Chapter Twenty...Escape
It was about a week and a half after Hector sustained his injury. He'd managed to go for a walk around Troy, show
everyone he was okay. He attended drill for the Apollonian Guards, in a purely ceremonial function. And had
Andromache watch his every single breath.
But eventually she was convinced he wasn't going to drop dead at any given moment and had left him and the baby
alone to attend to some things. Astyanax was sleeping peacefully on a blanket on the balcony of their room. Where
was Hector?
Standing on the narrow railing of that balcony, spear in hand, going back and forth to test his balance and his
strength in that not so good arm.
Sometimes... she wondered how Troy had run itself before she'd arrived. It was an egotistical thought because her
mother in law was an impressive woman and Troy had existed for generations without her touch. Almost two weeks
without her had hardly reduced the palace to ruins. She rubbed absently at her temple. Misplacing twenty urns of
cooking oil and forgetting to turn the wine barrels in the tiny south corner kitchen was hardly a disaster of unheard
of proportions.
She smiled. At least she was sleeping again. She didn't sleep well without Hector. Now that he was home she could
curl around him, and feel his heartbeat against hers and so when she slept, she woke rested.
One of the stewards caught her at the foot of the stairs. The stairs themselves and the upper hallways were now off
limits to everyone but immediate family. And, even after Hector was entirely healed, she intended to keep it that
way. She was enjoying the invisible border no one seemed willing to pass.
The oil had been found. Stored with the barrels of salted fish on the other side of the city. She smiled, murmured
her pleasure, watched the steward's face beam in response and then turned and escaped to the haven of their
apartments.
Sighing, thinking of a bath and her husband's voice, she let herself into their rooms. Saw the emptiness and walked
toward the balcony. Feeling the fresh air. Suspecting she'd find her son sleeping and her husband pacing. He was
growing as restless as a hungry lion and she wasn't sure how much longer -
Her eyes flew wide and she covered her mouth with a hand automatically. Freezing because anything she did would
distract her insane husband. And possibly send him over the edge. Faster than he was trying to do it on his own at
least.
Hector didn't notice her presence right away, his concentration was so focused as he swung the spear, spun it
around and around himself, switched hands, jumped to turn...then he thought he heard the baby make a noise.
Ended up it was his wife and her not so silent gasp.
He looked at her with a guilty expression, and jumped off the ledge back onto the balcony. "Find the oil?" He asked
her innocently.
"Are you insane?!" Her long strides took her directly to him and she hit him in the chest with a solid thump that still
managed to avoid touching anywhere near his healing wounds. "Do you want to kill me? Medusa's tears! What are
you thinking? Do you know how tall this building is?"
He looked down at her as she smacked his chest and railed at him. "It's exactly four hundred and seventy five feet."
He said, answering her question. "I was fine. Did I look like I was in any danger? The worst that was going to happen
is a bird might have attacked me, then I would have fought back and the priests would have interpreted that in some
really weird way and convinced Father they were right. I'm fine."
But if she had smacked his injury, well, that wouldn't have tickled. It was still sore and easily aggravated, which was
something he was determined to work through.
"Hector," she would have caught him by the front of his shirt except he wasn't wearing one. She stepped closer,
looking up at him, hands light against the bandages across his chest, searching his dark eyes. "You don't do that
kind of thing when you're fit. Why in world were you up there now?"
"Because when I'm fit I'm allowed to use the training facilities we have for the army?" He suggested. He just wished
she wouldn't freak out about this. He had given in as much as he could but he was seriously about to go nuts like
this.
"Besides, you should try it." He said and got back up on the railing and stood up, holding out his hand. "Come on."
Did he think that she wouldn't join him? she wondered, leaning down to take off her sandals. Or was he stir crazy
enough to find both of them going over the edge a comfortable solution as opposed to him falling over by himself?
There were lower, saner places to practice his balance and tear his wound open again and if this was his sick
version of revenge for all the worry he'd been causing her she was going to push him off herself.
She closed her eyes and drew in a breath. Calming herself down. Just because the man she loved and adored was
willing to get himself killed over something this ridiculous didn't mean she needed to go into this angry and get
herself killed as well because she was too emotional to do things right.
Gathering the edge of her skirt, she collected enough fabric to make sure she wasn't going to trip herself and,
taking his hand, cautiously joined him on his insane perch.
