A/N: I went to semi-formal with one of my guy friends, it was so much fun. Also I finally bought the first season of CSI so I've been watching that religiously. Between those two I have managed to write the eighth chapter. Woot woot, snaps for me. Anyways, this is the chapter I finally get to write something interesting (more interesting than feasting, fighting and cheating on spouses, that is). I've been listening to Oasis a lot so the future characters may or may not be morose, sullen, so on and so forth. Just a heads up.
Chapter eight - The Beginning of the End
"Melanon why can't I go to war?" Hentayol's naivety brought a smile to his sibling's faces.
Melanon picked up his brother. "Because you haven't finished your training yet. When you do I give you my word that you may come to war with Pramadas and Cariaxis and Balcamen and Brisantho and me." The tolling bell almost muted his words.
Hentayol's eyes narrowed while he studied his brother for a moment. "Do you promise?"
"I promise." He said with a smile and set his younger brother down.
Briseis embraced him next. "Be careful." She said quietly.
"You'll be watching from the wall?" Melanon asked softly.
"I'll be with Andromanche, yes."
"Good." He embraced her once more and made to walk out the door. Pramadas crouched next to Cartanye, listening to the young boy's words with a smile.
"Don't kill too many Greeks," Cartanye told his elder brother sternly. "Or there won' be enough to fight the rest of the Trojans and you should all be able to kill one of those Greek dogs." Briseis put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Pramadas said, trying to hide a grin. He ruffled Cartanye's hair the way he always had and stood to face Briseis.
"You heard the man, leave some of those Greeks dogs for the rest of the army to slaughter." She said, mocking her brother even though he was too young to realize it. While he embraced her she whispered to him. "I know you've always been somewhat of a glory hound, don't do anything too stupid."
"Don't worry I won't." He let go of his twin and walked to the door where his brothers waited for him. "Well, Hector should be waiting for us." And the five brothers walked out the door, Briseis smiled at them; she was used to having to stay strong when she felt like breaking down in tears.
"Well you all should go back to the center of the city." Briseis said, her voice unwavering. "All of you move it." She said lightheartedly. "Andromanche will be waiting for me and its horrible manners to be late for a princess." She smiled at them all and they walked out of the room to where ever they were expected. She however, stayed not wanting the moment to pass.
"Briseis, will they all come back?" She felt Hentayol pulling at the bottom of her dress. She bent down and embraced her younger brother placing her chin lightly on his dark head.
"I don't know Hentayol." She ran her fingers through his chestnut hair, "I really don't know."
"I hope they do, Melanon and Pramadas are the most brilliant brothers I have."
She paused for a moment still embracing the young boy. "They are aren't they? We'll just have to pray to Apollo that they do come back, won't we?"
Hentayol nodded vigorously. "Because if they don't come back I'll never learn how to fight."
"There are other people who can teach you to fight Hentayol." Briseis said comfortingly.
"No there aren't." The young boy said with a pout. "Father's gone and if I lose Melanon and Pramadas there'll be no one."
Briseis spoke quietly, "Hentayol, you forgot about me." She broke the embrace and turned him towards her, gripping his arms tightly. "Where ever you are, you'll always have me."
Andromanche could almost feel her heart breaking as she saw Hector ride away. She whimpered as the Apollonian guard began to fade into the distance, Briseis snaked her hand into the princesses and Andromanche gripped it tightly.
She knew that Briseis was fighting her own demons in her head but it comforted her that she kept her word to Andromanche by being on the wall. How she could stand watching her family ride away to almost certain death was beyond Andromanche.
It took her a moment to realize that Briseis was singing to herself. The blood that had been thundering in her ears had stopped her from hearing it before but Briseis was most definitely singing. Quietly so that no one else could hear it but singing none the less.
"Till the end of forever
Is how long spirits may soar
And the waves of the ocean
May crash on to the shores
And dew may dance merrily
On tips of green grass
And long peaceful moments,
May quietly pass.
Till the end of forever-"
"I don't think I've ever heard that song before." Andromanche whispered to the noblewoman.
She gasped. "Oh I'm sorry. I-I didn't think anyone else could hear me." She avoided the princess's gaze.
"No it's beautiful. Did you write it?" She questioned softly. Briseis shook her head mutely.
"No it was my mother's song from when I was a child." She looked towards the beaches of Troy. "She would sing it to me almost every night. When father and I would fight or Pramadas and I or Melanon and I. All she had to do was sing that song and there would be no one in the world but me and her. Nothing else mattered when she sang that song." Her voice never wavered while she was talking about her mother, Andromanche noticed. Briseis was stronger than her, Andromanche's mother was still alive and it hurt to talk about her.
"You never told me how they died, did you?"
Briseis gave her a quizzical look. "Didn't I?" The princess shook her head, looking kindly at her friend. "They died when I sixteen. Hentayol was a week or so old, Pramadas and I raised him, he never knew his parents. My brother's parents were his siblings, I always felt bad because of that."
"You and your brother raised him well. He's a wonderful child."
