According to some old legends, the real name of the
Trojan Cassandra was Taraxandra - and I have often thought they were
actually not one, but two. Twin girls, equally damned by the gods. This is
my idea of how things happened in reality during the Trojan war.

Russell Hemmell is a statistician and social
scientist from the U.K, passionate about astrophysics and speculative
fiction. Recent publications: Gone Lawn, Not One of Us, SQ Mag, and
others.

History lies.
So do myths.
People? They can't,
they don't know enough to manipulate the truth. I don't, either.


Her eyes go blank when
the visions come, but she can't see the future, and I can just make sense of
the past. What I say is my opinion
only, not of the elusive deities that inhabit her.

Warriors bow,
warriors leave, and go back to battle. Lies. Lies.


Otherwise, how nobody
has ever heard of Taraxandra,
and what she had done for the Trojans?

Hidden behind the mad
Cassandra,
I lie on the ground,
my breast equally untouched, sweat on my face.