The Gates Of Troy (19 page)

Odysseus took two kraters from a slave, handed one to his father, then approached the hearth and poured a libation into the flames. The others did the same, uttering quiet prayers as each slop of wine was welcomed with a hiss. Then Odysseus retreated to the granite throne and sat on the embroidered cushion that had been placed there by one of the slaves. Taking a tall staff of dark wood from another slave, he signalled for the others to return to their seats.

Laertes lowered himself into the vacant chair beside Eperitus, releasing a pained sigh as his joints bent to accommodate the simple movement. He turned his rheumy eyes on the captain of the guard for a lingering moment, then passed his gaze one by one to the other members of the Kerosia. When, finally, it was the turn of Eupeithes, his eyes narrowed and his stare remained fixed on the fat merchant. Eupeithes, however, had become used to this treatment some years ago and had learned to simply ignore it.

Odysseus leaned back into the throne and faced the council. Two large, grey dolphins decorated the wall behind him, their bodies arced over his shoulders and their noses almost touching. Odysseus had adopted the creature for his coat of arms long before he had become king, but now the image was found all through the palace and even on the sails of the ships that were waiting in the harbour below the town, ready for the long voyage to Troy.

‘Agamemnon has been sighted coming up from the south,’ he announced. ‘He promised us a fortnight to prepare our forces, and that’s exactly what we’ve had – there can be no further delay. Have the men who were chosen arrived, Eurylochus?’

‘Yes, cousin, and many more besides. Most have come pleading to join the expedition, and some have even offered money to the lucky few to take their places. Several others were caught trying to stow themselves away on the ships. We were forced to drag them off and there were more than a few quarrels about it.’

‘Their enthusiasm encourages me,’ Odysseus said, though there was little sign of it in his face.

‘Their spirits may be willing,’ Phronius grunted, ‘but any lunatic can rush off to war if they’ve never raised a spear in anger.
I
want to know what the abilities are of the men you’ve picked. How many of them have seen battle? What training have they had? Can they fight as a unit? These are the sorts of question we need to ask now if any of them are to come back.’

Eperitus stood and received the staff from Odysseus.

‘You’re right to ask these questions, Phronius. You saw your fair share of fighting when you were our age and you know what it can do to a warrior. But I’ll be honest with you: most of these men are untrained and almost none have seen battle. I can vouch for the two hundred men that are being released from the guard, of course – Halitherses and I have trained them hard over the years, and they’re fit and well used to working together as a unit. About a quarter have seen combat, too: the men who came with us to Samos recently, and those who fought to liberate Ithaca years ago from the Taphian invaders. But we chose the eight hundred as much for their fitness, strength, courage and willingness to fight, and I have complete faith that they will not let Odysseus down.’

Eurylochus stood and looked at the captain of the guard with contempt. ‘No more than a dozen have ever been in a
real
battle,’ he sneered. ‘And only the guards have had any formal military training, or know how to manoeuvre as a disciplined unit. The rest will be a shambles if they go to war. They barely know how to use their weapons, let alone how to work together as an army.’

‘That’ll be taken care of,’ Eperitus responded, ignoring Eurylochus and facing the other members of the council. ‘We’ve already started giving the volunteers rudimentary weapons training and teaching them a few moves and basic tactics. There’s been no time to make them into warriors or a functioning army, but Odysseus and I have worked out a proper training schedule, which we’ll have enough time to implement when we reach Aulis.’

‘Aulis?’ asked Mentor.

‘It’s a sheltered bay in the Euboean straits,’ Odysseus answered. ‘Agamemnon has made it the muster point for the Greek fleet. We’ll be there for weeks or even months while we wait for latecomers and make the proper preparations for war. Before we even think of sailing for Troy, the kings will need to agree on a leader for the expedition – which will almost certainly be Agamemnon – and then decide on strategies, tactics, reserves, supplies and so on.’

‘As far as our own army is concerned, you can leave the problem of supply with me,’ said Eupeithes, standing and sweeping his yellow cloak over his shoulder with a flourish. He received the speaker’s staff from Eperitus and turned to look at the members of the Kerosia. ‘In fact I’ve already made arrangements for corn to be shipped from Dulichium and wine from Samos – and all at a reasonable discount, considering the cause is a patriotic one. As for the army’s other needs – clothing, replacement weaponry, not to mention lesser trifles such as pots, pans, bedding, and so on – I’ve discussed this with local merchants and we’ve agreed . . .’

