A/N: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry and I have no excuse. This chapter was long overdue and I can offer you no explanation. I can, however, offer an apology. And yeah sorry about all of the spelling mistakes but I was dead-tired so I didn't proofread, my mistake my mistake. Anywho hope you all heart this chapter it's the first one with Agamemnon and his evil reign of cruelty towards the delicate feeling of…well you're going to read it anyways. Enjoy…
Chapter 14 – We Will All Move On"Cousin there is no easier way to understand a woman than simply speaking with her." Patroclus said quietly in his tent. Achilles had come to discuss his new woman there. "But since that is completely out of the question I have found another way."
"Well…?" The warlord obviously knew Briseis wouldn't trust if he was gone too long. "What's your plan?" Before his cousin had a chance to answer a slave woman parted the door.
"Can I please come back in? The men are beginning to frighten me." She was submissive, no more than a mere child but pretty nonetheless. "You must be master Achilles." She bowed low. This girl was much more obedient than his own but she was also very plain and very common.
"Dardania this is my cousin," She kept her eyes averted as a slave girl was ought to. "He has been giving your mistress a home during her slavery." That certainly was not the way he would have put it but who was he to argue? It was he who wanted help. "She has been acting quite strangely since her brother was sent back to Troy and as her most trusted servant I thought you might be able to give us an answer as to why."
She thought for a moment. "Lady Briseis has always acted strangely, always has and I presume always will." She seemed to take unease in her next question. "You've had trouble getting her to let you bed her no doubt."
"Trouble doesn't explain it." He grumbled.
"Well, I guess there is a quite simple explanation. You have gotten to bed her though?" He nodded and she continued. "You made a deal with her and she wished to maintain her honour by keeping her word. She will most always do this but you can't hold this against her. She can keep her promises but still have a bitter opinion of you, that is why you must tread carefully. Don't rush anything. Is she feels anything for you she will let you know, until then be charming but remember she can see through most all charades."
He paused thinking her instructions over she rose and bowed to both of them and moved to the back of the tent. "Wait there's something else." She stopped and looked back at him. "A few nights ago I found her sleeping on top of me. This was before our arrangement was made and she was obliged to do anything of the sort. She seemed to detest me then. What does that show?"
She smiled and nodded knowingly. "That means one thing. That her body is attracted to you while her mind is not. She often has such detached thoughts. Good luck, you may need it. I'm sorry that was bold of me." She apologized quietly.
"Thank you Dardania," Patroclus said, leading his cousin outside. "How come you never told me about that? It seems important."
He shrugged eager to get back to his tent with Briseis. "It never seemed important then. We are fighting again tomorrow but I don't wish for you to take care for Briseis. Leave her alone with her thoughts. Trust me I know what I'm doing." Patroclus was left standing alone in the camp as Achilles strode back to his own dwelling.
"Where were you?" She asked quietly as he walked back into the tent and shed his armour. "Achilles." She tilted her head and asked again. "Where were you?"
He sighed and met her eyes, his arms resting on her waist, pulling her closer to him. "I was with Patroclus, he won't be able to see you tomorrow. He isn't feeling all too well." She gasped and he put a finger to her lips. "Don't worry he'll be fine" A lie told under such intimate circumstances could not be considered a complete untruth.
"Why do this?" She asked after only a moment in his arms. "Why aren't you treating me like a slave?" He looked down into her blue eyes.
"Do you want to be treated as such?" She shook her elegant head slowly. "Then I will continue treating you as I have been."
She stood, silent, for an instant. "Why did you never had your way with me when I was first presented to you? From what I hear, you spare no one's emotions, least of all a whore's."
He studied her eyes for a long moment. "I do not lay a hand on women that do not wish to be handled; it's as simple as that. And you're no whore; you're Briseis daughter of a warrior and luminary to a nation. What Trojan crimes would I be committing by touching you without assent?" She laughed quietly.
"I'll tell you the truth, a great deal of them. That's actually amusing." Her smile unwary and indiscreet. "You have no idea how many men have asked me 'Is it a crime to love you Briseis?' In my brother's eyes it was the worst crime of all, usually punishable with loss of vital extremities."
"But you love your brothers?" She sighed despondently at his question.
"I loved them, yes. How can one not love their own kin?"
"I wouldn't know. My parents only bore one child, myself. I used to wish I had a brother when I was younger but now it seems unimportant." It was true every word that passed from his lips was true but she seemed to take no consolation in his speech and with good reason, what woman would trust the man that had forced her into compliance? No ordinary woman and certainly not her.
