"Oh, hush!" said Helen. "Don't talk like a fool, Andromache. Kassandra tried to warn us, that is all. I am sure she would rather have left all this unspoken. I am glad to see you unharmed, Sister." She went and embraced Kassandra, and after a moment, Andromache followed suit.
"How is it with Father?" asked Kassandra. She went and bent over her mother, gently lifting her up. "Come, Mother, we must take refuge in the Maiden's Temple."
"No! No, I will stay with my Lord and King," Hecuba protested, her wails turning to sobbing.
Andromache came and embraced her, while Astyanax came and put his arms around Hecuba, saying, "Don't weep, Grandmother; if any harm has come to Grandfather the King, then I will look after you."
"Hush, love," Helen said, as Kassandra knelt beside her father, taking the cold hand in hers, and raised a closed eyelid. There was not the faintest stir of motion or life; the eyes were already filmed over. She knew she should have joined Hecuba in ritual keening, but she only sighed and let his hand fall from hers.
"I am sorry, Mother," she said. "He is dead."
Hecuba's cries began again. Kassandra said urgently, "Mother, there is no time for that; Akhaian soldiers are in the city."
"But how can that be?" Hecuba asked.
"The walls were broken in the earthquake," Kassandra explained, desperately wondering if they were all lacking in wits, or senseless with shock - had they heard nothing? 'Already they are plundering in the streets, and they will surely lose little time coming here. Where is Deiphobos?"
"I think he must be dead," Helen said. "We heard Mother cry out that Father had fallen down in a fit, or a faint. We came at once, and Deiphobos carried him out of his room into the court here, then ran back seeking his own mother. Then the first shock came and the floors fell in and I think some of the roof as well. I had snatched up Nikos and ran out with him after Deiphobos."
"And so we six are alive," said Kassandra, "but we must hide somewhere, unless we wish to fall into the hands of the soldiers. I do not know what is the Akhaian custom with captive women and I do not think I wish to."
"Oh, Helen has nothing to fear from them," said Andromache, staring fixedly at the Argive woman. "Her husband will soon be here to claim her, I am sure, and deck her in all the jewels of Troy and lead her home in triumph. How fortunate for you that Deiphobos died just in time - not that you care."
Kassandra was appalled at her spite.
"This is no time to quarrel, Sister; we should be glad if one of us need not fear capture. Shall we take refuge in the House of the Maiden? That is where we sent the women from the Sunlord's house and I am sure it is still whole." She put her arm round Hecuba, and said, "Come, let us go."
"No, I stay with my King and my Lord," said the old woman stubbornly, dropping again to her knees beside Priam's body.
"Mother, do you truly believe that Father would want you to stay here to be captured by some Akhaian lord?" Kassandra asked in exasperation.
"He was a soldier to his death; I will not abandon him the moment he has fallen," Hecuba insisted. "You are a young girl; go and take shelter somewhere they will not find you, if there is such a place in Troy. I stay with my Lord; Helen will be with me. Even the Akhaians would offer no insult to the Queen of Troy. We have fallen to a God and not to them."
Kassandra wished she felt half that sure. But they could already hear the soldiers approaching, and she seized Honey's hand. Andromache seized her other hand. Astyanax was in her arms, protesting, struggling to get down, but Andromache paid no attention.
"Let us hide in one of these mean houses along here; they would never think of looking in here, where there would be nothing to plunder," Andromache suggested, but Kassandra shook her head.
"I will entrust myself and my daughter to the Maiden of Troy. If our Gods have deserted us, perhaps the Goddesses will not."
"As you wish," Andromache murmured. "I no longer believe in any Gods. Farewell, then. Good fortune to you." She wedged herself into the smallest and dirtiest of the houses, and Kassandra ran on up the hill, to the highest point of Troy, where the Maiden's Temple stood untouched, the statue in the forecourt still unfallen. Kassandra flung herself down at the feet of the statue; surely no man, not even an Akhaian barbarian, would venture to trespass on any woman who took refuge here.
She heard the voices of the other women in one of the inner rooms. In a moment she would join them. She put Honey down and knelt before the altar.
"Ah, there she is!" It was a cry of triumph in the barbarian tongue of the soldiers. Two armored men burst in the door. "I wondered where all the women had gone."
"This one will do for me; it's the princess, Priam's daughter.
She's a prophetess and a virgin of Apollo—but if Apollo wanted to protect his virgins, he'd have done it. You want to check in the inside room for some more of them?"
"No," replied the other. I'll take the little one. When people think they're big enough, they're too old for my taste. Come here, little girl, I've got something nice for you—"
Kassandra turned in horror, to see a giant soldier beckoning to Honey. "No," she shrieked,"she's only a baby! No, no—"
"I like them that way," said the big soldier, grinning, and made a lunge at the child, ripping away her dress. Kassandra flew at him, using nails and teeth to tear Honey from his arms; a savage kick sent her flying half senseless into a corner of the room. She heard Honey screaming, but could not move; her limbs were so heavy she could not stir a finger. She felt the other man seize her and struggled violently; a blow across the face from the man's arm sent her back as all the strength poured out of her like sand from a torn sack.
She kept on hearing Honey's helpless cries until, even more terribly, they stopped. She was aware - though she could neither move nor speak—when the man tore away her dress and shoved her down onto the marble paving.
Goddess! Will you let this happen in your very shrine before your eyes? she implored, then in shock remembered; she no longer believed, why should the Maiden protect her?
But Honey has done no wrong, she is a baby! If the Maiden sees this and cannot prevent it she is no Goddess. And if she can and will not—
Then fierce pain ripped her apart as the man thrust violently into her, and she felt darkness closing in on her.
She felt herself step out of her pain-racked body, conscious of the man still jerking away at her limp form, of Honey naked and torn, bleeding on the stone, still moving a little, whimpering through bruised lips. She rose and moved away, stepping over the flat and featureless plain. The sun had dimmed into the greyness that was all that was here. She walked down through the plain that was, and was not, the city of Troy where the wooden horse had kicked down the walls and rose still whole and nightmarish over the dead city.
She saw others on this plain: Akhaian soldiers, a few of the Trojans. They seemed confused, looking about for a leader. Then she saw Deiphobos, half clad, still carrying his mother in his arms; his face and hands singed with fire. So they had died together as Helen had suspected.
He tried to call to her, but she had no wish to speak to him. She turned and hurried the other way, wondering what had happened to Andromache.
There was Astyanax, his head bleeding, his clothing torn. He looked stunned, but as she watched his face brightened, and he began to run across the plain, crying out in joy. She saw him swept up into Hector's arms and smothered in kisses. So Hector had claimed his son; she was not surprised that the Akhaian soldiers had not let him live. Andromache would grieve; she did not know that her son was with his father as Hector had promised. She hoped the child had not known too much terror before he met his end on an Akhaian spear - or had they hurled him from the walls?