The gap year, p.49
The Gap Year, page 49
The party continued in silence for a while, but their injuries and the fatigue from their brief but intense skirmish were taking a toll. Argos’ head drooped lower and lower as they walked, and after a few more miles, Indy couldn’t bear to push him any further.
“Argos needs to stop and rest.” She looked at his panting face with concern.
Argos struggled to raise his head higher. “Plenty strong.” Bloody saliva drooled from his open mouth. “Keep going. Finish. Quest.”
“No, dummy.” Indy’s voice was tight with fear. “You’re still in the middle of uplift. You could kill yourself if you push too hard.” Her collar lights twinkled briefly. “There’s a bit of shelter over this way. And our drones can’t see any more Persian stragglers. If any are still out there, they’ve probably circled west and north by now to try to get out of Greece.”
“I could use a rest as well,” Melas said.
“And some food,” Themis added.
“Food?” Argos perked up briefly, then hung his head again, panting with pain.
“We’ll get you some food. Just a few more minutes.” Indy led the party off the trail they’d been following, and shortly they entered a sheltering grove of trees. Argos slumped gratefully to the ground in the shade, and Indy hovered anxiously as Anna unclipped his harness and made him comfortable. She poured water from a bottle in her pack into his collapsible bowl, and he drank it all steadily, then lay down again, still panting.
Melas sank down with a groan, supporting himself with the arm on his uninjured side. “One of my ribs may have been fractured in the back.” He eased out of his pack and pulled out his own water bottle. “It seems to be swelling up, but I do not think it is broken.”
Anna dug into her pack and came out with two pills. “Fast-healing pills.” She handed one to Melas. “Wash it down with water. It wouldn’t be enough for something life-threatening, but it should help you feel a little better.” She handed the other pill to Phaia. “Take this, and I’ll check your wound over.”
“It’s not that deep.” Phaia held up the cloth she’d had pressed against it. It wasn’t soaked with blood, which seemed like a good sign.
Anna looked at the puncture in the other woman’s lower belly, which was puckered closed but bruised from the impact of the blunt arrow shaft. “The pill should keep it from getting infected, at least. We’ll check for internal injury once we’re home tomorrow.” She couldn’t meet Phaia’s eyes. “I’m so sorry this happened. You warned us how risky this plan was.”
“I’ll survive.” Phaia’s voice was gruff. “I owed you, for saving me before. And I chose to be here, you didn’t make me come along.” She looked around. “How’s Argos doing? Does he need one of these pills? He got it the worst.”
Indy looked up from where she was licking Argos’ muzzle clean. “His lips are cut up on the inside, from that first hit with Hylas’ sword hilt. But nothing seems to be broken.” She looked him over critically. “His uplift treatment will naturally accelerate healing better than our pills would, but we need to get a lot of food into him for it to work.”
“So let’s do that, then.” Anna stood, legs aching in the aftermath of their long flight, and walked over to Argos’ saddlebags to hunt through them for something for him to eat.
“Secondary marker ‘Peisistratos’ re-acquired.” Alixa’s voice was loud in the quiet of their grove. “Peisistratos captured by victorious Greek forces while attempting to flee the battlefield.”
“Serves that traitor right.” Phaia smiled without joy. “But they’ll probably just ransom him back to Persia.” She looked thoughtful. “Though they might confiscate his estates, now that Hylas is gone.”
Anna finished laying out food for Argos, her movements slowed by exhaustion, then pulled out her phone as he began to eat. The viewpoint of the spy-drone image was immovable now, since there was only one drone left close enough to the battle to see it. But Anna could clearly see Hylas’ father Peisistratos the Younger, battered now after his capture, and missing his helmet and weapons, but still defiant.
“Peisistratos argues that he should be allowed to go into exile,” Alixa said.
“Alixa, why can’t we hear them?” Anna asked.
“Distance exceeds audio pickup range,” Alixa said. “Event reconstruction by facial and postural analysis. Unknown Greek general denies exile request,” she continued.
