(4)

I returned to Troy and was just in time to attend the funeral games of Hector, the tamer of horses.

The war continued. Prince Aeneas of the Dardania line, took over the command of the army.  He had married my sister Creusa. He was the best we had.

More allies came, among them, Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons.  She led a contingent of a thousand women warriors, all young and pretty to Troy.  The spirit if the city was revitalized by the arrival of some many pretty maidens but they all lost color when their queen appeared.  Of all the women I met in my life, Helen was by far the most beautiful, followed closely by my sister Laodice, who had married afar.  Cassandra was a beauty in her own right, at least when she was sober. But Penthesilea was a different breed.  She was radiant. Clad in the Amazon-style light armor of bronze breast-plates, a white tunic and short riding skirts, the Amazon queen outshone all others around her.  Perhaps Helen could better her in some way but the former queen of Sparta was everything opposite to the warrior queen, being feminine to the extreme as Penthesilea was a tower of boldness and strength, without weakening her attractiveness as a woman.  She had made the explicit declaration that she came here to fight Achilles, as atonement for having accidentally killed her own sister in a hunt.
“Stupid woman, “Andromache spoke behind her. “What can she do when even Hector had failed?  She would be food for birds when Achilles finished with her.”
Cassandra uttered a laugh which sounded almost like a hiss. “She is a daughter of .Ares. If any woman can kill him in battle, it will be her.”
I turned to face my sister. “But you said…”
She stopped me in my mid-sentence. “There are more than one way to fulfill the will of the gods.” Without waiting for an answer, she reeled and left us.
I stared at Penthesilea and found her staring at me too.
“So you are Polyxena, the princess who is worth her weight in gold.”
I bowed my head.  I had wanted to hate her, as a potential foe against Achilles.  But I discovered I could not. She was too beautiful to be hated by anyone.
“Tell me. Is there anything you came to know about him that you like to share?”
“I do not know what you mean, my lady.”
She threw back her head and laugh and it reminded me of Achilles, doing the same move in his tent.
“Never mind, pretty one.” Then she brought her face close and whispered into my ear. “If I were not into battle when dawn comes, I will certainly ask for your father to let you spend a night in my tent.  We can talk and do something else, woman to woman.”
I blushed at her honeyed voice, the wordings full of ambiguous flirting.
“I would be honored.” I replied.
“Very well, pretty one.  Let us wait until the victory feast, on my return.”
With that, she left me standing in the hallway.

I could not sleep throughout the night.
The possibility of Achilles falling before the Amazon queen was too much to bear.  Yet I also do not wish Penthesilea slain.  
I knew I hold the key in my hand.  If I told her about the secret of his heel, she might get the better of him.  In this case, the prophecy of my bringing him to his death, and the possibility of the Amazon Queen slaying the greatest Greek warrior would also be fulfilled.  
If I kept my silence, then the chance of her being vanquished would be great. Skillful as she might be, how could she slay an opponent whose body was impregnable, except at the heels.

