Sophia

“We should move.”

She was right. We had another day or two at best, and that’s assuming we weren’t still being followed. It seemed a lazy day with my girlfriend was too much to ask for right now. We’d get an eternity of them once we finished this though, so I guess that was ok.

With effort, we both managed to climb to our feet. Using my spear for support, I hobbled beside Chloe as she began to walk the perimeter of our camp.

“Hey Chloe. What happened to your arm anyway?”

She laughed bitterly.

“It was my own fault. Made a mistake while setting a whip trap. Sipriotes wasn’t lying, they’re dangerous as hell.” She crouched down and began slowly and methodically deconstructing a well concealed trigger mechanism. “That’s why I need to disarm all the traps I set before we move on. I’d hate for some passerby or random animal to get taken down by one for no reason.”

“How many did you set?”

“A few. I wasn’t sure how long you’d be passed out for, and I wanted to make sure we were safe while we rested.”

“I see.”

Using the enhanced senses of my spear, I picked up on a faint disturbance in the earth nearby. Was that a trou de loup? That was certainly an ambitious trap for a single night’s stay. I cautiously picked my way towards it, keeping an eye open for any traps I might not have noticed. Thankfully, there were none. As I kneeled down to begin dismantling it, I saw Chloe beginning to disassemble another whip trap. I cringed inwardly as she carefully relieved it of its tension. Once she was no longer focused on such a delicate task, I called over to her.

“So how much further would you say we have to go, Chloe?”

“Not much, I don’t think! It’s certainly changed a lot in three thousand years, but this place feels kinda familiar! We rode pretty hard last night, and a lot further than I’d originally planned.”

“Well, that kind of thing happens when you’ve got a sexist murderer on your tail.”

“Touche!”

As the last of the traps were finally dismantled, I started to understand what she meant. Even if a lot had changed, I felt like I’d been here before. I felt like the hill to my left was one that I’d climbed in the past, the boulder on my right, while certainly less weathered, looked remarkably like one Chloe had taken my picture on. We’d definitely been here before, or… I guess we will be here again in a few thousand years, even though that was in our relative past.

I hate time travel.

With our labor complete, I stoked the fire that Chloe started last night. It took surprisingly little to get it going again. Together, we poured our morning libations and made our sacrifices to the gods, even though it was definitely a bit late in the day for that now. With that, our preparations were over. We mounted the towering mare, a tall order for both of us in our current states, and rode off, bathed in the afternoon sun.

Chloe

Minute after minute, hour after hour, we continued our journey eastward. The mare, who I really needed to name, maintained an impressive pace, all things considered. I rode her hard last night, but even now, she was calmly carrying us down the trail a fair bit faster than we would’ve managed on our own, even without our injuries and exhaustion.

Hmm…

“I’m thinking maybe… Enthumematikos!”

“You’re thinking who’s a what now?”

“Enthumematikos! That’s what we can call our horse! It’s like determined and willful and stuff.”

“It’s also a mouthful, babe.”

She was right.

“You’re right… but maybe we can shorten it! She doesn’t speak, she doesn’t know any different. What if we called her Matikos for short?”

“Sure. Just don’t expect me to use her full name, like ever.”

“That’s ok, I’ll make up for it.” I patted gently on the mare’s neck, “Isn’t that right, Enthumematikos?”

All things considered, ever since we escaped Khania, things had been pretty uneventful. I didn’t want to get too hopeful, especially with how disastrous things had been lately, but it felt good to know that one way or another, this challenge was coming to an end. We stopped for lunch at sundown and poured libations to the Chthonic gods while we were at it. Usually you would do that with dinner, but given how thoroughly mangled our sleep schedules now were, we figured it was best to just do it at twilight.

We pressed on, for hours and hours, further into the night. We didn’t have time to rest, not anymore. We had to push on and finish this. At this point, every second that Sophie was still conscious, still breathing, was a miracle. One that I wasn’t inclined to take for granted.

