The King Must Die (16 page)

I was surprised at the time; but he must have had foreknowledge, for his wound turned mortal, and he died of it in Megara. I was sad when I heard, to lose a sworn friend so soon. Yet if he had lived, the boundary-stone of Attica could not have stood where it does today, between the Isle of Pelops and the Isthmus.

Now dusk was falling. The smoldering altars were quenched with wine, and we gathered for the victory feasts. We had taken many fat cattle, and sheep, and goats. Already the carcasses were turning on great spits above the pine-wood fires, and the air was rich with the smell. But men's eyes turned first to the open space in the middle, where the booty was stacked up, ready to be shared. The cook-fires lit it: cups and bowls and helmets and daggers, ingots of copper and of tin, caldrons and tripods and good hide shields. Beside them sat the women, muttering together, or weeping, or hiding their faces in their hands, or looking boldly about them to guess which man would be their lot this time. A clear green dusk was falling, and Helios plumed with rose-red and burning gold rode down into the wine-dark sea. The evening star appeared, white as a maiden, trembling in the air that danced above the fires. A red glow shone on the heaped treasure, on the eyes and teeth of the warriors, their worked sword-belts and polished arms.

I came down the slope, with my Companions behind me. We were all cleaned and combed, with our weapons burnished. They had not asked me what I was going to do. They followed me silent; only their footfalls told me when they turned to look at one another.

Pylas was there already; he was too sick for the feast, but would sit to watch the share-out, as anyone would who still had breath in him, if he had Xanthos to deal with. I greeted him, and looked about for my man. He was where I expected, standing over the spoil. He saw me coming, and our eyes met.

"Greeting, Xanthos," I said. "You did me a good turn in Eleusis; you found me a charioteer."

He said, "The man came to me. I did not know him." Then I knew Rizon had not lied.

"Well," I said, "everyone knows you are a judge of men. You found me a skilled fellow. Now he is dead, I don't know where I shall find such another. He could turn his hand to anything. He could make linchpins without bronze."

With the tail of my eye I could see a thousand faces leaning nearer. The voices hushed, till you could hear the hiss of the roasting meat. "It is folly," he said, "to listen when a babbling coward is begging his life."

I said, "Yet if you did not listen, Xanthos, how did you know him so well?" He looked angry, and glancing at the lads behind me, said, "Young men are all talk."

If he had had any faith in his own good name, he would not have given them up so easily to a foreign man. But he knew he had lost their love; it was not hard for them to think him guilty. At his words they were angry, and shouted aloud.

I put up my hand for quiet. Then Bias, the eldest, came forward, and called out to the warriors, bearing witness to the waxen pin. "And," he said to them, "who loosened the rocks above the road, to scare the King's horses over the cliff? One of you knows." There was muttering, as if some rumor had got about. I saw Xanthos' face go bright crimson with anger, in the way of red-haired men. He was cold, as a rule. Now he strode forward shouting.

"Can't you see, Eleusinians, what this man is at? He should know the ways of robbers, this thieving Hellene. So well he knows the Isthmus, perhaps he has lived there. Who can say what he did before he came to Eleusis? Now he thinks he can move you against the man who led you to victory, just when the spoil is to be shared."

I was on my toes to fly at him, but I held my hand. He had lost his head, and it helped me to keep mine. Raising my brows I said, "The mouth is near the heart," and even his own men laughed. Then I said, "This is my answer, and the Eleusinians are witnesses. You have struck at me with other men's hands. Come out now, and use your own. Take up your spear and your shield, or, if you like, your sword. But first choose out your share of plunder, and put it aside. If you fall, I swear by Ever-Living Zeus I will not touch one piece of it, gold or bronze or girl. It shall be given out among your men by lot. And with my share the same, so that if I die my men will not be losers. Do you agree?"

He stared. It had come on him quicker than he looked for. Some of the Hellene barons cheered. Pylas moved his hand to quiet them, but it had set off the Companions, and they shouted, "Theseus!" At this all the rest stared; for it was against custom to give the King a name.

