The Firebrand

CHAPTER 5

Kassandra awakened from a dream of fire sweeping up the hill of Troy toward the palace to a smell of smoke and voices clamouring in the halls of the Sunlord's house. It was the darkest part of the night, when the moon is down and the stars are going out; but there was the smell of torches. Snatching up a cloak to cover the short tunic in which she slept, she ran out into the courtyard.

Far below in the harbor she could see dim lights from ships, and torches, presumably carried in human hands, making their way up the hill.

All she could think was: It has come. She cried out, and then she heard the clamour of the alarm, a great wooden rattle sounded from Priam's keep. It called for women and children and the old to take refuge in the main citadel and the soldiers to turn out. She stood watching the lights moving through the city below her, and watchmen running up and down, hearing the clash of weapons seized, and at last the loud voices of officers ordering soldiers to their posts.

She felt a gentle tug on her sleeve and found Chryseis standing beside her.

"What is it, Kassandra?"

"It is the Akhaians; they have come, as we foresaw," she said, and was astonished at how calm she felt. "We must make ready to take shelter in the citadel."

"My father—"

"Hush, dear; he will have to go with the soldiers. Go quickly and dress."

"But he has the falling sickness—"

"If the Akhaians take him he will have something worse. Quickly, child." She took Chryseis's hand, and led her within, dressing her quickly in a heavy tunic against the night chill, fastening her cloak and binding sandals on her feet. As soon as Chryseis was dressed, they went into the courtyard; Charis was gathering the women around her, and telling them to go down toward the main keep of the palace.

Kassandra, the girl's hand in hers, went down the steep road. It seemed wrong to be going toward the torches and the clash of arms; surely the Akhaians would never come so high as this; what they sought was in the palace, not up here in the Temple. Now she could hear the chilling war cries, and the bellowing of Hector as he rallied his men.

The other women crowded around them as Kassandra led the way through the palace gates. The guards and soldiers were hurrying the women inside, each one then taking up a spear from a huge pile stacked at the entrance to the armory.

Kassandra thought of taking a spear and going down with the -soldiers; but Hector would be angry. All the same, a time may come when he does not despise my skill at arms. For the moment she decided to go with the women. They were a dishevelled crew, most of them half-dressed as if they had been roused from sleep. Many of them had not troubled to dress, or do more than clutch a blanket over their nakedness like their children; and babies howled or fretted in the arms of mothers or wet-nurses. Kassandra and the other priestesses of Apollo were almost the only ones who were properly dressed for public appearance, or who kept their composure. Most of the women were tear-stained or crying, keening and shouting for explanations or for help.

Helen too stood composed among the many hysterical women. Every lock of hair was in place and she looked as if she had this moment come from the hands of her bath attendant. She was holding a small boy of five or six by the hand; he was neatly dressed, his hair combed into place, and though his knuckles • were white as he clung to her fingers, his face was scrubbed clean and he was not crying.

She looked across the room with great composure and her eyes met Kassandra's. Then she crossed the room, threading her way quietly through the crowding, wailing women, and came toward Kassandra.

"I remember you," she said, "you are my husband's twin sister. It is good to see someone who is not turned foolish with terror. Why are you not weeping and screaming like everyone else?"

"I don't know," Kassandra said. "Perhaps I am not as easily frightened; and perhaps I prefer not to cry until I am hurt."

Helen smiled. "Ah, good. Most women are such fools. Is there danger, do you think?"

"Why do you ask me?" Kassandra countered. "Surely they have not neglected to tell you that I am mad." a 2.

"You do not have the look of a madwoman," Helen said. "In any case I prefer to make up my own mind."

Kassandra frowned a little and turned away. She did not want to like this woman or to find anything admirable in her. It was bad enough that when she looked at her she saw something of what Paris saw.

"Then you can make up your own mind as to whether there is danger," she said curtly. "I know only that I was awakened by the watchman's rattle, and I came down here to obey. I suppose, since I saw Akhaian ships in the harbor, that it has something to do with you; and so, though there may be something for us to fear, there is certainly nothing for you to be afraid of."

