Chapter 25 - The Slave
Again, Kassandra has asked to read over the letter Eos had found as they made their way back to the port.
It didn't exactly mention a lycaon but, both Eos and Laelaps were convinced that's what it meant. And, Kassandra had to be honest with herself, it sounded too much like the creature walking next to them not to be.
"What is this about the Ares camp" Kassandra asked, Eos sighed,
"Well, when I escaped the fort, Laelaps took me through this Ares camp he'd... dealt with. At the time, I didn't think anything of it" Eos shrugged, "it was out of the way and, if you do not know the signs of a lycaon attack, they could easily have been attacked by a lion, or wolves or-" Kassandra stopped her,
"And, of all the Ares camp he could have found, it was that one". It seemed unlikely. The followers of Ares were spread all over Greece.
"Because... nearby is the place Pyros was born" Eos told her. Eos had always wondered whether Pyros knew, whether he'd been there, whether it was ever something he mourned for - having been so young.
Kassandra stopped as they came to the start of the dock, to the Adrestia sitting right where she'd left it.
"What will you do" Kassandra asked. Eos had been thinking about it and, considering the situation, there was only one thing she could do.
"I need to find Pyros" Eos told her, "I need to understand what he's doing, I just.." she looked to Laelaps.
Eos had considered asking Kassandra to take him, just in case Pyros did have a sure fire way to kill a lycaon but, the beast would never have it. He would end up following her and, it would cause more trouble than what it was worth,
"Is that a good idea",
Eos shrugged a shoulder, "I don't know what else I can do" Eos looked back to Kassandra, "If I let him just go...". Who knew where Pyros was at. Yes, he was after Laelaps but, Eos did not think that he had considered her to be part of the deal, not anymore. Perhaps that would change something...
"Eos, you might have to...". Kassandra knew she'd done it before but, after having lost the others, Kassandra didn't know if the bargain they'd struck all that long ago still stood. Kassandra did not know if it could.
"Laelaps is the only one who stood by me Kassandra" she took the letter back. "I would do anything to keep him safe. Just like he would for me" they looked to the lycaon who had his nose to the ground, taking no notice of them.
"Lagos. Let us not make this any harder than it needs to be" Deimos was leant on the mans door, flicking through a handful of bounties the businessman had put out for the cult.
A leader in Melos.
A mercenary in Megaris.
A farmer in Elis.
A butcher in Keos.
A ships captain with a goat sail.
A slave in Tegea.
A sister.
Deimos looked up at him,
"I am... I'm trying..." Lagos shook,
"You know that is not enough" Deimos took a step towards him and the man flinched away, covering his face. Deimos stopped. "Lagos. You have become distracted. I think that it may be time that other... arrangements... for your... family... are made",
"Pl-please no" he fell to his knees, "I-they-they have no have part in this-please" he put his hands together, his face getting closer and closer to the floor, "I-I'll do better. I-". Deimos knelt down, placing his hand on Lagos' shoulder, making the man freeze,
"Do you want them to see what I'll do to you if you betray your King Lagos" - Pausanias had been very cryptic with his letter but, Deimos had got the jist. Lagos shook his head quick. Deimos smiled and glanced up, spotting the small boy who was peeking through the door on the other side. He stood up and put his hand out, gesturing the small boy in. Lagos looked up, following his hand, his whole body starting to shake as his son came towards them,
"No-no-ple",
"Enough" Deimos grabbed the boy and pulled him over, holding his arm around his neck. The boy gasped, grabbing at Deimos' arms, desperate to escape, "Do you know how easy I could break your neck" Deimos said quietly, the boy stopped, shutting his eyes tight,
"Let him go. Please. I will do as you say. I promise",
"You will" Deimos said to him, "but first" he looked over to the men who were now stood at the door, Lagos' wife in tow. Lagos fell back on his heels, his eye twitching as his wife cried out for him and her son, "these distractions will be..." Deimos looked back to Lagos and smiled, "taken care of",
"Please... please... I'll do anything" Lagos put his whole body to the floor, begging,
"Do not worry my friend, no harm will come to them if our arrangement is kept to. Your King made me promise", Lagos went to say something but, Deimos stuck his fingers in to the sons neck, making him squirm and Lagos look down again - he nodded his head. "Good". Deimos threw the boy towards his mater, the two of them embracing before they were torn apart. "Take them" Deimos said. The wife cried out one last time, reaching out for her husband who didn't even have the balls to look at her.
The men shut the door behind them, leaving Deimos and Lagos on their own.
