leadership can only spell trouble in the end.’
‘I stand with Ajax,’ declared Diomedes. ‘It seems to me there’s nothing to discuss. Like most of us here, Idomeneus was sworn to our cause at Sparta. A man doesn’t make conditions when he swears before a god.’
Fortified to find his own instincts strengthened by such unqualified support, Agamemnon said, ‘There’s already too much scope for division in our forces. A hundred ships more or less will make no great difference to our strength. I’d rather do without them than lose control of the rest. If Idomeneus won’t bow to our authority then let him stay at home.’
‘Good,’ said Odysseus. ‘The only hard part being that’s not what he will do.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ajax frowned.
‘You heard what Dromeus said. His ships are ready to sail. If Idomeneus has scoured his island to mount such a considerable fleet, he’s not about to let it rot in port at Knossos.’ Odysseus turned his ironical smile on Agamemnon. ‘A hundred more warships may not count for much in your reckoning, King of Men, but I’ve no doubt that Priam will welcome them with open arms.’
Ajax uttered an outraged gasp of dismay. Menelaus began to shake his head. ‘Idomeneus was among the first to swear. I don’t believe he would betray us.’
Odysseus shrugged. ‘Is it unknown for Cretans to break their word?’
‘But the man’s my friend,’ Menelaus protested. Then he saw that every man in the room was thinking the same bleak thought: that the open-hearted, younger son of Atreus had not proved to be the wisest judge of friends.
‘Nevertheless,’ Nestor dispelled the fraught silence, ‘it seems that Deucalion’s son has ambitions for his kingdom. Evidently he hasn’t forgotten that there was a time when Crete ruled the seas and took tribute from many of our cities. With Troy’s help it’s possible that she might do so again.’
Diomedes said, ‘Then what would he have to gain from joining us?’
‘A large share of the spoils of Troy,’ Odysseus answered. ‘Unrestricted access to her trade routes through the Hellespont and around the Asian coast – gold, silver, grain, cinnabar, timber, amber, jade. All of this, along with recognition of his independent authority by every kingdom in Argos.’
‘My friend Menestheus won’t care for that,’ said Palamedes.
Odysseus made a dismissive gesture. ‘Then the Lord of Athens should have kept as tight a rein on his vassal as his predecessor did.’
Agamemnon grunted and sat back in his chair. ‘Crete was on the rise again even before Theseus leapt from the cliff on Skyros. Idomeneus merely has more ambition than his father.’
‘And more courage,’ Menelaus put in.
Diomedes frowned. ‘The more shame that his courage is not matched by his honour. I took him for a true man at Sparta, and a worthy contender for Helen.’
‘But the question remains,’ Odysseus insisted. ‘Do we want his ten thousand Cretan spearmen inside our tents pissing out or outside them pissing in?’
A hint of a smile briefly crossed the face of Achilles.
Agamemnon caught it from the corner of his eye, and decided that the time had come to confront this arrogant young blood directly. ‘The son of Peleus seems amused. What are his thoughts on this question, I wonder?’
‘That it is a matter of indifference to me,’ Achilles said.
Agamemnon frowned. ‘How so?’
‘With all due reverence to the gods, my trust is in my own strength and that of my friend.’ Achilles smiled at Patroclus. ‘Whether the Cretans are for us or against us, we will fight.’
‘So will we all,’ said Ajax. ‘But who will lead? My obedience is to Agamemnon.’
‘And mine,’ Diomedes concurred.
Nestor rubbed a hand through the silvery-white curls of hair at the back of his head. ‘Yet Idomeneus awaits an answer. I for one am wondering whether it may not be prudent to have his forces at our side.’ He turned his grave eyes to Odysseus, who nodded and said, ‘This war will have to be won at sea before it can be won on land. A hundred ships either way could make all the difference.’
Agamemnon stared at Palamedes, who said quietly, ‘I agree with that judgement,’ and glanced away across the table, where Menelaus fidgeted with the heavy gold signet ring that Helen had given him on their wedding day. He was frowning gloomily down at the rampant pair of leopards on its bezel when Palamedes asked, ‘What does the King of Sparta say?’
The younger son of Atreus glanced uncertainly at the elder before answering. ‘As I said before,’ he murmured hoarsely, ‘I consider Idomeneus to be my friend. I believe he will prove a valuable ally.’ He fingered the ring which slipped loosely around his knuckle. Then he said, ‘This thing is for my brother to decide.’
Again Agamemnon shifted in his chair, trying to gauge the feeling in the room. His face had reddened and his eyes were on the move, avoiding the silent faces round him, yet finding nowhere sure to settle. This was the first occasion since he had committed himself to this war when he knew he was faced with a decision on which the whole dangerous enterprise might turn. Yet which way to lean? Every muscle of his body insisted that he retain absolute control. Control over the forces he had gathered, control over this council, control over himself. And the two men in the room with whom he felt most at ease fully expected him to do so. But Ajax and Diomedes were men of action, not of thought. And the same was true of Achilles and Patroclus, young men both, driven by an invincible confidence in their own strength and prowess. Neither of them, he suspected, would hesitate for a moment. They would go down fighting sooner than yield an inch in pride. That was the warrior’s way, the way of men, and he was Agamemnon, King of Men. But there was more to waging war than blood and fear and mindless valour amid the clash of chariots, and if shrewd old Nestor and that cunning thinker out of Euboea agreed with Odysseus on this, then more might be at stake than pride.
Agamemnon sat with his hand across his mouth, regretting that he had exposed his own position too soon. Were he to change his mind now, he might appear weak before those who most respected him. Yet if they were wrong … A hundred more ships … ten thousand more men … on one side or the other. He saw his whole proud fleet in flames around him and a Cretan pentakonter bearing down on his flagship with a gryphon at its prow and the double axe painted on its sail. An error made now might prove costly indeed when his ships were at sea.
But he could not vacillate for long under the impatient gaze of Achilles.
He was summoning the will to speak when Odysseus leaned back with a mildly incredulous air and said, ‘Do I speak only for myself when I say that if there was disagreement between Idomeneus and Agamemnon, I would know where my own loyalty belonged?’
And before either of them had fully taken in the implications of the question, both Ajax and Diomedes, at whom his challenge was directed, had declared that he was certainly not speaking for himself alone.
Odysseus arched his brows at Agamemnon and opened his hands. ‘It seems that we’re in agreement then.’
Agamemnon narrowed his eyes and saw that a door had opened on his dilemma. ‘Very well. On that clear understanding, let the Cretans come.’
But the Lion of Mycenae was feeling the full weight of the burden of command, even in the very moment when he was about to relinquish half of it.
Nor was he to know that Odysseus had no particular reason to mistrust the intentions of Idomeneus. But as the Ithacan said to his cousin Sinon afterwards when telling him how the meeting had gone, ‘We need those Cretan ships and how else was I to persuade Agamemnon to give up half his command?’
As to whether or not divine assistance might be required, Agamemnon was more inclined to agree with Odysseus than Ajax, so he had set aside the day before the fleet was due to sail for