"No!" Khryse cried out. "Stop her." He stepped toward her, and reached out to grab her arms, to prevent her forcibly from leaving the temple. "If warning must be given, sound the alarm; that will bring the folk out of their houses without making it seem that we are all God-smitten and distraught without reason except a foolish girl's dreams."
"Touch me at your peril! I go as the Gods determined, to warn them—"
Her cry shocked him enough that he let her go, and she darted through the door before he could stop her. Once in the street, she screamed at the top of her voice:
"Take heed! The serpents of the Sunlord have given warning; the earth will shake; take such shelter as ye can find! Let none sleep beneath stone roofs, lest they fall!"
People, roused by her cries, came flooding out of the doors; driven by a terrible urgency, she ran on, calling out her warning over and over. She heard behind her cries and shouts, some saying, "Hark to the warning of Apollo's priestess," and others grumbling, "She is cursed by the God; why should we believe her?"
It was as if she were filled with fire; she was driven, burning with the heat of the warning that flamed and raged within her. She fled down the streets, shrieking her warning over and over again. When she came to awareness of where she was, she was standing in the forecourt of the palace; her throat raw, and a dozen or more of the palace folk were standing and staring at her. Hoarsely she gasped out her tale.
"Let none sleep under a roof; the God will shake the land and buildings will fall - will fall - Helen, your children - Paris—" she grabbed his shoulders; he thrust her away roughly.
"Enough of this! I swear, Kassandra, I have heard too much of your evil prophecies! I will silence you with my own hands—"
His hands clasped around her neck; her consciousness wavered and almost with relief she felt the hovering darkness take her in a great burst of light exploding somewhere inside her head.
Her throat ached; she put her hand weakly to it. A gentle voice said, "Lie still. Take a little of this."
She sipped at the wine, coughed and choked, but the insistent hand stayed until she swallowed again. It cleared her head; she was lying on the flagstones, and her head felt as if it had been cloven with an axe. Aeneas bent over her and said, "It's all right. Paris tried to choke you, but Hector and I stopped him. If anyone can be called mad—"
"But I must speak with him," she insisted. "It is his children -Helen's—"
I'm sorry," Aeneas said, "Priam has ordered all the palace folk to bed; he says you have disturbed them all too many times and has forbidden anyone to listen to you. But if it is any comfort to you, I have ordered Creusa to sleep out in the courtyard with the baby; and I think Hector has heeded you, too, for he says whatever you may or may not know of the ways of the Gods, you know the ways of serpents. Now drink a little more of this and let me take you back to the Sunlord's house. Or if you will, you may stay here and share a bed with Creusa and the baby."
She wanted to weep at the love in his voice; she knew it was this, and not any great belief in her warning, which had prompted him to this kindness. She got to her feet, feeling as if every bone in her body had been beaten with wooden cudgels. "I must go back," she said, "and see to the folk in the temple, and the serpents, and my daughter—"
"Ah, yes, Creusa told me you had a little girl. A foundling, I suppose?"
"Yes, as it happens; but how did you know?"
"I know you too well to imagine you would ever disgrace your family by having a child outside of honorable marriage," he said, and she thought: Even my own mother did not trust me as much as that.
"Well, then, will you walk up with me?"
"Gladly," he said, "but you ran out without your cloak. Let me fetch you one or you will be cold." He brought her a long thick garment which she had seen Creusa wear, and she wrapped herself up in it. The night had grown chilly, and even in the heavy cloak she shivered, less from cold than from some subtle danger which remained in the air. It was as if far beneath the ground she could hear the very earth groaning, a heaviness which weighed intolerably on her mind and heart. She could hardly summon the strength and will to put one foot before another, and she leaned on his arm; then when he bent to kiss her she moved away.
"No, don't," she said. "You should go back - you have a wife and a child at risk to care for when it comes—"
"Don't remind me of that," he said, and drew her within the curve of his arm again. After a moment he said, "I love you, Kassandra."
He was touching her gently in that way she found so disturbing, and she drew away from him.
He said softly, "My poor little love. I swear, if only I had the right, I would beat Paris for hurting you so. If he ever touches you again, I swear he'll find it the worst day's work he ever did. It's not his place to rule you."
"He does not realize that," she said. They had reached the great bronze gates of the Sunlord's house, but she did not go inside. Sitting on a low wall she said, "I have no husband, so my brother thinks it is his right to direct me. I suppose to those who do not see and hear what I do, my prophecy must sound like madness. They try to protect themselves against it by refusing to believe. I too am just as ready as anyone else to ignore what I do not want to know."
"Yes, I have seen that," said Aeneas, gently and meaningfully, and drew Kassandra against him under his cloak. She let him kiss her, but sighed with weariness, so that he let her go. He said, "We will talk of this again tomorrow, perhaps—"
"If there is a tomorrow," she said with such exhaustion that he blinked with astonishment.
"If tomorrow should not come, I will regret even beyond death that I have not known your love—" he said, so passionately that Kassandra felt her heart clutch as if a fist had squeezed it.
She said in a whisper, "I think I would regret it too. But I am so tired—" and she began to cry.
He kissed her gently and said, "Then let us pray there will be a tomorrow, my love," and let her go. It felt as if the weight of the trembling world were about to crack and descend on her uneasy head as she watched him walk away.
Inside the Sunlord's house people wrapped in blankets were sleeping all about the courtyards. For the moment all seemed peaceful; except for the violent throbbing in Kassandra's head, which made it seem as if her every step were taken on rolling waves. She went up to the court of the serpents; there the children slept, and Kassandra lay down beside Honey, taking the child in her arms. She imagined the earth as a great serpent coiled about the waist of Serpent Mother, whom she saw as a woman, large and stately like Queen Imandra. The ground seemed gently to rock beneath her, and as she drifted into sleep she half expected the coils to wind round her too.
Instead she seemed to drift through clouds, acres and fields of cloud, and a great expanse of sky; and at last she drifted unseen to the surface of a great mountain, and knew that she stood alone on the summit of the forbidden mountain where the Gods of the Akhaians gathered, and heard the distant sound of thunder as they spoke. She saw Zeus Thunderer as a tall and imposing man in the prime of life, with a full greying beard; it seemed that little flares of lightning moved round his hair like a wreath as he spoke.
"Now that this absurdity of a duel between Paris and Menelaus is over, it is obvious that Menelaus has won; I suggest that we bring this foolish war to a close and get back to our proper business."
"How can you say Menelaus has won when he did not kill Paris?" inquired Hera. She was a tall, imposing woman, rather stout, with hair dressed in a crown about her head. "I insist that Troy must be brought to destruction. They do not properly serve me there. Also I am patron Goddess of marriage; and Paris has personally insulted me, and fled to Troy, where they have received Helen as Paris's wife without any rites or sacrifice to me."