Part 18 (2/2)

Many of the voices stopped immediately, and the remainder soon followed.

'The white hart?' Menelaus repeated.

'Yes, my lord. One of the herdsmen saw it just now. I thought you'd want to know.'

'Is this the creature that was seen while I was away in Phthia?' Ajax asked, turning to the other kings. 'Then, by Ares's sword, what are we waiting for? Let's hunt it down before it disappears again. Teucer! Teucer, where are you, d.a.m.n it! Bring me my spear, and don't forget your bow and arrows.'

Suddenly there was uproar as the kings and princes rushed this way and that, hollering the names of their squires or calling aloud for their various weapons.

'Peisandros!' said a tall, sinewy man with a long, pointed nose. His voice was high and pinched, which suited his arrogant face. 'Fetch my hunting hounds at once. They're tethered on the southern side of the wood.'

'Yes, sir,' the Myrmidon replied, and after a farewell nod to Eperitus ran off through the trees.

The arrogant-looking man remained for a moment, staring down his nose at the three men kneeling beside Calchas, then with a curt nod to Odysseus turned on his heel and walked away.

'What's up, Patroclus?' Philoctetes called after the commander of the Myrmidon army. 'Think you're too important to acknowledge your fellow commoners? Or does sharing Achilles's bed again make you somehow high-born?'

Patroclus wheeled about in an instant and drew his sword, but Odysseus was already on his feet and walking towards him. Seizing the Myrmidon gently but firmly by the wrists, Odysseus leaned forward and spoke quietly in his ear. After a moment, Patroclus shot Philoctetes an ugly glance, then turned and marched over to where Achilles was throwing a quiver of arrows over his shoulder.

'That was foolish,' Eperitus said, turning to the young archer with an angry look in his eye. 'Whether the rumour's true or not, if Achilles had heard you you'd be a dead man now.'

'I'm not afraid of Patroclus or Achilles,' Philoctetes hissed back. 'These arrows of mine would kill them both before they could so much as raise a spear against me.'

'Your weapons won't make you great, even though Heracles himself gave them to you they're just a continuation of his greatness. If you want my advice, Philoctetes, prove your own worth before you think you can challenge a warrior like Achilles.'

'Looks like it's each man for himself,' said Odysseus, returning with a smile on his face as if nothing had happened.

Philoctetes paused to lift Calchas's hood back over his head, before helping the priest back to his feet. 'Then don't be too slow if you want a chance at the beast,' he warned, mirroring the Ithacan's cheerfulness. 'I've seen it myself and it's magnificent pure white with antlers of gold but as soon as I fire one of my arrows at it it's running days'll be over.'

He patted the quiver at his side, and with a last glance at Eperitus bounded off into the rapidly dispersing crowd.

'Take my spear, Odysseus,' Eperitus said. 'Yours are still down by the boats, and we'd better hurry if we're going to hunt this animal.'

Odysseus shook his head. 'Let the others run about as much as they like only Talthybius knows where the animal was spotted, and he's over with the Atreides brothers. If we want a throw at this fabled hart, all we need to do is follow Agamemnon.'

Eperitus looked over his shoulder and saw the King of Men slip the lion's pelt from his back as he picked up a horn bow and a leather quiver full of arrows. Menelaus stood beside him with two spears in his hand, looking about surrept.i.tiously to note the different directions in which the leaders were disappearing. He only saw Odysseus and Eperitus running towards him at the last moment.

'You do realize,' Odysseus called, 'that this white hart may belong to one of the G.o.ds. It could cost us dear if we kill it; all your carefully staged sacrifices could be wasted, Agamemnon.'

'Nonsense,' Agamemnon sniffed, throwing the quiver over his back and tightening the golden buckle. He circled his shoulders to test the fit. 'If it belongs to a G.o.d, then they shouldn't let their pets loose around so many skilled hunters. Besides, once you see the animal, Odysseus, you'll know why everyone's leaving in such a hurry.'

'Then we'll accompany you, if you have no objections,' Odysseus said, taking the spear Eperitus held towards him and moving into the undergrowth before the Atreides brothers could have a chance to refuse him. 'Lead the way, Talthybius.'

They set off at a rapid pace through the humid wood, leaping over fallen branches and cras.h.i.+ng through knee-high forests of fern, all the time looking left and right through the columns of dusty light that penetrated the canopy of leaves above. Eperitus, whose supernatural senses far outstripped those of his fellow hunters, sniffed the languorous air, sifting out the different smells of damp earth, distant blossom and the sharp odour of human sweat until he could detect though still faintly the powerful musk of male deer.

