Chapter Ninety-Seven
I stepped out into the sunlight, blinking with confusion. For a moment, I believed it was the lack of food that had left me baffled, but as I continued surveying the land, my disorientation deepened. Something felt different.
Sunlight alone could transform the land. A gray and overcast day, where white foam whipped up the water, made Themiscyra unrecognizable compared to a bright spring morning where horses ran through the shallows and dolphins danced in the break. But this was something different.
“Ares? What has happened here?” I said, unable to shake the dissociation that clouded me.
“Nothing but the passing of time,” he said.
“How much time?”
“Two moons.”
I gasped. Two moons? How? I had not eaten, not drunk more than a few sips of water. Tentatively, as if I were a newborn fawn, I examined the space around me, though it was not my eyes that guided me but my ears. The clanging of metal on metal drew me between the buildings.
“You should go, see what I have made for you,” Ares said.
I did not wait to be asked again. I found my pace quickening to a near run as I moved along the paths of Themiscyra, which I believed I knew so well. But where my city had once ended, yellow stones stretched out now instead.
It was the most beautiful construction I had ever seen. Cut into the hillside, the stadium was as large as fifty homes or more. Stone steps stretched upward with enough room to seat a thousand Amazons. In the center, two women battled on horseback, swords in their hands.
“What is this?” I turned to Ares. The overwhelming nature of the situation allowed me to forget the anger I should have felt at losing two moons in fervent union.
“Warriors need a proper place to train,” he said. “To watch each other fight. Do you approve, my queen?”
I walked slowly, delayed by my disbelief.
“You did this?” I said to Ares.
“I did. It is for you. Not a traditional wedding gift, but I hope you approve?”
My feet needed no instruction but wove a path toward the horses that were now approaching. Still, my pace was slow, and by the time I reached them, Althea had dismounted and was striding toward me.
“Otrera?” She embraced me tightly in a hug, yet I struggled to reciprocate.
“How? How did this come to be in only two moons?”
“In truth?” Althea shook her head. “We do not know. When the sun rose the day after the funeral, this was here, as if it had grown from the earth itself.”
“When did you say this was?”
“The first day you took the god as your husband.”
Her eyes flickered tentatively behind me to where Ares was listening in. I turned again to look at him.
“Thank you. I could not have imagined a better gift.”
“You are welcome. Now, do I get to see my new wife fight?”
A smile formed on my lips, not at the thought of sparring but at what it would allow me to do. Ride. The sudden urge was greater than any other, yet before I could call my steed’s name, a sharp stab in my side caused me to flinch.
“My queen?” Althea looked at me with concern, but I waved it away. For two moons, I had been the plaything of a god. It was surprising I was not more battered and bruised.
“Where is Erebus?” I said to Althea. “Has anyone ridden him while I was…occupied?”
“You think he would let anybody but you upon his back?” She laughed. “He is waiting near the stable. I think he has been keeping guard.”
“Good. Then have someone fetch him. I will greet the women in the stadium.”
Despite our friendship, I expected her to move at my order, but instead, Althea stepped forward and blocked my route.
“Otrera, there is something we must discuss. While you were…occupied…we had a request to fight. There is a king in south Anatolia who has said he will pay us handsomely for our time and skills. We were practicing here only until you were ready to give the order that we could go.”
“A request? How did you hear from him? Were there men in Themiscyra?” Once again, the same sharp pain struck, lingering just a fraction longer. Still, I held Althea’s gaze the best I could, more concerned about the trespassers on our land.
“No, it was a woman who brought word of his request. One of our nomads.”
“Who?” I knew it would not be the mysterious Zehra, now that Ares had admitted his part there. “Who has returned?”
My heart clenched. For all that I had lost and gained already, there was little I needed.
But I longed for things that could never be returned to me, people who would forever be lost. But there was one thing, or rather one person, who could still return.
I did not care that my husband, the god who had married me for my warrior prowess, was still standing behind me.
My desire for my friend was not a weakness.
“Iphinone?” I whispered.
Althea’s face held the answer.
The joy flooded through me with such a surge that my body convulsed, and I struggled to remain standing.
“Iphinone is back? I must go greet her. Where is she? Where can I find her?”
I tried to turn, only to find my body off balance.
My head spun as if I had stood up too quickly, yet I had been standing the entire time.
When Althea reached out to steady me, I flinched in response and twisted around to view my husband, fearful of how he would react to his new wife, struggling in such a manner. But he was gone.
“Iphinone, I need to find her. Where is she?”
“She will find you soon enough, my queen, but now you need to return to your chamber.” Althea’s voice was firm.
“My chamber? No. Why?”
“Because I believe you are about to give birth.”