Chapter 10: Only One Life

"What is it?" Patroclus asks. Eudorus throws another shield carelessly back from where he kicked it, listens for a sound on the other side of the flap and then rushes to us.

"Agamemnon has sent his men; they are coming for you Aldreana!" I stand rooted to the ground in stunned silence.

"What!" Patroclus manages to say for me. Eudorus shushes Patroclus and leans further into the tent.

"He comes for you, the Trojan spy. If-"

"I can't stay here! I won't!" I scream in protest. Eudorus motions for quiet and Patroclus covers my mouth. His eyes seem to calm me down and I swallow back the screams in my throat. His eyes, his blue eyes stay stuck to me. I feel the love, expressed solely through his eyes. His fingers move away from my lips. I blink as I realize Eudorus's stare. We all remain silent till a call rings through the camp.

"Where is the Trojan spy?" a shout echoes in all our ears. Patroclus shoves me into Eudorus, who grabs my hand and pulls me to the hidden doorway.

"You take her Eudorus, makes sure she gets to the wall, alright?" Eudorus contemplated whether he should follow orders or not. Patroclus's blazing eyes of fury tells the other Myrmidon to listen. "I can't go with her; they know we've been together. I have to stay, stop them." Patroclus was already grabbing shields to replace where we were standing now, Eudorus halfway out the tent. I hesitated and spun around. His lips grasped mine, and then he thrust me forward. "Go, I will see you again. I swear." His promise coaxed me into sprinting out the tent with Eudorus. We ducked then outside, the night air sending shivers down my spine. The lowering sun sets shadows curling around the wall. I count five men sent by Agamemnon.

We scrabble past the maze of tents, ducking each time and crouched low. I snuck a peek over my shoulder. The shields he had replaced swallowed the light from Patroclus's tent. I craned my head to look to the entrance and stifled a cry as the two guards standing watch glanced over. I pushed Eudorus forward and fell into the sand, looking up only once to notice Eudorus beckoning me to get up. The stars twinkled over us and the darkness consumed our slinking shadows in between tents. We quickly drag ourselves over the hill; I see the candles of the temple casting little dances of fire over the headless Apollo statue.

"Work of Achilles," I grunt as I catch up with Eudorus. We look behind us, the camp now small but still recognizable. Patroclus's tent is still light, I caught only a blur of bodies standing and consulting.

Patroclus felt his heart clench the minute her gown was swept out of the tent, yet immediately began piling the shields back where they belonged. He never imagined having to use this doorway, now he was glad it existed. He was picking the pillow back up that Aldreana had thrown aside when three men walked in, two hanging outside.

"You!" the main leader acknowledged with an ungraceful point of his finger. He had a strong built body with a little extra bulk and Patroclus knew the day had come back to haunt him, when dawn wouldn't be much better. The man reeked of brewery hidden away in his own tent deeper in the Greeks. "Where did you hide the bitch Trojan?"

Patroclus winced at the ungrateful name given to Aldreana, his hand traveling down to his sword, as he remained casual. If she was a bitch, so be it.

"I don't know where she is. She stalked her way into the camp and then left. I barely was able to get a good look at her," Patroclus lied. He just hoped he could keep the men waiting long enough. Playing it safe, he unbuckled his sword and threw it carelessly to the ground, where it bounced off the wall and collapsed to the ground. "Why? Did you really imagine that a whore like that would come to me?" The man who had spoken aloud sidestepped uneasily. "What does the King want with her?"

The man frowned at Patroclus. "That's none of your business boy." Patroclus was aching to have his sword and show the men who they were truly facing. But his face belied his feelings as he cocked his head to the side and shrugged his shoulder.

"Well, I suppose you could search the tent, but there is really nothing to look for here is there?" The men agreed with a quick circle around the tent, the pile of shields and empty weapons hiding a fateful secret. The man stepped up to Patroclus, who was amazed their eyes met.

"You see the bitch, you bring her to me. Drop the attitude boy; it will only get you into trouble." Patroclus wrinkled his nose at the man who was already so wasted his words slurred. He faked a smile.

"I'll think on that," he replied. The man lifted his hand, which grew to a fist, then lowered it. He smirked at Patroclus before exiting from where he came. The men all sneered at Patroclus as they followed. The young man made it clear his attitude by throwing at them his own contempt stare. He wished he could suddenly take back all the harsh words he had said to Aldreana. Never had he imagined becoming a soldier like them. When the men's footsteps could not be heard did Patroclus let out a distressed sigh and plopped himself down on the bed. He threw his back against it and closed his eyes.

Only to have them snap open as Achilles entered. His cousin was flaring with anger, yet was fumbling for words. He paced the tent back and forth. Patroclus knew something else was on his mind. Achilles' face was wrinkled in contemplation and finally Patroclus grew sick of watching his sandals move in and out of his vision.