On the screen, Peisistratos was forced to his knees by their captors. He yelled something they couldn’t hear as the nameless Greek general drew his short sword, stepped forward, and stabbed him in the chest. Anna turned away, horrified.
“Peisistratos executed by Greek general,” Alixa said. “Tracking of secondary marker ended. Summary mode concluded.”
Anna put her phone away, numb and dizzy. Even Phaia looked shaken, her jaded expectation of his ransom erased by the shock of seeing him die. Argos, oblivious to what had been happening around him, finished the last of his food and laid his head down, instantly asleep.
“Greek generals have the power of capital punishment during war.” Melas spoke quietly into the silence. “Even against citizens. Peisistratos was just unlucky. If he had been captured by a greedier man, he could very well have been sent back into exile again.”
“He damn well deserved it.” Phaia’s expression was grim. “But that was hard to see.”
“He made the choice to come in on the Persian side,” Indy said from where she sat beside Argos’ sleeping form. “If they had won, he probably would’ve lobbied to make Hylas the local Persian overlord here. Then we would’ve been on the run from the government as well as the Persian army.”
“Remember what Hylas said to me?” Anna looked down, shamefaced. “That if I killed him, I’d be making his wife a widow, his daughters orphans?” Her relief that Hylas was finally gone mixed uneasily with her guilt over the consequences to his family. “I was so proud of myself for sparing him, after that. You helped me do the right thing.” She rubbed at her face with one hand. “And now…”
Indy stood up and walked over to Anna, leaning against her to lend her comfort. “We did the best we could.” The big canine looked around sadly at their wounded party. “We probably will have saved many lives here. In the long run.” She looked aside. “But I wish we hadn’t had to make those choices. What gives us the right?”
After that, there wasn’t much to say. Anna, Indy and the three Greeks ate a cold dinner and lay down early to bed, but none of them found sleep easily.
82
The next day dawned, unaware of the thousands who had died the day before.
Anna awoke beside Indy’s warm bulk and lay there for a moment, spirits sinking as the events of the previous day rushed back into her mind. Forcing down dread, she sat up and pulled out her phone to check the aftermath of the battle. She deliberately avoided zooming in too closely, but it was clear that thousands of Persians and not a few Greeks lay dead on the field. Especially heartbreaking were the horses and pack animals which had been caught in the fighting, now staring sightless into the cloudy sky.
Indy shifted beside her and opened her eyes. They shared a look.
We did what we thought we had to, Anna said over their link. What we thought was right. But this still feels awful.
It does, Indy thought back. I truly believe it would have been much worse if we’d let the Persians invade, or used some terrible weapon from the old days on them. We probably saved tens of thousands of lives, preventing the sacking of Athens. Hundreds of thousands, maybe. But we’ll never know for sure.
I’m glad you were here with me, Anna said. There’s no way I could’ve got through this by myself.
We’re in this together, Indy said. All the way.
Anna breathed deeply, trying to get her equilibrium back. Then she swiped the battlefield images away and checked their spy-drone’s summary report of the events since the previous afternoon. After killing Xerxes and pursuing the remnants of his army for some distance around the gulf, the exhausted Greeks had withdrawn behind their wall at Thermopylae and rested, while their auxiliary forces hunted through the hills to the north looking for Persian forces that had fled the field.
A good portion of the Greek fleet had hauled out nearby after defeating or driving off the Persian fleet near Artemision. Video pulled from the few fly-drones left onboard showed that they hadn’t been quite as decisive a factor in the sea battle, since many of the tiny drones had been blown away by the sea winds before they could find their targets. But their nano-motes had destroyed the bronze rams of several of the Persian ships along with the metal weapons of some of their occupants, and that had swung the battle in favor of the Greek navy. Now, marines from the beached ships helped stiffen the Greek lines against a possible counterattack by the still-vast remnants of the Persian army. But after Xerxes’ death and the defeat of the Immortals, the Persian forces seemed to have no more taste for combat, and were in continued retreat as the sun rose.
