Doctor Who_ The Myth Makers - Donald Cotton [9]
‘I mean the ruffians whose rather shady little exploits were magnified by later generations, until they came to seem like heroes. But they were certainly nothing of the sort – and that’s why I’m worried about the Doctor.’
‘All right then, Steven. Have it your way. So, what can we do?’
‘I know what I’m going to have to do, darn it, if we’re ever to get out of this; follow them, and see if I can’t rescue him before he gets his brilliant head cut off! Not that it wouldn’t serve him right.’
‘Well, can’t I come too? If this is the Trojan War, I’d hate to miss it, and I’d love to see the real Agamemnon...’
Steven sighed. ‘Yes – and no doubt he’d love to see you. You still don’t understand, do you? Vicki, these people weren’t gentlemen – and they certainy didn’t treat women – even young girls – like ladies! No, you must stay here till I get back!’
‘And what if you don’t get back?’
‘Thank you, Vicki – nice of you to think of that. Well, in that case, whatever you do, don’t let yourself get taken prisoner. Just stay inside the TARDIS – and no one can get at you. You should be quite safe!’
‘Yes, but supposing...’
‘Look here, I haven’t time to argue – just do as you’re told for once!’
She watched him rebelliously, as he opened the double doors, her brain seething with mental reservations. But she said no more.
And Steven stepped out on to the plain of Scamander, took his bearings, and loped off after the rest of us.
6
A Rather High Tea
For some reason – not intentional, I assure you, – I contrived to arrive at the Greek camp before the others. Possibly Odysseus and his men had got themselves involved in some more mayhem and casual butchery on the way home – it would have been like them. And as for Achilles, it may have been time for his evening press-ups or something – but I really don’t know. And it really doesn’t matter. At all events, I found it easy enough to avoid the sentries, who didn’t seem to be a very smart body of men –
playing skittles, most of them, with old thigh bones and a skull which had seen better days; and pretty soon I found myself outside the Commander’s quarters – the wartent of Agamemnon.
And a fairly squalid sort of affair that was! Made, as far as I could tell, of goat-skin – and badly cured goat-skin at that – it flapped and sagged in the humid air, each movement of the putrid pelts releasing an unmentionable stench, which. one hoped, had nothing to do with the evening meal! Because, as I could see through the open tent-flap, Agamemnon himself and a dinner guest were busily attacking the light refreshment with all the disgusting gusto of a dormitory feast in a reform school.
And how did I know it was Agamemnon, you may ask? It was impossible to mistake him – one has seen portraits, of course, and heard the unsavoury stories: a great coarse bully of a man, who looked as though he deserved every bit of what was coming to him when he got home. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow! The Furies must have been off their heads, hounding his family the way they did. A justifiable homicide, if ever there was one, I’d say! But that, of course, is another story; and far off in the future, at that time.
No, it was Agamemnon all right: those rather vicious good looks and the body of an athlete run to seed look fine on the Mycenaean coins, but not in the flesh. And there was plenty of that in evidence; relaxed and unlaced as he was, after a hard day beating the living daylights out of the domestic help, I suppose, and generally carrying on. A sprinkling of the latter cowered cravenly in the offing, playing ‘catch the ham-bone’ amid a shower of detritus which the master tossed tidily over his shoulder, while otherwise engaged in putting the fear of god into Menelaus.
For that’s who his companion was, without a doubt; apart from an unfortunate family resemblance, there was a wealth of sibling feeling concealed in their gruff remarks.
‘You drink too much,’ belched Agamemnon, with his mouth full – or at least, it had been full before he spoke. Now... well, never mind. ‘Why can’t you learn to