16. Οdysseus

16

Οdysseus

T en days later, many others arrived on Trojan shores from countries beyond the borders of Greece. They had heard of our victory and were coming to visit the fallen city for themselves, to see if the rumours were true. Well, that was what they said. The reality was they came to see if they could collect any Trojan treasure for themselves.

On the third day of visitors, King Polymestor of Thrace arrived with two of his sons in tow.

“Odysseus.” the king came towards me, his hand outstretched. His sons remained behind him, the family resemblance between the three uncanny, as they took resting soldier stances behind their father.

I shook his hand, and turned him towards the camp, the boys following behind us. “I hope your trip was pleasant, King of Thrace?”

“I cannot complain, but please, call me Polymestor. If I may call you Odysseus?”

“Of course,” I nodded. “What do you come for?”

“Well, I came to see if it was true. And then, if there was any treasure you could not take back on your own ships.” Polymestor gave me a politician’s smile.

I smiled back. “It is true. I can have a soldier take you to the ruined city, if you wish.”

Together we began walking towards said city, his sons falling into step behind us. We had not walked five hundred yards when Hecuba exited my tent and caught Polymestor’s eye. I felt him stop beside me and then change course.

“Why, Queen Hecuba. I had no idea you were here.” Polymestor bowed.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” she offered him a small smile. “Tell me, my lord, how fares my son?”

Resolve squirmed on Polymestor’s face until it settled into a grave expression. “I am afraid, great lady, that your young son did not live to see his twelfth year. Though, perhaps that is a blessing from the gods, that he did not see his family in ruin.”

There was a flash of anger in Hecuba’s eyes, so quick anyone not looking would have missed it, before her face contorted into utter grief and a sob broke free.

Myself, the king, and his sons, stood there gormless. There could be no comfort from us – had he been here, we would have killed her boy anyway. Agamemnon had been right: it was the way of things.

Hecuba took a few sips of air to steady her breath, her trembling fading with each one, until she regained her composure, again becoming the unyielding queen as she addressed Polymestor once more. “I have had many sons and daughters in my lifetime. Death in one so young is, unfortunately, more common than a mother would like. But I thank you for bringing the news to me in person, King Polymestor.”

“Of course.”

“My lord?” She bowed her head towards me.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“May I have a moment alone with the King of Thrace, so that I might hear more of my son’s final months on this earth?”

I could have denied her the kindness, said no, but I saw no reason to. In the past, I would have probably listened in, taking what information I could glean to save as ammunition. That was before I had met a Trojan farmer’s housewife who had poisoned her own son to protect him. I could see her anguish on Hecuba’s face, remembering those early days of her grief all too well. I wouldn’t get anything out of Hecuba, and I already knew what I needed to know about Polymestor. To try and claim jewels from an old ally won in a war you did not fight … Well, the man had more greed than honour.

I nodded my consent and walked away, while Hecuba ushered Polymestor and his sons into the tent my men had been keeping her in.

The screams came a half hour later.

Sprinting towards the strangled sounds, I warned the other men to stay back until I knew what we were dealing with, only to stop in my tracks at the carnage.

There, in front of me inside the tent, stood Odette covered in blood, a jewelled dagger falling from her palm onto the ground where the two boys lay in pools of their own blood. Only later would I learn that Odette had gutted them like fish, slicing them from ankle to knee to have them fall, then the lengths of their femurs to ensure they bled out.

For now, all I could see was the chiton soaked in blood pooling around her ankles, the sight freezing me in place. My heart lurched thinking it was hers. The world around me slowed, desperate to buy me time to search for the solution that would stop Odette slipping away from me. But before I could find it, the sharp sound of screaming pierced the air. My eyes shifted, searching for the source.

There, rolling around on the floor, clutching at his brow, was King Polymestor.

It wasn’t Odette’s blood .

Relief flooded my system, and it took effort to strengthen my knees as my attention turned to the other person on the floor, Hecuba, who reached for the dagger Odette had just dropped. In a sweeping arch, the dagger now in hand, she delivered the steel directly into Polymestor’s crotch.

His scream buried sorrow in the hearts of all who heard it.

