Hey everybody,
Guess what? I uploaded a sneak peek of a new story that I may be working on. First warnings... it is just the first chapter and the start. It ends with a half-cliffhanger and I just really want all of you to check it out. You don't have to like it, but that is the point. I need more people to view it so I can determine if I take it down or I keep posting this. The idea just came to me one day, but I need all of you to know that I'm doing quite a bit of research for that story. Not too much, because I don't want to get historical stuff wrong, but enough so that you may learn of some things about other ancient civilizations. In any case, please check out that story so I get a feeling of whether I should continue it or drop it.
Thanks a bunch,
SharkAttack719
Chapter 8
The Nine Year Siege
There was no way the Greeks could destroy those walls. They were just too grand. Perseus heard the prophecy loud and clear, that Troy would fall by fire. That possibility seemed so distant that he rarely thought of it anymore.
Perseus rarely thought of the prophecies that had been told to him all those years ago. Calchas kept on bringing new news. Just a month after the duel between Paris and Menelaus, he found a sign that he said would determine how long it would take to bring the Fall of Troy.
He had seen a water snake slither up out of the water and devour a nest of nine sparrows. Calchas interpreted that as a godly sign saying Troy would not fall until the ninth year. How Calchas got year instead of month really puzzled Perseus.
Then there was Agamemnon. As more time passed, his confidence waned. Yet his leadership never faltered. As much wrong as he'd done, he was brave enough to still stand leader and attempt to persuade the Greek forces to attack the walls of Troy.
He also stopped attempting to ridicule Perseus, staying quieter whenever the son of Poseidon was around. It was weird seeing Agamemnon stare at him whenever he was around. It was almost as if the king were trying to analyze him.
The answer to the question he had asked Agamemnon just after the kidnapping of Cassandra became clearer in his head. Agamemnon was afraid of him and hated that someone seemed to hold more power than he did. He felt threatened. It was quite obvious and how Perseus hadn't figured that out was quite stupid of him. In either case, Perseus seemed to slowly delve into the acquaintance zone with Agamemnon.
There was so much that Perseus did to get Cassandra back into Troy, but for some reason, she said she didn't want to go back. She had been living her life as somewhat of an outcast, loved by her family yet never believed when she spoke of suspicions. She once broke free and ran off down the Scamander River. She was gone for twelve days.
Perseus didn't really mind and accepted that she really wanted to leave to go somewhere else. On the twelfth night, however, she returned to the tent saying that there was nothing out there that would make her feel comfortable.
By the end of the first year, Cassandra stopped negotiating with her family for her safe return.
Now, Perseus did a nightly sacrifice to Apollo just for Cassandra's sake. He knew she would be upset and angry that her family had refused to take her back with welcoming, open arms. It was interesting how the Trojans didn't believe the fact that Cassandra had truly been kidnapped without any free will. He couldn't believe that they would automatically assume that she's been seduced. It was almost as if a Greek-allied Olympian were persuading them not to.
It was a brutal siege, the Greeks eventually giving up attacking the Trojan walls. Instead, they began to plunder the land to their advantage. Originally, it was just to sack the villages and towns around Troy to gather food. Later, the strategy to destroying Trojan-allied towns became more complicated and heavily favored the Greeks. That all started with the destruction of Lyrnessus four years into the war.
"Lyrnessus was where I was supposed to be engaged," Brisēís said. "King Mynes almost had my hand in marriage until I decided to become a priestess of Apollo."
"Is it a big town?" asked Achilles.
"It supplies a lot of food to Troy," she said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it gently. "I suppose it helps the Trojans quite a bit."
"It would be a good place to set up some Greek outposts," Perseus said. He took a few steps up the hill before turning back to the couple. "Come on. Lyrnessus should be visible once we climb this small hill. We can determine if my strategy is a good fit."
"Right," Achilles nodded.
Brisēís and Achilles walked up the hill together following Perseus. As they reached the top of the hill, Perseus whistled. "That looks like a really large farm town."
