They were all dead.
Whether it had been whilst they were sleeping in their beds or patrolling the walls, the last thing these men had seen – or felt – had been a dagger...
In all honesty, it impressed him. The size, the shape of the wound, the twist. One person had overtaken a whole fort all on their own.
Or, Kallinos had fucked them over.
Deimos sat himself in the chair Kallinos liked so much and put his feet up on the table. They hadn't found him yet. He could just imagine him with his whores, unaware that all those men he so admired lay dead – or, like he was starting to think, he'd done it himself.
Then, they found him.
Up on his little rock overlooking the city.
The fight that had killed him hadn't been anything grand, whoever had got the upper hand on the greatest of Greece's minds had just been that little too quick for him.
A shame really, Deimos often wished it was he who could have taken his life – just for all those little things left unsaid in the years before. Still, it was a loss they couldn't afford. That the cult couldn't afford.
His men, wary, always wary, when he was around, suggested that it was the eagle bearer who had slaughtered the men so diligently. Except, his sister wasn't one for mopping up after herself. Usually, a bounty or a contract included just one thing – not the massive slaughter of a whole fort. That wasn't her style.
And to find Kallinos so far from home?
Perhaps someone had led him away...
But why then come back and slaughter the rest.
Finding a witness had not bee hard but, what he had to say was useless.
"I saw a girl" the farmer had whispered,
"Our Captain is known for his love of whores old man. A girl, no surprise" Deimos was still lounging back,
"This one looked like a mystios. She had a scroll in her hand",
"A message from one of his whores" Deimos glanced over at the hoplite he'd brought with him – he was more a slave than a guard but, he wouldn't look so intimidating whilst walking through the city, "Go to the city. Look for them" the hoplite nodded quickly and left without a word,
"What did this mercenary look like" Deimos asked, he folded his arms,
"She was small, maybe young, travelling robes, she... she wore a hood", Deimos smirked,
"No wonder they didn't kill you too".
An assassin with a heart. Too bad the farmer was just as useless to him as he had been to them.
The only thing was, he couldn't reasonably kill him.
But then, it was a good thing Deimos wasn't feeling reasonable that day.
The hoplite had returned a little while later with a story from Kallinos' favourite whore. She had sent him a message – via a male mercenary – and got a reply that Kallinos wasn't feeling up for a midnight endeavour. The mercenary was called Ogarneos, shoeless and a little dull, the whore had paid him a good sum of drachmae to deliver the letter.
The Shoeless Ogarneos who also had a known bounty on his head for stealing from an employer. A very large one. Seems that wearing bandages on your feet did indeed make your footsteps silent – it just didn't stop you from crying out when you tried to creep past a sleeping merchant; who'd smashed a bottle before he'd fallen in to bed,
So, whoever that girl had been, she'd played her cards in such an exact way that – other than a dead farmer – who Deimos had made sure that nothing of value could be remembered about her, no one – alive – knew she even existed.
There was just one thing that didn't really add up.
The chests had been pillaged. Yes. But, they'd left the stock pile of supplies. If it had been a Spartan spy, they would have burned or taken it. If it had been a bandit, they would have done the same...
Honestly, it wasn't worth his time. None of it was. It pissed him off just being here – especially for Kallinos - but, he knew someone who could find their little hooded misthios.
"It's time we made a visit to the rat in Lokris".
*
Even after his confession of being there whilst they'd thrown her in to that fiery pit, killing him had been just as hard as if he'd never said it.
Yes. Kallinos was a horrible person.
And, he'd never been kind to her. Never picked her up when she fell; had beat her in almost every fight they'd ever had; had humiliated her in front of those she'd once tried to impress; had never once said anything remotely nice to her - if you didn't count the "I'm sorry" moments before he died. Moments too late.
But, he'd got her out of more 'situations' than he'd put her in at least.
Once, on a small quest to dispatch an oracle – the one who had told her about Laelaps – she'd got herself a bounty and a riot of killer villagers on her tail. Somehow, with a small plan that included only a poisoned dagger, the villagers had been sent to a local masters house and had slaughtered him in the name of the Gods – just not the God they believed in.
Another time, he'd got her out of an Athenian jail when she'd been caught red-handed with a ceremonial staff - by throwing a stone tablet with the words 'execute the key bearer at nightfall' through the grate in the roof of her cell.
All she'd had to do was sit and wait until the key bearer made his rounds. He would look in to her cell with this smug grin on his face, dangling his keys for good measure – only for her to smash his face with the edge of the tablet and grab his keys as he dropped them.
