.
We stopped four times on our way to the Woods - two times for bathroom breaks, two more so the harpies and Erinyes could rest their wings. It sure seemed like slow going, and it probably was. The sun was beginning to set, and for all we knew, Jason's search party could have long since passed us on a plane. But I didn't really want to think about that.
"Hey, look down there! I think I see it!" Layna suddenly exclaimed in English, pointing somewhere below her. She had reacted with so much force that the black-haired harpy carrying her almost dropped her. Not even bothering to look for the town, the twins only laughed at Layna. There were moist, gray clouds surrounding us, after all, and we were cold and wet.
But sure enough, when I glanced down below me, I could make out the faint outlines of buildings illuminated by little glowing dots of light. And in a blink of an eye, they were gone again, and I was just watching the treetops pass by in blurs. The forest seemed bigger than I remembered.
"You okay, Jace?" Damien called out to me from the clutches of an Erinye, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.
"Just thinking about what we're going to do when we land," I replied with a nod. "Odds are that Alec won't want to talk to us. He might even hide from us."
"And we won't be able to find him," Damien finished, obviously understanding my concern, his blue eyes narrowing. "So you want to look for the Oracle first? What if they're together?"
"The Oracle will want to talk to us for sure," I answered firmly, "no matter what Alec thinks."
Damien only sighed. "I hope you're right."
.
The ground came up under us all too fast. The Erinyes and harpies dropped the twins, Hannah, Layna, Brady, and me when we were about ten or fifteen feet above the small meadow, and we flailed helplessly as we fell. Then, we hit the earth with a solid thud. Surprising? No, but it certainly knocked the wind out of me. There was no question I would be sore in the morning.
As soon as I caught my breath, I stood up and watched as the three Erinyes and the three harpies beat their powerful wings, propelling them up into the soft purple twilight sky as they cackled in unison. Apparently they had better things to do than watch my friends, Brady and I (I wasn't quite ready to say that Brady was an actual friend) stumble around the forest in confusion. Not that I blamed them, or anything.
"Um, Jace? They're watching us," Damien whispered shakily, and my attention was immediately redirected.
"Who's watching us?" I asked, my eyes wildly scanning the perimeter of the small meadow, which, unlike in my dream, was entirely free of dead bodies. But then I grew quiet when I caught sight of a couple tree nymphs, characterized by the light greenish tint to their skin color. Nearly naked, the two girls huddled next to each other, studying us for only a moment before scurrying of into the trees, probably afraid of us. I turned around just in time to see in the distance a satyr, a man with two furry goat legs, disappear into the bushes as well.
"Hey, wait up!" Layna called out to them in Greek, but they were already gone. If anything, I bet her shouting made them run away even faster than before.
Brady just cursed under his breath. When I glanced over at the blonde and frowned, he explained curtly, "The first thing they're going to do is go tell Alec we're here. You can forget the element of surprise."
"Then we should follow them," Hannah said, much more brightly than Brady. And follow them we did. However, as soon as we reached the tree line, we lost their path. None of us was a good tracker, and the many footprints and hoof prints criss-crossing in the moist soil and flattened grass only confused us. I knew finding the nymphs and the satyr again would be hopeless, so the only thing I could do was suggest a direction to try. Then the six of us started walking.
About an hour later, we were still wandering aimlessly. We had yet to see another satyr or nymph, and I didn't know if that was because there really weren't any, or they were just good at hiding. (Personally, I was guessing the latter.) On the other hand, we hadn't come across any monsters, which was lucky since I wasn't sure how we were all supposed to survive without weapons. Still, every time a bush or tree rustled the tiniest bit, Layna would jump and gasp, then cling onto Brady's muscular arm for dear life. It was a little bit pathetic. Each time she did this, I noticed Damien glance sideways at Hannah, hoping she would do the same to him. Darius, however, only rolled his eyes, seemingly fed up with everyone.
"Maybe we should just settle down for the night," Hannah suggested with a yawn as she stopped in her tracks. "We don't even know if we're going in the right direction."
"It's all Jace's fault," Brady said immediately, and Darius snorted.
"Excuse me?" I hissed back at Brady, crossing my arms. "You could have suggested a different way to go, you know. I'm open to suggestions."
"Who declared you the leader of our group, anyway?" Brady wondered aloud, an edge to his voice.
"Well, no one else was stepping up."
"Only because I didn't get the chance to. I'm new to this group, remember? And now I'm challenging your leadership," Brady announced, puffing out his chest. "So, how do you want to settle this?"
I only shook my head. "This is ridiculous."
Layna started tugging at Brady's sleeve. "Just stop," she pleaded with him, her thin eyebrows knit together in an over exaggeration of worry. Sometimes, she made me sick, and I hated how I was so drawn to a girl like her. If this was love, it sure as hell wasn't fair.
