Hello... thanks for the reviews and all...
Now, here's chapter 25..
Chapter 25
Achilles boarded the ship, and asked the Myrmidons to start to sail back to Phthia.
He ran into his room, and put Briseis onto his bed. He observed his lover who was lying on his bed. The blood stain on her robe had started to dry; and her face started to flush a bit, and she looked more like herself. And Achilles knew, nothing was threatening the girl's life. And he felt relieved. The sunlight streamed into his room from the window, and Briseis' face seemed to gleam. She looked so much like a goddess, and no one would deny it. The king of Chios had also said so: There is also a friend of them, who looks like the goddess of beauty herself. I don't know who she is, but please, don't hurt her too. Everyone loved Briseis; she was too sweet and kind to be hated by anyone.
Achilles thanked himself for keeping his promise to the king. If he had not tried to find the three guests of the king, he would never meet Briseis again. Actually, he was very grateful to himself. If he only he had found Briseis earlier, he would never let the king dies.
But now, he could never raise the king to life again.
He wondered who this Acoetes was. Briseis had treated him kindly, and he felt very bad about it. Briseis had even put her own hands on top of his when she was whispering to him! Once again, Achilles felt his blood boiled in his veins when he saw the vision again. It looked like that Briseis and he were a couple; and it made Achilles himself seemed to be the villain who separated the couple.
Was Briseis doing this because she wanted to make him jealous? Maybe. But it seemed to him that, Briseis would be willing to give up her life for that Acoetes!
The robe of hers was stained with dried blood, and Achilles thought it did not suit the girl anymore. He picked up a dress from the wardrobe. The dress was pure white, and it was the one Briseis always wore those days when she was in the palace of Phthia. It was her favorite. Achilles took it with him when he was going to the war, he had thought that it would be an encouragement for him. Slowly, he removed her blood-stained robe, and helped her to put on her favorite one.
Achilles looked back to Briseis again. She was still wearing the seashell necklace that he gave her as a gift of love. She still loves me, Achilles thought. She is probably only still angry with me...
Briseis stirred a bit, and it caught the young man's attention. He looked at her as she opened her eyes a bit fuzzily, and started to focus at the world around her. She looked around the room, and was startled to find Achilles sitting right next to the large and comfortable bed. She sat up abruptly and backed away from him, fear and rage in her amazingly attractive eyes. She looked at herself, and back to Achilles, only to find that the man was holding the robe which she had been wearing when she was captured by the man.
'What have you done to me?' Briseis asked furiously. She was very alarmed, and was hoping that blond man had not...
'I thought your robe is too dirty, so I helped you to change it.' Achilles stated plainly.
'What?' Briseis nearly screeched. 'No man ever touched me, except for my cousins!' She swallowed, and she looked panicky and bewildered. 'You... have you looked at me? Disrobed?'
Achilles shrugged, 'What is it? It's not like I haven't seen it before.'
'But I'm the priestess of Apollo! How dare you...' Briseis panicked, not knowing if her god would forgive her. She had been unconscious after all. She looked back at Achilles. He was smiling at her. This man was very charming, and she could not deny it. With clear blue eyes like a pool of ice water, everyone could drown in them. But his charm would not make Briseis forgive him.
'Briseis? Are you alright?' Achilles asked gently.
How does he know my name? Briseis did not respond. This man was her captor, yet he was treating her so gently and kindly, and Briseis found it quite hard to believe it. Maybe he wants to... Briseis shuddered at the thought. She would be punished by Apollo severely if she submitted to this man.
He reached for her hands, and Briseis backed away. 'Don't touch me!' she reproached.
Achilles lost his temper at last, 'Briseis! Stop pretending! You're hurting my pride! I've already suffered, and stop making me feel like trash!'
'What am I pretending? I'm only protecting myself! I'd rather you kill me than rape me!' Briseis yelled.
Achilles fumed, and said, 'What? You consider those nights as I raping you? I can recall that you made love to me very willingly!'
Smack!
Briseis had slapped Achilles so hard that his cheek stung a bit. 'What are you-?'
'I never know you! Don't insult me! Do you think I will make love to you? You're evil! I hate you!' Briseis' words stung Achilles even harder than her slap. I hate you! Those words rang through his mind over and over again.
'Fine,' Achilles retorted. 'Go on fuming over me until you feel right!' He stood up and left the room.