“They must have got word of the sea battle, so they know we can land troops behind them at will. I can’t blame them for wanting to get out of here.” Themis looked back to her phone’s screen, which showed a few opportunistic Greek captains coming ashore amid the Persian army, relying on their superior arms and armor to strike quickly and withdraw without being encircled.
“I wonder what those ships are thinking.” Indy sounded subdued as she munched at her breakfast of hard travel bread and sausage, offering any extra bits to Argos, who’d already finished his. “They’ve won. Why risk these new attacks?”
“Spoils of war.” Phaia’s face was grim. “Looks like they figured out that your magical metal-destroying bugs don’t affect precious metals.” She zoomed her phone in and pointed. “They’re looting the gold and silver pomegranates from the Immortals’ spear-butts, and anything else that looks worth stealing.”
Anna gritted her teeth, feeling a surge of guilt and anger well up in her. “We did this to save Greece from getting invaded, not so a few jerks could get rich!” She poked at her phone. “There are still fly-drones out there with a bit of power left. Maybe we should see how those Greeks like being defenseless!” Her finger hovered over her phone’s surface.
“As much as I hate to say it, that’s probably not wise.” Indy spoke sadly but calmly. “The Persians still outnumber the Greeks by a huge margin. If we take away some of the Greek advantage, it could have an unpredictable effect.”
Anna seethed. “It burns me to see those pirates running in and killing defenseless people, just so they can grab some loot.”
“Me too, boss,” Themis said. “Dirty deeds like that are how we get into all these damn wars in the first place.” She thought for a moment. “Can we tell the fly-drones to drop off of the Persians and onto the Greeks if they go beyond the battlefield? Then if any Greeks pursue that far, they’ll see some of their own weapons getting eaten. Maybe that’d scare them out of chasing further.”
Anna sighed. “That sounds like a safer idea.” After looking around for assent, she punched the relevant commands into her phone. “I just wish we could have done something where not so many people got killed.” She looked heartsick. “The Persians were supposed to retreat!”
“You spoke to Xerxes yourself. He would never have left without a stinging defeat.” Melas said gently. “And defeats cost lives.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the power to simply keep two armies apart.” Indy leaned protectively against Argos, where he lay in his usual post-meal slumber. She hadn’t left his side since he’d been injured the day before.
“Even if you did have that power,” Melas said, “you would be fighting against human nature. Wars happen for a reason! One man covets the land or belongings of another, so he kills the other man and takes them.” He looked at his own mighty forearms as he spread his burn-scarred hands before him, pain from his injury flickering across his face. “There will always be those who ask themselves, ‘Why shouldn’t I?’” He looked haunted. “And, ‘Who can stop me?’”
Phaia stood and dusted her hands. “The doctors I know say to treat the disease, not the symptoms. But if war is just a symptom, then the disease must be more than anyone can cure.” She bent to pick up her pack, light now that all their fly-drones were gone, and winced as her belly wound was compressed. “We did well. I’m no friend of Athens, but seeing the size of that Persian army, I’m glad they won’t be ending up on our doorstep.”
Their subdued little group took almost the same path back to Lebadeia as they had traveled before, though more slowly in deference to their injuries and Anna’s exhaustion. As they passed back through Orchomenos on the western shore of Lake Kopais they could see that the news of the Persian defeat had beaten them there. The sun was beginning to set as they arrived, but Anna could still see the odd Boeotian soldier showing off a piece of looted Persian gear, or telling the tale of the Greek victory with much excitement and waving of hands.
“Look at that.” Themis pointed discreetly to where a man with the look of a smith stood talking with one of the returned soldiers. The soldier was showing off small pieces of Persian metal armor. As they passed, the soldier crumbled a part of it off in his fingers, to the smith’s intense interest.
“In a couple of weeks, every metal-head in the whole country will be puzzling over this,” Themis said once they were well past the pair. She shot Indy an inquiring look. “Can they suss out any of your secret knowledge from those shards?”
