Chapter Eleven
When I reached the weapons quarter, I felt a bit ridiculous because I wasn’t sure how to track Xander down. I started walking and was dismayed by the chaos surrounding me. Buildings had been obliterated by fire, and there were ashes and chunks of stone in the street.
What kind of fire could burn hot enough to destroy brick and cement?
“Lia?”
I turned to see Dolion, who smiled broadly at me. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “Did you come to see me?”
“No, I was looking for Xander.”
His face fell slightly, and my heart twinged at the thought that I might have hurt his feelings. I was about to apologize when he said, “The last time I saw him, he was over near the armor smiths. Two blocks north and then three blocks west.”
It felt like I should say something to him, but he turned his back on me and walked off. He had offered to be my friend and I worried that I’d been so caught up in my own life that I hadn’t been a very good friend to him.
But then he went around a corner, so instead of trying to talk to him, I turned and followed the directions he had given me, darting in between the mess that littered the streets.
People were out doing their best to clean up, but I could tell that it would take a long time for the quarter to be restored.
Heat poured out of the various armorer and weaponsmith buildings, accompanied by the sound of hammers banging against metal.
I stopped to watch as one man hammered out a shield with flecks of metal flying—smoothing it out, knocking the dents from it, forming it into shape before plunging it back into the fire.
It’s what had happened to me since I’d come to Ilion.
I was constantly being battered and reshaped by my experiences, forged into something new.
Something useful. A shield to safeguard these people, to be wielded in battle.
My prejudices and anger being hammered out of me, forging me into a better person.
I wouldn’t have chosen it, but I was glad it had happened. All that I’d witnessed, all that I’d lived through and survived, it had changed me. In some ways it had hardened me, but in others I’d been softened. Brave but vulnerable. Strong but gentle. Battle ready but desiring peace.
Softness wasn’t a negative thing. It allowed me to be a more compassionate and caring person.
I spotted Xander with a group of men putting up a scaffolding around a column so that it could be mended. He was down here working with his people, helping them. Not back in the palace planning a party. I wished the archons of the council could see this.
He straightened his back and turned his head to the side, as if he sensed something. Then he rotated around and saw me, and the moment his eyes met mine, my heart immediately started thumping.
Would I ever get accustomed to him? Was I forever doomed to heart palpitations because of how handsome he was?
He stalked over to me, his long legs closing the distance quickly.
“There you are!” I said when he was close enough. “Thrax said you were here and—”
“You came alone?” He stopped directly in front of me and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I can protect myself. I’m armed and I have power.” I said the last word softly so that no one would be able to overhear.
“A power that lasts for a few moments and then you pass out. Leaving you completely vulnerable.”
He didn’t need to be so protective. “As you can see, I’m fine. Nothing happened. You are worrying too much.”
He waved one of his arms toward the broken buildings behind him. “I don’t think I am.”
That was probably fair. “I understand. I’ll try to be more careful in the future.”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead in surprise. “Come over here,” he said and walked off, clearly expecting that I would follow. I did, but it slightly annoyed me.
He led me to a makeshift outdoor tavern and pulled out a chair for me. “Sit.”
“Why don’t you ever ask things nicely?” I did sit but my annoyance was increasing.
“What?” he asked as he took his own seat.
A barmaid approached and Xander said, “Bring us two beers.”
She nodded and headed off, and I said, “There’s a perfect example. You demand. You give commanding orders. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say ‘please.’ I thought princes were supposed to have manners.”
“Life would be easier if people would do what I say. I expect to be obeyed.”
It did feel like he was trying to provoke me. “I am not obedient.”
“I noticed,” he said dryly.
“My mother taught me that ‘please’ is a magic word. That people are more likely to do what you want if you ask politely.”
He shook his head. Like I was the ridiculous one.
“You could also ask people what they want before you place an order for them,” I said. “I don’t like beer. I would prefer wine.”
“I think both you and I should steer clear of wine for the time being.”
That filled my head with images I did not need in there.
I wasn’t going to allow myself to get riled up.
I tried to imagine why he was being so gruff with me right now.
I knew he was upset that I had traveled here alone, which I probably shouldn’t have done.
The last time he’d warned me about something like this, he’d been shot with a poison dart trying to protect me.
It probably didn’t help that things were so awful in this area. These were his people. There had been such a loss of life, so much destruction. It must have been hard on him. “I’m glad you’re here helping. This is so terrible.”
He ran a hand over his face and let out a tired sigh. “We arrive at places too late. I keep thinking that if we’d been here earlier, we could have stopped them.”
By “we” did he mean me and him? Or was he talking about his phratry brothers? “You can’t think that way. We’ll be there the next time.”
“And if we’re not?”
“We can only do our best and rely on the goddess for the rest.”
The barmaid returned with our drinks, putting them down in front of us. I thanked her and she hurried off to serve another customer. Xander took some coins out of his pouch and put them on the table. Then he took a long drink from his cup.
One of the coins rolled and fell off the edge. I leaned down to pick it up and noticed the red dirt that hadn’t been cleared away from the ground yet.
“Do you have any theories about the dirt?” I asked.
“None. Nobody seems to know anything about it.” His frustration was evident.
