“I didn’t say to help me,” I announce. “You don’t have to be my ally. You just have to not try to hurt anyone, me included. I think that’s fair.”
Dex opens his mouth, but Rima beats him to it. “If you’re going to join us,” she tells the others, “come with us now to strategize. We’ll return for our vodka.”
After she gives him a little prod, Dex lets Rima lead him away from where we’re all standing. Neve and Dae go with them. Samuel, too, though he gives me a long look before he does.
Is he having second thoughts? Not enough of them to go against Neve and Dae, his fellow Strength virtues, I guess.
“Sorry,” Jackie says as she backs up, gathering her long, blond hair into a ponytail. “I’ve spent most of my life as a target for assholes. I don’t know why he wants to win so badly, but I can’t be on Dex’s shit list. I’m not joining anyone. I already told Diego and Meike I plan to do the Crucible alone.” She gives her two fellow Heart virtues an apologetic look. Where Neve manages to turn a Canadian accent menacing, Jackie’s warm, Aussie vowels make even this rejection feel friendly.
With that, she bends over a case and digs out two bottles, and then, out of nowhere, massive, white-feathered wings appear on her back. She spreads them wide and leaps into the air, flying for the passage to the second doline.
Diego stares after her, hands on his hips, then hangs his head and sighs.
“I’d like to stay with Lyra and Zai,” Meike says.
Zai and I both do a bit of a double take. We haven’t had a chance to get to know the other champions. Not enough time. I can already hear Hades’ arguments against her, given her small stature and general cheery demeanor, but I’ll take any help I can get.
Diego considers her a long moment, then, with no rancor in his face, nods. “I think I’ll go this Labor alone as well.”
With that halo of his, he has the best shot of doing okay solo. I don’t blame him for that choice.
Meike crosses to Diego and wraps her arms around him in a hug. “Take care of yourself, D,” she says.
He hugs her back, also grabs bottles—four, which he has to juggle awkwardly—then gives the rest of us a wave and heads into the forest the opposite way from Dex and the others. Before he’s out of sight, he disappears entirely, using his prize from Poseidon’s Labor.
That leaves only two. Amir looks at Trinica with his good eye—the other is still swollen shut from his fall, along with bindings wrapping his ribs, a medical boot on one foot, and scrapes and bruises that disappear into the neck of his shirt. That look says he’ll do whatever she does. After losing Isabel, they are the only two Courage virtues left.
She considers Zai and me with a hard stare. Not unkindly—more like she’s weighing all her options.
“I’m not saying we’re allies,” she finally says, “but Amir and I will stick with you for this Labor. Safety in numbers, and any hint, no matter how small, we can get about future Labors is worth it.”
“If you don’t hurt anyone, I’ll tell you anyway. You don’t have to stay with us.”
I glance at Zai. If he were Hades, he’d be pissed, but he just gives me a nod.
Trinica’s expression softens. “I appreciate that. Safety in numbers still stands, and you have that vest on again, which I assume means you have more tools.”
She’s right about that. I grin, and she raises her eyebrows in return, a tiny smile lighting her eyes.
“Let’s figure out a way to take as much of this with us as we can,” Zai says.
Together, the five of us start discussing options with no clue what walking vodka through a cave has to do with testing our hearts.
But at least I’m not beaten to a pulp.
Chalk today up as a win…so far.
50
Don’t Touch
I swipe my sleeve over my face, wiping away sweat. Not that it does much good. It’s not really hot in the cavern, but the humidity is like soup. It has only been maybe twenty minutes, but the sunlight is already dimming above. That nighttime warning is hanging over us as we work as fast as we can.
With a swing, I bury the blade of my axe in a stalk of bamboo, missing where my last strike was. Damn. Throwing my axe? I’m great at that. I can hit a target exactly where and how I want. Chopping with it, not so much. But we decided to make a pallet to drag our half of the vodka, so I keep trying.
A small vine falls in front of where I’m hacking, and I reach out to tug it back.
“Don’t touch that!” Meike yelps.
I yank my hand back like I was bit by a snake as she runs over. She points at the plant. “That’s poison ivy. See the group of three leaves and how shiny they are? Don’t touch those, Liebes.”
Behind Meike, Trinica’s eyebrows inch up. “Do you know plants?”
“It’s one of my gifts from Dionysus.” She offers up this information like it’s no big deal.
Am I the only one wondering what that could mean for us today? It seems the gods would give gifts that might help their champions in whatever game that god had devised. But knowledge of plants doesn’t seem all that handy, even if Meike did save me from days of itching.
“Right. No touching three shiny leaves.” I nod. We all do.
I look up into the skies as a shadow passes overhead. Zai is using his Talaria to literally get a bird’s-eye view—partly to try to stay out of nature and partly to keep watch. He has the Harpe of Perseus in his hand. The famed sword used to cut Medusa’s head off is one of his original gifts from Hermes. Just in case.
Dex and his team came and carried off half the vodka—after a heated argument that we wouldn’t let them take it all. I hope they’re also prepping. Strength, though. Samuel could probably carry a whole pallet all by himself.
But…one of Dae’s gifts, it turns out, is some sort of super sense that allows him to sneak up on us—apparently that’s how he tracked Zai and me down in Olympus. So Zai is keeping watch for him in case they attack. The bigger fear is that Dex uses his helm. It makes sense to injure us so we can’t carry much. Zai wouldn’t see him coming at all.
Every rustle, every scurry of tiny feet under a bush, every whisper of wind and all of us tense.
