Prophecy of the Most Beautiful (21 page)

"It's better tha' way, Chloe," Ace said. "It's better tha' they know nothin'."

"It's not better if they think I'm dead and I'm not!"

"You're not seein' the big pic here, Red," Strafford said, "Nicolai, Varney Bane, they're only the beginnin'. There'll be more." She didn't like the way he said that. He sounded so sure. "Oracles are admired, but they're also feared. You'll always be in danger.
Always.
So if you want to keep your family safe, you'll do wha' I say and stay away from them for as long as you can."

I actually hate to say it, but he is right,
Trophy said in Chloe's head,
You fought for your life today. Do you wish this for your family too? You would just bring more harm to them if you went back. To keep them safe, you must remain apart. It has been the same for every Oracle before you.

“
Funny, how that got left out...”

It's true, Pythia,
LaLa said,
If Hades believes hurting your family will help his purpose for you, then that is what he will do.

And you do not want that, do you dear?
Madame Cee asked. Chloe didn't answer because it was pointless. Of course she didn't want that.

"How do you know Hades even has a purpose for me?
" She questioned instead.

We know nothing of Hades' intentions. The gods are the only beings for whom I do not weave threads of life for. Their destinies are created by circumstance only. And the circumstances have dictated he wishes you harm.

"I still want to see my family."

It is not wise, Pythia.

"I want to go home to my
family
," She said again, out loud, but the defeat was apparent in her voice. The Fates even agreed. She couldn't be with her family right now.

"Red…" Strafford almost sounded comforting. His expression softened a bit, and Chloe felt like he might try to hug her, hold her, maybe even kiss her and tell her everything would be okay. But of course, he did no such thing.

"Take care of my mom and brother," Chloe said to the twins in a voice so soft she barely heard it herself.

"They'll be in good hands, just like before," Theseus said softly, touching her arm. She managed a tiny smile.

"Of course they will," said Hector as he adjusted his bow and counted up his arrows. He opened the flap of his jacket to reveal a dagger nestled in a shoulder holster. "Now I'm assuming you're gonna at least give us the fare to pay the god of Portals. Your mission, your expense, and you know how Janus is. With his two faces watching, it's impossible to sneak aboard."

"Sneak aboard what?" She asked.

"The
Whip
, it's a train. We travel through
portals
to get between Earth and the heavens. Locomotive-style." Hector held out his hand. "So you giving us the dough, Your Highness? Or am I gonna have to resort to unscrupulous measures to get us where we need to be? I'm not above it, you know."

"I know," Strafford grunted, reaching into his pocket, "It's the reason why I chose you for the Quad. You were born without much of a moral meter. Lucky me." He pulled out a handful of strange gold coins,
ancient drachmas
, she knew,
the currency of ancient Greece
. He gave each twin several pieces then returned the rest to his pocket. "You've got mortal bills, at least?" He asked. Hector nodded and pocketed his train fare.

Suddenly, a small rainbow appeared in front of them. It was a faint rainbow, like one you might see right after a light rain or reflected off a prism when the sun hits it just right. Chloe gasped, but no one else seemed surprised to see it other than her.

"Delivery!" A bright voice announced and a woman of extremely small stature slid over the rainbow. Theseus's arms came out to catch her and she landed with grace atop them. "Nice catch, son of Apollo!" She exclaimed, rolling out of his arms and landing softly on her feet.

She was a dwarf, about three feet tall, but with well-proportioned arms and legs to her small body––so she was more like a woman that had been shrunk down to a dwarf's height. Her hair was wild and literally streaked with every color of the rainbow. She wore goggles over her eyes, galoshes on her feet and a cloth bag thrown over her shoulder. Her clothes consisted of a tattered military green jacket and a pleated, flowered skirt that left no room between the hem and her rain boots.

"Delivery!" She walked over, poked Strafford in the leg and held up a scroll.

"Aye, thanks, Iris," He replied, taking the scroll and replacing it with a drachma.

