The Firebrand

CHAPTER 3

There was no immediate answer to her question; but she had not expected any. For several days she avoided the shrine, pleading illness; it seemed as if the Sunlord's house, once so happy, had turned hostile, for Khryse was everywhere. At last she climbed' the hill to the very height of the city, and there she offered a sacrifice to the Maiden, patron Goddess of Troy; her thoughts were in turmoil, and she asked herself if this was disloyalty to the Sunlord whose priestess she was. Yet she had been called to Earth Mother and made a priestess there too.

When she had offered her sacrifice she felt calmer, though the Goddess did not speak directly to her. She went back to the Sunlord's house and presented herself at the evening ceremonies, and when she saw Khryse among the priests and he smiled at her she did not seek to avoid his gaze. It was not she who had done wrong; why should she feel ashamed?

That night her dreams were confused and dreadful; it seemed to her that a storm raged over Troy, and that she stood on the highest part of the city, at the 'citadel of the Maiden, somehow seeking to call the lightning bolts to strike her first, that they might not fall on those she loved. The Thunder Lord of the Akhaians strode across the great giant-builded walls, shaking his fists, The Earthshaker, Lord of Troy, who had been called to be consort to Earth Mother, was striving and struggling to protect the city of Troy. There were the other Immortals too, and somehow she, Kassandra, had angered them. But I have done nothing wrong, she protested, in confusion. If any had trespassed, it had been Paris. She called out to the Sunlord to save his city; but he frowned and hid the brightness of his face, saying, They worship me also among the Akhaians, and she woke with a cry of dread. When she was fully awake she realized the absurdity of the dream—surely the Gods, who were all-wise, would not punish a great city for the foolish transgression of a single man and a woman.

After a time she slept again; and again she began to dream.

She thought she held Phyllida's baby at her breast; and she felt again the mixture of enormous tenderness combined with horrible revulsion and despair. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. She struggled to consciousness; the touch on her breast was still there, and a dark shape bent over her, save where the light of the full moon glinted on the golden mask of Apollo. But she recognized the touch of the hand on her breast, and she opened her mouth to cry out.

The hand quickly moved from her breast to cover her mouth. "You are mine, Kassandra!" an all-too-familiar voice intoned. "Would you deny your God?"

Kassandra bit the hand, which was removed with a most ungodlike cry and sat up, pulling her tunic back into place. "I know the voice of the God, Khryse," she snarled furiously at him, "and it is not your voice! Blasphemer, do you think that Apollo cannot protect his own?"

Her voice had risen considerably on the last sentence, and she heard in the hallway the voices of the other priestesses coming to investigate the disturbance. She threw herself from the bed, trying to reach the door, but Khryse blocked her way and pushed her against the wall. His attempts to hold her there, while largely successful, were not silent, and the room quickly filled with a crowd of women, including Charis, Phyllida, and Chryseis. Khryse turned his head so that the mask stared at the group of women.

"Leave us." His voice was deep and impressive. Phyllida first gasped, seeing the mask of the God, then, recognizing the man's voice, regarded him and Kassandra with horrified comprehension. Chryseis giggled; the rest of the women looked uncertain.

Kassandra hit him, hard, in the stomach and broke away from his grasping hands.

"Vile priest!" she said in a gasp. "You dare use the semblance of the God to satisfy your lusts! You profane that which you do not understand!" She was shaking with a mixture of rage and horror. "By the Mother of All, I wouldn't lie with you if you were truly possessed by Apollo!"

"Would you not, Kassandra?" A shudder passed through Khryse's body and then, unexpectedly - and unmistakably - the voice was that of Apollo. You who are my chosen one—surely you cannot think I would fail to protect you from a vicious and foolish mortal?

Kassandra heard Phyllida's cry of recognition, but the dark tide flowed over her and filled her; and she felt the surge of the Goddess rising within her. The last thing she heard was the voice of the Goddess.

Yours, Sunlord? She was given to me before ever she came to birth in this mortal world, or felt your touch!

Then she knew no more.