Eos hadn't killed him – she hadn't hit him hard enough – but, just to make sure, Kallinos had sent Deimos to watch – assuring that the guard was indeed dead before he told Eos to open up the rest of the cells, setting whatever scum inside free and, covering their tracks.
Not to mention grabbing that ceremonial staff for the blood sage.
The events had never been spoken of again. The sage had her staff – she didn't need to know the riot that had ensued to acquire it.
From the way Kallinos acted, in the secret looks and words they shared, it was almost as if he was acquiring a mass of reason and secrets to use against them when the time came. But he never did. He could glance at them, make them feel small, insignificant – like he was their hero but, he always got them out of the problems they had. No matter how trivial.
It was his way of showing love – even if he did try to beat them to bloody pulps when they trained.
And, if Kallinos could see her now, she hoped that her 'plan' would make him proud. Even after everything.
A plan which meant that Eos hadn't left Attika yet. She was sat on her little ledge in the temple of Asklepios. Her armour had been adjusted and it now fit so well she could do just about do anything in it and, she'd been able to buy another belt with the drachmae she'd acquired from those chests.
She already knew that Deimos had been at the fort, that they'd spoken to Kallinos' mistress and been led back to only Ogarneos the shoeless. That the poor farmer had never left the fort. She should have just killed him herself – it would have been painless compared to what Deimos would have done.
But, if she'd been honest with herself, Eos hadn't expected him to come. She thought that maybe he would send some Athenian guards – maybe even Akin.
Still. Now. All she had to do was wait.
If she knew anything about him, it was that Deimos wasn't about to spend too much time searching for her himself – he'd send someone a little more discrete.
A rat.
And, this way, she wouldn't have to incriminate herself by asking around about a red rat, she'd just have to wait for the red rat to come to her.
Even if it was deferring from her initial plans, Kallinos hadn't really given her much time to ask about the others; given her no leads to run on. And, if he was here now, he'd tell her the art of planning meant you always had a second one.
This would have to be it.
The red rat. Melaina. She was deadly, she could sink her teeth in to you and you'd never even know you've been bitten but, fortunately for her, Melaina thought Eos was dead – and her superstitious mind, her love for the Gods, the words she chattered – it would all aid Eos in to being a ghost of sorts. Until, Melaina found the strength to get closer, to believe in a lie she'd been told, a lie she'd lived.
She would also tell Deimos.
But she'd only tell him.
Eos knew her enough for that. The others would never listen to her.
Her chattering's would either go unheard by the Demi-god or, he'd have his own want to come find her.
Despite Kallinos' teachings, Eos wasn't sure if she wanted that just yet but, she had no clue where the others were and, perhaps getting up close to them was the only way to decipher the trail back to a bond she'd been cut from.
Unless she heard more news of the bull be-header...
*
The red rat – who seemed to have found her way out of Lokris' gutter - was skinny, tall and currently in bed with Lokris' noble king, Antinous. Melaina's little side-quest.
A servant girl, just a child, small and quiet had interrupted them,
"I'm sorry... my... my king... but, there's a... there's a man here..."
"Tell him he can wait" Antinous grumbled, he had a handful of red hair and was just about ready to show this girl the time of her life.
"I would rather not" Deimos said as he came through the door, the small girl had flinched, almost pushing over the screen near the door to try and get away from him. Antinous jumped to his feet, as if he'd been caught like a deer in torchlight, pulling the sheets up to cover over his manhood. Melaina lay on the floor, bare, staring up at Deimos with big green eyes. "Put some clothes on" Deimos said, his eyes only flittering over her before he looked at the master. Melaina let out a little grown, raising her arms above her head in a stretch, "Kallinos is dead" Deimos added as he turned around.
In that moment, whilst Melaina fell silent and still, Lokris' King seemed to find his voice,
"Do you know who I am. What makes you-" the man choked as Deimos wrapped his hand around his neck,
"The question is, do you know who I am" Antinous grabbed at his throat, babbling incoherent words that Deimos wasn't happy about; the sheet he had clung on to fell and Deimos raised him in to the air. "Pathetic" he said before he dropped him, the leader landing in a heap on the floor. "Melaina" Deimos said before turning around again, leaving the red-haired girl to keep going over his words whilst the servant girl rushed to her master.
Kallinos is dead...