Lyrnessus was another city in itself but the buildings and land that it was placed on looked completely rural. There was a palace and a citadel with buildings of similar fashion to Troy, but that part was quite minimal. Fields of crops and animal farms outlined the city like walls, and people filled packages of food before strapping them on horses.
The hill they had just climbed came from the south, but to the east of the city, another slope rose into a forest. It was evident that many men must have also been loggers, cutting down trees in that forest. To the west also went downhill, the Lyrnessians having the advantage there. To the north was a road that journeyed over short but rocky mountains most likely toward Dardanus, a very important city and ally of Troy.
Agamemnon was doing everything he could to dissuade the Dardanians to aid the Trojans.
Looking back at the city, it seemed as though there was a delivery line being prepared. To where it was going was a mystery to the three of them, but one thing Perseus got from this was that it would be the perfect place to get food.
And a week later, Achilles led a charge on Lyrnessus to sack the city and take control of the crops and animals.
"Myrmidons! Do what you must do to capture the city!"
A loud cheer erupted from the nearly twenty-five hundred Myrmidons. Perseus knew immediately that the people of Lyrnessus would now be on full alert of an attack. The Myrmidons were loud and their battle cry rang across the plains as if they were in a valley or canyon.
"Are we clear, Percy?" asked Achilles.
"Make sure we do not burn the city," he replied.
Achilles nodded and turned back to the Myrmidon army. "This is a capture, not a sack! We must preserve as much of the city as we can! Are you ready, my brothers?" The united nod of helmets was his answer. "Charge!"
A long, boisterous battle cry billowed across the plains once again as the Myrmidon army charged across the flat plains. Perseus glanced over to the east where Agamemnon and a small Greek envoy stood, watching as the Myrmidons went into action.
There was Menelaus, Nestor, a couple of guards and Agamemnon. Only Agamemnon noticed him looking at them.
The son of Poseidon nodded curtly at him before charging into the battle. It was quite an easy battle. Not many Lyrnessians were fighters, and most were captured, killed or had fled.
The only battle Perseus fought was with the king. Unfortunately, the king needed to be killed so that he couldn't bring the bad news to the other Dardanians. A king's word was much more powerful than a peasant's. Unless, of course, that peasant was well known.
Achilles and two guards subdued the king's wife and his daughter as Perseus duelled the king.
The king's name was Mynes.
"I don't wish to murder you in cold-blood, Mynes," he said. "It is just that you cannot live to tell the others about what has happened today."
Mynes was like most other king's of the world: brave. He held his sword up, pointed at Perseus' chest. "You let my people run off. Even so, I will not go down without a fight. Tell me your name so I can tell Hades to kill you."
Perseus curled his lip. "Of course. Tell him his nephew wishes not for these deaths and will repay them once the war is over."
King Mynes pressed his lips together so tightly that they were turning white. For a second, Perseus thought his shield-hand was trembling. "Nephew?"
The son of Poseidon pulled Anaklusmos out and pointed it right at Mynes' sword. "Let's dance."
He made the first move and feinted a side swipe before kicking the king straight in the chest. Not wanting to see the king's humiliation and suffering, he kicked Mynes' sword out of his hands and drove Anaklusmos into his chest.
"Argh!"
Perseus whirled around to see Mynes' wife and daughter take the guards' weapons and stab them both with them. Two Myrmidons were dead before Achilles could pull out his spear.
"You killed my husband," the older woman growled. "You will pay!"
Without warning, she charged at him with one of the guard's spears in hand. Before she could even get close to him, Achilles brought out his sword and stabbed Mynes' wife through her abdomen. Then he twisted up, pulled out and spun to meet the king's daughter at sword point.
"You will leave before I change my mind," he growled.
The girl dropped the spear with wide eyes and ran off.
Perseus ran over to the woman's body, which was bleed profoundly from the wound in her abdomen. She wasn't dead yet, though. There was very little time left, but she was still alive.
"My husband," she whispered.
"Shh." He rolled her onto her side. "Don't worry. You'll be reunited with your husband soon. Just give in to the pain. You'll feel timeless."
Within seconds, all signs of life had dissipated from her body and her eyes stared blankly, never seeing again. Perseus grabbed her bloody body and brought it over next to her husband before closing both of their eyes.
