Page 43 of A Tribute of Fire

At least the Ilionians were only planning on killing us and had no intention of violating us first.

The man darted forward, fitting the key into the lock and turning. At the same time I reached through the bars and stabbed his thigh. It was the first time that I’d ever deliberately drawn blood. He roared and threw the door open, immediately retreating. He swore viciously at me, then shifted into a language I didn’t know.

He drew his sword as he said something to his companions. The other men spread out and I saw that they were going to attack from all three sides of the cell. Quynh understood this and, without my telling her to, moved directly behind me, up against the wooden wall of the ship.

As far out of range as she could get.

There was no way they would attack simultaneously. I would deal with the one who got to me first and do my best to avoid the blows of the other two.

I almost wanted to laugh. I’d been so concerned about Quynh and me being struck down in the streets of Troas that it had never occurred to me that we might not survive the ship ride there.

“You should have taken our offer,” the first man said as he raised his weapon. Then his eyes bulged as a sword plunged through his chest, the tip gleaming in the torchlight before it was quickly withdrawn.

When the man crumpled to the floor, I saw Jason behind him.

Then Jason tore through the other two men as if they were made of papyrus. His sword arced and sliced as he danced around the two invaders, moving faster than I’d ever seen a man move in battle before.

Before the second man could even raise his weapon to defend himself, Jason had already struck him down and moved on to the last. He dispatched the third man so quickly that Jason had already sheathed his sword before the man had finished falling to the ground to join his companions.

Like some kind of battle magic. As if he were goddess-blessed.

I still held my sword aloft, expecting that Jason would attempt to disarm me.

“Are you all right?” he asked, and I couldn’t respond.

He stood there for a moment longer, his eyes raking over me, and then he ran back upstairs to rejoin the fight.

With the danger over, the adrenaline quickly left my system and I dragged air back into my lungs. I dropped my sword to the ground and then fell to my knees as I thought of what Jason had just done.

He had saved us, but all I could think about was that if a sailor could fight like that, what hope would Quynh and I have against the trained citizenry of Troas?

We would die before we even got six feet away from the ship.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After that wave of terror passed, I got up to pull the cell door shut and locked it, keeping the key. The battle was still raging and I didn’t know if we would get more unwelcome visitors. I held my sword in my right hand and waited.

“Those men were going to kill us.” Quynh whispered the words. I wished more than anything that I could protect her from all of this.

“Yes. They must be pirates.” For years traders had complained about how prevalent pirate attacks were becoming. I had often wondered if that was how my brother had died.

But if these men were just pirates, how had they known Quynh and I were Locrian? And what ship we’d be on? They’d made it seem as if they had come here specifically to find us.

This attack wasn’t random.

I heard someone yell, “Retreat!” and there was more shouting and the sounds of feet racing across the deck. I watched as the oars from the pirate ship sank down and cut into the water, propelling their ship forward. The crew of theNikosroared their victory, congratulating each other, finishing off the men who hadn’t made it to their ship in time.

I sat down next to Quynh and wrapped my arms around her. She was trembling and I hoped she couldn’t tell that I was shaking, too.

Every time before this encounter had been practice for me. Pretend. When I’d lunged at Polymedes or Telamon, I’d never made contact. I’d never truly stabbed someone before. I’d never watched someone die.

It was more unsettling than I’d thought it would be.

There was a splash, then another, and another. I realized that they were throwing dead bodies into the ocean. I wondered how many losses had been suffered on each side.

There were multiple sets of feet on the stairs, heading down. Jason came into the room with three other men. Without saying a word, the three men each grabbed one of the pirate bodies and began hefting them back upstairs.

“I’ll be on watch tonight,” Jason said to me after the other men had left, and I wasn’t sure why.

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