02 - Shield of Thunder

by David Gemmell

  In that moment of empathy she brought out her strongest weapon. “I am with child, Helikaon,” she said. “After all this time. Seventeen years after little Laertes died. I am pregnant again. I never believed I could give Odysseus another son. Surely the Great Goddess herself is guarding me.” She watched his face carefully, saw it soften, and knew she was close to winning this battle. “Trade from the Seven Hills is growing,” she said. “Odysseus is holding your profits, as he promised he would. And there has been little trouble among the peoples of the settlement. There are walls of stone now to protect it.”

  Helikaon pushed himself to his feet. “I must leave,” he said, “but I hope you believe me when I say it was good to see you, Penelope. You once welcomed me into your home, and my memories of Ithaka are fond ones. I pray your child is born safely and can grow in a world that is not at war.”

  Walking away from her, he strode to a small thatched hut high on the beach. The Ithakan garrison watched him with suspicion as he reached up and pulled clear a handful of thatch from the roof and then returned to Penelope. Without speaking, he thrust the thatch into the welcome fire until it smoldered, then lit. He held it a few heartbeats, then threw it down on the beach. Drawing his sword, he plunged it through the burning thatch and into the sand. Then, without a word, he walked back down the strand and climbed aboard his warship.

  Penelope watched him go with relief and regret. His meaning was clear. It was a message to Odysseus. By sword and flame he could have destoyed Ithaka and butchered her people. He had chosen not to.

  This time.

  Helikaon stood on the high stern deck of the Xanthos and gazed at the retreating cliffs of Ithaka. He could no longer see the proud figure of Penelope but could still make out the thin plume of smoke rising from the welcome fire on the beach.

  He had not lied to her. The moment he had stepped ashore, all thoughts of war had seeped away as memories long forgotten had flowed through his mind: Odysseus, drunk and happy, standing on a table in the megaron, enchanting his listeners with tales of gods and heroes, Penelope smiling fondly at him, Bias shaking his head and chuckling.

  I hope you burn, and your death ship with you. The words of Bias, so unexpected and harsh, had cut through his defenses, sharper than any blade.

  Yet he and Bias had sailed together, fought pirates together, laughed and joked in each other’s company. To see such hatred in the eyes of a friend was hard to take. In his memories Bias was always good-humored. He had been helpful and supportive when Helikaon had joined the crew of the Penelope. Bias was the man the sailors trusted to settle disputes and arbitrate disagreements. The crew loved him, for his actions were always governed by his genuine affection for the men who served under him.

  Now this man of kindness and compassion wanted him dead, and Helikaon’s heart was heavy with the burden of the old man’s hatred. Surely Bias knew that he had not wanted this war, that it had been forced upon him.

  Once the ships were out of sight of Ithaka, Helikaon ordered a slight change of direction, heading north along the coast. There was no wind, and the twin banks of oarsmen began pulling to the steady beat called out by his first mate, Oniacus. Once the rhythm was set, the stocky, curly-haired sailor approached him. He, too, had changed since the war had begun, seeming more distant now. He rarely laughed or sang anymore. Long gone were the days when he would sit in the evenings alongside Helikaon and muse about the meaning of life or the antics of his children.

  “Sad to see old Bias so crippled,” he said.

  Helikaon glanced at the young sailor. “There seems no end to sadness these days,” he replied.

  “Did you see the Penelope? Just rotting away in the sun. Makes the heart sick. Always used to marvel when I saw her dancing upon the waters. And seeing her heading for the beach usually meant a night of great storytelling. I miss those days. They shine like gold in the memory now. I doubt we’ll see them again.” He walked away.

  Oniacus was right. The days of storytelling and comradeship were long gone. Along with so many dreams.

  Three years earlier Helikaon had been simply a merchant trader, sailing the Great Green, enduring its storms, exhilarated by its ageless beauty. Young and in the full glory of his strength, he had dreamed of finding a wife for love alone. No thoughts of dynastic treaties or alliances with rival nations troubled him. Those were problems his little brother would have to face, for he had been named heir to the throne of Dardania.

