The Gate to Women's Country

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online

Book: The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online
Authors: Sheri S. Tepper
When thousands lie unburied on the field, when blood runs down to feed the summer trees, does slavery count for much?
    T ALTHYBIUS YOU will be slave to Odysseus.
    H ECUBA His ownership will be as short as my subservience, Talthybius. I am an old woman. See. My hair is white.
    T ALTHYBIUS
(Leaning down to look at her closely)
You have years yet.
    H ECUBA
(She fumbles in her skirt again, then removes her hands and clenches them in front of her, staring at them. There is a pause)
My daughter Cassandra says not.
    T ALTHYBIUS NO one believes Cassandra. As for Andromache….
    A NDROMACHE I’LL be a slave. I know it already. I say with my husband’s mother that my slavery will be brief.
    T ALTHYBIUS But you are young yet.
    A NDROMACHE SO I am.
    H ECUBA Enough, Talthybius. You have told us enough for one visit. Croak somewhere else for a time.
    T ALTHYBIUS Queen, I cannot.
    A NDROMACHE Oh? Do you bear some vomit yet?
    H ECUBA Shh, shh.
    T ALTHYBIUS Your son, Andromache….
    A NDROMACHE DO not tell me of any wickedness which would wrest a suckling from his mother’s arms. Don’t tell me he’ll be taken from my care to grow to manhood in some other house.
    T ALTHYBIUS I will not tell you that.
    A NDROMACHE He’ll go with me? You would not leave him here?
    T ALTHYBIUS
(Sadly)
Here, yes. On his father’s soil. In his father’s place.
    A NDROMACHE Whose words are these?
    T ALTHYBIUS Odysseus spoke before the Achaeans, extolling Hector’s glory. He said that they could ill afford to rear a hero’s son lest he rise up when he is grown and venge him for his father’s death.
    A NDROMACHE They
will
leave him here? With some shepherd, some potter, some lowly family?
    T ALTHYBIUS Here among these stones. Thrown to his death from Troy’s new-riven walls. So they have said.
    A NDROMACHE
(Screams and clings to her child. Talthybius summons the guards who help him wrest the child from her. He then ascends the stair of tumbled stone, she crying after him)
I call doom upon you, Talthybius, and those who sent you here. I call doom upon their ships and on their men. I call the Furies down. Oh do not, do not. Give him to me. He is only a little child. My milk is still warm on his lips. Gods, Talthybius, they’ll curse you—don’t.
(She screams and weeps)
    H ECUBA
(Holding her)
Andromache. Love. Daughter. Sweet girl. Oh why didn’t I, when I had the chance—oh why didn’t I? Oh here, hold on to me. How can they do this to a baby…?
    (There is a cry from the top of the wall, a high, piercing sound, like a bird. They look up. Talthybius has thrown the child from the walls. The guards are all looking down. The ghostly figure of Iphigenia wanders near them….)

    â€œI think this is my entrance coming up,” said Stavia, filling grain bowls for them. “Aren’t you tired of reading, Corrig?”
    â€œI love the sound of my own voice. Now, get ready, you’re almost on.” He went on reading.

    H ECUBA Who’s that? Who walks on these walls among the warriors?

    â€œThe cry comes again,” quoted Stavia from memory, “and the ghost of Iphigenia is seen. In her arms, she carries the ghost of the child, as she descends the stair.”

    A NDROMACHE DO warriors have no pity that they do these things? What stomachs them? Are men made up of iron? What do they use for hearts? Do they not see we are the same as they, our children like their children, and our flesh like that of women whom they left behind?
    I PHIGENIA
(Crying like a seabird)
What difference would it make? They do the same to their own.
    A NDROMACHE Who calls? Is that my child?
    I PHIGENIA
(Holding out the baby)
Your child? Or some other’s child? Two children dead. One virgin girl, one suckling boy. See, here we are, wandering together.
(She dances)
    H ECUBA
(Frightened)
Who are you?
    I PHIGENIA Agamemnon’s daughter, come from Hades’ realm to seek revenge on him

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