War has raged outside the walls of Troy for the past seven years. Safe inside the royal palace, Briseis, a spirited young Trojan princess, sits back as her famous cousins, Hector and Paris, fight against the Greeks, who encroach upon Troy's borders...
The plague struck livestock first. Every morning, shepherds and cowhands came to Achilles with the news that more of their sheep and cows had died. Herds and flocks that were hail and hearty at nightfall were decimated by daybreak. Swarms of flies covered sleek hides and soft wool, now clotted with dried blood and vomit. Achilles ordered that the diseased carcasses be burned to stop the plague from spreading. Wherever Briseis went in the camp, she could smell roasting meat. You would think they were preparing for a feast.
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The shepherds and cowhands were the first humans to succumb to the plague. It started with shivers and, at first, seemed to be a simple fever. Those afflicted were wrapped up in wool blankets, despite the spring warmth, so that they would break a sweat. When Briseis made her daily half-mile walk to the infirmary set up inside an abandoned temple, she would help by tucking in the patients' blankets. She held cups of water to their lips, placed cold compresses on their foreheads, and hoped the fever would run its course before reaching its final stage: where they coughed up blood until they died.
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Day or night, you couldn't escape the glare of funeral pyres. Nor the stench. Briseis carried bunches of dried lavender with her wherever she went to keep from gagging. Now, the roasting meat she smelt was human rather than animal.
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"It'll pass soon enough," Agamemnon said to the crowd gathered in front of his tent, demanding to know what should be done about the plague. Yet another pyre had been lit. Its noxious black smoke blanketed the camp. Briseis, who watched the interaction from the entrance to Achilles' tent, brushed a greasy cinder off her shoulder. "Begone, all of you. Such a large gathering will only make it worse." Agamemnon disappeared back inside. "He drinks crushed emeralds dissolved in water," Patroclus said that evening at supper. They had porridge made from mashed apples, milk, breadcrumbs, and honey which was believed to treat the humor imbalance that made you vulnerable to the plague.
