Achilles&Briseis: A Novel

Chapter 34

13 Years Before

Moonlight beat down on the wooden timbers of the ship as Achilles scoured the deck with a stone. The gentle motion of the ship had a lulling effect which most of the men below deck were enjoying with a well earned rest. Even when weather was fair there was very little idle time for the sailors, especially if the winds were favorable.

Achilles looked into the water below his hands and scowled. The boy muttered a curse as he rubbed the sandstone along the planks. Usually, scrubbing the deck was a task done soon after the dawn, not a night task, Achilles was being punished for napping on his shift. The boy had never been on a boat before and the combination of the waves rocking the boat, and the rhythmic sound of the oars dipping in and out of the water, caused the child to nod off when he was supposed to be inventorying the supplies. Perhaps, if the boy had thought the task was more important, he wouldn't have curled up beside a barrel of mead to be found an hour later snoring.

The captain woke Achilles with a kick to the ribs and declared since Achilles already had his rest, then he would stay wake until after dinner the next day, doing whatever work the officers saw fit. The boy's hands were red and chapped from hours of work, and his eyes grew tired. The gentle swish of the water muddled his head.

Snap! "Ahhh!" Achilles' eyes snapped open as the sting woke him.

"Get up!" The officer snapped his whip again on the boy's back. "You've rested enough."

It was the fifth stripe Achilles had gotten and the moon wasn't even high. "This is ridiculous," Achilles protested. "The men will just have to do this again in the morning."

"Yes, and you will be among them." The officer making sure the boy got his just desserts coiled his whip back to his waist. "Get back to work. If the deck isn't finished before the captain wakes, you won't get a morning meal."

"It's idiotic! I was only asleep for an hour and the inventory was already done when everything was loaded on the ship."

"That was three days ago. Our records need to be current. Get back to work or I'll whip you again. I don't get to sleep until you've finished and I'll get meaner the longer it takes you."

Achilles took the sandstone and dipped it into his bucket of sud, stinging his hands and bringing some tears to his eyes. Achilles had begged Chiron to get him out of this but the centaur wouldn't help him, something about needing character but Achilles wasn't listening too much after his tutor told him to suck it up. Patroclus, not being a Myrmidon and unknown to the crew, held no sway with the men, though he got more respect than Achilles did, which only made the boy angrier. Patroclus may be from the royal family but it was a distant relation and he wasn't the heir like Achilles was.

Achilles fought to keep tears from falling, he wouldn't cry in front of this unfair taskmaster. When Achilles reached the halfway point of the deck, a shimmer of gold appeared before him. At first he thought he'd fallen asleep again, and pinched himself but all that got him was a welt on his arm. Achilles turned his face away from the shimmer and shot a worried glance at the man keeping tabs on him.

The bastard's asleep! He was sprawled out on the deck with his arm over his eyes and muttering about a some girl. Achilles' face turned red and screwed up in a grimace as he picked up his bucket with every intention of dumping it over the man's head, but a gentle voice stopped him. A voice he recognized immediately, it was his mother.

"Achilles."

"Why are you here?" Achilles couldn't help the ire in his tone.

His mother chose to ignore the disrespect. "I come with a gift."