They were again forced to make camp as it had grown too dark to continue.
We had bought Troas another day.
The following morning we continued to keep an eye on the Carian army. They had been left without tents, as they no longer had their supply train. Zalira had sent a miserable rainstorm down on them that lasted most of the night.
But we expected them to be up and moving by this point and they weren’t.
A lone figure walked out from the edge of the group.
“Lia of Locris!”
It was Artemisia, and she had some kind of metal cone in her hand that she was using to amplify her voice. In the other she held an olive branch with white linen attached to the top.
She wanted to arrange a conclave.
“I know you can hear me,” she said. “And I know you’ve been harassing my men. We need to talk.”
Io grabbed me by the arm. “You can’t be considering this. It’s a trap!”
Demaratus had taught me about the law of the conclave. Daemonians despised it because they saw it as a sign of cowardice. But the law was sacred—she would risk angering the gods if she broke it. She had to guarantee me safe passage to and from the field so that we could speak. “Not even Artemisia would break a conclave.”
“The same Artemisia who slaughtered an entire temple of priestesses?” Io sounded slightly hysterical, and I understood why.
“What if she’s willing to consider Xander’s terms?” I asked. “If I could end this war here and now, I should do it.”
“She’s not going to stop her war,” Zalira said.
“I still want to know what it is she wants. I’m going to go and find out.”
They seemed to realize that they wouldn’t be able to talk me out of it. And maybe this was a foolish decision. It could have been a trap that she knew would work because of who I was as a person. But Artemisia didn’t know me well enough to have figured out how intense my curiosity was.
I had a feeling inside me that said this was what I was meant to do. That I needed to go onto that field.
Like it was fated.
“If she does anything, I’m opening a hole in the ground and dropping her into it,” Suri said. “If she hadn’t raised that flag, I would have done it already.”
“Which I’m sure she’s realized,” I said. “She won’t harm me because she knows we can harm her.”
I walked over to my horse and climbed up onto it. Luna appeared on my right thigh. I picked her up.
“You can’t come. It isn’t safe. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
She made a disgruntled noise and then disappeared out of my hands, only to reappear next to Io.
I led my horse north from our position so that the angle from which I entered the field wouldn’t reveal where my adelphia hid. As I rode, I drank a fortification potion and turned on my fury aspect. If someone shot at me, I’d be fast enough to avoid it.
Artemisia waited for me, still holding her makeshift flag. I stopped far enough away to keep myself safe while still being able to speak to her.
I stayed on my horse, planning to make a quick exit if necessary.
“What is it you want?” I asked.
She stared at me for a few moments before saying, “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“I have been thinking the same exact thing.”
“Really? I heard you were trying not to kill people now. Something about vengeance and anger.”
