Part 25 (1/2)

At the thought of Clytaemnestra, Eperitus felt a sudden desire to leave the guest house and go out into the moonlight. Perhaps some time spent in the quiet gardens while the palace slept would clear his mind, he thought, so he pulled his blanket aside and put on his sandals. He unrolled the cloak he had been using as a pillow and threw it over his shoulders, then moved silently to the door and slipped out to the courtyard. A single guard stood beneath the threshold of the great hall, where Agamemnon's escort slept, but he paid scant attention to Eperitus as he crossed to the doorway that led down to the gardens. Moments later a second figure emerged from the guest house and slipped into the shadows by the wall, following Eperitus at a short distance as he descended the steps to the wide lawn below. Eperitus sensed a presence and glanced back over his shoulder, but could see nothing other than the dense bushes rippling with the night breeze. Already on edge after the unexpected arrival of Agamemnon, he a.s.sumed his sharp instincts were being further befuddled by the lack of sleep.

'I've been waiting for you,' said a female voice behind him.

Eperitus turned to see Clytaemnestra sitting on the bench by the pond. He crossed the gra.s.s and sat next to her. The features of her pale face were lost beneath the shadow of her hood, but he caught the glimmer of her damp eyes as she looked at him.

'How could you be waiting for me?' he began.

'I willed you to come,' she said, taking his rough hand in her soft fingers. 'Once I make a strong connection with someone I can put images and desires into their mind. It's a gift of the ancient G.o.ds; I can do it with Helen and Iphigenia, and I can do it with you.'

Eperitus raised his hand and tipped the hood back from her face. Her eyes were dark-rimmed and her cheeks stained with tears.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

Clytaemnestra leaned across and placed her mouth against his. Though her hands were cold, her lips were almost hot. He put his hand behind her head and held her face gently to his as they kissed.

'What is it?' he asked again, pulling away just enough to speak. 'Is it Iphigenia?'

'You know it is,' she responded, kissing him once more before lowering her gaze to the pond, where the wavering reflection of the moon looked back at her. 'Agamemnon has no intention of marrying her to Achilles. It's just a lie to get her to Aulis.'

'But why? To ensure your loyalty while he's at Troy?'

'Nothing quite so simple,' Clytaemnestra told him bitterly. 'It was the white hart, the creature you helped him to hunt through the woods at Aulis. That was no ordinary animal: it belonged to Artemis and that made it sacred. As soon as Agamemnon's arrow found its mark the expedition to Troy was doomed, and boasting that Artemis herself could not have fired a better shot only made matters worse. In her anger the G.o.ddess sent the storms to bottle up the fleet, and until Agamemnon pays the price she demands then not one s.h.i.+p will be able to leave the Euboean Straits for Troy.'

'Artemis wants Iphigenia's life in payment for the white hart,' Eperitus said quietly, suddenly comprehending. He looked up at the moon, the symbol of the G.o.ddess's cold nature, and felt despair creep into his heart. The thought of Iphigenia being brought to harm seemed intolerable. 'Is there no other way?'

Clytaemnestra gave a bitter laugh. 'None of the Olympians are more cruel or vengeful than Artemis. She and Apollo shot down the children of Niobe simply because the poor woman insulted their mother. When Actaeon caught her bathing, she turned him into a stag and he was torn apart by his own hounds. Even Callisto, her friend, she turned into a bear and shot dead, all because Zeus raped her. No, Eperitus, the G.o.ddess wants payment in kind, like for like: Iphigenia for the sacred hart. Only my daughter's innocent blood will satisfy Artemis, and unless Agamemnon is prepared to carry out the sacrifice then he'll not get his war.'

'But surely Agamemnon will come to his senses and give up his ambitions?'

Clytaemnestra stood and looked up at the moon, which seemed distended to unnatural proportions as it hovered menacingly above the hilltops, its curious scars and pockmarks etched out in cold grey.

'Part of me hopes that he will look on Iphigenia and his heart of stone will melt,' she said. 'But that is just a fool's hope, because I know Agamemnon is as unyielding and pitiless as Artemis herself. And I can blame myself for that. I hated him because he murdered my first husband and our baby, tearing the infant from my breast as he suckled and butchering him before my eyes. I never forgave him for that and over the years I have denied him the love he craves, slowly turning him from a monster of pa.s.sion into a monster without any feelings at all. If he has any desire now it is for power only, and his l.u.s.t for war with Troy has turned his mind from its natural course. I believe he will do anything to achieve his ambitions, Eperitus,' she said, turning to stare into her lover's eyes. 'Even murder his own child.'

'Then you must leave at once,' Eperitus said, placing his hands on her shoulders. 'My heart wants this war, but I wouldn't have it at such a cost. Go and fetch Iphigenia now and leave Mycenae by one of its side gates.'

'And go where?' Clytaemnestra retorted. 'What chance would a woman and a child have out in the wilds, homeless and alone, hunted by the most powerful man in Greece? We'd be caught before the sun had set. No, Eperitus, if I'm to take Iphigenia and flee I only have one hope. You!'