  Three years.

  How the world had changed in that time. Little Diomedes, the happy smiling child of his memories, had been drenched in oil and set ablaze by Mykene raiders. Then they had hurled him, screaming, from a cliff. And Helikaon had become king and had married for the good of the realm.

  Staring out over the sun-dappled sea, he fought back the waves of bitterness threatening to engulf him. Such anger, he knew, was unfair to Halysia, who was a good woman and a good wife. But she was not Andromache. Even now he could summon Andromache’s face to his mind; so clear it was, as if she stood beside him, the sun glinting on her long red hair. When he pictured her smile, he was struck by an almost unbearable sadness. She now had a child, a delightful boy called Astyanax. Hektor doted on him, and to see them together was both a joy and a dagger to his heart.

  Helikaon wandered down to the central deck, where some twenty of the wounded were sitting beneath canvas canopies. The raid on Pylos had been brutal and swift, and though the defenders had been few, they had fought hard to save their homes and their families. Helikaon’s force had overcome them swiftly and burned the settlement, destroying the dams built to service the flax fields. His men had then stormed through the palace of Nestor, plundering it.

  Nestor’s youngest son, Antilochos, had fought well. Helikaon would have let him live, but he had refused to surrender, leading a last desperate charge in a vain attempt to reach Helikaon himself. He and his few soldiers had been cut down and hacked to death.

  It was the fourth successful raid Helikaon had led during the current season, his troops invading Mykene islands and then the mainland. A Mykene fleet had come against them off the coast of Athens, but the fire hurlers of the Xanthos had sunk four of them. Others had been rammed by his war galleys. By the day’s end eleven enemy ships had been sunk for the loss of one Dardanian galley. More than six hundred Mykene sailors had died, some in flames, others shot with arrows or drowned.

  But the strategy of raiding settlements had proved less effective than had been hoped. Priam had believed the attacks would force the invaders to pull troops back from the front lines in Thraki and Lykia to defend their homelands, and at first it had seemed his plan was working. Reports from the front lines suggested that some regiments were being withdrawn in Thraki, but they were replaced by mercenary armies from lands to the north.

  Helikaon walked among the wounded men, most of whom were recovering. A young warrior with a bandaged forearm looked up at him but said nothing, his eyes empty of emotion. Helikaon spoke to the men, who listened attentively but said little in return. There was a distance now between Helikaon and his warriors that he could not cross. As a merchant he could laugh and joke with them, but as a battle king, with the power of life and death over them, he found they drew back from him, wary and careful.

  “You all fought well,” he told them. “I am proud of you.”

  The warrior with the wounded forearm looked up at him. “You think the war will end this season, lord?” he asked. “You think the enemy will realize they are beaten?”

  “That is something to hope for,” Helikaon told him. Then he walked away from them.

  The truth was that the enemy, far from being beaten, was growing in strength.

  In the first year of the war it had seemed that the plans of Agamemnon were turning to dust. The war against Troy could never be won unless the Mykene controlled the lands of the Thrakians. Seeking to cross the open sea all the way from the western mainland would leave them prey to the Dardanian war fleet. With Thraki under Myken
e control, there would be no such danger. From there they could mass their ships and bring their armies across the narrow straits into Dardania and then down to Troy.

  Initially the Mykene invasion of Thraki had been repulsed, Hektor and the young Thrakian king, Rhesos, winning a decisive battle close to the capital, Ismaros. But that had been followed by a rebellion among the eastern tribes, reinforced by barbarians from the north. Hektor had moved swiftly to crush the rebels, only for a second Mykene army to advance from the west, through Thessaly.

