Polemidas's Arc

Chapter 11 of 7

The court still buzzed with his name when Polemidas slipped out of the great hall. Men clapped his shoulder. A steward offered him wine. The king had called him savior, and every face turned to him with respect. He should have felt whole. Instead he felt like a stranger wearing another man's honor. He walked past the marble statues and out the tall doors, into the courtyard where the ivy climbed the walls. The wolves found him first. Valour ran ahead, the white tip of her tail flashing. Fury followed, the soft spot on her ear catching the light. They pressed against his legs. He knelt and let them. His hands, the ones that had killed, moved gentle in their fur. Out here he did not have to be the hero. Out here he was only the man who had raised two pups. Heliodorus came out after him. He did not clap Polemidas's shoulder. He sat on the low wall beneath a tree with pale, shimmering leaves and waited. "You left the hall," he said. "They wanted to honor you more." "They honor a man they made up." Polemidas stood. "Savior. Hero. My father's blessing on my head." He looked at his own hands. "I still do not know what to call myself when the armor comes off." Heliodorus did not soften it. "No. You don't. Not yet." He rose and stepped close. He set his palm against Polemidas's cheek, the way he had that first day in the courtyard. "But you are not alone in the not knowing. That is what changed today." Polemidas held still. "The court can take the honor back. Kings die. Blessings turn." "Yes," Heliodorus said. "They can." He did not lie to make it easier. "So don't build on them." His thumb moved along Polemidas's jaw. "Build on this. I am here. Tomorrow and after. Whatever name you find, I will be there when you find it." Polemidas breathed out. The noise of the hall faded behind the stone. The wolves settled at his feet. For once he did not reach for his spear or scan the wall for threats. He reached instead for the prince's hand and held it against his face. "Then I will keep looking," he said. "With you." It was not an answer to who he was. It was smaller than that, and truer. He did not need the court's word anymore. He had one man who would stay while he searched. Heliodorus smiled. "Come inside when you're ready. Not before." He left him there with the wolves and the shimmering tree. Polemidas stayed a while. He watched the leaves turn light. The honor in the hall no longer pressed on him. He had stopped waiting to be told he was enough. Now he would find out for himself, and he would not do it alone.