Odysseus looked pensively at the old soldier, then gave a quiet nod of his head. Halitherses turned to the others and, in a slow voice, began to repeat the words of the priestess.
‘“Find a daughter of Lacedaemon and she will keep the thieves from your house. As father of your people you will count the harvests on your fingers. But if ever you seek Priam’s city, the wide waters will swallow you. For the time it takes a baby to become a man, you will know no home. Then, when friends and fortune have departed from you, you will rise again from the dead.”’
As he spoke the flames in the hearth sputtered and threatened to fail altogether, while the shadows about the hall multiplied and grew darker. A silence fell and it was only after the last words had died away that the fire began to spit and crackle again, and the fidgeting of the slaves could be heard once more in the background.
‘It doesn’t seem like any choice at all to me,’ said Mentor. ‘Stay at home and be cursed by the gods for breaking an oath, or go to Troy and be doomed not to return home for two decades.’
‘Which is why I say Odysseus should abandon this expedition and risk the fury of the Olympians,’ Halitherses replied. ‘The alternative is unthinkable.’
‘Don’t be foolish, Halitherses,’ Odysseus admonished him. ‘If anything in this life is certain, it’s the vengefulness of the gods. We live by their blessing and provision, and suffer through their anger or fickle moods. No, I wouldn’t willingly incur their wrath for anything – even when the alternative is being sentenced to twenty years at the other end of the world, away from my home and family. But there is still hope! The force Agamemnon is gathering is powerful indeed: Diomedes will be there; both the Ajaxes; Idomeneus of Crete; Menestheus of Athens; Nestor the famous charioteer. Even Achilles is to be asked.’
‘Hope!’ Phronius exclaimed, his voice cracking with disbelief. ‘Hope? An oracle is the will of the gods, Odysseus – there can be no hope.’
‘Then let me reveal another secret,’ the king retorted. ‘Ten years ago the Kerosia – yourself included, Phronius – sent me on a mission to compete with the best men in Greece for the hand of Helen. The odds were against me, but that has never stopped me from taking up a challenge. Then, before I had even reached Sparta, Athena herself told me that Helen was to be given to Menelaus. I believed her, of course, because the will of the gods cannot be changed by mortal action. Or that was what I had always believed. But then Helen offered herself to me, and her father was prepared to honour her wish.’
‘What’s that?’ Laertes said, sitting up. ‘If Helen offered herself to you, why didn’t you take the chance and be sure of saving Ithaca?’
‘If I had, then perhaps this expedition to Troy would have been for my sake instead of Menelaus’s! As it is, I fell in love with Penelope instead and after that there was no question of marrying Helen. But my point is this: a goddess had told me that Helen was to be given to Menelaus, and yet it was within my power to make her mine. Do you understand? For a moment my destiny was in my own hands – not the hands of the gods or of anyone else, just mine. And if it was the case then, it can be the same now. I intend to fight this war as if that oracle had never been uttered. I’m going to use every bit of my cunning to finish it quickly, and if I have to I’ll scrap like a cur until Troy lies in ruins and our black-hulled ships are speeding back home to Ithaca.’
At that moment, the guards stood aside and a soldier entered the great hall, his footsteps echoing from the walls as he marched up to the king.
‘What is it?’ Odysseus asked.
‘Agamemnon, Menelaus and Palamedes have arrived, my lord. Their ship was moving into the harbour as I left to report.’
The king stood as the soldier left and, belatedly, received the staff from Halitherses’s hand.
‘This has been a difficult meeting and some things have been revealed that I would rather have remained secret. But there is hope, whatever Phronius says – maybe not of a swift victory, but we shouldn’t dismiss the power of a united Greece to win this war in good time. It only remains for me to propose that Mentor takes charge of Ithaca until my return, deferring only to my father’s experience and Penelope’s wisdom. I have also asked Eperitus to be my second-in-command, a role that befits his position as captain of the guard and my friend. Are you in agreement?’
The members of the Kerosia – with the exception of Eurylochus – nodded, and the slaves began clearing away the tables and their untouched food. Odysseus signalled for Eperitus to join him, but before he could say a word to the captain of his guard Halitherses approached with a concerned look on his old face.
‘Odysseus,’ he said, ‘Eperitus told me he offered to lead the army in your place, but that you insisted on going.’
The king nodded.
‘Well, I’m your friend and you trust me,’ Halitherses continued. ‘Although your optimism in the face of the gods is admirable, don’t forget Helen did marry Menelaus, whatever opportunities came your way. And my instincts are against you going to this war. Why don’t you accept Eperitus’s offer?’
Odysseus placed a hand on the old warrior’s shoulder and looked him in the eye.
‘Because I don’t really have that choice, Halitherses. I was the one who took the oath, not Eperitus. Besides, I may not be as accomplished a fighter as Achilles, Diomedes or the greater Ajax, but I have more brains than the rest of them rolled up together. I’ll think of a way to shorten this war when all their brawn and fighting skill fails, and when I come back home to my family in a couple of years the honour for the victory will be mine. I’ll prove the oracle wrong yet, old friend.’
Halitherses embraced Odysseus and Eperitus briefly, the tears flowing openly down his cheeks as he bade them farewell. Phronius followed, silently taking the hands of both men before shuffling away, stooped over his stick. Eupeithes, in his usual aloof manner, shook the king’s hand and wished him well.
‘The last time you led an armed mission overseas,’ he added in a quiet voice, ‘a certain rich fool used the opportunity to seize the throne. Well, you’ve proved yourself a just and merciful king and I want you to know that rich fool has learned from his errors – he won’t be making the same mistake again. That’s all I wanted to say, Odysseus. Goodbye.’
He bowed low, then with a brief nod to Eperitus was gone.
‘What was that all about?’ asked Laertes after his nemesis had left.
‘I believe that was the first heart-felt apology Eupeithes has ever offered me,’ Odysseus answered. ‘Will you and mother be coming to watch the fleet disembark?’
‘Fleet?’ Laertes scoffed. ‘That’s a very grand expression for a dozen ancient galleys pulled together at the last moment. If your Taphian friend Mentes hadn’t offered to sell us six of his ships, half of the army would have been sailing in merchant vessels. Even now I doubt you’ll make it to Aulis, let alone Troy.’
‘Well, that would be one way to avoid my doom,’ Odysseus replied, sardonically. ‘But on the assumption the fleet makes it out of the harbour, will you and mother be there to see us off?’
‘She said her goodbyes to you last night, Odysseus, and won’t say them again. She already believes she’s seen you for the last time, so I don’t know how she’ll take this oracle you’ve been keeping secret all these years.’
‘She’ll see me again, I know it,’ Odysseus said firmly. ‘And what about you father? Will you come to the harbour?’