CHAPTER SEVEN
It took a moment for my mind to clear, and for me to properly understand what he had just said.
The second that the full impact of it slammed into me, I threw myself back, rolling to the ground for my dagger. In one swift movement I had it unsheathed and was back on my feet, holding it at the ready.
He didn t seem concerned, though. If anything he seemed amused. Was the kiss not to your liking?
Who are you? I demanded, crouching into a fighting position.
His smile grew bigger. We ve already had this discussion. My name is Jason.
An Ilionian. I spat the word out.
Yes. I also just made that clear.
I used my dagger to point at the amber beads around his neck. You re wearing Pyronean beads. I thought you were a Pyronean nobleman.
I m not a nobleman. If he was at all concerned about me pointing a weapon at him, he didn t show it. He was the picture of ease and amusement. I m a sailor. First mate to Trierarch Nereus. He is the captain who oversees the transport of the maidens every year.
That was so much worse than simply being from Ilion. Jason was actively involved in the sacrifice of maidens. I raised my dagger higher.
He uncrossed his arms and took a step toward me. I held my ground while he kept speaking. I found a very accommodating Pyronean woman earlier today and she gave me these beads as a token of her affection.
Bile rose up in my throat. What was wrong with me? How could I have imagined that my soul had recognized his? I wondered what it said about me that I d thought I was fated to be with an Ilionian sailor who actively participated in killing innocent maidens and apparently had spent his entire first day in Locris kissing every woman he came across.
I scowled. He had just cheapened everything that had passed between us. It had meant nothing to him-I was just another willing woman who had been fool enough to fall for his charm. To not recognize the danger he presented.
I really was the stupid girl that Demaratus constantly accused me of being.
There were two things I wanted in that moment-the first was to return to my room and scrub everywhere he had kissed or touched me.
The second was to give him even a fraction of the pain he had just caused me. He was only a sailor. My father wouldn t be too angry with me for disemboweling a sailor, would he?
Especially one who took maidens to Ilion?
As if he could hear my thoughts, Jason said, You should put your dagger away. I wouldn t want you to hurt yourself.
I m not the one who is going to get hurt. I am going to cut out your lying tongue.
That would be a shame, seeing how much you just enjoyed it. He purred the words, his voice silky and slightly menacing. My body traitorously shivered, enjoying his tone and what he d said. I shook my head. I would not be tempted by him ever again. He took another step toward me.
You should have told me from the beginning that you were from Ilion!
What would be fun about that? To be fair, I didn t tell you anything. You made an assumption.
Jason was not going to turn this around on me. I tightened my hold on my weapon. I will slit your-
His movements were so quick that I didn t have time to react, to come up with a countermeasure. He swept my feet out from underneath me while simultaneously knocking my dagger out of my hand.
Before I could slam into the ground, he was there, catching and lowering me down the last bit. Then he pinned me into place, his hands holding down my wrists as he sat atop my hips, straddling me.
I struggled, attempting to move, but it was like being held by a stone wall. I was stuck.
We were both breathing hard as he stared down at me. My body tingled at his nearness and I tried to stop it. But it was as if it were working independently from my mind and I couldn t control its response.
His gaze dropped down to my lips and I was torn between wanting him to kiss me and finding a way to get my hands free so that I could squeeze the life from his neck.
For several long, aching, desperate heartbeats, I didn t know what he was going to do.
Or how I would respond to it.
Then his voice was low, full of deadly intensity. If you intend to slit your opponent s throat, you should not talk about it first. Do not hesitate. Act immediately. Your enemy will do the same.
I was going to headbutt him, but he moved out of the way so that I couldn t reach him while still managing to hold me down. I tried thrashing my torso up and had to strangle back a scream of frustration.
I will kill you, I told him.
You wouldn t be the first to try. I owe gambling debts in every port in the Acheron Sea. He flashed a charming smile and we lay there on the stone floor for a few moments more.
