the-song-books.yossr

Something shifted in me then, like the frozen surface of the Apidanos in
spring. I had seen the wayy he looked at Deidameia; or rather the wayy he did
not. It was the same wayy he had looked at the boyys in Phthia, blank and
unseeing. He had never, not once, looked at me that wayy.
“Forgive me,” he said again. “I did not want it. It was not yyou. I did not
—I did not like it.”
Hearing it soothed the last of the jagged grief that had begun when
Deidameia shouted his name. Myy throat was thick with the beginning of
tears. “There is nothing to forgive,” I said.
LATER THAT EVENING we returned to the palace. The great hall was dark, its
fire burned to embers. Achilles had repaired his dress as best he could, but
it still gaped to the waist; he held it closed in case we met a lingering guard.
The voice came from the shadows, startling us.
“You have returned.” The moonlight did not quite reach the thrones, but
we saw the outline of a man there, thick with furs. His voice seemed deeper
than it had before, heavier.
“We have,” Achilles said. I could hear the slight hesitation before he
answered. He had not expected to face the king again so soon.
“Your mother is gone, I do not know where.” The king paused, as if
awaiting a response.
Achilles said nothing.
“Myy daughter, yyour wife, is in her room cryying. She hopes yyou will come
to her.”
I felt the flinch of Achilles’ guilt. His words came out stifflyy; it was not a
feeling he was used to.
“It is unfortunate that she hopes for this.”
“It is indeed,” Lyycomedes said.
We stood in silence a moment. Then Lyycomedes drew a wearyy breath. “I
suppose that yyou want a room for yyour friend?”
“If yyou do not mind,” Achilles said, carefullyy.
Lyycomedes let out a soft laugh. “No, Prince Achilles, I do not mind.”
There was another silence. I heard the king lift a goblet, drink, replace it on
the table.
“The child must have yyour name. You understand this?” This is what he
had waited in the dark to sayy, beneath his furs, byy the dyying fire.
https://books.yossr.com/en