Did You Know:
Happy Birthday to me!
I started August with a surprise 3500 word day on the 1st and then promptly fell off the writing wagon, because it's birthday celebration time, and I've got big plans--
Playing Uno with my cousins!
Uno is a family tradition for our generation, and now that we're all grown up, we don't get to gather together as often. But a whole family of my closest cousins are back in town and I'm determined to take advantage of the opportunity presented.
Also there will probably be cider and the excitement of Wine Bottle Roulette: opening up borderline-old wine and tasting it to see if it's good still or already turned to vinegar. Oops. (Fortunately we have a vinegar crock to recycle the already on-its-way-out wine, too.)
July was stupendously productive, word-wise, considering all the summer comings and goings I was working around and here's hoping that August stays on trend--birthday celebration excepted--but in the meantime, how about a glimpse of what I started the month working on?
After so many years at war, even Priam could not fault the terms presented by the Achaeans. Should Paris lose—and there was no one in the palace who truly believed he would do otherwise—Menelaus would win Helen, of course, and reparations would be paid by Troy to the Achaean kings in the form of livestock, gold, and slaves. It would mean lean years for Troy, to be certain, but nothing they could not recover from once the war was ended and with it, the disruption of trade to and from the Hellespont. Just lifting the siege they’d lived under for so long would be enough to counter any resentment over the cost.
And should Paris win by some divine blessing, the Achaeans would leave at once. Keeping the prizes and plunder they had already managed to acquire to make up for their losses.
“They will not keep their word,” Helen had warned—not just Paris himself, but also Hector and Priam. “The gods will not let them. Whether Paris wins or loses, they will not go. Not until they have breached the walls and set fire to the city itself.”
“We must risk it,” Hector said. “We have no choice. Once the men heard of it—they have fought so hard for so long, and I do not blame them for their exhaustion, but we walk the edge of a blade now. If they believe for a moment we will not risk ourselves for their sakes, we will have more than the Achaeans to fear.”
“You will sacrifice your brother and me for nothing at all,” Helen said. Words Paris could not say. Not without it all sounding like a coward’s excuse.
Hector offered a grim smile. “Not nothing if it inspires the loyalty of our men. Not nothing if it gives them the heart to fight. Let the Achaeans betray us. Let them defeat Paris and refuse to leave our shores, after they have sworn as much before the gods. They will be cursed, all of them, and our men will know it. Our soldiers will fight that much harder. And I swear to you, Helen, if they do not keep their word, we will take you back.”
But Helen shook her head. “If Paris is dead, I will not have you waste any more of Troy’s men on my account. Let me go, I beg of you, and your men will know the Achaeans truly fight for nothing but greed. That this war Agamemnon and Menelaus have started has nothing to do with me.”
“You have my word, Sister,” Hector promised, and then his gaze settled again upon Paris, his jaw going tight. “We will begin this afternoon. After I have seen to the men. We’ll train here, in the palace.”
So the other men would not know how poorly he fought. So they would not think him weak, and lose heart. Paris nodded, unable to meet his brother’s eyes. His gaze shifting instead to Helen. Brave Helen, who was preparing herself already for the worst. For what she might do if he did not survive.
He supposed he had better prepare himself, too.
Just 6 chapters or so left to go and this little side-project should be wrapped up! I've only got 11,000 words to do it in, to keep it Novella length. With my track record...
Well--
Wish me luck!
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