Prophecy of the Setting Sunrise (Oracle of Delphi #2), page 12
"Do you know where he is?" Theseus asked.
"No," Strafford answered, "but Art's on it."
Theseus nodded. "Then we'll have a location soon. Art can find anybody."
It was then that they saw a figure running across the pasture toward them, waving their arms. After a minute, she realized it was Ace. They stopped and waited for him to approach.
The first thing she noticed was that he looked horrified and not at all surprised to see the twins.
"What's wrong?" she asked, immediately catching the bad feeling. "Did Art find Nyx?"
He took a moment to catch his breath, then said, "No. Art found Benjy."
Strafford's expression fell flat. "Where is he?"
Ace looked back and forth between them. She could tell he really didn't want to tell them.
"Where's my brother, Ace?" she asked, her heart practically in her throat.
With a deep breath and a tortured expression, he said, "Poppy's taken Benjy into the Labyrinth."
X. Strafford
"When's the next lunar eclipse?"
Screw the stairs. Strafford leapt right over the railing of Art's wraparound porch where his aunt sat in a rocking chair with her boots propped up in front of her. On the horizon, the sun was bright and blazing, and though it was scorching hot and he was boiling mad, he had to admit it was freaking beautiful. But the sun was always beautiful to him, despite how he felt about Apollo.
Art tipped back her hat, unaffected by the way he'd snapped at her. "You know when. Two moon cycles from now. At Solstice."
That meant almost two months. In June. "Tha's too long. I need it to happen by tonight."
Artemis looked around at the others gathered around them. "And just why is that, Nephew?"
"Let's not do this now, 'kay? You know why, so jus' make it happen."
"You're really going to do this, boy?"
"Do what?" Chloe asked.
"Get your brother out of the frickin' Labyrinth, wha' else? So are you gonna help out or not, Art? Note, every minute I spend tryin' to convince you to help us is a minute tha' I don't have to spare. So true speak? Don't waste anymore of my time askin' questions you already know the answer to."
He'd always spoken to the gods this way, even more so after he'd been disgraced, so he wasn't worried about Art's reaction. He was almost positive that it was expected of him and thought the deities might even have some kind of twisted appreciation for his audaciousness.
Sure enough, Art was smiling. "You're just like your father, boy."
"Here we go," Hector said as Ace groaned.
"If you weren't my favorite aunt, I might be offended by tha' statement."
"If you weren't my favorite nephew, I'd let my bounties use your face for shooting practice. Your smart mouth being bullseye."
"Guess tha' makes me lucky then."
"No, boy. It just makes you chosen."
For a long, long minute, he glared. Then, getting her meaning, he nodded.
"What you ask of me goes against my nature, so it's gonna cost you."
He had expected it would. Art's services weren't free. "How much?" He put his hands in his pockets, ready to summon up whatever amount she said.
But Art shook her head. "I have more gold than I know what to do with, so keep your drachmas. I want you to find Astraea, the virgin goddess of Justice, and bring her to me."
His eyes narrowed. "You want the Virgo?" His aunt nodded once and he cursed to himself.
"The Virgo, like the Zodiac?" Chloe asked and he nodded. He noticed that she paled a little.
"It's quite convenient for me that the Regalis Stella has been spitting out stars like tobacco," Art drawled. "Astraea owes me. I'm the one that convinced Zeus to give her a place among the stars when she could no longer stand to watch the misery mortals were inflicting on one another. Now that she's back, it's time to pay up."
"How do you know she's fallen already?" Ace asked. It was exactly what Strafford had been thinking.
"I just know, boy. I am an Olympian, give me a little credit."
"Wha' do you want with her?" Strafford asked, hoping Art would give him a really good reason to go hunting down a Zodiac he had no desire to find.
"I want her to take the oath and become a bounty."
That wasn't the answer he had been expecting, but nonetheless, it made his demigod senses tingle with dread. "Why can't you find her yourself?"
"Because I asked you to do it."
But he wasn't buying that. He stared at his aunt, and after a moment, his eyes narrowed.
