Notes at the bottom
-O-O-O-
Bent over his basil plants, Helenus took in their scent.
Carefully, he plucked a few leaves and rubbed them between his fingers, then buried his face in his hands.
He couldn't think of a smell he liked more than this one, he wished that basil could last all year. But the summer was gone, and basil's time was almost over.
"Helenus!" called Eudorus' voice from afar.
Startled, he stood and looked around. Eudorus hurried towards him, looking slightly alarmed.
Please, let it not be the king, thought Helenus desperately.
In spring, after a few years of peace, the king of Tricca had attacked again and Neoptolemus had been away since then. Helenus couldn't explain why, but he had a dreadful feeling this time.
"Come with me, there is something you should see" panted Eudorus, finally reaching him.
"What?"
"A ship is arriving... and it's yours" said Eudorus, heading to the palace.
"Mine? What do you mean? I have no ship" replied Helenus, confused.
"I mean, a ship that belonged to your family. I recognized the figurehead at the bow" explained the Achaean.
Helenus gaped, too stunned to speak. He knew that many people had managed to leave Troy and that some of their ships had been missing. But he had been living in Buthrotum for seven years now, and no Trojan had ever showed up.
"Are you quite sure? Many figureheads look alike" he reasoned.
"I have no doubt. It is your figurehead, with one eye painted green and the other blue" replied Eudorus
Who could be on that ship? All of his brothers were dead. But some of the king's cousins had managed to flee the city... or maybe Aeneas...
Was the ship here by chance or the crew knew that there were Trojans here?
They reached the terrace in front of the royal palace, where all of the city's soldiers were gathered.
Helenus looked at the river and his heart skipped a beat.
A ship was approaching and there was no doubt: it was a Trojan one.
"I told you. Come, we must go to the docks. Whoever they are, you have to talk to them" urged Eudorus, taking his arm.
Helenus could see why Eudorus was so alarmed, of course. Almost all of the warriors were away with the king and the city was barely protected.
Yet, even if that ship had aggressive intentions, there couldn't be more than two dozens people on it.
"That ship cannot be a real threat. Nobody comes with one ship to attack a city, no matter how small" he pointed out while he hurried after Eudorus.
"We know about this one, what if there are other ones hidden behind Corcyra?"
What would be the point of that? thought Helenus, but he kept that thought to himself.
When they finally reached the docks, the ship was already there. Nobody had descended yet, but a man stood at the bow and looked at them.
It was Aeneas.
Helenus was too stunned to speak, and he noticed that Aeneas was gaping as well. The other clearly didn't expect to find him here.
"What are you looking for in the city of Buthrotum?" asked Eudorus loudly.
That was quite a rude way of welcoming a guest, thought Helenus with a grimace. But Aeneas replied promptly.
"May the gods bless your city. We were caught in a storm and our sail and many of our oars have been damaged. We respectfully ask if we can stay here for the repairs. We wanted to stop on the island but the inhabitants kept pointing in your direction and we couldn't understand what they said".
"Let me see your sail" commanded Eudorus.
On the ship, a man unfurled one of the sails, which was badly ripped in the middle.
"How many are you?" asked the Achaean.
"Fourteen" answered Aeneas, gesturing for his people to show themselves.
Helenus tried to look collected but his heart was beating wildly. He recognized several of the men: among them were Anchises and Dolon, the boy who had beaten him at wrestling during Ares' games. And then there was a boy who could be fourteen or fifteen years old and looked like his sister Creusa: he had to be Askanius, his nephew. There were a few ones he didn't know: they were probably not Trojan.
"On behalf of king Neoptolemus, you are welcome to stay" said Eudorus after a long pause.
Aeneas quickly descended from the ship and outstretched his hand to Eudorus. The other men followed him, but stayed at a distance.
"We are grateful for your hospitality. Thank your king for us and allow us to present the king with a few gifts, wine and olive oil from Crete"
"Thank you. You will be happy to know that some of your kind is still alive" replied Eudorus, turning to Helenus.
Aeneas looked at him and Helenus stared back, unable to speak.
He had to address him first, otherwise Aeneas wouldn't talk to him. The Trojans didn't speak to royalty unless spoken to.
"I'm glad to see you alive" he said, outstretching his hand. He disliked the Achaean way of greeting each other with a hug.
Aeneas squeezed his hand, gasping at the sight of Priam's ring.
"I wasn't aware that I would find you here. And I didn't know that..." said Aeneas, pointing at the ring.
His father and his son had come close and Aeneas spoke to the boy.
"Askanios, this is your only uncle. You were a child the last time you saw him"
Askanios wasn't a man yet, so Helenus touched his head, according to the Trojan custom. His resemblance to Creusa - and to Hecuba - was very strong, and Helenus felt somehow moved by it.
He greeted the other fellow Trojans, feeling uncomfortable. Everybody looked at him expectantly and he couldn't understand what he was supposed to say. He was happy to see them, more than he would have expected, but he didn't know how to show it.
On their way to the royal palace, Aeneas approached him again.
"When I saw the breach in the walls, I thought that the city was lost and I decided to leave at once" said Aeneas, apologetically.
"You did the right thing" replied Helenus with a shrug. "It was pointless to stay. I myself encouraged the people to leave if they wanted to"
"You stayed" objected Aeneas.
"Of course I stayed. I was the king's son. And I had to care for my family" said Helenus, a little more harshly than intended. "But tell me about what you did after the earthquake".