Eperitus looked at the woman who only the night before had become his lover for the second time. He remembered the taste of her mouth against his and the soft and skilful touch of her hands on his body; he recalled her tenderness as they made love, and the realization that she had never given herself in such a way to Agamemnon. But if he fled with Clytaemnestra and Iphigenia, it would be to abandon his oath of service to Odysseus and lose the greatest friends.h.i.+p he had ever known. He would sacrifice all he had fought so hard to gain for a woman he did not love and a girl he hardly knew, to spend the rest of his life like a hunted beast, running from one hiding place to another. For all his fondness towards Iphigenia and his horror at Agamemnon's intentions, Clytaemnestra was asking too much of him.

'I can't help you,' he said, stepping away from her and looking down. 'My duty is to Odysseus. I can't break my oath to him.'

'You warriors and your d.a.m.ned oaths,' Clytaemnestra spat, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng with anger. Then she placed her hands either side of his head and pulled him into a kiss. 'But you are going to help me, Eperitus, one way or another. If nothing else, we are lovers and I want you to make me a promise on your oath.'

'What promise?'

'I'm going to try to escape tonight, but if I fail and Agamemnon kills Iphigenia . . .' Clytaemnestra paused and took a deep breath. 'If Agamemnon murders my daughter I want your word that you will protect him until he returns from Troy.'

'Protect him?' Eperitus exclaimed. 'I could understand if you wanted me to kill him, but . . .'

'I intend to have that pleasure for myself,' Clytaemnestra said, her eyes as cold as ice in the moonlight.

Eperitus could see she meant what she said. 'If that's what you really want, then I give you my word I'll protect him.'

'No, Eperitus!' Clytaemnestra said firmly. 'That's not good enough. I want you to swear it before Zeus, the Sun, the Earth and the Avenging Furies. Say it.'

There was power in the queen's voice as she spoke, a power that reflected the hatred beneath. In that moment, Eperitus sensed the similarity between Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon: both were unshakeably ruthless and cold at heart, and if resolved on something would not let anything stand between them and their desires. Whether they had always been like that or had grown severe and cold over the years together, Eperitus was unable to tell, but he had no more chance of denying Clytaemnestra's will than he would an order from the King of Men himself.

'Have it your way, Clytaemnestra,' he said. 'If Agamemnon murders Iphigenia, then I promise to protect his life to the best of my ability until he returns from Troy. I call upon Zeus, the Sun, the Earth and the Avenging Furies to witness my oath. Now are you satisfied?'

'I am,' she said, reaching out and taking his hand. 'Don't think badly of me, Eperitus, for I had to extract this promise from you. Without it I could not say what I've been longing to tell you since I first set eyes on you in the great hall.'

Eperitus felt suddenly tense. He thought of Calchas's words to him in Priam's throne room and realized with a cold s.h.i.+ver that Clytaemnestra was the one the priest had told him to seek.

'What is it?' he asked.

Clytaemnestra stepped closer and rested her head on his chest. 'I said I would try to escape, Eperitus, and that I wanted you to help me. I expected you to refuse me at first, of course you are bound by honour and friends.h.i.+p to serve Odysseus, and I knew you would not betray him for my sake. But I also knew you would never allow Iphigenia to come to harm, if you knew the truth about her.'

'The truth?' Eperitus asked. 'What truth?'

'That Iphigenia is your daughter, Eperitus.'

Chapter Twenty-five.

AT THE LION GATE.

Eperitus seized Clytaemnestra's shoulders and stared at her in disbelief.

'Iphigenia's not my daughter,' he said, shaking his head and frowning. 'That's a lie to make me help you escape. Odysseus said you were desperate, but I never thought you'd stoop to this.'

'Stop being a fool, Eperitus, and use your head. We made love ten years ago and Iphigenia was born nine months later. I hadn't slept with Agamemnon for weeks when I realized I was pregnant, though I allowed him to take me as soon as I knew I didn't want him to discover my infidelity. But even if your head is too obstinate to believe it, then search your heart and you'll know.'

He sat on the bench and stared hard at the dark surface of the pond, trying desperately to comprehend what Clytaemnestra's news meant. Despite his words of denial, he knew she was not lying to him: Iphigenia was the right age to be the product of their lovemaking in the Taygetus Mountains, and he believed Clytaemnestra when she said she had not slept with Agamemnon for weeks before becoming pregnant. More convincing, though, was the sense of familiarity he had felt about Iphigenia from the moment he had first seen the girl. He now realized that he had recognized something of himself in her features and even her character. Though her mannerisms were echoes of Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon, her determination and childish sense of honour were his.

Clytaemnestra sat next to him and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. 'You know it to be true, don't you?' she said. 'You only have to think about how alike you are. Jenny accepted it straight away when I told her.'

'You told her!' Eperitus exclaimed. 'When?'

'This morning, after Agamemnon arrived.'

Eperitus's surprise quickly turned to curiosity, tinged with fear. 'So what did she say? Was she pleased or disappointed?'

Clytaemnestra laughed. 'For a while I think she was too shocked to believe me, but when she finally listened to her instincts and accepted it was true, she was overjoyed. She's longed for a father like you all her life, Eperitus, someone to give her the love and attention that Agamemnon never did.'

She took Eperitus's hand and held it in her lap, smiling up at the night sky with more tears flowing down her cheeks. Only now they were tears of happiness. 'I've told her stories about you since she was a little girl, you know. I thought she should at least hear about you, even if she didn't realize you were her father. The funny thing is,' she said, smiling and sniffing at the same time, 'she has always thought more of you than any of the other great men of Greece.'

'Because you made more of me than you should have.'