I heard the sound of horns at the break of dawn.
I rushed to the queen’s chamber but found she was gone.  There was another set of armor at the side though and without much thinking, I put this on.  It fit.  I placed a cap helmet on my head and made for the Sacean Gates where they would form up to go outside, offering battle.
No one suspected an amazon to be a princess of Troy.
The main force had already moved down onto the plain. I sped up and joined the rank of the third line.  Two female warriors turned their heads and took a look at me but said nothing.
“Ready to charge!” An order barked out.
We put our horses into a canter.
In a rush, I had forgotten to take up any weapon apart from a crescent shape shield.  Nor could I use it if I did.  Without any weapon, I would be most vulnerable.
“If I am to be slain, so be it.” I said to myself. “Perhaps it will be him who will spear me through.”
Priam and mother would be in deep grief if they found me dead but it was too late to turn back now.
We raced towards the ships.  I could see Penthesilea leading her warriors crashing through the first line of defense put up by the Greeks.  Though I knew not how to wield a double-edge axe, the standard Amazon weapon, I was an exceptional good rider, having being trained personally by Hector.  I caught up with the second rank and then the leading one and found myself riding just a little behind the Amazon queen.
If she was surprised at my presence, she said nothing.
There was no time for distraction as more Greeks were rushing to fill the gap of their lines.  
We breached the second line and torched the ships.  Actually, it was they who did it as I would not do anything to put Achilles in danger, no matter how small a chance that would be.
Then I heard the battle cries of the Myrmidons.
There came Achilles on his chariot, leading his men into the thick of battle.
“Watch me, little one!” The Queen smiled and said.  So, she did know I was here.
She rode head on. Just as I was to follow, my mount reared up and neighed. To my horror, I found a shaft buried in his side as he came crashing down. I attempted to jump off but was too late.  My left leg was pinned under the dead animal.  I thought my leg must have broken but later found I could inch away from the weight and so must have avoiding being disabled.  Still, it was most precarious as the fighting was going on all around me and any foe who noticed me could just come over and slit my throat.  
In the pinned position I watched the battle developed.  
Many Greeks were killed. But the Amazons got fewer in number too.
I saw one of them, a young girl being beheaded on her saddle, another one dragged down from her horse, her armor in disarray as she tumbled to the ground.  She managed to recover to a kneeling position but seeing her position hopeless, she bared her left breast for an advancing Greek who buried his spear into her buxom... She was immediately avenged by one of her sisters-in-arms but this brave woman was in turn slain, a double-edge axe hacked into the cleft between her breasts.  She fell off her saddle and was beheaded once she hit ground.
I was still unable to free my leg when a Greek discovered me as his prey and moved towards me with drawn sword.  I felt cold sweat running down my back as there was no way I could defend myself.  But he never reached me as a flying axe cut into his forehead and he dropped dead less than a few steps from me.  I turned and saw the Amazon queen gleam.
Then I saw something else.  It was Achilles!
“Behind you!” I shouted.
Penthesilea turned and was just quick enough to assume her poise to do battle.
The daughter of Ares was a great match for the mighty warrior.  
“If there is any woman who can kill him, it will be her.” Cassandra had said.
She was right, almost.
Thrice her spear had found a gap in his defense and sliced at his skin.  It drew blood but was unable to cause any mortal wound.  In the third attempt, the shaft of her spear broke.  She threw it aside and made for the short sword at her side.  Achilles did not give her any chance.  A mighty thrust of his spear and the Amazon queen gave a cry of defeat and fell from her mount.  She managed to stand, still intending to offer a final fight.  But her opponent was faster and lost no time to bury his own sword into her left breast. She looked up to him as her body slowly slid to a kneeling position.  He twisted his sword a bit and the pain was finally too much for her.  The warrior queen gasped and fell back.  I saw him approach, a very different Achilles from the one I knew in the tent.  As he said, he was a beast and a killing tool in battle.
He did not notice me.
While his followers continued to slay other Amazons, he bent down and stripped the armor off the fallen queen until she was lying there stark naked before his eyes.  The torso, though in death, was enchanting. I saw him kneel before the beautiful corpse, weeping in remorse.  Then, he mounted her.  I could not believe my eyes; he was raping her corpse in full view of foes and friends!
When he had finished, he stood up and looked at the soiled body once again.  Another Greek came up, one who was so despicably ugly.  He made some rude remarks and the next moment, Achilles raised his clout and knocked on the face of the ugly man. I had to put my hand over my mouth as I saw all his teeth had been knocked off his mouth!  I knew the man was dead instantly.
Driven into a fury, Achilles tied the feel of the naked queen with a rope and fastened the other end to the rear of his chariot.  I knew he was doing the same thing he had done to Hector to Penthesilea.  Her body was towed across the plain and headed for the muddy River Salamander, where I presumed would be the unroyal grave of the brave queen.
I fell back in exhaustion and despair.  If any foe would come near, I would arch my neck and offer my throat to be cut.  But it was not to be.  The battle was over and the enemy was gathering trophies.  Fallen Amazons had their armor stripped off.  Those few who were captured wounded had their throats cut.  Two fell on the tips of swords to avoid becoming prisoner.  Sooner or later, the Greeks might discover me and either had me slain or taken back as slaves.  Would they do to me what Achilles had done to Penthesilea, if they decided to kill me?
I never had the answer.  A rain set upon the plain and the Greeks, after making a hasty check of the fallen, retreated back to their camp.  After a while, a detachment of Amazons who survived the battle found me and dragged me out from under the dead horse.
“I know you; you are the Trojan princess, Polyxena. Go back to your city.” The leader of the survivors said.
“What about you?”I asked.
They did not answer, put me on the back on one of their horses and gave the backside a snap.
As the horse carried me back towards the city, I heard thudding sounds.  I turned my head in time to see all of them plunging their daggers into each other’s hearts.
So the entire force brought by Penthesilea perished on the Trojan plain.