"Oh, he will come back," said Kassandra.
He will come back. But not to you.
She was confused at the depth of her own emotions. She said, "Let me speak to my mother about you," and went, with Andromache, to Hecuba. Andromache said in gentle reproach, "Oh, Kassandra, how can you? A peasant girl - to bring her to the palace?"
"She's not; she's as well born as either of us," Kassandra said. "You've only to look at her hands to see that. Her father is a priest of the River God, Scamander."
She repeated this argument to Hecuba, whose first impulse had been to say: 'Of course, if she is carrying Paris's child—and how can you be so sure of that, my dear?—we must see that she is well provided for and not in want. But to bring her to the palace?"
Nevertheless when she met Oenone she was charmed at once by her beauty, and brought her to a suite of rooms high up in the palace, light and airy and looking out on the ocean. They were empty, and smelled of mice, but Hecuba said, "No one has used these rooms since Priam's mother lived here; we will have workmen in and have them redecorated for you, my dear, if you can manage with them this way for a night or two."
Oenone's eyes were large and almost disbelieving. "You are so good to me - they are much too fine for me—"
"Don't be foolish," Hecuba said brusquely. "For my son's wife - and soon his son—there's nothing too fine, believe me. We'll have workmen from Crete—there are workmen here painting frescoes in some houses in the city, and painting vases and oil jars, I'll send a message to them tomorrow."
She was as good as her word, and within a day or two the Cretans came to plaster the rooms and paint festival-scenes on the walls, great white bulls and the leaping bull-dancers of Crete, in realistic colours. Oenone was delighted with the pretty rooms, and pleased in a childlike way when Hecuba sent women to wait on her. "You must not over-exert yourself, or my grandson may suffer," Hecuba said bluntly when Oenone tried inarticulately to thank her.
Andromache was kind to Oenone too, though in a careless way, and at first Kassandra spent a great deal of time with them, confused by her own feelings. Andromache now belonged to Hector, and Oenone to Paris; she had no close friends and though every day or so Priam spoke of the necessity of finding her a husband, she was not sure that was what she wanted, or what she would say if they asked her—which they probably would not.
She did not understand why Oenone's presence should affect her this way; she supposed it was because she had shared Paris's emotions (but if Paris felt this way about Oenone, why had he been willing to leave her?) towards the girl when he made her his wife. She felt a great desire to caress the other woman, and comfort her, while at the same time she drew away from her, self-conscious even of the kind of careless embrace customary between girls.
Confused and frightened, she began to avoid Oenone and this meant that she avoided Andromache too; for the two young wives now spent a good deal of time together, talking of their coming babes, and weaving baby-clothes; a pastime which appealed to Kassandra not at all. Her sister Polyxena, never a friend, was not yet married although Priam was haggling for the best possible alliance for her and she thought and spoke of little else.
Kassandra fancied that when Paris returned she might be less obsessed with Oenone; but she had no idea when that might be. Alone under the stars on the high roof of the palace, she sent out her thoughts seeking her twin, and achieved no more than fresh sea breezes, and a blinding view of the deep darkness of the sea, so clear that she could see the pebbles on the sea bottom.
One day, choosing a time when Priam was in a good humour, she went to him and carefully emulating Polyxena's kittenish behaviour, asked softly, "Please tell me, Father, how far Paris is going, and how long a journey is it till he will be back?"
Priam smiled indulgently, and said, "Look, my dear. Here we are on the shores of the straits. Ten days' sail this way, southward, and there is a cluster of islands ruled by the Akhaians. If he avoids shipwreck on reefs here—" he sketched a coastline, "he can sail southward to Crete, or northwesterly to the mainland of the Athenians and the Mykenaeans. If he has fair winds and no shipbreaking storms, he could return before the summer's end; but he will be trading and perhaps staying as a guest with one or more of the Akhaian kings… as they call themselves. They are newcomers to this country; some of them have been there no more than their father's lifetimes. Their cities are new; ours is ancient. There was another Troy here before my forefathers built our city, you know, daughter."
"Really?" She made her voice soft and admiring like Polyxena's, and he smiled and told her of the ancient Cretan city which once had risen not more than a day's sail south along the coast. "In this city," he said, "were great storehouses of wine and oil, and they think this may have been why the city burned when great Poseidon Earthshaker made the sea rise and the ground tremble. For a day and a night there was a great darkness over the whole world, as far south as Egypt; and the beautiful island Kallistos fell into the sea, drowning the temple of Serpent Mother and leaving the temples of Zeus the Thunderer and Apollo Sunlord untouched. That is why there is now less worship, in the civilized lands, of the Serpent Mother."
"But how do we know it is the Gods who have shaken the lands?" Kassandra asked. "Have they sent messengers to tell us so?"
"We do not know," Priam said, "but what else could it be? If it is not the Gods, there would be nothing but Chaos. Poseidon is one of the greatest Gods here in Troy, and we petition him to keep the earth solid beneath our feet."
"May he long do so," Kassandra murmured fervently, and since she saw that her father's attention had wandered to his wine cup, murmured a courteous request to go; her father nodded permission and she went out into the courtyard, with much to think about. If indeed it had been the great earthquake (which she had heard about during her childhood - it had been several years before Priam's birth) then perhaps this was sufficient reason that the worship of Earth Mother had been discredited, except among the tribeswomen.
The courtyard was a-bustle; it was a brilliant day. Workmen were moving about; the people painting friezes high up in the rooms assigned to Oenone for Paris were grinding new pigments and mixing them with oil, tally-men were counting jars of oil brought in as tithes on one of the ships lying out in the harbor; some of the soldiers were practicing at arms, and far out beyond the city, she could see a cloud of dust which was probably Hector exercising the horses of his new chariot. She wandered among them like a ghost unseen. It is as if I were a sorceress and bad made myself invisible, she thought, and wondered if she could make herself so in truth, and if it would make any difference if she did.
For no reason at all her eyes fell idly on a young man who was dutifully marking tallies with a notched stick and pressing wax on the sealing ropes of great jars, oil or wine, pressing the seal that indicated these had been taken for the King's household.
He seemed a bit restless under her scrutiny, turning his eyes away, and Kassandra, blushing - she had been taught it was unmaidenly to stare at young men - looked away. Then her eyes were drawn back; the young man seemed to glow, his eyes grew very strange, almost vacant; then they focused and he drew upright. He seemed to grow taller, looming over her; yes, it was she, Kassandra, whom he fixed with his eyes, and in a flash she recognized what God possessed him, for she was looking again into the face of Apollo Sunlord.
His voice reverberated as thunder, so that she wondered, with a scrap of wandering consciousness, how the other workers could go on quietly with their work.