Chapter Twenty-Six
When we reached the palace, Kunguru flew inside and we followed. He landed directly in front of the council chambers, where the doors were shut. I pushed against them.
Locked.
I wouldn’t be able to climb up to the roof here and break in. But there was something else I could do. “Dea Erinys.”
As the power surged into me, I took a few steps back and then threw my shoulder against the doors, as hard as I could. I felt the doors give way.
“What is the meaning of this?” Pelias demanded as we entered the room.
I shut off my aspect and then turned to the guards who had carried the terawolf for us. “You can drop that. Go and locate Prince Alexandros and tell him he’s needed.”
The only people in the room were the archons and Erisa. There were no other guards, no nobles listening to the proceedings. Kunguru landed on my shoulder, and I whispered, “Find Xander. Bring him here immediately.”
He cawed and flew off. Something nefarious was happening. “Why were the doors locked?” I asked.
Themis seemed surprised. “The doors were locked? We weren’t told that.”
“It was a safety precaution,” Pelias practically sputtered, as if scrambling for an explanation.
Heliodora stood. “What is that?”
“A terawolf,” I said. “We fought it outside the city’s walls. We killed the rest of its pack. What is this secret meeting about?”
“It isn’t secret,” Pelias scoffed, his confidence quickly returning. “And you’re not entitled to know what it’s about because you are not a voting member of the council.”
Xander hadn’t said anything about whether I could stab Pelias. I let my fingers rest on the handle of my xiphos, but I didn’t unsheathe it.
“Erisa called for a meeting to discuss tonight’s events,” Themis told me. I was glad I had befriended her. “She seems to think this is some kind of show or manipulation orchestrated by your husband. To trick us into thinking that Ilion is being threatened.”
“You can’t possibly believe that,” I said, aghast. Xander would never. I gestured toward the terawolf. “You are being threatened.”
“And we’re to take your word for it?” Erisa sneered.
“That, and the creature that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years that is dead at my feet.” I hoped my eyes were conveying the message that I would gladly add her to the pile of things killed to save Ilion.
Erisa glowered at me. “Lies.”
“I suppose that’s an easy assertion to make when you’re here cowering behind the palace walls and not out at the docks helping like Prince Alexandros is,” I heatedly responded.
Perhaps it was because I’d called on my fury aspect so many times this evening, but hatred and rage for this woman boiled through my blood.
No one in this room could stop me. I could run over and slit her throat before anyone could even react.
I heard yells and other noises, and they got louder, as if headed toward us. Relief engulfed me when I saw Xander striding in.
He dragged a dead body in each hand. He took them directly to the council table and the archons all recoiled.
“These are Carian soldiers,” he announced as he dropped them.
“They have a tattoo of a hammer on their chests, indicating their allegiance. I have brought them as proof. They have rebuilt their nation and are coming to destroy all of Ilion. You can no longer put your head in the sand and wish this away. Or believe the lies that my father’s second wife has told you. ”
Erisa was not intimidated by him, even though she should have been. “Why are you bothering to pretend like you need the council’s approval for anything? We know about how you have been bringing noncitizens into the city.”
“Those are Ilionian people. I don’t care if they’re from Troas. They deserve protection and safety.”
“You should care,” she countered. “Where do we put them? What do they eat? Have you even bothered to think about the practicalities?”
“We have more than enough. We can share.”
Neither Zethus nor Pelias seemed to like Xander’s response, and none of the council members spoke.
“Tonight is proof that we have enemies intent on destroying us,” he continued. “A choice must be made. You either follow someone who doesn’t know what’s happening in her own city or you elect me as king and let me protect Ilion—”
“He is the worst choice,” Erisa interjected.
“I am everything the council wants!” he roared back. “My father’s trueborn son, married and stable, willing and able to lead this fight.”
This seemed to be the opening Erisa had been waiting for. “You want this council to believe that your marriage is a happy one? That you and your bride love each other?”
My breath caught. What did she know?
“They hate one another,” Erisa said. “Letting Alexandros become king could very well bring us to the brink of war with Locris because of how he treats his wife.”
I wanted to say that was ridiculous, because even if we did despise one another, Locris did not have the means to launch any kind of fight on my behalf.
“That is not what I have witnessed,” Stolos said.
“Nor I,” said Themis as she nodded at me.
“The entire city just watched them kiss.” Heliodora sounded slightly confused. I walked over to Xander and put my hand in his. His long, warm fingers wrapped tightly around mine.
Our relationship seemed to be something that actually interested Zethus. He said, “The guards have spoken about the noises they’ve heard coming out of their bedroom.”
Xander had told me once that his guards weren’t gossips, and I had to guess that he had told them to spread that information.
For this very moment.
“We have all seen them together,” Pelias said. “The matron reported that she saw the blood on their wedding sheets.” It didn’t seem to bring him any joy to contradict Erisa.
“Those bloodstains could have come from anything! A false marriage cannot produce the heir that Ilion needs!” Erisa seemed to sense that she was losing ground.
And I was ready to push her over the edge to make sure Xander was named king.
I put a hand over my womb and smiled serenely. “This marriage is true and I am pregnant.”
My husband tensed slightly next to me, and I saw a mixture of expressions on the council members’ faces—from Erisa’s hatred to Themis’s excitement.
“Congrat—”
“No!” Erisa cut Themis off. “That isn’t possible!”
Did she have proof? Or was this merely a guess? The desperate flails of a drowning woman?