  Losses had been high, and the following year Priam had reinforced Hektor with two thousand men. Three major battles had been won, but the fighting still raged. And the news now coming from the war-torn land of Thraki was grim indeed. Rhesos had been defeated and driven back to his capital, and the eastern rebels had declared their own nation-state under a new king. Helikaon had traveled through Thraki and knew the land well: towering mountain ranges with narrow passes, vast areas of marshy flatland, and verdant plains flanked by huge forests. It was far from easy to move armies through such terrain and even harder to find suitable battlegrounds to win decisive victories. Enemy foot soldiers and archers could take refuge in the forests, where cavalry was useless, or escape through marshes and bogs, where infantry could follow only at its peril. Hektor’s early victories had all come because the enemy, with the great advantage of superior numbers, had believed they could crush the Trojan Horse. They had met him on open ground and seen their arrogance washed away in the blood of their comrades.

  They were wiser now, launching lightning raids or hitting the supply caravans.

  On the southern mainland below Troy matters were almost as bad. The Kretan king, Idomeneos, had led an army into Lykia, defeating the Trojan ally Kygones in two battles. And Odysseus had led a force of twenty ships and a thousand men, raiding all along the coast, plundering three minor cities, and forcing the surrender of two coastal fortresses, which were now held by Mykene garrisons.

  Pushing such pessimistic thoughts from his mind, Helikaon moved on to the prow, where Gershom was leaning on the rail and staring out over the sea. The big man had joined the fleet just before the last raid on the mainland. Since then his mood had become increasingly gloomy, and he spoke rarely.

  “Where next?” he asked now.

  “We’ll sail up the coast then head west and down to the lands of the Siculi.”

  “Are they allied to the Mykene?”

  “No.”

  “That is good. And then we head home?”

  “No, first we sail north and west to the lands of the Seven Hills. It is a long journey but necessary.” He looked hard at Gershom. “What is troubling you?”

  Gershom shrugged. “I am beginning to hate the word ‘necessary,’” he muttered. Then he sighed. “No matter. I will leave you to your thoughts.”

  Helikaon stepped forward as Gershom swung to leave the deck. “Wait! What is happening here? A wall has come between us, and I cannot breach it. I can understand it with the other men, for I am their king and their leader, but you are my friend, Gershom.”

  Gershom paused, and when he spoke, his voice was cold, his eyes hard. “What would you have me say?”

  “From a friend?” said Helikaon. “The truth would be good. How can I heal a rift when I do not know what caused it?”

  “And there is the problem,” Gershom said. “The man I met three years ago would have understood in a heartbeat. By the blood of Osiris, I would not be having this conversation with that man! What is wrong with you, Helikaon? Did some harpy steal your heart and replace it with a rock?”

  “What is wrong with me? Has everyone been moonstruck? I am the same man.”

  “How can you think that?” Gershom snapped. “We are sailing the Great Green in order to terrorize the innocent, burn their homes, kill their menfolk. War should be fought between soldiers, on a chosen battlefield. It should not visit peasant homes where people struggle daily just to fill their bellies.”

  Anger swept through Helikaon. “You think I desire such slaughter?” he said. “You think I revel in the deaths of innocent villagers?”

  Gershom said nothing for a moment, then drew himself up and stepped in, his dark eyes gleaming. For only a heartbeat Helikaon thought he was about to be struck. Then Gershom leaned close. Helikaon felt a shiver go through him. It was as if he were staring at a stranger, a man of almost elemental power. “What difference does your joy or guilt make to the widow?” said Gershom, his voice low but the intensity of his words plunging home like daggers. “All that she loved is still dead. All that she built is still ash. You were a hero once. Now you are killing husbands and old men and children barely old enough to lift a sword. Perhaps Odysseus will spin a tale one day about the yellow-haired child on Pylos with his little fruit knife and his gushing blood.”

  The ghastly image ripped into Helikaon’s mind: the small golden-haired boy, no more than seven or eight years old, running up behind one of Helikaon’s warriors and stabbing him in the leg. Surprised and in pain, the soldier had swung around, his sword slashing through the child’s neck. As the boy had fallen, the soldier had cried out in anguish. Dropping his blade, he had taken the dying child into his arms and struggled in vain to stem the gouting blood.

