Chapter Four
We set out early the next morning. Fortunately for me, the crossroads were only two miles away from where we had camped. I felt an acute relief that we would be headed in two different directions—her to Thrace and me to Calydon. I didn’t know if I could take another three days of lectures.
Her parting words to me were “Think about what I said,” before she sped off on her horse.
Did she honestly think I was going to think about anything else?
The outrage and betrayal threatened to overwhelm me, so I didn’t allow myself to ruminate on my mother choosing Katisa. There wasn’t anything wrong with my sister—she just wasn’t me.
How could I make my mother see that?
Strategy had never been one of my strengths. I was more of a “point me in the right direction and let me smash things” kind of woman. My mother was exceedingly clever, and all last night I hadn’t been able to think of a way to convince her or change her mind.
I wish I’d known before we left Ilion. Thrax would have concocted a marvelous scheme.
Katisa would have come up with something.
I told that inner voice to be quiet. If it was Invara speaking to me, as Lia thought, then the goddess should keep her opinions to herself because I wasn’t interested in them.
“If you have something that might help me, I’m happy to listen,” I said out loud. “But otherwise, leave me alone.”
The sky above me chose that moment to thunder and quake from a sudden storm and it felt like some kind of supernatural admonishment. I urged my horse to go faster so that we could reach Calydon before we got soaked.
I had just arrived at a stable in Calydon when the rain began pouring down—it was like a giant waterfall had opened above us.
After I had paid the stable master his fee to house my horse, I asked where the town’s archon could be found.
He told me how to find the administrative building, and it sounded as if it was the farthest point from where we were.
Sighing, I set out. I could have waited at the stables for the rain to clear up but I wanted to complete my mission and return home. Lia and Xander would be waiting and I didn’t want to disappoint them.
Every part of me was drenched when I reached the administrative building. I told the person who opened the door that the king and queen had sent me to speak to the archon. He hurried me into a small sitting room and told me to wait.
I felt bad that I was soaking the rug beneath my feet. A few minutes later the door opened and an older woman walked into the room. Her servant closed the door so that we were alone.
“Greetings. I am Archon Nikaia. I understand that you have a message for me from the king and queen,” she said.
Confused, I shook my head. “No, I am Basileia from Thrace, relative to Alexandros and Thalia, and I was told that you had urgently requested the king and queen to come and visit you. That you needed to see them.”
“No such message was sent from me.” Archon Nikaia looked confused, too.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I’d never been sent on what was essentially a diplomatic mission.
Was there some kind of bigger plan at play here?
Was I being lied to? I didn’t want to make unfounded accusations.
The archon seemed honest and her reaction genuine.
“Is it possible someone else sent it?” I asked.
“If they had, that would be against our protocol. All messages like that would have to gain my approval first.”
We stood in silence for a few moments as my clothes continued to soak the floor. Had Lia sent me on a wild-goose chase?
Given how she felt about geese, I found that hard to imagine.
“Let me investigate,” Archon Nikaia said. “I will find out where the request originated from, and then I will send a message of my own to the palace in Troas.”
That worked for me. It would mean my part in this was over and I could return home.
“Thank you, Archon.”
She opened the door and I walked through it and over to the front door.
Where the rain had not stopped.
My plan had been to camp outside tonight, but this would make it impossible. I briefly considered going over and staying in the stable with my horse, but I didn’t want to sleep in wet hay.
Which meant I’d have to go to an inn.
Sighing again, I asked the servant holding the door for me where I could find a reputable one. His eyebrows lifted at my question, and he said, “The Red Dragon comes closest to what you require.” He gave me directions and said I’d recognize it by the red dragon painted on a sign out front.
I’d always been good at finding my way, but the rain made it difficult. I could barely see.
When I finally located it, I hurried inside and felt a mixture of annoyance and trepidation. I had naively hoped that the common room would be empty, given the hour, but it was filled with men, who were loud and drunk.
The innkeeper seemed surprised when I asked him for a private room. I supposed that the type of women who frequented this establishment most likely shared their rooms. But I wasn’t a hetaera, and if anyone mistook me for one, we were going to have a problem.
“Room 9. Second floor, all the way in the back,” the innkeeper said as he handed me a key. “There’s stew for supper and you can warm yourself by the fire.”
My stomach growled and I shivered. That was too good of an offer to pass up.
I headed into the common room and ignored the stares of the men around me.
I sat as close as I could to the roaring fire, holding out my hands to warm them.
A barmaid brought me some stew and I thanked her, holding it in my hands for a moment before I started to eat.
I didn’t know what kind of meat it had in it but I was too hungry to care.
As I ate, I saw a family come into the inn. They seemed scared. Which was a reasonable response, considering I was currently surrounded by thieves and cutthroats. The father was on the smaller side, and I doubted he’d be able to protect his wife and child from the beasts in this inn.
Fortunately, all the men in the common room were still watching me. I continued to eat while keeping an eye on the family.
Their little girl smiled at me, and her smile reminded me of Minha’s. My mother seemed perfectly fine with the fact that Thrax was keeping his daughter. So why had it upset me so much that Minha wouldn’t be training with us?
I was not one to examine my feelings too closely. They’d never done me any good, so they were easy to ignore. But this time I had to. I needed to understand why I felt this way.