"What?" he demanded to know. Achilles stopped in his tracks, literally. Patroclus noticed a long deep line dug into the dirt by his cousin. Achilles' flailing hand motioned for the men that just left.

"They have to check tents now!" he bellowed. Patroclus winced as Achilles' voice rang in his ears, and then nodded as he went to pick up his sword.

"She must have made quite an impression on Agamemnon," Patroclus said, his tone dripping with the same scorn he gave the men. Achilles continued to pace again. Patroclus frowned at his cousin. "What are you hiding?" he asked. Achilles stopped again and opened his mouth, baring his teeth, then shut it quickly with a harsh snap. Patroclus lowered himself back on his bed and like wise Achilles smoothed his motions and finally stood still, his hands on his hips.

"Maybe Agamemnon is trying to take back what he can't have." Achilles put out. Patroclus lifted an eyebrow in confusion, making Achilles start up again. "You know of the girl form the temple, the priestess?" Patroclus dug into his mind, past Aldreana and finally came to a dark haired woman Eudorus dragged into Achilles tent when the beach was captured. Finally, he nodded. "She was taken by Agamemnon and he put her life on the line to get to me. But I couldn't kill her. Now he has given her back in hopes I will rejoin with the Greeks." Patroclus's heart bubbled with excitement. He raised his eyebrows to wait for Achilles answer.

"And…" he whispered, anticipating the best. Achilles glowered then stood up.

"We stay," he answered curtly. "But there is no fighting tomorrow." Patroclus dropped his jaw and stood up, rounding up to his cousin.

"What! So we still can't fight! We sit here while you play with your new found toy!" Patroclus whimpered in anger. Achilles cocked his head to the side, his smile eating away at the other young man's insides.

"It's seems you're pretty cozy with Aldreana anyways. Don't stress yourself over one lost battle." Achilles began strutting out of the tent, but Patroclus wheeled him back around.

"You asked me to not to follow some fool's orders, well I think I am." Patroclus's voice was a tone not to be challenged with. Achilles had the guts to do so. He grabbed Patroclus's shoulders and pulled him up to his face.

"You think having the pride of killing men will reward you? Then be my guest to leave to Agamemnon. Will I protect you no longer?" He shoved the Patroclus aside. Patroclus's arms thrashed up in the air wildly as he stumbled over his feet and fell down to the ground. He looked up between locks of hair into equally fury filled eyes of Achilles. "Don't you think about fighting against me boy, the results will not be pretty."

Shameful of his actions, Patroclus lowered his eyes. Achilles' chest was heaving with anger. Patroclus mumbled an apology. Achilles finally brushed away his anger, offering a hand to lift Patroclus back to his feet. "We shouldn't fight like this, you're like a brother to me." He clasped Patroclus's shoulders and Patroclus mimicked his actions. "Forgive me."

Achilles turned to walkout of the tent. "Achilles," Patroclus began. The older man turned on his heel, his eyes full of concern. "She has visions," Patroclus stated firmly. Achilles froze, his eyes cringing in confusion. He took a step further back.

"She what?" Achilles asked softly, his hand rubbing his chin in thought.

"She has visions, she always has." Patroclus was ringing his hands back and forth. The two men remained silent till Achilles grumbled something and reached for the doorway to the tent. "Do you think she would want to see Aldreana?"

"Thetis doesn't matter right now," Achilles curtly replied, and then disappeared. Patroclus shook away blond waves of hair and wanted to be back where it all began again, back on the hilltop with Achilles laughing at his jokes, smiling at his actions. Aldreana was too much trouble, she could make too great of a difference. Maybe Troy was a mistake…

I walked over another bloody heap of a body and felt my stomach churn again. Eudorus remained silent. His face was mixed with the same emotions I had thrown at Patroclus. I felt the silence soothing, relaxing me much more than Patroclus's words earlier. The wall of Troy grew more immense, till I turned around to face Eudorus. The man continued to walk past me, closer and closer to the wall. I matched my strides with his and looked over at his face. His weary eyes were glued to the wall.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked suddenly. Eudorus jumped at my sudden intrusion of the silence. His icy blue eyes were still glazed over with images of a different Troy and only when he blinked and the look was gone did he respond.

"Patroclus is too young." I opened my mouth to protest but he didn't stop. "This war will change his life forever. I hope that killing and death aren't the only things he will experience here, but a feeling to rekindle what he witnesses. You should have seen his face today. The once brilliant eyes and smile was masked by wide surprise and sorrow. The boy showed fear, but I believe he was dreading the moment when he would hold a sword out there. Maybe I'm wrong, but his true face was hidden from me today and replaced with a look I had never seen before in him." I nodded in agreement, but my head was buzzing with answers to contradict. "The reason I protect you Aldreana is because if there is one thing he would regret on this journey, it would be not meeting you each day in the midst of this war. Do not underestimate what a man feels during war, for it can be the greatest feelings."

