Part 32 (1/2)
”This one has a wild eye,” the king commented, glaring at the black horse, which looked back at him him balefully.
Hektor smiled. ”His name is Hero. He has an angry nature. He is the horse which leaped the chasm at Dardanos. You have heard the story?”
”I invented invented the story.” Odysseus chuckled. ”I am surprised to see the creature does not have wings and fire flaring from his nostrils.” the story.” Odysseus chuckled. ”I am surprised to see the creature does not have wings and fire flaring from his nostrils.”
Hektor's laughter rang out. ”Truly it is good to see you, sea uncle. I have missed your company and your tales.” Odysseus saw a little of the weight of war and its burdens fall from the young man's shoulders.
”Here, have some bread and cheese. I doubt if you've had either for many days. It will seem like a feast in the Hall of Heroes.”
Hektor tucked into the food with gusto, and Odysseus pulled more salt bread and cheese and some dried fruit from the leather bag at his side. There was a jug of watered wine in there as well. They ate, then Odysseus lay back with his head in his hands. The sky was of a blue so pale that it was almost white. He sniffed the evening breeze.
”There is a scent of autumn in the air,” Hektor commented, swallowing the last of the bread. ”There could be rain soon. The city would likely hold out until the winter then.”
”Without food?” Odysseus snorted.
Hektor looked at him. ”Neither you nor I can guess how much food they have still. You may have your spies in Troy, but a hundred spies are worth nothing if they cannot get their information out.”
Odysseus countered, ”And a lakeful of water is worth little if they have no grain and no meat. We both know the situation in Troy must be perilous by now.”
They sat in companionable silence for a while longer, listening to the plas.h.i.+ng of the river blending with the liquid sounds of birdsong high above. Then Hektor asked, ”You have come to challenge me to fight Achilles?”
The king took a swig from the wine jug and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. ”Agamemnon makes an interesting offer. I thought you should hear it.”
When Hektor said nothing in response, he went on. ”If you will fight Achilles in a death match, regardless of the outcome, Agamemnon will permit the women and children of Troy to leave the city in safety.”
Hektor looked into his eyes. ”Including my wife and son?”
Odysseus sighed and dropped his gaze. ”No, he will not allow that. No members of the royal family may leave Troy. Nor the Dardanian boy, Helikaon's son. Nor the two Thrakian princes.”
”Do you trust Agamemnon?”
Odysseus burst out laughing. ”By the black b.a.l.l.s of Hades, no!” He shook his head in amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Then why should I?”
”Because I will see that the terms of the offer are made public to all the kings and their armies. They are a wretched rabble, most of these kings, but they will not allow the slaughter of innocents if their safety has been guaranteed by all. It goes against their concept of honor. And my Ithakans will give the women and children safe conduct to neutral s.h.i.+ps at the Bay of Herakles.”
”And why should I trust you, you, Odysseus, an enemy of Troy who paid an a.s.sa.s.sin to murder our kinsman Anchises?” Odysseus, an enemy of Troy who paid an a.s.sa.s.sin to murder our kinsman Anchises?”
Odysseus struggled to hold his tongue. His pride tempted him to tell the prince the true story of Karpophorus and the plot to kill Helikaon, but he did not. It is Helikaon's story, he thought. He will tell Hektor himself one day if he chooses.
He said, ”It seems to me, lad, that you have no choice. I have delivered to you a way by which you could save the lives of hundreds of Trojan women and their children. If you turn your back and ride away now, you could never live with yourself. You are a man of honor. You could not be otherwise.”
Hektor nodded but said nothing. They sat for a long while as the darkness started to thicken and the air cooled.
Finally Hektor said, his voice strangely tight as if suppressing deep emotion, ”You say I am a man of honor. Yet to me it seems that every day of my life is a lie and each word I speak a falsehood.”
”You are the most honest man I know,” Odysseus replied without hesitation.
Hektor gazed at him, and Odysseus could see the anguish in his eyes. ”If you tell the same lie often enough for long enough, then it eventually can become the truth.”
