Page 104 of Axios
I stepped forward, and she allowed me into the room.
Upon entering, I was struck by another stream of sunlight. The room had a patio off to one side and was open to the outside elements. The greenest plants, array of flowers, small fountain, and the late spring breeze made the chamber feel peaceful. And yet, somehow that only made the situation even more upsetting.
Then, I saw Agesipolis.
He lay in a large framed bed on the other side of the room and faced the atrium. Where so much beauty thrived before him, he was cast in shadow, as if the comforting rays of sun could not reach him. Pillows surrounded him, I supposed in hopes to provide him as much comfort as possible, but instead they just made him appear more fragile. Small.
“Axios?” His voice cracked as he spoke, and his tired eyes focused on me.
I had hoped that once we reached the city, the healers would be able to break his fever and heal him, but he looked the same as he had when I last laid eyes on him. Perhaps worse.
The dark shadows beneath his eyes were darker, and his pale skin had become even more ashen.
“Yes.” I closed the distance between us and stood beside the bed, looking down at him. Placing my hand over his, I was uncertain of what to do, of how I could make him better. “I am here.”
Contrary to what I’d earlier hoped, he was only becoming more ill as the woman had said, and I was unsure of how much longer he would hold on. The truth was in his face.
“Your eyes are saddened,” Agesipolis whispered, staring up at me and clutching the hand that held his, only he had very little strength.
“I do not favor seeing you this way,” I answered, fighting the emotions trying to surface. Memories of him smiling and walking beside me through a meadow entered my mind—of him strong and with his health. They were of a man who’d had such a prosperous future ahead of him, and now that man was debilitated by an unforgiving fever. “This is not fair. You are too young to face such a fate.”
Too wonderful of a man.
He gave a weak smile. “Life is not just. The gods care not whether a man is a beggar or a king. We are the same in their eyes, and when they wish to take us, they do.”
Pain sliced through my chest, and I clenched my jaw.
“Well, the gods may not have you,” I spoke through the tightness in my throat and held his hand tighter in mine. “I will not let them.”
The true extent of my feelings for him had not been fully realized until he lay before me so near to death. He may not mean as much to me as Eryx did, but I still cared deeply for him and was not prepared for him to part from the world.
“You would rage a war on the gods for the sake of one man?” he asked, his voice raspy and growing weaker with each passing moment.
He was not just a man. To me, he was so much more.
Before I could respond, he jolted upward and started coughing—violent coughs that shook his entire body.
I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him. There was nothing more I could do, and it pained me to be so helpless.
When he looked back up at me, there was blood dripping from the corner of his lips and even more smeared in the palm of his hands.
“I shall get the physician,” I said, shifting off the bed so that I could leave.
“Don’t,” he spoke before leaning over and dipping his hand in a bowl of water that sat on the stand beside the bed. Once his hands were cleaned, he wiped his mouth with an already bloodied cloth, using the areas of it that were unsoiled. “This is not the first instance it has happened. I would much rather you stay with me.”
“If that is what you wish.” I walked back toward him and sat.
Even when taken with fever, he was still handsome. His wavy, dark hair stuck to his forehead with the severity of his sweating, and other parts appeared knotted from his constant laying on it. But his brown eyes were still the gentle ones I remembered, even when darkened with shadows.
“Will you tell me a story?” he asked, laying his head on the pillow and turning to watch me. He seemed younger somehow, and the ache in my heart increased. “I do not wish to think on the thoughts in my mind. And your voice calms me.”
Eryx was the gifted story weaver out of the two of us, but I would not deny the king’s wishes. When I was younger, I had told many stories to Leanna, but once I’d entered theagoge, I had stopped telling them.
“Have you ever heard the story about the man in the stars?”
Agesipolis softly smiled and shook his head.
I took his hand and began telling him.
