Chapter Forty-Five
I stayed with Xander all night. There wasn’t anything I could do to help him, and he couldn’t hear me, but I could be there with him. Artemisia had guards remove the general’s body, and she came in to personally administer more poison to Xander.
He didn’t call out but I could see that it was affecting him. I wondered if it was interfering with our connection and that was why I couldn’t feel him.
“Lia?”
I woke up to Zalira shaking me. “You were sleeping so deeply. I was concerned.”
“Because I was night walking. I found Xander.” I shared with my sisters everything that I had seen and heard.
I turned to Io. “Do you have poison antidotes with you?”
“Yes. I overpacked. And we’ll give him some fortification potions, if we need to.” She looked very worried but determined.
“Artemisia killed the general of her army?” Ahyana asked, wrapping her arms around herself.
Without hesitation. As easily as breathing. It didn’t even seem like something she had considered—she had just acted and it had ended in a man’s death.
A man who was trying to come to an agreement with Xander and stop this war before it even started. I nodded.
“Let’s get ready,” Zalira suggested, and we all moved off to change out of our shirts and pants back into our tunics, packing up our bags.
I took the goddess’s sword and put it into the sheath strapped to my leg. I moved my xiphos to my waistband. I wanted to make sure I had access to both weapons when I needed them.
When everyone was dressed, I saw that Suri had removed the wrappings on her arms. We all knew about her scars because of the terawolf attack, when she’d been bitten, but she had still chosen to wrap her arms every day.
That had changed this morning.
And I was glad that it had.
I smiled at her and she smiled back with a nod.
Luna still slept and I had Io hand her to me once I climbed up onto my horse. I put my little dragon in front of me, keeping one hand on her so that she wouldn’t slip off. Ahyana led the way, since thanks to the falcon, she knew where the camp was located.
Io brought up the rear. As the most experienced rider, she was in charge of bringing along Xander’s horse for when we found him. He would need a way to ride back to Troas.
The hours we spent riding gave me time to think. I wasn’t much of a planner, but an actual plan had started to come together in my mind. I had come up with a way to sneak into the camp and bring Xander back out without putting anyone else at risk and without alerting any guards.
I didn’t want us to have to fight our way clear. I didn’t think we’d be able to do it. Even with my power and his gift, there would be too many soldiers.
We came to a small village in the late afternoon. While my sisters procured some extra feed for the horses, I found a woman willing to sell me one of her outfits, a basket, and two sheets.
I put the sheets into the basket and then placed Luna on top. I lashed the basket to my horse so that I wouldn’t have to worry about Luna accidentally falling.
Because I wanted to go faster. To push the horses to their limits. To get to the Carian camp as soon as possible.
But Io counseled against it. I knew she was right but I hated how long it was taking.
I spent all those hours solidifying my plan. I thought of what Quynh had said to me when she explained why she had chosen to become a kitchen maid.
Women are so often overlooked. Men don’t believe that we could be smarter than them or that we’re capable of defeating them, and so we’re always perceived as not being a threat.
And it was Demaratus who had taught me about campaigning armies.
They were always followed by a supply train that contained food for the soldiers and their animals, water for everyone, ammunition, carts for transporting spoils of war, a way to repair armor and weapons—it was essentially a mobile village.
He had been completely drunk while telling me about it, waving his arms about. “If you can destroy the supply train, you can take down the entire army!”
That wasn’t the part that interested me. The supply train was usually well protected, as the army relied so heavily on it. No, the part that I was planning on exploiting was that the train was populated almost entirely by women.
There were hetaerae, of course, but also cooks. Laundresses. Healers. Seamstresses. Weavers. Foragers. They didn’t fight and were only there to serve the army.
Servants who, in Quynh’s words, were “unnoticed, unseen, forgotten.”
It would be my way in.
We were also being slowed down by the terrain. Unlike the forests and grasslands near Troas, the area north of the Syrilline Mountains was full of hills and valleys, some with only one passageway. Ahyana had to call on some different birds to scout for her to find the correct paths.
We stopped to eat at dinnertime. I was eager to keep going, but Io told me that it was imperative that the horses be able to drink and rest because we didn’t want to risk injuring them.
“So I think I’m ready to see that sword,” Ahyana said. “If you’ll let me.”
I didn’t see any reason why not. I took it out of the sheath and handed it to her. She took it gingerly, as if she half expected it to explode in her hands.
Ahyana swished the sword from side to side. “What do you think will happen if I say the words?”
“Third-degree burns,” Io said.
“I want to try. I’m curious.” Ahyana held the sword away from her body. “Dea Nikos.”
Nothing happened.
She had squinted her eyes shut and opened them in disappointment.
“Maybe it’s broken. Or maybe it only worked in the cave. You try,” she said, handing the sword back to me.
“Dea Nikos.” It immediately went up in flames. I hurriedly turned it off, worried that if Artemisia had scouts in the area, they would spot it.
“You do know that it’s unfair that you can do that, don’t you?” Ahyana asked with a smile and shake of her head. “All those abilities.”
My eyes widened at her words. Maybe this was what the sphinx had meant. She had said I had “many.”
Io came to the same conclusion. “Lia, you have many powers. Many aspects.”
I had at least three so far. Did I have others? I wished I had a list of aspects in front of me so that I could say each one and see what happened.
“How? Why?” I asked.
“Do I have to say ‘because you’re the savior’ again?” Io asked.
What else could I do?
When we resumed our travels, I went through the aspects that I could remember. It was difficult to recall them because my brain wanted to focus on Xander and freeing him.
But of the ones I did say, nothing happened.
It was nearly midnight when Ahyana turned to us and said, “We’re here. They’re just over this ridge.”
