Thank you Annemone Lee, ireadbooksandpeople, askita and therealbriseis for your very kind reviews. Thank you also to the readers who faved/started following this story.

And here I am having to apologize again for the very long delay between updates. About every two months I have a peak in work when I have to basically drop everything else. It's what happened in November. Hopefully things will be a bit calmer now and I'll be able to get back to writing more regularly.

Thank you all for your patience and, as ever, please bear with me. The story's getting to a critical point, so I'll try not to leave you hanging between chapters for too long. I can't promise weekly updates, but I do promise to try my best to avoid long gaps.

As always, your feedback is highly appreciated. :)

And without further ado, here's the new chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"If Ajax and Odysseus agree that something must be done and that calling the council is the most effective way to go about it, why don't they take the initiative themselves? Or, at the very least, why don't they join you in calling it? Why are they letting the responsibility fall entirely on your shoulders?"

There were no words to describe the frustration I felt. For the first time ever in the four years we had been together, I was trying to argue with you about something pertaining to your role as prince of the Myrmidons and leading member of the Achaean alliance. Admittedly, you hadn't told me to mind my own business – at least, so far - but for all the effect I was having on you, I might as well be talking to a brick wall.

The fact that you had similarly ignored Patroclus and Phoenix earlier that evening provided little comfort.

I took a deep breath and tried again:

"Achilles, please listen to me. Please! I may be a woman, but I'm not stupid. Nor am I ignorant in the ways of kings. Actually, I spent more years living in a royal court than you did; you told me so yourself. So please accept that I may have a point, and at least consider what I have to say. It's in your own interest that I'm speaking up, it's for you that I am scared."

You stared at me, frowning slightly.

"I am listening. And I never said you were stupid, or that you weren't savvy on courtly intrigues. Although I believe I know army affairs a bit better than you."

"Army affairs, surely. But Agamemnon? I honestly think you have never truly seen him for what he really is."

"And you do?", you retorted, sarcasm ringing heavily in your voice.

"Yes, I believe I do", I replied, too annoyed now to try and cover up the defiance in my own tone.

That left you staring at me again, wordlessly, for while. You seemed to be tethering between anger and surprise. Then you sighed, rolling your eyes.

"Very well, let's hear it. What is it that Agamemnon 'really is', according to you? Since you know him so much better than me…"

It was difficult to stand my ground in the face of your obvious rejection of my point of view. But the danger of what you were set to do was haunting me. I was so worried I hadn't been able to sleep, which was exactly how the whole conversation had started. When you had come out looking for me and asking what I was doing out of bed.

I pressed my head between the palms of my hands, gathering my thoughts, then took another calming breath and soldiered on:

"You spoke to Ajax this morning, right? And Patroclus went to see Odysseus, as planned. In those conversations, both of them said they agreed with you that something must be done urgently to identify the source of the plague that's felling the army, and both also agreed that the best way to achieve that is by calling a council and questioning the high-priest…"

"Not the high-priest. The soothsayer, Calchas", you corrected.

"Right, the soothsayer. So, by calling a council and questioning the soothsayer in front of all the assembled kings, in order to get to the truth in the presence of unassailable witnesses. That, in turn, will force whoever has the means to put an end to the plague to take the measures required from him. Am I understanding correctly?"

You confirmed with a simple nod.

"Ajax and Odysseus fully agreed to all of this? And said so in as many words?"

You nodded again.

"But you will be the only one taking responsibility for calling the council, right? They will support your motion to question Calchas and take all necessary measures to find out and eliminate the cause of the plague, but they will not stand alongside you in calling it, correct? You will do that alone."

Another nod. You were definitely not willing to help me in any way. Still, I carried on:

"All three of you – you, Ajax and Odysseus – are convinced that the plague is the direct result of Agamemnon's mistreatment of the priest of Apollo who came over to try and ransom his daughter, right? Whether by divine or human hand doesn't really matter to any of you. What does matter, is that you believe Agamemnon is at the root of the problem, so the solution must go through him as well. And all three of you also believe that Agamemnon knows that and has been trying to avoid doing whatever it is he must do to solve the matter once and for all. Am I summing it up correctly?"

"Perfectly", you said. "I would only add that it's not just Ajax, Odysseus and I who think that way. Almost everybody does."

It was my turn to nod.

"Yes. And that is exactly what makes the whole situation so dangerous. Everybody, including Agamemnon, knows that Agamemnon messed up. And everybody, including Agamemnon, knows that the men are paying for Agamemnon's mess. Which means that, right now, Agamemnon's judgement is being questioned by a great many people. Covertly, but questioned nonetheless. And nobody is more aware of that than Agamemnon himself. He feels his leadership is weakened. I believe that is at least part of the reason why he seems to be avoiding the issue. He doesn't want to own up to his mistake – not publicly, anyway. He's probably trying to sort things out as discreetly as he can. I bet he must have posted guards by every well and cistern in the camp, and he's probably having the priests under surveillance as well, at least the ones that came from conquered cities."

"Of course, but he hasn't uncovered anything so far. And the men keep dying."

