Chapter 17: Chapter 16: The Two Saviors

Chloe

With ragged breaths and staggering steps, we finally reached the stable. Sophia had maintained her breakneck pace all the way to the stables, but now she looked ready to pass out. There’s no way we could outride trained Greek warriors, especially not in our condition. There had to be something, anything I could do, but in my adrenal haze I was completely lost for ideas.

As I continued grasping at straws, I tried to focus on what I could do. I found a sturdy looking horse that seemed perfect for carrying the both of us and threw a blanket over her back. Riding a stranger’s horse to escape from armed guards, what could possibly go wrong?

As I grabbed Sophia to help her climb on, she pressed something cool and metallic into my hands.

“Don’t panic, Chloe. Please. M-maybe… you can use this…” I looked at the object she’d given me. It was the amulet. The very same amulet that Sipriotes had used to bind Aipserokeleuthos. I didn’t even realize she’d kept it. “I got no clue how it works, but… you w-were always better with book smarts n’ stuff.”

Her eyes were closing, her body growing limp.

With a herculean effort, I managed to hoist her onto the mare’s back before turning my attention to the amulet in my hand. I thought I remembered the gestures and incantations that Sipriotes had used, but I had no way of knowing whether the amulet was still magical at all. There was every possibility that the incantation alone wouldn’t be enough. I also had no clue how binding a single target to myself would actually be of any use. I was at a total loss on how to  use this to our advantage. Maybe if I could bind multiple targets, then-

“Polus.”

A voice I didn’t recognize just whispered in my ear, but when I turned to look, there was nobody there. Was that-?

I couldn’t believe it. It’d be too simple. Following an ancient incantation in the language of the Mycenaeans with the Greek word for many was way too simple to work, and yet? I didn’t really have much of a choice, did I? If this did work, we’d be well on our way to saving ourselves, and if it didn’t, then we wouldn’t exactly be much worse off than we were, would we?

Moving quickly, I opened up every single stable, allowing all of the horses to roam freely, then I approached the mare that Sophia was riding and slung the long chain of the amulet over its head. It stamped backwards, distressed, nearly bucking Sophia off, but calmed down when I backed away. Mimicking the motions Sipriotes had performed as closely as possible, I spoke the Mycenaean incantation, adding a whispered ‘polus’ to the end.

As I finished the spell, glowing tethers of silvery light began to stretch their way towards me. Every single horse became bound to our chosen mare, and through the amulet, one final tether was extended towards me. If this really worked the way I was hoping, we could ride out of here with every single horse in the stable.

With some difficulty, I managed to climb on top of our mare and sat behind Sophia. I clung to her mane for dear life as my thighs squeezed tighter, and with a gentle kick, we were off to the races.

Within moments, the solitary sound of hooves hitting the earth became a thunderous cacophony as every horse in the stable gave chase. Guards and soldiers that had been flooding the street in pursuit now found themselves diving to the sides and hiding around corners to avoid the homemade stampede. As the sounds of shouting faded away and the stone of the city gave way to grassland and forest, we rode onwards into the night.

Sophia

Everything hurt.

My back, my legs, especially my shoulder. My whole body was screaming at me, and it was getting hard to breathe. All that running hadn’t been good to me. My eyes cracked open to meet a midday sun shining down through the trees. How long had I been out?

I sat up, slowly, trying to avoid a headrush.

I failed.

My vision clouded and a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over me. My spear was lying on the ground beside me, and I snatched it up, clinging to it like a lifeline as my dizziness and pain started to abate. As my condition improved, I took a look around. Chloe was a few feet away, sleeping with her back against a tree. Her hands and arms were stained with caked on dirt, and a long, ragged cut ran from her palm up to her wrist. A shining silver tether extended from her chest, reaching a massive horse about forty feet away, and from that horse stretched a dozen more.

Carefully, I managed to drag myself over to Chloe, and I rested my head against her shoulder, pressing close to her. It hurt to see her like this. I was supposed to protect her. I’d always protected her, but this time I’d been nothing but a burden.

“That’s not true, Sophie.” Her eyes were open now, and she spoke in a quiet, raspy voice. She sounded almost as bad as I felt. “You still protected me, even now. Hurt as you are, you saved us.”

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“Yeah… passing out and getting carried to safety… real heroic, isn’t it?”

She pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

“You’re hurt. Bad. You got hurt saving me, remember? Cut yourself some slack.”

“But-”

“And you really did save us. I was out of ideas, completely stumped, but then you pulled out Sipriotes’ amulet and asked me to use it. If you hadn’t done that, we’d both be dead by now. We would’ve been ridden down and killed.”

“I did that? Heh, nice job me.” I gave her a kiss of my own, this one on the cheek. “I guess my girlfriend is a sorceress now. Nice!”

“Girlfriend?”

Oh shit.

That was the first time I actually said it, wasn’t it? We’d both been so hesitant to put a name to it, to make it official, and with the stress and the near death and the literal binding of our fates, I guess I kind of just assumed. Oh well, in for a penny.

“Yep, girlfriend.”

“Oh…”

She blushed.

“I can feel it, Chloe. I can feel my body just… falling apart. The strain, the toll on my body just from existing. I won’t last much longer. I don’t want to die without saying it, without acknowledging it, and if we do finish this, if we pull this off, then I want to spend the rest of our eternity calling you exactly what you are.” I leaned in, ignoring the protesting groans from my back and shoulders. “You’re mine, if you want to be, that is.”

Her cheeks were flushed, her breaths short and hot on my skin, her eyes flicked down for just a moment. Mine did the same, focusing briefly on her (admittedly quite chapped) lips before meeting hers once again. With a moment's hesitation, she gave me her answer.

“Yes. Of course, Sophia. I already said I love you, didn't I? Until we die tomorrow, or till the end of days, I'm yours.”

I smiled.

“Whichever comes first, right?”

She smiled too.

“Let’s try and make it the second one though.”

I closed the distance and kissed her. For just a little while, just a few fleeting minutes, I didn’t care about the pain.