The Firebrand

CHAPTER 8

It began to be rumoured in the city that the Akhaians had given up and would not return; Kassandra knew better than that, for there were still times when she would look down from the high-house of the Sunlord, and see for a moment the city swallowed in flames. From this she knew that the gift of prophecy had not deserted her.

It was no use to her; when she spoke of it, no one would listen. Nevertheless, O Lord Apollo, whatever may have been taken from me, a day will come when they will remember what I said and know I did not lie.

She wondered at times: This is only a curse, since no one believes what I say; why must I suffer in knowing and being unable to speak? Yet when she would have prayed that the Sight might be withdrawn, she thought: Oh, no! how much worse to walk blind and unknowing into whatever the Fates have decreed.

Yet if this was the fate of all men; how, then, did they manage to endure it?

Day after day the seas were free of warships or of raiders. Other ships came, bound northward to Colchis and the country of the North Wind, paying their tribute to Troy, and from Colchis Queen Imandra sent gifts and greetings to her daughter, and to Kassandra too.

One morning Kassandra found her snake lying dead in its pot; and this she took for the worst of omens. She had had but little time to spare for the creature lately, and blamed herself for not having seen that it was ailing. She asked leave to bury it in the temple grounds. When this was done, Charis sent for her and set her in charge of all the serpents in Apollo's Temple.

"But why?" Kassandra asked. "I am not worthy; I tended mine so ill that it sickened and died."

"Why do we give you this task? Because you are not happy, Kassandra; do you think us blind? You are dear to me - dear to Us all," and as Kassandra made a gesture of protest, she said,

-

"No, this is true; do you think us unaware of what Khryse has done to you? If we were free to turn him from the door, believe me, there are many who would do so. And now we have an excuse to give you a duty where you need not encounter him at every day and in every hour."

She still did not understand; why were they not free to turn him away from the temple? He had attempted to rape a virgin of the God. It was a riddle she could not read; nor did Charis give any explanation, saying no more; evidently they were not even free to explain why Khryse had this hold over them.

There was a very old priestess in the temple who had all kinds of serpent-lore; older than Hecuba - at least as much older than Queen Hecuba as Hecuba was older than her daughter. Kassandra, eager to avoid for the other serpents in the temple the fate which had befallen her own snake, took to spending many hours with the old woman. Her hair was white and mostly fallen out, and her eyes sunken into her head like a skeleton's. She suffered from a palsy of age, her hands shaking so that she could not grasp her own feeding-spoon; it was this ailment which decreed she had to be relieved of the care of the serpents.

Kassandra spent all her hours with the old woman, lifting her and feeding her, and when the priestess was strong enough to talk to her, learning all about every kind of snake and serpent, including many kinds they no longer kept in the temple. Sometimes Kassandra thought she would like to make a long journey simply to secure for the temple some of these strange creatures for the house of Apollo: the ones who dwelt in the deserts far to the south, or one of the kind called Python, larger around than a child, and able to swallow a kid at a meal, or even a whole sheep. Kassandra was not entirely sure she believed in such a creature, but she liked hearing such tales, and would sit and listen all day to the old woman's.

After the serpents had been fed there was little to do, except for seeing to old Meliantha's needs, and Kassandra would listen and daydream, thinking of her meeting with the Goddess as Serpent Mother in the underworld and wondering how the story had arisen of Apollo Sunlord slaying the Python.

The year was advancing; belated winter rains swept softly in from the sea and on some bare branches could be seen little lumps where leaves would eventually unfold. One day she stood high atop the Sunlord's house and heard a faraway shrill crying.

"Look, the cranes are flying north again." I wonder, she thought, to what faraway lands they travel, beyond the country of the North Wind. But her companions had more practical thoughts in their minds.

"Soon it will be time for the spring planting festival," said Chryseis, and there was a greedy gleam in her eyes. "I am tired of being shut in with the women." Kassandra was struck with fear; surely with spring, the Akhaians would come. The last winter moon swelled and shrank and there came days grey with soft rains; and a few days after the northward flight of the cranes, the clouds cleared, and the narrow new moon in the sky announced the coming of spring and the planting festival.

On the first day after the new moon, Kassandra was summoned to the palace to her mother's presence; she found her with her women, making implements for the planting rites, and a priestess of Earth Mother was there supervising the work.