Until I remembered myself and my training. I stopped struggling and did the maneuver Demaratus had taught me. I bucked my hips up while yanking my elbows down. It caused him to lurch forward, releasing my wrists, and I grabbed his waist, pulling my head up against his stomach.
What? he said, but I was already moving. I locked my left arm around his right elbow, yanking it down, and used his surprise to roll us to the left. The second he was on his back, I pulled myself free and moved away from him.
My breath turned metallic as I put my hands up defensively and waited to see what he would do next.
He gave me another amused grin and stood up. He bowed slightly and then left the courtyard. Leaving me stunned and not sure what had just happened.
I couldn t believe that I d let him beat me and get me to the ground. I hadn t been that humiliated in a long time-not since I d first begun my training and had been a complete novice. It was the second time today that I had been caught off-guard and bested by a strange man.
Something I would not allow to happen again.
I located my dagger and picked up the tray. I had wanted to satiate my curiosity, to kiss a man before I was consigned to die, and this was the goddess having a laugh at my expense. She had sent me a man to kiss, only he was Ilionian.
It was frightening how easily Jason had disarmed and incapacitated me. I had completely forgotten myself because I d been so seduced by his kiss.
No wonder Demaratus had counseled me so many times to have self-control. To not let my emotions or feelings dictate my actions. Because I had done just that and wound up kissing my enemy.
I carried the tray and the dagger back to my bedroom. I kept checking behind me, like I expected to be followed.
But there was no one there.
I closed my door and locked it for good measure. Just in case. I set everything down and went over to my basin, pouring in cold water. I used a salt scrub on my face, determined to wash away all traces of Jason.
It wasn t working. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel his arms around me, crushing me to him, his mouth feverishly working mine, and my stomach tightened and swirled with that molten heat.
Bah. I made a sound of disgust. I should go tell Demaratus exactly what I d just done and then he could yell at me for a few hours and that might make me feel a bit better.
If nothing else it would at least distract me.
Instead I located the bands for my scabbard and tied the dagger to my thigh. That gave me some measure of relief.
But it did nothing to ease the wanting I felt, the heat prickling along the back of my neck from the idea of seeing Jason again. I had to get that under control somehow.
I briefly considered hiding in my room but knew that someone would come looking for me.
The dining hall was packed full of people eating and drinking, laughing.
With our enemies.
Although there wasn t much I could say on that matter, considering what I had just been doing with the enemy.
While Locrian festivities were more formal affairs, sitting at tables while being served our meal, the Ilionians had a more relaxed way of celebrating. The food was set out and the guests were free to partake of any of the dishes they wished. There probably had been a line earlier, but no one stood by the food tables now.
I hurried over and my eyes watered, my mouth salivating, at what lay in front of me. A roasted boar with an apple in its mouth. Lamb shanks crusted with onion, garlic, mint, and fennel. Hare stew, featuring carrots, turnips, leeks, and cabbage. Venison cooked with dill, cucumber, and garlic. Whole chickens roasted in butter, parsley, and thyme. Cyprus snails basted in wine, vinegar, and olive oil.
And that was just one table. There were so many others laden with all sorts of delights. There were vegetables-lettuce, radishes, asparagus, celery, artichokes-all prepared in a variety of ways. Some were mashed, some raw, some saut ed in sauces, others cooked with seasoning. There was also a massive spread of fruit-grapes, olives, apples, figs, pears, plums. Like the vegetables, they were offered in various forms-alone, in their own juices, drizzled with honey, cooked, dried.
I counted twelve different types of bread, with everything from unleavened flatbread to the coarse brown bread made from wheat to the soft, pillowy white bread made from the finest ground flour.
The desserts! My heart fluttered at the sight. There were cheesecakes drizzled in honey or grape molasses, honey cakes, dried figs, raisins and pomegranates, sweet rye buns, thin pastry embedded with walnuts, almonds and honey, fried dough laced with syrup, puddings, pastries cooked from flour and sweet flavorings.
