44. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
After their confrontation in the tent, Alena didn’t see Leukos again until the next day. She ventured outside the tent, observing the rebels and their various tasks. At the far end of camp, a familiar head of dark hair drew her attention. Leukos was walking with Theo, inspecting weapons and supplies. Without even sparing her a glance, he disappeared inside the main tent. Xanthos and two other men trailed after them, arms loaded with parchments and maps.
Nik had been placed in a tent next to Alena’s. The rebels had refused to lend him any weapons, but when Alena returned from bathing in the lake with San, Nik was training with a wooden sword he’d fashioned for himself from a tree branch using a knife.
He’d retreated to the forest’s edge, lunging and striking at a peeling white birch tree. His arm muscles strained with every movement, and strands of dark blond hair stuck to his temples. The bruises that once marred his skin were almost healed, and his complexion had taken on a golden hue from his time spent outdoors.
“Don’t just stand there and watch, Red.” He wiped his forehead with his arm, panting. “Grab a sword and come train with me.”
She hesitated. “I’m not very good with a sword.”
“And yet your sister is formidable.” He faced her, shielding his face from the midday sun. “Why didn’t she teach you?”
A heavy feeling pressed down on Alena’s chest. “She tried, but I didn’t have her skill, so my father taught me the art of healing instead.”
Nik scoffed, resting his wooden blade against his shoulder. “And your sister has as much patience as the Sea God. That makes for poor training.”
Alena nodded. It was remarkable how well Nik seemed to have understood Katell, given their short time together.
“Kat grew frustrated when she realised I had none of her natural talent for archery and sword fighting. I tried my best, but… I don’t think it was enough for her.” Her voice fell quiet, and she swallowed her emotions. She shouldn’t have shared so much.
“I’ll teach you.” Nik clasped her shoulder, a promise gleaming in his blue eyes. “I owe you as much for saving my life. Grab a sword and we’ll train.”
She considered his offer. Apart from her sister, Nik was the best swordsman she’d ever seen. She could learn a lot from him. Nodding, she headed back to camp to find a sword and stumbled across Theo who grinned at her request and helped her choose a double-edged Achaean steel sword.
“Isn’t this dangerous?” she asked Nik when they faced each other. “What if I cut you by accident?”
He flashed her a smile. “That’s what makes it exciting.”
She wrinkled her nose and stood with her feet apart, as Katell had taught her. The sword was heavy in her hands, but if she ever wanted to save her sister and join the rebellion, then she needed to become stronger.
“Good stance.” Nik tested her grip by knocking his blade with hers. “All right, now try to hit me.”
She glanced from the very sharp tip of her blade to Nik’s simple tunic. He wasn’t wearing a single piece of armour.
“Don’t think, just attack.”
She thrust forward in a single motion, and he pushed her blade aside with ease.
“You’re scared of hurting me.” He took his stance again, tall and intimidating. “You’ll never learn how to use a sword if you’re scared of hurting your opponent, Red. Try again.”
She attacked, aiming for his ribs, and he deftly countered her blade with his.
“Better, keep going.”
They danced around, Alena attacking time and time again, chipping at Nik’s wooden blade as he parried each thrust.
“Keep moving your feet.” He hopped to one side and back again to emphasise his point. “The more you move around, the harder it is for your opponent to hit you. But don’t move so much that you lose your balance. You need to always keep your balance, you understand? When you lose control of your footing or blade, it’s over for you.”
He lunged, catching her by surprise, and she stumbled backwards in an ungraceful mess.
Nik’s grin widened, and she scowled, getting to her feet.
Brushing auburn strands out of her face, she lifted the sword. “Again.”
They practised for the rest of the day, stopping every so often for water. By the end, Alena’s arm muscles burned, and her back ached, yet she felt lighter than before.
Once she returned to her tent, she gulped down water from the ceramic jar outside and poured more over her sweaty face and hair to cool down.
A fire crackled from the pit behind the tent, where San was preparing a meal.
“That smells delicious.” Alena watched the mother stir a lentil and pea soup in a bronze cauldron hanging above the fire. “Where’s Kaixo?”
The mother glanced at the forest with a smile. “With Master. Hunting.” ‘Master’ was San’s name for Leukos.
Alena looked at the mass of trees casting impossibly long shadows in the sun’s dying light. “I’ll be right back.”