I felt my pride, my heart swell up and I smiled brightly at the man. His dark scarf sent shadows over his face, the dark night matching the features, but I still sensed a smile in the man's face. The end of the wall lay only yards away. I stiffened and stopped, Eudorus coming with me. The wall looked enormous in my eyes. It seemed to glare at me, point and accuse. I wanted to scream at it, swear it wasn't my fault, but I held my tongue back.

"You should leave," I said. Eudorus took his own look at the wall. I could sense the fear coming off him, though his weather-beaten face would never admit to it. He nodded and turned to go, while I began my own path.

"Aldreana." I spun around to his call.

"Yes."

"You've been with us too long. Don't betray us and expect to make it back only to see him. You must choose a side. Either Patroclus, or your Prince in his golden city." I blinked in surprise, the words that poured out of his mouth harsh and stern, never something I imagined him to say. My mind quickly went to locking myself in the room I had taken in the palace, but I refused to become a coward. I nodded briskly and he tipped his own farewell and walked away. I watched his slouched back curve over the hill towards the light of the temple and prayed his dreams were not troubled by the torture of war.

I walked quickly over to the wall, the soft colored stone towering above me fifty feet into the dark sky lettered with stars. I debated waiting here till dawn and then going back to Achilles' camp. But another voice in my head refused to move back and it sickened me to think that half my mind thought what had happened between me and Patroclus was over. I pushed away the notion and crept up to the stone. I pulled my hand away quickly from the cold stone, my breath caught. Blood, clotted and thick had dried in the spot where my hand normally pushed against the stone to enter Troy. I took a deep breath and swallowed by pain. The suffering of war was held heavily on my shoulders and I took a deep breath as my hands hit the hard blood and pulled away the stone.

Patroclus paced his room back and forth, mimicking the steps of Achilles. Finally he stopped and looked at his sword. Such a powerful, yet such a deadly weapon. He hated it. It brought pain, yet he loved the feel in his hands. It was a wonderful feeling and he had to question himself why he used such a tool in life. When he saw Aldreana's face, he knew his thoughts on the weapon would change. But not his spirit, which was still fighting against what Achilles had said to him earlier. He eyed his sword greedily again, and then huffed his way out of the tent. The night breeze cooled down his sweating forehead and an instant chill swept over him. He looked around him. The once beautiful sky, the beach that glistened with brilliance, was now tainted with the first battle of war. The first shed blood.

"And it won't get any easier," Patroclus whispered to himself. His strength and adrenaline was forced to kick in and he blinked back into alertness. The tip of Achilles' tent waved at him with the breeze and Patroclus's hand was reaching out when a shape peeked out over the hill. Patroclus watched Eudorus walk over the hill's crest and he quickly and sneakily walked away from his cousin's tent and when his footsteps would no longer be heard he sprinted to his friend. Eudorus smiled weakly at the young man. He laid a hand of confront on the young man's shoulder, who was leaning in for the words.

"She is safe."

Hands wrapped the black cloth around my face so fast I barely saw the blur of the arms. The hood smothered me, the warm air suffocating me. When I began breathing again, so did my body came into motion. As they began carrying me away I screamed, muffled in the hood but knew somewhere heads were turning. The hands gripping my legs tightened and I felt them grow weak. My arms however had the ability to move and at the slightest corner I thrashed them out. I hit one man in the leg and the other in the gut. The man hit in the leg grunted, but the other gave way to my sharp jab. I felt my body fall. Only to have it hit the edge of solid stone. My body grew limb against the men as my mind was swirling from the hard fall. My body tipped forward and I realized by the labored steps I was being carried up a flight of stairs. The men grunted from my limb weight, but I refused to make their job easier.

My legs wobbled as they hit stone ground and I fell to my knees. A sharp prod made me spring up, my back aching with a thousand prickles of pain. Again I fell and again they pulled me up by the arms and stabbed me in the back with their feet. I muffled my cries with tight lips and ignored the pain. The sharp wind made me realize that I was on the top of the wall, the stairs I was carried on not far from the ones leading to the royal balcony. Slowly I came up, my back straight, but not straight enough. Another thrust sunk into my back and this time I cried out.

"Enough!" The savior's voice made my eyes snap open, though they were hidden behind cloth. "I never said cause her harm. Leave us!" I believed they bowed and wanted to exit quickly, but not before the hood was ripped away from my face. Hector's eyes of beady anger and troubled times stared at me through streaks of blond and brown hair that whipped around my face. I wanted to say something, but my mouth was stuck shut.

