The Firebrand

CHAPTER 1

By twilight everyone in both armies, and most of the civilians in the city had heard the story, which of course did not grow less in the telling.

According to most of the eyewitnesses, the Goddess had appeared on the city wall and snatched Paris from under Menelaus's very sword, delivering him from a certain death-stroke; in one version Menelaus had sliced Paris in one stroke from chin to pelvis and the Goddess had healed him at a touch; she had bound up his wounds with nectar and ambrosia and transported him into Helen's very chamber.

Kassandra, when asked, replied only that she was not sure what she had seen; the sun had been in her eyes.

Privately she was certain that somehow the Goddess had intervened. But she was no longer certain quite how it had happened, although she was perfectly sure that, for a moment at least, Helen had worn the semblance of the Goddess. It would not be, after all, for the first time.

For two days the city talked of nothing but the duel, and the supposed intervention of the Gods. Hector and Aeneas came back from councils saying that the Akhaians were insisting that Menelaus had won the duel because Paris had fled, wounded.

"What did you answer them?" Priam asked eagerly.

"What do you think? We said that it was obvious that Paris had won, since the Gods themselves had intervened to save his life," Hector replied.

Kassandra, who had watched the battlefield from the walls most of the day, remembering her own arms-training and thinking that she could probably do as well as most of the Akhaian soldiers or any of the Trojans, asked, "What was that all about this afternoon? I saw two soldiers I did not know stand out for combat, and before they ever got to fighting, one of them started unarming and ended by stripping off his clothes down to his loincloth. Did they decide to wrestle instead of fighting with swords?"

Aeneas chuckled.

"Oh, no," he said. "Do you know Glaucus the Thracian?"

"I have spoken with him," Helen said. "He was the sailing-master of one of the ships which brought us here."

"Well, he stood out and challenged any Akhaian to give him a fight and Diomedes accepted. So they began calling out their lineage, in order to find out if they could meet honorably in single combat, and before they reached their great-grandfathers, they discovered they were cousins."

"So did they decide not to fight?" Kassandra asked.

"Didn't you see?" Aeneas asked.

"No; I was called away to the temple. One of the great serpents is about to shed her skin, and needed special care; they are blind at this time and cannot be handled by strangers," Kassandra said.

"They agreed they must fight for the honor of it; but they decided to exchange armor. Diomedes said that his ordinary armor was not handsome enough for an honorable gift, so he sent back to his ship for a precious set of silver armor with gold inlay, and then of course Glaucus had to trade round with his comrades for a fancy set to give him a gift of equal worth. They sounded like a couple of old men in the flea market haggling over the value of some trinket, and it went on and on—and of course they did the fighting in their old battered fighting armor, with the two fancy sets hanging up to be admired—"

"Who won?" asked Helen.

"I have no idea; I think they knocked each other down a time or two, and then it got too dark to see, so they embraced each other, thanked each other for the handsome gifts, and went off to dinner."

Hector chuckled. "No advantage, either way, I suppose, but it passed the afternoon. Of course we had nothing better to do anyway today—until the councillors on both sides have decided whether Paris or Menelaus won their duel, everything else is simply for amusement anyhow. Glaucus and Diomedes would have done better to make it a wrestling match - at least we could have had some bets on that one. I've been tempted to challenge Big Ajax to wrestle—he's the biggest man on the Akhaian line. I don't know if he can wrestle—"

"He can," said young Troilus. "He won the garland for wrestling at their sacrificial Games."

"Then I shall certainly challenge him," said Hector.

"Watch out you don't get an elbow in the face; his specialty is breaking teeth," Troilus said.

At dinner Hector asked Priam, "Sire, what will happen if the council decides that Menelaus won the duel?"

Priam shrugged.

"Nothing," he said, "The Akhaians will refuse to accept the decision and the war will go on. They don't want to settle; they're not going to give in till they break down the walls of Troy and sack the city."

"Why, you sound like Kassandra, Father."

"No," said Priam, "I know what Kassandra thinks." But for, once, as Kassandra raised her eyes, struck again by that terrible fear, and the actual sight of Troy in flames which came between her and the living world, Priam smiled at her, kindly, as if to try and dispel her fears. "I have heard her say it often enough that she believes that they will destroy us. But that is not true."

"Can they break the walls of Troy, Father?" Paris asked.

"Not unless they can persuade Poseidon to help them with an earthquake," Priam stated.

