“Ah, there you are Diomedes, I was wondering when it was you would decide to come. I was starting to think you had gotten scared at the last minute,” he said. Any other king among our army would have drawn his sword and slain Odysseus for that. I came close, but my honor wasn’t the most important thing at stake at the moment.
“Have you found out where the Palladium is?” I asked, manfully holding onto my temper.
“Of course, who do you think you are talking to? I found out where it was an hour ago,” Odysseus boasted. “Follow me.” I followed, it was either that or talk longer, and I didn’t think I could handle that and control my temper at the same time.
We ended up in a back street of one of the nicer neighborhoods in the city. I looked around but I couldn’t see anything that looked like a temple or shrine. It didn’t make sense that they would keep a statue that protected the entire city in an alley. I was just thinking about asking Odysseus about it when we stopped and a woman, dressed all in white, came from behind one of the buildings.
“Helen, you probably should be here,” I said. “Just talking to us probably makes you a traitor.”
“I want to go home,” Helen looked terribly sad and worn out. “This war drags on and I won’t be able to do that. Odysseus tells me that if you get the Palladium then you will win and I will be able to go back to where I belong. With
“Helenus told us that you had married his brother,” I protested. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get the Palladium; I was desperate for the war to be over and to go home myself. That didn’t mean that I was willing to believe that Helen wasn’t going to lead us into a trap of some sort. She had been married to two of Priam’s sons by now, that would suggest a certain amount of friendly interaction with the enemy. I would also not put it past Odysseus to become to arrogant to make sure that she wasn’t acting as a spy to lure us to our deaths.
“I am tired of Priam’s sons,” said Helen with pure disgust in her voice. “The last one of worth was Hector, and he died a long time ago. The others fight amongst themselves for women rather then fight the enemy on the field of battle. If you don’t win then I will be stuck in this city forever, and I would rather die.” I was taken aback but there was no doubt that her voice was sincere anyway. She was telling the truth, she would take us to the right place.
“Lead on, daughter of Zeus,” I said smiling at her. “With the Palladium we will burn this city to the ground and all go back to where we belong.” She smiled back and motioned us to follow her.
This time we did end up at a temple, one dedicated to Athena. We probably could have found it alone eventually since that was the obvious place for a statue of Athena but there were apparently several temples dedicated to the goddess and they were spread out across the city. Having a guide was very helpful and we were able to catch up on what was happening inside of the walls of troy while we were at it.
To be continued....
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