A single tear fell down his father’s cheek. “Nay, child. You stay with me and you haven’t failed me. You hear that? You’ll only fail me if you die.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Trates! Get Bethsheba and bring her body to Kalosis.” Then he picked Urian up and cradled him in his arms the way he’d done when Urian was a boy and he used to fall asleep in his father’s lap while he told him stories of the world before they’d been banished from daylight.
Urian hated how much it comforted him to be coddled again. He was a grown man. Far too old for something like this. And yet … he wanted his father.
More than that, he wanted his mother. For the pain in his heart was so great that he feared it would make it explode. In truth, he wished he were dead. That would be easier than living with the guilt of what had happened tonight.
Knowing that he’d stood right there when Sheba had died and done nothing to protect her. Nothing to stop them from harming her. Why hadn’t he seen or heard the arrow in time to stop it? Why?
Dear gods … how would he ever get that sight of her death out of his mind?
How?
Urian didn’t realize he was sobbing until his father had him back in Kalosis and they entered his father’s palace where Paris and Davyn were waiting.
“Holy Apollymi, what happened?”
His father didn’t answer Paris’s question. “I need you to go to Apollymi and tell her Urian’s near death. Beg her for assistance. Davyn, help me ready a bed for him.”
He rushed to assist them.
Without a word, Paris did as he was ordered.
By the time they reached the bedroom, Urian was barely conscious. But he was still awake enough to know that this wasn’t over. “How will I live with this, Solren?”
“The way we all live with tragedy and injustice,m’gios.One breath at a time until the day comes when you wake up and realize that the sick lump in your stomach has finally dissolved.”
Urian winced at those words, which left him no comfort. “How long will that take?”
His father paused. “I don’t know, Uri. I’ve been choking on mine since the hour I was born.”
June 28, 9506 BC
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Urian swallowed hard at his father’s words. “She’s my wife, Solren. I owe her this honor.”
Yet as he moved forward to light the pyre where Sheba’s washed and shrouded body had been placed and her eyes covered with coins, he stumbled. Paris and his father caught him.
Grateful, Urian didn’t argue as they assisted him toward the tall structure that Apollymi had used her powers to build in the center courtyard, where the damned had once been tortured under the iron fist of the Atlantean god Misos.
And perhaps they still were. He certainly felt like it tonight as he climbed up to do his final duty for Sheba. For he was emotionally wrecked. Physically weak. Gutted.
Too young to be this tired and defeated.
Tears filled his eyes as he saw the beautiful corpse of a once proud queen. Dressed in her white orichalcum armor, she appeared to be at peace finally.
Dressed in white to honor and mourn her, Urian kissed the mavyllo—Apollymi’s sacred black rose—and placed it in Sheba’s hands, which held her sword. “You were ever a great and mighty warrior. A beautiful lady and an inspiration to us all. I shall miss your company every day I live without it.”
With those words spoken, he climbed down. Then he and Paris and his wife’s two remaining bodyguards shot lit arrows up to set fire to her perch. Silent tears of guilt and anger fell as he watched the hungry flames take root and spread over the structure.
His father clapped him on the back and pulled him close. “We shall avenge her.”
How? Rumors claimed it was Helios behind the attack. Yet another god out to end them. Which made sense given the armor he’d seen on their attackers.
The only question was why? Sheba and her people had stayed out of Greek territory for the most part. There’d been no reason for a Greek god to strike against the Marzanni.
It made no sense.
Through his own pain, Urian heard his children crying. Pulling away from his father, he went to Geras and knelt by his side. The boy threw himself into Urian’s arms so that he could weep there. Urian closed his eyes and held him.
