"Wake up, scum!"
Brisseis was being kicked in the back by a Roman soldier.
"Where am I?" she said.
Then she remembered being above deck with Alexandros and quickly rose, fearing the impatient soldier. She looked towards the mast and saw her family coming up the ladder to eat breakfast. Brisseis joined them.
"Why did you come up here last night?" King Cyrus questioned.
"It was too stuffy down there, I had not intended on sleeping though." she answered innocently.
Before King Cyrus could speak again, Alexandros joined the royal family.
"I hope you all slept well," He took a dig at the royals. "Good news, we made much better time than we thought and we should arrive in Rome by sunset tomorrow"
Isidora began to wail, she tried to stop herself but her while body was racked with tears.
Two soldiers walked towards her, eager to hit something. This caused her to scream and run below deck. Four soldiers ran after her, but Alexandros stopped them,
"Halt, let her be. She is only a child. Put away your weapons and return to what you were doing."
They all just stared at him for a moment because Alexandros had already warned the royal family. He never backed down from a threat and Isidora had clearly broken his rule. Alexandros grew impatient,
"Do you not speak Latin?! Get back to what you were doing immediately!"
Queen Helena kept glancing to where her daughter had gone, wanting to help her. Alexandros noticed and nodded that she could go.
"Are you going soft on us, Alexandros?" Cassius said touching his shoulder.
"No and that's General to you" Alexandros replied angrily. "Make yourself useful and get me a glass of wine."
"But I thought you didn't drink," Cassius protested.
"That may be true but you are to respect your leaders and follow your orders, now go," Alexandros snapped back.
Cassius left and quickly returned with a wine glass. Alexandros dismissed him and then sat and drank.
"Oh I forgot how wretched this stuff tastes!" He said choking.
"Then why are you drinking it?" Brisseis piped up.
King Cyrus shot her a look and she realized her mistake.
"My lord, forgive me for speaking out of place..."
"I don't care, as long as you speak Greek or Luthian, none of these bastards can understand" he interrupted.
King Cyrus and Prince Cyrus were flabbergasted. Here was the most powerful Roman warrior in the world, bashing his fellow Roman warriors' intelligence and honor. They knew he was not Roman himself but he was so bold, if a Roman knew he was talking that way he would be tortured and killed.
Brisseis was surprised, not by how the Alexandros was insulting the Romans, but how he had not cared that Isidora had run away, allowed her mother to comfort Isidora and how he was not mad that she spoke out of place. She didn't want to admit it but she could feel herself falling in love more and more ...
Falling in love with the man who had taken over her home country, enslaved her people, and was leading her and her family to their deaths. And considering the fact that Alexandros was responsible for the conquering of Troy, he would get the honor of beheading her father.
She also knew that there was no way that the feeling was mutual, Alexandros could get any woman in the world. He will probably have swarms of woman who will greet him as soon as he steps foot in Rome.
Brisseis hadn't realized that she was staring at Alexandros but her brother had.
"What are you looking at, you've been staring over there for like 5 minutes?"
"Nothing... I... Just a seabird..." Brisseis said flustered.
"There's no bird over there," Cyrus said suspiciously.
"Well it flew away," Brisseis answered quietly.
"Ok, if you say so" Cyrus just finished speaking when there was shouting.
"PERSIANS AHEAD!!" the lookout frantically shouted.
Every soldier on board all of the ships began running around preparing for battle. Brisseis, her brother, and father had no idea what to do.
Alexandros finally spoke.
"Men, we must show those bloody Persians who is more powerful!"
The soldiers cheered hitting their spears against the ground.
"But we must be patient, allow them to come to us. Stand ready and take no prisoners!"
Brisseis turned around and saw that on all 100 ships every single soldier was chanting and hitting their spears in sync. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen.
For the next 30 minutes the soldiers stood in their ready stances, seemingly without moving a muscle. But then without warning it began to rain arrows.
"Shields!" Alexandros screamed.
Brisseis and her brother were still above deck and had to duck behind barrels to protect themselves.
The arrows kept coming continuously for 10 minutes and then stopped all at once. That's when the Persians boarded. They hissed, slashing their swords at the Romans.
Brisseis was terrified, she was watching men be killed with every swing of a sword and strike of a spear. There were mostly Persians being killed but some Romans were still dying.And although she knew she should hate the Romans, she didn't want them to lose and she didn't want them to die.
That's when she spotted Alexandros. He was an even more skilled warrior than the stories had described. He was able to take on 6 Persians at once, killing everyone.
Alexandros was slashed in the arm and Brisseis couldn't help but react. She ran to him instinctively, which was a huge mistake. Three men grabbed her.