A HENRY STORY 2: Trials Of The Fallen Prince

XX. Achilles

"Won't you come down from there, Achilles?"

The boy remained unmoving as he felt Kismet's presence below him, next to the pillar. Once he had passed the threshold in this very spot, drawn to the enchanting sights and sounds that had come with it, but now he longed for nothing more than for the world to be quiet. To leave him. To—

"You have not yet eaten today. Are you not hungry?"

The boy pressed his hands onto his ears but still perceived Kismet deftly ascending until she could nudge his side. "And since when do you venture anywhere without this? I fished it out of the lake, just for you."

The sight of the item she dropped into his lap made him flinch. Mys—he swatted it away, and Kismet barely caught the dagger before it would have plummeted to the ground. "No." He moved his hands to cover his eye instead.

"Oh? Was it not once your precious?" she snarled, placing the dagger beside him on the pillar again. "Is it not a tooth of King Gorger? Your most prized possession?"

The boy scooted away from it, trying not to look at the dagger. He hadn't laid eyes on it even once since the waterfall. Not with the load of associations it carried, far too heavy to bear. Not with how . . . Inadvertently, his eye caught sight of a strip of black fabric upon the hilt. Is that the best you can think to do with it? What good will it even do on that hilt? He jerked his head away, then slid to the far side of the pillar, nearly losing balance.

Kismet caught him at the last moment and safely brought him down. The instant his feet touched solid ground, he sank to sit with his knees pulled to his chest, his back resting against the pillar.

Kismet settled beside him, giving him a nudge. "I have been thinking, now that your strength has returned, what say we bring back and possibly even redesign that obstacle course you used to love so?"

The boy did not look up.

"Oh, just humor me, pup." She nudged him again. "You will be out of shape in no time if you do not exercise. Do not waste yourself in such a manner. Did I not tell you that your talent and potential are immense? Your body is not the only thing that may be exercised."

"Not worth it."

"But it is," she said. "Remember your virtue. Your skill. Let us continue with your training if you have nowhere else to be. Perhaps I may still forge you into one of the greatest warriors who have ever lived."

"It is pointless."

"No," she said. "Can you hear me? Henry?"

No reaction.

"Henry? I'm talking to you."

No reaction.

". . . Achilles?"

"I wish I had never come here."

"Because you think then, you would not have broken?"

His mouth parted, but no sound emerged.

"We may never know if that is true," she said. "But no matter. You may feel no purpose now, but this means that you must find one and seize it. Do not waste yourself," she urged again. "I have faith that you will heal and rise above."

He tightened his hold on his knees. "I may not."

"Have you not infinite hope?"

"I have not. I must go back," the boy whispered. "Back to the—"

"What are you waiting for by that lake?" asked Kismet, and he froze in his tracks. "Day and day again, you wish to spend there. It has been a week, and you are still waiting. What are you waiting for?"