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After he’s gone, I finally rip off the makeshift tunic I’ve been wearing and toss it over a rock. I dip my fingers into the steaming pool, and the stars ripple across the surface. Perfect. I kick off my sandals and peel the muddy clothes from my body. My pants are especially tight—the fabric is encrusted with grime and they’ve shrunk enough to be classified as skinnyjeans.
My god, the water feels good. It’s like a soothing balm on my entire body. I duck my head beneath the surface and work the mud out of my hair, then slowly massage it off the rest of me. It’s especially thick on my legs and feet, all caked into my leg hair. What a fucking relief. The last time a bath felt this good was after a week of working security for a festival out in the middle of the desert. I swear I was finding sand coming out of me for months afterward.
I splash the hot water across my chest as I continue to take in that epic sight up above me, absently running my palms over my skin. I reach my stomach and pause.
Where my abs were earlier, I’m now feeling a distinct belly. My first thought is it’s because of the incredible amount of food I’d eaten for dinner, but that was already a few hours ago. I wasn’t like this this morning. I wasn’t like this when I got taken prisoner—was I? Was there something in the food? Or the mud? Some bacteria or something that’s gotten me bloated?
I quickly stand. No mistaking it. My stomach isdefinitelybigger.
An insane thought rushes through my head, one that makes zero sense, and yet I somehowknowit’s the truth. I can see those men from the road outside Aelonos in my mind, the ones walking with their families, their pregnant bellies swollen beneath their tunics.
My belly isn’t that big, but it’s the same shape. I can see it, even without a mirror, even with just the crazy starlight overhead. I can see I have a baby bump.
6
KALISTRATOS
“Couldn’t you at least light the fire?” I say to Alyx as I ignite the candles around our hideaway with a touch of my finger.
He’s sitting up on the flat rock we use as a table, licking his paw apathetically. “I can see perfectly in the dark,” he says.
“That’s great! Meanwhile, the rest of us are stumbling around.”
I drop the wrapped-up stacks of coins onto the rock table.
“Never get tired of hearing that sound,” Alyx says, and he bats at one of the stacks with his paw. “This is a good haul. But hold on. You brought Tyler with you to swipe these?”
“Yes?”
“Is that such a good idea? Isn’t that, I don’t know, bad luck? Phoenix sent and all.”
I shrug. “He was hungry. How else was I going to feed him? And we found something in the treasury. An artifact from his world. He may not be the only one here.”
I’ve become good at reading Alyx’s cat expressions. His eyes gleam with excitement. “Then heisa phoenix messenger,” he says.
“I don’t know what he is, and I still can’t believe we’re taking him with us.”
“We have the map, and now we have him. It’s a good omen. We’re getting closer, Kalistratos.”
I take out the scroll that’s tucked securely into my tunic and carefully unroll it across the rock. After so many years of searching, it feels strange knowing that the Great Phoenix could just be around the corner and that his knowledge will finally give me the answer to the question that has haunted me since I was just a boy.
What happened to my parents?
Alyx pushes one of the coin stacks off the table, and I grab it before it hits the floor. “Cheesus. Stop being a cat, Alyx.”
“What did you justsay? Chee...?”
“I don’t know.” I nod my head towards the back wall. “One of his odd words. He’s rubbing off on me. I don’t like it.”
“You said he was helpful.”
“He was helpful, but that doesn’t mean I’m eager to take him with us. He’s only going to slow us down, or worse, get us killed.”
Alyx’s tail swishes slowly back and forth. “We Phoenikos need to stick together, isn’t that right? That’s why I’ve put up with your face for so long.”
“He’s not Phoenikos.”
“If he was sent here by the Great Phoenix, that counts.”