"Do the other Olympians know tha' you're losin' your divine sight?" Art glared at him with fierce blue eyes and he knew he'd hit the nail on the head. "It's why you found Benjy instead of Nyx. It's why you can't find the Virgo yourself. You've lost sight of the divine."
"If you let one word slip about it, you'll regret it, boy," Art growled. "That goes for the rest of you as well."
"We won't say a word, not if you help us."
"I'll help you, but the price is still the same. I want Astraea and that's non-negotiable."
He hated it, but he had no choice. He had to agree. For Chloe, and for Benjy, he had to agree.
"Deal."
Strafford was not surprised to see Hector's face light up at the prospect of a potentially-fatal mission. From looking at his ragged gear, one would think that Hector had had enough adventure for a while. But that was a demigod for you. As one that had been a declared hero less than a year, he was always ready to embark on some adventure where the probability of dying was higher rather than lower. But Strafford had been a declared hero all of his life and had been on enough dangerous missions to have satisfied his passion for pushing his luck...and having it push back. Dying an honorable death sounded good in theory—until you were face-to-face with a fire-breathing chimera and staying alive jumped right to the top of the list of priorities. But Hector would learn this. It would just take a little time. Or an unexpected meeting with a chimera.
"Do you know why I'm helping you, boy?"
He crossed his arms. "Besides the fact that you don't want me blabbin' your business all over Myth, no. So enlighten me."
"Because your daddy would want me to. He'd want me to help you through this."
"I doubt it. He'd want you to stop me, which I know you won't do. Then he'd try to order me not to go. I'd blow the wanker off and do it anyway, o' course."
Art laughed and rocked a little. "Your hatred of my twin still runs deep, I see."
"And only gettin' deeper. By the way, for what you're chargin', I'll be takin' one of your bounties, too."
The goddess eyed Chloe. "Thought you were all caught up?"
He rolled his eyes. "The bounty is for killin', not kissin'."
"Really now? You keep on turning over all these new leaves, you'll end up a tree." Art's feet hit the porch floor. "You can take Anne Maria. She's my best wrangler."
"Take me where?"
They all looked over to see Anne Maria standing in the doorway with a shotgun propped up against her shoulder.
Chloe was the one who responded. "To find my brother. He's been kidnapped by a demigod."
"What are his coordinates?" the girl asked Art, lowering her weapon.
His aunt snorted. "There are none this time."
Anne Maria frowned. "Then how are we supposed to retrieve him?"
"The old-fashioned way. Look."
"He's in the Labyrinth," Theseus supplied.
"The Labyrinth?!" Anne Maria visibly shivered.
"Yes," Chloe replied. "We could use all the help we can get. Will you come with and help us find him?"
There was a pause. Then Anne Maria grinned. "Of course. When do we leave?"
"Right now," Strafford said. "We're gonna need a few pegs, too."
Art frowned. "Now you're just taking advantage of my favoritism toward you."
"No, I'm not. There are two luxury motorbikes sittin' out front and I know how your bounties love to two-wheel it. I'll trade you."
"Hey!" Ace exclaimed. Strafford quieted him with a look. He had purchased the bikes to trade for pegs anyway. He just hadn't shared his plans with the others.
Art thought it over. "Deal. Anne Maria, tell the girls to saddle up four of our finest pegs for my nephews here and one for yourself."
"Yes, Huntress." Shouldering her shotgun again, Anne Maria hopped off the porch and headed for the stables.
"What about me?" Chloe asked.
"You'll be ridin' with me," Strafford said, slipping his arm around her waist.
She pushed him off. "I don't wanna ride with you. I want my own peg."
"Well, get over it, wan. You're not going at it alone. You don't know the first thing abou' ridin' a peg."
She crossed her arms. "I'll have you know that I took horse riding lessons for three years when I was a kid."
He almost laughed. "And the fact tha' you even think tha' horses and pegs are in the same realm proves my point. You're ridin' with me, wan."
"No, I'm not. I'm riding with Hector."
He let his expression fall flat. "Over my dead demigod corpse, wan."
