The Anger of Achilles Page 25

  ‘But then, in the face of the king’s obvious illness, Sutekh would have taken the message to Mynes and Ephistrophos as next in command of the defences. Only to discover that they were ready to surrender immediately in any case, despite the presence of an ambassador from Prince Sarpedon, his cousin Glaucus. Now Glaucus had no doubt been commissioned with what was effectively the exact opposite to Sutekh’s message: that if Lyrnessus could hold out for long enough, Sarpedon would bring his army up by land and sea behind the besiegers’ battle lines. But Glaucus only brought promises of support, not promises of a fortune in gold.’

  ‘But where did the gold come from?’ I asked. Briseis gave a grunt which I assumed was something to do with the fact that she had already worked out the answer.

  ‘From the same place as the Achaean message,’ Odysseus explained. ‘One glance was enough to tell me it had come from Agamemnon – something I would have assumed even had I not recognised several of the pieces, including a full set of armour from helmet to footguards, all in pure gold.’

  ‘So Agamemnon was willing to part with a fortune in order to secure the downfall of Lyrnessus,’ said Briseis. ‘That strikes me as a strange way to wage a war.’

  ‘He was going to lose a fortune in any event,’ Odysseus explained. ‘A fortune in time, men, supplies, arms and armour – all of which he needed to conserve if he was going to bring the siege of Troy to a swift and satisfactory conclusion. He had seen what the siege of Thebe had cost and was unwilling to pay the price all over again. But, as you have observed, Princess, his approach was craven and dishonourable. The very opposite of the behaviour to be expected from a High King and true Hero. So he dared not put it directly to his generals who would actually command the attack. Achilles would have spat in his face. I would have flatly refused to have anything to do with the plan. Even Aias would have baulked. He knew that. And he also knew that if word of his plan got out, his standing and reputation would be severely damaged. And his sensitivity on those subjects far outweighs even Achilles’. So in the end he got Idas to agree. Sutekh brought the message. Idas brought the gold and an understanding of the conditions in which he could part with it, the poor foolish old man. But in any case, Agamemnon’s plan was in place.’

  ‘But,’ said Briseis, ‘Agamemnon’s craven deceit was based on several misapprehensions. First, how did he come to believe King Euenos would deign to look at his gold, let alone sell his honour and his people for it?’

  ‘The king was old,’ observed Odysseus. ‘Past his prime and well aware of it. Furthermore, I would wager that the message promised that if the king obeyed, Lyrnessus, its rulers and its people would be spared the fate so publicly, brutally and calculatedly inflicted on their counterparts in Thebe.’

  ‘So Agamemnon could guarantee that Achilles, Aias and you would fall in with a plan you didn’t even know about?’ Briseis tone was sceptical. There was an edge of mistrust to it as well: she was still more than willing to believe that Achilles at least would be happy to become part of this dishonourable scheme.

  ‘On the contrary,’ said Odysseus gently. ‘Agamemnon chose us to be his generals commanding this siege precisely because he knew that – irrespective of the gold or indeed of any knowledge of the gold – Achilles and I would deal justly and fairly, perhaps even kindly, with the city’s defenders; and that we would keep Aias under a tight rein if he preferred to go down the Theban route of pillage, slaughter and rape. And Aias had to be one of the leaders, of course, so that Idas would be involved in the siege as well as the scheme.’

  Briseis’ scepticism deepened. ‘So Agamemnon chose Achilles to lead the attack on Lyrnessus because he knew he would never do anything dishonourable?’

  ‘True,’ said Odysseus, ‘no matter how much it pains you to believe it, Princess.’

  ‘But,’ I interrupted. ‘You haven’t even told half the story! What about the princes and the hemlock? What about the stabbings? What about the slit throats and the sinister, left-handed murderer?’

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  ‘All in good time, lad. Let’s go up to the palace and get something to eat. There will be no formal feast tonight, everyone will be too busy getting the last of the equipment, horses and chariots put aboard. We’ll get the men aboard tomorrow and head off on the first tide. In the meantime, we can all pray for a south wind to blow us back to Troy.’