"I will never forgive you if we fall." she told him, looking down at her feet and deciding how very little space she had.
"You are not going to fall." He said with a chuckle and tipped her chin up with his free hand, holding onto her hand
with his other. "Don't look down, look at me, or over my shoulder or up in the sky, but never down." He instructed
and started to walk backwards slowly, taking her with him. "One step, don't move the other one until you feel the
railing securely under your foot. Feet one behind the other. Come on, admit it. It’s a little fun."
He didn't really think she'd join him up there, she was after all looking at him like he was completely insane and
possibly dangerous to himself.
"You're insane." she clarified. As if standing on a balcony railing miles above a very solid, unforgiving ground wasn't
making that obvious enough. She let the fabric of her dress go because it only hung to about her ankles and she
wasn't moving enough for that to be a problem and then rested her free hand on his shoulder. Looking at his eyes
instead of anywhere else. Letting him lead her even though she was being extremely slow and careful about the
placement of her feet.
"When they find our bodies," she paused to sneak a quick glance at where she was putting her foot, careful to
focus on only the foot and the railing and not the drop on the other side. "I hope someone realizes its all your fault
and not some strange lover's suicide pact I was in agreement with."
Hector rolled his eyes at her. "I'm not insane." He said. "I used to do this all the time when I was a kid...and in fact
this was one of the exercises in Greece we'd do. They'd suspend this wobbly log way up in the canopies of the
trees, have us climb up with spears on our backs and go at it. They'd start you off low, a few feet off the ground,
and by the time you graduated, you'd be high up in the trees as if it were second nature." He shrugged a bit, not
enough to throw her off balance, but to make his point.
"Well, Astyanax obviously gets his non fear of heights from me. Because he loves it up here." Then belatedly he
realized that was incredibly stupid, to admit he walked the railing with her son!
She was about to point out that Greek boys weren't the only ones that walked beams. Her mother had made her do
it for years. One of the ways to make being graceful second nature to combat the awkwardness of being all arms
and legs and too tall. It wasn't as if she was scared of heights, she just didn't see any need to be doing crazy things
like ignoring them. And then it registered what he'd just implied. About their son. Her eyes went wide and she jerked
back slightly. Real fear moving through her again and the sudden movement upset her balance, causing her to
sway. Feet firmly planted, she shifted, trying to find her balance again despite the image of her son and husband
broken and bloody in the gardens far below that was flashing through her mind.
Hector gripped her hand a little tighter, feeling her sway, and put his other arm around her waist, steadying her.
"Come on, relax. He likes it. And neither of us are dead, and we've been doing it for a week." He said. Then he
sighed a bit. "I'm just stir crazy. When Cassandra first got sick, they didn't know if it was a plague or what that hit us
poor royal kids. And I was stuck in the children's rooms for a week. I literally climbed the walls until they realized it
was just Cassandra and it wasn't the rest of us. I was three or four then, now I'm a grown man and its even worse."
Then he grinned after she was steadied. "Besides, if he's going to be tall like us, he's gotta learn balance."
Andromache looked up at him. She loved him. Would give him anything, do anything he asked. She just -
sometimes she thought he expected too much of himself. Of course, she'd been out of bed after Astyanax had been
born long before the midwife had approved that as well. She moved the hand resting on his shoulder to stroke
fingers along the side of his neck. He was truly an impressive sight when he worked out. When he wasn't making
her heart stop in fear that was.
"Why don't we do this?" she suggested, stepping forward to be closer. "Why don't we let your mother watch
Astyanax for a while... and take some horses... and go somewhere?" She shrugged slightly and gave him a soft
smile. "Anywhere you want. For as long as we want." She looked over his shoulder and then back at him with a
smile. "Its not risking life and limb dangling over a precipice but maybe it'll do?"
Hector smiled. "really?" He said. "You'd let me out of our apartments without a weight limit or a time limit?" he teased
her. "But just believe something. If I didn't feel 100% sure that I would not fall, I wouldn't have dared taken our son
up here."
And he meant that truly. He might be obstinate when it came to his own well being but Astyanax was a completely
different story.
"I know." she stated, brushing the tip of her nose lightly against his. "I would have pushed you over if I thought
otherwise." Calmly she looked up at him and asked: "You do realize we're going to have to sneak out or you're
going to be jumped by about a dozen of your captains and Illyrius?"