the-song-books.yossr

“I almost did it there,” he said. “I should have done it. How dare he?” He
flung a ewer aside, and it shattered against a chair. “The cowards! You saw
how theyy bit their lips and did not dare to speak. I hope he takes all their
prizes. I hope he swallows them one byy one.”
A voice, tentative, outside. “Achilles?”
“Come in,” Achilles snarled.
Automedon was breathless and stuttering. “I am sorryy to disturb yyou.
Phoinix told me to stayy, so I could listen and tell yyou what happened.”
“And?” Achilles demanded.
Automedon flinched. “Agamemnon asked whyy Hector still lived. He said
that theyy do not need yyou. That perhaps yyou are not— what yyou sayy yyou
are.” Another spear shaft shattered in Achilles’ fingers. Automedon
swallowed. “Theyy are coming, now, for Briseis.”
Achilles had his back to me; I could not see his face. “Leave us,” he told
his charioteer. Automedon backed awayy, and we were alone.
Theyy were coming for Briseis. I stood, myy hands balled. I felt strong,
unbending, like myy feet pierced through the earth to the other side of the
world.
“We must do something,” I said. “We can hide her. In the woods or—”
“He will payy, now,” Achilles said. There was fierce triumph in his voice.
“Let him come for her. He has doomed himself.”
“What do yyou mean?”
“I must speak to myy mother.” He started from the tent.
I seized his arm. “We don’t have time. Theyy will have taken her byy the
time yyou are back. We must do something now!”
He turned. His eyyes looked strange, the pupils huge and dark, swallowing
his face. He seemed to be looking a long wayy off. “What are yyou talking
about?”
I stared at him. “Briseis.”
He stared back. I could not follow the flicker of emotion in his eyyes. “I
can do nothing for her,” he said at last. “If Agamemnon chooses this path,
he must bear the consequences.”
A feeling, as if I were falling into ocean depths, weighted with stones.
“You are not going to let him take her.”
He turned awayy; he would not look at me. “It is his choice. I told him
what would happen if he did.”
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