Achilles could scarcely believe what he had just heard. Of course he understood that Odysseus was king and a politician with other loyalties and concerns besides their friendship, but he never imagined that the old fox would actually follow through on his threat to tell Priam about his relationship with Paris. "You betrayed me," he fumed.

Odysseus blinked as if trying to force his mind into the present. "I what?" he asked, sounding confused.

"You heard me! You actually believe that appeasing Priam is more important than being true to your supposed friends, or even just giving an unhappy boy a chance at happiness," Achilles snarled back. "You've betrayed my trust and put Paris in danger. How can you not understand this by now? Priam knowing about our relationship puts my lover in danger. I can't stay here; I have to go to him. I have to get him out of Troy!"

Before he could even take a step in the direction of the door Odysseus was on his feet and blocking the exit. "Wait," he pleaded, holding his hands out as if to show Achilles that he meant him no harm. "I don't think you understand what I'm trying to tell you."

The warrior had no intention of listening to his lies. "No, the problem is that I finally understand you all too well," he hissed venomously. "Nothing is more important to you than establishing this alliance with Troy. Do you have it now? Is Troy now Ithaca's sworn ally? You pathetic, foolish bastard; do you honestly believe that it means anything more than you being obligated to get involved with each and every conflict that Priam wants to engage in? Do you think that he cares at all what happens to you or your people? Well, you'll soon find out how quickly he sends his army to your aid when my Myrmidons have drenched the ground of Ithaca with blood!"

Odysseus' eyes widened as he sharply drew in a breath. "I didn't –"

"What about Paris?" continued Achilles, ignoring the king's words altogether. There was nothing that he could say that Achilles was interested in hearing at the moment. "Do you realize what his father threatened to do to him if we even so much as looked at each other in a way that his paranoid little mind deemed inappropriate? He's going to throw Paris to our men with the firm belief that they will rape him to death! Do you think he's going to stop there when that doesn't happen?"

"Oh dear gods, it really is true," whispered Odysseus, bowing his head as he fought to keep the bile down.

"No one will touch him as long as I live," vowed Achilles fiercely. "Myrmidon, Ithacian, Trojan – it doesn't matter. I'd kill them all before I let any one of them put him through that kind of ordeal. But what if Priam has me killed before he carries out his threat? My Myrmidons still wouldn't do such a thing. What about your men, Odysseus? Will you stop them from tearing Paris apart in the event that my guts become decorations for the gates of Troy?"

A nasty gleam came into Achilles' eyes as a thought came to him. "I finally understand," he continued. For the first time in his life he was so enraged that he literally couldn't move – which was fortunate for Odysseus because if he could have, he would have broken in neck in an instant. "I finally know why you've been acting the way you have ever since you realized that I was interested in him. You lust after Paris. You want his father to toss him to the Greeks so that you can have your proper turn with him, don't you, you son of a bitch?"

This was too much for Odysseus' beleaguered mind to handle. In a split second his head snapped up and he punched Achilles in the face. The warrior staggered back, more out of shock than because he was actually hurt. "How dare you?" demanded an almost hysterical-sounding Odysseus. "I would never – I have a child of my own – not that – oh Athena!" At the broken cry to the goddess, Odysseus looked upward and struggled to steady himself. "I didn't tell King Priam anything," he yelled out in frustration and turmoil.

"What?"

"I didn't tell him anything about you and Paris," reiterated Odysseus. "I said that I had an eye-opening conversation with him, but it wasn't his eyes that were opened. It was mine. How could he even think about doing something like that? No father in the world would do something like that!"

Achilles looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded, confusion quickly taking the place of anger now that he knew that the secret of his and Paris' relationship was still intact. "Have you taken leave of your senses?"

"He is Prince Paris' father," stressed Odysseus as if that point was supposed to set the world back in order but failing miserably at the task. "A father is supposed to love his child more than anything else in the world. What kind of a life has the prince had with a father who would do such a thing? I could never do to Telemachus what King Priam plans to do to his son!"

"Do what to Paris?" cried Achilles in a panicked tone. Ithaca's king was always so calm and capable of thinking clearing even under the horribly stressful circumstances. What about Priam's plans for Paris drove him into this fit?

"You honestly don't know?" Odysseus asked him. "Prince Paris didn't tell you?"

"I've told you everything that Paris has ever told me about his father," Achilles told him. "Do you think I would have kept something capable of making you see the truth about Priam a secret?"

"He must not have wanted you or anyone else to know," commented Odysseus, still trying to wrap his mind around the situation. "Poor boy; what he must go through…"

Achilles couldn't handle any more of these maddening hints. "What did you and Priam talk about? Tell me, Odysseus – I have to know."

