King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus)

Odysseus wasted no time in rushing at them and severing the sword arm of one with a single blow. Shocked, he fell backwards clutching at the gushing wound, and Odysseus finished him with a stab through the throat. The other man was engaged by a Spartan and quickly slain, the victor savouring revenge for the massacre of his comrades the day before. The scar-faced warrior, still groaning, was quickly dispatched, but Mentes insisted they spare the life of the man Diocles had knocked unconscious.

As they tied his hands and feet with belts taken from his dead comrades, Odysseus explained the desperate situation at the gates to the others.

‘It troubles me to fight against my own countrymen,’ Mentes said, gagging the prisoner with a strip of cloth torn from a bloody cloak. ‘But, equally, I hate Polytherses and the way he is putting good soldiers to ill use. If I help you open the gates, maybe the gods will bring some of them to their senses and they will join with us against our true enemy.’

Odysseus thought of the two guards they had just slain and doubted whether many, if any, of the Taphians would switch allegiance. They were too proud, even for Greeks. But he was nevertheless glad of Mentes’s continuing loyalty, and knew if he could help them open the gates there would still be a slim chance of victory. Something else concerned him, though, and he could no longer restrain himself.

‘Diocles, where is Penelope? I know she was with you when the camp was ambushed.’

‘She was captured with us, but we were separated the moment they brought us inside the palace walls.’

‘Then I have no choice,’ Odysseus announced. ‘Diocles, I want you and your men to open the gate. Antiphus and Mentes will go with you. They won’t be expecting an attack from within the palace so you’ll have the advantage of surprise, but you still have to open the gates and hold them until Halitherses can reach you. When he does, then you must do what you can to defeat the Taphians inside the courtyard.

‘As for Mentor and I, we will search the palace for Penelope. Any victory will be a hollow one for me if my wife is harmed, so I must be sure of her safety. Then, if the new king is anywhere to be found, I’ll make sure of him too. But first I must find where Eupeithes is being kept.’

‘He was imprisoned with us in a storeroom, down there,’ said Diocles, pointing to the passageway from which they had emerged earlier. ‘Have pity on him, Odysseus.’

‘May the gods be with you,’ was Odysseus’s only response, then with Mentor he went to find the man who had brought so much trouble to Ithaca.

The corridor was lit by a single torch, which Odysseus freed from its holder and took with him into the storeroom. For a moment they could see nothing but large clay jars amidst the flickering shadows cast by the flame. Then, as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they distinguished a man in the far corner, his legs sprawled out before him. They stepped closer and held the torch up, causing the man to squirm away from the light, cowering and whimpering as he covered his eyes with his forearm.

It was Eupeithes, though only just. His once proudly fattened physique was diminished through starvation, and his previously clean-shaven, fleshy cheeks were drawn and covered in a scrawny beard. So this was the man who had deposed Laertes, and for fear of whom Odysseus had taken the palace guard across the Peloponnese to Sparta. He lowered the torch.

‘Let’s go.’

‘And leave him?’ asked Mentor, shocked. ‘You’ve wanted to kill this rat for the past half-year; surely you aren’t going to turn your back on him now? He deserves death, Odysseus!’

‘Maybe,’ Odysseus answered, ‘but I haven’t the heart to murder such a pathetic creature.’

He turned and, without a further glance at the former king, walked back out of the room to the main corridor. The others had gone already and, with no time to waste, Odysseus flung the torch into the dirt at his feet and pulled the sword from his belt.

‘Come on, old friend,’ he said, looking at the steps to the royal quarters. ‘Let’s see this thing to its finish.’

They mounted the steps two at a time to the floor above, where they turned to scan the dimly lit corridors for guards. Seeing none, they moved cautiously to the point where an intersecting corridor ran to the right. Both men knew the palace intimately; the turn led straight to the royal quarters.