"Thank you." She was still staring intently at the beach, the wind pushing her dark hair back from her face making her seem more goddess than woman. "You know that Hector and I were engaged when I was eighteen so my parents were never there. Anyways, one day when my family was standing on that beach two men came." Andromanche knew she meant the beach Briseis' brothers were now fighting on. "My father was a seasoned warrior, he had killed many men. I guess he just took the life of one too many. These two men were the brothers of a noble my father had slain. They landed on the beach, killed my father with three arrows to the chest and then they slaughtered my mother too." She ran a hand through her mane of hair. "Then they sailed away before we could do anything. We were far from our palace so when we arrived back they were already..."
Andromanche knew what she meant. "It's too bad they couldn't see what their children grew to be." The princess had never dealt with this side of Briseis, that was Hector's specialty. "Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if they had lived? If the doctors had gotten to them quickly enough?"
Briseis looked Andromanche straight in the eye. "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had never married Hector?" She didn't answer. "You don't because you're happy with your life, and I'm happy with mine. There is no point to dwelling the past, my parents didn't live and there's no point making up lives where they did." She looked back towards the beach. Andromanche could tell the conversation was over by the far away look in Briseis' eyes. The look she got when she was thinking.
"Why are the Greeks heading towards the temple of Apollo?" Andromanche asked frightened at the answer. The men on the platform suddenly went uncomfortable.
"These are no ordinary Greeks." Briseis replied, monotonously. "These are myrmidons.
More than one whispered nobleman's voice carried a frightened gasp. Briseis, however, continued.
"They will take the temple. Kill the priests, take the women as slaves." She shook her beautiful, dark head. "Today's battle if done; the beach is lost." Andromanche drew a sharp breath in spite of herself.
Briseis stayed emotionless as she left the platform, down the cold stone steps.
As though the noblewoman had predicted the scene, the Trojans headed back to their city. Hector rounding up the last of them and made his way back to Troy with the rest.
"How is it that one man's greed can spring a battle so great?" Helen's small voice carried over the Trojan gardens. The dead soldier's bodies had been burned and her husband was in court with his father and brothers. "Why is my being here causing such despair? My being with Paris is no crime. Why have the Gods cursed me so?" Helen held her head in her fair hands.
"The Gods have not cursed you, Helen. They gave you love. Only it came much too high a price." Briseis whispered from behind the princess.
"I didn't hear you there. I'm sorry I'm just..." Helen tried to look strong in front of Briseis but failed. "Love in the midst of war is no love at all." The other woman sat beside the Trojan princess. "Paris has been spending all of his time planning and being with Hector, inspecting the troops. We do not have time to ourselves anymore."
"I don't mean to sound...cruel but what were you thinking when you came here? That there would be no war?"
"Well of course not. I know Menelaus would never give me up without a fight. I knew that he would come to Troy." She faced Briseis, tears streaming down here face. "The women in court, they spout curses at me when no man is around. They call me a disease on Troy, a Greek whore. Do you have any idea how that feels? To have the entire world against you?"
"You have no idea; I've been called everything you have and then a hundred times over. People hate those who are different, who aren't the exact same as them. The women in court are afraid of how you've altered their lives." She looked Helen in the eye. "Do you know what my father told me?" The princess shook her magnificent golden head. "He told me that if I'm not myself, who am I? That no one is completely sure why they've been put on this earth, but if you try to be someone else there is no reason for you to be here. To try and mimic someone else's life is to forsake your own." Briseis titled her head but continued to stare at the princess.
"I wish I had met your father." Helen said quietly. "He sounds more like a philosopher than a warrior."
Briseis laughed. "He was; he hated war. Said it didn't solve anything." She sighed. "He said even the wisest of men could still be naïve, that a title makes no better than any other. He said that two men, one in rags and one in robes, are still only two men. The only thing that matters is what you do with your life, when you die people remember you. That's reality, but what's important is what they remember you for."
"You miss him don't you?" Helen asked throatily.
"Of course I do, don't you miss your father?" The royal nodded sadly, "When he did I spent days at a time just thinking, what would he have done about this or about that. That's all I thought about, for days."
"When I was sent to Sparta I missed my family, it was like someone had taken part of me." Briseis nodded slowly. "I was only sixteen, I didn't know Menelaus. I never loved him, and he never loved me."
"Do you love Paris?" She asked quietly.
"Yes of course, every time I'm with him it's as though all of my problems don't exist. That it's only me and him in the entire world."
"And isn't that reason enough to stay?" She grinned at the princess and started to walk up the steps to the palace's guest quarters
"Briseis." Helen called loudly. "For a while I thought you hated me, now you're consoling me in the middle of the night?"
"That is strange, but what can I say; war brings people together." She smiled at the princess one last time before vanishing up the stairs.
"How was the battle? Were the Trojans strong? Did you see Hector? Was he a good warrior? Are the stories true?" Patroclus followed his cousin around the Greek camp like a dog follows its master.
