The shedding of clothing is no great thing. Hektor has heard the Thracians do as much, stripping down to race into battle wearing nothing more than the blue paint they dye into their skins. But after that. . .

Kou'te-bpe will not know the words, and Rhene is not likely to either, but a soft invocation of the oldest gods of all in Hekabe's native Phrygian tongue can be heard. And that is all Hektor does; it is costing him much, not to raise his hand at once in the sign against evil.