I was sure Layna was about to say more, like she always did, but just then, we were interrupted. Only a rustling in the bushes, it seemed, but a large one at that. Frowning, I glanced around and warily motioned to Brady and the others to crouch down in the bushes beside me. In a matter of seconds, six adult Knowing Warriors, each dressed in full body armor and carrying his own weapon of choice, stomped past a cluster of pine trees and into our view. The search party. I cursed silently to myself, wishing the harpies and Erinyes could have flown to the Woods faster than they did.
Thankfully, the six Warriors seemed oblivious to us traitors hiding in the shrubbery, and they continued about their merry way. I was pretty sure they were arguing about which one of them would get to kill Alec when they found the poor hero. The three of them with swords were slicing violently and carelessly at the foliage, trying to clear a new path in an act the Forest Gods would have hated, while the two with spears compared the sizes of their biceps. The final Warrior, a skinny archer, was simply humming to himself, taking up the rear of the pack. The only good news was that it sounded like they weren't exactly sure of where they were going, either, meaning my team still had a chance of finding Alec first. We had to.
I felt it was finally safe to let out my breath when the Warriors disappeared from view and their voices sounded far away. Still, I didn't risk speaking above a whisper when I told my fellow traitors, "Let's get out of here. Fast."
I didn't need to tell them twice. Without even saying another word, we crawled in unison in the direction opposite of the way in which the Warriors were heading. We wanted to put as much space between them and us as possible, at least for the time being. Frankly, I would have rather been killed by a mythical monster than by one of my own people.
When we finally agreed we had walked far enough away from where we last saw the search party, we sat down in the grass at leaned back against the rough bark of the tree trunks, preparing to sleep. I felt that as the self-proclaimed leader of the group, I was obligated to take the first watch shift, so I did. For once, Brady didn't argue. He did, however, lie down beside Layna close enough so that their arms were just barely touching. Probably to annoy me, I guessed. It looked like Brady was finally starting to see me as competition.
On the other hand, unlike Brady, Damien was having difficulties with the ladies. Damien had tried to take a rather protective seat next to Hannah, but she tensed up almost instantly. "Hey, personal space," she hissed irritably, and Damien could do nothing but blush bright red in shame. He retreated to his brother's side.
As I watched Darius's eyes flutter closed, I was suddenly reminded of Layna's abilities. Using my foot to prod the sleeping beauty in the leg and get her to pay attention, I ordered in English, "Layna, try to break into Alec's dream. You should be close enough to him, right?"
Layna just nodded sleepily, and her eyes closed again. Brady, however, was already becoming furious. "Break into Alec's dream? Did I hear that right?"
"Layna, are you the dream walker?" Hannah whispered next, her brown eyes wide open. Layna nodded once more.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Brady hissed, looking back and forth between Layna and me. His face was reddening quickly, and his blue eyes narrowed threateningly. "Don't you think this is information that the entire group should know? You sure are a great leader, Jace. Just great."
"I just found out about it yesterday," I argued, glaring at him and crossing my arms. Still, Hannah and the twins were getting restless, nervously shifting in their seats on the grass and exchanging unreadable glances. I had a sinking feeling that they were already beginning to doubt me. Maybe this didn't matter to Layna, since the twins and Hannah hadn't been very kind to her as of late, but it mattered to me. Their silence was frightening.
Then Damien mumbled something I couldn't catch, and Darius snorted in agreement. The two of them and Hannah rolled over on their stomachs without saying another word, while Brady simply shook his head as he glared at the treetops above us. I desperately wanted to know what was being said, though Layna was already fast asleep next to Brady, and I didn't particularly want to wake her. So, I just kept watch over our surroundings as the rest of them fell asleep one by one and the guilt ate me alive.
.
It was during Brady's and Layna's watch when I was rudely shaken awake. "Jace, get up. Get up now," Layna hissed quietly in Greek, tugging at my arm, but I only shook her off, groaning and keeping my eyes closed. It was probably in the early hours of the morning, still dark out.
She was pulling harder now, desperately. Someone else joined in, too, and so I could no longer ignore the annoyance. "What is your problem?" I complained loudly, jerking my head up and finally opening my eyes. I could only gape open-mouthed when I realized I was looking through the bushes at the face of a lion. Which was weird, because lions - especially ones of that enormous size - were definitely not indigenous to Washington.
Nevertheless, there in the bushes crouched a huge, golden lion - the Nemean lion, to be exact, a lion with invincible skin. Its yellow eyes gleamed with hunger, and it licked its furry lips as it silently stared back at us, giving us a short but scary glimpse of its long, pointed canine teeth. As it lowered its haunches, getting ready to pounce, the beast with shining fur let out a low growl that made all six of us humans jump, and its long tail flicked back and forth, almost taunting. I couldn't breathe.