She laughed and when he realized she had just been joshing him, he scowled.
But Chloe's hee-haw didn't last long. By the time Anne Maria and a couple of bounties had brought the pegs around and had begun to saddle them, it was clear she had realized what she was about to do and started to hyperventilate just a little bit.
"I won't let you fall." Chloe glanced up at him and leaned her body into his. He accepted her weight and kissed her forehead. "There's nothin' to worry abou'. Pegs are crazy strong, wan, and good flyers. Apollo keeps a stud of them on the Blessed Isles jus' to pull his—" he shrugged the rest of that statement off. "Never mind."
"To pull his what?" she pushed, which irritated him. She knew he hated talking about Apollo in any way that didn't involve bashing him. And now with the new developments regarding the G.U.P, Apollo was even more of a touchy subject, yet one that couldn't be avoided, damn the divine bastard.
"His chariot, Chloe. All I was gonna say is if Apollo can trust them to pull his chariot, you can trust them, too."
"I remember him saying something about that. Like he drove it across the sky or something and it caused the sun to rise. Is that true? Is that how it works?"
"Only Princes ride black stallions, Ace!"
Strafford was trying really hard to distance himself from the conversation without being outright rude and telling her to can it. Ace scowled and backed away from the majestic black beast a bounty was saddling up.
Chloe refused to be deterred, however. "Is that how it works? Does Apollo's chariot pull the sun across the sky?"
He sighed and looked down at her. "Yes, love. Now, will you end your interrogation and come and meet Spitfire?" he started leading her over toward the magnificent black pegasus.
Spitfire was a warrior. He stood proud and tall and wasn't all fidgety like the other pegs. He was well-groomed, as were all the others, but Spitfire seemed to have realized that having a well-groomed mane also meant having well-groomed behavior.
"He's a fire-breather," the bounty told Chloe, "which means he was born on the Blessed Isles. His father is a Steed of the Sun."
"One of Apollo's pegasus," Chloe said, and the bounty nodded.
"He's all ready to go," she said. She double-checked her work, and after a couple of adjustments, she left them to it.
Strafford knew Spitfire from his childhood visits to the ranch and started petting him and speaking to him, to get him reacquainted with his voice. The stallion needed to be able to hear and recognize him speaking, even if there were a hundred other people speaking at the same time. In times of danger, if they were to meet any, this would be vital. Chloe joined him and she seemed pleased to find that her nerves didn't bother Spitfire at all. In fact, the steed seemed to realize that she needed a little reassurance and brayed softly to put her right at ease, which Strafford appreciated.
The twins and Ace were riding three dusty gray pegs and the one Theseus was on had white spots sprinkled all over its coat. Anne Maria was a hilarious sight to see with weapons and ropes strapped all over her while perched on top of a white mare with rainbow hair. Strafford mounted Spitfire, then pulled Chloe up and settled her in front of him.
"Uh, don't you think I'd be better off sitting behind you?"
He was all business when he said, "We can't make out if you're sittin' behind me."
She too was all business. "You're impossible." Then she tilted her head back for a kiss and he gave her one full of reassurance that everything was going to be okay.
"It's nice to see you back up there, Nephew." Art had finally come down off of the porch, ending their kiss. She looked up at Chloe as she petted Spitfire's mane. "Strafford used to ride pegs everyday when he came here as a boy. Every single day. I didn't like it one bit when he gave it up." She looked sad, but shrugged. "But I guess he had a good reason."
"We should be going," he said, giving his aunt a look that he hoped said shut up.
She got the message and stepped away. "I'll be expecting payment soon." She looked over at Anne Maria. "Serve the Prince well, hunter."
"I will do my best, Huntress."
Art nodded once and said to Strafford, "Good luck in there, boy."
"Gonna need more than luck," he replied.
"That's true." And with that, Art tipped her hat, then she flashed away.
As the others pulled up their pegs beside them, Chloe turned to him. "Are we heading for the Labyrinth now?" She was obviously anxious as crap to get inside and find her brother, and he hated that he had to disappoint her.
