Fall of Kings

Agamemmnon has conquered Dardanos, killing Helikaon’s wife Queen Halysia and their three-year-old son, which absolutely destroys Helikaon. She had saved his son in a daring final leap on her horse, which killed her. Helikaon turns to throwing more resources at the ~autistic inventor and bronzesmith Khalkeus.

Everybody is weary of war, Hektor most of all. Him not being home, not being with Andromache, is making him miss milestones of her son, making him more conflicted about raising another man’s child than ever before. We also see the perspective of Xander, who served on Helikaon’s ship, and is now staying at and working with the healers, seeing a new side of war and warriors, and even kings. Troy is close to losing: merchants and civilians are abandoning the city. Copper and tin on Cyprus is running low, and Helikaon is travelling to the Seven Hills for new supplies, racing Odysseus there.

Gershom (the Egyptian prince who had to flee Egypt) makes a deal with a mysterious entity, and will become Moses. We already knew that his real name was Ahmose, and in a vision we see that he was actually swapped in for a stillborn prince. The same vision shows us his future, leading the Egyptian slaves through the desert. And he shares Kassandra’s vision, of a mountain exploding and blocking out the sun – that’s the volcano at Thera. Gershom is recalled to Egypt following the vow he made in pt 2.

Andromache and Kassandra are commanded to Thera by the high priestess Iphigenia, to bring Andromache’s dead lover Kalliope’s bones there – and Kassandra goes, knowing she won’t survive, that the world will end, that three kings will die with her. Iphigenia’s goal was to make Andromache her successor. On the journey, Andromache tries to tell Helikaon that her son is his, and fails dramatically. After watching how cruel Helikaon became following the death of his wife, she slaps some sense into him and they make out, and it’s all very High Tragedy. On Thera, Iphigenia reveals that Agamemnon has no choice: he has to conquer in order to keep his position, as his lands can’t sustain his giant army, his mines are few and running dry. His only hope is to take Troy’s riches – but Troy has been drained by war. (Some people, like Odysseus, understand this.)

Helikaon visits the Seven Hills, which is a province Gershom set up for him. (Yes, this is Aeneas founding Rome). Pirates take Penelope. Odysseus drops everything to rescue her, and Achilles suddenly finds that he has a heart after all, and follows. Kassandra prophecies that Odysseus will die if Helikaon, his erstwhile friend, won’t follow him there. Andromache first doesn’t want to help, but in the end does tell him. Penelope is pregnant, which is the thing keeping her from killing herself. Odysseus shows up, gloriously dressed as a beggar with his big bow, and slaughters the pirates. He had overreached, but Helikaon shows up and saves him.

Banokles is made a general. Meanwhile, his wife, Red, the ex-whore, is killed by an old lover. Banokles goes bonkers and starts always fighting at the front, not very general-like.

Troy is in steep decline now. Rations. Can’t maintain the Trojan Horse, as horses need feeding and are useless in a city under siege. Warriors come to Paris and Helen in their mansion. Paris, never any use in battle, falls. Helen kills herself with her children rather than return to Menelaus while her children are killed. Priam is declining further and further into childishness and irrationality, pre-dementia. His sons are starting to ignore his orders, and Polites takes over, though without Priam knowing. Everything falls apart. A sneaky charge at night hits the Trojan army badly. Xander is captured, but as he is a healer, now helps is mentor’s brother, who is a healer for the invaders.

Troy abandons the lower town, and have to smuggle supplies to the high city and fortress. Hektor begs Andromache to leave with Helikaon, but their sons are being held by Priam in the city and were not evacuated with the others, so Andromache stays. Clever battle tactics at sea prolong the inevitable. Odysseus and Achilles wager Achilles’ breast plate on Patroclus’s ability to scale the walls, sigh. Hektor kills Patroclus. The Trojans start training women in the bows (too little, too late), and the only real promising candidate is called Penthesilea, double-sigh.

The attackers offer to let the women and children (excluding royalty) leave Troy if Hektor fights Achilles in single combat. Odysseus and Hektor make the deal so it has to be honoured, and so the ships with the women and children leave before the fight starts. The fight is epic, and Hektor wins, but Agamemnon claims that his blade was poisoned, and both Hektor and Achilles are killed when Achilles tries to defend him against Agamemnon’s elite guard. The Myrmidons leave. Odysseus/Ithaka, too. Nestor, too. Everything falls apart.

Mykene kills most of the Trojan Horse, take their armour, and so get Troy to open the gates. Everybody dies. Last stand with the bow-women and some warriors after Priam and all his sons are dead. Helikaon climbs into the palace, helps Andromache flee with the two boys. Andromache finally tells him he’s Astynax’s father.

The Hittites suddenly arrive, whose vassals the Trojans are. Their god-king emperor takes the magical smith who finally got the perfect sword out of his foundry. They are angry because Troy was useful to them, rich and prosperuous, but with a ruined city, and a silted and ruined bay that will turn the area land-locked within a generation, there’s nothing of use left. They decide the city will be razed. They even grant the invaders their plunder, who then discover that Troy was poor and had nothing left.

Odysseus, Helikaon and Andromache meet at Thera. The island is deserted, everybody fled when it started seeing regular earthquakes – only Kassandra and Iphigenia are left. The good guys leave for ~Rome, while Agamemnon, after killing Iphigenia, dies in the eruption. Gershom/Moses takes up his destiny, with the seven plagues coming as results of the eruption.

Helikaon dies of old age, and Andromache sends a burning arrow into his boat, sigh.