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Pirithous
And so their life would be, Pirithous thought bitterly, watching Thalia disappear into the house. No wonder Theseus had married an Amazon. A woman who might follow him into battle, at his side. Though Thalia was his equal in many things, she would never be a warrior. He would have no choice but to leave her behind, and she no choice but to watch him go and wait, hoping and praying he would return alive.
He turned, jogging toward the sound of Alexandros’s voice, still calling for his bride. Alexandros spun at the sound of his approach, what light there had been in his face failing utterly as their eyes met.
“You.”
Pirithous nodded to the trees. “Nikki went into the woods?”
“None of your business, either way.”
Pirithous ground his teeth. Clearly Thalia’s stubbornness was a family trait, but he had not the time for it now. From either of them.
The back door slammed and they both looked up. Thalia skipped down the stairs, his sword belt in her hands, and something else, too small to see clearly. “How long has Nikki been gone, Alex?”
“Is that a sword?” Alexandros demanded.
Thalia rolled her eyes. “Just answer the question.”
“A half hour, maybe. Why?”
Pirithous caught Thalia’s gaze and held it as she wrapped the belt around his waist. Just as any Achaean wife would have dressed her husband for war. He brushed his fingers against the smoothness of her cheek and dropped his forehead to hers, breathing her in. He must come back to her. And he must bring Nikki alive. She tilted her chin up, touching her lips to his as she pressed a vial into his hand.
“Hey!” Alexandros’s voice was sharp, but Thalia did not so much as twitch.
“Take one at dusk, and another in the morning. Especially if you’re going to inflame your shoulder,” Thalia said. “Promise me, all right?”
“One way or another I will be back before morning,” he told her, twisting open the top and plucking out a single white pill. He tucked it into a leather pouch on his belt and handed her the vial. “Keep the rest and I will return for it.”
“Are you sure?” Her fingers closed around the vial, but her eyes searched his.
“As you say, I cannot serve the gods if I am dead.”
“Thalia!”
She ignored her brother and Pirithous was more than happy to do the same. “What if that’s what they want? What if this is Hades’s way of taking revenge?”
“Thalia.” He framed her face in his hands, brushing his thumbs along her cheekbones. “Trust in me. I will return this night. You have my word.”
She swallowed and nodded, taking a step back. Her face was pale with fear, but there was little he could do to reassure her aside from returning whole.
“What the hell is going on?”
Thalia sighed. “Watch your mouth, Alex.”
“What does any of this have to do with Nikki?”
Pirithous tore his eyes from Thalia’s face long enough to glance at her brother. “I mean to go find her and bring her safely home, if you will but care for your sister in my absence. I do not think the centaurs will come again, now that they have their prize, but it is possible they will realize that they have stolen the wrong woman and seek Thalia.”
“Are you listening to this, Thalia?”
“Yes,” she said.
“You can’t believe what he’s saying?”
She pressed her lips together, but her gaze returned to Pirithous. “I do, and you’d better.”
“Keep her safe, Alexandros. I do not wish to return to find my bride exchanged for yours.”
“Your what?”
“Go, Pirithous,” Thalia said, darting forward to kiss his cheek. “And try not to let them shoot you this time.”
He smiled. “I will do my best.”
And then he left her, praying as he went that it was not already too late for Nikki.
***
HE DID NOT WORRY UNTIL the forest grew quiet. Centaurs were not human, but in a land like this, where they had not been seen for millennia, if ever, the creatures who made their homes in the trees would be uneasy with their presence, much more so than from the passing of a single man. It was the same uneasy silence that warned him he was near to the place they had made their shelter just as much as it was the hoofmarks in the trampled earth and the tufts of fur caught in the bark where the centaurs had rubbed against the trees.
Drawing his sword, Pirithous stopped, listening. If Nikki were unharmed, he had no doubt that he would hear her shrieking, but those same cries would bring her danger, and he did not think Cyllarus’s mate would suffer the woman’s screams for long. Instead, there was nothing. No whimpers or cries, no thud of hooves upon the ground, and no crack of wood fed to a fire. He was not too near yet, then.
He inhaled deeply, searching for the taint of smoke on the air, but the wind was not with him. No matter. It still told him which direction their camp was not, even if it blew his scent to them. Centaurs had keen senses, but they would not smell him before he heard them, and if he moved carefully, he might circle the camp before the wind gave him away. He would have to, if he meant to return to Thalia unharmed.
Hylonome was quick with her bow. That much he knew. And Cyllarus preferred to apply his brutish strength with a club. Alone against Cyllarus, he would have no trouble slaying the centaur, even one armed. But if Hylonome gave cover to her mate—it was not the first time he wished for a shield, or even leather armor for his chest. Thalia was right to fear an arrow through his heart. The centaurs wanted him alive, but it was a great risk to take him so and would require patience and skill he was not certain they possessed. They might still kill him in the trying.
