Page 14 of A Tribute of Fire

I got up, intending to head back to my room to get my dagger. I wouldn’t be caught off guard without it again. I went around a corner and nearly smacked straight into Andronicus. He put his hands on my shoulders to steady me. “Lia! I was looking for you. I have a surprise.”

He reached behind his back and pulled out my dagger, handing it to me. As if he knew exactly what I needed in that moment.

“You’re giving me my own weapon? I’m only going to tell you this because you’re courting Quynh, but women don’t like getting presents that already belong to them.” I had to tease him just to soothe my own nerves, which were unsettled by the coincidence of him bringing me what I had intended to retrieve.

Andronicus smiled. “No, I had it sharpened for you. Quynh handed it off to me this morning. I thought you might need it.”

The dagger was in its scabbard, but the straps I used to tie it to my leg were most likely still in my room. “I wish I’d had it two minutes ago.”

“Why?”

“One of our ‘guests’ was hitting Hippolyta and I got backhanded in the face for interfering.”

He pressed his lips into an angry line, his eyebrows narrowing. “Where?”

At first I didn’t know what he meant. Where had it happened? Or where on my face had I been hit? I figured it was the second and pointed at the area where the man had struck me. My jaw still burned with pain, but I had learned a long time ago to push past that sensation.

“I don’t see anything,” he said.

That was good, but as I’d noted earlier, just because there wasn’t a bruise now didn’t mean there wouldn’t be later.

“Can you assign someone to watch over Hippolyta?” I asked. “I don’t want it to happen again.”

He gave me a curt nod. “I think Telamon’s off duty tonight. I’ll get him to do it.”

“Good. And thank you for this.” I held the dagger up.

“You’re welcome. And if you find the man, point him out to me. I might like to have a word with him,” Andronicus said and then left.

I wondered how bad it would be for my parents if I went to hunt down the man who had hit me. I hadn’t asked my captain for a guard and he hadn’t offered me one.

We both knew I didn’t need it.

With a weapon in my hand, I could hold my own against any man, just so long as I didn’t let him touch me.

I was usually very good at darting and ducking away from being hit, at getting in blows and cuts while avoiding the swing of my opponent’s weapon or fists. This stranger attacking Hippolyta and me—in our home, where we should be safe—had just been so unexpected that I’d been unprepared for it.

I wouldn’t let that happen again.

Demaratus would never let me hear the end of it if he ever found out.

I decided to go back to my room to get my leather straps for the scabbard. I’d only gone a few steps when I heard my father’s voice. I looked at the dagger in my hand. I had no place to hide it and no way to explain it. I searched around me, desperate, and my gaze landed on a serving tray that someone had left behind. I grabbed it and hid my dagger underneath it.

My father saw me and smiled. “Are you joining us?”

“Yes, of course. I’m just going to put this away. I’ll be right there.”

He frowned slightly. I knew it bothered him that he wasn’t able to give us a life of ease and luxury, that we had to help with the running of our home. But he nodded and continued on his way.

There was a large group of people following him and I inclined my head as they passed by me.

Several feet behind the last person, I saw two more men walking toward the dining hall. My heart slammed into my ribs as I realized that one of them was the man who had hit me.

Red flashed at the edges of my vision as my blood boiled. My fingers tightened around the handle of my newly sharpened dagger. I wanted nothing more in the world than to run over and slit his throat.

Stupid girl, a warrior must obey the law.

It would be against the laws of Locris for me to harm this guest in my father’s home. He had been offered hospitality and protection by my father—they had shared salt between them and that was a sacred bond that could not be broken.

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