No One But You

Chapter Eight : Nowhere To Run

She found Cassandra standing on a balcony overlooking the city. She wore the traditional white garment of the virgin priestess, and her long dark hair tumbled loosely down over her shoulders. She did not turn when Briseis stepped uncertainly out onto the balcony, but Briseis could see the priestess smile gently.

"I was wondering how long it would be before you found me," she said in a soft, kind voice. "What is it you want?"

Briseis shrugged. "To talk," she admitted.

"You've never wanted speech with me before," Cassandra commented in a wry voice that was not unkind.

Briseis blushed, ashamed both of her actions, and also that they had been so obvious. "Things change," she said finally.

"Yes," Cassandra said, turning to study her. "They do."

"How did Andromache find out?" Briseis blurted out after a moment's silence.

A brief frown crossed Cassandra's face. "You're not meant to believe me," she said in a troubled voice. "You're not meant to believe that I really do know and speak the truth."

Briseis smiled bitterly. "You said Helen would bring ruin to Troy. She has. I would have to be a fool to not believe you after you told us that." When this explanation did nothing to satisfy Cassandra, she continued, "Perhaps it is because we have both been cursed by the Gods," Briseis suggested.

Cassandra sighed and shrugged lightly. "Perhaps," she admitted.

"Do you know how Andromache knows?" Briseis pressed, worried whether it was just Andromache who knew, or if others did as well.

Cassandra raised one eyebrow. "That Achilles was in your bed last night?" she asked, and when Briseis' nodded, continued, "She saw him leaving your room from where she was in the gardens."

Briseis sighed. "Will she ever forgive me?"

Cassandra looked at her. "Would you forgive her if it was the other way around? You made the choice to love him, so you cannot blame her for hating you."

Briseis sighed and looked away. She knew it was true, but she still wished that Cassandra had not been quite so blunt.

"That's what everyone says, or at least thinks," Cassandra commented in response to Briseis' thought.

Briseis looked sharply over to the dark haired princess. "Then why don't you stop doing it?" she asked sharply.

"I cannot," Cassandra answered simply.

Briseis sighed and looked away once, unconsciously straining to see past the high city walls and to the Greek encampment on the distant beaches.

"What am I going to do?" she asked after a moment's pause.

Cassandra sighed. "I cannot tell you that," she said in a kind voice. "I may be able to see the path before you, but it is up to you to place your feet on it."

Briseis looked away again, and the two stood in a comfortable silence, side by side, staring out over the city as the sun rose higher in the sky. Eventually Briseis turned to her companion, and Cassandra could see bright tears standing out in her eyes.

"Cassandra," she asked in a whispered voice. "Am I pregnant?"

Cassandra turned to look at the grieving princess. "What would you do if you were?"

Briseis just shrugged.

"Would you get rid of the child?" Cassandra pressed. "There are ways, you know."

Briseis shrugged again, and then shook her head. "I couldn't," she admitted in a scared voice. "I couldn't get rid of something of his."

Cassandra nodded. "And if you weren't?"

"Try and forget about him, I suppose," Briseis said in a dead voice, and Cassandra could tell that her heart really wasn't in it.

"Are you sure you want to know?" she asked carefully. She had hurt so many people by telling them the truth when they did not want to hear it, and she could see that Briseis was already carrying enough pain on her slender shoulders.

Briseis nodded mutely.

"You are," Cassandra told her. "It will be a boy."

Briseis said nothing, but an enormous wave of relief flooded through her, followed by a wave of fear. She now knew, at least, and even knowing that she was carrying the bastard child of Troy's greatest enemy was better than the terrible uncertainty that had haunted her.

"Briseis?" Cassandra asked nervously, scared by the lack of emotion on Briseis' face. "Are you alright?"

Briseis turned her head slowly, her face blank. "Yes," she said. "I'm fine. Thank you Cassandra." And she moved away towards the door.

"Briseis!" Cassandra called after her.

Briseis paused and turned to look back, a questioning expression on her face.

Cassandra sighed. "Be careful," she said, knowing full well how inadequate the words were.

Nothing on Briseis' face showed that Cassandra's plea had registered in her mind, and she turned away, moving as in a trance through the halls of the palace, until she reached her own room.

She closed the door behind her, locking it firmly, and then sank down to a heap at the bottom of the doorframe, her head in her hands, screaming one incoherent word of pain and loss before collapsing into broken sobs.

A/N : Once Again ,
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