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"He must be," Diomedes answered. "He lives on Skyros Island. I'll sail for him."
"No," Odysseus argued. "I'll be the one to go. You're needed here to inspire the troops."
"You also provide great leadership," Diomedes countered.
"Odysseus will go," Agamemnon decided. "It isn't a long voyage, but best it be begun quickly."
Odysseus put his fist to his forehead in salute, and left the royal lodge to ready his men and ship to sail.
Agamemnon noted Diomedes' frown. "I do not trust him either, but I need you here, and he can be counted on to bring the boy."
"Is this truly all that's needed?" Diomedes asked Calchas.
The seer bowed slightly. "Indeed it is, my lord."
Chapter 28
Word the Palladium, "The Spirit of Troy", had been stolen during the night passed quickly through Troy and its palace. The announcement was met with general horror, but only Helen knew who had taken the beloved sacred statue and how it had been done. She felt only a brief flash of guilt and promptly suppressed it. She observed Deiphobus with a wide, innocent gaze as he paced their chamber cursing the Greeks and damning the incompetent guards who were charged with keeping Troy's holy relic safe.
"How could the Greeks have scaled the wall and come and gone unnoticed?" he fumed.
Helen nodded sympathetically, as though she shared his dismay. When he turned away from her, he resembled Paris in physique and coloring, but there was no mistaking his identity when he wheeled around to face her. He had a multitude of expressions, ranging from his frequent anger to wild rage. His lip curled in a damning sneer.
"This is why you must not leave the palace," he ordered. "If Greek spies and thieves are moving among us, there's too great a danger they'll harm you. I'll not risk losing you, Helen, I won't. Do you understand me?"
She nodded, and didn't take a deep breath until he had left her for the day.
* * *
Thetis had foretold Achilles would die young fighting in a great war. In a vain attempt to spare her only son that fate, she had disguised him as a woman and hid him on the Isle of Skyros in the court of King Lycomedes. The handsome youth could not disguise his desires, however, and had sired Neoptolemus during an affair with Princess Deidamea. The handsome red-haired boy had been raised by his mother but took after his father and displayed both strength and remarkable speed as a runner.
When Odysseus arrived on Skyros's rocky shores with vivid tales of
the Trojan War, Neoptolemus was eager to go with him. His mother wept at the tragic news of Achilles' death, and was reluctant to give her son permission to go.
"You must promise me you'll look after the boy," she insisted. "Swear it now."
"Our seer foretells a victory if Neoptolemus is with us. I'll guard him well, and he'll not come to any harm as we triumph over Troy."
Deidamea had early recognized a wildness in her son she doubted the small Isle of Skyros could safely contain. He was his father's son after all and born for heroic adventure. "You may go, my son, but when you're able, you must return to describe the Greek victory over Troy."
Neoptolemus kissed his mother's cheek. "I'll sing it in clever rhymes while I play father's lyre," he boasted. He quickly gathered his belongings in a leather bag and leapt aboard Odysseus's black ship his eyes aglow with excitement.
His mother waved from the stone dock until the ship with its distinctive wild bore sail emblem was no longer in view. Before returning to her father's palace, she strolled along the shore remembering Achilles, who would have been so proud of his handsome son. A shaggy Skyrian pony came over a rise and tossed his head in greeting. From the time he'd been small, Neoptolemus had loved riding the gentle ponies, and she was sorry she had no treat for this one.
* * *
Neoptolemus sat in the high prow of Odysseus's ship and laughed as the sea sprayed over him. "I want a ship of my own like yours!" he called to Odysseus.
"You shall have one," Odysseus promised. He'd found the boy to be bright and personable, but his close resemblance to Achilles was unnerving all the same. The lad was already tall and would undoubtedly grow up to be a well-built, muscular man. If he could keep him alive, and Odysseus had promised he would, but promises were not easily kept during war.
When they beached the ship near the Greek camp, he cautioned Neoptolemus sternly, "Agamemnon is the powerful King of Mycenae and the commander-in-chief here. You must show him the utmost respect."
"If he had need of me, he should respect me too," Neoptolemus replied with a cocky grin.
Odysseus laid his hands upon the boy's shoulders. "I intend to see you return to Skyros without so much as a scratch, but Agamemnon would have you whipped for insolence should you speak to him thus. Pretend he is Zeus if you must, but defer to him in all matters and smile only when he is smiling at you."
"Still, if I'm here to fulfill a prophecy...."