“I can prove it,” Io said. “The healers have a potion that indicates whether a woman is pregnant. I can bring it here and prove that Princess Thalia is indeed carrying the heir of Ilion.”
“Go,” Stolos said, and she turned to run out of the room. Suri got Ahyana to help her with the terawolf, and I supposed they meant to carry it back to their room for the scroll.
Zalira stayed right behind me, her hands near her waist so that she could quickly grab her sword if need be.
Xander leaned down to brush his lips across my left ear in what probably looked like a caress. “What are you doing?”
“What I promised,” I whispered back. “Getting you the throne of Ilion.”
The room stayed silent as we waited for Io. I had no idea what she had planned but I trusted her. Thankfully, she didn’t take long to return, and she brought Parthenia with her. Suri and Ahyana were a step behind.
Io demonstrated the potion for the council, much as she had with us. When she took Parthenia’s blood and added it to the mixture, it turned blue. Io asked Heliodora if she could use her blood to show what it did for a woman who wasn’t pregnant and the liquid stayed clear.
“Now Princess Thalia,” she said. She came over and drew my blood and I watched as she used a different drop from the one she’d taken from me—the council couldn’t see her sleight of hand as she switched them.
The liquid turned a bright blue. “There! You see?” she said triumphantly. “Princess Thalia is pregnant!”
The former queen went apoplectic. “None of that means anything! I don’t trust Iolanthe!”
“You are questioning a princess of royal blood?” Xander asked with a raised eyebrow, and Erisa immediately stopped. That wasn’t a path she could go down. She was totally reliant on her son’s “royal blood” to make him king.
Even though she knew that Kyros was not the child of her late husband.
She wanted to use her lie to get her son on the throne, so I would use my lie to keep him off it.
“If tonight was an attack by some unknown enemy,” Erisa said, “then it’s happened before. Where was your great leader when people in the weapons quarter were killed?”
“Investigating the attack in Lycia while you sat here, on the council, and failed to notice the enemy at our doorstep,” Xander said quietly, and I saw the moment when Erisa realized her miscalculation.
She couldn’t paint him as an ineffective leader when she had been in a similar position of power, and the city had been attacked under her watch.
“How long until the main Carian army reaches Troas?” Stolos asked. I saw the panic on Erisa’s face. The council seemed to be accepting reality and not listening to her alternate theories.
“We don’t know,” Xander admitted. “Something happened to our spy network and we have been left in the dark, without information. It will depend on where they’re coming from.
They might be marching on us already, or they might still be preparing before they come here.
I can tell you that they’re not within three days’ travel—that’s the latest reports I’ve received. ”
“If the army is not close, then what was the purpose in attacking the docks?” Zethus asked, surprising me.
“They’re causing fear,” Xander said. “It was an extremely small force. They ruined some ships, burned down a couple of buildings, but the fight was over before it began.”
It made me think of how Lysimache had talked about using terror to make a populace cower. It was what she had done to Locris.
Xander continued his explanation. “But we don’t know when or if they’ll strike again.
It will unnerve and unsettle the people.
Which is why you need a strong leader in place.
The citizens will feel less afraid when they know that we’re making certain to protect them to the best of our abilities.
And not wasting our time and money throwing unnecessary celebrations. ”
Erisa opened her mouth to speak, but Stolos interrupted. “Perhaps we should try to reach out to the Carians. Should we not be a people of peace?”
“While it is admirable to desire peace, our enemy has already declared war against us,” Xander said. “People of peace are not safe unless you have people of action at your side. We have the goddess-given right to defend ourselves and those we love from harm.”
Erisa seized on the door Stolos had opened. “If we are truly under attack, then we should try to sue for peace. We do not need to go to war.”
“That is ironic, coming from you.” Thrax entered the room with the man I’d identified at the party. His wrists were tied together.
To her credit, Erisa didn’t seem ruffled. “How dare you speak to me that way!”
Thrax nudged the man. “Tell them what you told me ten minutes ago.”
“My name is Diocles. I work for Erisa. My twin brother and I, along with many others, were hired to kill the Locrian maiden while she was at the temple. We did not succeed and I barely escaped with my life. Erisa also hired assassins to attack the princess in her rooms here at the palace, trying to kill her. The queen was attempting to destroy the marriage of Princess Thalia and Prince Alexandros.” His voice was dull and pained, as if he didn’t want to say the words.
“You cannot believe such blatant lies!” Erisa screamed, banging her hands against the table.
“What were you doing when I caught you?” Thrax asked.
“I was on my way to deliver a message to the attackers at the docks for the queen. Saying that if they would kill Prince Alexandros, she would open the city gates to them.”
“What has he offered you?” Erisa demanded. “Obviously the prince and his men are now bribing people to lie on their behalf!”
“Diocles was given a truth serum laced with a compulsion element that forces him to answer. He cannot lie and he cannot stay quiet,” Xander said. “Io can verify the validity of the serum, as she is the one who created it.”
Io nodded. “We have used it on others and it works perfectly.”
“I invite the council to interrogate him further, if you would like,” Xander offered.
“The prince is desperate and will say and do anything to get his way!” The former queen looked as if she were about to go mad. I’d never seen her so disheveled before.
“Erisa is right. I am desperate,” Xander said.
“Because war is here. We have to stop behaving as if everything is fine when it’s not.
We can no longer pretend it away with parties and bribes or hide it behind assassination attempts.
It all needs to stop. Now is the time to decide.
Be people of action. Who do you want leading you?
Choose me as king and let’s save our city. ”