  It was not until we were seated in the megaron with a meal in front of us that he continued. ‘So, to take up matters where we left them, Sutekh the mantis and messenger found himself faced with a problem. The message was clear: the city had to surrender. But it was supposed to hold out for some time at least, for long enough to allay any suspicions Achilles, Aias and I might have as to what was going on. Sutekh saw that Agamemnon had caught himself in his own shameful trap. If the city fell at once, as the two princes planned that it should, then even if Achilles didn’t smell a rat, then I certainly would. It wouldn’t take me long to find the treasure and work out the truth. As things turned out, it only required one glance for me to recognise the gold and know where it had come from. However, I was never supposed to suspect its existence let alone actually see it. But now things become more complex and much more dangerous, leading directly to the long list of deaths.’ He raised a finger. Khloe brought some wine. He sipped pensively, then reached for the olives.

  As Thalia replenished the bowl, he continued, ‘Sutekh found himself in a quandary that was at once full of danger and yet also full of promise. He had to stop the twin princes surrendering. Like Gul-Ses and other High Priests, he had some training with herbs and medicines. He joined his acolytes with the others, the members of the temples of Anu and Teshub who were working in the blood room with King Mnestheus and Calix. They managed to steal a lethal amount of hemlock between them. But he needed someone he could trust to administer it. And luckily for him he saw into the murderous ruse of the honey cakes as clearly as I did. He had his poisoner, therefore, and the power to make her do his bidding. The princes had little love for their father, true, but if they found out what Hepat was doing to him, her death would have been agonising. She is a clever woman. She saw that. She also saw that she would need the help of one more person to make things certain. She and Sutekh approached Demir and offered to share with him enough gold to buy a good-sized kingdom. And so the plot proceeded. The princes feasted on the best of the food that had been stored against a long siege, including a good measure of honeyed parsnips – and died next day of hemlock poisoning.

  ‘Sutekh easily convinced Gul-Ses to join him in assuring the city’s leaders that they should hold out until Teshub’s miracle saved them all. But the longer the city resisted, the more suspicions were aroused. And a delicate balance had to be maintained – resistance must be strong enough to convince Achilles, Aias and I that this was a genuine campaign and yet it could not be maintained for so long that the gold, due to be awarded to those who oversaw the city’s downfall was withdrawn from the situation. Your three brothers, princess, doomed themselves by their efficient commands. They organised their units well and, whether they believed Sutekh’s promises or not, they convinced themselves and their men that this was a fight to the end. They had to be removed from the field, therefore. So the throat-cutting began.’

  ‘But who…’

  ‘All in good time, lad. I think the princess is beginning to understand…’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Briseis. ‘But carry on in any case. My brothers had their throats cut one by one because they were fighting and leading their men too well…’

  ‘Murdered by someone who favoured their left hand, who could pass almost undetected from place to place and squad to squad, convincing your unsuspecting brothers that they needed to talk alone. Then the deed was done in a flash and the killer passed on like a puff of smoke. Unsuspected, we assume, because we Achaeans were in the lower city by this time and cutting a fallen enemy’s throat is seen as a blessed relief on a battlefield. They were only the first victims of course. As time
went on, the blood room filled and the physician Mnestheus realised his store of herbs was running out unexpectedly quickly, he began to ask unwelcome questions which all too soon got to the ears of the priests helping tend the wounded – and thus back to Gul-Ses and Sutekh. The old physician’s death was fitted in to his attempt to help Glaucus escape and call on Sarpedon, for by that time of course, we were in possession of the entire city. It seems to me that Timaeus’ death was less a murder than a blessed relief. His mother certainly seemed to think so. But it too played a part in the murderous proceedings. It was sometime around here that Glaucus himself became aware of the gold and began to make some plans of his own. He was less unwell than he pretended to be, remember; and he was being tended by priests at least some of whom were also beginning to learn about the existence of the gold, six or so of them he was able to bribe with promises.

  ‘Agamemnon must have told Sutekh the name of the man who was going to bring the gold. But as the Fates would have it, King Idas died before the bargain could be struck. And it was Sutekh himself who felt he deserved the reward as he had been responsible for strengthening the pointless resistance against us and then watching it fail.’

