‘He fled soon after you named him traitor,’ Nikolas murmured. ‘When we retook the city the men found him hiding in his villa, clutching onto a pouch of silver coins and throwing them at the soldiers who seized him, begging them to let him go.’
Dion realized with a start that Lukas wasn’t looking out to sea. Nikolas had arranged the boy’s body so that when Peithon had been impaled, his blank eyes would be able to watch.
‘Brother . . .’ Dion began.
‘Fight for Phalesia if you want. Take your eldren. Let me bury my son.’
56
Chloe held her breath as she gazed out at the sea from the edge of the Phalesian agora. Just a dozen paces in front of her the stone dropped away in the sloped defensive embankment. The horseshoe wings of the harbor curved left and right, so that she was at the apex of the curve. She had rarely left this position since her arrival.
Her long dark hair was combed until it shone, and she had washed away the grime of her journey, although the lines of care in her forehead had deepened. She now wore a white chiton fastened with copper pins and leather sandals on her feet. A new amulet bearing the symbol of Aeris hung from a copper chain around her neck. Aeries was the goddess of healing, yet what Chloe truly wanted was a sword or a dagger in her hand. She wanted to fight.
Chloe remembered standing at this very place when Kargan had climbed the narrow steps and been welcomed by her father. The sun king’s naval overlord had cast his eyes disdainfully over the city. He had then insulted her father in his own home. He had made no attempt to hide his desire for the golden ark at the Temple of Aldus. Then he had kidnapped Chloe and taken her to Lamara.
Kargan had gone and now he would return. This time he would be thirsty for conquest. This time the sun king himself would be with him.
Chloe looked to her right, at the cliff that was home to the ark, the object of the sun king’s desire. She frowned as she looked at the first steps cut into the cliff, leading up from the embankment, at the edge of the harbor’s arc. She followed them with her eyes, tilting her head back as her gaze finally rested on the temple at the flat summit.
The eternal flame flickered and danced. The white marble columns of the roofless temple glistened. The golden chest sparkled, reflecting the afternoon sun’s slanted rays.
Solon wanted the gold and Triton desperately wanted what was in the ark. The people of Phalesia had to do everything they could to protect it.
Hearing shouted orders and barked commands, Chloe now looked down at the shore. Every soldier in Phalesia was waiting on the white-pebbled beach. She saw Captain Amos bawling orders as he ran up and down the ranks. There seemed too few men to defend an entire harbor. She had already counted them, praying for the gods to give strength to each man in turn. The long stretch of soldiers was over eight hundred soldiers long and two deep. They stood three feet apart, stretched thinly to encompass most of the shoreline, which made their line over a mile long.
There simply weren’t enough defenders; Chloe could see that without knowing anything about military strategy. Phalesia’s strength was in her navy, which had placed her as one of the strongest Galean nations, until the arrival of the Ileans had made them realize their vessels were outclassed.
Out in the blue water, the Phalesian fleet waited expectantly, a wall of ships guarding the entire harbor between the rocky promontories at either end. There were fourteen war galleys with sails down and oars at the ready. Like the biremes they would be facing they had bronze rams jutting from the bow, just below the waterline. Thirty rowers to either side of the open-decked vessels framed a central complement of a dozen archers and marines, standing tall and proud with blue cloaks fluttering in the wind as they prepared to defend their homeland.
Chloe wasn’t alone on the embankment and stood in the middle of a long line of consuls. Flanking them on both sides were a few dozen archers and a score of soldiers.
She heard her father beside her let out a breath. ‘Daughter,’ he said quietly. ‘You should go and hide in the villa with your sister and the servants.’ His eyes were moist as he looked at her. ‘I don’t want to regain you only to lose you again.’
Chloe once more scanned the long arc of blue-cloaked Phalesian soldiers on the shore. ‘I came too late.’
Aristocles shook his head. ‘Your warning gives us a chance. The men are equipped and deployed. The fleet guards the harbor. If we survive the day, Phalesia has you to thank.’
She sighed as she looked up at her father. ‘Any news from Xanthos?’
‘All we know is that the city fell. Nikolas departed through the Gates of Annika with the Xanthian army and did not return.’
Aristocles looked every day of his age. His high forehead and balding pate revealed the worry lines on his face.