Her body was propped against the wall, and every inch of her skin felt as though it had been burned. Nails clawed at her cheek and continued to rip her tunic at the shoulder.

"Murderess!" Chryseis screamed in her ear. "You have killed my father! You think yourself too good for him - you think that just because you're a princess you're better than the rest of us! You act as if you were not even human! Well, you're not you're a beast and a filthy coward—"

Kassandra opened her eyes. Khryse lay on the floor, dead white and very still. Phyllida was bending over him. "He's going to be , all right, Chryseis," she said soothingly. "The God has taken him, no more."

But Chryseis was not listening. "She's a witch! She cast an evil spell on him!"

Charis pulled the hysterical girl away from Kassandra and thrust her into the arms of two of the other priestesses. "Get this senseless brat out of here!" Chryseis's screams echoed as she was dragged down the hallway, then mercifully faded into the distance.

Kassandra felt her body slide to the floor, but she could do nothing to stop it. Her eyes were open, but everything seemed far away and not quite real. Only a part of her self was in her body; the rest hovered over the scene, watching as Charis and the governess picked her up and laid her back in her bed. A novice brought a beaker of wine; Charis poured some of it down Kassandra's throat. Briefly it warmed her, and pulled her a bit further back into her body, but she felt terribly, unendurably cold, as if most of her life force had fled. She could see that Charis was holding her hand, but she couldn't feel the clasp of the woman's fingers. Suddenly she felt overwhelmed by homesickness for the Amazon encampment, and for Penthesilea, who had been more of a mother to her than Hecuba ever had been or would be. Tears blurred her vision and dripped down the sides of her face.

"Hush," Charis soothed, drawing the blanket up and tucking it securely about her. "Rest now, and don't trouble yourself. Time enough to sort things out in the morning."

Behind Charis, Kassandra could see Phyllida reverently pick up the mask of Apollo. Two of the priests came in quietly, conferred briefly with the governess, then carried Khryse out. His eyes were open but he looked dazed and uncomprehending.

The priests were talking to each other as they passed her bed; Kassandra caught the words 'genuine possession'.

But whose? Khryse's, or her own?

She woke just before sunrise, feeling as if every muscle and bone in her body had been beaten with cudgels; she lay motionless, thinking of what had happened.

One thing was certain; Khryse had - unlawfully - worn the mask of the God and had attempted to seduce her. She was not quite sure what had happened after that; she remembered Chryseis tearing at her and screaming, and then she remembered the voice of Apollo, breaking through the noise and confusion in the room, and the ill-fated words she had flung at Khryse.

"I wouldn't lie with you if you were the God himself—"

Had she truly said those words to her God? Khryse had deserved them; yet her whole body tightened in grief at the thought that Apollo Sunlord might have taken them to himself.

Still, beyond fear or regret, she knew now the source of the dark waters; the Goddess who had chosen her. She had given herself to the God in all the sincerity of her first love; yet she had not been free.

The door opened and Charis came in, bending over her with tenderness.

"Will you get up, Kassandra? We are all summoned to the shrine, to discuss what truly happened here last night."

Charis brought her some wine, and bread and honey, but Kassandra could not swallow; her throat clamped down and she knew that if she tried to eat she would be sick.

Charis helped her to draw on her dress and brush her hair; Kassandra pinned it loosely into a braid, and followed the older priestess to the shrine, where the priests and priestesses were assembled.

One of the older priests, who had known Kassandra since her childhood, called them to order, saying, "We must find out the truth of this unfortunate incident. Daughter of Priam, will you tell us what happened?"

"I was asleep and dreaming and woke to find a man in my room. He wore the mask of the God, but I recognized Khryse's voice. He has asked me to yield to him before," she said, "and I refused." She raised her head, looking into Khryse's eyes.

"Ask the lecherous blasphemer if he dares to deny it!"

The priest asked, "Khryse, what have you to say?"

Khryse looked straight at Kassandra. He said, "I remember nothing; only that I awakened in her room with this wildcat clawing at me!"

"You did not deliberately put on the mask of the God in order to deceive the girl?"

