Helenus woke up in a cold sweat.
He had to come up with something. Agamemnon was going to arrive soon and he couldn't just...
No. Agamemnon would not arrive any soon. He was dead. It had been just another nightmare.
He took a deep, shuddering breath, then another one.
Helenus had dealt with nightmares before, but these ones where overwhelming him. In sleep, his mind seemed to focus on the most distressing memories, the ones he tried to keep away during the day.
Shivering, he stood up and grabbed his cloak, wrapping himself tightly into it before going back to bed. He curled up into a ball, but he was still cold.
Thankfully the winter, slightly colder than he was used to, was over. They had been in Buthrotum for several months now.
Neoptolemus had married Andromache a few days after their arrival. On one side, the idea of Hector's bride married to an Achaean made him angry. On the other side, however, he had to admit than a wife was better than a concubine. She had the status of a queen, her children would be able to ascend the throne, she would be able to choose a new husband if the king died.
He knew that he shouldn't complain, it could be much worse. Other peoples, like the Assyrians, used to slaughter their enemies after a city fell. On the contrary, Neoptolemus treated them with respect, like guests.
Still, he was overcome with sadness.
Why was he alive when all of his brothers and many other Trojans were dead? What had he done to deserve it?
Hector or Deiphobus should have lived, instead. They were much more deserving, they were brave warriors and would have been good kings.
What was the purpose of him living here?
He was back to the starting point. Like many years before, he had to force himself to get out of bed, to eat. He needed all of his willpower to keep going.
And if his willpower failed him... he didn't want to think about that.
He couldn't sleep anymore that night.
-O-O-O-
Later that day, he and Aesacus were sitting in the hall, busy sorting some medical herbs Helenus had collected.
"This is lemon balm, good for sleeping potions" Hermes' priest was saying. "This other one, I've never seen. But what's going on?"
There seemed to be some excitement in the palace. Helenus could hear the soldiers outside, calling each other and running.
"What is this noise?" barked Neoptolemus, coming out of his room.
Before Helenus could answer, Eudorus ran into the hall.
"My king!" he declared "A messenger has just arrived. Podalirius, king of Tricca, is attacking your lands in the east! Your subjects in Dodona ask for your help!"
"That wicked man! Now that my father is dead, people think that they can take my land without consequence! Where is Leocritus? We must gather the army at once!"
They both ran out.
"Well. Now that they don't have a common enemy anymore, now that both Achilles and Agamemnon are dead, the Achaeans start fighting each other again" said Aesacus quietly.
"I do hope that the war doesn't come to us" said Helenus. "I think we've had enough".
Neoptolemus decided to leave for Dodona at once with his main force, while Eudorus would stay in Buthrotum with a small garrison. The king left on the very same day. He came back barely a month later, victorious.
At first, Helenus thought that this king of Tricca didn't seem particularly serious about his invasion project since he had been defeated in such a short time. But it soon became clear that the newfound peace would be short lived. At the end of the spring, Podalirius attacked again, and this time Neoptolemus needed several months to fight the invasion. Their other neighbors didn't stay aside and watch: some sided with Neoptolemus, some others with Podalirius.
When the king finally came back, in the fall, he had lost several of his most valuable warriors.
"The king of Tricca has been defeated again, Dodona remains under my control" he declared at the banquet celebrating his return. "But many warriors have died in battle, including Leocritus, who faithfully led this city during the war at Troy. And, although our enemies have been pushed back for now, they might come back, after they swore to my father that they would never attack his cities. May the gods punish their iniquity!"
"Hear, hear!" yelled the Achaeans, clapping.
"Bad news had reached me while I was in Dodona" went on Neoptolemus. "The city of Mycenae is no more"
Silence fell on the hall and Helenus stared ad Neoptolemus with wide eyes. Mycenae, the most powerful of the Achaean cities!
"After an usurper murdered Agamemnon and took his throne, the people of Mycenae rebelled" explained Neoptolemus. His words were welcomed by a cry of approval from the Achaeans.
"The usurper and his wife have been killed and justice has been restored" went on the king "but the city was so devastated after the fight that it is now little more than a village. And now, let us move to something more pleasant: the queen is with child!"
This new declaration was met with a roar by the assembled Achaeans.
Helenus bit his lip.
Well, it was bound to happen at some point. Still, it was unpleasant.
He glanced around to look at Andromache but, of course, she wasn't there. Among the Achaeans, men and women didn't share their meals, not even at banquets. He wondered whether she shared the king's enthusiasm for the pregnancy.
"I think she's happy" said Aesacus softly. "I think having another child might give her a purpose. You remember how much she desired other children back in Troy, and how often she visited Artemis' temple because of that".
Aesacus turned out to be right. Until that moment, Andromache had been a shell of her former self: now she was blossoming. She was still sad and spent as much time as possible with her maids, far from the public eye. But Helenus couldn't help but noticing some subtle changes in her mood and appearance. He dearly hoped that the pregnancy would go well. He prayed Artemis for it, as usual wondering whether she would listen to him.
He was starting to feel slightly better, too. He was still tormented by nightmares from time to time, but less frequently than before. He was taking care of the king's vegetable garden, where he had planted many herbs in addition to the vegetables. Besides, here his knowledge was much more useful than it had been in Troy. Buthrotum was a small town where almost nobody could read and write. Only a part of the population, the one which had arrived with Achilles, was Achaean; the rest was made by locals who had been nomads until a couple of decades before. Helenus and Aesacus were often questioned about how to use certain herbs, where to find certain products, and the many other things one could learn in a large, cosmopolite city like Troy.
Aesacus' stories from all over the known world, recently updated with a few Achaean ones, kept holding the stage among the Achaeans. Hermes' priest, although physically weakened, still had a very good memories and enjoyed telling tales. Sometimes, the thought that Aesacus wouldn't live much longer kept Helenus awake.
Late into the winter, while Andromache was still pregnant, the king had to leave for war again. This time Nicomachus, king of Ithome, was leading the attack.
"I begin to understand why Achilles decided to settle down here, so far away from the other Achaean cities" Helenus was telling Aesacus one day. "Since our arrival, the king has spent half of the time away at war"
"You can say that again" approved Aesacus. "Almost all of the Achaean cities are in the south, and they are very close to each other. On the other side, the next city is probably as far from us as Ephesus was from Troy. But that is how Achaean kings use to live, always at war"
"I wonder what is the point of living like that" replied Helenus shaking his head.
Their conversation was interrupted by Eudorus walking in.
"We might need your help" he said, sitting down unceremoniously.
"With what?" asked Helenus, slightly annoyed. He didn't mind helping the Achaeans, but one could at least apologize when interrupting a conversation.
"Many of our bronze armors have been destroyed and stolen in the last battles. The king is short of bronze, and he needs it if he wants to keep fighting. So we sent a ship to Crete to fetch it. The ships has just come back and... there is no bronze in Crete".
OOO
Author's notes
- Dodona, Tricca and Ithome, as well as Podalirius and Nicomachus, are all mentioned by Homer. The battles are completely invented and not mentioned in mythology. You can get a clearer picture looking at a map of Homeric Greece (there is one on Wikipedia)
- Aesacus miscalculates a little: Buthrotum and Tricca are a little closer than Troy and Ephesus. But he didn't have google maps, and he is not that wrong either.
- Mycenae did decline during the late bronze age but the reason (internal rebellions, invasion, drought etc) is still unclear. The rebellion is my own fictional interpretation.