*
Attika. It was just as great as she remembered it. Full of Athenian guards and Kleons men, but just as beautiful and vibrant as it had been before the plague had hit. They'd lost a lot of people but, they'd recovered. The Spartans that had surrounded their walls had ran, afraid of the plague – and it had left them that little more open to the outside world again.
Now, that didn't mean the Spartans weren't slowly moving back in, she'd already seen a few brawls just walking through the streets but, the people were that little less hung up.
And, it wasn't long before she found a familiar face amongst the people. A face she didn't mind finding her in a crowd.
The physician that had saved her life.
The great Hippokrates.
And, not so surprisingly, a name Kassandra had mentioned.
"It's so good to see you well" he said,
"I could be better" Eos replied, she put her hand on her neck, felt the sores the fiery pit of the volcano had left her, "You don't by any chance have something for old burns, do you" she said quietly as some guards passed by them.
There was only so much old ointment, from an old box, in an old ships chest, that you could put on before you worried about your skin turning green. It had worked but, she was sure she'd be scared for life – and the trail that ran down her back would go so red and irritable, she'd considered lying bare back on stone for the rest of her days was the only way to keep it cool.
"I will ask but, not now, come with me" Hippokrates had said. Although, most likely the greatest healer Greece had ever seen, his practices were... a little more based on the science of the human body than praying to the Gods for safe passage through an illness.
But, going up against the grain was something Eos could get behind.
Following him to the outskirts of the city and to a small home, Hippokrates had ushered her in. There was another man inside, his leg wrapped with bloody bandages. He was sleeping – Hippokrates had given him just enough Hemlock to ease the pain and let him rest.
Before seeing to her, he'd redone the mans bandages, telling her about what he'd been up to. About who he had seen. She'd been under his care for so long, unconscious for so much of it, that now, he seemed to forget that she would remember all the things he talked about - still, it filled the silence. He spoke of the plague, of those that had survived it, about the help he'd found, about an eagle bearer – which only reminded Eos that Kassandra would be pissed if she got her favourite physician killed by association.
"Kassandra" Eos had said, "That's the eagle bearer you talk of",
"Yes" Hippokrates said quietly, he went silent for a moment, worried he'd said too much,
"I met her in Naxos" Eos told him, he seemed to relax, "She's a good person",
"The world is full of them" he smiled, he didn't smile often – he didn't have much to smile about – but when he did, there was never no malice, no hidden agenda – he was just happy.
"I know" Eos said, she'd killed a lot of them.
Hippokrates had looked at her burns, cleaned out an old blister that had never healed, applying something to make the dead skin fall off, to let the new skin grow over. He'd wrapped a bandage around it, told her to keep it as clean as she could, to apply this small jar of ointment to it once a day – that eventually it would heal over – the scars, he couldn't do much about but, he could soothe the skin, the scars would fade with time.
"What happened to you" Hippokrates had asked as she pulled the scaled breastplate back over her head, it was only then that he realised that he recognised it. It had belonged to Kassandra,
"Something really bad that I shouldn't tell you about – just in case" Eos said, the less he knew, the better,
"Kassandra, that's hers" he gestured to the breastplate,
"It is" Eos said, "I met her in Naxo's – we're... business partners" Eos said, "Now, I suggest you just stop asking questions" Eos stood up. She pulled out a bag of drachmae and threw it on the table, "That should pay you back for everything",
"If I lived my whole life making people pay me for my services, most would die" Hippokrates said,
"They would but, you're a smart enough man to not reject such a nice sack of drachmae" Eos said, "And, I think it's about time you leave Attika too",
"I will, once my patient is well" Eos smiled,
"Well then - like we promised, you never saw me",
"I think I turned blind" the physician turned around then, tending back to his other patient as if she'd never been there.
Two days after Eos had seen the patient hobble out, she'd watched Hippokrates go down to the docks and jump on a ship. There had been no sign of Deimos, or rats, or anymore familiar faces but, that night, Laelaps had come to her, emerging from the shadow.
It was time.
He'd sniffed out a rat.
*
Melaina, fully clothed, but still skinny and haunting had entered the city an hour earlier. By the end of that night, she had the names of mercenaries and msitios' that had spent the last couple weeks skulking around, trying to find a bounty or a contract for a little bit of drachmae.
Agatha the Eye Gouger - who, by the sounds of it left more of a clue to her destruction than a little twisted dagger to the heart.
Makarias the Lion Tamer - who was a man and not a girl.
Yulios the balanced - who again, was a man and not a girl.