"Certainly not!" said Khryse indignantly. "I call Apollo's self to witness - but I doubt he will come to accuse or defend me."

"He lies," Phyllida cried out, "I know the voice of the God -and I will swear that it was the voice only of Khryse! Kassandra has complained to me before that he had asked of her what was not lawful to give any mortal man! Later I heard him speak in the voice of the Sunlord—"

"We all heard that," said Charis,"the question now is which of them, or both, or neither, blasphemed."

"I say she was guilty of refusing the word of Apollo," said Khryse,"she blasphemed; and in the name of the God we both serve—"

"Certainly she invoked the Goddess in Apollo's own Temple," said Charis, "and this is forbidden."

"I think both of them should be sent away from here," said the old priest, "for creating a scandal."

Kassandra said, "I do not see why I should be punished for fighting a lecherous priest who would have ravished a woman who had given herself to the God he pretended to serve. As for the Goddess, I did not seek her protection; she comes and goes as she will. I am not party to her quarrel with Apollo."

"I call Apollo to witness—" Khryse began hotly.

Kassandra said sharply, "And what will you do, blasphemer, if he should come to answer you?"

Khryse said, arrogantly, "It is certain that he will not come. I sought Kassandra, yes; I serve the God, as she says she does—"

"Take care," said Charis sharply, but Khryse laughed.

"I will take that chance!"

Charis said, "We owe Kassandra protection; the maidens of the Temple are sworn to the God, and are not to be abused by a mere man, be he priest or otherwise; and certainly not by a trick of this kind."

There was murmuring in the room; Kassandra was grateful to Charis for speaking in her defense.

"One thing I ask," the old priest said. "Come here, daughter of Priam; you were heard to say to him that you would not give yourself to him even if he were Apollo in truth. Did you mean that, or did you speak in anger?"

"Since the God did not come to me, I spoke only to defend myself against one who would have raped me in Apollo's name—"

There was a blaze of light and Kassandra raised her eyes to see the brightness where Khryse had been standing.

The deep familiar voice resonated to the corners of the room.

Kassandra—

Beyond all question it was the voice of the God; Kassandra felt her knees loosen and she slid to the floor, not daring to raise her eyes or speak.

This my servant did not believe I could use him this way; but now be knows better. He shall learn my power before he is much older. Leave him to me; I shall deal with my own.

The shining form turned to Kassandra; she trembled and bowed her head.

As for you, Kassandra, you whom I have loved; you have given yourself to my ancient enemy; yet I have claimed you and you are mine. I will not release you; yet you have offended me and from you I withdraw my divine gift of prophecy. Hear my word!

The voice was filled with throbbing sadness; Kassandra, kneeling with her head bowed, felt within herself the surge of protest and resentment.

"Sunlord, I only wish you could," she said aloud. "I want nothing more than to be freed of that gift I did not seek!"

She bowed as if buffeted with mighty winds; her body was a battleground, her eyes burning, the dark surging waters of the Goddess raging against the blasting heat of Apollo's wrath.

You too shall know my power!

Abruptly the presence was gone; Kassandra, released from the grip of the warring Immortals, slumped to the ground. Dimly, she knew Charis bent to lift her up. As if she were floating somewhere near the ceiling of the room, she saw Khryse fall to the ground, his body jerking wildly, heels drumming on the floor, and teeth chattering. Blood-flecked foam burst from his lips, and an eerie cry emptied his lungs.

And serves him right, she thought, who thought to speak with Apollo's power to deceive one of his own…

Like an echo of Apollo's voice, she heard: I shall have use even for him in the days that will come…

Shuddering with cold, she felt the dark waters withdraw, and came back as if surfacing from a very deep dive. She still could not speak; the priests were ministering to Khryse, while her own head still lay in Charis's lap.

Charis rocked her gently and whispered, "Don't cry; even if Apollo's anger is terrible, it will be good for you to be free of this dreadful curse of foresight."

How could I tell her that I wept not for the loss of the gift of prophecy, or that it was not Apollo's anger I feared but his love. I did not seek to be a battleground between the Immortals.