The Palladium

I looked over at Odysseus standing next to me. He was already in his beggar’s clothing. It was a pleasant sight for me, the overly proud king, so full of his abilities, dressed like the lowliest part of society. It had been so easy for me to get him into those clothes as well. All I had had to do was tell him that it was a job that required far more cunning then I possessed. He was so pleased by his position as one of Athena’s heroes that he had fallen for it. Never mind that Athena had once gone so far as to drive my chariot for me. He continued to think of himself as the only hero the goddesses had eyes for.

This wasn’t the first time that I had been forced to work with Odysseus, there had been once before. When we had been sent to fetch Heracles we had gone together as well. By now I knew better then to trust the man beside me. He was a cheater and a liar, and willing to go to the most underhanded first. I knew that if it was to his advantage we would have to face one another, and soon. For the time being however we had to work together, it was for the good of the troops. It would hurt moral as badly as it had been hurt when Achilles and Agamemnon had fought if Odysseus and I fought. So I pretended to be pleased to be called the only man worthy of working with Odysseus on this mission, just like the last one, and went along with it. I had to remind myself that at one time I would have been honored to be compared to Odysseus.

Helenus had been a difficult person to get information out of. It had taken us a very long time; after all he was the son of King Priam’s son. Even when going into voluntary exile, out of spite since he hadn’t gotten to marry Helen, Helenus wasn’t willing to betray his city easily. He was a fortune teller however, he once whispered to me once that he knew that there was no way to save the city of Troy. There were conditions to us wining however. After a lot of work he did finally give those to us. Prophecies were quickly becoming the bane of my life. Fetch Heracles and his bow so he could kill Paris. With Paris dead Helenus left the city, Helenus left the city so we could capture him and get his new prophecies, and only once we did everything we were told to could we win the battle. As if it hadn’t gone on long enough already. As far as I was concerned the only good thing we had received from Helenus was the information on the secret passage we were now standing outside of.

“You wait here for me while I go scout out where the Palladium is,” Odysseus told me, before going into the tunnel. As if we hadn’t already been over this repeatedly. Odysseus was the hungriest man I had ever encountered for fame. Worse then Ajax even, Ajax had had honor, he had proven it when he killed himself, and Odysseus had no honor. He would do everything by himself if he could, but the statue was too heavy for one man to carry. So he would try and do everything he could by himself, before having to lower himself to ask for me to even do menial work such as carrying heavy objects. It chaffed me, but I had already told myself I would do what was best for the war and the troops. That meant that I had to keep my temper. So I stood and watched Odysseus run out of sight in his ridicules clothing.

I waited two hours before I also entered the tunnel and walked deep into the enemy city. Odysseus was standing at the entrance, clearly waiting for me. I fought down my annoyance. Never mind that he could have come and got me if he was done with his reconnaissance, never mind the snub.

To be continued...