Trojan Slave (Book 1)

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Ten months after the start of the Trojan campaign, he had said his final goodbye to his cousin and brother in arms.

Ten months after the start of the Trojan campaign, he had taken command of a ship and a group of warriors.

Eleven months after the start of the Trojan campaign, he had said farewell to the woman he loved and the child she carried.

He had sent Galenos with her. She had either taken his heart with her, or it had turned to stone in the time between her leaving and the years that had passed since. Galenos had been gone for months, returning during a bloody battle that he joined in to fight alongside his brothers in arms. Theod had found him minutes from death, blood pouring from him. He was surprised he still lived at that point, but it was as if the male had held on to impart his news before he allowed himself peace.

Knowing that he did not have long, Galenos did not mince his words. Theod knew that Elpis had settled into the cottage he grew up in and survived the birth as had his child. Theod selfishly regretted the fact that Galenos had taken his last breath before he could impart the news of the gender and name of the child.

So every night since then, he had dreamed of different scenarios. A small version of Elpis, with a glowing smile as she raced along the cliff tops just down the coast from his small home. Or a small girl who was the image of his sister when she was young. Completing similar actions. Then there were the images of a young boy, trying to learn how to wield a sword by using sticks and twigs. Driving his mother to distraction with his energy and constant troublemaking. No matter the image, as smile would always grace his lips as he woke. Until the reality he lived settled back upon his shoulders.

He still dreamed of what he did at the start of the campaign. A family. A home. Peace. Only the dream was a little different now. He had a face for the woman he went home too. A child who would be eight summers old by now. Coming into his tenth year at war, he was tired. Tired of the blood, the pain, the death, the very smell of the decay from the end of life that seemed to permeate the air. He had lost good men and had been injured to the brink of death only to fight his way back. Elpis was expecting him. When the gods had decided their game was over, mortal men's lives could go back under their own control.

Then he could see his child for the first time; see the woman who held his heart; and try to forget the horrors he had seen, the pain he had witnessed, and the death that surrounded him. He hoped they could wipe it all away. He hoped that he did not taint them with his ghosts. They were his to bear. He would not allow them to touch something he dreamed. What he dreamed was too pure. He no longer knew if he truly deserved it, but he still aimed for it, and they could not make him give that up.

They had taken ten years of his life. They had shown him the worst of humanity. Boys thrown into war, not lasting minutes against their more experienced enemy. They were not taking his future as well.

He had expected his vengeance would have been completed by now, yet Mnason still walked, talked, ate, drank, and caused misery wherever he went. No matter what they tried, he just seemed to have an impenetrable shield around him that meant they had not managed to get close enough. Yet.

He was not giving up. Not until this ended.

Looking out over the crashing waves, Theod stood on their cliff. The stars gave a soft glow, accompanying the large moon as it cast its slivery luminosity. He could only think back over the time they had spent together. It had been so short a time, though he had thought it was a lifetime at the time. He had spent too long thinking of living one battle to the next. He should have concentrated more on the little things.