Not only that, but if an air dragon picked her up and dropped her somewhere in the ocean, I would risk losing the eye of the goddess, which was still embedded in her hammer.
Artemisia was using her red banner with a terawolf on it to rally her troops. Her killing the fire dragon seemed to encourage them, and they flocked to her. She got back up on her horse and led a large group of cavalry over to the western entrance. Who knew what she would do if she got inside the city?
“She’s doing too much damage with that hammer,” I said to Xander. “I’m going to confront her.”
“I’m worried about her doing that kind of damage to your head.”
“She won’t. I will stop her.” I had a glimmer of a plan and had to hope that it would work. I didn’t know what else to do.
“Then I’m coming with you,” he said.
I nodded. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I picked up Luna and then grabbed his hand. I closed my eyes and had Luna transport us to the wall near the western gate.
“Artemisia!” I called out. “Come and fight me, you coward! I’ll be by the northern gate!”
She came to a halt when she saw me. She directed her riders to throw spears at us, but I used Luna to take us outside the northern gate. My poor husband looked ill from being transported twice, but he shook it off.
There was a group of soldiers just east of us that had not been there before.
I saw Dolion with them.
Turning on the goddess’s sword, I waited for their attack.
But it didn’t come. Dolion only nodded in our direction and led his men away from the city.
Xander had grabbed a spear from the ground and held it in his right hand.
“You’re not going to throw that at him?” I asked.
“He saved your life by letting you leave the Carian camp. I grant him his life in return. But we are now even.”
She’s coming.
Luna’s warning was unnecessary. I could see the horses riding hard toward us.
And I found myself thinking of Maia. Of one of the last things she had said to me when she was still alive.
About the acorn that had to be pushed down deep in the darkness, exposed to the elements, to try and root itself so that it could burst out in an attempt to become something new. Something better.
I had survived the darkness. I had been exposed to the elements. I had rooted myself deep in my enemy’s nation.
Now I had to become something new to save them all.
“That’s a lot of soldiers,” I said to Xander.
He shrugged and then drank from his waterskin, which contained the fountain water. “You take Artemisia. I’ll handle the rest.”
“You can’t fight them all by yourself!”
“To save you? Yes, I can. I already lost you once. I will never allow it to happen again. I will kill anyone who touches you.”
“I know.” Part of me wanted to look into his eyes, to make sure that I had that memory of him in case the worst happened, but I refused to let myself go to that place.
We had to survive. I wouldn’t consider any other possibility.
“Stay alive,” he told me. “I don’t want to have to make good on my threats to fight the goddess to have you returned to me again.”
I smiled at him, my heart beating quickly. “You stay alive, too. I love you.”