“No.” Indy sounded certain. “Our nano-motes weaken metal by joining and extending the microscopic flaws in its crystalline structure. But if you were to melt down the shards and re-forge them, they’d be as good as new.”
“I still want the full story on how that works, by the way,” Themis added.
“You’ll have it,” Indy said.
Phaia eyed the setting sun. “You all want to press on, or find a place to camp? It’s about eight more miles if we bypass Lebadeia on the way back home.”
Anna looked around at the others. “My feet are killing me, but I’d rather sleep in my own bed tonight.”
“Agreed.” Argos spoke unexpectedly from beside Indy. “My paws are strong, always,” he said proudly. “But my head hurts. Tired of sleeping in mud.”
Indy laughed. “Take a dog out of the sheepfold for a few months, and now he’s too good to sleep on the ground.” She butted Argos affectionately with her shoulder, then cringed as he winced with pain. “Sorry!” But in truth, Argos had barely wobbled with the impact. He’d grown visibly larger during their trip, though their travel rations had left him lean as a wolf under his heavy fur.
“I vote to move on.” Themis plucked at her chiton. “I’d smooch a Gorgon right in her snaky chops for a bath right now. I don’t even want to think what I smell like.”
The group continued their weary walk, pressing on into the hills past Lebadeia until finally, long after sunset, they stood on their school’s front doorstep again. A small lantern shone reassuringly in the window, and after a few knocks, one of the assistant cooks unbolted the door and greeted them warmly.
“You got here just in time.” The girl helped Melas remove his pack after seeing him struggle due to his bruised back, while the rest of them set aside their own gear and stretched exhausted limbs. “Some of us were having a late dinner, talking over the news.” She laid Melas’ pack against the wall with the others. “You look tired. Come and have some hot food, then get to bed.” Her eyes sparkled. “We’ve got some good news, too. You’ll never believe what happened at Thermopylae!”
83
The next day, Anna awoke with a smile—no school! That meant she could sleep in a little. Her smile faded as she remembered the events of the last few days. But it didn’t disappear altogether. She was home, and she was alive, and so were her friends.
Okay, so I slept in more than a little. The sun was high outside, and a quick look at her phone revealed that it was almost eleven o’clock. Apparently, run-walking across half of northern Greece could tire you out.
She had slept on damp hair after a late-night shower in their hidden quarters, so she spent a few minutes trying to brush it into shape. At last, she just gave up and pulled it into a ponytail. Then she went out to face the day.
She found the others, except for Indy and Argos, already at lunch. She waved hello, then went back to the kitchen to see what was left to eat. After a minute, she emerged with some warm bread and sausage, and joined Phaia, Themis, and Melas at the table. All three looked rested, though a bandage showed at Phaia’s midsection under her chiton, and all of them were covered with arrow-scrapes and odd bruises.
“So. How you feeling there, chief?” Themis spoke with a bit too much nonchalance.
“Pretty good, considering.” Anna folded some bread around a piece of sausage. “I’m surprised I managed to get through our trip without blistering something, or growing mold in all that rain. Or getting killed, I guess.” She took a bite of her sausage wrap. The three Greeks watched her chew.
She swallowed her food. “Okay, something’s on your minds. What’s up? Next semester won’t start for at least a few weeks! We should all be relaxing and healing up.” She took another bite, enjoying the taste of soft bread not meant for travel.
Phaia spoke first. “On our trip, you said you’d explain everything once it was over.” She smiled. “Now it’s over.”
Melas’ mouth quirked up in a smile. “It is a good thing you are a pharmacist and not a diplomat.”
“She’s just saying what we’re all thinking.” Themis measured Anna’s uneaten breakfast with her eyes. “I’m about to pop a brain-vessel over here. She’s been asleep all morning.”
Anna smiled. “Don’t worry. Indy and I haven’t changed our minds.” Anna looked back toward the hallway. “But Her Highness is apparently sleeping in too.”
