Chapter 236: The Wall Between Them

"HECTOR!"

Achilles’s voice crossed the field and struck the inner wall.

The Myrmidons stood behind him with their shields raised. Smoke still drifted from the ruined Greek supply works, and the smell of burned oil hung over the plain.

Above the battlements, King Hector stood among the Trojan soldiers.

He had not drawn his sword.

He did not need to.

Achilles lifted his spear toward him.

"There you are," he called. "The great Hector of Troy. The defender of the city. The man who speaks of honour while hiding behind stone."

The Trojan soldiers tightened their grips on their weapons.

Achilles continued before Hector could answer.

"You stole the Queen of Sparta. You dragged Helen into Troy and expected the world to accept it. When the Greeks came for her, you called yourselves victims. When the truce was broken, you waited for the right moment and attacked us while we were mourning your queen."

His voice grew louder.

"You used Queen Hecuba’s death as cover for your raid. You killed Patroclus, then ran back behind your walls before you had to face what you had done."

Hector looked down at him.

"You have finished?"

Achilles smiled.

"Are you already tired?"

"No. I was deciding whether your ignorance deserved an answer."

A few Trojan soldiers shifted uneasily. Hector raised one hand, and they became still.

"You speak of honour," Hector said. "Tell me, Achilles. What honour brought the Greeks here?"

"The honour of correcting what Troy did."

"No. Greed brought you here."

The words carried across the field.

"For the first time, every Greek kingdom gathered beneath one command. Not to defend justice. Not to protect Helen. They came because Agamemnon promised them a share of Troy. Gold. Land. Ships. Whatever remained after your army tore this city apart."

Achilles’s expression hardened.

"You defend Paris."

"I defend Troy."

"You cannot separate the two."

"I do not need to."

Hector turned slightly, allowing the soldiers behind him to hear every word.

"You call us dishonourable because Troy refused to surrender its queen and its city to an army of kings who wanted both. Yet your own king sent a man into Troy to murder Queen Hecuba."

The noise along the wall faded.

Hector looked back at Achilles.

"He sent a killer through our streets. He used a hidden blade to murder her."

Achilles stepped forward.

"And you call today honour?"

"Your army was preparing to attack."

"The truce still stood."

"Not after my mother was murdered."

"You broke it first."

"Your king broke it first."

"Agamemnon is not my king."

"Then why are you fighting his war?"

Achilles’s grip tightened around his spear.

"I fight my own battles."

"No," Hector said. "You fight wherever a king points you."

Achilles ignored the answer.

Hector looked toward the Greek camp.

"I will make the Greeks pay for what they have done. One by one."

His gaze returned to Achilles.

"Patroclus was only the beginning."

Achilles’s expression hardened.

Hector watched him.

"Then start with me," Achilles said.

He spread his arms.

"One man against one man. No army. No archers. No walls. You want to kill us all? Begin with me now."

The Greek soldiers behind him began shouting.

Achilles raised his voice over them.

"Come down, Hector. Let your men see what their king is worth. Let them see whether the greatest warrior of this age is truly a man, or only a coward who knows how to speak from a battlement."

Hector watched him without moving.

"You are a blond demon."

The insult came quietly, but it travelled through the silence.

Achilles’s smile vanished.

Hector continued.

"You arrive wherever men are fighting, and everything around you becomes blood. You think that makes you important."

"Come down and test it."

"I will kill you."

"Then do it."

"Not because you demanded it."

A murmur passed through the Trojan ranks.

Hector rested one hand against the stone.

"My men do not need to watch me fight you before they decide whether to follow me. They know me. They have seen me stand beside them when the walls failed, when the roads were burning, and when our dead had to be carried through the gates."

His eyes remained fixed on Achilles.

"They follow me because they believe in me. Not because they fear me."

Achilles gave a harsh laugh.

"You are afraid they will see you lose."

"No. I refuse to gamble their future for your pride."

Hector’s voice remained firm.

"If you kill me, Troy loses its king. If I kill you, Greece loses one warrior."

The Greek soldiers shouted angrily.

Achilles stared up at him.

"One warrior?"

"A great one," Hector replied. "The greatest, perhaps. But still one warrior among thousands."

"You think I am insignificant?"

"I think you are one man."

"I am Achilles."

"You are not the army. You are not Agamemnon. You are not the war."

Achilles raised his spear.

"You are afraid to fight me."

"No. I refuse to fight you on your terms."

"I will kill you when I get inside."

"Then enter Troy."

The answer stopped Achilles for a moment.

Hector continued.

"Break the gates. Cross the streets. Reach me through the men who will die defending this city. If you can do that, then I will fight you."

Achilles understood.

Hector would not come down.

Not for Patroclus.

Not for Hecuba.

Not for the challenge.

The only way to face him would be to breach Troy and reach the walls from within.

The realization did not appear on Achilles’s face. He would not give Hector that victory.

Instead, he turned away from the battlement and faced the Greek soldiers.

"Listen to me!"

The Myrmidons and the soldiers near the field turned toward him.

Achilles pointed at the wall.

"Let every man here know the truth. King Hector of Troy is too afraid to face one warrior in the open."

The Trojan soldiers shouted angrily.

Achilles raised his voice higher.

"Hector, son of Priam, whose name has been carried across the world as the greatest fighter of this age, is hiding behind stone. He will not come down. He will not meet me. He can only command from a wall."

He turned toward the Greek camp.

"Return to your positions. We will come back with the army."

Achilles looked once more at the gates.

"And when we breach them, we will burn Troy."

The Myrmidons began to withdraw.

Hector let them move several steps before turning toward his own soldiers.

"Do not let his shouting decide what you think."

The Trojans quieted.

Hector looked over the battlements at Achilles’s retreating figure.

"Achilles is supposed to be the greatest warrior among the Greeks. Some call him the greatest in the world."

His voice carried through the city.

"But look at him. A bloodthirsty bastard standing beneath our wall, demanding that a king abandon his people so he can satisfy his pride."

The soldiers listened.

"He believes his strength gives him a place beside kings. It does not. Strength makes him useful. It does not make him worthy."

Hector’s eyes remained on Achilles.

"He calls himself free because he refuses to bow to Agamemnon. Yet he spends his life fighting other men’s wars. Kings decide where he goes, whom he kills, and when he bleeds. They point, and he becomes their weapon."

A captain stood near him.

"He will return."

"I know."

"With the entire army."

"Let him."

Hector turned toward the city.

"Achilles will keep fighting for kings whose wars are not his own. He will kill for their ambitions and call it glory. One day, he will die in another man’s war, on a battlefield that was never his."

He looked back toward the Greek camp.

"He is not a king. He is not free. He is a weapon that mistakes its chains for glory."

The Trojan soldiers raised their voices behind him.

Across the field, Achilles did not turn around.

The walls stood between them.

The next time they met, he would have to break through them.