And then all hell broke loose.
"RUN!" Layna suddenly screamed, and the rest of us had no choice but to obey, since the lion, too, seemed to understand what she said. Hannah just barely had time to lean down and pick up the backpack full of our clothes and leftover food before the lion let out a great roar and pounced. As soon as Damien dragged Hannah out of harm's way, the group turned and sprinted as fast as possible.
I had no idea where I was going, but somehow I wound up leading the pack. Low-hanging tree branches slapped my face as I led the others on a straight and narrow path over a steep hill, with the lion nipping at our heels. Hoping to throw it off our trail, I made a few hard rights and lefts, but to no avail; the soft soil and entangling tree roots provided enough traction so that the Nemean lion wouldn't skid out in the turns. I could only hope that on our mad dash we wouldn't accidentally run into the search party Jason had sent out to capture Alec and possibly us, too. Assuming we lived much longer, that is.
My heart racing, head pounding, I let out a sigh of distress as I forced myself to keep running, but I was also running out of hope. I knew there was no way we would able to kill the gigantic wild cat, which was already beginning to overtake us in stride. Just as I was looking up in defeat and in pain, however, out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a small flash of movement, a flapping of an owl's wings. Suddenly, an idea popped into mind.
"Hannah, get the food!" I shouted over my shoulder, my voice sounding weaker than I wanted it to.
"What?" she yelled back in confusion, and I shook my head impatiently.
"Get the goddamn food out of the backpack and throw it at the lion!"
I didn't receive a response to that, but I thought I could hear Hannah rummaging through the backpack. I only ran faster, hoping she could keep up. Moments later, I identified the sounds of packaging crinkling and Hannah grunting as she threw each and every piece of food into the thick foliage. Music to my ears.
Still, I ran faster, and I didn't even begin to slow down until I was sure we were safe, even though Layna was complaining quite a bit. We really did run a long way, I thought, though admittedly I couldn't be sure because I had no idea where I was in relation to anything. Honestly, I wasn't sure if my plan had actually worked, or if we had just gotten lucky and the lion had been distracted by something else. Then again, I wasn't sure I cared, just as long as every member of the group was safe.
When the six of us finally stopped to rest for a minute, I let out a sigh of relief and took off my t-shirt for a moment to use it to wipe the sweat off my brow. Brady and the twins did the same, while Hannah and Layna simply fanned themselves. However, instead of complimenting me on my stroke of genius during the chase, Brady and my friends simply reprimanded me. It was safe to say that tension was still mounting from the night before.
"What the hell were you thinking, throwing out all of our food?" Brady said to me accusingly, throwing his hands into the air. "Now what are we going to eat?"
"Hey, I was just trying to save our lives back there! And it worked. You should be thanking me, not screaming at me," I countered angrily, clenching my fists by my side.
Brady scoffed, scrunching up his nose like he had just smelled something terrible. "Why, I ought to..."
"Ought to what? Ought to punch me?" I responded, raising my voice and arching my eyebrows to challenge him. "Go ahead. But while you're at it, you might as well punch Hannah too, since she actually threw the food."
The twins' jaws dropped. Hannah and Layna gasped and covered their mouths in horror. Brady's face grew stone cold. "I don't hit ladies," he announced flatly. "Do you?"
"No. No, I don't," I agreed after a moment's pause, and quietness ensued. After all, I didn't really want to get in a fight with Brady, and I didn't think he wanted to fight me, either. No one seemed to know what to say next. No one really wanted to be the one to speak next.
But finally, someone did.
"That's funny. Alec would," a soft voice sounded from behind me, in Greek, and I immediately whirled around to face a petite water nymph and, more importantly, the girl from my dream - the Oracle, not Layna - as they stepped out from behind a tree. The Oracle looked only about two years older than me, but she seemed like she was looking down at me, studying me closely, as if I wasn't quite what she expected. She must have had only one outfit or something, because she was still wearing the same purple robes, with her long, black hair tied in the same exact braid as in my dream. In person she looked vaguely familiar, and I realized then that I had seen her like this before, wandering around the army camp there during the War of the Woods.
"Um, Alec would what?" Layna suddenly asked, breaking the brief spell of awkward silence. Although I was certain she already knew the answer, her eyebrows were knit together in confusion, and she was absentmindedly biting the nail on one of her thumbs.
Blinking only once, Oracle broke eye contact with me and turned her head toward Layna. "Alec would punch a lady," she answered with a tight smile. "Assuming she deserved it. He sees them as equals in every way, girls and boys. Probably comes from having spent too much time with Athena."
"Do you know where Alec is?" Damien piped up. "We're trying to help him."
