Mercury Begins (Mercury Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to build a platform and cut down several large pine trees to be used as rollers. The pile of firewood was cleared and w ith great difficulty the horse was lifted onto the platform. Ropes were tied to the knees (?) and neck, and men strained with all their strength against the horse. It barely moved.
    “Pull, damn you!” King Priam commanded. The men strained again, and the ropes went taut. The horse creaked and the platform slid forward maybe an inch. The city walls were a good half-mile away. Over rocky terrain. Uphill.
    “Fetch more pullers!” commanded the king. A messenger ran to the city and returned with several hundred more people. More ropes were attached to the horse, and every rope was pulled by thirty or more men. The event turned into a spectacle, with vendors selling food and children dancing around the horse singing songs. Occasionally the horse would jerk to a halt and Mercury would hold his breath as there was a great clashing of metal from within, but the Trojans, enraptured of the idea of getting the horse inside the walls of Troy, were deaf to the ominous sounds. It took most of the day , but at last they were successful. The great wooden horse stood inside the walls of Troy.
    As Mercury stood regarding the massive beast and reflecting o n the seemingly unlimited human capacity for self-delusion, an elderly man approached him, followed by a group of young children. “Sir,” said the man, “the children of Troy have made something for you, to express their appreciation for this gift.” He held out a metal rod around which two pieces of wire had been wrapped in a coiling pattern. “They spent all day making it. It was something of a class project. I’m their teacher.”
    “Oh, uh, thanks,” said Mercury , looking the thing over . “I don’t have … one of these.”
    “It’ s a caduceus,” explained the man. “ A herald’s staff, because you came to us with news of the end of the war with Greece. See, these wires represent the two snakes that came to punish the false prophet Laocoön .”
    Mercury smiled weakly. “Yeah, well, what do you expect from a guy with two dots in his name?” he said, regarding the children who were beaming up at him. He leaned heavily on the staff as the world started to spin. What was going to happen to these kids when the Greeks laid waste to the city? For the first time, Mercury stopped thinking about how he was going to bring about the sack of Troy and started thinking about why he was doing it. To further some vaguely defined “Divine Plan”? Or worse, because it was a good career move?
    “Are you OK, Sinon ?” asked the old man.
    “Yeah, just… the heat is getting to me. Need to sit down for a bit. Thanks for the kabuki.” Mercury wa ndered off into an alley and sunk to the ground in the shade of a clay brick building, laying the caduceus across his lap. The keeyaah had pretty much gone away, but somehow he felt even worse than before. The throbbing in his head had been replaced by a gnawing sensation in his gut. What was this? Guilt? Weren’t angels supposed to be immune to such feelings? And why should he feel guilty about doing his job, especially when doing his job meant advancing the Divine Plan? Wasn’t that what he had been created to do?
    He found himself trying to think of a way out – some way of making peace between the Greeks and the Trojans. It would be easy enough to keep the Greeks locked up inside the horse, but then what? Eventually, if he didn’t let them out, the Greeks would start calling for help. And then the Trojans would know they had been tricked, and they would break into the horse and massacre the Greeks. Even if Mercury could somehow keep one side from slaughtering the other, the result would be an impasse – just another chapter in the endless stalemate between Greece and Troy. Mercury would get fired and the Bureau would hire someone else to finish the job. Presumably that’s what Uzziel had in mind anyway: he would