"Sorry, Percy," Achilles apologized. "She was just charging at you and—"
"It's fine, Achilles." He stood up and sighed heavily. For some reason, he felt a lot more tired and weary. "Like you said, I can't save every female in the world from death or suffering. Not even a god can do that."
"Right."
"Achilles!" Eudoros burst into the throne room with Patroclus following behind him. "The city has been captured. We have control over the farmlands, and all of the people have fled, been captured or have died. We've checked every building in the city."
"Good job, Eudoros," Achilles said. He glanced at the king and queen of Mynes. "Uh, Eudoros? Would you mind doing me a favor?"
"Sure, what is it, my king?"
"Wrap these two up and bring them to the camp or building we're setting camp up in," he said. "We're going to give the king and queen a proper funeral for fighting to protect their kingdom and home."
"All right." Eudoros waved Patroclus over. "Would you mind helping me with this, Patroclus?"
The said man looked at Achilles, who nodded, before walking over to help Eudoros with the two bodies. The two of them lugged the bodies out of the room leaving the two demigods alone in the throne room.
"You know, that was very considerate of you, Achilles," the son of Poseidon remarked. "You didn't have to do that for me and the Myrmidons. There is no need to give them proper funeral rites."
"I'm not doing that for the Myrmidons," the son of Thetis replied, chuckling. "I'm doing that to show you that I can respect the Trojan way of viewing things. Respect your enemy, and maybe they'll respect you back. I'm sure the word will travel through the entirety of the Troad region that we Myrmidons aren't ruthless murderers."
"Just city-sackers," Perseus grinned. He put an arm around Achilles, who was taller than him by a couple of inches.
Achilles put his own arm around Perseus. "Of course, master. Just city-sackers."
The two laughed it out before heading back to the Myrmidon outpost at Lyrnessus.
It wasn't long before the Greek armies began to receive the food from Lyrnessus. Ajax sent a whole hundred men to help work the farms and learn how to harvest vegetables. Most of the Myrmidons went back, but Perseus and about fifty other men stayed back to keep track of the outpost.
Some women were sent to Lyrnessus to work on the farm, but they were given complete freedom... aside from the fact that they would be detained if they tried to flee. The main thing was that they were given open, fresh air, and a decent place to stay for the night.
Even though he had only been on a farm for five years of his life (and the five least useful years), he knew a little bit about harvesting crops. He mostly had to learn from the women and some male slaves that had been captured.
Perseus spent most of his time farming animals. He fed the horses and had casual conversations with them. He helped some of the younger horses train. That was pretty much the only animal that could be tamed that they could find aside from goats. Perseus believed that they were from the Far East.
Often Perseus went into the wild and hunted for wild boars. They were always fun to mess with. He would always taunt them. It was just this weird feeling whenever he saw them. They reminded him of Ares, who wasn't exactly his best friend. After taunting them, he would kill them and bring them back to the camp to eat. There were a few deer, but not too many.
It was quite a relaxed period of time. Eventually, Perseus had to go back to the shores of Troy to deal with a little problem with the Trojans, but his time in Lyrnessus was wonderful and exciting.
Apparently, the Trojans had launched a sneak attack on the Greek camp and burned down an entire section of it with flaming balls of hay. It sounded like a pretty cool weapon of destruction, but some of the Myrmidon camp had been taken with them, so Achilles was pretty upset and angry.
There was another diplomatic conversation to be held with the Trojans talking about a deal in which that could end the war. Agamemnon dared to try another one of these. Perseus knew it wasn't such a grand idea, but at least it would be better than more Greek deaths.
The Trojans rode out of their city this time, a large part of their army behind them to meet the Greek force, which was still bigger but had a shortened line because of soldiers being sent to Lyrnessus.
Agamemnon rode at the head once again.
"I should just kill a bunch of those Trojans and see how they like their own troops dying," Achilles growled.
"Calm down, Achilles. We will avenge them eventually."
He nodded and stayed silent for the rest of the meeting.