Briseis sat there, quivering with fury and rage. How could he assault her in this way? It was cruel. What did he want? She had nothing to give except...
This man is lascivious. Briseis decided.
She looked around, and knew that there was no way of escaping. She was in a ship, trapped in the sea... She hugged her legs to herself and started to cry.
For two days, Achilles and Briseis were having a heated argument: Achilles was accusing Briseis for still being angry with him, and pretending not to recognize him; while Briseis was still fuming over Achilles' words about her already his woman. Whenever Achilles tried to kiss her forcefully, she slapped him and turned away from him. She slept on the floor when Achilles climbed onto the bed. Briseis refused to talk to him. She did not understand most of his words anyway. He had always talked about the old days when they were together, but Briseis always yelled at him, and told him nothing had happened between the two before. Then Achilles would stomp out of the room furiously, slamming the door loudly with his powerful hands.
Achilles did not understand why Briseis refused to talk about the old times and always deny the history of them. He had no one to ask for advice, so, at the third day, he went to Patroclus for help at last. It was quite embarrassing, and he was unwilling to ask Patroclus for help. Patroclus was younger than he after all. It was even more embarrassing that Patroclus was a man... He wanted to talk to his mother, but he heard from the other Nereids that she had gone Aphrodite's place for a talk.
So he knocked at Patroclus' door reluctantly, and went in.
'How is she?' Achilles was greeted by these words the moment he stepped into Patroclus' room.
'She's still furious with me.' Achilles said emotionlessly. He had started to grow tired of the fight between Briseis and him. 'I don't really understand why she needs to pretend not to remember me.'
'I recon that you have treated her badly these days,' Patroclus said, trying to think of a conclusion. 'Maybe she is furious that you are treating her harshly. Next time you enter the room, talk to her as gentle as possible. Silent her with a passionate kiss, and I think everything will be okay...'
Achilles had wanted to point out the fact that Briseis was pushing him away every time he walked closer to her. But maybe if he treated her kindly, her anger would melt like ice in the sun...
.........................................
Briseis was getting better day by day. Her left arm was gaining strength every day, and she felt a lot better.
However, Briseis did not understand. For the first few days of haste and brutality and strangeness, her captor began to treat her very gently, and with great kindness. But Briseis still ignored him. She would toss her head, stamp her foot, and turn away from him whenever he talked to her. She would not speak to him; and even if she spoke, she would be telling him that she would never forgive him of taking of her robe without her permission, and she would hate him always. As she launched these tirades at him, he would stand and listen and frown with puzzlement, and keep listening until she flounced away. Then he would leave the room, shaking his head (and was going to find Patroclus for help).
Briseis would then sat on the bed again, and thought of what had happened in these few days in the ship. She would thought of how he had put his mighty arm around her stalk-slender waist, when they were having their argument on the first two days; she would remember when he had drank her screams with his own lips when they were in the palace, just before Cleo barged into the room and tried to attack Achilles.
She would wonder if Acoetes and Cleo were alright. She hoped they had made their way out of the palace without any harm. She did not want Acoetes to save her, as it would be dangerous for the prince of Eretria to do it, seeing that Achilles was always there.
On the fifth day, the ship arrived at Phthia, and on the way to the palace, Briseis found that this place seemed so familiar. Even the palace, she knew the corridors and the rooms. She could remember the names of the maids and servants easily, like she had seen them once already. She knew how to get to the garden by herself, and she always thought of Achilles' room as hers (she slept in Achilles' room when she still had her memories), although her room was next to his.
So she stayed there. Achilles was treating her like his guest, he gave her rubies and diamonds to play jacks with, and had beautiful dresses spun for her. And slowly, she found that Achilles was not as bad as she had thought after all.
At the same time, when Briseis was starting to treat Achilles in a more polite and mannered way, Achilles started to realized that all the time Briseis was not pretending that she had forgotten about him; his lover really had lost her memories. The way she looked at him was not the same, and he knew that Briseis could never hide her love for him, even when she had been angry with him.
Achilles had thought of ways of helping her to regain her memories again, but there was no solution.
But he would not give up. He still loved her with all his heart; and he would not give up on her. Even it meant that he had to woo her. Again.
Hey, how's that? I enjoy writing this chapter a lot. It flowed easily out from my keyboard...
Anyway, review!