Only moments later she said something quite unexpected for a woman that, supposedly, hated him with mind and soul. "I can't imagine another you." She curved her body to his and laid her dark head on his shoulder. He remained silent and she smiled. "Now you say, 'nor I another you'"
He grinned back at her and mimicked. "Nor I another you." Briseis laughed and changed her position.
"Would you do everything I tell you to?"
"It all depends, would you tell me to do this?" He kissed her lightly and his hand travelled upwards on her back. She giggled and he grinned wickedly and brushed his fingers against her skin once more. She laughed more and he repeated.
"No stop that." She managed to say between bouts of laughter but he suddenly went still. "What is it?" She inquired softly.
"Who are you?" His voice was icy cold and directed to the old man at the doorway. Upon receiving no response her released her and moved towards the man. He said again his question. "Who are you?"
The ancient man sighed dejectedly and motioned. A barrage of Grecian soldiers entered and Briseis went taut. "My Lord Agamemnon wishes to see the slave-girl you have taken captive." The soldiers grasped her arms tightly and Achilles spun around.
"Let her go." He ordered and more than one man trembled. He picked up his sword and repeated his command. "Unhand the girl." He moved towards one of the men and the terrified soldier detached his grasp from Briseis. He tried again on another but he seemed unmoved, his throat was slit in a matter of moments.
The next three fell easily. "Wait." She said loudly. "Wait, do not kill them. Do you have children?" The men nodded, as Achilles' patience grew thin. "I know what it is to lose a father and no child deserves that pain, Greek or not." The silence was dominant. "I will go if it means no more blood is shed on my account." She leaned in closer to him. "They'll always be other slave-girl's." She said with brutal honesty.
"I am sorry." The old man said truthfully, he was a good man simply employed by a tyrant. "Come." He commanded kindly and she followed outside the door, spurning the soldiers who seemed to be relishing in every moment they could touch her body.
She supplied him with one last, beautiful smile before she disappeared and he lay down to sleep for the night. "Of course there will always be other slave girls." He spat in his strongest attempt at vigour but his mind had other thoughts. 'There will always be other slaves girls,' It teased. 'But there will only ever be one of her.'
"I've been walking without assistance for all my life, now is no different." She snapped at the soldiers, they slowly let go of her. "Thank you." The monstrosity of a tent came nearer and nearer and her faith in her own strength began to diminish. They entered quietly, the audience hall being empty of addressees and servants.
The small party walked through the rooms, extravagantly decorated. Reminiscent of one too many noblemen's villas, meant to show power and wealth. She thought about her own home, the beautiful white palace with its sparse decoration and outrageous size. She could have lost herself forever in her home and the Greeks would never have found her but she made a choice, perhaps, looking back, a wrong choice.
The men searched for their King but he must have been asleep because his formal apartments were deserted. They instead took her to the west chamber, a more fitting name would have been the whore rooms but she bit her tongue as had practised so many years ago.
The girls were thin, stick thin. However dressed ornamentally for harlots. Bangles were draped from their ears and their gaunt wrists. Stringy hair and curious eyes made up the mass Agamemnon's whores. A few whispered but none approached her. Briseis was, for the first time in a very long time, inexplicably frightened.
One of the women finally spoke. "You're the noblewoman aren't you? Achilles' noblewoman?"
"No, I'm nothing of Achilles'. He doesn't own me…any more, I guess." She couldn't help the sadness in her own voice. He wasn't a complete brute, like she used to think and some of her still thought. He wasn't a womanizer, like she was sure he was. And he most certainly did not deserve the games she had played with him. "Sorry it's…
"…It's nothing." One girl finished for her. "Every girl falls for him sometime. I mean what girl here hasn't?" Briseis raised her hand but she was the only one to do so.
She thought for a moment. "Well I guess he's like your Hector. Everyone loves Hector, except for the Grecians but you don't count really."
"What's he like?" The girl's asked quickly. She shrugged eager to abandon the topic of Achilles.
"He's kind, gentle, loving, faithful, handsome, honourable, intelligent, admirable, principled. Everything women love he is."
They sighed collectively. "Exactly like Achilles."
"What? He's nothing like Achilles." She said shrilly. "The man you're talking about has no morals, he kills for honour, he doesn't spare anyone's feeling but his own. He's nothing like the prince of Troy."
"He spared your feelings didn't he? Didn't he take care of you and protect you? Wasn't he kind, gentle, loving, handsome, honourable, intelligent, admirable and principled?" A pretty creature with long dark hair asked knowingly.
