Greek Warriors

A strange banging noise interrupted Tom. He and Isis crept along the sand dunes until they came to a dense clump of fir trees. A band of workmen was hammering away at an enormous sculpture made from tree trunks. Some of them were arguing with a group of soldiers.

“Whatever is that thing?” Isis asked, pointing to the looming object.

Tom grinned with delight. “It’s a horse. Can’t you see? Legs, head, tail!” Tom had read about the legendary battle of Troy. Could this possibly be the wooden horse that had changed the course of the Trojan War?

Isis squinted at the pile of trunks. “That’s a horse? The Greeks weren’t very good with a hammer and chisel, were they? Not a patch on the Egyptians.”

Before Tom could plan their next move, Isis and Cleo were strutting towards the craftsmen.

“You lot!” Isis shouted, hands on hips. “You’ve done the horse’s legs far too short. And what’s with the wheels? Horses don’t have wheels! Can’t you see that the head makes it look like a giant cow?”

The workmen turned round to face Isis with confused faces. They looked as though they hadn’t understood her. But Tom knew that, thanks to Anubis’s magic, everyone could understand them wherever they went.

One of the men stooped down and stared at Isis.

“A cow?!” he said. “It looks nothing like a cow! There must be something wrong with your eyes if you can’t see that it’s a horse. You got a fever, son?” He slapped a rough hand on to Isis’s forehead.

Isis batted the man away. “Ugh! Leave me alone! What is this… thing?”

The man looked proudly up at the wooden horse. “This is an offering to the gods, of course!” he said. “The siege is going so badly, we thought we’d make something to tip things in our favour.”

Suddenly, the squabbling soldiers rounded on Tom, Isis, Cleo and the workmen. Their daggers were drawn and pointing right at them.

The ringleader picked out Isis. “The boy with the stupid hair is right,” he growled. “If you lot had made the horse better, we might have broken down those walls by now!”

“I’m not a bo—” Isis began to protest.

Tom nudged her. “Shh! Don’t let them know you’re a girl,” he whispered in Isis’s ear. “We might need to pass ourselves off as soldiers.”

Isis nodded and held her tongue.

Another angry soldier poked one of the workmen in the chest. He had a sweaty face and fierce, dark eyes. “It’s your fault we’re losing the war,” he snarled.

The band of soldiers waved their fists in the air at the carpenters.

“We blame you!” they yelled.

“Get them, boys!” shouted the ringleader.

There was a swoosh by Tom’s ear as a sword cut through the air. Then a deafening clang as it clashed against a carpenter’s saw.

“You have displeased the gods!” the sword-wielding soldier cried. “Your wooden cow is terrible.”

“It’s not a cow. It’s a horse, you idiot!” the workman shouted, waving his saw. “We’re going to win the war with that!”

The group of soldiers and workmen were locked in a tussle that would have had Ares, the Greek god of war, in a spin.

No wonder they’re losing the war, thought Tom. They’re too busy fighting each other.

Tom looked for Isis and Cleo in the fray. Cleo was darting through the men’s legs and digging her claws into their shins. But where was Isis?

“Let me through, you big, sweaty brutes!” Tom heard her cry.

Finally he caught sight of her, kicking out at the men as they rained punches down on each other.

“Isis!” Tom shouted, elbowing a soldier in the belly. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

He held out his hand towards her. Isis was just about to take it when Tom spotted a tall, muscly carpenter holding a hammer above his head.

“Out of my way, Spartan child soldier!”

Tom squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the hammer to attack him. But the blow didn’t come.

“Stop this fighting at once, you mules!” a commanding voice bellowed.

Tom opened his eyes to see his attacker being pushed to the ground by an older man. He wore a fine breastplate and a helmet topped with a red plume.

“Commanders! Come to my aid!” the man shouted.

As Tom and Isis finally managed to prise themselves free, three important-looking men ran out of a large red tent pitched nearby.

Tom could see the outside was decorated with the upside-down V symbol.