Chapter Forty-Five
The boys stared at me in disbelief.
“Your fathers are dead,” I said again. “They beat and raped your mothers and sisters, made their lives unbearable. I believe you know this. I believe you know the torture they inflicted on your families all their lives. This spring, a woman was killed at the hand of her husband. We vowed it would not happen again.”
The boys stood motionless. A slight whistle in the wind rustled the remaining leaves.
“Our fathers are dead,” one of them choked out. “All of them?”
“We were left with no choice,” I said. Some heard. Others did not.
“Murderer!” Kakos threw himself at me, but I was ready. I swung my bow around my arm, nocked the arrow, and drew back the string. The silver tip quivered in the pale light.
“I have killed enough men with this bow already. Do not add your name to the list.”
He bared his teeth and growled as though he were a wolf intending to devour a flock, not a goatherd whose role it was to tend it. He wished to intimidate me. Yet to intimidate, there must be fear of consequence.
“Kakos, I understand your anger and hurt, but we have been blessed by the gods. They ensured our triumph over the men who beat us. They offered gifts and feasts when we succeeded, the likes of which Ninniya had never seen before. All we want is for every person in the village to live without fear. There is a place for you there, houses solely for your use. But no longer will you live with your mothers and sisters. If you can agree to that, then you can stay through the winters the way you always have.”
Some of the young men nodded the moment our eyes met; others lowered their gaze in fear or disrespect. But one pair of eyes remained locked on mine for just a heartbeat longer. Cleon. The one who led the younger men. He who had no ties to the village now that his mother had passed.
“Thank you. Thank you for protecting them,” he said.
Kakos shuddered. “It is only because she did not murder your father that you can say such a thing,” he said, though Cleon ignored him and continued.
“My father broke my mother’s arms more times than I can recall. Mine too when I was young. I thank you for what you did.”
“I do not need your thanks,” I responded honestly. “We just pray we do not have to live such lives again.”
Cleon nodded and spoke again. His voice was not loud, yet he had the ability to hold the attention of every person around him. His beard was not a light dusting but a full and dark face. This was not a child. This was a man looking at me.
“We will not exploit the hospitality that you and Phile are generously showing us. We will adhere to your rules.”
Kakos balked. “Hospitality? She is not allowing us into our own homes. To see our own families.” He moved toward me, only to notice how, even through all my conversation, the tip of my arrow had not moved. It was still pointed firmly at him. He stepped back again.
“No one is forbidding you from seeing your family,” I responded. “Nor from spending time with them. I only ask that you do not trespass into their homes. Things have changed in Ninniya. For the better, we hope.” Given his mother, I should not have been surprised that Kakos took umbrage at my words.
“She speaks as if she is a queen.” He lifted his hands as he addressed the rest of the group.
“She cannot do this. She cannot put these conditions on us! We will not accept an order from a madwoman. I do not think you even killed our fathers. My bet is that they are in the tavern, laughing at Morsimus’s crazy bitch of a wife.
Come.” He beckoned to the rest of the young men. “I will show you.”
Half a dozen of the younger boys started to leave with him, but I was ready.
But even as I released my arrow, I questioned the wisdom of my action.
A slight movement by one of the younger boys could have made this end in tragedy.
Yet once again, the gods were with me. The arrow whistled past Kakos’s ear so closely the feathers tickled his skin.
Eyes bulging, he turned slowly back to face me.
The smirk that had twisted his lips was gone.
“Next time, I will aim as I did with your fathers. To kill,” I said. “I will not tell you again. You may come to Ninniya and live by our rules or not at all. That choice is yours.”
Truthfully, I wanted him to leave and to take all those like him.
I knew it would cause pain to Glykeria, among others, but I prayed he would turn on his heels and walk off into the dusk.
For if he came with us to Ninniya, I knew darkness would fall upon us again.
I knew this in my bones, but I had promised.
I could not turn their sons away just because I felt myself blessed with a new prophetic intuition, so I waited for his response.
“Fine. We will live by your rules,” Kakos spat. “For now.”