"You think not?" Helen said. "Agamemnon is certainly no friend of mine; his only thought would be to turn me over to Menelaus, and he would certainly stand by to see that I did not escape unscathed."

The unnaturally neat little boy clinging to Helen's hand flinched; Helen felt it, and looked gently down at him. Kassandra did not know why this surprised her; why had she thought that the Spartan woman could not also be a tender and concerned mother?

She asked, "How old is your son?"

"Five years old at midsummer," Helen said, and beckoned across the crowded room to a thin, aristocratic-looking woman dressed in the full skirt and low-cut bodice of a Cretan woman. "Aithra, will you take Nikos and put him down somewhere to sleep, my dear?" She kissed the child, who clung to her; but she said gently, "Go, now, and sleep like a good boy," and he went without protest, trotting along obediently at the tall woman's side.

"Is that Menelaus's son?" asked Kassandra.

"Perhaps you would say so," Helen said indifferently. "I say he is my son. In any case I do not choose to leave him with his father; I do not like the way he treats his children. It will not harm Hermione to be nothing but his precious gilded toy; but the only thought in Menelaus's mind is to make Nikos over in his own image—or worse yet, in the image of his wonderful brother. I sent Nikos away because someone unwisely said in his hearing that if his father came after us, he would kill us both; and Aithra also has cause to fear."

"Aithra looks more like a queen than a waiting-woman," said Kassandra.

"She is a queen," said Helen. "She is the mother of Theseus; and he sent her to me… she stays with me out of love. I think somehow they quarrelled; and Aithra prefers to remain with me; and she treats my son as her own grandchild, which she would not do for the son of the Horse Queen," Helen said. "Now that the child is safe, I would like to know what is going on."

Kassandra said, "There is no danger here, not now; I think it would have been more sensible to leave the women of the God's house up there. Surely they will not get higher than the palace keep." At Helen's side she went out into the courtyard room which looked down over all of Troy and the harbor.

The sun was just rising; Kassandra could see men fighting-upward through the city.

"Look," Helen said, "your Trojan soldiers under Hector have cut off the upward path to the palace; and now the Akhaians are looting and burning in the lower city. That is one of Agamemnon's ships and I doubt not that Menelaus is with him." The indifferent tone in which Helen spoke fascinated Kassandra; had she no feeling whatever for her previous husband?

Flames were rising now from the seaside houses and buildings down below; houses of the poorer sort built of stacked logs and timbers were going up in flames. The houses built higher up on the hill were all of stone, and there was no way they could be set afire, but the Akhaian soldiers were running into the houses and carrying out everything they could find.

"They won't find much treasure or plunder down there," Kassandra said, and Helen nodded.

They leaned on the railing, watching the men below. Kassandra recognized one of the Akhaians, a big man who stood out as almost a head taller than his men, his crested helmet glittering as if washed with gold in the rising sunlight. He had once invaded the palace and borne off the struggling Hesione. That had been - how long? Seven years ago perhaps? Still she shuddered and felt her stomach clench tight.

Helen said, "That is Agamemnon," and Kassandra said, her voice only a whisper, "Yes, I know."

"Look; Hector and his men are trying to cut him off from his ship; will they burn it, do you think?"

"They'll try," Kassandra said, watching the Trojan soldiers trying to cut off the Akhaians' leader and making him fight every step of the way back to his ship. The sun was higher now and they could not see into the burning glare reflected off the ocean; Kassandra turned away, shading her eyes.

"Let's go inside; it's cold. It is not at Agamemnon's hands that Hector will meet his fate," she said. They went into the room where the other women were quieter now; the children had fallen asleep on blankets and half a dozen midwives were gathered around Creusa who was trying to tell them that she was perfectly well and was not going to go into labour just to provide them with amusement for this night.

Hecuba, wrapped in one of her oldest shawls over a ragged old house gown, had found some scraps of wool and was twirling a distaff idly; Kassandra gauged by the unevenness of the thread that it was only to pass the time.

"Oh, there you are, girls - I wondered where you had gone. What is happening down there, daughter? Your eyes are better than mine. What was it you said about Hector, Kassandra?"

"I said it is not at the hands of Agamemnon that he will meet his fate, Mother."

