Remis came alive, flicking from the commander to Drakos. “I doubt her monstrous foster mother taught her the army were the people she could trust. She was alone and scared and possessed a story even I’m still struggling to believe. In every true sense, life ended for her eight years ago. She is still that ten-year-old child, Matthias. She did what any child would do—run away.”
“You say you’re still struggling to believe her, but sounds to me that you do.” Drakos was still hidden in the shadows.
“You read the report on her only last night.” She dropped a sheaf of papers in front of him. “Aella Galanis: Deceased. She was presumed dead along with thirty-two other children murdered the night a lamia attacked Port Delphin.”
I shot up in my seat and pain stabbed me from everywhere. “Wait. You already knew about the lamia? Then why do you say you don’t believe me?!”
“I believe a lamia attacked your home,” Drakos returned, pushing the papers aside. “I’d also believe your mother fled into the night with you and escaped on a dinghy that carried you both to a far-off isle. Where belief fails me is that there are survivors of lamia attacks stashed away on the highest mountain peaks, and no one discovered this for over a thousand years.”
“I—”
“That’s what makes her story believable,” Remis cut in. “She could’ve told us a hundred tales we would’ve swallowed without question. She and her mother escaped. Trauma made them reclusive. The list goes on. Instead she tells us about a doting lamia and a cave of orphaned girls. All things we have no reason to believe, so it must be true.”
“So, you have no more questions,” the commander growled, making me jump. “The first thing she does is run away? It didn’t occur to you to report your tale. Give hope to other grieving parents that their children may be alive out there and waiting to be rescued? Did you not think of that at all? Answer me, girl!”
He clamped my shoulder, ripping a scream from my lips.
“Commander, I must insist you calm down,” Drakos said as Remis pushed him away from me. “Miss Galanis will answer every question put to her. There is no need for impatience.”
There was a brief pause, that he expected me to fill. I clutched my shoulder—chest heaving through the blinding pain. “I did report it! The first town I stumbled into, I met a kind couple who took me in. They fed me, nursed my cut feet, and told me of the world today.
“I was in a bad way, but I kept trying to leave. Finally, I told them a lamia kept me captive for years and I was eager to get back to my family. Mr. Raptis and his wife waved me off, promising to send a letter to the nearest battalion that there were lamias holding captive children. I had no reason to think they wouldn’t.”
“If such a letter was sent, it would’ve reached as high as the council,” Drakos said.
“Maybe. If the person who received it bothered to pass it on. It could’ve been tossed out and ignored. After all, it’s been thousands of years. You wouldknowif lamias were kidnapping children.”
“Watch your lip,” Vasili snapped. “It’s easy enough to find out if such a letter ever existed. Where was it sent?”
I told him the battalion, the couple, and the village they lived in. There was no harm in doing so. They would question Mr. and Mrs. Raptis and receive the same story. I told them about my years with the lamia and no more—too afraid was I of the goddess to break her confidence. It was the next kind soul that I told the whole truth. No one would be asking him any questions.
“Okay, Miss Galanis. You were trapped in a cave with a lamia for almost a decade. When you escaped, you ran away to spare your life and the lives of those around you,” Drakos said. “Let’s say for now that’s the truth. Am I also to believe Iris, Evangeline, and Chloe had no power? Surely at least three of you had means to escape.”
I didn’t miss the slight emphasis on three, or the disbelief throughout the entire question.
Didn’t take us long to get to what he truly wants to know.
“It took every able-bodied man and woman in my village to fight one lamia, and they still failed. What were daughters of Athena, Hestia, and Apollo supposed to do? If we fought her, she would’ve thrown us out the cave mouth. Rebellion wasn’t worth it. Not when we still believed one day she’d free us.”
“But why wait for such an unlikely show of mercy?” Drakos’s words slid out of the dark. “Why not render her into pieces as you did the guard that dared mistreat you?”
I tensed.There it is. He finally asks.
“Now what will you say?” she teased for my ears alone.
“Even if I had such a power, killing her while we were trapped on top of that mountain was suicide. She was the only access to food and water. She was the only one who could get us down.”
“Fair enough. Your power had to be stifled for your own safety. Possibly the first time you used it deliberately was in that cell.”
“I don’t—”
Drakos shot forward. “Think carefully before you utter another syllable. There are worse things within these walls than the reflection room.”
My weakened body shook. I feared him, but not as much as I fearedher.
Eyes widening, I shot to my fingers gripping the chair arm. Beneath the blood, they were turning black.
No, no!My fear of the consequences of lying to him was combating my fear of telling him the truth. Oh the fucking irony.