Kassandra did not know what she was going to say until she heard herself saying it.

"Are you planning the festival so that the Akhaians can enjoy it? Surely to hold a festival now is only inviting them to come and despoil it!"

The priestess, an aging woman Kassandra did not know well, scowled at her.

"What would you suggest as an alternative, Lady Kassandra? We cannot refrain from planting the grain—"

"Oh, I know that the grain must be sown," Kassandra said, almost frantic, "but must we draw attention to it with a festival?"

The priestess asked, frowning, "Do you expect to enjoy the gifts of the Goddess without doing her honor?"

Kassandra, hardly knowing what to say wanted to cry. She thought, If the Goddess is so great and benevolent, surely she would give us the grain without demanding so much. Is the Earth Goddess an old market woman to haggle with us - so much grain for so many songs and dances? Since she could not say that, she said nothing at all, and knew the priestess was frowning at her with disapproval.

"What has the festival to do with you, who have chosen to remain a virgin in the house of the Sunlord, and do not pay her your due?"

"It was not altogether by choice," she said meekly. "The Sunlord called me, and Earth Goddess made no protest. If she had demanded of me that I serve her I would have obeyed."

And why did she not stretch forth her bow to save me from

the Sunlord, then? Am I no more than a fleeing animal before the strife of these Gods?

But the priestess was still scowling at her, seeming to demand an answer, and Kassandra said, "Since I too am fed by her bounty, I see no reason for a festival which will make the planting useless. For if the Akhaians come to destroy our festival, we will reap little from this planting."

"Are you saying to me that even the Akhaians do not pay honor to the Goddess?"

"I say only that I fear their impiety," said Kassandra. "If you believe that they pay honor to the Goddess, why not ask one of their devotees, or send a messenger to negotiate a truce and a pledge that they will not interfere with Earth Mother's rites?"

And for that fear I am badgered as if the impiety were mine own; I should learn to keep silence.

She bowed in silence to the priestess; her warning given. It was no part of her duty to say more. Her mother had been looking on in silence, and Kassandra crossed the room to join her.

"Can you not understand my fear, Mother?"

"I trust to the goodness of the Goddess; surely she can raise her hand if she will to strike against these Akhaians," said Hecuba reprovingly. "You are too full of fears, Kassandra."

"You have served Earth Mother all these years; has she ever lifted her hand to protect you?" asked Kassandra.

Her mother looked deeply displeased and said, "Such questions are not for women to ask; you who are a priestess should know better than to say such things. The Gods are not slow to punish those who speak against or question them."

I should have been the one to say that, thought Kassandra. I have lived in the Sunlord's house and seen how he strikes - and how he protects - his own. She sighed and said no more.

Her mother said gently, "I am not reproving you, Kassandra; but if you have found no happiness in the Sunlord's house you should return to us here. I cannot think it entirely a good thing for a girl of your years to remain this long a maiden; if you return to Priam's house, your father will find you a husband. It would please me well, to see you married and with a child in your arms. And then there would be no more of these evil dreams and prophecies to torment you."

In spite of her mother's loving tone, Kassandra felt a wave of anger so great that it choked her. Ah, that is the remedy for all things that are wrong with women - if a woman is unhappy, or if she makes a mistake, or does not do what everyone else wants her to do; then she would be better for a husband; if she had a child it would be the remedy for all her ills. She said to her mother, "Ah, you too, Mother? When you rode with Penthesilea and her women, would you have been so quick to say that was what ailed me? Would you give me to a husband or see me pregnant just so I would not speak the truth and frighten people?"

Hecuba was dismayed at her angry tone. She patted Kassandra's knotted fingers and smoothed them gently, trying to. unlock them. "Don't be angry, my dear; I don't know why you are always so angry. I only want to see you happy, my child."

"I am angry because I am surrounded by fools," said Kassandra, "and your only answer would be to make me one of them."

She stood up and flung herself out of the room. Her mother was hopeless, and yet there had been a time when she was strong and self-sufficient; Kassandra had her weapons to prove it. And why had she let her mother divert her from the real issue, which was the danger to the spring planting? Her mother had chosen to divert her to the old issue of marriage - as if a married woman automatically gained wisdom. Andromache was certainly no wiser for her marriage to Hector, nor Creusa for being married to Aeneas.

If I thought that it could work some such great change in me, then would I be not only willing, but eager, to marry!