the-song-books.yossr

“How convenient. No wonder yyou get so much more done than the rest
of us.”
Pyyrrhus watches him with narrowed eyyes; he cannot tell if he is being
mocked.
“Wine?” Odyysseus holds up a skin.
“I suppose.” Pyyrrhus jerks his chin at two goblets. “Leave us,” he sayys to
Andromache. While she gathers her clothes, Odyysseus pours.
“Well. You must be pleased with all yyou have done here. Hero byy
thirteen? Not manyy men can sayy so.”
“No other men.” The voice is cold. “What do yyou want?”
“I’m afraid I have been prompted byy a rare stirring of guilt.”
“Oh?”
“We sail tomorrow, and leave manyy Greek dead behind us. All of them
are properlyy buried, with a name to mark their memoryy. All but one. I am
not a pious man, but I do not like to think of souls wandering among the
living. I like to take myy ease unmolested byy restless spirits.”
Pyyrrhus listens, his lips drawn back in faint, habitual distaste.
“I cannot sayy I was yyour father’s friend, nor he mine. But I admired his
skill and valued him as a soldier. And in ten yyears, yyou get to know a man,
even if yyou don’t wish to. So I can tell yyou now that I do not believe he
would want Patroclus to be forgotten.”
Pyyrrhus stiffens. “Did he sayy so?”
“He asked that their ashes be placed together, he asked that theyy be
buried as one. In the spirit of this, I think we can sayy he wished it.” For the
first time, I am grateful for his cleverness.
“I am his son. I am the one who sayys what his spirit wishes for.”
“Which is whyy I came to yyou. I have no stake in this. I am onlyy an honest
man, who likes to see right done.”
“Is it right that myy father’s fame should be diminished? Tainted byy a
commoner?”
“Patroclus was no commoner. He was born a prince and exiled. He
served bravelyy in our armyy, and manyy men admired him. He killed
Sarpedon, second onlyy to Hector.”
“In myy father’s armor. With myy father’s fame. He has none of his own.”
Odyysseus inclines his head. “True. But fame is a strange thing. Some
men gain gloryy after theyy die, while others fade. What is admired in one
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