“Well, Lysimache said she spent a lot of time culling books and texts so that no one would figure out what she was doing.”
“Maybe after you’ve finished questioning her, I should take a stab at it,” he said before knocking back more of his drink. I pushed my beer over to him in case he wanted more. I didn’t think it would be a good idea for him to interrogate Lysimache because he might actually stab her.
“Io is coming up with a potion that will make her talk. She hopes to be done by tomorrow morning.”
He made a grunting sound and took my cup to drink.
Lysimache had to know about the dirt since she had plotted with Artemisia.
Although she had repeatedly told me at the temple that she didn’t know who Artemisia had pledged her allegiance to and didn’t care, she might have been lying. I supposed we would find out soon.
I would uncover what I could, but I also needed to make sure that I gave as much information to Xander as possible. “There are at least two different groups trying to kill me.”
He set my cup down and leaned toward me. “What do you mean?”
“The attack at the temple, the one with Io . . .” I sucked in a deep breath, hoping that he would remember he had apologized for blaming me that Io had gotten hurt.
“Those people did not have red dirt. And they were specifically looking for me. The Locrian maiden. They wanted me dead and they nearly succeeded. And the red-dirt attackers are also looking for me.”
His honey-colored eyes flickered over to my left shoulder, where I had been stabbed. Then his gaze returned to mine, watching me intently, but he didn’t say anything. And that was almost worse—the quiet before the storm.
When he finally spoke it startled me a little. “The red-dirt attackers are after the city as a whole.”
While I had told him about the pirates before, I hadn’t given him the entire truth. “The pirates on the Nikos—that wasn’t random or an accident. They had come looking for Quynh and me.”
“How do you know?”
“The men that came down into the bottom hold—the ones you killed? They told me. They didn’t say who they were or where they’d come from, but they knew that we were Locrian and wanted to take us with them. They tried to present themselves as our liberators, but I could tell something wasn’t right.”
“Erisa,” he said. “We know that she’s behind one of those groups, if not both.”
“As you said earlier, we have to assume that she’s not working with the red-dirt enemies because they do seem intent on killing as many Ilionians as possible.
” We had already discussed the possibility that she might be involved with that group, but it didn’t make sense. She would be left with nothing.
He nodded. “I hope Lysimache has answers as to how the pirates came looking for you specifically, because I can’t imagine how they could have known or why they would try to take you.”
That was true. How could an enemy we weren’t even aware of know who Quynh and I were? “Maybe they hoped to capture us so that Troas would be punished by the goddess for not doing the tribute race.”
“Perhaps.” Xander was like me in that he also didn’t like not having answers. “But how could Erisa have known who you were? That attack at the temple—there was no reason for her to kill some unknown woman from Locris.”
“That means she must have known exactly who I was. She was trying to prevent us getting married.”
“And what, because you believe that I knew who you were from the beginning, I must have told her?”
“No! Because you never would have shared that with her.” I knew that for an absolute fact.
“Do you think someone from Locris betrayed you?” He had that tone that indicated he was going to hunt someone down if I answered yes.
“It’s hard to explain to an outsider but the selection is sacred to us. We promise to never reveal the identities of the tributes. I don’t think a Locrian would have told her. But the only Ilionian who knew who I was . . .” My mind started racing as I began to put things together.
“Who?”
“The witness.” The man sent by the Ilionians to make certain that the Locrian maidens who boarded their ship were the same ones whose names had been drawn. A man who was mute and uneducated so that he couldn’t reveal those identities to anyone in Ilion.
“I saw him on the ship and can verify that his tongue is gone,” Xander said. “He couldn’t have told anyone.”
That made me think of Suri. “What if the witness has another way to communicate? That night when we went to the Golden Lamb, I thought I saw the witness there. What if he was following me?”
“Why didn’t you say something then?”
“Because I thought I had imagined it and I thought you were just a sailor.”
He started drumming his fingers against the table. “So if he’s working for Erisa, then somehow he told her that you were my betrothed and she decided to get rid of you before we could be married to stop me from becoming king.”
“This might be what you’ve been looking for. If you can find the witness and prove that he can communicate, you can expose Erisa.” I felt genuine hope. This could help him become king.
My excitement was echoed in his expression. “He shouldn’t be hard to find. Not with that public of a job.”
Xander and I both stood up at the same time and I wanted to celebrate. To hug him, kiss him, do something because we were in this together. And we were finally making some headway.
“I have been looking everywhere for you!” Rokh said as he approached from my left. “You were supposed to wait for me at the safe house. Ahyana wants you to come to the temple to practice your . . . particular skill set.”
“Go,” Xander said. “Take her to the temple and then come back. I have an assignment for you.”
I spoke up. “But I was hoping that we could . . . talk more.” I wished Rokh weren’t here to witness me being pathetic.
“Practice and we can talk later tonight.” He rushed off to start whatever plans he had come up with.
While it wasn’t what I had hoped for, I was happy that he hadn’t shut me out again.
As I walked off with Rokh, I wondered how my husband would react if I did as Quynh suggested tonight and told him how I felt about him.
I suspected I wouldn’t be brave enough to do it.