Page 58 of Odette's Vow

I was still tied up, but the door to the quarters I was in had been ripped off in the savageness of the storm. Beyond me, I could see the damage to the ship caused by hours of relentless battering from Poseidon’s waves. Ripped sails, the mast splintered, the men soaked and exhausted.

They were yelling at each other, trying to moor all twelve of the boats along the coastline in a uniform manner, but by the sound of things, it wasn’t working. Eventually, I felt our boat settle heavily, the anchor deep in the ocean bed, and then Odysseus’ voice rang out across the ship.

“Men, take only what you need. The Cicones are sure to aid us, as they did in the war, but remember this is their land.”

The men hollered in agreement and I heard them clamber over the ship’s edge and splash into the shallow waters below. The sound of them was carried away, until I believed myselfalone. That was, until I heard a set of footsteps walk towards me and I saw Odysseus in the doorway.

Bending down, he finally loosened the bonds around my wrists. I waited for him to demand answers from me again, to look me in the eye, but his attention stayed on my wrists. Eventually, the coarse material fell to the floor between us.

I was about to ask him if I was free to go when his thumb stroked over the angry, deep red marks on my wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“You told me once I didn’t know you,” he murmured, his thumb continuing to stroke my sore skin.

“You don’t.”

“Don’t I?”

I hadn’t realised quite how close we were. My breath hitched and his eyes shot up to meet mine.

“I know you’re grumpy in the mornings,” he murmured, his eyes moving down to my lips. “I know you don’t like to serve fish, because you don’t have the patience for deboning them.”

I shuddered at the thought, and he took the opportunity to cup my cheek.

“And I know that you used to hate me; despise me. Despise us all.”

I tried to turn away from his touch then, but he didn’t let me, instead making sure my eyes were on him.

“But I also know it has not been unpleasant between us. That you were more than just a slave. You were a helpmate to me, and I to you. I know I do not want to lose that between us, Odette.”

When I didn’t trust myself to answer, Odysseus stood.

“Come. The men would have started a fire by now. You need to get warm, dry those clothes, and eat something hot.” He held out his hand.

There was a pause, a moment where the air stilled between us, when we both knew I was making my decision. Power or protection.

Why couldn’t I have both?

Then again, I had just spent an entire storm tied to a wooden pole. I took his hand.

Together, we made our way off the ship. Odysseus was right – the men had lit a fire farther up the shore. The landscape looked very different from the barren fighting ground of Troy’s plains with the citadel walls in the distance. Instead, here, a mountain of lush greenery towered over us.

Moving up the bank, I saw that the Cicones had indeed come out from within that lush forest and were hosting the men on the beach. The women were pouring wine directly into their mouths from goatskins. A couple of slain goats were already roasting on a spit above the fire. There was laughter and good nature, a camaraderie between everyone that the war was finally over. All was well.

I continued to warm myself by the fire while Odysseus walked off, presumably to talk to the captains of his ships about the plan, what items the Ciconian men had already agreed to give them, when we could set sail again. I spent the time thinking about what he’d said, about how his calloused thumb felt against my delicate skin, about how the shudder hadn’t really been about the thought of fish at all.

He was right. I wouldn’t survive this new world if I decided to turn against him now. In fact, to do so would be foolish of me. It was likely we would arrive on Ithacan soil long before I could come up with a way to fulfil my vow. In the meantime, I should solidify my place by his side so that come our docking in Ithaca, I might not be tossed aside.

Dark eyes slammed into mine across the fire pit.

My heart thumped wildly against my ribcage, my body reacting, panicked that he could read my thoughts, that he would ask what the vow was.

Suddenly the fire was too hot.

I turned away, desperate to gulp fresh air into my lungs, to get the feel of a cool breeze across my skin. Walking towards the ocean, I chanced a glance behind me, only to find Odysseus striding towards me. I pivoted, walking along the shoreline, away from the campfires, with a plan to turn back towards the forest trees.

I didn’t need to check again to know that he still followed. I could feel him behind me, like prey that knew it was being stalked. Until, suddenly, he was grabbing my hand.

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