"He was." She replied slowly. "And you forgot faithful. Between loving and handsome." The girls laughed but were quickly silenced the quick appearance and disappearance of a guard. "It's a cheerful place you've got here." She said in a low voice to the pretty dark haired girl, she nodded sadly.
"Indeed." She whispered back. "Perhaps you should sleep Briseis. I can call you that or is it wrong? Agamemnon as captured many noblemen and some demanded to be called Lady even though they had no elevated station above us."
"Call me what you will, it's of no consequence." She shrugged and the girls stared at her in awe.
"Were did you learn to speak like that?" One asked in utter esteem, she cocked her head curiously. "You said 'Call me what you will, it's of no consequence.' You could have said something much simpler and we would have understood."
She shrugged again and resisted the urge to grin at their lack of awareness concerning her speech. "That is how I learned to speak, there is nothing I can do about it. No person to model my tongue after, it is how I was raised and how I remain." They sat in wonder once more and she laughed. "How you would react in the court." They exchanged oblivious glances and she realized; the less she said, the less puzzled they would be. "Perhaps I should sleep." The dark haired girl led her over to a small sleeping mat.
"Sorry it is not very comfortable for a woman of your status but it is the best we have." She shrugged sadly and tried to smile.
"Then don't mind any of my comfort. I may be a Lady but I am not made of porcelain." She grimaced openly at the phrase and how she had used it in town with Pramadas. The girls looked satisfied with this answer and paid no regard to her unguarded wince.
She slept a fretful sleep. Her dreams were full of riddles and puzzles that the depths of her mind were assessing her with. Her thoughts were of her own death, in some dreams she did pass but not for long, never for long. Before a moment had gone by she would be living again, tried and tested over and over. Never did her nightmares end. She dreamt of locked doors and hidden keys and of Hector and of Troy and always of her brother.
The Greeks had suffered greatly in the last moon. There was dissent among the Grecians, it was obvious. Their former power was diminished and their lines were worn and disunited. What had caused this sudden fall from grace was asked at the beginning, when Troy started to gain the upper hand and Greece began their unravelling but now it was clear. The myrmidon's, the warriors who dress in black armour and are every bit as fearsome as their legend says, were missing. It was apparent if the battles were looked back on. And Achilles was absent also; this pleased the Prince of Troy and disgusted him in the same instant.
Without Achilles the Greeks were nothing. They were only a great number of men but when they had the warlord they were a force the world could not deny rank. He was a brilliant eradicator in every sense. He lived to end life or so the stories said, but there were other things the stories told of. Stories of shepherdesses and temple maids and of the occasional Lady. Hector wanted to slaughter something simply thinking of it. In what ways was he violating Briseis in his newly-found time? It was too horrible to imagine.
The archery range was dark; it was night time what else could be expected? A couple of lonely guards manned the wall directly above him, he knew they were not entirely committed to their job, were he not here what brothel would they be sneaking off to while they had a post to fill? But tonight they would not be, tonight the crown prince was watching, only waiting for someone to scream at.
A shadow moved along the wall, his thoughts were deserted. He grasped the hilt of his sword as Andromanche stepped into the golden pools of light. Her eyes were wide with shock. "Were you going to kill me?" She asked mocking seriousness.
"I did not know it was you my love." He embraced her as the guards on the wall strained to look offhand while watching the prince and princess. "You should be sleeping."
"So should you." She countered.
"I cannot sleep, not tonight. You go, you need it." He shrugged her off.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And you don't? What use are you to the armies of Troy if you have no rest, you have a brilliant mind but what use is it in a weary body?" He stayed silent "That's what I thought. Come to bed. Your son would love you for it." She said quietly a smile playing on her beautiful lips.
His son. It was strange to hear. Andromanche had give birth three days ago but she till looked strained. His child though was as beautiful as children come. He had never envisioned himself as a father. He knew it would have to be; he was the eldest son of a king. He was expected to continue the line but that could not ave readied him for the shock of fatherhood. He kept planning things for Astyanax's future, little things. Whose sons was he going to spend his childhood with? Melanon's and Pramadas' of course but who else? Who else's children deserved the company of a future prince and king?
"Are you worried?" Andromanche asked quietly, lying in bed after Hector had cleared the room of midwives and well-wishers. "About the battle tomorrow, I heard from Helen. You are worried," She answered gently. "I can tell. You're worried that the myrmidon's might come back to fight and you're worried about your brother's life and you're worried about…Briseis." She said the word almost inaudibly; he had to strain to hear it. "You want her to be safe but you don't know how. Just think about what she would do if she were in your spot."
