Somehow I had managed to fall asleep, but when I awoke, my eyes could not focus and a fire travelled up to my throat. I ran to the pot near my bed and spilled my stomach out into it.
There were footsteps coming from the terrace and heading into my room. I felt their hand touch upon my shoulder and I looked up.
"Arlina," Hector said soothingly. "Let us get you some fresh air."
Hector helped me onto the terrace, where I quickly sat down on the cold marble floor, and knelt down beside me.
"At times like this, I wish you had a mother to speak to," he said quietly. "She would be the one to reassure you about all of this, not me. I just hope that you do not have to be both its mother and father."
I burst into tears. "Do not meet him. We can still resolve this peacefully. Time is all that is need—"
"My blood ran cold when I killed that boy. Participating in this battle will show that I am admitting my guilt; losing it will be my atonement, and winning it will mean that Hades is not ready for me yet."
"How can you leave me and Andromache like this? It is selfish of you to go; it would mean you only care about your need to be redeemed for no reason at all!"
"Arli, do not argue," Hector urged.
"But it was not your fault!" I screeched as loud as my lungs would allow.
Hector placed my head between his two hands and kissed my hair. "I must go nonetheless."
"No," I cried weakly.
"Arli, we have to speak about something very serious now. If the city is somehow ever taken—and I pray it will not—I want you to follow Andromache. There is a passage that leads out of the city and you must follow it…with or without your husband."
I nodded my head, knowing that I could never change his sense of honour.
"I must make myself ready, then," Hector said, standing up. "I will ask for a servant to bring you water."
As he left, I felt more and more helpless. I drank my water, I dressed and I walked out to find Hector without saying a word. Just as I had found him, I could hear Achilles screaming his name beyond the wall.
"For the last time, father, do not go," I begged, holding his arm.
"No, Arli," he commanded. "Stay with Priam and Paris!"
I grabbed his arm tighter. "No! I am coming with you. Let me have that at least?"
Hector scowled but gave into my request and we made out way down to the gate. He gave me a kiss and held me tight in his arms before ordering the gate to open. Achilles, I could see, was standing with his spear and shield at the ready, barely containing his urge for bloodshed. When the gate closed, I felt my heart break with the knowledge that one of them would die out there. There was talking, but only sound, not formed words, reached my ears. More frightening was the sounds of clashing swords, which seemed to go on forever until I looked up to where Andromache was, and saw her turn away from the fight.
"Open the gate!" I commanded the guards, who obeyed without hesitation.
"Achilles, no!" I screamed as I saw Hector on his knees and Achilles ready to deliver the final blow. I ran over to where Hector had dropped his sword and picked it up, ready to engage my husband in battle.
I swung at him and forced him away from my father. I tried slicing his stomach, but he blocked it with the side of his sword, stepping back while he did so. Many times he tried to disarm me, but it was of no use: I was fighting the best battle of my life. Never before I had I moved so fast and attacked with so much strength…Hector would have been proud.
"Arli, stop this! I do not want to have to hurt you," Achilles said, blocking my attempt at slicing his wrist off.
I barred my teeth. "Fight me properly, Achilles! You will not find mercy from me today."
"You are my wife!" He countered, finally defending himself in an aggressive way.
I reeled back from his block, my sword almost escaping my hand. "And I am his daughter!"
"You want to die like him?!" He yelled back at me. "So be it!"
Achilles now tried offensive moves on me, while I struggled to defend myself against the ferocity of his attacks. As much as I struggled, however, I never slowed or gave him any opportunity until I heard Hector moan in pain from behind me. I turned for barely a second to see Hector, but this was enough time for Achilles to knock the sword from my hand. I stared at my empty hand and at him, waiting for him to decide my fate.
"Achilles!" Hector called weakly from behind me, and I turned my head to see him crawling up to us, clutching his chest. "You came for me, not her! End this!"
