When everyone was dressed, I saw that Suri had removed the wrappings on her arms. We all knew about her scars because of the terawolf attack, when she’d been bitten, but she had still chosen to wrap her arms every day.
That had changed this morning.
And I was glad that it had.
I smiled at her and she smiled back with a nod.
Luna still slept and I had Io hand her to me once I climbed up onto my horse. I put my little dragon in front of me, keeping one hand on her so that she wouldn’t slip off. Ahyana led the way, since thanks to the falcon, she knew where the camp was located.
Io brought up the rear. As the most experienced rider, she was in charge of bringing along Xander’s horse for when we found him. He would need a way to ride back to Troas.
The hours we spent riding gave me time to think. I wasn’t much of a planner, but an actual plan had started to come together in my mind. I had come up with a way to sneak into the camp and bring Xander back out without putting anyone else at risk and without alerting any guards.
I didn’t want us to have to fight our way clear. I didn’t think we’d be able to do it. Even with my power and his gift, there would be too many soldiers.
We came to a small village in the late afternoon. While my sisters procured some extra feed for the horses, I found a woman willing to sell me one of her outfits, a basket, and two sheets.
I put the sheets into the basket and then placed Luna on top. I lashed the basket to my horse so that I wouldn’t have to worry about Luna accidentally falling.
Because I wanted to go faster. To push the horses to their limits. To get to the Carian camp as soon as possible.
But Io counseled against it. I knew she was right but I hated how long it was taking.
I spent all those hours solidifying my plan. I thought of what Quynh had said to me when she explained why she had chosen to become a kitchen maid.
Women are so often overlooked. Men don’t believe that we could be smarter than them or that we’re capable of defeating them, and so we’re always perceived as not being a threat.
And it was Demaratus who had taught me about campaigning armies. They were always followed by a supply train that contained food for the soldiers and their animals, water for everyone, ammunition, carts for transporting spoils of war, a way to repair armor and weapons—it was essentially a mobile village.
He had been completely drunk while telling me about it, waving his arms about. “If you can destroy the supply train, you can take down the entire army!”
That wasn’t the part that interested me. The supply train was usually well protected, as the army relied so heavily on it. No, the part that I was planning on exploiting was that the train was populated almost entirely by women.
There were hetaerae, of course, but also cooks. Laundresses. Healers. Seamstresses. Weavers. Foragers. They didn’t fight and were only there to serve the army.
Servants who, in Quynh’s words, were “unnoticed, unseen, forgotten.”
It would be my way in.
We were also being slowed down by the terrain. Unlike the forests and grasslands near Troas, the area north of the Syrilline Mountains wasfull of hills and valleys, some with only one passageway. Ahyana had to call on some different birds to scout for her to find the correct paths.
We stopped to eat at dinnertime. I was eager to keep going, but Io told me that it was imperative that the horses be able to drink and rest because we didn’t want to risk injuring them.
“So I think I’m ready to see that sword,” Ahyana said. “If you’ll let me.”
I didn’t see any reason why not. I took it out of the sheath and handed it to her. She took it gingerly, as if she half expected it to explode in her hands.
Ahyana swished the sword from side to side. “What do you think will happen if I say the words?”
“Third-degree burns,” Io said.
“I want to try. I’m curious.” Ahyana held the sword away from her body. “Dea Nikos.”
Nothing happened.
She had squinted her eyes shut and opened them in disappointment.
“Maybe it’s broken. Or maybe it only worked in the cave. You try,” she said, handing the sword back to me.
