It was night and Helenus was pacing in his room.
He couldn't sleep and he knew that it was useless to lie in bed. It would only irritate him further.
He suddenly staggered and leaned on the wall for support.
That was weird. He wasn't really feeling dizzy.
He needed another moment to understand what was happening.
"Grymas!" he shouted "Wake up! There's an earthquake!"
He swiftly grabbed his sandals and cloak and opened his room's curtain. Everything was shaking badly, they had to get out of the temple now. But Grymas was old and hard of hearing.
"Grymas!" he shouted again, trying to find the high priest's room in the dark.
"Yes! I'll be-" answered Grymas' voice. But the sentence was interrupted by the loudest crack Helenus had ever heard. Instinctively, he jumped back.
A part of the temple had collapsed.
Helenus could feel his heart racing, his temples throbbing. Every instant could have been the last one. With a shiver, he wondered whether Hermes' temple and the royal palace had collapsed, too. The royal palace was far, on another hill, but Hermes' temple was much closer, right on the other side of the sacred way.
"Grymas!" he shouted again, but no answer came. Another crack came from the sacred area.
He had to get out now. He knew that the door was too far away, so he ran back to his room. Small pieces of stone kept hitting him and a bigger one missed him and landed with a loud thud on the floor. He started coughing and felt tears in his eyes. Somehow, he reached the window overlooking the yard and climbed out of it.
For a moment, he sat on the ground, trying to catch his breath and to stop shaking. Then he heard another impossibly loud crack and what had been his room collapsed as well. He could hear cracking sounds and shouts coming from the lower city, too.
He stood and ran to where the temple's main entrance used to be. He knew that it would have been wiser to wait for the earthquake to stop, but he had to move. Maybe Grymas was still alive under the debris.
In the dim moonlight, Helenus could see that the temple's front wall and door were still in place. Everything else was just debris. Grymas' room was hard to reach: Artemis' temple was perched at the edge of the hill and Grymas' window overlooked the way down.
Noticing that the earthquake had finally subsided, he stepped on the debris and called Grymas with full force. He listened closely, but no sound came.
This was pointless. There was no way he could locate Grymas in the dark and with so much debris, provided that he was still alive. Feeling miserable, he gave up.
With a lump in his throat, he ran down the hill, heading to Hermes' temple. Before he went to the royal palace, he wanted to make sure that the priest was alive. He stumbled and fell a couple of times in the dark, but he eventually reached the sacred way. He saw many people who hurried up to the royal palace.
"Hurry up, we don't have much time!" a man told to a woman, grabbing her arm and running faster.
The walls must have collapsed too, Helenus thought with a shiver. He turned to look at the mighty city doors to his left...
"Helenus! Thank goodness!" yelled Aesacus' voice.
Feeling immensely relieved, Helenus turned around. Hermes' priest was breathing heavily but looked otherwise unharmed.
"The northern walls have fallen, the Achaeans are coming. Run to Apollo's temple as fast as you can, Hermes' temple has collapsed too!" Aesacus told him urgently, grabbing his hand.
"And what about you?" asked Helenus.
"I will join you later, I cannot run. Go ahead, quick!"
"I'm not leaving you here, we will go together" protested the prince.
"Helenus, I am... moved... but I am going to slow you. Someone could recognize you. Run, don't worry about me" Hermes' priest pleaded.
"I'm not going anywhere without you. And we are losing time" Helenus argued.
"Very well" said Aesacus, defeated, grabbing his arm and starting to walk. "But if the Achaeans arrive, you leave me where I am and run"
"I am never going to do such an awful thing!" Helenus replied resolutely.
It looked like everybody who could walk was heading to Apollo's temple. The Achaeans were not in sight yet: their camp was not very close to the city and maybe they had been hit by the earthquake too.
Aesacus was quite fit for his age, but after a while he started panting.
"Helenus, you should really..."
"Don't even start that" Helenus interrupted him. "Maybe I should carry you, you can barely breathe".
He kneeled and made Aesacus climb on his back. Thankfully, Hermes' priest was very thin...
They reached their destination without incidents and Helenus was glad to see that Apollo's temple was still standing. Glancing over at the royal palace, he could see that a part of it hat collapsed. With a shiver, he wondered whether his parents and siblings, Andromache and her child were still alive.
There were already many wounded people and Cassandra was taking care of them as well as she could. Looking around, Helenus didn't see any members of his family.
People kept arriving, mostly women, children and the elderly. Word reached them that the Achaeans were now in the city. Helenus wondered whether Deiphobus, Aeneas and the other men were still fighting in the streets.