"I was just sitting there looking at Prince Paris' chair," Odysseus explained in a flow of words that teetered on the edge of rambling. "He saw. Priam saw and he asked me if I was thinking about the prince. I couldn't very well tell him that I was pondering the ramifications of you deflowering his youngest child, so instead I asked him why the prince wasn't being trained to be a soldier. He said that he had different plans for him. I asked if he wanted Prince Paris to become a priest, but he scoffed at that. He said – he said that the boy wasn't pure enough to enter into Apollo's service."

"That is a dishonorable lie!" fumed Achilles. "Paris is pure. I have no doubt in my mind that he had never lain with another before tonight. Even now he remains pure because we love each other. Who told the king otherwise? I'll rip his slandering tongue right out of his skull!"

If anything Odysseus looked even more pained. "I knows that the prince is – well, was – untouched." The king sounded utterly devastated. "He thinks – oh, but how could he? He told me that Prince Paris was destined to be a whore."

Achilles heard the words but, even with all of what he knew about Priam's true nature, he couldn't believe it. "That's not possible," he uttered, shaking his head. "No one is that blind. Not even Priam – by the gods, then why does he care so much about what I do with his son?"

"He said that Prince Paris was going to become a palace prostitute," elaborated Odysseus. "That he'll be trained in the arts of pleasure when he turns eighteen. He must not want him to join with anyone before then – I suppose his purity will give King Priam a lot of leverage when it comes tomaking demandsduring alliance negotiations and other such situtations."

"Paris won't be here when he's eighteen," declared Achilles. "In fact, he won't be here when the sun rises tomorrow!"

"Achilles, wait," begged Odysseus. The warrior stunned him by actually pausing. "You can't just burst into the boy's chambers and drag him off against his will. How would that be any less terrifying than what King Priam is planning to do? Don't take away his choice in the matter."

Why had he stopped? He wasn't obligated to listen to Odysseus' half-informed advice, no matter how badly he felt about his earlier accusations. "It won't be against his will," Achilles explained impatiently. "He asked me tonight to take him away from Troy. This new information just pushes forward the date of our departure."

While the political side of him was relieved that the two didn't just vanish into the night, Odysseus was dumbfounded as to the reason why Paris would actually want to delay his flight from such an awful future. "Why in the world would he want to wait?" he asked.

"Hector. He wanted to have the chance to explain everything to Hector and give him a proper goodbye."

Suddenly Odysseus could breathe again. "Prince Hector!" he exhaled. "Of course, Achilles. Oh, thank the gods!"

"What are you babbling about now?" asked Achilles, baffled by the abrupt change in his demeanor.

"There's a chance that we can salvage all that we came here to do and still protect the prince," said Odysseus hurriedly. "Prince Hector is by all accounts a good and noble man. He's also the one who's actually in charge of Troy's army. It stands to reason, then, that if you do as Prince Paris requests and just wait until he can talk to his brother, Prince Hector will actually be able to do something about all this."

"Such as what?" questioned Achilles snidely.

"He could talk some sense into their father," replied Odysseus with the perfect mixture of resolve, hope, and desperation. "Prince Hector is King Priam's heir and second-in-command. He's in a better position to put a stop toit without starting a bloody war."

A hideous thought made Achilles' blood run cold. "It also puts him in the position to know about all of this already."

"No. No, no, no. You know that's not true," insisted the king.

"And how would I know something like that?" The petulance was back in Achilles' voice.

"He's a good man!" Odysseus cried, not caring how undignified he sounded. He'd gladly sacrifice his pride if it kept Achilles from taking off with Paris when a reasonable alternative was available. "Prince Paris obviously loves him. I'm sure he knows nothing about his father's plans. Prince Hector – "

"That would sound so much more convincing if you hadn't just spend the last few days trying to convince me that Priam really didn't mean Paris any harm," Achilles spat out in disgust.

"This is different," Odysseus argued stubbornly. "I just didn't want to see King Priam's attitude towards his son for what it really was. I admit that, Achilles. But there are no talks, no rumors, that Prince Hector is anything like that. I heard he even stopped Agamemnon from forcing himself on his brother."

"Paris told me about that," admitted Achilles begrudgingly.

Odysseus sent a silent prayer of thanks to whatever god or goddess was responsible for that. "Please think about this rationally: why would he do that if he thought that Paris was supposed to be a prostitute?"

"Perhaps because he didn't want to lose the inciting bargaining chip that Paris' virginity would be to someone who would take it without offering Troy anything in return! You said it yourself, Odysseus," Achilles exploded, working himself into a state the more he thought about it. "No, Hector is smart enough to know that he could demand almost anything if he could offer the opportunity to deflower the most beautiful person in the world as compensation."

"Achilles –"

"Don't," warned Achilles. "Just save your words and get out, Odysseus. We won't just disappear tonight, but I can no longer rely on the promises of kings and princes to keep my love safe. All I ask now is that you don't get in my way."

To be continued…