"By the Gods what is with all of the questions?" Achilles replaced his gold breastplate onto the wooden stand. He sighed when he saw the youth's saddened face. "No I didn't fight Hector, I saw him though. Cut right through the line, I fought another warrior, younger. Dark hair, bright blue eyes, would have killed him too if his brother hadn't rescued him. Cari-Cariaxim or something, he wasn't nearly experienced enough, but his brother was though. Must've been trained by Ares himself."
The fear in Patroclus' eyes was evident by now. Achilles took a swig of wine, "Don't worry; with your training I'm sure you'd be an equal match at least." He smiled at his kin's inexperience.
"I spoke with Odysseus today while we were setting up camp." Patroclus admitted quietly. Achilles had advised his cousin to avoid the sly King but apparently his advice had been in vain. "He told me that you were going to raid Troy's surrounding villages, kill any Trojans stubborn enough not to leave their homes, take any of the women as concubines."
"And...? This is the way of war cousin; there is no place for mercy in war." Achilles said maliciously. "That is the way things are."
"I know that, but even you said Agamemnon wants the soldiers of Troy. He wants the people not the land."
"How can you be sure? The great King of Kings is a greedy man." He spat out Agamemnon's informal title.
"Well I asked Odysseus and he said there was little danger in such raids." He sat beside his cousin. "You must let me fight." He demanded, the one man who could make a demand from the great Achilles and still have his head on his shoulders at nightfall.
"Fine, you may partake in the raids, but during the battles you stay here." He looked his cousin in the eye. "Is that understood?"
Patroclus rolled his eyes and stood to leave the tent. "Perfectly understood."
There was a slight silence after the youth had left. Achilles suddenly felt the dank and clutter of the tent.
He poured the rest of his wine onto the sandy ground and exited the leather dwelling. His were certainly not the most glamorous quarters but his were among the soldiers. Achilles looked towards the tents of Agamemnon with disgust.
"Eudorus," He bellowed. A smaller burly man hurried to his side. "What is that palace?" He pointed towards the magnificent ivory building, constructed on a small cliff it was certainly the most splendid of all of the palaces in the area.
"I believe that was the palace of Theyodus of Troy but he passed away years ago."
"So who lives there now?" Achilles asked impatiently.
"Must be one of his sons, according to the stories he had many sons." Eudorus was not very learned in Trojan nobility so this Theyodus must have been important to stick out in his mind.
"Any stupid enough to stay in the palace during a war?" Achilles wanted Eudorus shook his head. "What about daughters? Young maidens of any kind?"
"One daughter, stubborn as Hades from what I've heard about her." Achilles cocked his head at the myrmidon. "She wouldn't go back to her palace; unless she needed to, I'm sure of it."
"Is she attractive?" Achilles asked nonchalantly, so far this nobleman's daughter seemed unimportant.
"Very, long black hair, deep blue eyes, stunning body." He shook his head as though remembering something.
"What is it?" The warlord's interest was sparked.
"I just recalled her name. You'll recognize it," Achilles raised an eyebrow. "Ever heard of Briseis." He raised his second eyebrow.
"As in Briseis of the white palace?" Her reputation as the concubine of Hector was known through-out the world.
"Yes, she's smarter than Odysseus; unless the God's feel unexpectedly generous I don't think we'll be meeting her on this visit to Troy."
Hector smiled at Andromanche as she sat down again. Everyone in court was, as expected, overjoyed at the incoming birth of an heir to Troy's throne. Helen and Hecuba were fawning over the expectant princess and the rest of court was applauding. The only person that didn't seem to be congratulating one of the hopeful parents was Cassandra.
The usually raving princess seemed uncommonly still. Her empty eyes were turned towards the crown-prince but they held no emotion, no exuberant expression of delight. As the crowd finally died down Priam spoke.
"This is spectacularly good news for everyone in Troy. Now we have an insurance that the line of Kings will continue with my son's child." He looked at Hector proudly. "However we have more pressing issues at hand." Everyone went silent. "The Greeks have taken the beach, as you all now know. Under Hector we retreated, to save Trojan life. Those who did not survive this battle have been given the proper funeral rights as warriors of Troy. We can defeat the Greeks, our walls will stand through this war, our people will survive and our lands will flourish." Priam was old but he had never lost his ability to sway men's opinions.
"We will beat the Greeks into the sea where they belong." One nobleman yelled.
"Send them back to Greece with their tail's between their legs."
"Wait." Hector yelled above the inane bellowing of upperclassmen. "The Greeks are not senseless dogs. Dogs though they may be, they have strategists. They will not beat on even if their army suffers. So far they have the advantage, we have no won the battle but we have not lost the war either. I support the Trojan cause as much as the next man but I know that if we neglect a strong strategy we will fall."
The court went silent after he finished. He looked towards the curtains containing the women and there was Cassandra, silently applauding her brother.
A/N The weird thing about this chapter is that it took me, like, two days. It would have taken me one but my dog ran away (Thankfully someone found him sitting in the middle of the street and took him to the vet where we got him back). Anyways I hope this makes up for my long period of lack of writing a week ago. Keep reviewing and I'll write the next chapter (where...stuff happens). I'm so excited.