Io and I left the house and retrieved our horses. They didn’t have a stool here for us, so we decided to walk the horses back. When we werefar enough away that no one would overhear us, I asked her, “What are you doing?”
“Returning to the palace.”
“No, why did you agree to Lysimache’s demand? She obviously wants to use the water to overpower her guards and break out.”
A determined look furrowed her brow. “I’m sure that’s her plan. But I need her to drink it because I know how to make her talk.”
Chapter Seven
When we got back to the palace, Io decided to stay behind and work on her potions while the rest of us went to the temple. She promised she would share her scheme to get Lysimache to talk later and that she’d spoken to her brother about having one of his phratry members watch over her so she wouldn’t be alone.
The current plan was for us to gather fountain water and to try out Zalira’s magic in the gymnasium. I asked my sisters if they wanted to practice riding and take horses there, but none of them needed the practice. They all knew how to ride.
But they humored me and we rode to the temple. While I still didn’t care much for horseback riding, it was nice that it took so much less time than walking would have.
Io had asked me earlier what I planned on naming my horse, and I decided on Eos. Like Themis’s granddaughter, named after the dawn, because of how she shimmered.
One of the stable hands had attached a small cart to Ahyana’s horse. It was filled with empty vases for the water.
When we arrived I was surprised to see a group of women gathered at the gate. We dismounted, which for me was basically falling off the horse, and tied their reins to a nearby column. We made our way through the crowd to the gate and Suri pushed it open.
Realizing that we meant to go in, someone asked, “Who are you?”
“We are acolytes,” Zalira said.
A woman stepped forward and asked, “When will we be able to return to the temple and worship? To ask the goddess for her help and her blessings?”
“Not yet,” Ahyana said, gently and kindly. “But we hope soon.”
“Where are all the other priestesses?” another woman asked. “We have heard so many different things.”
“It’s a long story,” Zalira said. “We will let you know when you can return to the temple to worship.”
Some of the women immediately left, while others stayed behind, as if we would change our minds within the next few minutes. I greeted the guards Xander had left to watch over the temple and told them that I was Princess Thalia and we were going to be coming every day to the temple.
“We were already informed,” one of the men said to me.
We went into the courtyard and Suri closed the gate behind us.
“You don’t think we should tell those women what happened to the servants of the temple?” Ahyana asked.
Zalira shook her head. “Not until it’s announced that we’re at war. We don’t want anyone panicking.”
It was exactly what Xander had said to me. I wondered how Zalira knew that. Or had she just come to that same conclusion on her own?
Ahyana and Suri were walking ahead of us, so I took advantage of the opportunity to tell Zalira, “I’m not sure if I should mention this, but I saw Stephanos this morning. He wanted me to tell you that he’s thinking of you.”
She smiled sadly and put a hand over her heart. “I’m glad you told me. It is so strange to miss and love someone so much and have them close at hand all the time.”
“I understand.”
“I’m sure you do. How are things with you and your husband?”
She was the only member of my adelphia that I felt like I could be open with about this. “Strange. I want to be close to him, but I’m afraid that once he’s made king, he might send me away to find a newwife. And Io is worried about the savior prophecy and that I might die. And if I do live, I’m going back to Locris to reopen the temple there. She’s afraid that either way I’ll hurt her brother. She thinks he’s in love with me. So she made me promise that I would stay away from him and not hurt him.”
“Which I’m guessing isn’t going so well.”
It was scary how Zalira could read me. “Yes. I want him physically, I want him emotionally. Every way that you can want someone, I want him. And it terrifies me. To let someone else have that much power over me ...”
