20
People cry out: “She wounded a god!” “That was no god!” “I’ll get a ladder.” “I heard a Greek voice!” “I heard Helenus. Where is he?”
The hands release me.
Cassandra squeezes through the crowd to me. She clings to my arm. “Troy is saved. I’m so dizzy. I don’t think it will be undone this time. Don’t let me fall.”
I support her. Thank you, Cybele.
People turn. The drumming is loud now—horses’ hooves.
Two men turn out of an alley, bearing a wooden ladder.
Lannip and the rest clatter down the wide road toward us. Maera and other dogs bark. The riders dismount and push through to me. I’ve never seen such joyous faces. I’m sure my face mirrors theirs.
Lannip begins. “Your hair! We couldn’t—”
I hold up a hand for silence, and she stops.
The ladder is carried through the crowd. Deiphobus, Helenus’s brother and rival, climbs up.
Helen stands between Priam and Hecuba. Her first husband and her current one are about to meet, but she’s smiling at us—at my band and me.
From the top of the ladder, Deiphobus feels along the seam and finds the wooden latch. He lifts it.
The door opens. Helenus catapults out into his brother. The ladder topples. The two are on the ground, fighting.
But Helenus is lifted by a wind, then carried along the street and beyond. I hope Eurus is sending him so far that he can never come back.
We leave Maera at Troy’s gate. At our camp, Cassandra tells us what will happen. The warriors from inside the horse and the man who told the tale about it will be held as hostages. Priam will use them to arrange a truce, which will end the war. He’ll have the wisdom, despite Deiphobus’s rage, to give Helen to Menelaus, her first husband.
No one will ask her what she wants.
I say, “Helenus told me to tell you he was choosing his destiny. But why did he force me away from the horse and climb in himself? He wasn’t going to get Helen, so why did he care?”
Cassandra smiles. “He probably believed—correctly—that you had a way to reveal the horse trick, which he thought would mean Deiphobus would keep her. He couldn’t tolerate that.” She turns to Eurus. “Where did you send him?”
“To the other side of the river Oceanus, where there are no ships to bring him back.”
Cassandra says, “Thank you! Hatred devoured him.”
“Now my offerings will keep coming.” Eurus laughs.
Cassandra laughs too. The two can’t stop laughing. The band discovers that gales of laughter can be real. We bunch together.
Afterward, we spend the afternoon and the night at our camp. Lannip and I hunt together and bring down a young stag, which she cooks delectably. Eurus contributes ripe figs for dessert.
In the morning, knowing that everyone agrees, I again ask Cassandra to join the band. I tell Eurus he can be with us as often as he likes. Of course, whether I say so or not, he can be. I can’t order the wind about.
He’s angry again! “You want me?” He paces. “I’m not always a helpful wind. You’ll get a bungler!”
Cassandra smiles. “I looked into the future. Not too far. I don’t want to see my new death or the deaths of any of you. I won’t use my gift, except to learn how to be a band member, but in the future, I see I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
Smiling too, I say, “You’ll have to give up bread.”
“I like bread! But I’ll manage without it. I see that I’ll help Barkida and Gamis make your bows.” She turns to Eurus. “You’ll often be with me.” She blushes.
He looks at her face. “What?”
Her blush deepens.
“What!”
She doesn’t answer.
“We’ll marry?”
She nods. “In a few years.” Laughing, she adds, “Or I’ll marry another god, because the groom is invisible in my prophecy.”
Amazons don’t usually marry, but I’m jumping with happiness. Band members hug Cassandra and even Eurus, who sends a mischievous wind to lift our hats and drop them back, askew.
Cassandra assures us, though I hadn’t thought of it, that she won’t stay in her wagon and never come out once they’re wed. “I’m no longer a village woman.”
Delighted, we snap our fingers over our heads. Eurus says a wind god wouldn’t want a stationary wife.
Finally, she says she has to tell her parents that she’s leaving with us. I remember Helen going back for her jewels and wonder, even now, if my friend will return.
But in a few hours, she does. Pammon is with her, leading an ox that’s hitched to a cart. Maera is in the cart, wagging her tail atop a mound of spoils: Greek armor, a dozen swords, seven spears, bolts and bolts of linen and wool woven by Trojan women.
And a loaf of bread for everyone. Cassandra’s joke, I’m sure.
When the cart stops, Maera jumps out and rushes to Cassandra, tail wagging.
Pammon clears his throat. “King Priam regrets the loss of your queen. He recognizes her valor in attempting to save the hero Hector. All of Troy thanks you, Queen Rin, for revealing the Greek deception. We hope you’ll come to our aid again if need be.”
“We may call on you in turn,” I say, “as allies do.”
He looks surprised. “I’ll tell the king what you said.”
I let him go. He leaves the ox and the cart for us.
When he’s gone, Eurus offers to blow us all to the rest of the band. “I’m better at blowing people than I used to be.” A note of pride enters his voice. “I’m experienced.”
Half in the band are grinning. The others look afraid. I know what Pen would say.
I thank him. “We hope you’ll come with us on our slow journey and learn how we live.” We can’t have him or Cassandra solving our problems with their powers. “But would you show the ones who want to find out how it feels to fly on the wind?”
He does. In the end, everyone except Zelke takes a turn.
We spend another night at the camp. In the morning, we pack and leave, with Maera riding in the cart.
Cassandra mounts Pen’s horse and a laughing Eurus jumps up behind her.
He tells us how funny it is for the wind to ride a horse. “I’m not putting any weight on the beast.”
Cassandra says, “Thank you, Cybele, for this Amazon band.”
Three crows perch on her horse’s mane:
“Moles hide from the sky.
Trojans huddle behind their high wall,
but bored Apollo, liking surprise,
releases Cassandra to the Amazon queen.”
They fly off.
I say, “The band is home, wherever we are. You’re home now.” I’m home.