Meanwhile, Agamemnon called all Greek kings forward. Perseus went forward either way, acting as a diplomat for Achilles, who was still silently seething at the death of some of his comrades. If this was the way Achilles reacted to the death of any Myrmidon, Perseus wondered what his reaction would be to Perseus' own death.
"Prince Hector, my you've grown," Agamemnon laughed. "Many years have passed since we have begun this war. But it will come to a close sometime soon, my prince. Now, we come with an idea to end this war. I believe my fellow Greek kings agree to this."
Perseus, not knowing what the idea was, didn't react at all.
"What do you offer now?" Hector asked stonily. "A mirror for Helen? How about another bunch of Trojan slaves?"
The King of Mycenae laughed at him. "By the gods, no. This time we offer your food supplies for Helen."
He gave Agamemnon the same astonished look that Perseus was giving him. "What do you mean by 'food supplies'?"
With a deep, satisfied breath, Agamemnon continued, "We will suck out your trade routes with your surrounding villages and towns. We may not attack Troy full on, but we will attack cities that surround your own that give you some food supplies. Villages will be attacked, food will be taken for us ourselves, and the villages that we do not need will be burned to the ground. Meanwhile, at each outpost, we will station our army in such a manner that if you attack one Greek outpost, you will quickly be dealt with. Should you attack with a large army, extra forces will arrive. We will not disappear from you Scamander River. But should you send scouts out to the Troad countryside, they will say that we are everywhere... or maybe they'll be dead."
Hector didn't say anything. Trying to mask his slight fear, he continued to stare at the King of Mycenae.
"Are you wondering where I got this idea from?" he asked. He sighed contentedly. "I saw the Myrmidons take Lyrnessus. When I realized what Perseus was doing, I got an idea that he must have been thinking of. We should create outposts and live on the land. But before you can live off the land, you have to make sure that the owners don't think of sucking you dry."
Like Perseus said, Agamemnon had really brought out his ingenuousness. Perseus had a feeling that his plan somehow involved the kings of Greece as a mobile unit that would travel from outpost to outpost to make sure things were in order. With Achilles and Perseus, that squad would be nearly unstoppable.
Despite their differences and quarrels, it was quite an ingenious idea.
"You don't know how many allies we have and how powerful they are," Hector retorted. "Even if you take cities and villages, not pillaging them will be the biggest mistake you make. You are in foreign lands. You are the ones that have to survive. If we clamp down on you, isolate you, there is no way your plan will work. Slowly, you will be eaten away."
As much as Agamemnon's plan was brilliant, Hector's retort was well backed up as well. The Greeks couldn't last forever. They were in foreign lands and could just be clamped on until they were sucked dry.
"How will you know how to suck us dry?" Odysseus said. Perseus was surprised the King of Ithaca had spoke, but then again, he shouldn't have been. "How do you know we haven't already infiltrated your Senate? How do you know we haven't already destroyed some of your most important allies?"
"And how would you know who our most important allies are?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I just thought, since I saw a raven, which is a sign of Apollo, soaring to the south, maybe your most important allies come from lands far away, like maybe those near the Parthians? Or even further south, further than Egypt."
That caught Hector by surprise. For only a split-second, the answer flashed in his eyes. But that split-second was enough for Perseus to tell Odysseus had somehow struck a blow.
How Odysseus managed to find out was mind-boggling and kind of... scary.
It took a few minutes of deliberation for Hector to decide that this was all a fake threat. The Trojans declined the deal and everything went back to the way they were before, except this time, there was to be a planned launch attack on the closest city to the south, a main city for that matter. It's name was Kolonai.
The siege of the town took four months, but Kolonai was doomed from the beginning.
There weren't too many troop losses for the Greeks, and Perseus kept shooting archers down with his extremely accurate shot, so that was pretty much how the town siege continued. Slowly, the Greeks managed to ram through the short wooden walls and deplete the army of Kolonai.
The city itself was in a very strategically advantageous area, so the city was kept as a coastal lookout just in case there were any enemy ships arriving from the south to aid the Trojans. The last battle was quite interesting for Perseus.