Achilles turned his attention away from me and, before I could stop him, he strode over to Hector and pushed his sword into his chest. I screamed in horror and ran over to my father's lifeless body, unable to breathe as I held it in my arms. Before I even started to cry, Achilles' hand gripped my arm and pulled me upwards. He began dragging me over to his chariot, where he cut off some rope and tied my hands to it, and then went back for Hector.
"Leave him be, Achilles, please?!" I screamed as I saw him tying his legs to the back of the chariot.
Achilles did not listen to my begging; instead he remained silent as he drove back to the Greek camp with my father's body being dragged behind us. I looked back at Troy's walls and cried uncontrollably with the knowledge that Troy, for the first time in a hundred years, was vulnerable.
Every Greek soldier stood dumbstruck as Achilles rode back into camp with Hector's mutilated body. When we arrived out the front of his hut, Eudorus came to take the reins while Achilles untied me and forced me inside.
I curled up on the furs, crying into my forearms, while Achilles took off his armour. His eyes burned into my skin as he stared at me while he washed himself, but he remained silent, even as he sat down on the other side of the hut to continue his watch over me.
After the whole day passed with us not speaking to one another, Eudorus came through the door with a plate of food.
"Dinner, my lord," he said, taking the plate over to the small table in the centre of the room, and then leaving when Achilles motioned him away.
Achilles went over and picked up the plate of dried fish, bread and olives. "Eat, my wife," he said, crouching beside me with the plate. As soon as I smelt the fish, I felt the fire from the morning burn my throat and I grabbed a nearby basin just in time. Achilles sprung into action; holding my hair up until I finished emptying my stomach, and then he fetched me some water.
Never before had I seen him with such panic across his face. "Are you ill?"
"No, Achilles…I am with child," I sighed, dizzy from the vomiting.
His mouth gaped open and he stared at my middle. He reached his arm out slowly towards my stomach, but I turned away. Achilles was visibly upset by my rejection, and sighed as he got up to empty the basin outside.
"We are leaving tomorrow," he declared when he came back inside. "Our child will be born in safety, and we will leave this war behind."
I laughed mirthlessly. "No, Achilles, I will not leave with you."
"You want to stay here and wait for them to get past those walls, then?" He asked, waving his hand towards Troy.
"You killed my father; why should I leave with you?" I asked.
He crouched down and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Because my love for you has not changed, that is why. And you cannot tell me that you do not love me, Arli, because I know you still do."
"Of course I still love you! But I loved my father, too."
"And I am the father of the child growing inside of you, Arli. Our son or daughter does not need to know of war or despair," he sighed, standing again. "You knew you were with child this morning, yet you still fought me. Why?"
"You think of me only as a woman; a wife and soon a mother, but you forget I was also Hector's successor."
"All the same, we are leaving tomorrow."
I did not reply. I merely started eating the bread that was left for us, and then waited for him to take me to sleep with him. As he held me close to him under the furs, his hand resting over my womb, I reached for the knife Eudorus left with the fish. Once I had the knife, I rolled onto Achilles and pressed it to his throat.
He looked at me with dead eyes. "Do you really want to leave me that much? Arli, kill me, because I will not let you leave otherwise."
His hands moved up the sides of my legs, underneath my gown, and came to rest on my waist. In return I leaned down, the knife still at his throat, and kissed my husband passionately, our lips seemingly never wanting to part.
"I do still love you, my husband. Remember that," I said, returning to my position and then I used the handle of the knife to strike the side of his head.
With that he was unconscious and his grip loosened, letting me escape. Once out of the hut I found my father's body lying in the sand against the wall, and I let myself kneel down to kiss his forehead one last time, hating myself for not being able to take him back with me. Under the cover of darkness, I made my way to the secret entrance in the wall. Once inside I headed to Priam's bedchamber, telling the guards along the way to gather boulders to block the secret entrance.
"Arlina?" King Priam asked, dazed from his slumber. "Is that you?"
"Yes, my King," I said, embracing him. "I have escaped and returned to help Troy."
His voice was now with a hopeless tone. "How can you help, my dear?"
"Give me command of Troy's army and I will show you."