"No tip?" Iris questioned, palm up and open, "This was a rush delivery." Strafford rolled his eyes, but gave her another drachma. The little woman dropped the coins into her cloth bag. They made a clinking noise when they hit the mountain of coins already there.

"Who are you?" Chloe blurted, instantly feeling a little silly by her sudden rudeness.

Iris pushed her goggles up so Chloe could see her bright, violet eyes. "I'm Iris, the goddess of the Rainbow. I'm a messenger for the gods, just like Hermes."

"Except about a thousand times slower," Swindle commented without shame. Ace and Hector chuckled.

The goddess Iris looked like it was nothing she hadn't heard before. "I'm efficient," She retorted, "Your father is scatterbrained and sloppy, and even you know that's true." Chloe waited for Swindle to deny it, but he never did.

The purple streak disappeared from Iris's rainbow and she checked one of five watches she was wearing. With a nod, she raised her arms skyward. "Up," She ordered Theseus, "My ride's about to leave me." Theseus lifted the tiny goddess up and sat her on the edge of the rainbow. The blue streak disappeared. "Well, it's been nice godlings, but I must take my leave and make the rest of my deliveries. Nice to meet you, Pythia." The green vanished. Iris stood then, waved a farewell, then leapt head first over the top of the rainbow, disappearing to the other side. One by one, yellow, orange, and red dematerialized, and the rainbow and Iris were gone.

"The Counselor wants to see us," Strafford said, distracting her from her gawking. He had unrolled and read the scroll Iris had delivered.

"You're going to
Godlet's
?!" Hector's eyes widened. "This blows!" Chloe could at least infer that Godlet's was a safe place, maybe even a fun place, from his reaction.

Strafford's eyes narrowed and he tossed Hector a key. "Narcissus Station.
Now
. And buy new clothes first chance you get. You're drenched in black blood."

The twin scowled, catching it. "Come on, bro," He said to Theseus, "His Highness has spoken."

"See you soon, Chloe," Theseus said, rearranging his bow and arrows. He and Ace high-fived each other.

"Yeah, see you," Hector echoed. His scowl deepened, but then he said, "Your family will be safe with us guarding them. I swear."

"I know, Hector," Chloe said with a smile. They had done it before and she had no doubt they would do it again. She trusted them.

"We'll send an Iris post soon," Theseus said, as they walked back through the terrace doors.

"Kill something in our honor!" Hector made a last request. They unlocked and opened the golden doors on the other side of the room, stepped through them into some crowded depot overrun with people, and they were gone.

"Two doors, millions of possibilities," Ace said to her, "Those doors lead lots of places if you have the right keys."

She smiled a little. She guessed her wonder over things of their world was always apparent on her face.

"Swindle, we're stayin' at your hideout for the night," said Strafford, moving forward. "The tower can't be safe if the Chateau isn't." He crossed his arms. "Come to think of it, where is your newest hideout? You're so bloody nomadic, I never know where you're livin' from one day to the next."

"You can't learn everything there is to know sitting in one spot," Swindle replied. "I found a little place on Hesperides Street. Number 182. I'll go ahead and get things ready."

Strafford nodded. "Brilliant." He looked at her. "Change now, Red. You can't go out in your bloody night gear. By the way, nice jacket." He winked and clearly got a kick out of her blushing reaction. "Pack a few things too, will you? We won't be back. Ace, Swindle, change and then let's re-up on merchandise," he said, "I left one of my favorite daggers in one of those unlucky bastards back at the Chateau." Ace agreed that a re-up on "merchandise" was in order. He had broken his drumsticks in the battle as well. If a
Gadget Morph
broke, so did the magic, he had explained, only
Summoners
, like Aor, could reform. His broken sticks were useless to him now.

Chloe got changed in a bedroom in the tower––too bad, not Strafford's room––into a graphic tee, jeans, and a kick ass pair of
Prada
hiking boots. She wondered how her clothes had ended up in the tower, but wouldn't bother to ask.

