me to ask her if she wanted to speak to me again. She said that I could come. I need another healer to talk to.'

`Unless you want Agamemnon to send you to spy on the defences I would not tell anyone else that. But tell him, dear Chryse, that you went to claim your brother healer's corpse,' Arion warned, `for he must know that you have been there.

`Better still, tell him about the arrangement. Agamemnon will be informed if you visit the city and he has a short way with people he thinks are traitors. Already the Trojan traders are setting out, the last ships before winter closes the port. The idea that you might find a way inside the city will please the king.'

`I will not-' I began hotly, and he put a hand over my mouth, whispering, `Of course not, asclepid, but the king doesn't know that. He needs something to cheer him. Achilles is still sulking and doors of Troy are still shut.'

Arion's advice was always sound. Accordingly, I reported to Agamemnon that I had reclaimed the body of my brother from the Princess Cassandra, and that I had arranged to meet her again.

`Asclepid, can you find a way into the city?'

`Lord,' I said, mentally asking the gods if there were any to forgive my mendacity, `I will try. But it is a strong city, Lord, and they will not let me inside.'

`Try,' he urged, his face close to mine. `I will load you with gold, asclepid; a ship-load of gold if you can worm out of this girl a breach in their defences. She will not be able to resist you, golden one, most beautiful of Asclepius' sons. Aphrodite has been busy, and Eros her son shoots many bolts. This princess fell in love with you as soon as she saw you; that is why she bade the Amazons, those hell-borne bitches, those furies, hold their bows. Flatter her, Chryse, take her presents and beg her to open the gate and she will yield. She is only a maid, after all. Here,' he dipped his hand into a barrel and it came up gleaming with gold, `take this fillet, these chains of gold and these bracelets. There is no woman's heart that's averse to jewels. No maiden exists that cannot be seduced with manly beauty and gold and lies. Promise her love, asclepid, promise her golden children and she will fall into your arms.'

I did not think this at all likely; few princesses would exchange power and position in a great city for Argive chains, even if they were of gold. But I said nothing, and I took the jewels. Odysseus came to the conference as Agamemnon dismissed me. I passed him on the way out of the wooden hut.

`Do you think that you can find a way into Troy?' he asked me in a low voice. When I did not reply, he nodded. `Sometimes even silence is packed with information, Chryse,' he said, then added in a louder tone, `Hail, Lord Agamemnon! You summoned me?'

`Yes, The winter is setting in. We need wood for fires. I sent a wood-cutting party into the hills yesterday but they have not returned. Your pirates are healthy still, my Lord of Ithaca. Send after them, find out what has happened and bring in the wood.'

`Lord,' suggested Odysseus, `the shepherds might have killed them. The men of Mount Idus are strong and fast, and incredibly hard to capture. They strike and fade back into the woods. It might be them. I will go and see.'

I went out to ask among the Argives for those who were willing to learn the craft of surgeon. After some enquiries, I recruited three of the older men who had steady hands, had lost someone, and who could be spared by their captains. I took them to my hut and began to teach them the rudiments of the healer's art.

Odysseus came back the next day to report that he had found the seven woodcutters dead without a mark on them. However, he had completed their work and brought the load of trees back. He had also brought a dead woodcutter for me to examine.

I cleansed the body and stripped it with the help of my three apprentices, then examined it carefully from head to toe. I even parted the hair and then shaved the scalp, in case a cunning knife had pierced his skull, but I found no mark. I questioned the remains of that company, and found that the dead man had been listless, not ill but not well, ever since he had been in the detachment which lay in the Dardanian marshes. Otherwise there was nothing to report of him, poor corpse, until he had been found struck dead in his tent on the mountain.

I did not know how he had died. I burned incense and prayed, then opened the body. The spleen was swollen and hard and the liver was knobbed. Nothing else was noticeable until I found his brain flooded with blood, his eyes suffused and his ears and sinuses blocked. He had died of cerebral haemorrhage.

This was a diagnosis but I had no idea of the cause. I sewed the body together and gave it to the vultures. Then I reported to Agamemnon that the dead man had been struck down with a new disease, and that the mountain was clearly dangerous to his army.

Calchas the Apollo Priest conducted a ritual and declared that the mountain was ruled by the Fates, and must be avoided in darkness. Thereafter the foresters went out in daylight and hacked wildly, rolling the timber down the slope and retreating before night fell. No more of them died.

 

Achilles Man Slayer sent for me the next day. I approached him as one approaches a wild beast; gently and with circumspection, careful to make no sudden move or loud noise. He was sitting on his throne, Patroclus at his side, sipping from a decorated goblet and considering several maidens.

They knelt in the sand in front of him, frightened women in thin tunics which the wind was pulling and flicking. It was cold and they were shivering.

`Spoil,' he said, indicating the women, `from a small village called - what was it called?'

`Ponticha, my Lord,' said Patroclus evenly. There was a line between his brows and he was composing his voice with care.

`I caught them on the shore - there is no one alive in Ponticha now,' explained the hero. `I brought you to examine them, Healer - tell me which ones will bear a long sea journey. I am minded to send them as a present to a certain king.'

`As you say, Lord, but let me take them inside out of this wind.'

He slammed a fist down on the arm of the throne. `No! If you need to strip them then do so here.'

`In the view of all, Lord?' I asked. I knew I was trying his patience but I would not be party, if I could help it, to exposing a lot of captured maidens to death by cold.

`Come now, my dearest,' soothed Patroclus. `They will die out here and then they will be of no value. There is no value in death.'

Achilles thought about it, his face set like metal, one long hand toying with the ringlets of his beautiful hair. Then he turned a dazzling smile on Patroclus and said, `If you wish it, sweet Prince, it shall be so.'

`Come inside,' I whispered to the women. `Now,' and they hurried after me.

There were four of them, one visibly pregnant. All had the white, still faces of those who had seen such dreadful things that they do not dare to think or speak, in case a word jolts them with some unbearable memory. I made a pretence of examining them but there was no chance that I would certify them unfit. If I did, Achilles would order them killed.

After a few minutes and as many soothing words as I could think of, I allowed them to sit down and returned to Achilles' side. I knelt in the tumbled sand and said, `They are all fit, Lord, for a journey.'

`Do not kneel, Chryse. Come, sit beside me,' he said affably, with genuine charm. `Have some wine. They say that you go to Troy to speak to a princess,' I nodded. `Well, Healer, if you can point her out to me in the battle, I'll try not to kill her.'

This was a great concession and I said, `I thank you, Lord Achilles.'