We had a legion of Daemonians.
Artemisia had no idea what she was about to face.
Thrax came over. “We should take them to the barracks and find beds for them.”
“Agreed,” Xander said.
“I’m going to go with them,” I said to him. I wanted to keep talking to Demaratus. My husband kissed me goodbye and I walked with Demaratus and the men he’d recruited to join our cause.
“It’s strange that you’re married,” Demaratus said.
“It has been strange for me, too. Wonderful, as well.” He wasn’t going to care about my newfound happiness. “And speaking of relationships, I met someone I think you would like.”
“Oh?”
“Her name is Antiope. She’s currently in a coma, but you two are essentially the same person. I think you should marry her. If she’ll have you.”
“Why wouldn’t she have me?” He sounded indignant, and it made me laugh. I had missed him so much.
“How is my family?” I asked.
“About as well as can be expected,” he said. “They miss you.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, suddenly realizing I hadn’t told him the good news. “I found Haemon! He’s alive!”
He grunted. “That will make your parents happy. And that mopey woman who was always at dinner.”
“Doria.” And they would all be thrilled. “Quynh is here, too. She’s going to get married.”
“You said you’d keep her alive and you did. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
It was one of the nicest things he’d ever said to me. Pride welled deep in my chest.
We passed through the gate and he muttered, “Walls. I can’t sit behind walls. It’s humiliating.”
“Can you do it for me so that I know you’re safe?”
He let out a beleaguered sigh. “Fine.”
Usually, when I made him sigh like that, he would take a drink. “Where’s your wineskin?”
“Left it behind. I need a clear head for this.”
He was so talkative that I had assumed he was already drunk.
“You should hate the walls, too,” he told me.
“Why?”
“Because as I told you, in all but birth, you are Daemonian.”
I smiled. “The walls are going to be helpful because there are earth dragons coming.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so?’” I asked.
“Do they bleed?”