All, it appeared, except Hecuba, who gathered her blood-soaked skirts to straddle him. When I realised that she now intended to finish the castration, I finally moved. Striding over to her and wrapping my arms underneath her armpits, I pulled her off him as she kicked and screamed.

“Stop this madness!”

“He is a vile, greedy traitor who killed my son, to keep our treasures for himself! He deserves no less,” Hecuba hissed. “Let me GO!”

Gone was the gracious former Queen of Troy. In her place was a creature akin to a rabid dog, wriggling and straining against me with all her might.

“Then he shall be tried in a court of man. Not here, not like this.”

“She took my eyes! My eyyyesss!” Polymestor moaned. “It’s she who should be tried! She is nothing more than a slave. Both of them! Who are they to do this to a king?!” he continued to lament.

“I suggest you shut your mouth before one of them attempts to take your tongue, for I cannot restrain them both.”

It wasn’t a minute later before one of the messengers barged into the tent, undoubtedly to see the scene for himself. He looked to me, still restraining the former queen, his eyes bulging out of his rat-like face.

“Go and get King Agamemnon! And a doctor while you’re at it!” I barked at him.

He nodded, scurrying away.

“Odette – we don’t have much time. Who did this? Tell me it was Hecuba only, and let us be done with this.”

I felt the woman in question wriggle in my grasp. Then Odette’s eyes, bigger than I’d ever seen them, met mine.

“They killed her son. She thought she was entrusting him to them, that she was keeping him safe, and they killed him. Then they laughed about it, in this tent.”

I didn’t take my eyes off her face, but in my periphery I saw her fists clench.

She had done this.

The general in me would have had her seized, killed. There was no other way to deal with such a crime. But the man in me … The man in me knew her history, knew her temperament. She wasn’t just another woman in this war. She was Odette, and that changed everything.

When I heard the other kings’ forces arrive in my camp, I hauled Hecuba to her feet and dragged her outside with me, clasping Odette’s hand with my other, tugging her along with us. We left Polymestor in the tent, where a young doctor struggled to staunch the bleeding, struggling against the maimed king’s restless thrashing. I could still hear the doctor protesting, telling Polymestor to stay calm, when King Agamemnon approached. I dropped Odette’s hand.

“What is the meaning of this, Odysseus? I was getting my ships ready to leave when I got word there was a right royal skirmish in your area. What – can’t keep a woman under control?” He eyed Hecuba in front of me with a sneer. “You should do what I’ve done with mine,” he continued, giving a nod to the soldiers behind him. Between them stood Cassandra, who now had a necklace of heavy chains around her throat. On the end of one loop, another chain of metal followed down into a soldier’s hand.

A leash.

I felt Hecuba vibrate with anger against me.

“Come and see for yourself. But I suggest we leave the others out here, to spare the dignity of those inside.”

Agamemnon nodded, following as I escorted Hecuba back into the tent. This time, Odette followed of her own volition.

Good.

Now, Polymestor sat against the central pole of the tent, holding a damp towel to his crotch, his eye bandages bloody. The doctor had covered the sons’ bodies with sheets. The scene was a touch more civilised than it had first been.

“King Polymestor, I have King Agamemnon with me.”

“And her , I take it. I can still smell her sickly perfume. That siren,” he spat. “I want her punished, you hear me? I want her and that other slave that was with her given to me. I’ll take them back to Thrace, where they can be whored out to the men for taking their princes from them. Then, once their children are ripped from their wombs, they will be strangled as punishment for their crimes against me!”

“What other slave?” Agamemnon asked.

“Mine,” I answered. “And she is mine to do with as I see fit.”

“I did you Greeks a favour,” Polymestor snivelled. “I made sure her boy couldn’t come back and avenge his brothers and his father. And you let THIS happen to me!”

“If I may speak, my lord?” Hecuba’s voice was once again that cold, gracious tone I had heard before. Gone was the raging, vengeful monster. In her place, a former royal who even now sought to bend King Agamemnon to her will, as she had with Polymestor an hour ago.

The permission to speak was a nice touch.