We tied the horses to the base of the hill and climbed up to see the army. We crawled on our bellies to peer over the ridgeline.
The moon was full but we wouldn’t have needed it. There were so many campfires dotting the ground beneath us—an ocean of people and fires, lighting up the landscape like the stars in the sky. We couldn’t even see where it ended—the back part of the army was hidden behind some hills.
“By the goddess,” Zalira whispered.
None of us had known how large this army was.
“What is—” Io reached down and pulled something out from underneath her ankle.
It was a black bird with an arrow through it. Ahyana took it from her and anger made her voice shake. “A raven. Dolion is killing them just like he said he would. In case any of them are Rokh.”
Why couldn’t I feel Xander? Maybe the poison was affecting him, but we were close enough now that I should be able to sense him again.
I would not allow myself to consider the possibility that he was dead.
“Let’s go back down the hill,” I said. I was sure we were far enough away not to be heard but didn’t want to risk someone noticing us.
When we reached the bottom, Zalira asked, “What’s the plan?”
“You think Lia has a plan?” Ahyana responded, elbowing her sister slightly.
“I do have one. And it involves me going in alone.”
They all started to speak at once, even Suri, but I held up my hands.
“This is not about me doing it alone or wanting to leave you behind. I know we’re stronger together.
This is about how getting in and out will be so much easier with one person than it would be with five. We will draw too much attention.”
“She’s right,” Io said sadly as she sat on the ground.
“And I’m in the best position to fight my way out if something happens,” I added, not wanting to leave out any of my arguments.
Zalira crossed her arms over her chest. “What if you do need our help?”
“Then I’ll use the sword. I’ll light it quickly and then put it out. Watch for it. If you see it, then come running.” I said this to appease them. I had no intention of putting any of them at risk if I could help it.
“How do you plan on sneaking in and not getting caught?” Io looked up at me, and I sat down next to her before I answered.
“I’m going to dress up like one of the women following the army.
I’m going to need a heavy rain from Zalira and I’ll just walk in.
And when I have him, I’ll need a distraction when I’m coming out, so I’ll need you to watch for me to help me escape.
I thought you could do that, Ahyana. What can fly in the rain? ”
“Everything can fly in the rain,” she said. “But they don’t like to. It’s much harder; the water weighs them down and they have to fight against it. I’ll probably call up wasps. Flying in rain infuriates them.”
It sounded perfect.
Io reached into her bag and pulled out a fortification potion and passed it to me. “Why do you want rain?”
“It will mean fewer people will be out of their tents and those that are will be miserable. They’ll be more concerned with their own discomfort than challenging me.”
Ahyana took a potion from Io as well. “Are you going now? Under the cover of night?”
“No. The only people moving around the camp right now are guards. I would stand out. The women will be up early in the morning, getting ready for the day. That’s when I’ll slip in.”
“How will you know where to go?” Zalira asked as she put her fortification potion in her pouch.
“My old battle master told me that generals were all different in where they would be in the camp—some insisted being in the middle so that they were the most protected. But others wanted to be up front, where the action would be if they were attacked. I think Artemisia will be in the front. But I need Ahyana to verify that for me.”
She nodded, drank her potion, and called up her aspect. “Dea Karpophoroi.” I heard the shriek of a bat in the distance and waited while she used it to scout.
When she turned the magic off, she said, “There is a tent, much larger than the others, near the front. It has a red banner with a picture of a terawolf on it.”
The other symbol of Arion. “That’s where they’ll be.”
We probably should have slept, but none of us could manage it. Instead we ran over my plan a thousand times, thinking of all the ways it might go wrong and what I could do to circumvent them.
The backup plan mostly consisted of “fight my way out.”
When dawn began to approach, I changed into the outfit that I had bought from the villager, covering my head with a scarf. Io took the still-sleeping Luna, and I used the basket and sheets as a prop, hoping that people’s eyes would pass over me as soon as they saw me.
We moved into position closer to the camp. My entry point would also be my exit point so that my sisters could easily see me.
“Ready?” I asked.
Zalira nodded and called on her aspect. The rain started falling immediately, dramatically. I was already soaked.
“I’ll be back,” I promised them.
I stayed among the trees to disguise my approach. I sucked in a deep breath before I headed out to the open area, where the guards would be able to see me. I hurried toward the camp, as one would if they had been caught in a downpour.
Demaratus had told me once that the secret to slipping behind enemy lines was that if I behaved as if I belonged, people would believe that I did.
I had reached the first tent when I heard a voice call out, “You there! Where are you coming from?”
My heart was thundering in my chest. “I was relieving myself,” I told the guard who came over to me. He poked at my basket with his sword.
“Back about your duties,” he said, dismissing me.
It had worked! Excited, I walked through the tents, heading toward my goal. The red dirt beneath my feet had turned to mud, and it coated my sandals. As I had suspected, these terrible conditions ensured that there was hardly anyone outside. They were all in their tents keeping dry.
Except . . . three people were headed toward me.
And I realized the one in the middle was Artemisia, flanked by two officers.
My vengeance told me that this was my chance. That I could easily kill all three, take the eye, and go.
But I decided not to.
I chose Xander’s safety instead.
Stupid girl, she’s going to recognize you! Hide!
Demaratus’s voice was like it had been in the temple—so clear that it sounded as if he were standing right next to me.
I darted into the nearest tent, hoping that it was empty. I didn’t see anyone and said a quick prayer that the goddess would keep me safe. I watched through the tent flap as Artemisia and her men passed by.
A weak, soft voice rose up from behind me.
“Euthalia of Locris, I have been waiting for you.”