His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword. He could not let them win. If they took him now, there would be no one left to defend Thalia, and Nikki would certainly die. The first to suffer, but not the last. The centaurs would act against any human who crossed their path, and no matter what Thalia said of bullets and guns, they would breed chaos. From his own experiences with Thalia, it was clear men would not believe the centaurs lived at all until it was too late, and then what? With no understanding of the gods, no knowledge of the centaurs themselves, they would be defenseless.
Perhaps that was what the gods wanted. Let the centaurs run amok, terrifying these people, and when their Christian God did nothing, the Olympians would step forward to offer protection themselves. He ground his teeth at the thought. Sow fear and reap worship and loyalty, for if centaurs existed, what else might threaten them from the past? No. He would end this now. Whether it was the will of the gods or not.
There. The snap of a twig and the rustle of leaves. He pressed himself against the thick trunk of a tree and held his breath. Please, let it be Hylonome, alone and unarmed. Without her bow, she would be at his mercy, but it was too much to hope she would not have it close. Not when they held Nikki as bait.
“Quickly,” a lighter voice growled. Cyllarus’s mate.
But the noise of her passing was much too clumsy, the snap and crack of wood too loud beneath her feet. A centaur would not make so much noise. He dared to peek around the tree trunk.
Nikki. A rope looped tight around her neck, and red marks on her wrists suggested more of the same. Hylonome had tied the other end of the rope around her waist, bow in hand as she searched the trees. Nikki bent to collect more wood, her face streaked with dirt and tears.
Pirithous drew the knife from his belt. He did not want to lose it, but he could not rush Hylonome without taking an arrow to his chest, and if she pierced his other shoulder, he would have little choice but to retreat. Now was not the time for risk-taking. A little nearer, and he might at least cut Nikki free. He closed his eyes and reached for her mind, but her emotions slipped away, too scattered to allow him any grip.
He exhaled and looked again. Nikki had drifted a few paces away, no longer standing between him and the centaur. Pirithous balanced the blade in his hand and flicked his wrist, sending the bronze knife flying faster than the mortal eye could follow.
Hylonome howled as the blade lodged in her right shoulder, and Pirithous charged, swinging his sword down hard on the rope between the centaur and the girl. The bronze sliced through it like goat cheese.
“Run,” he shouted, not taking his eyes off the centaur. She reared, her forelimbs striking out, and Pirithous ducked under her hooves, slashing at her belly. She landed hard, barely missing his foot with her hoof, and he could not spare so much as a glance at Nikki to be sure that she had gone.
“Murderer!” the centaur shrieked, rearing to kick again. “Betrayer!”
Pirithous dropped to the ground, rolling beneath the horse’s body and dragging his blade across the centaur’s hind legs the moment his feet were under him.
Her scream was half-whinny, high and sharp with pain as her back legs failed and she toppled sideways.
“What are you doing?” Nikki cried.
He swore. Cyllarus’s mate may have fallen, but now she had pulled the knife from her shoulder, and an arrow flew through the air, weak, but still grazing his ear.
“Run, you fool!” he called, charging forward. He must disarm her or Nikki would not make it into the trees. “Before Cyllarus comes.”
“I can’t!”
“Gods above! Run before you get us both killed.”
The centaur was struggling to get her forequarters beneath her again, the loam of the forest skidding out from beneath her hooves. Her eyes were wide and white, her breathing heavy. Pirithous dove for his knife, lying in the moss, and rolled beneath the bow’s range. The centaur brought an arrow down, abandoning the bow and aiming for his stomach. He caught the head on his sword blade. The blow jarred his shoulder, sending the sword from his nerveless fingers. He launched himself over the centaur’s back. A grip on her forelock brought her head back and the bite of his knife against her throat stilled her struggles.
“Butcher,” she breathed, her hide trembling beneath him. “Murderer!”
“So you say,” he growled, his teeth clenched against the burn in his shoulder. “And so I will be, as long as you threaten what is mine.”
“NO!” Cyllarus.
Pirithous ignored the roar, jerking Hylonome’s head back harder. The knife sliced across her throat and hot blood sprayed out over his hand, but the beat of Cyllarus’s hooves came hard upon the earth, and he had not the time to reach for his sword before the beast was upon him.
That was when he noticed Nikki, still standing stiff and white among the trees.
“Run, girl!”
She turned and fled. It was the last thing he saw before Cyllarus’s club struck his skull and the wood went suddenly black.