Chapter Thirty-One
We spent the rest of the day preparing. Practicing our magic, working on moving past our previous limits.
Io took charge of the food and supplies we would need for the trip.
She didn’t speak much to anyone, which was so unlike her.
It made me feel guilty. As if I’d disappointed her when I hadn’t meant to.
I didn’t dwell on it, though. Because all day long my mind kept recalling the dream I’d had of myself about to die at Artemisia’s hands. Reliving over and over the moment when that massive hammer had been about to flatten me.
Part of me felt scared, as if I were being shown exactly how I would die, but the rest of me was terrified about what would happen to Xander. I refused to let him join me in death.
If Ahyana’s theory was correct and we saw the light around people we loved . . . then the magic seemed to believe that I loved Xander.
Was I willing to possibly forfeit retrieving the greatest weapon in order to save my husband?
I was afraid that I was. Afraid that these feelings I refused to name were driving me to protect him in any way that I could.
I was willing to put everything aside, risk my own worthiness, to make sure that he lived. He was part of the prophecy. He had to survive. So I would make sure that he did.
And it surprised me how calm I felt about making that decision.
When he finally returned to our room, it was late. I could see on his face how tired he was. And that he was upset.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I reached out to my mother’s brother today to ask for his assistance with the war.”
“In Olyer?” I asked. When he nodded I said, “How could they help? You said they were a poor nation.”
“They were a poor nation. When my father paid his bride price, my grandfather took the money and a page out of Ilion’s books.
He built ships and a blockade in the straits between the mainland and their island.
Going around Olyer takes extra time—heading through the straits is safer and faster.
People are willing to pay to pass. It has made them very wealthy.
That’s why they sent us the horses for our wedding. To show off how rich they have become.”
“Rich because of your father,” I said. Olyer’s success only existed because of Ilion.
He took a letter from his belt and handed it to me. He sat down next to me on the bed. “I sent Rokh with a message to my uncle, asking for him to send men and ships. And to block the Carians if they mean to sail along the coast. This was his response.”
I opened the letter—it was extremely short.
King Alexandros,
I do not address you as “nephew” because you are nothing to me.
I have not been a part of your life for a reason.
My sister loathed your father. He made her life miserable and she ended it just to escape him.
She loved another but your father was too selfish to let her go and be happy.
I would never help the son of the man who did that.
—King Pausanias
My mouth dropped open. I had to read through it again to make certain that I had understood it correctly. How could this man treat his own family this way?
“Olyer would be easy for the Carians to reach. He might be in danger as well,” I said, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.
Xander didn’t seem mad. Just resigned. “If they come by land, the Carians will have to pass through Apasus first. Perhaps they will call for aid.”
“Do you think the Apatians will fight?”
“I’m not sure if the Carians will attack. But the Apatians are the ones who were in the best position to witness how Caria was growing. We are supposed to be allies but they never passed that information along.”
“Perhaps they didn’t want to get involved,” I said.
He nodded. “Possibly. And they might be paying for that decision now. And if the Carians are attacking, that might affect when they arrive at Troas. Which makes last night’s attack make even less sense.
Why send a small force like that? I understand why they hit the weapons quarter and eliminated the priestesses, but I don’t understand what was essentially a pointless skirmish. ”
“If you were in their position, why would you do it?”
He frowned slightly, considering. “As I’ve said, in part to cause fear. The citizens never know when or where another strike will happen. But there’s part of me that thinks it was meant to be a distraction. But a distraction from what?”
I had no idea why the Carians might want to create a distraction. “They couldn’t have picked a better time. Attacking the docks while the citizens were relaxed and celebrating. It’s made me wonder if that means that there are still Carians here in the city. Hiding in plain sight.”
“I’ve considered that repeatedly since last night,” he said. “How else would they have known? There must be people here feeding them information. Using messenger birds.”
Tomorrow I would talk to Ahyana about that. Maybe she could direct all the birds away from Troas to make sure that no more messages could go out.
But that might also hinder whatever Xander was doing.
“There’s a Daemonian outpost in Olyer. Rokh tried to approach them to ask if they would join our fight, but they refused to speak to him in Common. Do you know any Daemonian?” he asked.
“Only swear words.”
“That might actually help,” he said with a tired smile. He leaned forward, as if he intended to kiss me.
Then he seemed to realize what he was about to do and straightened up. “Did I tell you I interrogated a life mage?”
“You did?”
“I gave him truth serum.”
“You can’t just do that,” I said.
“I can. I’m his king. He is subject to me.”
“Or you could have asked him nicely and I’m sure he would have told you whatever you wanted to know. What did you ask him?”
“I asked him about your pleasures-of-the-flesh situation. He verified that you had to abstain in order to do magic.”
Why did I feel disappointed? I knew it was the truth.
“What if he’s wrong?” Xander asked me carefully.
If the life mage was wrong . . . I would have wasted a lot of time that I could have spent naked with my husband. “I don’t think he is.”
Because I didn’t know what the actual rules were, and what Lysimache and other high priestesses had tampered with, there was no way for me to be sure.
