I knew what was waiting for him in Mycenae.
Part III
21
Elektra
As the beacons light in their great chain from Troy to Mycenae, I stay at the window, held rapt by the sight. I have never felt like this before. The flames in the darkness are brighter and more beautiful than any dawn I’ve known; they herald a new day for Mycenae, washed in light, golden and magnificent. I’m rejuvenated, dizzy with joy: everything is lifted from me all at once, and I feel so weightless I could soar into the sky with no need of Icarus’ wings. I’ve waited for this for so long, I’d stopped believing it would ever truly happen. I’ve always had faith that my father would win the war, of course. But I have grown so used to a life of listless waiting, I hardly know what to do now it is so nearly over.
And so he will return. I have stood fast, and my faith has been rewarded. I won’t think of the sadness that has shaped me. Orestes continuing to grow, a physical reminder of the time passing. Chrysothemis, wrapped in her bridal veil, deserting us for a husband chosen by Aegisthus – that mangy dog sitting in my father’s seat, sniffing at my mother’s skirts, whining around our palace, making my skin crawl every time I see his narrow, fretful face. In contrast, my mother’s serenity, the implacable sheen of her face, which has stayed unlined and unworried, the lightness of her step never weighed down by the guilt she should bear. All of that is past.
I dress quickly and hurry through the quiet palace, outside into the cool air of the morning, swinging around the corners of the twisting path towards the farmer’s hut. ‘Georgios!’ I call as I get closer, laughing in delight at the sound of my own voice.
He emerges from the darkness of the hut, his brow creased in confusion, his eyes squinting with sleep. ‘Elektra?’
‘Georgios, he’s coming back! The war is over!’
‘It is?’
I throw myself against him and he jolts backwards, startled. I’ve never embraced him before. He pushes me away slightly and puts his hands on my shoulders. I can’t stop smiling.
‘How do you know?’ he asks. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Beacons,’ I say. ‘Beacons lit in a great chain, as far as I could see.’
He’s shaking his head before I even finish the sentence. ‘Even if it is the end of the war, how can you know the Greeks have won?’
‘Of course the Greeks have won,’ I say slowly. I step backwards, out of his grip. I can’t look at him.
‘Of course,’ he says quickly. ‘I didn’t mean – of course, the Greeks have won. I only thought – just in case . . .’
‘This day has been coming for ten years.’ My voice is harsher than I mean it to be. ‘We’ve always known it would happen, and now it has.’
He’s nodding hastily, trying to take back his moment of doubt. ‘Your father is the greatest hero the world has ever known,’ he says, and the sincerity in his voice mollifies me a little. ‘Mycenae has suffered whilst he has been away. Now he’s coming back, this is wonderful for us all.’
I pause. ‘Not quite everyone.’
Georgios laughs. ‘You aren’t worried for Aegisthus now, are you?’
‘Of course not!’ I look away. I don’t know how to voice the feelings squirming away against my happiness.
I hear his sigh. ‘She has betrayed him.’
She has done a terrible thing; she knows the price as well as Georgios knows it, as well as I know it, as well as everyone in Mycenae knows it. But she is my mother – however passionately I might sometimes wish that she wasn’t.
‘Perhaps, when he’s punished Aegisthus,’ Georgios says, ‘he might show mercy to her.’
‘She doesn’t deserve it.’
She wasn’t forced by Aegisthus. What she’s done, she’s done of her own free will. She and Helen both, architects of their own disaster. I wonder what Menelaus will do to Helen, what he might have done already. I don’t care so much about that. Helen robbed me of my father for ten years. But I can’t help feeling a twist of anxiety for Clytemnestra, deserving or not.
‘You can ask him to spare her,’ Georgios suggests. ‘Maybe for you, he might. If that’s what you want.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘Yes, I do. Agamemnon is a good king, a good man. My father always said so.’
‘I know that’s true.’
‘Mycenae prospered when he reclaimed it,’ Georgios goes on. ‘And he united Achaeans from all over to follow him to war. He’s a great leader. Whatever he does, it will be the right thing.’