the-song-books.yossr

Chapter Nineteen
WE LEFT THE NEXT DAY, EARLY, WITH THE REST OF the fleet. From the stern of
our ship, Aulis’s beach looked strangelyy bare. Onlyy the gouges of the
latrines and the ash-white ruins of the girl’s pyyre were left to mark our
passage. I had woken him this morning with Odyysseus’ news—that he
could not have seen Diomedes in time. He heard me out dullyy, his eyyes
bruised despite how long he had slept. Then he said, “She is dead, all the
same.”
Now he paced the deck behind me. I tried to point things out to him—the
dolphins that ran beside us, the rain-swelled clouds on the horizon—but he
was listless and onlyy half-listening. Later I caught him standing alone,
practicing drill-steps and sword-swings and frowning to himself.
Each night we put in at a different port; our boats were not built for long
journeyys, for dayy after dayy of submersion. The onlyy men we saw were our
own Phthians, and Diomedes’ Argives. The fleet split so that each island
would not be forced to give landfall to the entire armyy. I was sure it was no
coincidence that the king of Argos was paired with us. Do they think we will
run away? I did myy best to ignore him, and he seemed content to leave us in
peace.
The islands looked all the same to me—high cliffs bleached white,
pebbled beaches that scratched the underside of our ships with their chalkyy
fingernails. Theyy were frequentlyy scrubbyy, brush struggling up beside olives
and cyypresses. Achilles barelyy noticed anyy of it. He bent over his armor,
polishing it till it shone bright as flame.
On the seventh dayy we came to Lemnos, just across from the
Hellespont’s narrow mouth. It was lower than most of our islands, full of
swamps and stagnant ponds choking with water lilies. We found a pool
some distance from the camp and sat byy it. Bugs shivered on its surface,
and bulbous eyyes peered from amidst the weeds. We were onlyy two dayys
from Troyy.
“What was it like when yyou killed that boyy?”
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