King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus)

‘Now then, you all know each other, so let’s do away with the formalities and start the work of the day. Halitherses, my friend, I’m glad to see you’ve brought my son safely back from the oracle. What news from the Pythoness, Odysseus?’

Odysseus stood and took the staff from his father. Their eyes met in silence: on one side the reigning king, small and frail, his head and nose raised slightly as if listening, his teeth resting on his lower lip in an unconscious sneer; opposite him, the future king, hugely strong, wearing the confidence of his youth like a rich, impenetrable cloak.

He recounted the events that had happened whilst he had been away, avoiding a repetition of the Pythoness’s prophecy but emphasizing the role Eperitus had played in the fight against the deserters.

‘In recognition of his courage,’ he concluded, ‘I’ve asked Eperitus to join the royal guard.’

‘The king chooses his guard,’ Laertes replied sternly, without looking at his son’s guest. ‘Both you and Halitherses know that.’

‘His appointment is subject to your approval, Father, I grant you. But ask yourself if you can turn away a willing warrior who killed five men in his first combat.’

There was a stiffness in Odysseus’s response that betrayed the silent contest between son and father, prince and king. Laertes bit back with the speed of a striking snake.

‘Ask yourself if the king’s life can be trusted to a stranger! Have you tested him?’

‘More than enough, Father. He’s fit to serve the king, and the Pythoness herself has promised him great things.’

‘The oracle never promises anything, Odysseus,’ Laertes retorted. ‘You’ll do well to remember that. Why did you aid my son and his men?’

It took Eperitus a moment to realize that Laertes was speaking to him. He looked at the king in surprise, suddenly at a loss for what to do or say. Then he noticed Odysseus beside him, discreetly tapping his knee. Eperitus knelt at once, and bowed his head.

‘My lord, I saw brave men outnumbered and surrounded. It was easy to decide who needed my help most.’

‘And if my son’s men had been in the majority?’

Eperitus raised his head and met Laertes’s gaze. ‘In that case, my lord, I might have slain five Ithacans instead.’

The king smiled at his reply, but it was not a smile that brought any sense of warmth or relief.

‘You are on probation, Eperitus of Alybas,’ he told him. ‘But I’ll watch you.’

This time he fixed the young warrior with a stare that he would not release. Eperitus met his eye, but as he did so he felt the keen gaze stripping away the fragile barriers that concealed his innermost thoughts. Quickly he lowered his eyes for fear that the old man would follow the passages of his mind into areas he had not even dared to explore himself.

‘Yes, I’ll watch you like a hawk,’ Laertes repeated, before turning to the others. ‘Now, where are you, Koronos? Stand up so my old man’s eyes can see you. I’ve called you all here because Koronos has news for us from Eupeithes’s camp. Stand up, man, and take the speaker’s staff.’

A middle-aged noble with pitch-black hair raised himself from the chair closest to the king and took the staff from Odysseus. Eperitus could see that he was wealthy by the quality of his clothes and his well-kept, well-fed appearance. From his confidence before the Kerosia he also guessed he was a man of position, used to deference from others.

‘My lords, your ladyship, King Laertes is fortunate in having me as his close and faithful ally, for I bring news which those of us loyal to his rule must act upon immediately. Sometime ago a god put it into my mind to bribe one of Eupeithes’s slaves into my service. This man has become my eyes and ears in the traitor’s household, and there’s little of that man’s scheming that I don’t know about.

‘Eupeithes is an Ithacan and familiar to us all. But allow me to enlarge on what we know of this man, if only for the sake of our guest.’ Koronos bowed briefly to Eperitus. ‘Though he is a noble, a wealthy merchant, a powerful orator and a man of political ambition, he has never before sought to bring violence to these islands. For some time now we’ve been subjected to his speeches in the marketplaces, so we know he claims to be a patriot . . .’