“Speak.” I wanted to know how she could think to get away with such actions.

“This man did not seek to aid you. He sought to take from you what is rightfully yours. He wanted treasure that you had fought and died for, while he had stayed away from the war, as cowards do. He has taken from the Trojan hand and now looks to take from yours, too. He has already confessed to killing my son, and I do not doubt that was so he could keep the treasure we gave him for safe harbour. He would do it to you, I am sure of it. For he said to his sons when he was in this tent that they could both take the other slave at once, while he had his way with me. And if a king does not respect another king’s slaves as property, then what of your gold or other worldly goods?”

Something dark and sinister curled in my gut at the mention of Odette being defiled by his two brutish sons at the same time.

“She lies!”

“What good does it do me to lie now? I am already a slave. Whether I am bound to one master or another, it does not matter.”

King Agamemnon looked to me. “Well, they are your slaves, Odysseus. What say you?”

“Murder,” I replied quietly.

I felt Hecuba still in my arms.

“I say King Polymestor committed murder, and the former Queen of Troy’s retribution was just.”

Agamemnon took a moment to pretend like his pea-sized brain was weighing up the merits of the case, but I knew who he would side with. I had won him the war.

“Murder it is. Guards – come and seize this man! We will take his ship for our own, and the goods he would have taken from us on it.”

“No, no, no, you can’t! You CAN’T!” Polymestor screamed. “If you do, if you do, I’ll?—”

“Silence!” Agamemnon commanded, booting him in the stomach for good measure.

There was an ‘oof’ and a crack, as Agamemnon’s foot made contact with a lower rib.

“You can’t do this, you can’t believe her over me, she’s just a slave now, she’s just?—”

I didn’t hear the rest as Agamemnon’s guards dragged him out.

“What do you want to do with his sons’ bodies?” the young doctor asked us.

“I’ll get some of the young men to perform their burial rites,” I told him and Agamemnon.

They both nodded in agreement, and that was that.

Exiting the tent together, we watched Agamemnon summon the rest of his guard to follow him back to Polymestor’s ship. The men had barely begun walking when, to everyone’s surprise, Cassandra – coiled to that leash though she was – pulled away, not towards her mother Hecuba, but to Odette. She began talking in low, feverish tones as she gripped Odette’s arms and spoke in the old Trojan language to her. Her eyes were wide, desperate, as if she were telling Odette something of vital importance. She stopped only once in her monologue, until Odette nodded, and began again.

Agamemnon, realising his men hadn’t followed after he’d taken a dozen or so strides, turned back. He marched towards Cassandra.

“What is with the women today?” he grumbled, tugging at her.

But, Cassandra was as immovable as a marble statue. She held firm, as if Agamemnon was not a fully grown man tugging at her but a mere bug on her shoulder. She continued saying something to Odette that I could not understand. Even if I’d had the language, the speed at which she talked was so rapid, I wondered if Odette was keeping up.

Eventually, Cassandra stopped to take a breath, and the trance was broken. Seeming to slump into herself, Cassandra finally gave in to Agamemnon’s tug. With a sharp comical yank, they both nearly fell over at the sheer force. All the men chose to wisely bite their tongues at Agamemnon’s huffing, and the entourage left.

“What did she say to you?” I asked Odette, but she refused to answer. “It wasn’t a question, spear-wife.” I used the title with deliberate weight, meant for the ears of those around us.

At that, her head snapped up at me before she shook it. “Nothing I could understand.”

I swung Hecuba around to face me. “Did you understand your daughter’s words?”

For the first time, I saw kindness in Hecuba’s eyes. “It is Cassandra’s plight to be deliberately misunderstood. Even if I could translate it, her words would make no sense – to you, to me, or to anyone else.”

“But why would she deliberately seek out Odette to speak to? Why not to you, her own mother?”

Hecuba shrugged and looked forlornly towards the retreating backs of Agamemnon and his marching entourage.

When I went to ask Odette another question, I caught her with a strange look of appraisal on her face, aimed at Hecuba. For some reason, only in that moment did I realise that these two small, slight women had murdered men far larger and stronger than them, and I had let them get away with it.