Xanthos hearing it cried out, "You young upstart! Attend to your own business that the Goddess chose you for, if you are fit to do it." To that I answered, "If she chose me, then why have you tried to cut me off out of my term? I call her to uphold my right." I had not heard the Minyan songs for nothing. I knew what the King must do if he is wronged. "Mother! Goddess! You raised me up, if only for a little while; you promised me glory in return for my length of days. Do not let scorn be put on me, but treat me like your son."

He saw then that he had no choice. A man does not call on these powers to witness a lie, and all the people knew it.

"Horsetamer," he said, "we have suffered you long enough. You have set yourself above your fate, and become an offense to the gods. They will punish us, if we do not stop your insolence. I accept your challenge, and the terms. Choose your prize, and if you fall your men shall share it. As for the weapons, let them be spears."

We chose our shares. I saw my boys laughing at his unwonted modesty. He did not want his men's wishes fighting for me. I took what I thought fair, not more or less. But it is the custom for Kerkyon to choose a woman first of all. His time is short, and the pleasure a man has had cannot be taken from him.

I went over to the captives, who had been stood up to be seen. There was a girl of about fifteen, tall and slender, with long pale hair falling about her face. I took her by the hand, and led her out. I had seen her eyes shining through her hair in the firelight; but now she looked down, and her hand was cold. Though there was no chance of her being a maiden, I thought of my mother setting out for the grove. I said to Xanthos, "If I die, see she is given to one man, and not made common sport of; we have got whores enough. She is a king's handmaid now; so treat her so."

We took our oaths before Pylas and the host, calling to witness the River, and the Daughters of Night. Then all men drew back, leaving a great space between the fires; and we took up our spears and shields. Pylas stood up, and said, "Begin."

I knew I should be slow; I was tired from the battle, and my wounds were stiffening; but it was the same for him. We circled once or twice, feinting with our spears. Beyond us I saw a great wall of faces red with firelight, floating on darkness and swaying with the fight. They were always in the tail of my eye, though I never looked at them; I remember nothing else so clearly.

I lunged at him, but he turned it aside; and I caught a thrust of his on my shield, but could not hold it long enough to get through his guard. We circled again, and gave each other glancing wounds, I on his shoulder, he on my knee. I had borrowed a long shield with a waist, because it was light; his was straight-sided, the kind they call man-covering. I wondered if he was fresh enough for the weight.

We circled and lunged, and the faces swung like a curtain in the wind. All this while, I was making up my mind to part with my spear. A throw is a gamble with one's life; it is suddener than a thrust and harder to parry; but if it fails, you are left with a three-foot sword against a seven-foot spear. Then you will be lucky to come well out of it.

I watched his eyes, which were like carnelians in the firelight, and let him see my side. He was quick, and nearly had me. I sprang back as if to save myself, and threw up my shield to mask my arm, and in the same moment threw. He must have known the trick; up went his shield and the spear blade pierced it. I had thrown so hard that half the blade went through the double bull-hide, and stuck fast. He could not free the shield, and had to throw it away. But he had his spear still, against my sword.

He came for me, stabbing quickly here and there, and I turned the point with my shield or with my sword, which harmed the edge; but I could not hurt him, because he was out of sword-reach, and he was driving me backward. Something struck the earth close behind me, with a thud like a stone's. It happened again, and I thought, "They are turning from me at the last. I was always a stranger here." Then as I fell back further, I saw what it was: a spear point-downward, with the shaft ready to my hand. There were three of them, here and there around me.

I stuck my sword into the ground, for want of time to sheathe it, and snatched one up. Xanthos looked at me in bitter anger; no one had tossed a shield to him. He was getting ready to throw, so I threw first. It sank between his ribs, and he dropped his spear, and fell. As his helmet rolled away, his long red hair tumbled unbound about him; and I knew where I had seen such hair before.

His captains came round him, and one asked whether to draw the spear out, for he was in pain. He said, "My soul will go with it. Bring Kerkyon here."

