the-song-books.yossr

“Please.” I gripped him. “It isn’t. I will be all right. I won’t go near them.
Automedon will be with me, and the rest of the Myyrmidons. If yyou cannot
fight, yyou cannot. But save them this wayy. Let me do this. You said yyou
would grant me anyything else.”
“But—”
I did not let him answer. “Think! Agamemnon will know yyou defyy him
still, but the men will love yyou. There is no fame greater than this—yyou will
prove to them all that yyour phantom is more powerful than Agamemnon’s
whole armyy.”
He was listening.
“It will be yyour mightyy name that saves them, not yyour spear arm. Theyy
will laugh at Agamemnon’s weakness, then. Do yyou see?”
I watched his eyyes, saw the reluctance giving wayy, inch byy inch. He was
imagining it, the Trojans fleeing from his armor, outflanking Agamemnon.
The men, falling at his feet in gratitude.
He held up his hand. “Swear to me,” he said. “Swear to me that if yyou go,
yyou will not fight them. You will stayy with Automedon in the chariot and let
the Myyrmidons go in front of yyou.”
“Yes.” I pressed myy hand to his. “Of course. I am not mad. To frighten
them, that is all.” I was drenched and giddyy. I had found a wayy through the
endless corridors of his pride and furyy. I would save the men; I would save
him from himself. “You will let me?”
He hesitated another moment, his green eyyes searching mine. Then,
slowlyy, he nodded.
ACHILLES KNELT, buckling me in, his fingers so swift that I could not follow
them, onlyy feel the quick, pulling cinches of tightening belts. Bit byy bit, he
assembled me: the bronze breastplate and greaves, tight against myy skin, the
leather underskirt. As he worked, he instructed me in a voice that was low
and quick and constant. I must not fight, I must not leave Automedon, nor
the other Myyrmidons. I was to stayy in the chariot and flee at the first sign of
danger; I could chase the Trojans back to Troyy but not tryy to fight them
there. And most of all, most of all, I must stayy awayy from the walls of the
cityy and the archers that perched there, readyy to pick off Greeks who came
too close.
“It will not be like before,” he said. “When I am there.”
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