‘Sit down, you fat fool,’ Laertes interrupted, glaring contemptuously at his old enemy. ‘Don’t you know Agamemnon and Menelaus have offered to provision the whole Greek army?’

‘But . . . But nobody told . . .’

‘Oh stop stammering and get back to your seat,’ Laertes snapped, walking around the hearth and snatching the staff from Eupeithes’s hand. ‘Now,
this
is the question I want to ask: what about the Trojans? We know the Greeks should be able to provide a large army – if the oath is honoured and each king brings his fair share of soldiers – and that a good core should be well trained, properly equipped and experienced, but what do we know about the enemy? Well, when I was the king of Ithaca I wasn’t as idle or ignorant as some of my subjects thought,’ Laertes glared at Eupeithes, ‘so I’ll tell you what
I
know. Priam, they say, is a womanizer with more brains in his penis than his head, but he has – or at least he had – a particular son who effectively rules in his stead. His name is Hector, a violent brute of a man with a sharp mind when it comes to fighting. He rules over an empire of vassal states and allied cities, which he keeps on a tight rein through the ruthless application of violence and fear. The Trojan army is considerable in size and battle-hardened through its unending border wars, and they can call on large numbers of warriors from the rest of the empire. These foreigners breed like dogs, so even with the whole of Greece against them they’ll easily be able to match us man for man. I can’t speak for their quality, but when a man is defending his home and knows the only thing between a vicious enemy and his wife and children is his spear, he will fight twice as hard as any invader.

‘What’s more,’ Laertes continued, turning his calm, knowing eyes on Odysseus, ‘the Trojans boast that the walls of their city were built by Apollo and Poseidon. They’re impenetrable. Even if you defeat their walls of flesh and blood, my son, you won’t pass their walls of stone. As I see it, if you go on this mission to Troy then it’ll be many years before you see the halls of your own palace again – if at all.’

At this point, Halitherses stood and moved towards Laertes, who gave him the speaker’s staff and returned to his seat.

‘Odysseus,’ Halitherses began, ‘your father speaks with the wisdom of a god. As soon as I heard of this proposed mission to rescue Helen – the moment I learned she was being held in Troy – my heart sank. Did you think I’d forgotten Mount Parnassus and the oracle the Pythoness gave you? Indeed, could any man forget the sight of that poor girl, transformed as she was with the face and tongue of a serpent, speaking those fateful words? It’s always been kept a secret between those of us who were there – you, Eperitus, Antiphus and I – but now the time has come to share it with the Kerosia. Give me leave to reveal what she said, so that the council will know the doom that awaits you.’

Odysseus looked pensively at the old soldier, then gave a quiet nod of his head. Halitherses turned to the others and, in a slow voice, began to repeat the words of the priestess.

‘“Find a daughter of Lacedaemon and she will keep the thieves from your house. As father of your people you will count the harvests on your fingers. But if ever you seek Priam’s city, the wide waters will swallow you. For the time it takes a baby to become a man, you will know no home. Then, when friends and fortune have departed from you, you will rise again from the dead.”’

As he spoke the flames in the hearth sputtered and threatened to fail altogether, while the shadows about the hall multiplied and grew darker. A silence fell and it was only after the last words had died away that the fire began to spit and crackle again, and the fidgeting of the slaves could be heard once more in the background.

‘It doesn’t seem like any choice at all to me,’ said Mentor. ‘Stay at home and be cursed by the gods for breaking an oath, or go to Troy and be doomed not to return home for two decades.’

‘Which is why I say Odysseus should abandon this expedition and risk the fury of the Olympians,’ Halitherses replied. ‘The alternative is unthinkable.’

‘Don’t be foolish, Halitherses,’ Odysseus admonished him. ‘If anything in this life is certain, it’s the vengefulness of the gods. We live by their blessing and provision, and suffer through their anger or fickle moods. No, I wouldn’t willingly incur their wrath for anything – even when the alternative is being sentenced to twenty years at the other end of the world, away from my home and family. But there is still hope! The force Agamemnon is gathering is powerful indeed: Diomedes will be there; both the Ajaxes; Idomeneus of Crete; Menestheus of Athens; Nestor the famous charioteer. Even Achilles is to be asked.’