And, Ogarneos the shoeless. He'd been looking for jobs to pay off his bounty and had last been seen jumping on a merchant's ship and sailing off in to the sunset - after he'd collected his drachmae from the mistress.
Melaina had almost given up. If only Deimos had given the farmer to her first – this may have been a little easier but, after overhearing a small disagreement between a blacksmith and a Captain – which had resulted with the Captain walking away with a silver sword, Melaina had the want to go and see him. A gut feeling.
Within a few moments, he had spewed most of the story out for her. The Captain had 'stolen' the sword from him and, a young girl had retrieved it for him. Perhaps a mistios, he hadn't known but, she'd had him adjust some scaled armour for her in return.
But, there had been something more about her he'd said. Dark hair, dark eyes, sunkissed skin – nothing unusual really but, there was something dark, something that prowled around beside her – he'd felt it, even seen it.
Eyes, dull but glowing, watching him from the shadows. Every night since, it was as if something had watched him sleep, a darkness so menacing he'd wake up in sweats.
Melaina's belief – in Gods, in myths and legends - was intrigued, even scared – just like Eos thought she'd be.
Laelaps had given her the first few frights, the swish of a tail in the corner of her eye; beady yellow eyes that blinked in and out of existence, a shadow that emerged from behind her in the shape of a wolf before she turned and found nothing.
Then, Eos pushed passed her in a rush as Melaina walked near to the markets and its crowds of people.
Eos had to do everything she could to make herself keep walking, even when she'd heard her name mumbled under her breath. Melaina had even smelt the same. Despite how long she spent in Greeces gutters, she had this sweet smell beneath the one that stunk of death. Like she'd spilt wine on her clothes.
Melaina had been her friend for a long time – maybe not in the end, not really but, they'd shared a lot before that. Using her 'flaw', her already gittery mind to make her doubt herself, doubt the world, it made her feel terrible but, it meant that when she did finally reveal herself, she'd have the upper hand.
Eos had waited and watched from a little ways away but, Melaina – even though she'd stopped to think about it – she'd turned around, looking over her shoulder as she made her way back in to the depths of the city. Laelaps had followed her, keeping his distance as he watched her freeze every few strides, shaking a little before she snapped her head around, as if she was going to catch something watching her. The grey morning storm clouds left too many shadows for Laelaps to be spotted.
She'd looked over her shoulder again as she went down a small alley way, pushing the door to a small house open.
Laelaps saw the glint of gold armour as Melaina had closed the door over, her whole body shaking as she took steps back from it.
Deimos was stood inside.
"What did you find little rat" he'd asked, which only made her jump and cover her face. Deimos gave her a moment, looking at the floor,
"I found her" she said quietly, "I found her",
"Who" Deimos asked. Melaina swallowed back a sob, her throat starting to choke itself as she grabbed at it, "Who" Deimos repeated, he moved and she cowered again,
"Eos" she said, "Eos...".
Deimos sighed and put his head back on the wall,
"Eos is dead" he said, "Kosmo took her" he said as he looked back to her, he was getting sick of her already,
"Kosmo gave her back... I saw her... Laelaps" her voice, it got smaller, stuttering – chattering, a high pitched panic, "I smelt her. She was there" she held out her hands, as if she could have grabbed her, "I... she's..." her hands started to shake, "She's... she's real... this time... I... I...". Deimos pushed off the wall but, he didn't go towards her. Instead, he walked over to the table, where a man lay with his head down. In the low light, you couldn't see the blood that dripped from his neck but, you could smell it.
"Melaina. She's gone" he said quietly, "She's been gone for along time. It's about time you remember that. That you remember what your job is", he left her to it, to sit and worry, or cry, or whatever it did these days when she convinced herself she saw the dead roaming around behind her.
Typical.
He thought she would be passed all that. Lokris had been a way to... clear her mind; given her a goal that meant she didn't need to sniff out those that hung in the shadows but, the ones that hung in the light. He'd been wrong though. Perhaps she was no use to them anymore. Perhaps they'd lost more than one that day.
Perhaps it was only time until they all met the same fait as the first two...
Or, perhaps she was telling the truth and Eos was alive.
But then, why kill Kallinos. He was an ass but, did he really deserve her blade for it? Would she have ever had the guts to kill him? Would...
Stupid. It was stupid.
Eos was dead. She'd died almost two years ago – back when the cult had taken her life in to their hands because she'd taken something they wanted - when she'd ran– something he could never blame her for – even if it didn't make any sense.