At this, the Oracle only shrugged and glanced at the nymph, who wore nothing but foliage as clothes, standing beside her. Tucking a stray piece of silvery hair behind her pointed ear, the nymph admitted shyly, "I saw Alec yesterday morning, when he was with Lord Hermes. But Alec moves around all day, so I don't know if any other nymphs or satyrs have seen him recently."
Hannah's jaw dropped, and she exclaimed, "Did you say that Alec was with Lord Hermes? As in the god of tricksters and travelers? The messenger god?"
The nymph only smiled weakly and nodded, as if she didn't know of anyone else named Hermes or didn't know why this was so hard to believe. I had to remind myself that Alec wasn't the only one who used to spend time with the Forest Gods. Then the Oracle clarified, "Based on what the nymphs and satyrs have told me, it would seem that Alec has developed the ability to call upon the gods at any time. Most of the gods, anyway."
"Not Lady Athena?" I guessed, remembering how unnerved Alec was at the base camp because his patron hadn't visited him yet.
The Oracle shook her head no and clasped her hands together behind her back. "But he hasn't sought me out to talk about it like I thought he would. I think we're both trying to avoid each other. Personally, I wanted to wait to talk to him until you six had arrived."
"Rocky past?" Darius inferred, narrowing his bright blue eyes at the Oracle, who only shrugged mysteriously in response.
After a short lull in the conversation and an exchange of nervous glances, Layna questioned, "How did you two find us here anyway?"
The nymph started to giggle, but then quickly stopped herself by placing one thin, pale blue hand over her lips, while the Oracle just smiled softly. "You six were making quite the ruckus. It wasn't too hard to follow the noise," the Oracle explained, her green eyes boring directly into mine, then Brady's. "The other group of Knowing Warriors is even worse. If Alec hasn't yet heard about them from a nymph or satyr, he's bound to hear them for himself sometime soon."
"Do you think you could help us track him down? It's really important," Layna begged, clasping her hands together and shaking them in front of her.
The Oracle sighed. "Okay, but do you even have a plan? What are you going to do when you find him?" she pointed out, shaking her head. "Especially now that can he can summon the gods, Alec doesn't need you. Not for anything. He can employ either the gods or Artemis's huntresses to help him ambush the other Knowing Warriors, and if what you want to do in the long run is pull off a coup d'état in the Knowing base camp, Alec could probably do that alone with the gods, too...though admittedly he wouldn't be able to do much after that."
"Wait, why not? Why wouldn't he be able to do much after that?" I asked, sensing there was something she wasn't telling us.
The Oracle hesitated, sucking in a breath but not exhaling. Even the nymph was looking at her with suspicion now. Nevertheless, the Oracle only seemed to lie through her teeth when she said slowly, "I just meant that Alec won't want to be leader. Plus, if the Knowing people want to be ruled by a tyranny like Jason's, he can't change their minds. Simple as that."
I only exchanged dubious with the other members of my group. We all knew that Alec wouldn't want to be leader - and had known that for a while - but we also knew that wasn't the real reason behind the Oracle's previous statement. When the Oracle realized no one was going to respond to her, she quietly motioned for us to follow her, and we all started walking again.
I wasn't quite sure exactly how long we had been walking through the early morning mist. It had to be more than half an hour, at least. No one was talking, so in the meantime I tried to keep track of my surroundings in order to learn how to navigate through the mazes of foliage and trees, but everything looked the same to me. Maybe I just didn't have an eye for detail, didn't appreciate the forest enough to notice the differences in the way the plants grew.
Eventually, though, I began recognizing a few things that had stood out to me during the war. The biggest, most memorable, and most frightening landmark was the clearing full of stone satyrs and Knowing Warriors, victims of the gorgon Medusa. I knew we were nearing the riverbank that had been the site of the army camp, and sure enough, the sound of rushing water floated its way to my ears.
"Do you think-" I started to ask the Oracle, but stopped mid-sentence when I realized she was no longer with the group and nowhere to be seen. Strange. I could have sworn she was right there in front of me not a minute before, and from the looks on Brady's and my friends' faces, I could tell they were just as confused as I was.
"Don't worry about her. She has a tendency to...disappear," the water nymph spoke up softly, waiting patiently as the rest of us glanced about in search of the mysterious Oracle. But when a faint trickle of either laughing or talking reached our ears, the nymph immediately perked up, cocking her head to one side in order to hear better. Then, she grinned. "Come on, I think I hear Poseidon!"
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Were you bored with this chapter? I hope not. But trust me; you are going to want to read the next chapter. I promise it will be better than this one! Believe me when I say it's everything you've been waiting for (and that's the only hint you're going to get!).
Thanks for reading! And as usual, I'd love to hear your personal thoughts :)