'It was seen not far from here, in a glade to the east,' Talthybius informed them.

'No. It's moving north,' Eperitus announced, after a moment's consideration. 'That way.'

Agamemnon looked doubtful. 'Are you sure? This might be the only chance we get we can't afford to follow whims.'

'He's sure,' Odysseus a.s.sured him. 'I'd trust Eperitus's senses above my own hunting dog's.'

Without any further hesitation, the five men set off in a northeasterly direction. The ground began to slope away before them and the trees grew denser, stifling the gauzy yellow light that had managed to penetrate the thinner woodland they were leaving behind.

'Look!' Eperitus said after they had been running for a while.

He pointed to a branch hanging from a tree. The shards of the broken stem were still fresh and white, indicating it was recently broken. There was no sound or sign of the other hunters, and with a flush of excitement they realized it could only have been snapped by a tall animal pa.s.sing that way a short while before.

They increased their pace, moving deeper into the wood until they reached a narrow stream. They splashed across and followed its winding course for a while before Eperitus veered suddenly to the left. They followed in his wake, cras.h.i.+ng on into the dense heart of the wood until Talthybius could hold the pace no longer and began to slow, gasping for breath.

'Shhh!' Eperitus hissed, suddenly slowing to a crouching walk and pressing his finger to his lips. 'It's close.'

Menelaus and Odysseus instinctively raised their spears, holding the shafts lightly in their cupped palms. Agamemnon slipped an arrow from the quiver and fitted it to his bow, drawing it to half-readiness as his eyes scanned the gloom. Eperitus sniffed the thick air, his eyes narrowing as he judged the different smells captured in his nostrils.

'It's here,' he whispered.

The hunters halted and slowly lowered themselves into the cover of the crowded ferns, so that their eyes were just above the curling fronds. For a breathless moment they heard nothing, not even a bird in the closely packed branches above, then a twig snapped and they turned to see a magnificent, pure-white deer trot into a small clearing ahead of them. It stood beside the upturned roots of a fallen tree, bathed in a single shaft of golden light that penetrated a gap in the canopy above. It looked about itself, completely unaware of the men only a stone's throw away, then bowed its antlered head to chew at the rich undergrowth.

'He's mine,' Agamemnon whispered, drawing the bowstring back to his cheek and preparing to stand.

But before he could move, his brother stood and launched the long spear from his hand. It spun through the air, its imperfect shaft twirling behind the bronze tip as it flew towards its target. A moment later it skimmed the shoulders of the hart and buried its point in the mud-caked roots of the tree.

The hart raised its head, saw Menelaus and bolted in the opposite direction. Odysseus stood and cast his own spear, aiming at the flas.h.i.+ng white of the animal's hindquarters as they disappeared through the undergrowth. It fell short.

Agamemnon also stood, but unlike the two spearmen knew he had a few moments more to take aim and release his shot. Closing his left eye, he squinted down the shaft of the arrow and focused on the triple-barbed point, aiming it slightly ahead of the fleeing deer. s.n.a.t.c.hing a half-breath and holding it so that the movement of his lungs would not disturb his aim, he released the shaft.

The bow hummed and Agamemnon leaned his head to the left, hoping to see the white form stumble and fall, but the animal had already disappeared among the trees.

'Missed it,' Menelaus announced, almost gleefully.

'Thanks to you, you buffoon. I told you to leave it for me.'

'What? And let you take all the glory, as usual, King of Men?'

'Quiet,' Eperitus ordered, momentarily forgetting he was talking to the two most powerful men in Greece. 'I can't hear its footfalls any more. It's stopped running.'

'No man could hear that well,' said Talthybius.

'Come on,' Odysseus said. 'Let's see if you've hit your mark, Agamemnon.'

They dashed into the undergrowth; twigs snapped loudly beneath their sandals and brittle stems whipped against their s.h.i.+ns. They ran past the spears of Menelaus and Odysseus and forged on to the place where they had last seen the hart's white flanks. The trees were thinner here, allowing more sunlight to illuminate the woodland floor, but they could see nothing.

'You were wrong, Eperitus,' Agamemnon said, with clear disappointment in his voice. He stopped and looked about himself. 'It's gone. The glory will go to no man now.'

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