Minha’s absence shouldn’t have been an issue because there would be cousins and distant relatives sent to us, along with other nieces and nephews.
So why did it matter so much?
The answer broke through like sunbeams after the rain.
Thrax. He was the reason.
Out of all my mother’s children, Thrax and I had been the closest. We were less than a year apart in age and he had been my best friend. I missed my brother. Having his daughter with us would’ve been like having a piece of him back home.
I missed having someone like him in my life. I didn’t have friends and I didn’t have much in common with my other siblings.
But I was happy for him. I loved Quynh and I loved that they were so . . .
My mother’s words filled my mind.
At peace. Content.
It wasn’t something I would have admitted to anyone else, but my mother had been right.
I did feel something being in Troas. Part of me envied Lia her close relationships with her family, her adelphia, her daughter, her husband.
I had nothing like that. Even at that going-away celebration, where I knew everyone loved me and thought of me as a sister, I felt outside of them.
Like I was looking through a window and watching them while not actually being part of it.
I wondered how much of that was my fault. I prized my independence above all else, and Thrax had commented on more than one occasion that I sometimes had a tendency of pushing people away and shutting them out.
Was that true?
“Passing through?”
It took me a moment to realize the question had been directed at me. Normally in this situation I wouldn’t respond. Drunk villains who frequented inns did not need any sort of encouragement. It would make me feel bad if I was forced to stain the rugs with their blood.
But I still had all of their focus, which meant they weren’t paying attention to the family by the door. I could keep them occupied until that family made it safely to their room.
“Yes,” I finally responded.
The man who had asked the initial question sat with four others. My adrenaline spiked—these men were dangerous.
They also weren’t drunk like the others. They were clear-eyed and watched me the way a predator would its prey.
Of the group, one stood out—he was objectively handsome. He looked cleaner than the others, his gaze shrewd and calculating.
I had often found that men like him were the worst of the worst.
“Are you on your way to the tournament?” a different man asked me. I kept my eyes on them, not wanting to risk glancing at the family and having someone see what I was looking at.
“What tournament?”
The men let out a collective guffaw as if they found this hilarious. “The tournament in Sagaris,” the same man said, as if this were something I should have already known.
“I’ve never heard of the tournament or Sagaris,” I said, waiting impatiently until I could end this conversation. I took another bite of the stew.
A wadded piece of papyrus landed on the table in front of me.
They were lucky it hadn’t landed in my bowl.
I flattened out the parchment and glanced at it, as if I could read it.
It had been a long day. These were not the kind of men that you showed any sort of weakness to. It only encouraged terrible behavior.
“Because we’re going to the tournament and perhaps we could all ride together,” the handsome man said. I supposed his smile was supposed to be charming but it only seemed cold to me. “We consider it our sacred obligation to protect women and would be happy to escort you and keep you safe.”
I heard the innkeeper say something about retrieving linens and he left. I willed him to go faster.
“Why would I go to this tournament?” I asked.
That finally earned me a moment of silence as they all stared at me in disbelief.
“Do you know what prizes they’re awarding? A bag of gold bigger than a man’s head!”
I told myself not to make a cutting remark about there not being a bag bigger than their heads. I stayed quiet.
“They’re giving the victor a magical rope from Phrygia!”
That meant nothing to me, either. What would I do with a rope?
“And a diviner stone!”
I couldn’t help myself. “What’s a diviner stone?”
“You can ask it any question you want, any question, and it will give you an honest answer.”
Chills danced across my skin. While I’d been annoyed with Invara earlier, this was it. This was how I would become leader of my clan.
I would ask this diviner stone what I needed to do to change my mother’s mind.
It sounded like I was going to have to enter a tournament. “Where is Sagaris?”
The handsome man spoke again. “It’s a day’s ride across the Wastelands, due east from here.”
The Wastelands were a neutral territory—none of the surrounding nations wished to claim that desert.
No wonder I hadn’t heard of Sagaris. Who would set up in the middle of the Wastelands?
“The desert can be a dangerous place,” the handsome man continued. “You really should ride with us. And then perhaps you could think of a way that you could . . . repay us.”
“We don’t mind sharing,” another man added.
All of them laughed, letting me know exactly how they expected to be repaid. Bastards.
The family finally got their linens and their key, and the second that I heard their door lock, I stood up. “I’d rather ride with a pit of poisonous vipers.”
Then I invited them all to do something that was anatomically impossible to themselves.
I gave myself one second to savor their shock and anger before heading up to my room.
My clothes were damp and I hung them up to finish drying. I got into the bed but didn’t go to sleep. I hoped the men were smart enough to stay away, but I needed to remain awake in case they weren’t.
Sure enough, four hours later, I heard them on the landing. They were moving stealthily down the hallway.
“She’s in that last room,” someone whispered.
I already had my sword out as I got up to stand near the door. Anticipation of the upcoming battle made my limbs feel light.
“If you wish to live to see the morning, I would suggest you return to your own rooms,” I called out. “If you enter my room, I will kill you.”
That made them fall silent, as they apparently considered my words.
Then one of them said, “She’s only one weak woman. How much damage could she do?”
I gripped my sword more tightly.
They were about to find out.