"Ram the walls!" Agamemnon shouted. "Ram the walls!"
There were a couple more slams before a section of the wall was blown into a shower of splinters and wood chips. But that didn't matter much to the Greek forces. The four thousand men began jamming into the tiny little hole in the wall that was made by the ram.
"Don't burn it down!" Achilles screamed from his position at the front. "Keep the city as strong as it can be!"
More Greek soldiers jammed their way through the crack, pushing the enemy further back as the walls began to fall into Greek hands. Perseus slung his bow over his shoulder and shouted for Odysseus.
"Odysseus!" he called. "Where are you?"
The King of Ithaca emerged out of the sea of warriors. "Here. Do you have another plan? Kolonai's army is doing their best to hold our men off. It won't last long, so we should continue pushing."
"Like you said, they won't last long," he said. "Come with me."
The son of Poseidon led them to the wooden gates which had been half broken, but the army that had been waiting to push them out of there was too strong. The fact that it was only half broken was advantageous to Perseus and Odysseus.
"Okay, on three, slam this door with your shoulder," Perseus ordered. "When the doors fly open, pull out your sword and fight anyone who tries to kill us, go it? This way, we'll have two entrances. Besides, since the Greeks have pushed through that wall, it won't be long before they control the door."
"Right."
"Okay. One... Two... Three!"
They both slammed into the wooden gates with as much strength as they could muster. The door barely moved.
"They have that metal bar blocking the door!" Odysseus grunted as they slammed into the doors once again. "We won't break through this way. We need something heavier."
"Oh really?" asked Perseus. "Because I didn't think the things holding the bar were made out of metal. I thought they were made out of wood. At least, unless they are more technologically advanced than us, right? One... Two... Three... Push!"
Without hesitation, they both battered the door.
"Hold the doors!" Perseus heard someone shout. "They're trying to get through that way!"
"Now!" he ordered, and they bashed the doors open.
The wooden gates flung backwards toward the city and pretty much slammed into anyone standing right behind them. Within a matter of seconds, Odysseus and Perseus met the pushing Greeks in the middle with dead Kolonai soldiers lying all around them, along with some Greek bodies.
There was no stopping now. Perseus, Achilles and Odysseus immediately ran toward the palace of the city, killing any stray soldier who tried getting in their way. The momentum was too much for anyone who tried stopping them.
Before anyone in the palace could blink, Achilles had smashed his way into the throne room. While Perseus smashed a guard's face into the wall, Odysseus played his little tricks.
"Ahh! A spider!" he screamed.
"I'm not falling for your stupid, little—"
"I'm not kidding!" Odysseus pointed to the man's shoulder. His acting was so believable that Perseus almost believed that there was a spider on the guard's shoulder. "Right there on your shoulder! By the gods, its pincers are right next to your neck. Don't move! Just extend your neck out to the opposite direction!"
The stupid guard followed his instructions, nearly whimpering. He stretched his neck out so far that if a spider had truly been there, a tasty treat would have just shown itself to her. (Perseus referred to spiders as "her" because Arachne was a her.)
"Let me just get it off your neck..." Odysseus, with lightning speed, brought his sword up and beheaded the soldier before kicking his headless body to the ground. "And there you go. Your fears are gone."
Perseus gave him an incredulous look. "I seriously cannot believe you just did that."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's get to Achilles."
They ran through to the throne room where Achilles was being pressed back by the King of Kolonai. The King of Kolonai was an obvious trained fighter and managed to strike a blow across Achilles' arm.
In return, Achilles somersaulted over the king and attempted to stab him through the back. Perseus was stunned when Achilles' blade shattered, just as if the king had taken a dip the River Styx as well.
Stunned by this, the king of Kolonai found the perfect opportunity to kick Achilles to the floor.
"I am Cycnus, son of Poseidon," the king announced. "You are but a mortal, and cannot defeat someone as great as me. How dare you enter my kingdom and attack it! You shall pay for this, Achilles, even if you are told to be invulnerable! But so am I, for you see, I am a demigod."
"Hey, Cycnus!" Odysseus shouted. "Over here."
