Valerio Mafredi - The Oath

We didn’t meet again until dusk of the next evening. From outside we could hear the shouts of the warriors who were pushing the ships off the beach, one after another, until they filled up the whole bay. They put to sea, wrapped in darkness.

At that point Sinon, with his hands bound behind his back, bruises covering his face and body, was already in the hiding place where the Trojans would find him the next day. We left my tent to find Epeius, who, finally informed of the true plan, was waiting for us. The hatch in the horse’s belly was open, and a rope ladder was hanging from one side of the opening. One by one we climbed in, me first and then all the others. Epeius got in with us and closed the hatch, pulling up the ladder after himself. The lamp he carried created a small globe of flickering light that allowed us to exist. I took it from Epeius’ hands and inspected my men. Pyrrhus was with us: I counted him first, then all the others. For each one of them I had a word, a touch on the shoulder, a look. Then, all at once, as I got to the end, I swiftly drew my sword and put it to the throat of a man whose face was covered — he was not one of the men I had summoned. I challenged him: ‘Who are you, friend? Speak up or prepare to die!’

He lowered his hood and smiled.

‘Eumelus!’

‘I held out for two years in Eurystheus’ palace, you don’t think I can spend a night in here? You can’t imagine that I’m afraid of the dark.’

Epeius spoke up: ‘I can’t open the hatch up and then close it again; it might become damaged in a visible way.’

I had to surrender. I sighed: ‘And your horses? Who will care for them?’ I asked Eumelus.

‘They’re hidden in a safe place. I’ll see them again soon.’

We spent the first part of the night speaking in whispers. About the expedition, about friendly and hostile gods, about our fears, about the friends we’d lost and those remaining.

‘What if they realize we’re in here? What will we do then?’ asked Thoas.

‘I’ll think about that when it happens,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think it will.’

‘If we succeed,’ asked Diomedes, ‘what will we do? Who will we spare and who will we kill? Who will be sold as a slave or liberated? Who will decide how to distribute the spoils?’

I did not answer and a long silence ensued. Each of us remained alone with his own thoughts until the dawn.

The light of morning filtered through the gaps between one board and another and striped our faces black and grey. We were tense and restless. Some of us had fallen asleep during the night, in particular Pyrrhus — boys are such heavy sleepers.

‘Listen!’ hissed Ajax Oileus. ‘There’s someone out there.’

‘This is it!’ I answered. ‘From this moment on, silent and completely still. One mistake and we’re all dead.’

We could hear people running, scampering, all around us. Shouts, and then cries of joy. ‘They’ve gone! We’ve won! We’ve won!’ And then again: ‘The king! King Priam is on his way here!’

Epeius caught my eye and gestured towards several slits in the wall that were wide enough to see out of. They were invisible from the outside because they were too high from the ground and embedded in the horse’s rough outer surface. I could see a stream of people pouring out of the Skaian Gate and from the other gate in the lower part of the city: men, women, the old and the young as well, children who had known nothing but war. They were looking around them as if they couldn’t believe their eyes. They examined the deep furrows left by the ships’ keels as they had been pushed into the water, the traces of the hastily disassembled tents, the hearths where so many years of blazing fires had blackened and hardened the ground until it seemed made of stone. And the forges where our swords and the cruel heads of bitter darts and spears had been fashioned. Many of them were weeping with joy and my heart shuddered, because I was plotting the last night of their life on earth, their last day of freedom.

Then the crowd parted and Priam’s chariot passed. I hadn’t seen him since that time so long before when I’d gone with Menelaus to Troy to ask him to return Helen. He looked haggard: a wrinkle as deep as a wound crossed his forehead and his cheeks were gaunt. How many sons, born of wife or concubines, had he lost on the battlefield? But among those sons, and above all the rest, it was the loss of his greatly beloved Hector, bulwark of his kingdom and his city, that had broken his heart.

He got out of the chariot and walked all the way under the horse’s belly. I moved to the centre, at the cavity’s lowest point, without making the slightest noise. I could see his white hair, the amber brooch pinned to his left shoulder. It felt like I would be able to touch him if I held out my hand.

Then, a confused murmur of voices started to sound all around, a question, floating in the air: ‘What is that?’ No one answered. I was trembling. If Sinon wasn’t found, our adventure would end up in the most humiliating and ignominious way. A shout: ‘One of the enemy! They’ve captured him!’

The buzz of voices became much louder.

‘Sinon,’ I whispered to my comrades. ‘They found him.’ Another step towards completing my plan.

I could finally see him myself. Bound, his clothes in tatters, his hair tangled, clots of blood on his left arm. He threw himself at the king’s feet, imploring his mercy. I couldn’t hear his words but I could see the expressions on their faces, the gestures of his king and the attitude of his men, which were all just as I had expected. I was heartened and I nodded to my men so they would be encouraged as well. They were accustomed to moving freely on an open field and facing off against the enemy, and this had to be a deeply uneasy moment for them: they were impotent prisoners, surrounded by a great crowd of people, including many armed men.

The wind changed direction and I could hear Priam’s and Sinon’s voices. ‘Why did they make it of such enormous dimensions?’ the king was asking.

‘So it cannot be taken up to the citadel. It is written that, if that were to happen, one day all of Asia would rise up in vengeance over these many years of slaughter and their vast armies would tear down the walls of Mycenae and Argus.’

A sudden shout that all of us heard distinctly: ‘Burn it! That’s no votive gift; it’s certainly a threat. Anything that comes from our enemies is a danger to us and must be destroyed!’ The head of a spear suddenly came up through the horse’s belly, penetrating a full hand’s width into our midst. The loud thud of impact and the prolonged vibration of the shaft invaded our dark cavern.

Thoas grabbed hold of the bolt on the hatch, growling: ‘I don’t want to die in this damned trap!’

Menelaus and I stopped him and held him still until he had calmed down. I moved back to my observation point: there was complete silence outside and everyone seemed to be looking straight up at me. . then I heard Priam say: ‘If this is a gift to Poseidon, only a god can tell us what we must do. Laocoön, you will immolate a sacrifice on the sea to the blue god who built our city. He will surely give us a response.’

So the man who had thrust his spear into the horse was a priest. A bull was dragged into the sea and this Laocoön, assisted by two adolescents, his sons I suppose, lowered an axe onto the neck of the animal, which was felled on the first stroke. A wide pool of blood formed on the surface of the sea. From my high vantage point, I could see the blue waters being stained vermilion red. Then, all at once, the surface of the sea started to boil. Two tails sprang out of the water and high fins slashed through the waves. In an instant, the priest and the two boys were dragged down under the water and devoured, their blood mixing with that of the sacrificed bull.