With each moment that passed, I could feel my unease slowly grow. Sophia’s breathing was getting more and more labored, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. We stole the entire royal stables of a vindictive Greek lord, there had to be a consequence for that.

As the moon reached its apex, several things happened at once. Faintly, still far in the distance, I could hear the sounds of running water and the barest whisper of laughter in the wind. At the same time, I heard rapid steps, heavy breathing, and the sudden twang of a bowstring. Right before my ankle exploded with pain.

Sophia

I leapt from Matikos’ back in a heartbeat, immediately placing myself between Chloe and the threat, scanning the trees for the arrow’s source. My head was pounding and my vision blurred even as I struck two more arrows from the sky.

Chloe, are you ok?

Still breathing… ow.

Now where the hell was this bastard? Three more arrows came zipping out of the woods before I had my answer. With my target finally located, I blitzed towards the archer, closing the gap before he could fire another shot. I wouldn’t make it through a long confrontation, I was already struggling to breathe. I jabbed my spear towards him, trusting the magic to guide it to its prey, but when I expected to pierce through flesh, I was instead left shaken by the impact and the sound of metal on metal.

Where there had once been a bow, there was now a gleaming bronze shield, and I watched, horrified as a short spear shimmered into being in his other hand.

“Drop your weapon and I’ll make it quick, Sorceress.”

Darius.

I didn’t dignify him with a response, instead going on the offensive. I lashed out with my spear, again and again and again, but he moved with a speed I couldn’t match, even if I wasn’t so hurt. He was toying with me.

Maybe so, but there’s only one of him. We can do this!

A shimmering bolt of silvery energy smashed into his shield, causing him to fall back for a moment. I pressed the advantage, timing my strikes with Chloe’s shots, and together we forced him back. We put on the pressure, striking and shooting over and over and over again, taking more and more control over the situation.

But we weren’t fast enough.

My lungs were screaming, my heart was pounding, and my shoulder felt like it’d been dipped in liquid fire. I kept striking, kept pushing, but there was darkness at the edges of my vision and my eyes felt heavy.

Sophia, fall back!!!

Chloe…

With the last dregs of my strength, I sprinted to her voice.

Chloe

The son of Ares was backed against a tree, panting heavily, and Sophia was in my arms, unconscious and barely breathing.

Well shit.

This was probably it then, but I’d be damned if I went down easy. As I took Sophia’s spear in my hands, the icy, shooting pains in my ankle dulled to a whisper, and I could feel the strength rising within me. Before Darius came for us again, I hoisted Sophia’s limp body onto Matikos’ back, deftly removing the chain from the mare’s neck in the process. Now free from her binding, she looked at me, an unusual intelligence in her eyes.

“I don’t know if you understand me. I have no clue why you would, but I’m going to hope that you can, because that’s all I can do. Enthumematikos, take her to the river. Please.”

“Not… going… to happen.”

In a blink, Darius was practically on top of me, his spear driving towards my gut. I twisted to the side at the last moment, but it wasn’t quite enough, his spear still grazing my abdomen. I let out a sharp hiss of pain as I tried to focus on my task.

He was too fast. He’d easily catch up to Matikos if I didn’t do something, but he’d made a mistake. With this one attack, he’d allowed me to slip inside his guard. Before he could react, I flung the chain over his head and practically shouted the incantation.

“Go, Enthumematikos!”

She ran, and by some miracle, Sophia stayed on her back. Darius smashed me aside with his shield to give chase, but was stopped by a brilliantly shining tether, binding him to me. He whirled to look at me, bloodlust and madness clouding his eyes. The son of Ares, indeed. His voice was raw and guttural as he howled and raged.

“I’ll kill you, boy! You and your amazonian whore!”

I flinched at his words, but leveled Sophia’s spear all the same. This was it. The last chance, my final plan. I wouldn’t let it go to waste.

“I made you a promise, Darius, and I intend to see it through. Before all is said and done, my arrow will take your heart.”