I supposed it didn’t matter now. I had made up my mind to break our physical link the only way I knew how.
But I wasn’t sure how to go about it. My seduction attempt last night had been successful. This was entirely different, though.
“The life mage repeatedly told me women couldn’t do magic. Which I know for a fact isn’t true,” he said. “Which made me think his information might not be accurate.”
“I think magic was always intended for women.”
“You might be right, considering what happened at training today. I needed to work out some . . . aggression. I drank your fountain water.”
He had? “What happened?”
“It made me so fast and strong that Thrax couldn’t keep up with me at all. There wasn’t anyone I could fight.”
I wanted to laugh. He actually sounded disappointed. I might have created a monster. “So should we distribute it to everyone in Troas? Make all the soldiers strong?”
“It won’t work. I gave some to Thrax and Stephanos and they both got violently ill. They threw it all up. They’re fine now.”
“Why can you drink it?”
“Maybe because I’m goddess-blessed.”
If the magic had been intended for women, it made sense that it wouldn’t work on most men.
But my husband was not most men.
“Perhaps we should spar to test it out. You with the fountain water against me with my aspect,” I said. That would be an easy way to get physical with him and let one thing lead to another.
“A different night, maybe. I’m too tired.”
Luna snorted in her sleep, and it reminded me of all the things I hadn’t told Xander about what my adelphia and I had discovered. That I needed him to not be his usual overprotective self and let me go look for the greatest weapon.
“Do you remember when you thought I had broken into your treasury?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed. “Yes. Why? Did you do it again?”
“No.” I tried not to sound indignant. “But I did do it back then.”
He briefly looked triumphant that I had admitted to it but he didn’t interrupt me.
“Suri went with me and I asked her for what I was supposed to find in there. I thought you were keeping something from me. She found a scroll labeled ‘the greatest weapon.’ It was blank. And we tried to figure out how to make it reveal its secrets. We stumbled on how to solve it by accident.” I explained how Io had spilled water on it and how we added each of the elements until there was only one left.
“Aether,” he correctly surmised. “And that’s why you brought the terawolf back. Because they’re supposed to be part aether dragon.”
He was so clever. “Yes. But it didn’t work. Until we realized that we already had an aether dragon.”
His eyes went wide. “You’ve been keeping an aether dragon from me?”
“No, you know her. Luna.”
Silence. Then: “Are you telling me your lizard is an aether dragon?”
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t toss her out the window?”
“Now I think I definitely should,” he said. “We don’t know anything about aether dragons. What they can do. How big she’s going to get. She won’t fit in the palace at the rate she’s growing. And she is growing so fast. I thought you were doing some kind of magic on her to make her get bigger.”
“It’s her own magic. I think it happens while she sleeps.”
He craned his neck to look at her. “Are those wings on her back?” he asked incredulously.
“I think so.”
“So now she’s going to fly and spread her silver mess everywhere.”
“It’s actually aether that’s falling off her,” I said, and he smiled as he shook his head.
“What is the greatest weapon?” he asked.
I hesitated for a moment. This wasn’t something I wanted getting out. But I knew I could trust him.
“Io thinks it might be the goddess’s golden sword that she used to create life. If it is, then we would have a god-weapon to use against Artemisia’s. The cave where it’s located is in Mount Idaia. We want to leave tomorrow to find out what’s there.”
He surprised me with his response. He nodded and said, “Obviously I’m going with you.”
“You were just crowned king,” I reminded him. “You can’t go, and we have to.”
“If you have to, then so do I.”
No, he had to stay here and rule. Get Troas prepared. “What if Erisa makes some kind of move while you’re gone? Or Pelias?”
“She’s locked in her rooms. And I’m not concerned about Pelias. I’ll leave Thrax here to keep an eye on things for me.”
“What will you tell the council?”
He shrugged. “I’ll tell them I’m going to meet with some delegation in person. The Thracians or the Apatians.”
That would give him the excuse he needed, but this mission had to be kept secret. “I need to ask a favor of you. Could you please not tell your phratry brothers what we’re looking for?”
“I don’t lie to them,” he immediately responded.
“I’m not asking you to lie. But tell them something vague. Like we’re looking for something that might help with the war. We don’t even know if this weapon is there. What if somebody else removed it a long time ago? I don’t want word to get out, especially if we fail.”
And I didn’t want word reaching Artemisia. I wanted her surprised when we fought.
“My brothers are trustworthy,” he insisted.
Dolion wasn’t. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him but I didn’t. I didn’t want to create a schism in their brotherhood. “Would you please do this for me?”
He had told me that I only had to ask and he would do it. “Fine. I won’t tell them. But won’t they see what you get when we’re all in the cave?”
I hadn’t told him about the writing on the scroll. I explained what it said about the worthy savior and that no man or beast could enter the cave. I half expected him to lodge another objection that he wouldn’t let us go in there without him, but to my surprise he didn’t.
Instead he yawned. “I’m going to take a bath. We can talk more about this tomorrow.”
He got up and went into the washroom.
And he didn’t lock the door.
Presenting me with the perfect opportunity to finally consummate our marriage.