"Which only makes things worse for him. Not only did he show poor judgement in his handling of that Apollo's priest, but now he's also showing ineffectiveness in his control of the people under him. Of his own prisoners, if this is being done by hostage priests."

You nodded, pensively now. It seemed I was finally getting through to you. I sighed in relief.

"So you see how delicate the situation is. By using your prerogative to call a council directly, without going through him, you will be lending a face and a voice to those who question him. Whether you mean to or not, you will be presenting yourself as an alternative leader." I paused, hesitating, then looked straight into your eyes: "Is that what you want? To challenge his leadership and try to take his place?"

You held my gaze without wavering:

"No. In total honesty, I would consider taking over the command of the army. Agamemnon has long shown ineffectiveness, to use your own word, in his handling of this siege. As I was saying to Patroclus yesterday, this has been going on for nine years and we're not any closer to taking Troy now than we were the day we arrived. Under such a long lasting siege, everybody in the city should have starved to death by now. But no; they're still living happily and getting everything they need. It's maddening." You clenched your fists and shook your head forcefully.

"So, yes, I definitely would take command of the army without the slightest compunction and I sure as hell would do a better job than him", you went on, "if only it was that simple. But it isn't. His role as high king is more political than actually military. And the web of political ties and bonds that make up the Achaean alliance is far too complex and intricate for me or anybody else to mess with. Everything revolves around Mycenae. It's been that way for generations now, and it became even more so after the forging of a Mycenae-Sparta axis through the marriages of the two Mycenaean royal brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, to the two Spartan royal sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra. There's no ignoring that, whether we like it or not." You paused for a moment. "Why do you think there's all this fuss over Helen? We may be a society of warriors, but we don't take up arms and sail to make war across the sea every time an adulteress decides to take off with another man." You shook your head again.

There was a short silence. Then you smirked:

"See, I'm not as thick in political matters as you think I am."

I smiled thinly. "I never thought you were thick in any matter whatsoever. And I know you have a brilliant strategic mind, so you're bound to understand the big picture in political strategy as well as anybody. Maybe even better than most. Where I think you're not quite so adept, is in everyday politics. In the layers of meanings and implications of even small actions, in the far-reaching consequences of even an ill-chosen word. And I definitely think you have no idea how convoluted the mind of a ruler like Agamemnon can be, and how petty and dirty things can become when that kind of ruler feels that his power is being threatened."

You shrugged. "I suppose you have a point there. But I will make it clear from the start that I'm not challenging his position." You smirked again. "I promise I'll even address him as Aristos Achaion, Best of the Achaeans."

"You're joking, but this is very serious. Because what you will be doing, in fact, is confronting him in public to try and force him to do something he does not wish to do."

"I won't confront him directly. I'll question Calchas and whatever happens next will depend on the soothsayer's words. I may not even have to say anything at all."

"The simple act of calling the council will feel like a confrontation to Agamemnon, regardless of what you say or not. Don't you see? It means you're taking a responsibility over the army that should be his to take, and it also means you are taking some degree of leadership over the other kings. Considering that he has already felt threatened by your popularity among the men for years now, and that the tension between you and him has grown steadily over the past few months… You can't harbour any doubt that he will take it in the worst way possible."

You shrugged again. "Then so be it. It's his own damn fault if someone else has to take a responsibility that should be his." You pressed your lips together hard.

I made to talk, but you raised your hand to stop me.

"No, Briseis. If the others can sit back and watch their own men die because they're too scared of what Agamemnon may do, I can't. I can't and I won't. I don't want to challenge him, I don't want to fight with him, I don't want any more aggravation than I already have. But I will not sit here doing nothing while men who risked their lives alongside me on the battlefield are falling to a disease brought upon them by their own high king."

There was another long silence. I felt defeated. You were aware of the risks, but being who you were, of course the knowledge of danger would not deter you. It was painfully clear that there was nothing anyone could do to change your mind.

You reached out to hold my chin and gently turned my face to yours.

"Don't torture yourself like that", you said, your voice softer than before. "There's really no reason to worry so much. Honestly. Think about it: what can Agamemnon really do to me? I'm not his vassal. He has no power over Phthia or the Myrmidons. He can't take away my kingship, unless he chooses to declare war on my father. That would be indescribably stupid. Few kings would support him, if any. It would irreversibly compromise the very Achaean alliance. No-one wants that. That's precisely why I will never challenge his command, in spite of all the frustration it's causing me." You stroked my jaw lightly with the tips of your fingers. "He may be furious and he may harass me for a while, but I can handle that and there is really not much more that he can do."

You leaned in to kiss me and I couldn't help kissing you back, but then I shook my head sadly:

"I thought you were aware of the risks, but now I realize you aren't. Not fully, anyway. He may not openly declare war on you, but he'll find a way to hurt you as deeply as he possibly can. And he'll do everything in his power to undermine your reputation in the eyes of the men, in order to discredit you as a potential threat."

You gave me a comforting smile.

"As long as he doesn't touch you or my men, I can deal with anything he decides to throw at me."

"