"Now Lagos" Deimos crouched down, resting his arms on his knees, "I have something more for you" Lagos looked up warily,
"Anything" he swallowed the lump in his throat. Deimos grabbed him by that throat, pulling him to his feet - the man was almost like a dead weight,
"I want to know of every bounty you make" Deimos told him,
"B-" Deimos shoved him in to the wall,
"Every bounty you make" Deimos tilted his head, "And, one word... to anyone... and I'll bring you your sons fingers personally".
Both Eos and Kassandra had watched Laelaps stuff his nose in to a hole in the dock, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath in,
"What are you doing" Kassandra had asked him, she looked to Eos, "What is he doing". Eos shrugged,
"Laelaps, are you trying to inhale the sea" Eos asked - if the water was any higher he'd have his snout in it. The lycaon snorted and looked up, towards a burnt out torch.
Eos sighed and put her hands on her hips, "Pyros", the lycaon snorted, "Well... if it's the same smell as before",
"How did you even..." Kassandra looked from the lycaon back to Eos. Eos raised her brow,
"What",
"He snorted" Kassandra shook her head and went towards Barnabas who was talking to Herodotus on the edge of the dock, "He snorted" Kassandra said again. Eos smiled and then looked to Laelaps who, in turn, had stuck out his tongue before he looked over at Barnabas.
"Commander" Barnabas said, "I do not know if it means anything but" he looked behind him, to the sea, "There was a man, a hooded one but, he had blisters on his hands, burns. Herodotus believes him to be the flame". Kassandra looked to Eos,
"Yes. From what you have told me" Herodotus took a step forward towards them, "I believe it could be him", his hands rested behind his back,
"Herodotus... Any man could have blisters on his hands" Eos said,
"He was accompanied by a Spartan" Herodotus said,
"Any hooded man with burns could be accompanied by a Spartan, Herodotus" Eos shrugged, "There must be a reason why you think it's him",
The thing is - Pyros. Other than the burns, there was nothing that could identify him from across a battlefield. No symbol that he wore, no weapon that he carried, no defining scars that could not be hidden beneath robes.
"Because. When he saw me; Barnabas; the ship, he acted very peculiar, as if he knew of us" Herodotus said, "He stood right there" he gestured to where the lycaon was stood, his nose now resting in the hole once again. "Then, he got in a row boat" Herodotus looked down the beach, "And, he rowed out to a small Athenian ship anchored a hundred or so metres out" he looked over, at the sea.
"A Spartan on a an Athenian ship" Kassandra asked,
"An Athenian spy on an Athenian ship" Eos told her, "Which way did he go",
"He went that way" Barnabas said, pointing south-west. Kassandra raised her brow - so, anywhere,
"We sent a couple of the crew to one of the peaks of the mountains" Herodotus nodded towards it, "They say it was heading towards the Scavengers Coast". Kassandra looked to Eos,
"What's over there", Eos had shrugged,
"Fancy dropping me off so I can find out".
Laelaps hacked from behind them.
"Remember who it is you serve Lagos" Deimos said as he looked down at the man from his horse,
"How... how will I-I let you know" Lagos didn't look at him, "About the...",
"Oh, do not worry Lagos, I'll be back" Deimos smiled.
As long as Kleon had a hand in Lagos' business, he'd stick around.
However, his next feat lay in Tegea.
A place, which Deimos rode in to just after night fell, was said to be the oldest and most powerful city in Arkadia.
Technically, it should have welcomed the strong with open arms.
Except, Deimos had never liked it there and, the people liked him even less.
It was also the place Eos had told him she was pregnant.
And, as he passed the boundary of the city, he almost felt a want to leave.
It had been during the winter when Eos had not returned home. She'd gone out, to a blacksmith and just, never came back.
And, back then, when she had not wanted to be found, she wasn't.
Unless a lycaon was looking out for her.
Laelaps had left a trail when Eos hadn't. And then, when he'd got closer to Tegea, he'd lost that trail. Eos had obviously realised what the lycaon was trying to do but, once he'd passed through, it was the lycaon who had turned him around.
She had been at the Sanctuary of Athena Polias, sat up in the greaves.
It was then she had told him. And, after listening to the day she'd had - which may have just been as stressful as his - he just accepted it. There was nothing else he could have done. They had been stupid and now, they would suffer for it.
And then, as much as he tried to forget it, as much as he longed for what they'd had before - even after she'd told him what she would do - which he'd accepted as well, which he should have berated her for, which he should have told someone about - everything spiralled out of control and now, they were here and...
Pushing the thoughts from his mind, reminding himself of why he was here, Deimos found the house he was looking for.
One of Lagos' bounties had peaked both his and Kleons interest. A slave had supposedly 'killed' his master, a master who just so happened to be brother to a rogue cultist that had slipped through Deimos' fingers - which Kleon liked to remind him about.
