No One But You

Chapter Ten : Goodbye My Lover

"But don't you see Cassandra?" Briseis begged. "They'll kill us all...or worse."

A faint smile was playing around Cassandra's mouth. "Oh it'll be worse," she said in a voice that was meant to sound reassuring. "I've always known my fate," she turned her large, hazel eyes to meet those of Briseis, and the former priestess shuddered as she met Cassandra's blank, empty gaze.

"No," Briseis said forcefully. "No, Cassandra. It doesn't have to be as you see it. We'll keep you safe. Paris will protect you." Briseis could see now that Cassandra was not mad. She had simply retreated to a place where, no matter what happened, they could not touch her. She did not know what scared her more: Cassandra going mad, or giving up hope.

Cassandra just smiled blankly at Briseis again, and then swept out of the room, leaving Briseis shaking even more than when she had arrived. She sank down into a huddle at on the floor, more afraid than she had ever been in her life. She knew that Paris had spoken against bringing the horse into the city, and so if the heir to the throne of Troy could not convince his father that it was a bad idea, Briseis knew that she never could.

She did not know exactly what the Greeks' plan was, but she knew that it was a trick. And she knew that it would not end well for her. She balled her hands into tiny fists, her nails biting down on her soft skin, and she tried to be brave: to prepare to meet death, or, as Cassandra had said, something even worse than that.

It was hot and humid inside the wooden horse. An uncomfortable silence reigned as each man contemplated how close he was to death. Usually, just before a battle the men would be laughing and joking with each other: 'don't wear your helmet tomorrow, maybe the Trojans will see your face and die laughing'. The younger ones looked to the veteransfor reassurance that it wouldn't be as bad as they feared. Some told of miraculous survival stories, others went through pre-battle rituals, as superstition dictated the way in which they would go through what may possible be their last few hours. But none of that could happen in the stifling atmosphere inside the horse.
Achilles sat away from the other men inside the horse. He distanced himself, not only physically but mentally as well. His mother had told him that he would die on the plains of Troy, and he had no reason to doubt her prophecy. Death did not scare him so much as the thought of not being able to reach Briseis before it took him. If he could only find her, then he would willingly give his life to keep her safe.

He was faintly amused by his own affection for the girl. He had seen, and had, the most beautiful women of Greece, but somehow every defence that he had ever created came tumbling down at the sight of one slender and frightened priestess.

And so he sat, alone with only his thoughts for company, in the bowels of a wooden horse, waiting for his death, just as Briseis did, not so far away.

Briseis had somehow managed to fall asleep, crunched up in the corner of the balcony, her head buried in her knees. When she woke, the first thing she was aware of was burning. It seemed, as she slowly pulled herself to her feet as if in a daze, that the whole world was burning.
Then the screams hit her.

As Briseis' ears were suddenly filled with high notes of pain and despair, she snapped out of her stunned state, and burst into action, her eyes suddenly burning with life. She spun sharply on her heels, running across her room in a few short steps. She paused at the door: inside her room she was safe. Outside was death, in the form of Greek soldiers. And yet they would eventually find her in her room. She would not wait for them to come to her. She was not like Cassandra: she could not block out the pain and the despair and hurt around her. If they caught her, she would suffer.

She steeled herself and pushed the door open slowly. She heard rushing feet when the door had only opened a crack, and pulled back quickly, safe in the shadows of her room, until the danger had passed. When the hallway was once more silent, Briseis pushed the door fully open. And threw up.