Tiny white flowers with star-shaped leaves speckled the grass by the forest’s edge. Alena followed an animal trail, listening for voices, until she stumbled upon Kaixo and Leukos, past some pine trees. The boy’s dirt-streaked face scrunched in concentration as he examined Leukos, who was crouched beside him. Both raised their heads at the sound of her approaching footsteps.
Kaixo scowled despite Alena’s smile. He hadn’t warmed up to her at all since the slave market.
“Are you teaching him to catch rabbits?” she asked Leukos. A simple snare made of twigs lay half-hidden in the ferns.
“He’s a fast learner.” Leukos passed the rope to Kaixo, then stood, ruffling the boy’s messy nut-brown hair. “He’ll catch rabbits in no time.”
The boy worked on the snare, making sure the twigs and ropes were secure. Leukos surveyed his handiwork, then nodded in approval. Kaixo’s grimy face lit up and, in his wild, carefree way, he sprinted past them, heading straight back to San.
Alena grinned at his antics. Though still underweight, he looked nothing like the scared boy she’d found in the crate.
For a moment, Leukos’ attention lingered on her before he turned away. As the sunlight faded, casting a warm golden glow across his skin, Alena found herself utterly captivated. Her gaze traced the elegant lines of his face, from the straight bridge of his nose to the defined edge of his jaw. He wore no armour save for arm guards. His sheathed sword hung gracefully from the belt at his waist, and his stance exuded a quiet but undeniable strength that stirred something within her.
“Walk with me back to camp?” he asked.
Tongue-tied, she nodded. They set off down the trail, side by side, accompanied by the incessant chatter of birds. The sunlight filtering through the leaves painted a mosaic of shadows on their path, rendering the forest inviting and comforting.
To one side, among a thicket of trees, a flash of fiery red fur and a bushy tail caught her eye. It couldn’t be—
“Alena.”
Startled, she jumped, her attention snapping back to Leukos. He was gazing straight ahead.
“I promised I’d help you find your sister and I will,” he said. “You don’t need to join the rebellion to find her.”
Her heart sank a little. He was offering her a way out even after she’d declared her intention to join his rebellion. Did he still think her weak? Had their encounter with the Blood Wolf, and then the events at Bruna, not proved him wrong?
She stopped in her tracks. Once Leukos noticed, he glanced back at her, his eyebrows pulled together.
“It’s dangerous, Alena. The Emperor has no mercy for rebels. If we’re caught, they’ll bring us to Kisra and throw us to the lions, or worse.”
Holding his gaze, she squared her shoulders. She might not be a warrior or Gifted like her sister, but being weak had never stopped her before. “I understand the dangers, but I didn’t decide to join you only to save Katell. I feel like I started something back in Bruna, in the arena—something that I need to finish. I can’t turn a blind eye to those suffering under the Empire’s rule. I know I’m not Gifted, but if I can somehow help you in your fight, then I will.”
His inscrutable mask revealed no hint of his emotions.
“Also, I’m sorry about what happened at the arena.” She’d been meaning to apologise to him for days, but his anger and bad mood during the ride to the camp had kept her away. “I shouldn’t have gone there with Agapios without telling you first. I put a lot of people in danger and caused you trouble.”
He shook his head, running a hand through his short raven locks. At some point since yesterday’s meeting, he’d trimmed his hair—shorter on the sides, but still dishevelled on top. It suited him. “There’s no need to apologise. I was angry, but you did what you thought was right. You saved those people. My only hope is that the legions don’t get involved and trace Bruna’s rebellion back to you. I hope you never have to live your life with a tracker on your heels.”
She stilled. The Blood Wolf knew her name, and the slaves of Bruna had been shouting it in the streets. “Do you think he’ll go to Bruna?”
Leukos’ expression turned grim. “If he does, he’ll know we were there. We escaped last time in part because he’d been expecting the Sea God’s Mark. But he won’t make the same mistake twice. His wolves will recognise my scent in the arena. Yours, too.”
“And then he’ll know we were lying.”
A cold shudder travelled down her spine. If they ever crossed paths again with the Gifted tracker, his wolves would tear them to pieces.