I went over and stood before him. My anger had left me; I saw his hurt was mortal. He said, "The oracle spoke true. You are the chick of the cuckoo, sure enough." Now at the last he looked puzzled, like a boy. He fingered the spear that stood in his side, with the captain holding the shaft, and said, "Why did they do it? What did they gain?" He meant that they would have got my booty, if I had died. I said to him, "Our ends are written from the beginning, and my time too will come." He answered bitterly, "But mine is now." Then I was silent, for it is a thing there is no answer to.

He looked long in my face. Presently I said, "How do you want to be buried, and what shall we put in the tomb with you?" He stared and said, "Do you mean to bury me, then?" "Yes," I said, "why not? I have taken my due; the gods hate a man who exceeds. Say what you want done." I thought he had paused to think; but when he spoke he only said, "Men cannot fight the Immortals. Pull out the spear." So the captain drew it forth, and his soul went with it.

I had his body washed by the women, and laid on a bier, with a guard against the beasts of prey. Of what he had on I kept only his two swords; he had fought well, and was of the royal kin. His share was portioned as we had agreed, and his men saluted me, when their lots were given them. After that we feasted. Pylas left early, because of his wound, and I did not stay drinking late; I wanted, to take my chosen girl to bed, before my bruises stiffened again.

I found her good, and gently bred. A pirate had caught her on the shores of Kos, when she was gathering agate stones for a necklace, and sold her in Corinth. Philona was her name. My wounds had stopped bleeding, but she would not lie down till she had dressed them. This was the first girl I had had of my own, and I thought I ought to show her from the beginning who was master; but in the end I let her have her way. Because of a promise I made her that night, I have still got her about my household, and have never lent her to a guest without her consent. Both her two eldest sons are mine, Itheus the shipmaster, and Engenes, who commands the Palace Guard.

BOOK 3 ATHENS

1

So I rode a second time down the Isthmus Road to Eleusis, and the people stood on the roofs to see; but this time, not in silence.

I put the Companions to lead the march, and rode myself at the head of the men's army. The King of Megara had given me a riding horse, as a gift of honor. The Guard showed their trophies, and stepped out to the flutes, and sang. Behind us came the wagons of the spoil, the women and the herded cattle. Our tread was muffled in green boughs and flowers, flung down to us from the rooftops. At the hour when a man's shadow is twice as long as a man, we came to the ramp of the Citadel; and the Guard divided, to let me ride in first.

As I rode under the gate-tower black with people, the gates groaned open, and the watchman blew his horn. The flags of the Great Court stretched before me, and between the high walls my horse-hoofs echoed. Upon the roof, the Palace people were thick as winter bees; but they were quiet; no bright cloths hung from the windows. There was only a deep slanting sunlight; the toothed shadow of the roof-edge, clogged with shadows of heads; and on the broad steps between the painted columns, a woman in a wide stiff skirt and purple diadem, tall and unmoving, throwing like a column a long stiff shadow in the sun.

I dismounted at the stair foot, and they led my horse away. She stood waiting, putting no foot down the steps toward me. I went up till I stood before her, and saw her face like painted ivory, set with eyes of dark carnelian. On her shoulders, combed and plaited with threads of silver and gold, hung the red hair I had seen mixed with blood and dust upon the earth of the Isthmus.

I took her cold hand, and leaned toward her with the kiss of greeting, for the people to see. But I did not touch her with my lips; I would not add affront to the blood between us. My mouth brushed the hair of her forehead, and she uttered a set phrase of welcome, and we walked into the Palace side by side.

When we were in the Hall, I said, "We must speak together alone. Let us go up; we can be quiet there." She looked at me and I said, "Don't be afraid. I know what is fitting."

The bedchamber was in shadow, except for a sunset shaft against one wall. Some embroidery in white and purple was laced upon a stand, and a lyre with gold bands lay in the window. Against the wall stood the great bed, with its spread of civet and purple.

"Madam," I said, "you know I have killed your brother. Do you know why?"

She answered in a voice as empty as the shore, "Who can give the lie to you, now he is dead?"

"What is the punishment," I said, "for killing the King out of season?" I saw her lip whiten under her teeth. "Yet I killed him in battle, and have brought him back for burial, because I would not dishonor your kin. His men do not think I wronged him. As you see, they let me lead them home."