Chapter 54
The moon carved her smile into the sky, a gleaming, bone-white slash.
Her rays painted the midnight waves a stark silver, the only splash of color in a starless night. As I stared out from the shore, I could not see where the sky ended and the sea began; it was just an endless expanse yawning before me, eerily calm.
“It’s too quiet,” I murmured.
Penelope stood beside me, limned by the weak flicker of my oil lamp. If she was afraid, she did not show it.
“Are you sure this will work?” Skaris asked, her sword already in her hand.
“I suppose we will find out,” Penelope said evenly.
“That’s comforting,” Actoris muttered. She was standing a little way from me, and I could scarcely make her out in the dim light. Behind her, Hippodamia and Autonoe carried a chest between them.
“Remember what I said,” Penelope murmured to us. “Run at the first sign of danger.”
I nodded, skimming the dagger concealed in my gown for reassurance as I scanned the empty harbor before us.
It was the same decrepit spot where I had met my brother years before—hardly the location for a grand royal arrival, but the secluded location promised secrecy.
At least that was what Penelope had hoped when she instructed Telemachus to use this harbor upon his return.
The silence was suffocating. Nothing stirred, as if life itself had ceased to exist in this tiny, forgotten corner of the island.
“So do we just…wait for them to arrive?” Hippodamia asked, her voice loud against the stillness.
Penelope shook her head once. “They are already here.”
As if waiting for this cue, figures began to slink forward, peeling themselves from the night like strips of darkness given life.
I stiffened, instinctively inching closer to Penelope.
In return, her fingers brushed mine, just the lightest grazing of skin, but it was enough to steady my racing heart.
“Well, ain’t this a surprise,” came a voice from the blackness. It was somehow both rough and mellifluous, like swathes of delicate linen ripped across jagged rocks. “We was expectin’ a prince, not a queen.”
The glow from my oil lamp did not quite reach the stranger, so I could only make out his edges—a tall, narrow build, a thick beard, and the undeniable gleam of a blade.
“You know who I am then,” Penelope said, her voice impressively steady.
“O’ course. Everyone knows of Odysseus’s obedient little wife,” the voice purred. “To what do we owe this pleasure?”
In the darkness beyond, figures shifted. I glanced sidelong at Skaris, noting the tension in her muscles. We were armed, but we knew this was not a fight we could win. Six of us against a crew of pirates. It was laughable, really.
“I know of the deal you have with Eurymachus,” Penelope said.
The moon caught on the man’s grin, making his teeth glint. “I cannot confirm nor deny my business, love. It’s all hush-hush. You understand, I’m sure.” His voice then dropped to a low, husky murmur. “I admire you tryin’ though. You’re a brave girl. Stupid but brave. Not always the best pair, mind.”
“You misunderstand me,” Penelope said flatly. “I am not here to expose Eurymachus’s deal. I am here to offer you a better one.”
A gravelly laugh rumbled from the man’s throat. Then he leaned forward, just enough that we could see his dark eyes and the edges of a jagged scar cut along his forehead.
“I do love a woman who can surprise me.” He somehow managed to make every word sound dangerously intimate on his tongue. “Go on then, love. Tell me what this deal o’ yours is.”
“I want you to come to my palace on the day of Apollo’s festival and slaughter every suitor within its walls,” Penelope said. “Once every man is dead, every single one, you may take whatever you desire. I will ensure ample payment.”
“Well, well, well,” the stranger mused, leaning back so the night swallowed him once more. “That sounds like a lotta work to me. Why shouldn’t we just take you now, seeing as you’ve fallen so eagerly into our laps? I’m sure we’d get a pretty ransom for a queen.”
I stiffened at that, but Penelope countered the threat unflinchingly. “Nobody will pay you for my life. My husband is gone, and the suitors would be all too glad to be rid of me. I would be a waste of space aboard your ship.”
“Well, you could always serve as entertainment for the lads. They do enjoy their playthings.”
Chuckles rippled around us, making my stomach roil.
“I am offering you the opportunity to plunder a palace, and you would prefer a plaything?” Penelope tutted. “How unambitious of you.”
“You better watch that tongue, love. Remember, you’re the one that’s out here all alone. You really believe your girls can protect you?” He snorted softly. “It’s almost insultin’, really.”
“And you really believe I came here alone? I’m insulted you think me so foolish.” Penelope lifted her face to the sky. “Perhaps you are unfamiliar with Ithaca’s landscape, but the mountain ranges are perfect vantage points for archers.”
It was a bluff, of course, but one the stranger seemed to buy, perhaps because the truth was too ridiculous to seem plausible. After all, who would believe a queen would willingly meet with pirates in the dead of night with only her handmaids at her side?
The stranger shifted. “Eurymachus is payin’ us handsomely, you know.”
“I will pay more.”
“How can we be sure?”
Penelope signaled, and Hippodamia and Autonoe shuffled forward, then set down the chest they carried. They opened the lid, and the gold inside glimmered beneath the light of my lamp.
“For three summers, I have housed over one hundred men in my palace, all vying for my affections. They leave me gifts regularly—gold, jewels, trinkets. Desperation can make men so very generous.” Penelope motioned to the chest. “This is just a taste. The rest awaits you in my palace, ready to be claimed. If you accept my terms.”
The shadows pressed in closer, lured by the treasure.
“And what are these ‘terms’?”
Penelope smiled. “I have three. First, you will call off the attack on my son. Second, you are to slay only the suitors within the palace. No other soul on this island is to be harmed. And last, you are never to speak a word of this. If anyone asks you about the attack, you are to tell them Eurymachus did not honor his payment, so you took what was rightfully yours.”
The man chuckled at that, the sound scraping against the darkness. “How devious you are. You might even have some pirate blood in you.”
Penelope lifted her chin a little higher. “Do we have a deal?”
My heartbeat quickened. One command. That was all it would take. One command and we could be captured, slaughtered, or worse…
Skaris shifted beside me, reaffirming her grip on her sword. Actoris mirrored the movement, looking surprisingly ferocious despite her tiny stature.
The silence held, the seconds passing sickeningly slowly.
Then a large, scarred hand shot out from the darkness.
“You have yourself a deal,” he said.
The queen of Ithaca did not smile as she took the pirate’s hand and shook.