Agamemnon, standing on his chariot in front of his army, sees his brother fall. For a moment the vast field is silent. Agamemnon shouts. A wordless cry of rage, echoing from the Hellene lines to the walls of Troy. He points toward Hector. The entire Hellene army surges forward. Hollering with a collective violence powerful enough to make the ground tremble, fifty thousand soldiers charge at Hector.
He sees them coming. The ground he stands on trembles with the concussive force of Hellene feet and horses' hooves.
"Paris."
Paris still seems to be in a state of shock.
"Get up, brother! Get up!"
The avalanche of Hellene infantry is getting closer. Paris finally gets to his feet but runs in the wrong direction, toward the Hellenes.
"Paris!"
What seems to be a sprint to suicide turns out to be something different. Paris grabs the fallen sword of Troy from the ground, dangerously close to the charging Hellenes. He turns and dashes back to Hector. The princes mount.
The Hellenes are almost upon them. Brandishing their spears and screaming their war cries, all of them vie for the glory of felling the Trojan princes. The closest Hellenes launch their spears. One whistles by Hector's ear. He spurs his horse. The princes gallop toward the city. Odysseuswatches this chase with trepidation.
"Our men are too close to the walls!"
Glaucus the Trojan general, sees that the princes have gained some distance from their pursuers. He calls to an officer standing on the city wall.
"Archers!"
Patroclus turns and sees Achilles, standing on a high rock behind the other Myrmidons. Achilles starts to watch what happens when Agamemnon crosses him.
"Pull back. Pull back, you fool."
The Hellene army continues to charge at full speed. One thousand Trojan archers notch their arrows and pull back their catgut strings.
"Now!"
One thousand bronze-tipped arrows soar into the air, a deadly swarm of hornets that rises toward the clouds before descending on the charging Hellenes.
Hundreds of Hellenes fall. The Trojan archers let loose another swarm of arrows. The arrows fall with a great hiss. Many find their mark, biting into the throats and faces of the Hellenes. The Hellene army, so overwhelming seconds ago, is now struck with chaos. The men in the front turn back, realizing they've become targets, while the men in back still push forward. In this confusion of foot traffic the arrows continue to fall, a rainstorm of bronze. Agamemnon, standing on his chariot in the middle of his frenzied troops, tries to maintain order, but his shouts go unheard above the general roar. The driver of his chariot falls, an arrow through his neck. Agamemnon grabs the reins and tries to steer the chariot, but so many men are running about, so many bodies litter the ground, that maneuvering is extremely difficult.
Hector and Paris have reached the city walls, where Glaucus and the army wait for them. Hector grabs Paris's arm.
"Get inside the city!"
He slaps Paris's horse. Paris, head bowed, rides away. Hector turns to his army. He shouts to them at the top of his lungs.
"The commander of the Hellenes wants the Trojan army to fight for him!"
The Trojan mood becomes more and more bellicose.
"Would any man here like to fight for Agamemnon?!"
"NO!"
Hector raises his sword and points it at the Hellenes, who retreat from the arrow fusillade in disarray.
"For Troy!"
"TROY!"
The Trojans charge. Hector, on horseback, reaches the Hellenes first. His sword cuts down everyone within reach. The Trojan infantry attacks the Hellenes, whose line has been broken by the rain of arrows. The Trojans take advantage of their enemies' panic. Hector's plan has succeeded.
Achilles is unable to stand still. His fingers twitch as he watches the battle; he paces back and forth and curses. Patroclus and the Myrmidons avoid looking at their leader.
"Get them in line. Get them in line!"
Odysseus, meanwhile, works to reorganize the troops.
"Selepius! Bring your men back into line!"
Ajax, standing nearby, sees Hector chopping his way through the Hellenes. Ajax runs at Hector. Two Trojan soldiers try to intercept Ajax. The mighty Hellene swings his huge battle axe. The blade cuts clean through the first soldier's arm and halfway through his torso. The second soldier hacks at Ajax but the big man blocks the sword with his shield and then uses the shield to ram the soldier's face. Blood sprays from the Trojan's crushed skull. Both soldiers fall dead to the ground. Hector, battling a Hellene infantryman, doesn't see Ajax coming. Ajax grabs Hector's horse's bridle and tugs hard, the veins in his arms bulging beneath the skin.