‘Hope!’ Phronius exclaimed, his voice cracking with disbelief. ‘Hope? An oracle is the will of the gods, Odysseus – there can be no hope.’

‘Then let me reveal another secret,’ the king retorted. ‘Ten years ago the Kerosia – yourself included, Phronius – sent me on a mission to compete with the best men in Greece for the hand of Helen. The odds were against me, but that has never stopped me from taking up a challenge. Then, before I had even reached Sparta, Athena herself told me that Helen was to be given to Menelaus. I believed her, of course, because the will of the gods cannot be changed by mortal action. Or that was what I had always believed. But then Helen offered herself to me, and her father was prepared to honour her wish.’

‘What’s that?’ Laertes said, sitting up. ‘If Helen offered herself to you, why didn’t you take the chance and be sure of saving Ithaca?’

‘If I had, then perhaps this expedition to Troy would have been for my sake instead of Menelaus’s! As it is, I fell in love with Penelope instead and after that there was no question of marrying Helen. But my point is this: a goddess had told me that Helen was to be given to Menelaus, and yet it was within my power to make her mine. Do you understand? For a moment my destiny was in my own hands – not the hands of the gods or of anyone else, just mine. And if it was the case then, it can be the same now. I intend to fight this war as if that oracle had never been uttered. I’m going to use every bit of my cunning to finish it quickly, and if I have to I’ll scrap like a cur until Troy lies in ruins and our black-hulled ships are speeding back home to Ithaca.’

At that moment, the guards stood aside and a soldier entered the great hall, his footsteps echoing from the walls as he marched up to the king.

‘What is it?’ Odysseus asked.

‘Agamemnon, Menelaus and Palamedes have arrived, my lord. Their ship was moving into the harbour as I left to report.’

The king stood as the soldier left and, belatedly, received the staff from Halitherses’s hand.

‘This has been a difficult meeting and some things have been revealed that I would rather have remained secret. But there
is
hope, whatever Phronius says – maybe not of a swift victory, but we shouldn’t dismiss the power of a united Greece to win this war in good time. It only remains for me to propose that Mentor takes charge of Ithaca until my return, deferring only to my father’s experience and Penelope’s wisdom. I have also asked Eperitus to be my second-in-command, a role that befits his position as captain of the guard and my friend. Are you in agreement?’

The members of the Kerosia – with the exception of Eurylochus – nodded, and the slaves began clearing away the tables and their untouched food. Odysseus signalled for Eperitus to join him, but before he could say a word to the captain of his guard Halitherses approached with a concerned look on his old face.

‘Odysseus,’ he said, ‘Eperitus told me he offered to lead the army in your place, but that you insisted on going.’

The king nodded.

‘Well, I’m your friend and you trust me,’ Halitherses continued. ‘Although your optimism in the face of the gods is admirable, don’t forget Helen
did
marry Menelaus, whatever opportunities came your way. And my instincts are against you going to this war. Why don’t you accept Eperitus’s offer?’

Odysseus placed a hand on the old warrior’s shoulder and looked him in the eye.

‘Because I don’t really have that choice, Halitherses. I was the one who took the oath, not Eperitus. Besides, I may not be as accomplished a fighter as Achilles, Diomedes or the greater Ajax, but I have more brains than the rest of them rolled up together. I’ll think of a way to shorten this war when all their brawn and fighting skill fails, and when I come back home to my family in a couple of years the honour for the victory will be mine. I’ll prove the oracle wrong yet, old friend.’

Halitherses embraced Odysseus and Eperitus briefly, the tears flowing openly down his cheeks as he bade them farewell. Phronius followed, silently taking the hands of both men before shuffling away, stooped over his stick. Eupeithes, in his usual aloof manner, shook the king’s hand and wished him well.

‘The last time you led an armed mission overseas,’ he added in a quiet voice, ‘a certain rich fool used the opportunity to seize the throne. Well, you’ve proved yourself a just and merciful king and I want you to know that rich fool has learned from his errors – he won’t be making the same mistake again. That’s all I wanted to say, Odysseus. Goodbye.’