Sequel: The White Doe ›
Status: 1 of 7 volumes. Complete.
A Good Run
Four
She frowns.
It is three nights ago and she is running through olive groves and down hillsides, trying to protect a man that Thoas has told her must not die.
The Persians, led by their king, Darius, are coming. They will land their ships at the coast in only three days. Athens has no standing army and the Persians have never been defeated. It is already assumed that the glory of Athens will fall, that the city will be looted, the men murdered, the women raped, the children taken as slaves. The greatest civilization the world has ever known is only seventy-two hours from total annihilation.
But there is a thin hope and it lives in the man that Thessily follows, a man named Phidippides, who is running to the Spartans with a plea for help. It is one hundred and fourty miles from Athens to Sparta, through some of the roughest terrain Greece can offer, over rugged hills and through cracked and craggy ravines.
Phidippides is a herald, a professional messenger, known for his stamina and his speed and rumored to have the blessing of Pan. He runs with all his heart, trying to pace himself, yet knowing that time is against him and Thessily admires him for this, if not for the errand itself.
She understands the wisdom of appealing to the Spartans.
They are the greatest warriors in Greece, their whole culture is built around war and honor and service and dying. She knows how fierce they can be in battle, because even though the Slayer is forbidden to kill Men, she has battled the Spartans before.
The Spartans are lycanthropes, werewolves. And though they control their bestial nature, Thessily does not trust them. But they are werewolves, they can save Athens.
Athens knows only that Sparta is great in the arts of war, not the truth behind that fact. That is why Phidippides runs one hundred and fourty miles to ask for their help.
Thessily runs because with the Persian soldiers there also travel Persian vampires and the vampires fear the Spartans, fear the werewolves.
Thoas has told her that the vampires will do everything they can to stop Phidippides from reaching his goal.
Thoas is right.
It is three nights ago and she is running through olive groves and down hillsides, trying to protect a man that Thoas has told her must not die.
The Persians, led by their king, Darius, are coming. They will land their ships at the coast in only three days. Athens has no standing army and the Persians have never been defeated. It is already assumed that the glory of Athens will fall, that the city will be looted, the men murdered, the women raped, the children taken as slaves. The greatest civilization the world has ever known is only seventy-two hours from total annihilation.
But there is a thin hope and it lives in the man that Thessily follows, a man named Phidippides, who is running to the Spartans with a plea for help. It is one hundred and fourty miles from Athens to Sparta, through some of the roughest terrain Greece can offer, over rugged hills and through cracked and craggy ravines.
Phidippides is a herald, a professional messenger, known for his stamina and his speed and rumored to have the blessing of Pan. He runs with all his heart, trying to pace himself, yet knowing that time is against him and Thessily admires him for this, if not for the errand itself.
She understands the wisdom of appealing to the Spartans.
They are the greatest warriors in Greece, their whole culture is built around war and honor and service and dying. She knows how fierce they can be in battle, because even though the Slayer is forbidden to kill Men, she has battled the Spartans before.
The Spartans are lycanthropes, werewolves. And though they control their bestial nature, Thessily does not trust them. But they are werewolves, they can save Athens.
Athens knows only that Sparta is great in the arts of war, not the truth behind that fact. That is why Phidippides runs one hundred and fourty miles to ask for their help.
Thessily runs because with the Persian soldiers there also travel Persian vampires and the vampires fear the Spartans, fear the werewolves.
Thoas has told her that the vampires will do everything they can to stop Phidippides from reaching his goal.
Thoas is right.