Part 14 (2/2)

Odysseus met the Trojan's stormy gaze without flinching. 'You're a fool, Hector. We came to offer you the chance of righting the wrong Paris has done, but from the moment of our arrival you chose to treat us with hostility. Now, if you really respect the will of the G.o.ds, you'll let us return to our s.h.i.+p unmolested.'

'I'll make sure you're escorted back in safety,' Hector replied, sternly. 'Have no fear of that. But once you've left our waters, I advise you never to return. If you do, you'll find us ready for you.'

Chapter Fifteen.

THE GATHERING AT AULIS.

They all knew they had been fortunate to escape from Troy alive. The hostility in Priam's throne room was nothing compared with the anger that awaited them on the streets of the city. By the time they had rejoined Antiphus, Polites and Arceisius and marched out of the citadel gates, they found a large mob had already a.s.sembled beyond the walls, armed with rocks, lumps of wood and even a few spears. Only the escort of a hundred warriors enabled the Greeks to reach the Scaean Gate unharmed, and it was not until they felt the gentle motion of the Ithacan wars.h.i.+p beneath their feet once more that they could finally relax.

The relief of being free of Troy gave each of them a sense of calm. Palamedes sat in the prow, his arms crossed over his knees and his chin resting on his forearm staring blankly ahead of himself. Menelaus joined the three guardsmen on the benches and took hold of one of the polished oars, pulling quietly in time with the rest of the crew as Eurybates steered the s.h.i.+p out of the harbour. What he was thinking as he looked over his shoulder at the high citadel no man could tell. Odysseus and Eperitus withdrew to the stern, from where they looked back in silence at the broad plain with its scattered farmsteads and flocks of sheep, its corralled horses and the city of tents by the mouth of the Simoeis. It all seemed so peaceful as they watched the walls of the citadel turn pink in the light of the lowering sun.

As the s.h.i.+p slipped back out to sea and Troy was lost behind the wooded headland, Antiphus brought Calchas to the king. He had arrived shortly before Odysseus's return and surrendered himself to the crew, insisting he had information that would be of use to the Greeks.

'What information?' Odysseus asked the hooded priest, whom he had recognized immediately.

'What I have to say is for all the kings of Greece together, or none at all.'

'Why don't you tell it to the fish, then,' Odysseus responded, grabbing a fistful of Calchas's robes and almost carrying him to the side of the s.h.i.+p. The man's hood slipped back to reveal his bald head and pale, drawn features.

'Wait!' Eperitus shouted, rus.h.i.+ng over and grabbing Calchas's arm, fearing that in the mood he was in Odysseus would cast him overboard without a second thought. 'If he says he has information then we should trust him. When he spoke to me in Priam's palace he told me things about myself that only you and I know. He knew about the powder you gave me, Odysseus, and he even knows about the gathering at Aulis. He's a seer like none I've ever come across, other than the Pythoness herself. Calchas,' he added, turning to the cowering priest, 'I don't know what this other information you have is, but at least tell Odysseus what you told me in the throne room.'

Odysseus pinned Calchas against the side of the s.h.i.+p, where clouds of spray soaked his clothing and formed into watery beads that trickled off his hairless scalp.

'Tell me what you know, Trojan, or you can swim to Greece instead.'

'Hector has been preparing Troy for war against Greece,' Calchas stuttered. 'The galleys you saw in the bay, the army camped on the plain they're just the beginning.'

'Then he knew we were gathering our forces for an attack, even before we arrived?' asked Menelaus, who had overheard the conversation from the benches and come to stand behind Eperitus.

'No, my lord, he had no idea you were coming. But he has dreamt of invading Greece for many years, waiting patiently while his father's power waned and his own influence grew. Now, with peace on the northern borders, he feels his time is approaching.'

'But why would Hector want to invade Greece?' asked Odysseus.

'For the same reason Agamemnon wants to conquer Troy,' Calchas replied. 'A stranglehold on the Aegean and all the trade that flows across it.'

'My brother wants the return of Helen,' Menelaus said, with slow menace in his voice.

'Don't delude yourself about what your brother wants, Menelaus,' Calchas retorted, his face convulsing unconsciously under the glare of the Spartan king. 'For years Mycenae has been spreading its trade routes like a web across the Aegean; and where merchants lead the way warriors eventually follow.'

'Why tell us this, Calchas?' Odysseus asked, releasing his grip on the man's robes and helping him to stand as upright as his stooped form would allow. 'You're a Trojan, after all.'

'Because Apollo has ordered it,' Calchas said with a shrug. 'And now, if you're satisfied, I'd like a drink.'

Odysseus ordered a skin of wine to be brought for the strange priest, who sat facing the benches and staring at the sailors as he drank. His unflinching gaze made them uneasy, and even with their backs turned they could feel his eyes boring into them.

'He's an odd one,' Odysseus commented later, as he sat with Eperitus in the stern and watched Calchas get progressively drunker.

'But useful.'

Odysseus gave a sidelong glance at Menelaus, who lay snoring against the side of the s.h.i.+p.

'What else did he say to you in the throne room, Eperitus?'

