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bearded with dark curly hair. Only a trace of gray in that beard. His heavy mop of ringlets came down to his shoulders and across his forehead almost down to his black eyebrows. Those eyes were as gray as the sea outside on this rainy afternoon, probing, searching, judging.
    He had asked his question the instant Poletes and I were ushered into his tent, without any preliminaries or formal greetings.
    "Which god do you serve?"
    Hastily I replied, "Athene." I was not sure why I picked the warrior goddess, except that Poletes had said she favored the Achaians against the Trojans.
    Odysseus grunted and motioned for me to sit on the only unoccupied stool in the tent. The two other men sitting on either side of him were dressed much as he was. One of them seemed about Odysseus's age, the other much older: His hair and beard were entirely white and his limbs seemed withered to bones and tendons. He had wrapped a blue cloak around himself. They all looked weary and drained by the morning's battle even though neither of them bore fresh wounds as Odysseus did.
    Odysseus seemed to notice Poletes for the first time. "Who is he?" he asked, pointing.
    "My friend," I said. "My companion and helper."
    He nodded, accepting the storyteller. Behind Poletes, barely inside the tent and out of the pelting rain, stood the officer who had summoned us to this audience with the King of Ithaca.
    "You did us a great service this morning," said Odysseus. "Such service should be rewarded."
    The frail old man at Odysseus's right spoke up in a surprisingly deep, strong voice. "We are told that you arrived as a thes aboard the boat that came in last night. Yet you fought this morning like a warrior born and bred. By the gods! You reminded me of myself when I was your age. I was absolutely fearless then! As far away as Mycenae and even Thebes I was known! Let me tell you . . ."
    Odysseus raised his right hand. "Please, Nestor, I pray you forego your reminiscences for the moment."
    The old man looked displeased, but sank back in silence.
    "What reward would you ask?" Odysseus said to me. "If it is in my power I will gladly grant it."
    I thought for half a moment only, then replied, "I ask to be made a warrior in the service of the King of Ithaca." Then, sensing a slight shuffling of bare feet behind me, I added, "And to have my friend here as my servant."
    For several seconds Odysseus said nothing, although Nestor bobbed his white-bearded head vigorously and the younger warrior on the king's left smiled at me.
    "You are both thetes , without a household?" Odysseus asked.
    "Yes."
    He stroked his beard. Then a slow smile spread across his face. "Then welcome to the household of the King of Ithaca. Your wish is granted."
    I was not certain of what I should do, until I saw Nestor frown slightly and prompt me by motioning with both hands, palms down. I knelt before Odysseus.
    "Thank you, great king," I said, hoping it was the right degree of humility. "I shall serve you to the best of my abilities."
    Odysseus took the armlet from his biceps and clasped it on my arm. "Rise, Orion. Your courage and strength will be a welcome addition to our forces." To the officer at the tent's entrance he commanded, "Antilokos, see that he gets some decent clothing—and weapons."
    Then he nodded a dismissal at me. I turned. Poletes was beaming at me. Antilokos, his wolfskin cape still dripping, looked at me as if measuring me, not for clothing, but as a fighter.
    As we left the tent and went back into the pouring rain, I could hear King Nestor's vibrant voice. "Very crafty of you, Odysseus! By bringing him into your household you gain the favor of Athene, whom he serves. I couldn't have made a wiser move myself, although in my years I've made some very delicate decisions, let me tell you. Why, I remember the time when Dardanian pirates were raiding the coast of my kingdom and nobody seemed to be able to stop them, since King Minos's fleet had been destroyed in the great tidal wave.