"We wandered for a while. You see that there's just a few of us, we couldn't make the ship travel at full speed. We spent some years at the service of the Egyptian Pharaoh, who always needs warriors against his many enemies. Then we spent some time in a Phoenician city. And then we decided to settle down north. But our ship was damaged and we decided to stop for the repairs. We didn't know that this city belonged to Neoptolemus"
They kept talking until they arrived at the palace. Aeneas wanted to know what had happened to their people, to the royal family. Helenus told him everything he knew.
Helenus felt something that he couldn't describe. He had believed that he would never meet another fellow Trojan again and he didn't think much about that. He had never been close to any of these men and some of them brought back some unpleasant memories. And yet, he felt as if he had waited for them to arrive for all these years. He was moved in a way he would have never anticipated. The mother tongue that he now only spoke with Andromache tasted sweet in his mouth.
Aware that the Trojans would leave soon, he spent quite some time with them, especially with Aeneas and his family. He wanted to say something to Askanius, but he couldn't decide what, and how.
One day, Aeneas came to the megaron and announced that the repairs were completed.
"We are leaving today" he added.
Helenus stood.
"I am sorry that I don't ask you to stay here. But Neoptolemus would not be happy if a group of Trojan warriors settled down in this city"
"I understand" replied Aeneas. "On the other hand, we could bring you with us, if you wish"
Helenus hadn't expected this offer. Maybe Aeneas was just being polite.
"Thank you. But I don't wish to leave Andromache alone here" he replied earnestly.
Aeneas nodded thoughtfully.
"If you wish to settle down, cross the sea. North to us there are a few settlements, but they are inhabited by some quite belligerent peoples. We needed years to win them over. And if you wish to have some peace, I wouldn't go to Sicily either, but norther, in the mainland. Sicily is so exposed, it would be easy for any kind of enemy to land there" he recommended.
"It is very strange" said Aeneas, surprised. "I had a dream tonight, and the dream told me to cross the sea and go north to Sicily as well. I will do it, since it seems to be the gods' will"
They hugged with an affection that Helenus wasn't aware he felt.
He was quite sure that he would never meet another Trojan again.
-O-O-O-
In the following days, Helenus kept feeling strange. The Trojans' visit and their departure had left him melancholic and unexpectedly grieving. But there was something more.
The bad feeling about Neoptolemus' war in Tricca never left him now. He felt a sense of doom, very similar to the one he had experienced after Hector's death, many years before. But probably it was just because of the memories Aeneas had brought back.
Trying to distract his mind from this dreariness, he spent a great amount of time working with Eudorus, going through the city's expenses and stocks. Memory, reading were among his strengths and he liked to double check. Eudorus had once used to laugh about his fastidiousness, until Helenus had discovered that someone was stealing oil from the city's supplies.
Then he had stopped laughing.
Everybody assumed that he just wanted to be useful, but Helenus had to admit that the truth was another: it just made him feel better.
He often felt stupid and ridiculous and uncomfortable. But there were those things that he could do well. He was necessary, he knew it, and it made him feel good.
They were just going through the grain reserves when a soldier run into the megaron, breathless. Helenus recognized him: he was the messenger who always brought the news from Tricca.
"Sir" he said to Eudorus, panting. "The king of Tricca has been defeated and died on the battlefield, the war is over. But the king has been wounded and... he died on the way back".
Helenus felt like he had been slapped violently.
This was the moment he had been dreading for years. Now he had to do it. He had to try and seize the throne... or be a coward and disregard the promise he had made.
He felt intensely sick. He just wanted to run away and hide. He couldn't do this, no matter how hard he had prepared himself for this moment. He just... everybody would laugh at the very idea.
"This is a terrible disgrace!" he cried, turning to Eudorus. His voice was strained, so much so that the Achaean looked at him with wide eyes.
"Gather the soldiers in the terrace, I will join you immediately and deliver the news" Eudorus said briskly to the messenger, standing up.
"Wait" said Helenus in a low voice. He wouldn't manage to speak loudly now. "The prince is out of the palace, training with Isodemos. Let's fetch him first. If word gets around that he has no father to defend him, he might be in danger".
Eudorus considered his words for a moment.
"You are right" he conceded eventually. "I will fetch the prince and once he'll be safe we will talk to the soldiers"
"In the meanwhile, I will inform the queen" added Helenus.
Eudorus and the messenger left, and he was alone in the megaron - just in time.
Unable to stand it any longer, he fell on his knees, panting heavily. His heart was beating so wildly that Helenus feared that it would jump out of his body. He grabbed a chair so hard that after a while his fingers started feeling numb. He needed a long time to regain control and he was still feeling dizzy when he finally stood up.
Thankfully, the prince was training close to the river, far from the palace; he wasn't in a hurry.
Now he had to inform Andromache. She would remind him of his promise.
What would he do?
OOO
Author's notes:
- the name of basil comes from the Greek word for king (basileus), so it means something like "herb of kings" or "kingly herb". It has been associated with mourning because apparently it was used for embalming in ancient Egypt.
- Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" reports that Aeneas visited Helenus and Andromache in Buthrotum after Neoptolemus' death. There, Helenus foresaw that Aeneas would found a city in central Italy. The city itself would not be Rome but Alba Longa, whose kings, descendants of Aeneas, would later found Rome. (In case you are wondering: it has been studied whether people from central Italy had Anatolian descent from the bronze age and... no, they don't).