Page 127 of A Tribute of Fire

There were only male patrons in the tavern, and as Jason had predicted, they seemed very drunk. The whole place reeked of sweat, dirt, sea, and alcohol. I put my hand up to my nose, hoping to block out some of the smell.

He found us a table near the door and had me sit in the farthest corner, mostly cloaked in shadows. He sat down next to me, acting like a giant shield. I let my hood fall farther forward so that no part of my face would be visible.

“Aren’t you going to find a Locrian?” I asked.

“When the bard is done,” he said.

“What’s a bard?”

“A storyteller. Many people can’t read and someone has to carry on the stories. A bard travels the cities and the countryside, sharing his tales so that we don’t forget. We need to wait for him to finish or else we’re going to be dealing with a lot of very angry, inebriated men upset about their entertainment being interrupted.”

A woman in a tunic so light that it left little to the imagination came over with two glasses of something that smelled sour. She held out her hand for payment while giving Jason an appraising look. He handed her a small silver coin from the pouch at his side.

“I’ll be done with work in two hours if you’d like to meet me out back,” she told him, and I found myself angrily tightening my fingers around the handle of my xiphos.

He just smiled at her and she went off to serve other customers.

“Are you going to meet up with her?” I hadn’t meant to ask him that, especially given his knowing smirk.

“Pay attention to the bard. You might learn something.”

The man on the stool said, “When the Great War was over, many men fled from Ilion after their defeat by the Achaeans.” Several patrons booed and started naming off individual nations who had fought, including Locris.

I tried to move even farther into the shadows.

“Those Ilionians, deprived of their homeland, traveled south to Caria. They were starving, thirsty. They claimed hospitality rights but they were turned away. In their righteous anger, they laid siege to the city. The Ilionians easily tunneled under the walls and overwhelmed the Carians. After they defeated the men, they forced the Carian women into marriage and started new families.”

“Against their will?” someone called out.

“Yes!” the bard said. “Which displeased the goddess greatly.”

I understood that. Those poor women, compelled to marry the men who had slaughtered their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers. I hoped the goddess took vengeance on those Ilionians.

“The Carians did not share the faith of the Ilionians and tried to erase their beliefs. But the men were steadfast and would not forsake their goddess. Ten years passed away, and the Ilionians missed their previous home. Most of them abandoned their new families and returned, rightly guessing that the Achaeans had left and they could rebuild. They made the walls of Troas even higher and stronger, expanding the labyrinth so that no invader could do what they themselves had done in Caria. It is why no man may enter the temple of the goddess today. She is still angry with them for their treatment of the Carian women. And the Ilionian men’s superior fighting skills and engineering capabilities are why, within a single decade, the entire nation of Caria was wiped out. We speak of them now only in stories.”

I swallowed back the bile that rose up in my throat. That was going to happen to Locris if I didn’t find a way to restore it. We would be nothing but a story for some bard to share in a tavern.

The bard got off the stool and began begging the crowd for money.

I wished I could get drunk, but I needed my wits about me. I sniffed the drink the barmaid had left us. “What is this?”

“Beer.”

“Why does it smell like that? Like rotting bread?”

“I don’t know how to answer that question. It just does. Stay here, I’ll be back.” I watched as he got up and started speaking to groups of men, clapping them on the back, buying them drinks, charming everyone he came into contact with.

Sitting here in the dark, I had to admit what I kept trying to reject. He was so desperately attractive. I wanted his mouth on mine, his fingers exploring my skin, his weight pressing down on me. A wave of desire crested up inside me and I wrapped my hands around my drink to steady myself.

I wondered why it was so important to the goddess that I not lie with a man if she let me have these kinds of feelings for one.

Expelling a shaky breath, I tried to stop myself from following his every movement, but it wasn’t working. Everything he did was utterlyfascinating. The way his mouth formed words, how his muscles flexed in the firelight, the sheer delight in his laughter.

Why was he helping me? Did he feel guilty about what had happened with Quynh and the inadvertent role he’d played in it? My mind wanted to be suspicious, but I couldn’t think of what he had to gain from assisting me.

The one thing I might have to offer, he couldn’t have.

Thanks to his jest earlier, I knew that he was aware of the vows that the goddess required. And he might have been a gambling philanderer, but I sensed that there was at least a tiny shard of morality in him. I suspected that he would honor my promises.

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