  ‘Watching it fail,’ said Briseis. ‘Not hastening its failure?’

  ***

  ‘No,’ said Odysseus, leaning forward intently as Khloe filled his cup once more. ‘Once we were in possession of the city, the first part of the bargain had been met. Everyone’s focus changed to the gold. Idas was no longer in charge of handing it over. A spear through his side had seen to that. Gul-Ses and his men acted first. They stole it from Idas’ ship which they set on fire to cover their tracks, but part-way through the theft they found competing elements joining them. Sutekh. Glaucus. Our friend who cuts throats who took care of the men guarding the chariots. Gul-Ses or his men had already much less elegantly taken care of the men guarding the gold on the ship. And so they set out, leaving their tracks to lead us astray. The exchange was made of the rock for the treasure. Sutekh accompanied the gold in through the north postern – opened by some of his acolytes. Glaucus and Gul-Ses continued with the deception and the rock. And, of course, their throat-cutting rival; their ally for the moment.

  ‘They reached the river. They lit the fire to dry out and warm up. And to signal to Sarpedon’s scouts further south that the rock was going in place. The bushes were moved to make us look west towards the sea rather than south towards the approaching army with its vanguard of chariots. Gul-Ses and his acolytes remained ignorant of the wider plan, that the rock, a seeming encumbrance, needed to be positioned so that it would guide Sarpedon and his chariots safely and efficiently across the river. Then, as dawn began to brighten, they moved the stolen chariots upstream. The plan was simple enough; to confuse and slow pursuit. Which it did. But here the first falling-out occurred. Gul-Ses realised that he, among the four claimants of the gold, was last in line to get any of it despite the fact that he had been first to act in stealing it. Threats were issued; it was Gul-Ses’ men who were with them. But so were Glaucus’ bribed priests. So Gul-Ses got his throat cut and his acolytes simply ran away. Glaucus and the throat-cutter threw the body in the river expecting it to be washed out to sea, they both mounted Pedasos and made it back to the city while we were so laboriously following the trail they had left behind. Glaucus’ priests made their own way back and vanished into the blood room once more – unnoticed.

  ‘After that, it really became a contest between the three survivors. Sutekh believed he had full possession of the gold after he and his acolytes smuggled it from the postern gate in the north wall into the cavern with the handcart. But he was, as we discovered, headstrong and overconfident. He did not guard it well enough and so Glaucus and his murderous ally stole it from under his nose. But, as his final escape proved, Glaucus’ six priests moved out of the blood room on his command. They smuggled the gold onto the little boat used to keep the lake and the wells clear and safe. They hoisted the gold and then Glaucus himself up into the agora using the oxen to lift them as though they were buckets from the well. Then Glaucus took charge of it and would have taken it all had he not found that last set of steps leading to the second tunnel impossible to get the chest down. But, like the soldier he is, his main focus within the treasure was the golden armour. So he took that, let his priestly helpers help themselves to all they could carry and they all managed to escape.’

  ‘Now,’ said Briseis trenchantly as Thalia handed her more of the cheese she so enjoyed, ‘what we need to do is to unmask the throat cutter because it is the throat cutter who has caused almost everything I accused prince Achilles of causing.’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said Odysseus. ‘The throat cutter…’

  ‘It’s obvious!’ said Briseis as she bit into the savoury white ball. ‘Hepat is the poisoner; Demir is the cut-throat. They can go everywhere. They are little better than slaves so nobody pays them any attention…’

  The echoes of her forceful declaration were still echoing when Hepat and Demir appeared. They were escorted by Perimedes and a squad of men from Thalassa who were carrying the treasure chest between them. ‘Just as you suspected, Captain,’ said Perimedes. ‘We had hardly managed to hide ourselves before these two turned up and started going through the treasure chest.’

  ‘I thought that Sarpedon’s attack and the confusion it caused would be too tempting to resist,’ said Odysseus.