He sighed. "We can only see an entrance into the Labyrinth during the lunar eclipse. Tha' won't happen until sunset. But don't worry, we won't be far away from an entrance when sunset comes."
She bit her lip and he could bet she was trying not to scream. "Ok. So where are we going? Where's the entrance?"
He smirked. "In a place I should've never left. Ireland."
XI. Chloe and Strafford
She never wanted to ride in an automobile again.
With Spitfire in the lead, the pegs were herded into a small stampede that thundered across the plains of Art's ranch at a speed no normal horse could go. Chloe held onto Spitfire's saddle for dear life, leaning back against Strafford, who guided the steed by the reins with one hand and held onto her with the other. The wind blew her locks in every direction and made her eyes water as the moisture was forced out of them. The heroes and Anne Maria whooped and hollered, clearly excited to be taking to the sky via pegasi. They goaded their pegs to race one another until Spitfire brayed, the pegasi spread their wings and began to...
...FLY.
At first, it was overwhelming to no longer be firmly planted on the ground and instead be soaring through the open air, but then it was surreal. The landscape below shrank into nothing more than a perfect snapshot as the pegs ascended. Her ears popped and she held onto Strafford's arms for dear life, shrieking with excitement, not wanting to shift even the slightest in the saddle.
They flew northeast, in and out of the clouds, covering Texas, Arkansas and Kentucky in a surprisingly short amount of time. Pegs were fast. They didn't even bother to keep out of sight, as pegasi (and most mythical creatures) were shielded by the gods' essence, the demigods had told her. When Pennsylvania was nothing more than a distant memory, Strafford shouted a command in Greek, Spitfire brayed fire and smoke and the pegs began to climb up the clouds...
...right into New Elysium, the first province she had ever visited.
The province was as beautiful as she remembered, with glorious castles, temples and skyscrapers, iceys from every time period in history, and an ancient mythical presence that saturated the air like smog. They flew over the beautiful city, waving down to some of the citizens who waved back at them. She saw Effigy Square and Temple Row, but they didn't stop to pay homage at Apollo's temple as they had before. They flew over Godlet's, the demigods' stadium, the other pegs chased them in a circle around the Neverending Tower and before she knew it, they were leaving the province and descending back down through the clouds.
New York City, which was located under New Elysium and was home to the twins, was a bore in comparison, even though she had never seen it in person until now. After Myth, what place on Earth could ever compare? But soon, they arrived at another mythical city, a province she had never been to or even heard of.
Right away, she understood why.
The entire province was in ruins. Gigantic ancient temples, enormous castles, and once magnificent villas lay in piles of rubble and dust, having caved in on themselves long ago. Some buildings appeared to have been burnt down and others, bulldozed or trampled. There were no signs of life of any kind, but that wasn't surprising. The province was huge, the biggest she had seen yet, but completely uninhabitable.
"Beneath us is the Atlantic Ocean and this is the province of the Old Titan Quarter," Strafford shouted, answering her question before she could ask it. "Otherwise known as Mount Orthys, home of the Titans."
The Titans. Well, that explained why everything was in ruins. "How long has it been like this?"
"For centuries. It's completely deserted."
An image from the Knowledge—the Titan Quarter before it was a ruin—made her ask another question. "Where is Olympus?"
"Over Greece, o' course."
Of course. "So how did the Titan Quarter get to be over the ocean? It was once over Greece too, right?"
"Aye, but jus' like Art's ranch, the gods like to move the provinces around. But as long as the Olympians reign, Olympus will keep the prize spot over Greece. Their power is strongest there."
And that's when she felt it. The power.
There was no fighting it. It was a force so strong that it consumed her within seconds, and for some reason, she welcomed it. Every muscle in her body clenched as she absorbed it, and her heart raced, pumping fiery blood through her veins like a fuel. This felt good, and she finally understood why the gods craved it so much.
But this type of power even the Olympians couldn't possess, and she realized that was what it was all about. The power. The gods would destroy each other to find it, would defy Chaos to possess it, and would condemn all of Myth to keep it.