"I thought I told you to stay in the walls," Hector said. His anger made me flinch. "And today, today I see you tumbling down a hill, right for the height of battle. And who do I see behind you, nothing more than a Myrmidon who wraps his arms around you and carries you back to the hilltop where Achilles sits." He fumbled with his anger, which fought against his pride. I finally found my voice again.

"My lord, hear me out."

"No! I gave you an order to stay behind and you disobeyed me Aldreana. I watched as you were gathered into the arms of our enemy. Tell me how that shows any loyalty to your country, spy or not." He waited for my answer, which I quickly retorted back with as my wobbling legs, and unsteady assurance took hold.

"Loyalty? You ask of me loyalty and justice to my country. And I suppose that what Paris did today does not even add up to what I did."

"Paris has nothing to do with this." The wind caught his locks of dark hair, hiding his anger from me for a few seconds before revealing it again.

"Yes Paris does. You ask of my own feelings for this country. And today I watch him fight for his country and at the last second takes the coward's pull. How could you do that Hector? You put your life on the line, on your country only to save a poor, pathetic soul like his. How do you expect me to know one day a man like that will be ruler, stealing nothing more than king's wives?"

"I put my soul on the line to save my brother."

"A brother who has nothing more than a stolen wife and a coward's wound on his leg. He was fighting for what he thought was great and you took that from him. He deserved to die. It was his half of the agreement. You can't live your life with a boy like that attached to you waiting for you to save him when in trouble. A coward like that is not worth living." My sudden hatred for Paris spilled out in words I never imagined being spoken to Hector and at the moment I stopped I wished I could take them all back. My pride stuck up to a degree I hated. Hector stared me down with malcontent and the battle he was forced to fight in today was suddenly expressed in his face.

"If there is any live worth living, then Paris's is the one I would prefer. There is only one life you are given Aldreana and in my eyes, Paris has lived it to his fullest. I defend my brother. I defend his life because I hope he leaves this world with no war besides the one he fought in today." His words struck me hard and I stumbled for the edge of the wall, the hard-sanded stone rubbing against my smooth skin.

"I have fought many battles. And never have I experienced one with love in it. No, of all the things I have fought for, love makes the most sense for me. I hope that Helen is with Paris when this ends, I pray to the Gods she is." Hector looked out to the conquered beach, the camp twinkling at him with piles of wood stacked and sit aflame, signifying those lives lost today in battle. "Only one life Aldreana, how do you plan to live it? Will you be caught forever in a past of war and hatred, death and dying. Or will love carry you away to a place you wish you could stay in forever." His eyes took on a dreamy look. I knew he spoke of Andromache. For once I was at a loss of words. I didn't know how to respond to something so true. Hector sighed and heaved himself up from the bent position he had been standing in on the edge of the wall.

He looked down at me with unreadable eyes, which made my stomach stir uneasily. "Why did you disobey?" he asked again. I opened my mouth, then shut it and bowed my head in dishonorable respect. Hector grunted an angry retort, and then moved past me to leave. "I thought you would have listened to me." I spun around on my heel, watching the golden glint of his armor.

"What if I left to carry myself away from this world, what would you say to me then?" Hector stopped and faced me again, the scar running down his cheek cringing with his brow in confusion.

"Aldreana, there is not one Greek that I will open these gates for. No matter how much you love him. You betray your country for that man then fine. He will have to cross my dead body before he comes to you in this city and if he manages to get through, I'll kill him." Hector filled me with such fear and fury mixed in one I wanted to throw my arms at him, wailing that Patroclus was a good man. But I bit down on my tongue and let him continue. "This wall is the only protection I give you now. You will be able to leave freely, but how you get back in is a matter I care not about." His eyes showed apology, his heart spook truth. "Troy gives you only this wall, nothing else. The words spoken tonight are the last we share, Aldreana as friends." His pause reformed the bond between us. For an instant, his hand reached out for my cheek, then dutifully dropped down to his side. "You've grown so much Aldreana." I stared into his eyes, the green hue lulling him closer. But for once the spell broke, the clashing of swords and sprayed blood into the night sky reawakening his caution and anger towards me. "How the rest of the kingdom sees you is their opinion." His inclined head showed his leave and he walked away down the stairs and into his beloved kingdom.

I however stayed where I was, Hector's words buzzing in my head. Patroclus waited for me to come, yet knew the chances were slim. I paced the wall back and forth, looking down at the bodies lining their way from me to the camp of the Greeks. Agamemnon's anger rang over to me like a town center bell, the sharp ringing making me recoil, yet smile in hilarity. The king got what he deserved, I served him no longer. As the moon rose higher into the sky, so did my hopes that I would one day walk back into Troy, with Patroclus at my side and Hector beaming with happiness. There is only one life to live.

"Then I have chosen mine," I whispered into the wind. High anticipation told me that both men my heart clung to heard what I just said.