Io demonstrated the potion for the council, much as she had with us. When she took Parthenia’s blood and added it to the mixture, it turned blue. Io asked Heliodora if she could use her blood to show what it did for a woman who wasn’t pregnant and the liquid stayed clear.
“Now Princess Thalia,” she said. She came over and drew my blood and I watched as she used a different drop from the one she’d taken from me—the council couldn’t see her sleight of hand as she switched them.
The liquid turned a bright blue. “There! You see?” she said triumphantly. “Princess Thalia is pregnant!”
The former queen went apoplectic. “None of that means anything! I don’t trust Iolanthe!”
“You are questioning a princess of royal blood?” Xander asked with a raised eyebrow, and Erisa immediately stopped. That wasn’t a path she could go down. She was totally reliant on her son’s “royal blood” to make him king.
Even though she knew that Kyros was not the child of her late husband.
She wanted to use her lie to get her son on the throne, so I would use my lie to keep him off it.
“If tonight was an attack by some unknown enemy,” Erisa said, “then it’s happened before. Where was your great leader when people in the weapons quarter were killed?”
“Investigating the attack in Lycia while you sat here, on the council, and failed to notice the enemy at our doorstep,” Xander said quietly, and I saw the moment when Erisa realized her miscalculation.
She couldn’t paint him as an ineffective leader when she had been in a similar position of power, and the city had been attacked under her watch.
“How long until the main Carian army reaches Troas?” Stolos asked. I saw the panic on Erisa’s face. The council seemed to be accepting reality and not listening to her alternate theories.
“We don’t know,” Xander admitted. “Something happened to our spy network and we have been left in the dark, without information. It will depend on where they’re coming from. They might be marching on us already, or they might still be preparing before they come here. I can tell you that they’re not within three days’ travel—that’s the latest reports I’ve received.”
“If the army is not close, then what was the purpose in attacking the docks?” Zethus asked, surprising me.
“They’re causing fear,” Xander said. “It was an extremely small force. They ruined some ships, burned down a couple of buildings, but the fight was over before it began.”
It made me think of how Lysimache had talked about using terror to make a populace cower. It was what she had done to Locris.
Xander continued his explanation. “But we don’t know when or if they’ll strike again. It will unnerve and unsettle the people. Which is why you need a strong leader in place. The citizens will feel less afraid when they know that we’re making certain to protect them to the bestof our abilities. And not wasting our time and money throwing unnecessary celebrations.”
Erisa opened her mouth to speak, but Stolos interrupted. “Perhaps we should try to reach out to the Carians. Should we not be a people of peace?”
“While it is admirable to desire peace, our enemy has already declared war against us,” Xander said. “People of peace are not safe unless you have people of action at your side. We have the goddess-given right to defend ourselves and those we love from harm.”
Erisa seized on the door Stolos had opened. “If we are truly under attack, then we should try to sue for peace. We do not need to go to war.”
“That is ironic, coming from you.” Thrax entered the room with the man I’d identified at the party. His wrists were tied together.
To her credit, Erisa didn’t seem ruffled. “How dare you speak to me that way!”
Thrax nudged the man. “Tell them what you told me ten minutes ago.”
“My name is Diocles. I work for Erisa. My twin brother and I, along with many others, were hired to kill the Locrian maiden while she was at the temple. We did not succeed and I barely escaped with my life. Erisa also hired assassins to attack the princess in her rooms here at the palace, trying to kill her. The queen was attempting to destroy the marriage of Princess Thalia and Prince Alexandros.” His voice was dull and pained, as if he didn’t want to say the words.
“You cannot believe such blatant lies!” Erisa screamed, banging her hands against the table.
“What were you doing when I caught you?” Thrax asked.
“I was on my way to deliver a message to the attackers at the docks for the queen. Saying that if they would kill Prince Alexandros, she would open the city gates to them.”
“What has he offered you?” Erisa demanded. “Obviously the prince and his men are now bribing people to lie on their behalf!”
“Diocles was given a truth serum laced with a compulsion element that forces him to answer. He cannot lie and he cannot stay quiet,” Xander said. “Io can verify the validity of the serum, as she is the one who created it.”
Io nodded. “We have used it on others and it works perfectly.”
“I invite the council to interrogate him further, if you would like,” Xander offered.
