Page 7 of A Tribute of Fire

“Cut my hair,” I said. It was the most serious offer I could make her. No woman of Locris ever cut her hair. But that bracelet was the one thing she had left from her parents, and I would never let it be ruined. Better my head be shaved than for Quynh to lose her bracelet.

“I think I can work it free,” she said. It took a couple of minutes, but she finally managed it. “There!”

She held her wrist out in triumph and I examined the bracelet carefully. It was constructed from green and white silk, with a large green gukwa knot in the center that resembled a flower. Smaller knots kept beads of jade and pearl in place.

I let out a sigh of relief. It was her most treasured possession. It was important to me that she still have it once ...

Once I’m gone.

“So what exactly do you have planned with Andronicus tonight?” I asked, wanting to redirect my thoughts.

Her cheeks reddened slightly and she ducked her head. “This and that.”

“Kissing?” I asked, and she flushed even harder.

“I’m surprised that nothing has happened with you and any of the men you train with. How did you miss how handsome Andronicus is?”

Because I’d never thought of him that way. Andronicus was my captain and the person who had given me a black eye on my second day of training. I’d had to blame it on running into a door to shake off my mother’s suspicion.

I’d never considered any of the regiment as prospective romantic partners. They were my friends, my fellow trainees. I had been solely focused on my mission, and there hadn’t been time for boys or kisses. And Demaratus would have killed any soldier who tried to kiss me.

Not to mention that I was betrothed to the Ilionian prince and probably shouldn’t have been kissing other men.

But now I regretted my choices. Quynh had described how exciting kissing was, the way it made you feel warm and shivery all at once, how you lost track of time and your mind shut down—I wished more than anything that I had experienced it myself.

Maybe I should have gone off with Telamon so that I could have tried it.

I sighed. I didn’t want to die without ever kissing someone.

Quynh finished brushing my hair, creating two braids in the front that she pulled back and tied together. “There. At least you actually resemble the princess that you are.”

There was no real way to tell now. My grandmother had described to me once what their lives had been like when she was young. How their tunics had been created from a linen so fine it was nearly see-through, soft and luxurious. The jewels they had worn on their ears, their necks, their wrists, the crowns on their heads.

But in order to survive the Ilionian tariffs, my family had sold off almost everything we’d once owned.

The tunic I wore, although one of my finest, was indistinguishable from the ones worn by the servants in the palace.

Quynh and I left for the dining room, walking together down the stone hallways lit by torches.

Our relative poverty was one of the reasons why my betrothal to the Ilionian prince was so important to my parents. I was supposed to convince him to decrease the tariffs imposed by his blockade. It was rumored that the king of Ilion had fallen ill and the crown prince had increased the taxes, from his own people and the blockade, to waste on whoring and drinking.

When the goddess had cursed our lands, Locris had been a lush place full of flocks and grain, cheese and honey. But she had turned our once-rich soil to arid dust and now nothing would grow. Water wasn’t aproblem—we still had plenty of it, but the ground was barren no matter how much water was poured on it.

For a thousand years we had been able to import everything we needed, exporting salt and blocks of marble from our quarries.

But with the increased tariffs taken by the blockade, fewer merchants dared to travel here, and the ones who did had much higher prices, passing the cost along to us.

I’d overheard my father in meetings with his advisers where he was told that the quarries were nearly empty.

The young people of Locris had forsaken their ancestral lands and homes and set out for other places to start over. They saw what I did.

My nation was dying. If things continued as they were, it wouldn’t be long before there was no one left.

Which was probably the point. Ilion had always been our mortal enemy, and they had found a way to destroy us without shedding blood.

Well, besides the blood of the maidens they demanded as tribute.

We entered the dining room and everyone was waiting for us.

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