  The square-bodied woman and her broad-shouldered, portly companion stood silent. There was no sign of apology or regret on either face. If they were dismayed at having been caught with the loot they were planning to steal, neither of them, gave any sign. Odysseus looked at them for a moment in silence. Then he drained his cup. ‘Well…’ he said, and threw the cup to Demir.

  Taken by surprise the major domo caught the vessel. Then he froze. The cup was in his left hand. He met Odysseus’ gaze and opened his fist. The cup fell to the floor. As it was made of metal it did not break. It bounced and rang like an acolyte’s koudounia bell.

  The noise it made was still echoing across the silent room when Achilles and Patroclus arrived. I had seen Achilles angry on several occasions but never as angry as this. ‘Poison!’ he spat. ‘Patroclus says you told him he’s been poisoned!’

  ‘To a certain extent,’ said Odysseus. ‘He has eaten honey cakes designed to poison someone else. When we get back to our camp at Troy he will make a full recovery.’

  But Achilles was in no mood to listen to reason.

  ‘Who was it?’ he snarled. ‘Who poisoned the cakes?’

  ‘It was me!’ Hepat turned towards him, no hint of remorse in her tone or bearing.

  Achilles actually roared. He tore his sword out of its sheath and swung at her, even as Odysseus leaped to his feet and Patroclus fruitlessly caught at his arm. But Demir acted quickest of all. He stepped in front of her so that Achilles’ blade took him precisely at the junction of his neck and left shoulder, chopping down into his chest. He was dead in a heartbeat. Even before his corpse began to collapse. Achilles’ blade was buried so deeply that it took three massive tugs for the Prince of Phthia to free it.

  Hepat cried out as though the blade had wounded her as well, and Thalia threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around her mother.

  Odysseus straightened up almost wearily. ‘I wish you hadn’t done that Achilles,’ he said. ‘That temper of yours will get us all into serious trouble one day.’

  ‘Still,’ observed Briseis coldly, ‘that takes care of the throat-cutter and brings the whole contemptible episode to a close.’ She drew herself up, a princess to her fingertips for one last time. ‘Prince Achilles, I owe you an apology. You have behaved honourably throughout the whole campaign. The shameful actions here were those of Agamemnon and of those lesser men tainted by lust for his gold including the murderer who has just received his just deserts at your hand.’

  ‘No,’ said Odysseus. ‘No I don’t think so. Think about what we know about the throat-cutter other than the fact
that they cut throats with their left hand, coming silently from behind. We know they come and go invisibly; or, perhaps, obscured by someone else. That they are slight enough to fit in poor Timaeus’ bed in the blood room. That they are not strong enough to free the blade from Mnestheus’ chest. That they know exactly where to go to get their clothes and body cleaned of the physician’s blood when they weren’t strong enough to stop him collapsing on top of them. That they were light enough to share Pedasos with Glaucus riding back from the river…’

  ‘Not Khloe,’ I said, still convinced that Khloe had been the secret visitor to my bed.

  ‘Not Khloe,’ agreed Odysseus. ‘Thalia. Acting under instructions from her mother and Demir her mother’s left-handed lover. Cutting throats in the manner he taught her so that he would be suspected before she ever was – not only to protect her, but again to confuse us. And I would guess, lad, that it was she who visited your bed – again under instructions from her mother.’

  ‘But why?’ I cried, mortified not only that he knew and was saying so in front of Briseis and Achilles but because I had been tricked in the first place.

  ‘Because you said you might be able to get me sent safely to Ithaka,’ said Briseis. ‘Where better for Thalia to hide if they could convince you to send her instead?’

  ‘So,’ said Achilles, whose anger had not been abated by Demir’s death or, apparently, by Briseis’ apology. ‘What do we do with them?’

  No-one spoke by way of answer. No-one got the chance. Thalia answered through action. As her right arm was curled around her mother’s shoulders, her left hand vanished into her clothing and reappeared holding a long-bladed knife. Odysseus shouted something inarticulate and Achilles dropped his sword, reaching towards the women. But they were helpless in the face of Thalia’s desperate speed. Within three or four heartbeats she was finished. Her mother’s throat was open and so was her own. Their blood joined Demir’s on the floor and almost immediately, their corpses also joined his.