"I should hope not," said Hecuba irritably. "That great Akhaian brute would be well advised to avoid our Hector!"

Some of the women had gone out on the balcony and now Kassandra heard them raise a cheer.

"They are going away; they have reached their boat and are making sail! The Akhaians are gone!"

"And they cannot have got much plunder from the houses along the shore; a few sacks of olives, a few goats perhaps - you are safe, Helen," said Hecuba.

"Oh, they will surely be back again," Helen said, and Kassandra, who had been on the very point of saying the same thing, wondered how she knew. She was no fool, this Akhaian woman, and this troubled Kassandra. The last thing she wanted was to like or to respect Helen; yet she could not help liking her.

Chryseis came up to Kassandra, and whispered, "Charis has said that we may go back to the shrine; are you ready?"

"No, dear; I will stay for a while with my mother and sisters and my brothers' wives, if Charis will permit me," Kassandra said. "I will return when I can."

"Oh, they always let you do whatever you want," said Chryseis spitefully. "I am sure they would not chide you if you wanted to stay away altogether."

Hecuba had overheard this, but she was altogether too gentle a person to hear the malice in the girl's voice. She said, "Yes, they have been very good about lending you back to us, Kassandra. Be certain to tell Charis how grateful I am. I suppose with all these people sent to the palace, I should somehow find breakfast for them; will you help me, Kassandra, if your temple duties do not summon you immediately?"

"Of course, Mother," said Kassandra, and Helen volunteered at once, "And so will I."

Kassandra was startled to see Hecuba give Helen an affectionate little pat on the cheek. She said, "I will go and speak to Charis," and went quickly away.

"Of course you must stay if your mother has need of you," Charis said, "with Creusa pregnant, and Andromache with a child still at the breast. Don't trouble yourself, Kassandra, stay as long as your mother needs you."

"What is that?" Andromache quavered, and hid her child's head under her shawl as a blow was struck on the door. Others among the women trembled and cried out in fear.

"Don't be so foolish," Helen said, frowning at them in contempt. "We saw the Akhaians leave." She went and flung the door open; her face lighted, making her even more radiantly beautiful, and Kassandra knew who stood there even before she saw her twin brother.

"Paris!"

"I wanted to be sure that you and the boy were well," Paris said, looking round the room for the child. "Surely you did not leave him below while you took refuge here?"

"Of course not; he is sleeping yonder, in Aithra's arms," Helen said, and Paris smiled; a smile, Kassandra thought, that should not have been seen outside their own chamber.

"Were you frightened, my darling?"

"Not while we knew we were so well protected, my dearest," she murmured, and he clasped her hand.

"I said to Hector that he should come with me to make certain that our wives and children were safe," Paris added, "but he was too busy worrying about wine and rations for the household guard."

"Hector," said Andromache stiffly, "would never neglect his duty to his men; and I would not wish him to."

And what is Paris doing here among the women at a time like this? Kassandra knew that Hector had behaved properly; yet at that moment, she knew, every woman in Troy envied Helen her husband.

"Was Menelaus there?" she asked in an undertone.

"I did not see him, if he was," said Paris. "I told you he was too cowardly to come himself. And now we are well rid of Agamemnon."

"Don't think it," Kassandra burst out. "He will be back almost before he has time to gather his men, and next time you will not be rid of him so easily."

Paris looked at her with good-natured indulgence.

"Are you still prophesying doom, poor girl? You are like a minstrel who knows only one song to sing and wears out his welcome at every hearthside," he said. "But I am sorry you were frightened by these buzzards of Akhaians. Let us hope we have seen the worst of them."

I hoped it too; he did not know how much I hoped it.

"I must go and help Mother provide breakfast for all these women," she said. It seemed incongruous that out of this terror and confusion a feast should come; but the men were feasting too, celebrating that Agamemnon had—for now—been driven away.

"I would rather stay with you," Paris said, "but if I do not go and join Hector and the men, I shall never hear the last of it. Forgive me, love." He kissed Helen's hand and hurried away, and Kassandra stood without moving, until Andromache called to her and she went to help prepare the breakfast for the palace's unexpected guests.