“Alena.” She glanced up, and the sheer intensity of Leukos’ gaze rooted her to the spot. “Whether he finds us or not, I won’t let anything happen to you.” He moved closer, and her mouth ran dry. “I’ll protect you, always.”
Warmth bloomed across her face. Her sister had often uttered the same words, but this—this was different. Leukos’ words traced over her skin and nestled inside her heart.
An undeniable tension hung in the air between them. A tension that both sparked her pulse and rattled her nerves.
His gaze dropped to her lips. When she thought her heart might burst from anticipation, he drew back and released a short breath. “I promised your sister I would take care of you, after all. I am bound by honour.”
He set off again, and a sharp pang of disappointment shot through her.
Of course. His promise to Katell. She’d gotten carried away by the candour of his words when in reality, the honourable Megarian was merely fulfilling his vow.
She trailed after him, refusing to acknowledge the vicious ache inside her chest.
“I saw you training with the traitor.” His voice shifted, losing its previous warmth. “Will he be training you from now on?”
“Yes, we agreed to meet every morning. And his name is Nik,” she reminded him. “If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have saved all those slaves in the arena.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Fine. Nikander.”
Their gazes clashed.
“Nik also told us about Praefect Dalmatius coming to Bruna and my sister’s whereabouts.”
“That information has yet to be confirmed.” A muscle in Leukos’ jaw tightened. “If the scouts report differently than his account, whatever happens next, he’ll have brought upon himself whatever happens next.”
She winced at the low growl in his tone and grasped his arm. “Leukos, if you truly dislike me training with him, tell me, and I’ll stop. I know nothing about your past with Nik, but I do know that learning to wield a sword will help me survive. So when he offered to train me, I thought it best to accept. The last thing I want to be is a nuisance.” She paused, wetting her lips. “I—I wanted to ask you, but—”
“It’s all right, Alena.” He gazed up at the darkening sky, his eyes flitting back and forth, and in them, Alena glimpsed the storm of emotions he tried to contain. “Nikander was always Gifted with a sword, and since he fought in Bruna’s arena, I have no doubt his skills have improved over the years.”
“Being a fast runner probably comes in handy, too,” she added.
A half smile tugged at his mouth. “I suppose that’s true. He used his magic all the time when we were children. It drove the palace servants crazy. Every time he did something bad, he’d disappear before they found him. We were always told not to overuse our Gifts as children, but he never listened.”
“What about you? Did you have your ice magic as a child? When you used it in the arena, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
His head snapped up, as though his magic had never been complimented before. Then the lines of his mouth creased, and Alena observed the interplay of emotions on his face. “I used to hate my Gift as a child.”
The words resonated between them, revealing the scars of his past, and her smile fell.
“The Sea God is Megara’s patron deity, and he Gifts the strongest warriors. My eldest brother, my father, and his father before him were blessed with great magic that made them worthy of… joining the Silver Shields.”
She noted the hesitation in his voice but said nothing of it.
“I was Gifted instead by my mother’s patron god, the North Wind, a lesser deity from her homelands. Megarians are wary of foreign gods, and my ice magic was ill-suited to the hot Achaean climate. My father was disappointed when I wasn’t blessed by the great Sea God. I could see it on his face every time I trained with my magic, and gradually, I stopped using it.”
Alena drank in every word, her heart aching for the young boy who had once resented his magic, no matter how powerful. It was the first time Leukos had ever opened up to her about his family. She’d never heard of the North Wind, and although dozens of questions filled her mind, she held her tongue, letting him speak.
“After the massacre, everything changed,” he went on. “I was ten years old when I lost my family and left Megara behind. Suddenly, there was no one left to tell me my magic was strange, no more disappointing looks or harsh words. I trained as hard as I could, learning more about my Gift every day until I started to see its uses as a weapon.”
He raised his hand, and a surreal blue light illuminated his palm, ice blossoming at its centre. It shaped itself into a blade, and in one swift movement, he threw the ice dagger. It sailed through the air and pierced the nearest tree trunk.
Mouth agape, Alena stepped closer to observe the ice. “Can you mould your magic into anything you wish?”
“Yes, of course.”
“That’s incredible.” She grinned at him, and his gaze softened.
“Leukos!”
Startled, they both turned to find Theo’s silhouette in the distance.
“Leukos,” he called again with a sense of urgency, “Elishat’s back.”