Eperitus felt a sudden sensation of guilt overwhelming him, as if Odysseus knew every detail of the conversation with Calchas and was aware that the captain of his guard had betrayed him. But Eperitus also knew from long experience that Odysseus often tried to give the impression of knowing more than he did a trick by which he would draw his victims out and make them reveal all sorts of secrets to him. It was impossible that the king could know Calchas had asked Eperitus to foil his plans for the peaceful return of Helen, and that he had caused Palamedes to spill the drugged wine. Odysseus was clever, of course, and knew there must be a reason why the priest had spoken to Eperitus first, but Eperitus guessed he was simply casting a line and seeing whether he could get a bite.

'He said there are two secrets about me that I don't yet know. He didn't tell me what they are and I don't think he fully knows but he said one will make me want to avoid war, while the other would compel me to return to Troy.'

'Hmm,' Odysseus mused. 'I can't imagine anything that would make you want to miss out on a chance of glory, but if such a thing exists then at least we'll both be working to the same goal a quick and peaceful resolution to this mess.'

'Then you still think war can be stopped, even after what has just happened?'

Odysseus leaned back against the rail and looked towards the western horizon. The sun had already slipped behind the outline of Lemnos and a pale moon was rising in the purple sky.

'I'm only mortal, Eperitus. I don't know what the Fates have in store for us, and as long as I remain ignorant of that then yes, I do believe this war can be averted. Things look dark right now, but opportunities will always present themselves. We just have to be ready for them.'

'I don't know where you get your optimism from,' Eperitus rejoined, shaking his head. 'What about the fleet in the harbour and the army on the plain? Calchas says that Hector will attack Greece sooner or later, and that eventually his armies will reach Ithaca too.'

Odysseus laughed heartily, as if he were sharing a joke with friends in the great hall back on Ithaca, not on a s.h.i.+p on the far side of the world. 'I'd say Hector is the optimist if he expects to conquer Greece. If the different states can unite for the sake of a woman, however beautiful, then we can join together to repel a common enemy. But aren't you forgetting the biggest problem of all?'

Eperitus raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

'The oracle said I'd be twenty years away from home if I ever went to Troy,' Odysseus continued with a wry smile. 'Well, I've been to Troy now, so I'm doomed anyway. Unless,' he added, raising a cautionary finger, 'I can cheat destiny, like I had the chance to do ten years ago.'

'Then we'll both have to wait and see what happens,' Eperitus concluded, looking at Odysseus's smiling face and getting the distinct feeling there was something hollow about his bravado as if, deep down, he knew he would not see his home for a very long time.

The remainder of the voyage to Greece was slow and tedious. As they retraced their route southward past Tenedos, Lesbos and Chios to Icaria, before turning west to find a pa.s.sage through the Cyclades, they were beset by unseasonably rough weather. On three occasions they were unable to leave the different ports and coves where they had taken shelter the night before, not daring to risk the raging seas and bl.u.s.tering winds. Then, in the second week out of Troy, they made sacrifices to Poseidon and the storms eased away. Soon, a westerly wind was speeding them towards Euboea and the gathering of the Greek kings. On one occasion they were approached by pirates who quickly turned and fled at the sight of a deck crammed with armed men but the rest of the pa.s.sage was smooth and unhindered.

Finally, three weeks after leaving Troy, they reached the island of Euboea and spent the night in the bay below Mount Ocha, where Zeus and Hera were said to have fallen in love. In the pre-dawn light of the next morning their oars were already gliding through the calm waters as the sailors took their craft out into the wide triangle of sea between Euboea and the western mainland. Before long they had picked up a mild breeze and Odysseus, leaning his weight on the twin rudders, steered them to the northern apex of the triangle, where the two opposing landma.s.ses closed to a narrow point. By mid-morning, with the sun's heat bearing down on them from the naked blue sky, they pa.s.sed between the small islets that guarded the mouth of the straits and saw a handful of masts in the distance ahead of them, cl.u.s.tered near to the sh.o.r.e where the hills of the mainland sloped into the sea.

The sight of these s.h.i.+ps caused an excited rush to the prow, upsetting the s.h.i.+p's balance and forcing Odysseus to order his crew back to their places. For days, the conversation on the benches had been filled with speculation about which kings would answer the call to arms, and what force of men and s.h.i.+ps they would bring with them. Now, with the first glimpse of Agamemnon's a.s.sembly, the galley was suddenly a cacophony of competing voices. Even Odysseus could barely disguise his excitement.

'How many can you see, Eperitus?' he asked, squinting at the s.h.i.+ps that were framed between the lines of the halyards and the billowing sail above.

'Six?'

'There's a dozen at least,' said Eurybates, whose sailor's eyes were not as sharp as Eperitus's but were more accustomed to counting s.h.i.+ps at a distance.

'There must be more than that!' Menelaus exclaimed. 'There have to be!'

'There are,' said Calchas, his bald pate gleaming in the sunlight as he remained sitting on the planks of the main deck. 'Hundreds upon hundreds of them. I saw them in my dream last night.'

'Pah!' Menelaus sniffed. 'You were drunk, as usual.'

But Menelaus's distrust of Calchas which had grown greater each time the Trojan drank himself senseless proved to be unfounded. As they followed the curve of the coast around to the west they pa.s.sed fleet after fleet, each one belonging to a different king. Some numbered just a handful, while others had as many as two or three dozen vessels; and opposite each mooring were large numbers of tents, where hundreds of soldiers stood watching the lone galley slip by. But even these were just the vanguard. Eventually, the straits closed to form a large bay where the mountainous flanks of Boetia and Euboea almost touched, their independence maintained by a narrow strip of water leading north. Here, finally, they saw the ma.s.sed might of Greece.

<script>