What was going to happen to them? Cassandra had told him that he would survive the war, but what about the others? He tried hard not to think about that while he helped Cassandra with the wounded.
Suddenly, he heard a cry of shock and turned around to see a group of Achaean warriors standing in the temple's doorway. At their head stood Ajax the Lesser. Apparently, Cassandra wasn't surprised to see him and just stared at him. Helenus wondered whether the Achaean was going to say something, but Ajax walked in and roughly pushed his sister against the stone altar.
He was not going to witness this. He jumped up and reached for Ajax. He could likely not overwhelm the Achaean, but maybe if...
He stopped abruptly, his hands outstretched. In an instant, Ajax had let go of his sister and had fallen on the floor.
The Achaean's body started shaking violently and a white foam came out of his mouth. Helenus had never seen the sign of Apollo's power, but he knew that it had to be this. Everybody stared at Ajax in shock, while Cassandra contemplated his shaking frame with a smug expression. Apparently, she had no doubt that the Far-Shooter would protect her... Helenus wished that he could confide just as much in the Huntress.
When the crisis subsided, the other Achaean soldiers retreated a little, looking horrified. Cassandra shouted after them that they would meet the same fate if they enraged the temple's patron.
That clear sign of Apollo's presence brought a new confidence to the people gathering in the temple. They all started reciting another prayer for Apollo to keep protecting them.
For a moment, Helenus looked at the door and his heart skipped a beat. A hooded feminine figure was carrying Priam in her arms, and the king was covered with blood. When she called for help, Helenus recognized her voice: it was Helen.
The prayer was interrupted, forgotten as people cried in shock. Everybody stood and tried to reach for the king.
"Make way!" shouted Aesacus, and Helen managed to cross the hall. The king seemed to be unconscious and Helenus wondered whether he was already dead.
But what about his mother, and Andromache... and Deiphobus?
On Cassandra's bed, Priam finally opened his eyes. His gaze was unfocused and his voice very feeble. He was able to say just a few words that Helenus couldn't quite comprehend. There was blood everywhere, its smell turning Helenus' stomach.
He didn't react when Cassandra closed their father's eyes and stepped aside. He didn't know what he felt.
Helen was the first of them to say something. She started whispering to Cassandra, but Helenus couldn't concentrate on what she was saying.
Cassandra took their father's hand and gently removed the ring with the wolf, symbol of the kingship. Why was she doing that? That ring belonged to Deiphobus, and he wasn't even here...
Cassandra handed him the ring and he looked at her with wide eyes. What did she want?
"Deiphobus is dead, Helenus" she stated.
He had no living brothers. And he was the king.
Helenus wanted to run away.
But Cassandra kept staring at him, the ring resting on her palm.
Shaking, Helenus took the ring from her hand and put it on his own finger.
He had told Deiphobus that he would do this, but he couldn't. He couldn't think of facing the Trojans, let alone the Achaeans. He was going to look ridiculous, he was going to make a mess.
Everybody looked at him expectantly. What did they all want from him now?
Eventually, he understood. He was probably supposed to bring the news of the king's and Deiphobus' death to the people gathered in the temple.
"We should... I should... tell them that the king is dead" he whispered, walking out of the room. For a moment, he met Aesacus' eyes, and Hermes' priest followed him.
"I cannot do this" he whispered to Aesacus as soon as they were alone. "I don't know what to say"
"Helenus"
"... they all know me, nobody is going to trust me..."
"Helenus" Aesacus repeated calmly. "Of course you can do this. During the last years, you have said many times that you could not do something. But in the end you could do everything. You have won every battle so far. You will win this one as well."
"I cannot" he pleaded. He felt like there was a heavy stone on his chest.
"Listen to me, dear. Sit down and try to breathe with me, slowly. Exhale slowly. No, don't try to talk now. Just concentrate on breathing, you can talk later"
It was very hard. Helenus thought that it had never been so hard. But eventually he managed to take a shuddering, long and deep breath.
"I don't know what I should say. I have never been good at this" he whispered as soon as he managed to talk again.
"Tell them what happened to the king and Deiphobus, and then tell them what you think we should do now. Earlier tonight, you made me do what you wanted and you were quite assertive. You can do it"
"It's not the same. You are close to me"
"Well, after all I am one of the Trojans, right? So, pretend that you are talking just to me and that the other people aren't there"
Helenus stood.
Well, sooner or later he would have to do that.