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"Where is he?" Priam asked.
Sinon was pushed and prodded to the front. He'd been badly abused in a search for the truth and his clothes were rent and bloody. Priam viewed him with a suspicious gaze. "Speak up, man. Tell me the truth, and I'll spare your life."
"It is as he said, my king. I am a cousin of Odysseus, but he has grown to hate me, and I dared not return home with him. Now I mean to swear my allegiance to Troy and serve you all the rest of my days." He fell to his knees and bowed his head to the ground.
"Get up," Priam scolded. "Tell me what you know of this colossal horse."
Sinon lurched to his feet. "Calchas, the great Greek seer, advised the horse be built as a tribute to Athena and to atone for stealing her Palladium. The Greeks hoped to sooth the goddess's wrath and have a safe journey home."
Laocoon, the Trojan priest of Poseidon, joined them, and the crowd's attention shifted to him. After a swift march around the horse, he gave his own command, "I do not trust this huge horse. I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts. Burn it now before its evil engulfs us all." He hurled his bi-pointed spear against the belly of the gigantic horse and all heard a strange rattling sound coming from within.
The crowd stirred, some taking up Laocoon's cry to set fire to the wooden beast, and others arguing to preserve it as a sacred gift. When Athena suddenly shook the earth beneath their feet, they bumped and grabbed for each other in a struggle to remain on their feet.
"You have offended the goddess!" a man cried.
"No, I speak the truth!" Laocoon shouted. "Burn the awful beast before it's too late!"
Athena blinded him with terrible pain, and still the priest damned the horse and ordered it to be burned. His two sons joined him and were frightened by the blood red glow of his eyes. He groaned, and they held his arms to keep him upright.
The horse had been built on massive wheels and men went running for ropes to pull it into the city, while others stared at Laocoon, frightened by his awful torment and certain they must avoid insulting Athena any further before they were all touched by her blistering rage.
Laocoon ignored the agony in his eyes to again demand the horse be set on fire. Furious now, Athena called forth two sea serpents from the ocean depths. They swam with lightning speed, breached the surface and set upon the priest and his sons. They were hideous creatures with long sharp teeth and their sinuous, scaly bodies sent up huge roiling waves as they slithered upon the shore. They ringed the priest and his sons, entwined them in their terrible grasp and squeezed with all their mighty strength.
Women screamed at the horrible sight, but no man ran to aid Laocoon and his sons who were dragged, hopelessly struggling and crying as the sea serpents constricted in brutal bands around them. The slithering beasts carried the nearly lifeless priest and his boys under the sea leaving behind only a single huge spray of glittering foam as they disappeared into the depths.
Deiphobus had pressed Helen's face to his chest to shield her from the gruesome sight, but he was as shaken as his father and mother. Priam held Hecuba, and they swayed together as she cried.
"We must take the horse into the city," Priam announced. "Clearly it's what Athena desires." He hurried his wife to his chariot and led the way.
A gray bearded elder shouted, "The goddess desires this wondrous trophy; do as our king commands. Take it into the city and let's rejoice in our long-fought victory!"
Helen and Deiphobus remained on the beach as scores of men worked to drag the wheeled horse with ropes and cables across the beach sand. He watched them sweat and toil at the task, while she gazed out at the sea. She had never seen a stranger morning, and still believed something even worse was bound to come to pass. She'd caught only a glimpse of the sea serpents as they'd first broken through the waves, but the frightful sight would remain with her for all time. Filled with dread, she shared none of the gaiety as women threw garlands of flowers over the wooden horse and welcomed it as it rolled into the city.
* * *
The war was finally over, and elated by their victory, the Trojans ecstatically danced aro
und the horse, feasted and drank huge drafts of wine until they could no longer remember why they were celebrating. Music from lyres, flutes and high-ringing shaken sistrums added to the frenzied celebration, and it lasted long into the night. Too uneasy to take part, Helen remained in her chamber rather than dine with the other women that evening. When Cassandra came to her door, she welcomed her in.
"No one believes me," Cassandra cried, "but I saw something in your eyes. You're afraid too, aren't you?"
"I am," Helen readily confessed. "I fear the horse is Odysseus's doing, and that it will somehow bring us all great harm."
"I'll go and pray for our safety all night in Athena's temple. Perhaps she can be assuaged," Cassandra promised, and she slipped away.
Helen had never been fond of dancing and prayer, and after Theseus had abducted her from Artemis's temple, she found little value in temple rituals. Believing this could very well be the last night of her life, she combed her golden hair, put on her finest clothes with the beautiful gold necklace Paris had had made for her with the blood stone. She went to the window to keep watch and wait. The great dark horse rose up in the distance and looked even more evil in the flickering torchlight. When Deiphobus did not come to their bedchamber, she assumed he had fallen into a drunken sleep along with the other reveling men. She hoped he had his sword with him.
* * *
Menelaus arched his back and rolled his shoulders. They had climbed into the wooden horse before dawn and spent the day in its miserably hot and crowded confines. The air was rank and like the rest of them, he needed to relieve himself. They could still hear music growing faint from a long way off, but they waited, stiff and sore, for absolute silence.
Sinon had pretended to join in the Trojans' feast, but he drank very little of their potent wine. After the other men had either staggered off to their chambers, or fallen asleep where they sat, he made his way out of the palace courtyard at a light run. The wooden horse had been towed up to the citadel, as far as the temple to Athena, and he knocked against a foreleg.
"It's time," he whispered. "The Trojan fools are all in a drunken stupor."
Odysseus nudged Epeius. "Unfasten the latch. Be as quiet as you can be lowering the climbing ropes. We mustn't give ourselves away with victory so close at hand."
Menelaus had been one of the first men to climb into the horse, and he waited impatiently for his turn to get out. "I'm going after Helen," he cautioned his companions. "No one else is to touch her. Leave her to me."