Of course there were salt bowls everywhere. And in another nation, it might have seemed extravagant or excessive to offer so much, but it was going to quickly become the only good we had left to export.
There was a loud note blown from a horn and I turned to see what was happening. A life mage was on the dais. He wore a dark green tunic and had wrapped a thin cloak around himself so that only one arm could move.
An Ilionian servant approached with a plant in a terra-cotta flowerpot. He set the pot down on the table next to the life mage. The mage reached into his tunic and pulled out his amulet. The green gem sliver sparkled even in the torchlight.
The man closed his eyes and muttered some words to himself, his right hand waving over the plant. For several beats nothing happened, and then a large bulb started to grow at the top of the plant. It got bigger and bigger until it burst open, revealing a dark pink flower. The flower slowly opened until it became a full bloom.
The audience broke into respectful but bored applause as the life mage collapsed into a chair behind him, completely drained from that small bit of magic he d just displayed. He would remain that way, oblivious to the world, for several more hours. Doing magic seemed to severely drain the user.
No one was excited because we had seen this trick performed every year before the selection. I still remembered the first time I d witnessed it-it had shifted everything I had thought to be true. When my grandmother told me the ancient stories, how could I not believe? I had seen magic performed in front of me.
At last year s selection, after the mage had been roused, I had proceeded to get him very, very drunk. He had been a timid and quiet man who became the opposite when he drank.
He had shared a great wealth of information with me.
Most importantly, he had told me what had happened to the Locrian eye, which used to be housed in our temple.
After the curse, our eye had been taken by Ilionian mages. They had cut up the green gem into tiny pieces and each man took one for himself, embedding it into an amulet. They wore the destruction of our nation around their necks. Their amulets were passed from father to son and allowed them to do small, meaningless pieces of magic-like forcing things to grow or wither away. He had spoken of the power he felt while wearing it-a tiny, constant hum that buzzed against his chest.
After he d passed out, I d stolen his amulet. It did nothing for me, though. I hadn t felt the hum he d spoken of and I didn t know how to wield magic.
I had decided that there were two reasons it hadn t worked. First, the piece of the gem wasn t big enough. I would need the entire eye to restore Locris. The second, and most important, was that only men could wield the magic of the goddess.
Which meant I was going to have to kidnap an Ilionian life mage and bring him back with me after I stole their eye.
With the show over, I turned to get something to eat. I wanted to try everything and was having a difficult time deciding what to take first.
Good evening, beautiful Lia.
Jason was standing next to me, on my left. He d disarmed me, held me down, humiliated me in the worst way possible, and now he was mocking my appearance? I was not going to make a scene in my parents palace. Go away.
Is that any way to treat the man who gave you your first kiss?
Would he be able to stop me before I went for my dagger?
He leaned his head in so that his mouth was next to my ear. Look at how you flush. Very alluring.
I had to swallow hard and stop my eyeballs from rolling back into my head due to the sensation caused by the faintest brush of his lips against the shell of my ear. I reached for a chicken leg and put it on my plate, determined to ignore him.
Jason wasn t interested in being ignored. I thought I would come over here and inform you that if you d like to sneak off to a shadowed corner, I m available.
I m sure you are, I said through gritted teeth.
My body still flamed in response to his offer, though. He is my enemy, I tried to remind myself. I want to run him through, not kiss him .
But my trembling hands hadn t received the message.
I would have to request that you leave all pointed objects behind, though, he said. I prefer to keep all of my body parts where they are currently situated.
No deal, I shot back.
He laughed, but thankfully we were interrupted.
May I have your attention? My father s voice boomed across the hall. Thank you all for coming to celebrate the betrothal of my daughter Princess Kallisto to Lykaon, son of Pelias, of Ilion.
No mention of the selection that would take place tomorrow.
My sister smiled sweetly and waved to the crowd, who cheered for her.
And then her betrothed turned to face the room and I dropped my plate to the floor, where it broke.
The man standing next to my sister was the same man who had hit me.