I awoke in an unfamiliar place, regret immediately filling my heart. Oh, God, what had I done? I glanced around the room, my head throbbing. How much of the beguiling wine had I drunk? The room betrayed unstinting amounts of empty wine jugs, and shame filled me. Wine that should have been used as libations for the gods, for Agamemnon's safe return, drunk in blind ignorance. I looked to my side where the sleeping form of conniving Aegisthus lay, one arm sprawled over my body. I shoved his arm away. Why had I snuck away from the luxurious comfort of my palace, to come to the squalid shack he called his home? I knew what would happen, I knew I would end up in his bed. This is your fault, Agamemnon! I screamed inside of my head. But all things of malicious natures meet their just ends. You, Agamemnon, began this, with your war lust. Your insatiable desire for glory and riches killed our daughter, who was worth more than any amount of gold you bring back from Troy. And you left me here with my hatred, rotting and festering inside me all these years.
"We must, my love," Aegisthus cajoled, his voice mellifluous and enticing. "It's the only way we can be together, think about our daughter." And I did. I thought about sweet Erigone, who had somehow managed to soothe and diminish the pain of losing Iphigenia. "You don't think Agamemnon will accept her, do you?" I shook my head, tears falling from my eyes. We couldn't, I couldn't. I still loved him, prodigious Agamemnon, as much as I wanted to deny it. Aegisthus wiped my tears away, or at least tried. I writhed away from him, the brine from my eyes dripping into my mouth. I hate you, Aegisthus, leave me, leave me now. I want my husband back, I want Agamemnon, not you, I thought silently to myself. I hate you and your poisonous words that slither into my heart and remind me of what Agamemnon has done to me. I fled to my room, weeping pathetically on the bed, the bed my beloved husband and I once shared. He'd been gone so long, I hardly remembered him. This thought spurred a sudden streak of rage in me. He was the one who had left me! He willingly abandoned our warm and loving home that was filled with children who loved and who we adored in return. He broke apart my family, murdering his firstborn for the sake of a war that was instigated to retrieve my slut sister. And now, according to Nauplius, he was bringing back his Trojan slut as a concubine, an insult to the love we once shared. Aegisthus was right, we needed to be free of him. I couldn't love him anymore. I couldn't love a man who had deceived me and Iphigenia with promises of marriage to glorious Achilles and then in the next second, slit Iphigenia's trusting throat as if she were nothing more than an animal. I regained my composure and walked to the dining hall slowly, where I saw Aegisthus. I nodded rigidly and he understood.
I was ready, the cold blade pressed against my thigh. I had to do it; it was the only way to avenge my beautiful and innocent daughter. I walked out. "My husband," I murmured in the most loving and uxorious voice I could manage, grimacing slightly when he took me into his arms and kissed me. His strong, callused hand caressed my cheek.
"Beautiful Clytemnèstra," he breathed, looking as if the sight of me was an oasis in the desert. His tenderness reminded me of the love I once felt for him and I had to fight back the urge that made me want to be rid of the plague that was Aegisthus forever and welcome my husband back with open arms. But then I thought of Iphigenia, and then Erigone, who I would protect against anything and everything."My wife, I've missed you, your warmth, your smile." Liar, I thought slyly, seizing upon the opportunity to remember his transgressions against me, I knew of the women who had shared his bed while he was at Troy, princesses and priestesses his men had stolen and plundered from wealthy cities. I didn't love him anymore, I told myself, I abhorred him. I eyed his concubine still in the carriage, amazed by Agamemnon's insensitivity; he didn't even think of hiding his infidelities from me. He loved her, I gathered; she traveled with him, sitting by his side rather than with the other slaves and captured women. I'm sure he loved the fact that while he was married to the sister of the most beautiful woman in the world, he now had as a concubine the second most beautiful woman in the world, or so they said, and had fathered two children, and boys at that, on her. I winked at her, giving her a cruel smile. Her blood would spill soon, I decided and stepped away from Agamemnon.
"Come," I said, "I shall bathe you myself with the loving of hands of a wife in water so warm and clear. You must be exhausted. Afterwards we shall eat; the servants have been slaving away preparing your favorite foods. Platters of roasted meat, bowls of succulent fruits and the most delicious sweets I've ever tasted."
It was just me and him in the bath, just as I wanted it. "Wife," he called from the pool, nonchalantly sipping wine."I know what you've been doing," he said coldly. "I know you have been sleeping with my enemy, conniving Aegisthus. Ever since I left for the citadel of Troy, you have been unfaithful. Your sluttish ways have produced a bastard, have they not? A little child-slut to grow up to be just like her mother. But my gripe is not with her, it's with you. Send her away, or I will kill her, along with her father," he commanded, in a voice that demonstrated that my husband, the King of Kings was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. But I wasn't one of his generals to boss around, I came from the same loins who produced the most beautiful woman in the world, and certainly was not without my attributes. Least of all, I was the Queen of Mycenae, and the only reason he came to the throne was his marriage to me.
"You! Fraud! Hypocrite! How dare you patronize me, when you have done worse! You brought your mistress here, you brought her to my home!" I screamed. "I know of your children with her, I know of the boys! You let her keep those bastard children but you killed our daughter, my lovely Iphigenia, your first daughter!"
He rose from the pool and got out,, moving towards me as if to strike me. For an instant I was almost paralyzed with fear. I was an adulterous wife and he was the King of Kings, whatever he did to me in this privacy no one would persecute him for. Suddenly Aegisthus was there and he threw a fishing net at him, tangling Agamemnon. I took advantage of my opportunity and flew at him then, taking the knife quickly out of the leather pouch strapped to my thigh. He caught my wrist through an opening in the net and twisted it painfully, looking at me straight in the eye. I spat in his face, his handsome face, and pushed him down, falling on top of him as we splashed into the pool. My knife went into his breast. He looked at me and turned us over, pushing me into the water. His breath came in short bursts as he died on top of me. "Die," I said, through my tears, "die." I stayed in the pool a long time, scarlet ribbons emanating from Agamemnon's body and dissipating in the water, tinting it.
I looked up as Aegisthus came in, dragging Cassandra with her. She looked absolutely horrified, seeing Agamemnon's lifeless body float in the red pool and me, stained red. I got out and walked towards her, relishing in my power over her. I shook my head. "Who'll protect you now, Trojan? Not that it makes a difference. I would have found some accident to befall you, killing you and the little brats. "Their lives aren't worth a fraction of Iphigenia's, and he lets them live. These Trojan bastards he lets live and not my royal Iphigenia!" I screamed, my voice choked with tears. In a second, she wriggled from Aegisthus and started to run away. I sprinted after her, pulling her back to me by her long, dark hair. She faced me, her face taking on a momentary expression of resoluteness and bravery and she hit at me, trying to knock the dagger from my hand. I quickly held it away and plunged it into her side, letting her drop down to the floor when I knew the life had escaped her. "Join him!" I shouted, putting the bloody knife back in the pouch. I sank to my knees, exhausted physically and emotionally.
I let Aegisthus drag me up. "You did the right thing," he assured me as he led me to another pool to cleanse ourselves.