Now Kassandra felt it through all her body; the walls would fall to the wrath of Poseidon, his earthquake—she should have known all along that no ordinary efforts of men could break the walls of Troy; only a God could tear down the great high citadel.

"Then we should sacrifice to Poseidon as soon as possible," Hector said, "for he is the only God who can help us."

"Yes," Kassandra said quickly, "let us make sacrifices at once to Poseidon and beseech him to aid us in our cause! Is he not one of the guardian Gods of Troy?" Not knowing what she was going to say until she heard it flooding through her mind like a scream of anguish, she said: 'Paris! You - oh, beware the earthquake! Sacrifice to Poseidon! Make him pledges, for it is you he will destroy - destroy - destroy

She stopped herself by main force, actually clamping her hands across her lips. Priam scowled at her in anger and disgust.

"Haven't we had enough of this, Kassandra?" he demanded. Even at your mother's dinner table? Can't you even make up your mind which God is to destroy the city? I really think you must be mad."

She could not speak; the lump in her throat was so great that!t took all her strength merely to breathe. She swallowed and felt rears flooding down her face. Helen came and wiped her face with her veil, and the tenderness in the gesture disarmed Kassandra so that she could only stare at her brother's wife, and whisper, "It is you he will destroy—"

"My poor girl," Hecuba said,"the Gods still torment you with these visions. Leave her alone, Helen; there is nothing you can do for her. Kassandra, get back to the temple; among your companions there, I am sure that the priests have remedies against such seizures as this."

Priam spoke firmly, "Never again prophesy here, Kassandra. I have spoken; so let it be done."

Unable to control her sobbing, Kassandra rose and ran out of the hall, fleeing up through the streets. After a time she became aware of footsteps following her upward, and she redoubled her pace, but the steps quickened to follow her, and then gentle hands seized her and brought her to a stop.

"What's the matter, Kassandra?" asked Aeneas's voice. She gasped in panic, and struggled against his grasp, wildly at first, then, realizing who held her, relaxed, and stood silent.

"Can't you tell me?" he asked. "What's really wrong?"

"You know what they say: that I am mad," she said dully.

"I don't believe that for a moment," Aeneas said. "Tormented by a God, perhaps; but not mad, nor anything like it."

"I don't know the difference," she said. "And I cannot keep silent; when the Sight comes to me, I must speak—" She heard her own voice shaking so that the words were almost indistinguishable.

"Perhaps," the man said gently, his arm round her, "all those who see farther than the rest of us are considered mad by those who can see no farther than tomorrow's breakfast. When you ran away, I was afraid for you - afraid you would fall and hurt yourself. I do not for a moment believe that your wits are astray; you seem perfectly sensible to me, nor do I see why it should be considered madness to warn our people that the Gods are eager to destroy us. Ever since I came to Troy it has seemed to me that we are under the shadow of one angry Immortal, or more, and I too seem to smell the danger of destruction on every wind."

He kissed her gently on the cheek. "Now can you tell me what it is that you see?"

She looked him straight in the eye, filled suddenly with sureness. "I have seen that you will survive the danger; I have seen you leave Troy alive and unwounded."

He patted her shoulder gently. "That is good to know, of course. But that was not why I asked you. Come, let me take you up to the Sunlord's house." They climbed silently for a moment. Then he said, "You truly feel there is no hope for Troy in this war?"

"I knew that the moment Paris brought Helen here," she said, "and, believe me, this is not malice; I have come to love Helen dearly, as if she were my own sister born. I knew it when Paris entered Troy's walls at the Games; Hector was right to wish to send him away, but for the wrong reasons. Hector feared Paris would try to make himself King, but that was not the danger—"

Aeneas stroked her cheek. He said, "I do not share your Sight, Kassandra, but I trust you; you are speaking the truth. You may be mistaken, but you are not doing this from malice or a wish to sound important - that is what they think, is it not? And if this is what you see, of course you must say what the Gods have given you to say." They had reached the temple gate; he embraced her and said, "When you speak I will listen always, I promise you."

"I think," Kassandra said,"that some Immortal began this war—but I think Aphrodite has had her chance to aid or to destroy us; and now it seems to us that it is not she, but the strife of other Gods that threatens us. When Father said that no mortal could pull down the walls of Troy, I knew he spoke the truth; it will not be to the hands of the Akhaians that we will fall, but to the hands of the Gods; and I do not know why they should destroy our city."

"Maybe," said Aeneas,"the Gods do not need reasons for what they do."

She whispered, "That is what I am beginning to fear."