Page 4 of A Tribute of Fire

“Or his aim is just as poor as yours,” I responded, which set off another round of laughter, squeezing my heart so tightly it felt like it might break.

“I wouldn’t have almost hit you if you could manage to run faster than a wounded animal,” Telamon told me.

“Wounded is the only way Telamon catches any woman!” Polymedes said with a loud laugh.

This group of men had always treated me as one of their own. From the first day, when Demaratus told them that I would be joining their ranks, not a single soldier had muttered a complaint or protested against having to train with a woman.

I knew there were many who would have.

My throat felt tight, like there was a large lump that I couldn’t swallow. “Thank you.”

At my words, the men fell silent, all their faces turned toward me.

“Thank you,” I repeated. “For all your help and for including me. And for not telling anyone.”

Andronicus, their captain, got to his feet. He was twenty years old—a couple of years older than I was—and coming to the end of his mandatory service in the army.

“You have earned our gratitude and loyalty,” he said. He balled his hand into a fist and laid it across his chest, the gesture one soldier made to another. “Every one of us would take your place if we could, and we respect the sacrifice that you are going to make for Locris. One for many.”

Then every other member of the regiment stood and did the same. Tears filled my eyes, but I would not cry in front of them. They would never respect me again if I did.

I put my fist over my own chest, returning the honor they’d given me. “One for many,” I repeated.

We all stayed there for a bit as I drank in their faces, committing them to memory.

Then they began to move, the moment over, making plans for their evening.

Telamon approached me, shyly. “Do you want to join us at the tavern?”

More than anything, but that wasn’t the sort of place I could go without being discovered.

Not to mention that I understood what he was asking without saying the actual words. I’d never had romantic feelings for Telamon. He had indicated possible interest in the past, but I hadn’t seen the point.

“I appreciate the offer, but I have a family dinner tonight.”

He smiled and ducked his head, taking the merciless ribbing his compatriots now offered him.

Linus crowed, “She turned him down! I told you she would. You owe me three drachmas.”

“You ruined your last chance,” someone added, but they were all out of the building now and I wasn’t sure which one of them had said it or how long Telamon had been planning to ask me to spend time with him before I left.

The armory was now completely silent, and I took one last look around the room. While I knew I should have returned to the palace, my feet took me in the opposite direction. I walked through the dilapidated maze. No one knew why it had been built. Polymedes had conjectured that it had been meant as a defensive measure to keep the temple safe. I knew he was correct but had kept that information to myself.

The doorway of the temple had broken during an earthquake a thousand years ago, crushing the wooden doors, but there was stillenough of an opening for me to sneak inside. Water dripped slowly down one wall and the entire place smelled dirty and musty. I headed through the main room toward the staircase, making my way down to where the statue of the goddess lay in pieces.

Just before I reached the last step, I crouched down to raise the top of the stair and pulled out the ancient box within. I opened the box and took out the book it held, walking over to the statue.

I sat on the overturned column near the goddess’s head and brushed some dust off her face.

Her large, empty eye sockets seemed to stare back at me, mocking my pathetically sparse plan.

This might be the last time I visited this temple. My grandmother had brought me here two years ago, just a few months before she died. She was the one who had shown me the false step with the box. The book was so old I had been afraid to touch it.

“What is this?” I had asked her.

“It is a record of Locris, our home. Of stories that have been banned and forgotten. Words about the goddess, who we used to praise with songs and prayers. Until she cursed us and our land, destroying her own temple.”

I took the book reverently and began to read. I remembered that rush as I turned the pages, learning so many new things. I had known about the temple, passed by it many times, but I’d never gone inside. I hadn’t realized that it was significant in any real way.

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