"Don't trouble yourself," he said. "I would not have disturbed you, but I thought you would like to know that your son came honorably and unwounded from his first battle."
He went out of the room, and Hecuba said between her teeth, "Battle indeed! He cannot wait to get to his newest woman, that is all, and she will give him unmixed wine and he will be ill! And as for Hesione - much he cares for her! As long as they do not disturb his precious shipping, the Akhaians could have us all and welcome!"
Kassandra knew better than to ask anything further of her mother at that moment; but that night when they gathered in the great dining-hall of the palace (for Priam still kept to the old custom where men and women dined all together, instead of the new fashion where women took their meals separately in the women's quarters 'So that the women need not appear before strange men' as the Akhaian slaves put it) she waited until Priam was in a good humour, sharing his finest wine with her mother, and beckoning Polyxena, whom he always petted, to come and sit beside him. Then Kassandra stole forward and Priam indulgently motioned to her.
"What do you want, bright-eyes?"
"Only to ask a question, father, about something I saw today."
"If it is about Aunt Hesione—" he began.
"No, sir; but do you think the Akhaians will ask ransom for her?"
"Probably not," said Priam. "Probably one of them will marry her and try to claim rights in Troy because of it."
"How dreadful for her!" Kassandra whispered.
"Not so bad, after all; she will have a good husband among the Akhaians, and it will perhaps, for this year, stave off war about trading rights," Priam said. "In the old days many marriages were made like that."
"How horrible!" Polyxena said timidly. "I would not want to go so far from home to marry. And I would rather have a proper wedding, not be carried off like that!"
"Well, I am sure we can arrange that sooner or later," said Priam indulgently. "There is your mother's kinsman young Akhilles - he shows signs, they say, of being a mighty warrior—"
Hecuba shook her head. She said, "Akhilles has been promised to his cousin Deidameia, daughter of Lykomedes; and I would as soon my daughter never came into that kindred."
"All the same, if he is to win fame and glory… I have heard that the boy is already a great hunter of lions and boars," countered Priam. "I would gladly have him for a son-in-law." He sighed. "Well, there is time enough later to think of husbands and weddings for the girls. What did you see today, little Kassandra, that you wanted to ask me?"
Even as the words crossed her lips Kassandra felt she should perhaps keep silent; that what she had seen in the scrying-bowl should not be spoken; but her confusion and her hunger for knowledge were so great she could not stop herself. The words rushed out: 'Father, tell me, who is the boy I saw today with a face so exactly like my own?"
Priam glared at her so that she quivered with terror. He stared over her head at Hecuba and said in a terrible voice, "Where have you been taking her?"
Hecuba looked blankly at Priam and said, "I have taken her nowhere. I do not have the faintest idea what she is talking about."
"Come here, Kassandra," said Priam, frowning ominously, and pushing Polyxena away from his knee. "Tell me more about this; where did you see this boy? Was he in the city?"
"No, Father, I have only seen him in the scrying-bowl. He watches the sheep on Mount Ida, and he looks exactly like me."
She was frightened at the abrupt change in her father's face. He roared, "And what were you doing with scrying, you little wretch?"
He turned on Hecuba with a gesture of rage and, for a moment, Kassandra thought he would strike the Queen.
"You, Lady, this is your doing—I leave the rearing of the girls to you, and here is one of my daughters meddling with scrying and sorceries, oracles and the like—"
"But who is he?" Kassandra demanded. Her need for an answer was greater than her fear. "And why does he look so much like me?"
In return her father roared wordlessly and struck her across the face with such force that she lost her balance and skidded down the steps near his throne, falling and striking her head.
Her mother shouted with indignation, hurrying to raise her, "What have you done to my daughter, you great brute?"
Priam glared at his wife and rose angrily to his feet. He raised his hand to strike her, and Kassandra cried out through her sobs, "No! Don't hit Mother; she didn't do anything!" At the edge of her vision she saw Polyxena looking at them, wide-eyed but too frightened to speak, and thought with more contempt than anger, She would stand by and let the King beat our mother? She cried out, "It was not Mother's fault, she did not even know! It was the God who said I might - he said I was to be his priestess when I was grown up, and it was he who showed me how to use the scrying-bowl—"
"Be silent!" Priam commanded, and glared over her head at Hecuba. She could not imagine why he was so angry.
"I'll have no sorceries in my palace, Lady, do you hear me?" Priam said. "Send her out to be fostered before she spreads this nonsense to the other girls, the proper maidenly ones…' He looked round and his frown softened as he looked at the simpering Polyxena. Then he glared at Kassandra again where she still crouched holding her bleeding head. Now she knew there was really some secret about the boy whose face she had seen.
He would not talk about Hesione—he does not care. It is enough for him that she will be married to one of those invaders who carried her off. The thought, coupled with the fear and the shame of the vision - if that was what it had been - made her feel a sudden dread. Father will not tell me. Well, then, I shall ask the Lord Apollo.
He knows even more than Father. And he told me I was to be his own; if it was me and not Hesione he would not let me be carried away by that man. It is enough for Father that she would be married; if that man carried me off would he let me go to a marriage like that? Her vision of the man with the eagle face was never to leave her. But to block it she closed her eyes and tried to summon up again the golden voice of the Sunlord, saying, You are mine.
CHAPTER 5
Kassandra's bruises were still yellow and green, the moon faded to a narrow morning crescent. She stood beside her mother, who was laying a few of her tunics in a leather bag, with her new sandals and a warm winter cloak.
"But it is not winter yet," she protested.
"It is colder on the plains," Hecuba told her. "Believe me, you will need it for riding, my love."
Kassandra leaned against her mother and said, almost in tears, "I don't want to go away from you."
"And I will miss you, too, but I think you will be happy," Hecuba said. "I wish I were going with you."
"Then why don't you come, Mother?"
"Your father needs me."
"No, he doesn't," Kassandra protested. "He has his other women; he could manage without you."
"I am sure he would," Hecuba said, grimacing a little. "But I do not want to leave him to them; they are not as careful of his health and his honor as I am. Also, there is your baby brother, and he needs me."
This made no sense to Kassandra; Troilus had been sent to the men's quarters at the New Year. But if her mother did not wish to go, there was nothing she could say. Kassandra hoped she would never have children, if having them meant never doing what you wanted.
Hecuba raised her head, hearing sounds down in the courtyard. "I think they are coming," she said, and took Kassandra's hand in hers. Together they hurried down the long stairs.