Now, if Deimos took the time to look for he who called himself the Swordfish on Messara, he did not doubt that he would not find him but, leaving mainland Greece now, for anything, would not do the Demi-God any good and, he was one of those cultist he would happily leave to his sister to take care of. For all he knew, she already had. But, lest she never got the chance, he had a feeling by the end of the night that he would know where the Swordfish was.
And the master too.
The house had been abandoned, apparently left to the mercy of thieves and robbers who, it seemed, had taken a lot of his furniture.
Except, the door had also been locked.
However, Deimos found out, from the neighbour who he'd strangled for having peeped through one of the windows at him; the furniture and, most of his belongings, had been moved from the masters house a few nights before he'd been killed. It seemed like the master had expected himself to go somewhere.
The neighbour also told him of how the master had been struck down by his slave, in full view of the Temple of Demeter and Kore; that, despite the hard work of the guard and a physician, the master had died. Which, to Deimos, sounded far too rehearsed and, he'd broken the neighbours neck and left him to rot, stuffed between a couple of barrels in the alley between two houses.
And then, as uneventful as the house proved to be, minus finding and killing a sleeping man upstairs in the bedroom - who Deimos would later learn had been the masters guard - both a letter telling him to meet someone with the initials P.S at a small clearing just east of a well-known bandit camp - which just so happened to be the same initials as the master in question - and a visitor the guard received when midnight struck, proved both Deimos and Kleons suspicions.
Now, the slave and his scarred cheek - which Lagos had noted on the bounty as being his only defining feature - had taken one look at the blood and ran, completely unaware that the culprit was standing in the same room as him.
The slave, no matter how many times he glanced behind him, had no idea that Deimos was following him; and, when they'd finally made it out of Tegea, the sporadic running had stopped, the slave having finally convinced himself that he was not being followed.
Deimos let him believe it. He had a very good feeling that the slave would lead him straight to the master he had 'killed'.
Passing through the smugglers forest, passed a bandit camp, the slave led Deimos to the small clearing from the letter. A man, stood in expensive blue robes was watching the darkness, only turning around when he heard his slave approach, his words shaky as he told him what had happened. The man, however much the people of Tegea did not like him, seemed to have a soft spot for his slave, asking him to calm himself, asking him to sit.
Deimos had listened as the slave gave the man hurried words, had told him that he'd found the guard dead, that they had to leave immediately.
That he'd had word that his brother was hiding out in the caves near the Fisherman's Beacon, in Messara.
With that, when the master had asked the slave to grab a bag from the tent, which Deimos just so happened to be sat behind, the Demi-God had grabbed the man by the throat, collapsing it within moments.
"Who are you" the Master had said, taking a step back as he looked from side to side, grabbing for a fire poker next to him. He held it out, his hand shaking,
"I have come to collect the bounty on your slaves head" Deimos said as he let the dead slave fall, looking down as his body did its last few twitches.
"Uh... yes..." Deimos raised his brow and looked back at him. The master stood up straight, "Yes... thank you for that... he... he has been plotting to kill me... he... he told me I had a bounty on my own head... told me I had to leave Tegea" the master said, his voice starting to calm itself as he recognised the markings on his chest plate. His brother had told him of the cult, told him to be compliant.
Under any other circumstance, Deimos was sure the man could talk a good talk, perhaps even say enough to make someone else believe his words but, Deimos was not someone else. Deimos looked back at the slave. How easy it was for a rich man to blame a poor man so easily - especially when the poor man had paid with his life.
Although, in all respects, Deimos had come to collect a bounty. A bounty that was worthless if it was not true.
"Word is, he already did" Deimos looked to the Master, "It seems the rumours were wrong. Let us fix that".
It had taken most of the trip from port to port to decide whether or not Eos and Laelaps going to the Scavengers Coast alone was in any way, a good idea.
In the end, Eos had told Kassandra that, even if she didn't find Pyros, Arkadia and this Lagos - who would be Kassandra's next target once she'd returned to Sparta and talked with Brasidas and her mater - were just south of there and, Eos was sure they would meet-up somewhere in the middle.
Kassandra had wanted Eos to consider that Pyros, from what they knew, was also planning on killing Laelaps - to which the lycaon had cackled at - and, Eos had agreed but, like she'd said before, from the look on Pyros face when she'd seen him, he'd not been expecting to hunt her to.
There was also the chance that, by the time she got to Arkadia, a bounty as big as Kassandra and her maters would be on her head but, mercenaries did not scare her and, she was sure that not every man was willing to burn the scent off of themselves to sneak up on a lycaon. Not to mention that she was so unknown to most of the Greece world, the mercenaries they'd need to send would be people who knew her and - people Laelaps would be able to smell out.
