Zeus 25 - Zenobia

16 - Maia's lance

After the fifth preliminary archery heat, which few attended, the crowd's focus moved to the archery finals. If the result had been decided without Weightless equipment, Zenobia would have beaten out Despoine for first place, but the second half of the competition repeated the regular and moving targets with Weightless arrows and they lost the top of the leader board to Phoebe and two other adepts of the local Athena's Guild. Ultimately, top honors went to Phoebe for defeating two mages from Hermes Guild. Only Athena's Phoebe got to receive a laurel wreath from Zeus, and it would be four years before the others could try again. It was all over for Zenobia, Despoine, and all the other Kerosians except, perhaps, Maia. Zenobia shook off her negative self-doubts and concentrated on Maia.

Zenobia was surprised at her poor performance with the Weightless arrows. She and done better with them in the guild's practice yard than in the competition. Perhaps it was the distraction of Nikon handing her those Weightless items that had unsettled her aim. He'd came by afterward.

"I was hoping you could defeat Phoebe," he said. "She's quite full of herself now and will be intolerable."

"You're only trying to make me feel better about losing," Zenobia said. "I feel like I've let down Eudora and my mother, Za, who taught me all I know about the bowyer's art."

"Changing the rules at the last minute was beyond what you could be expected to prepare for."

"I don't want to make excuses."

"Let's go watch your friend, Maia, win with her lance."

Zenobia liked Nikon's positive attitude, and they made their way with hundreds of others to the edge of the Mage's Pavilion which had the best view the running track's inner field.

At that moment, a spectator from the Mage's Pavilion came down to Zenobia. It was Spyro. "You were about to win until the Weightless targets were set up," Spyro said, "apparently my support wasn't strong enough to keep me from losing my wager with Zeus."

"You bet on me winning?" Zenobia said. "With Zeus!"

"I'm not sorry. You should have won. You were beautiful to watch."

Zenobia could feel herself blushing in front of Nikon.

"I agree," Nikon said, doubling Zenobia's embarrassment.

"May I join you both," Spyro said, not the least troubled by the presence of Nikon.

Zenobia spotted Eudora and Maia on the field and waved, but they were too far away and too engrossed in conversation to see her. Zenobia brightened, "Yes, my friend, Maia, still has a chance to win for Kamiros and Melos."

This was the final, and Maia had already qualified in the heats that took place during the archery. There were five in the last heat, Maia, a small farmwoman of Gaios with huge arms, two from Hermes Guild who were probably Punishers, and Phoebe again. Zenobia couldn't believe that Phoebe was trying to win in two different skills. "Can she be in both contests?" Zenobia asked Nikon.

"Yes," he said, "but most wouldn't chance it. In the Olympian Games, pankration is the one contest that is used to pick Zeus every hundred years, but in the Elesian Games the over-all victor is a matter of judging between the victors of running, archery, and the lance. If you won two of the three, there would be no need for the judging, but if you tried to win yet lost one of the contests, the person who defeated you would have the edge in the judging. That's why most rely on just their strongest skill."

"So if Maia beats Phoebe, she'll be the overall victor, even over the runners?"

"That's how I see it," Nikon said.

"I wouldn't know," Spyro added. "This is all new to me, but I can tell you that Zeus 25 has been watching all of you most closely, and I think he's rooting for Maia, probably because Phoebe was hand-picked and trained by Zeus's ex-queen, Hera."