Odysseus shook his head vehemently. ”Truth and falsehood are two different beasts, as different as the lion and the lizard. They are complex animals, and they share many of the same features-they both have four legs, two eyes, and a tail. Yet you cannot mistake the one for the other. I know the truth when I see it, and I know the lie.”
He thought for a while. ”Did you ever meet Helen, the wife of Paris?”
Hektor nodded. ”Briefly. She was a shy woman and deeply in love with my brother.”
Odysseus said, ”I met her once. I thought her sweet-natured but mousy and plain. You know how she died?” Hektor nodded, his brow darkening. Odysseus went on. ”The men who were there when she threw herself and her children from the heights of King's Joy are speaking of her as a great beauty. Throughout our camps there is talk of the beauteous Helen and her gallant death.”
”What is your point, sea uncle?”
”Only that they do not speak falsely. Soldiers cannot speak of women in terms they do not understand; they do not admire kindness, or modesty, or unselfishness. But they admire Helen's self-sacrifice, so they tell us she was beautiful, like a G.o.ddess walking among us. And it is the truth.
”You are suffering under a great burden, Hektor. We have spoken of this before, and you will not reveal it to me. But not revealing something about yourself does not make you a liar. You show your true nature in each action you take.”
Hektor was silent, and Odysseus wondered if the agony he was suffering was because of the love between Helikaon and Andromache. Yet the young man seemed to be suffering an inner torment, blaming himself for something rather than cursing others.
He shrugged inwardly. If Hektor chose not to share his problems, there was nothing he could do about it.
”You have soundly beaten Achilles once, at your wedding games in a fistfight in front of thousands,” he said, returning to his mission. ”This will be a battle with swords, to the death. Achilles is seeking revenge. You killed his s.h.i.+eld bearer Patroklos two days ago.”
Hektor nodded. ”I know. I recognized him. He was a skilled warrior.”
”He was indeed. And I liked him greatly.”
”Whose idea was the ambush?”
”It was Agamemnon's. He calculated you would be short of supplies by now and be tempted by the supply train. Patroklos volunteered to lead it. He was easily bored, and the long summer without any action was harder on him than on most.”
”Achilles agreed to this?”
”No. He refused to allow Patroklos to go, but Patroklos went anyway, against his king's orders. Now he will go to the pyre at dawn, and Achilles is insane with anger. He believes you targeted Patroklos deliberately, with the intent of paying him back for your victory at the games.”
”That is madness! Why would he think that?”
Odysseus thought for a long while. Then he said, ”I like Achilles greatly. I have fought beside him on many occasions and lived cheek by jowl with him all summer long. I like him,” he repeated, ”but, like his sister Kalliope, he has inner demons with which he fights every day. His honor is everything to him, yet this honor means he must constantly be in compet.i.tion with himself and with others. Honor to him means always winning, and if he does not win, it eats him up inside like a vileness of the heart. He a.s.sumes, of course, that you feel the same way and that you are spoiling to fight him. He cannot understand why you are reluctant. So he calls you a coward, although he does not believe it.”
He went on. ”Agamemnon is more than happy for this fight to take place. If you die, the Trojan cause will suffer a great blow. If Achilles dies, Agamemnon will celebrate privately, too.”
”Why would he?”
”Achilles' father, King Peleus of Thessaly, was a bully and a coward. Agamemnon could manipulate him and found him an agreeable northern neighbor. But Achilles will be a strong king and, if they each return to their lands, a daunting new power on his border.”
”If they return to the west, Odysseus. These kings are foolish if they think they can stay away from their lands for so long and not face problems back home. Things will never be the same for them.” they return to the west, Odysseus. These kings are foolish if they think they can stay away from their lands for so long and not face problems back home. Things will never be the same for them.”
”Indeed,” Odysseus agreed happily. ”Agamemnon's wife, Klytemnestra, loathes him, it is said. I'm sure she already has a new husband in waiting.”
Hektor's face darkened at that, and Odysseus cursed himself. Hektor fears that Andromache is only waiting for him to die so that she can marry Helikaon, he thought. What fools we humans are, he thought sadly.
”It is growing dark, and I am in no mood for riding again tonight,” Odysseus said. ”I will make camp here. I will wait for you until noon tomorrow. If you do not come, I will return to the city alone.”