A Gift from the Gods

18

The days were growing close in which Zephyra could no longer hide her condition with a simple chiton. She had only been home for eleven days, but the funeral celebrations came with endless feasting and mourning. With every meal, Zephyra felt her full strength come back from the limited diet on the beach, but she also noticed her chitons fitting more snuggly.

That night, the final funeral processions took place, and after nearly two weeks of Hector's body rotting on display fro passersby to gawk at, they burned him on the pyre in the city center. All royals were in attendance, Helen sitting with the royal family. Zephyra had yet to speak a word to her brother or his prize since her return. But that night as she walked unsupervised to her courtyard desiring a quiet moment to remember her brother, Paris stopped her.

"Sister," he said, grabbing her arm. She tried to pull away, but he firmed his grip. "We have just sent our brother to the river Styx. Can we not now make amends?"

"We cannot," Zephyra said through gritted teeth. "You still do not understand what you have done. How you have doomed us all."

"We are safe behind the city walls," Paris said, confusion lacing his words.

"The Greeks will never stop. If you had spent more time listening to our tutors than sneaking off with any girl you could find, you would understand the true peril we are in. Agamemnon has been looking for any excuse to sack our city for decades, and you gave him the perfect opportunity. Father has a false sense of security behind these walls. It was Hector who kept us safe, not the mud brick walls. And now Hector is gone, also because of you."

"How dare you blame our brother's death on me?"

"Who else am I to blame? You are spoiled, and you are a coward. And you are the reason this city will fall before the war is over."

Paris advanced on her, forcing her against the wall. In a moment of weakness and fright, she placed her hands to her stomach in potential defense.

"Sister, do not tell me. You bred with those demons?"

The words made her gut clench. His cruelty was unbridled and unwarranted.

"You mean the demons your whore belongs to?"

Zephyra didn't see Paris's movement before he backhanded her, splitting her lip. She had never seen such anger flash through her brother.

"It should have been you on that pyre tonight," Zephyra said. "I wish it had been. And don't you ever forget that."

She stormed off leaving her brother in utter shock.

It was decided. There was no place for her in the city anymore. She would leave, even if Achilles would not have her back. She would rather cross a thousand oceans than stay a Trojan princess without Hector by her side.