Page 12 of A Vow of Embers

Theano, Maia, and I sat at the table while Antiope remained near the door. Theano sat across from the prince with Maia right next to her. I took the farthest chair away from Prince Alexandros.

The high priestess spoke first. “The first thing we must speak about is how you have broken the laws of the goddess, Prince Alexandros.”

“How have I broken the laws?”

I detected a faint note of surprise in his voice. He hadn’t expected her accusation and my guess was that he wasn’t caught off guard very often.

“You took one of the Locrian maidens, which is forbidden. And she still lives when the law dictates that she was to be put to death when she was caught.”

My throat closed in on itself, my heart nearly exploding. Was Theano going to demand that the prince kill my sister? I couldn’t let that happen.

“Where is Quynh?” I said, unable to help myself. I had hoped she would be here. I needed to know that she was safe.

That she would stay that way.

Prince Alexandros didn’t answer me. He didn’t even acknowledge that I had spoken. I wanted to slam my fists against the table and demand that he tell me right now, but the fierce look Antiope gave me made me hold my tongue. She probably thought I was again revealing too much to an enemy, but as I’d already told her, he knew what Quynh meant to me.

“The maiden in question is not a Locrian.”

“She came from Locris, did she not?” Theano rebutted.

He said, “Adoption doesn’t confer citizenship in Locris. The maiden would have to marry a Locrian citizen in order to become one. No laws were broken.”

My mouth hung open in disbelief. Prince Alexandros was correct, but why did he know that information? More confirmation that he had planned all of this from the start. None of it had been coincidence or accidental. He had always planned to take Quynh, knowing that she wasn’t officially a Locrian maiden and that he could use her against me.

I balled up my hands so tightly that my nails made painful half moons into my palms.

Theano considered this information. “We also received word that the Locrian maidens were assisted during the race, and no Ilionian citizen may help the maidens. Who saved the maiden when she fell from the roof?”

Once again I was floundering, wondering how this had become common knowledge. I hadn’t told a single soul about how the prince had helped me survive. Not even my adelphia.

Prince Alexandros gestured toward Thrax with a slight nod of his head. “My brother, Thrax, is the one who took the other maiden from the race. He is Thracian, not Ilionian. And while observing the race, I might have shot an arrow or two, but I am the prince. More than a citizen and so not subject to the same laws.”

I didn’t know the codes of Ilion well enough to know whether what he said was true, but Theano didn’t have a response.

Which seemed to verify what he claimed.

Normally his ability to find loopholes annoyed me, but today I was grateful for it because it would mean my sister would keep breathing.

The high priestess shifted in her seat. “Yes, well, be that as it may, I am sorry, but we cannot allow your request to marry Princess Thalia. There is no precedent for this kind of situation. She has taken vows that prevent her from accepting.”

“I understand that. But I asked you here in hopes that you would be able to make an exception. Perhaps a temporary one.”

Temporary? What?

“What do you propose?”

He tapped one of his fingers lightly against the table. “Before we proceed further, I will need you and your priestesses to take an oath that you will not reveal anything that we speak of in this room.”

How bad was his proposal going to be if he had to force everyone to stay quiet about it? I had alternated between fury and fear the entire time I had been here, but now anxiety took root in my stomach and began to spread throughout my body. I didn’t know what he would do if the high priestess refused him.

Theano didn’t take his oath.

She stayed silent, putting my sister in danger.

Chapter Five

The silence continued to fill the room, and every moment that passed increased my panic. I had to marry this monster so that I could keep Quynh safe. There was no other alternative. Theano had to agree to let me go.