"What would she do?" He almost shouted. "I can't very well march into the Greek camps and demand her return. What would you have me do?"
"I only want what is best for the both of you. Were she out of control she would have been dead when Cartanye had gotten there but she wasn't. She is a beautiful woman but she also had a mind, I think you forgot that. She can and will think for herself when she has no one to lean on, which is what she is doing now. She will survive and if not…" She paused for a moment. "And if not, we will all move on."
"What if I do not wish to move on?"
"Then, you will drive your people into certain death. We will all recover, do you think she intended for us to halt our lives and kill us all by leaving? She didn't, she wanted something, I don't know what it was and I know you don't either. She was your friend but she was also a mysterious woman and even though she loved you there are things she did not want you to know." She ended quietly. Hector stared at his wife; she had never spoken of Briseis in less than admirable tones. This was a side of Andromanche he had never seen before.
"We should sleep." He said gruffly she nodded in return, bowing her head dutifully. "I did not mean to yell, I was upset. It is not your fault." She smiled weakly and he embraced her. She fell asleep sometime later after he was sure he stood and strode to the balcony. He stared at the white palace and a thousand memories came flooding back.
Her legs ached and her mind reeled as Briseis sat surrounded by Agamemnon's whores. She was covered by a thin blanket, her only protection from the chilling breeze floating in through an open tent hole. The medicine one of the physicians had prepared was not working. She hadn't really expected it to. She had spent a tortuous night in the King of King's chambers when a pain in her head had struck with enough force to send her staggering to the ground. Agamemnon, thinking it was an act, had hit her across the face causing her even more ache.
'Did he say he loved you?' The King of Mycenae had whispered to her when he refused him. 'And you believed him, your reputation overvalues you. Let's see if you are more valued in other areas.' She had not given him the pleasure of hearing her scream in pain when he had hurt her. He deserved no noise on her behalf. When she had been struck by a headache he had lost temper with her and thrown her to the ground, beating her viciously.
She had tried to cry but no tears would come, nothing could stop his brutal attack. Her body was cold as though the chilling wind had pierced her flesh and entered her veins. The harlots were silent; they were watching her with their pitiful eyes and she thought of death. That was all these women could have expected from their life. She thought of the heinous names she had called Helen in her head and she thought about Paris. She had forgiven him now; she had always forgiven him in the end.
Andromanche must have had her child by now. Hector and his bride would be overjoyed. With this child, Troy had a future, Priam's line would continue. The expression she could imagine on the old King's face alone made her wanted to laugh with elation but the cruel truth settled back in. Would she ever see his face again? Were her memories all that remained of her friends? Of her family?
Cartanye would have reached the city again, either that or he was dead. She tried to gasp at the thought but her pain forced her back, he could not die. There was no way he could have died; she would be able to feel it. She would have known. Achilles had paid her the greatest errand in letting her brother go free. His demands, as she remembered, weren't all that irrational. She had been acting unjustly towards him and he hadn't treated her as her new owner did. He had spoken to her and listened to how she responded. He had made her feel at ease in such a foreign place.
She thought about his laugh and his smile as he looked over at her in the dappled sunlight before he rose for the day, thinking she had not seen him gaze at her. He had told er about his life, his mother and Phtia and how he wished more than anything to be back there instead of fighting for Agamemnon. Now she had met the man she understood his great loathing. Everything about the King had repelled her, not one good quality or trait. He was a monster and had only proven it further in her mind that night.
"Briseis how are you?" Every word the woman said was another pain in her head. Her body ached in unmentionable pain and her thoughts were untidy and confused in her own head.
"I need rest." She managed to rasp. "I need to sleep." The girls nodded and moved away cautiously. She returned to her mind and closed her eyes tightly. Perhaps if she pretended it would all go away. Perhaps if she imagined she was back at Troy she would be and this would turn out to be some horrible dream. Perhaps, not very likely, but just perhaps.
A/N: Again, sorry about all the lack of updating but I am hoping to post a few at a time to compensate for not posting at all during the last weeks. It's been painful for me too but bear with me and prepare yourselves for the ending, grab some tissues because I've just planned it and I cried (then again I cried when I was in grade five and the 'love of my life' dumped me). Anyways toodles and keep alert because my updating could get very quick (key word there: could)