All Chapters of I Don’t Need the Crown Anymore: Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

Three more days passed, and Althea was able to walk again. Outside her cabin, a flat clearing stretched out where a dozen young people practiced with short spears. Farther up the slope, herb fields and a granary had been carved into the hillside, and a long row of low wooden cabins stood in a loose cluster. There was not a trace of the palace anywhere. Each cabin door bore a wooden plaque with the occupant's name. The granary key was shared among three people. Every dose of medicine taken from the dispensary was logged on a wax tablet with the purpose and the name of the person who took it.Althea leaned against the eaves and watched for a long while. Damaris walked up. "Want to go for a walk?""I want to learn the spear."Damaris turned to look at her. Althea's face was still pale. Her left knee was wrapped in thick layers of bandages, and most of her weight rested on her right leg. "Not yet.""I know how weak I am right now.""Weakness isn't the issue," Damaris said slowly. "Your bod

The spring rains arrived earlier than usual. When Althea went to help in the herb fields, a thin layer of green seedlings was just breaking through the soil. She could not crouch for long, so she sat on a low stool and sorted the seedlings. Theron gave her a wax tablet covered in annotations, marking which roots could be transplanted and which leaves would cause a rash on contact.On the first day, she misidentified the herbs three times. By the second day, she could tell most of the varieties apart. The people in the valley knew she had come from Argos but rarely pressed her about whether she had once been queen. The children remembered only that she could carry a heavy water bucket to the herb field alone, and that they had seen her fall during spear practice.That afternoon, Damaris took her to the old oak tree in the deepest part of the sanctuary. Beside the gnarled roots stood a nameless stone marker. "Myrrhine once lived here."Althea stood still beneath the tree. Damaris told he

Lysandros did not immediately leave the market with his men. He ordered the soldiers back and followed behind the medical cart alone. When Althea stopped at the riverbank, she turned. "Do you have more to say?""I want to explain everything."Theron looked at Althea, waiting for her decision.Althea spoke. "Take the cart back to the valley first.""Are you sure?""I'm sure."Theron did not refuse on her behalf, nor did he stay to watch over her. He simply reached over and fastened the copper clasp on her deerskin wrist guard. "Be back at the valley before sunset. Not an order. The herb field needs your notes on the sick child tonight."Althea nodded. Only after Theron was gone did Lysandros speak."I only authorized Thrace to hold you for one winter.""You've said that already.""I sent Drakon gold. I sent word that no one was to harm you. After the winter passed, Philocles told me the border was still sealed, that you were being taken care of. I didn't go see for myself, and I didn't

The rain did not let up all night. Althea finished her watch shift as scheduled. At dawn, Damaris climbed the watchtower. "Water upstream has passed the warning line. If it rises another foot, the runoff channel will flood straight to the pass."Lysandros still knelt outside the boundary stone. Rain streamed down his face and his soaked robe. No attendants stood nearby, and his horse waited farther up the trail.Althea put on her cloak and walked down to the boundary. She stopped on her side. "Get to high ground. The floodwater is coming."Lysandros raised his head. "So you're finally willing to talk.""I'm simply not going to let a king die on the sanctuary's doorstep and give Argos an excuse to send an army up this mountain."The faint light in his eyes dimmed. He braced himself on his knees and struggled to his feet, swaying slightly. "I've been kneeling here because I want to repay the suffering you endured.""Repayment is not replicating someone's pain.""Then tell me what I shoul

Althea's sight returned on the seventh day. The first thing she saw was Theron's face, asleep against the edge of the bed. He was still holding the wax tablet where he had been tracking changes in her pupils, his fingertips stained with herbs. Althea did not wake him. She turned her head toward the window. The spring equinox was near, and the sacred oak had put out new leaves.Half a month later, Myrrhine's burial site was rebuilt. The headstone no longer bore only the name hastily carved in a single sitting. Althea inscribed her mother's identity, the people she had saved, and the Stygian oath into the stone. On the day of the burial rite, Damaris, Theron, and everyone in the sanctuary stood outside the oak grove. Althea placed the reunited ferry coin into the bone casket. "Mother." For the first time, the word did not carry only the ache of loss. "Thank you for not choosing for me. And thank you for making sure Zeus couldn't choose for me either."She sealed the casket and scattered