The King of Kolonai slowly turned around and gave him a cruel-looking smile. Perseus could hardly believe that this was his half-brother. And the fact he was invulnerable just like Achilles kind of freaked him out.
In a flash, Cycnus threw a dagger from his belt the pierced right through Odysseus' shoulder. The King of Ithaca stumbled back in a daze as Perseus stepped forward.
"King Cycnus of Kolonai, son of Poseidon," he said. "It is nice to meet you, brother. Though I do not need impenetrable skin to defeat someone like you. Cocky, ignorant... all the qualities of an unskilled fighter."
"We shall see about that."
Cycnus made the first move and thrust his spear at Perseus. The more experienced demigod merely sidestepped and yanked the spear out of his hands. He took off the spearhead and whacked Cycnus across the face with the wooden stick.
The stick shattered and splintered, but the temporary daze that Cycnus was in would be all that Perseus would need to kill the King of Kolonai.
He leaped at the king and wrapped his arm around his throat before pulling back as hard as he could. Cycnus clawed at Perseus relentlessly, smacking him in the face hard a couple of times, but the immortal demigod didn't react. All he did was focus on strangling the King of Kolonai.
It wasn't long before Cycnus ran out of air.
Just to make sure Cycnus wasn't pretending to be dead, he kept a firm foot on the king's neck and dragged the foot around the room as he walked.
"Achilles! Odysseus! Are you two okay?"
He went to Odysseus first since the King of Ithaca had actually gotten stabbed. Achilles made his way over, a stunned expression still written across his face.
"Cycnus... he... how... what?"
"Must have been a godly present, but he's dead now," Perseus said. He yanked the knife out of Odysseus' shoulder. "Don't move, Odysseus. Just keep still."
As blood dripped from his wound, Perseus tore some of King Cycnus' clothing and used his to wrap Odysseus' shoulder wound.
"All right, Odysseus," he said. "Hold your left arm across your abdomen like this, and cross your right arm over like this. Keep it that way until we get you to the infirmary so they can treat it properly. We don't want to move that wound too much."
Achilles helped Perseus help Odysseus up.
"Why did you kill him in cold-blood like that?" Achilles asked, looking back at Cycnus.
"He reminded me too much of Heracles, plus he was my supposed brother," was his response. "Not exactly the best family you could possibly have, huh?"
Agamemnon burst into the room followed by at least a dozen Greek warriors. Immediately, he told four of them to help Odysseus to the infirmary that had been set up just outside the city walls.
Then, when they were on their way, he looked at Cycnus' dead body.
"Well, looks like you two cleaned up well in here," he said. There was an awkward silence that followed. After a little while, he coughed and said, "Why don't you two head back to the camp? We'll take care of Cycnus' body."
"Right," Achilles muttered.
He and Perseus made their way to the door when Agamemnon called, "Perseus."
The said demigod turned around and gave him an expectant look.
The King of Mycenae seemed to be at a loss for words, which was a first. "I—I forgot."
The son of Poseidon nodded. "All right. See you later." Then he followed Achilles out of the palace and back to the small campsite that they had been holed up in.
After that, they travelled all across the Troad region and captured settlements all over the place. Some were burned, some were salvaged. Some cities had grand names that most Trojans knew about. Some were unknown towns nobody knew about.
Four years had passed since the beginning of the Siege of Troy. Five years passed until the Greeks controlled most of the territory surrounding Troy and Dardanus. The only thing the Greeks could do with the Thracians was make a temporary ceasefire.
But it was in that ninth year of the Siege of Troy that it really turned into the Trojan War. It was in that ninth year that the Trojans would finally begin sending armies to fight against the Greek armies.
The only thing was that the ninth year also brought a terrible conflict that would lead to a string of tragedies, ending with the final battle and the death of a great hero.
Hey everyone,
Hope you enjoy this chapter. Remember to tell me if you like it or not.
I apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above and if any historical facts are actually wrong. I have spent my time looking through different websites, and even a couple of books, but the story that will continue may have incorrect historical info. Still, I believe it just adds to the effect.
Thanks a bunch,
SharkAttack719