The horse tries to buck but Ajax twists the horse's head till it falls. Hector falls with the horse, tumbling to the dirt. The Hellene infantryman he had been fighting stabs at him. Hector rolls away and manages, while flat on his back, to swing his sword, chopping off the infantryman's feet just above the ankles. The infantryman screams and falls. Ajax releases the horse, raises his axe, and swings at the fallen Hector. The prince gets his shield up just in time. Ajax's axe cleaves through the shield, splitting the bronze into two even halves. Hector stares at the halved shield, discards it, and jumps to his feet. The two fighters circle each other while thousands of soldiers around them battle to the death.
"So, you're the best of the Trojans?"
Hector, looking for an opening in the brute's defenses, says nothing. Ajax charges, swinging his battle axe. Hector ducks below the axe and lunges forward with his sword, but Ajax, quick despite his size, sidesteps, grabs the smaller man in a bear hug and squeezes. Hector turns red. The sword falls from Hector's hand. Ajax grins. Hector slams his helmeted head forward, butting Ajax in the face. Ajax staggers back, blood spraying from his nose, his axe falling to the ground. Hector struggles to regain his equilibrium. Ajax growls and launches himself at the prince.
But then Ajax remembers something. He remembers the words of the redheaded priestess of Apollo.
"You either kill me, or I kill you, King of Salamis."
"You should know this, Prince Hector. I have your sister. If you value her life, killing me won't save her. With me alive, I can keep her alive."
"How am I belive you if you say she is alive?"
"Virgin priestesses in a ransacked temple. Of course they're alive."
Hector considers Ajax's words, and he lets the man live, as Ajax lets Hector live. This is the first time Cassandra's prophecies hve been believed. Perhaps she was not cursed.
Patroclus and the Myrmidons watch Ajax walk away from each other with disbelief. Achilles cannot bear to watch any longer. He walks away. None of his men dare look at him. Does he think Ajax is a coward now?
The Trojans are routing the Hellenes. With Menelaus fallen, the Spartan forces are in disarray. Odysseus sees Agamemnon speeding by on his chariot. Odysseus runs and manages to leap onto the chariot. The two kings shout at each other above the commotion of battle.
"We need to retreat!"
Agamemnon surveys the battlefield and his battered forces.
"My army has never lost a battle!"
"If you don't fall back, you won't have an army!"
Agamemnon seems dazed by the turn of events. Finally Odysseus hollers to whichever captains can hear his voice.
"Back to the ships! Back to the ships!"
The captains take up this cry, shouting orders to their men. The Hellenes retreat. The Trojan soldiers give a mighty shout as they pursue their enemies.
On the walls of Troy, the people cheer. Nobles and commoners embrace as brothers.
Hector, still on foot, leads his men as they chase down the fleeing Hellenes. Several thousand Hellenes have fallen. The Hellenes get back to their trenches, the bulk of the force still intact. Archers in the Hellene rear guard, manning the trenches, now raise their bows and prepare to fire. Hector, eager to avoid the mistakes his Hellene counterparts made earlier, holds up his hands and bellows to the troops.
"Halt!"
The Trojan army stops just outside the Hellene archers' range. Lysander, the Trojan captain, stands beside Hector.
"We have them on the run, my prince."
"We're almost in range of their archers. You saw what our arrows Have the men gather our fallen. When they're done, send an emissary to the Hellenes. They can collect their dead without fear of assault."
"Would they have done the same for us?"
"Of course not. That's why Troy is worth defending."
Hector turns and heads back to the white city.
Thousands of bodies litter the broad field. We see them first from high above, their bronze armor gleaming in the failing sunlight. The living haul the dead from the battlefield. HORSES are used to pull wagonloads of bodies. Fathers or sons or brothers or friends say their goodbyes and wash the dead men with washcloths and buckets of water. The sun sinks into the ocean. Both sides build funeral pyres for their fallen. When a body is loaded onto the pyre, a relative or friend places two coins on the dead man's eyes.
Agamemnon stands before the body of Menelaus. He places two coins on Menelaus's eyes. He steps down from the pyre, accepts a torch from a captain, and sets the pyre on fire.
"I will burn their city before I leave, brother. I promise you that."
As the sky grows dark, the dead burn on the beach and inside the walls of Troy.