  Other images flowed then: women weeping over corpses while their homes burned, children shrieking in terror and pain, their clothes ablaze. Anger rose like a defensive barrier against the memories. “I did not cause this war,” he said. “I was content trading on the Great Green. Agamemnon brought this terror upon us all.”

  The eyes of power did not waver. “Agamemnon did not bring death to that child. You did. I expect Agamemnon to murder children. I did not expect it from you. When the wolf slaughters the sheep, we shrug and say it is his nature. When the sheepdog turns on the flock, it breaks our hearts, for his actions are treacherous. By all that is holy, Helikaon, the crewmen are not cold to you because you are the king. Can you not understand? You have taken good men and turned them to evil. You have broken their hearts.”

  With that Gershom fell silent, and his accusing eyes turned away. In that dreadful moment Helikaon understood the hatred Bias felt for him. In the old man’s philosophy, heroes stood tall against the darkness while evil men embraced it. There was no subtlety of shade, simply light and dark. Helikaon had betrayed everything his old shipmate believed in. Heroes did not attack the weak and defenseless. They did not burn the homes of the poor.

  He glanced at Gershom and saw that his friend was staring at him once again. But this time the eyes did not radiate power. They were filled with sadness. Helikaon could find no words. Everything Gershom had said was true. Why had he not been able to see it? He saw again the raids and the slaughter, only this time he viewed the images with different eyes.

  “What have I become?” he said at last, anguish in his voice.

  “A reflection of Agamemnon,” Gershom said softly. “You lost yourself in the grand designs of war, focusing on armies and strategies, calculating losses and gains in the same way you did as a merchant.”

  “Why could I not see it? It is as if I were blinded by some spell.”

  “No spell,” Gershom said. “The truth is more prosaic than that. There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose, then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings, though… well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters.” He sighed. “And they invariably do.”

  A cool wind blew over the rear deck, and Helikaon shivered. “We will raid no more villages,” he said.

  Gershom smiled, and Helikaon saw the tension ease out of him. “That is good to hear, Golden One.”

  “A long time since you called me that.”

  “Yes, it is,” Gershom replied.

  Toward dusk a northwesterly wind began to blow, buffeting the fleet and slowing its progress.
Increasing weariness took its toll on the rowers. Some of the older vessels, acquired by Helikaon from allied nations, were not as well cared for as his own galleys. They were heavily barnacled and sluggish, unable to keep up with the swifter ships. Slowly at first, the fleet began to lose formation.

  Helikaon was concerned, for if the fleet were to come upon enemy vessels, the stragglers could be picked off and sunk. He had hoped to have made better progress. Without the wind against them they might have been able to make the crossing to the neutral coastline of Asia. There was no chance of that now.

  As the light began to fail, Helikaon signaled for the fleet to follow him into a wide bay. This was enemy territory, and he had no idea what forces were garrisoned in the area. The danger was twofold. There could be a hostile army within striking distance of the bay, or an enemy fleet could come upon them as they were beached.

  As they entered the bay, Helikaon saw a settlement far to the right and above it a hilltop fort. It was small and would hold no more than a hundred fighting men.

  Eight trade vessels of shallow draft were beached close to the settlement, and already cookfires had been lit.

  As the sun set, the galleys began to beach some five hundred paces from the houses. Helikaon was the first ashore, calling his captains to him and instructing them to take no aggressive action but merely to prepare cookfires and allow the men to rest. No one, he said, was to approach the settlement.

  As more and more men came ashore, Helikaon spotted a troop of twenty soldiers leaving the fort and marching down toward them. They were poorly armed, with light spears and leather breastplates and helms. Helikaon saw Gershom looking at him and guessed the Egypteian was thinking of the promise he had made to raid no more settlements.

  Helikaon strode out to meet the soldiers. Their leader, a tall, thin young man, prematurely bald, touched his fist to his breastplate in the Mykene manner. “Greetings, traveler,” he said. “I am Kalos, the watch commander.”

  “Greetings to you, Kalos. I am Athenos, a friend to Odysseus.”