So, on Barnabas' suggestion, after travelling that little more west, so as to avoid any confrontation with the small Athenian ship, which was now docked at the port at the Scavengers Coast, Eos and Laelaps were lowered down in to a row boat.
The coast, as always, was sparse with its people and, the lycaon, who was able to travel freely in the early morning light, was having a hard time settling his stomach after they'd nearly crashed in to an underwater ship wreck.
Eos had laughed and said that was why it was called shipwreck cove and, the lycaon had vomited.
It also meant that any trace of Pyros that the lycaon had, which ended on the dock, had been lost. The small Athenian ship had also paid them no mind, Pyros had already left, along with his spy and now, the men were restocking what little they could for a return trip to Athens.
The people who lived there were just as useless to her. As always, keeping to themselves. They were poor, pitiful, living in make-shift homes made from the wreckage of old ships. They did not want to know of the people who passed through, did not want to get involved with what was going on. Life was hard enough without having a mercenary like character asking them questions.
It was better to just keep quiet.
Which meant that both Eos and Laelaps were at a loss. They had no leads, no way of knowing where Pyros was and, as Eos had sat down on one of the rocks overlooking the sea and, another ship wreck, she'd noticed the left-overs of a body below her. The unlucky fool had been there a while and, after telling Laelaps to stay away - just in case he caught something, she'd sat back and watched as the sun started to rise.
It was almost mid-day when the lycaon climbed up to where she was sat, the suns rays having been doused by the grey clouds that had settled over top of it.
The lycaon had sighed deeply, as if the fish he'd been snacking on had finally settled the motion in his stomach and, after a moment, Eos had asked him something she hadn't been able to stop herself from thinking about. A question she thought it was time she got a real answer too.
"Why did you never tell me about Phokis".
Eos understood that he would have waited to tell her - in those first couple of months, even she had not known if she was coming or going but, it was not just her that had suffered it seemed - he had suffered too - at the hands of people he may not have always trusted but, he had trusted enough to not harm him. Laelaps was a lycaon, a majestic beast that had attached itself to Eos and, most of the cult had been enthralled by it. A gift from Kosmo, from the Gods. A beast that did their bidding (or Eos') without hesitation.
The lycaon did not reply, only resting his head on his paws.
Eos wondered how many of those scars were now hidden beneath his thick fur - fur that before, she would always comb through with her fingers. She'd known of all his lumps and bumps then, of a spot he had on his shoulder, a tear in the skin he had on the side of his rump. Except, there had been no time for that - they were spending too much of their time trying to stay alive.
She also wondered why he had not told her about Pyros, about Melaina - she had said that she'd seen the lycaon on fire - the lycaon had been in Phokis that night and, it only occurred to Eos now that Melaina had to have been too. As well as Pyros. Even if it had been claimed they weren't.
Laelaps had gave her a disheartened sigh, almost as a response to her inner thoughts.
Eos had sighed and shook her head then, realising why the lycaon had never told her.
Because, as much as she would have wanted to know; everything they did was in aid to save them; to save Pyros, to save the others. Laelaps had fought with the feeling that, if he was to tell her, he would jeopardise that, that it would make her lose even more hope - or, his most selfish fear that, she would brush over it - just like she had their betrayal to her. That, what had happened, didn't matter.
But, it did. It mattered so much more than Eos could ever say. It hurt like hell but, she and him both knew what that life was like.
Still though.
"You're an idiot" Eos told him. Laelaps snorted, moving his head so he couldn't look at her, "You know, if I had to choose... I'd choose you", Laelaps turned his head back slightly. "You know me more than any of them" Eos said quietly, he snorted again, "well, obviously not him but" Eos shook her head, smiled, "you've been with me through it all" she gestured to the world in front of them, "If I had to...".
The last thing Eos ever wanted to do was choose but, she owed so much to the creature sat next to her that, she'd never be able to live with herself - anymore than she did now - if she put them over him. No matter how much she felt for them.
The lycaon, now having felt terrible himself, had laid his head on her lap. After swallowing back a lump she didn't even know she had, Eos was just about ready to tell him not to get too comfy, that they'd have to plan out their next venture when, his ears pricked up. Eos had turned her head when he did - although it had taken her a couple more moments to recognise who it was he was staring at.
Kleon.
Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!
This took so much longer than I thought it would! It was only supposed to be a little chapter, with some 'attempts' at heartfelt words and memories! Hopefully it didn't disappoint too much! I will see you next time!