The bedroom was nice, but not spectacular. It was plain and white, with white bed dressings, white carpet, white walls, and white curtains. She could picture herself having a blast in that room––just her and a couple of cans of spray paint. It had no life, no personality and it almost felt like it had been left that way on purpose. Maybe it was waiting for someone to give it a life, to add their own personality and pizazz to it. She could think of a few ideas that would work well, but this wasn't her room. This wasn't her house or even the city she lived in. She wasn't even on Earth and who knew when she would ever see it again. She wouldn't ever consider the heavens home, she vowed to herself. Her home was in Adel, Georgia with Beth and Benjamin Clever. Her heart was there and there it would stay.

After stuffing a few things in a pack she found, she met the demigods down by the fireplace. She was surprised to find it moved aside and a stocked weaponry behind it. Ace shoved more
Morph
drumsticks in his bag and clasped on a mysterious necklace he grabbed from a shelf. And even though he had a
Summoner
, Strafford had armed himself with a few more bronze, razor sharp daggers engraved with his motto. Swindle had collected a sword or two, but she was left out, which left her a little perturbed since she thought she'd earned a sword by holding her own against Hades' children.

Packed and ready, Strafford unlocked the golden double doors that did not open up into the depot she had seen the twins disappear into, but a wide elevator with glass walls that displayed the elevators gears of gold. Strafford pressed a few buttons with strange symbols that Chloe now knew were letters of the Greek alphabet. It seemed the right combination of letters moved the elevator. She vowed she would figure out the key situation and learn what the letters meant so that one day, one day soon she hoped, she could get back to her family and wouldn't need their help to do so.

The elevator dropped from under them and when it had stopped, opened up onto the avenue below the tower. Chloe let her stomach settle, then stepped off into the sunshine.

Swindle had stayed behind to wait for Bill, so the three of them set off into the hustle and bustle of New Elysium without him. The clean, stoned avenue was teeming with citizens doing whatever immortals with an infinite amount of time on their hands did to pass it. But to keep a low profile, they slipped down a deserted alley and weaved their way down between the towering skyscrapers and resplendent castles.

At one point, they were spotted from the high window of a grand fortress by a girl in an extravagant sapphire gown and french hood. "It is Pythia!" She exclaimed, shocking Chloe with her recognition. "She has come!" She was clearly speaking over her shoulder to someone and dashed away from the window. They heard the crowd of excited female voices approaching the window before they saw them and Ace groaned and sped up.

"Bloody hell, not already," Strafford grumbled, lifting his arms above his head. In a strong, authoritative voice, he growled out a command in ancient Greek. Somewhere in the congress of Knowledge gathered in her head, she found the meaning of what he said.

Obey me
.

As easy as picking flowers, he plucked rays of yellow sunshine down right out of the sky. The sunbeams bent to his will and followed his hands wherever he directed them. He started to bring them all together…one by one…

"See there!" The girl cried out from the window again, "It is she! I know, 'fore she is in the company of her guardian, the disgraced Prince---
OH!
" There was a sharp flash and cries of surprise as the flock of girls disappeared behind a blinding medley of sun rays that Strafford had snapped down like window shades to block their view. All they could see now was a barrier of sunshine.

"How did you
do
that?" She breathed, totally awed by what she had just witnessed even though it was blinding the crap out of her. Strafford had controlled the
sun
. He was
so
amazing.

"What fun is being the Sun Prince if you can't even bend the sun to your will a lil' bit?" Ace answered with a grin and a wink of his sun-circled eye.

"That was kind of cool," She said as they rounded a corner onto another narrow, deserted alleyway between two rows of cottages with stucco walls and tiled roofs.

"Kind of, wan?"

She rolled her eyes. "Okay. It was awesome."

"Tha's better."

Jerk,
She thought,
Gorgeous jerk.
"So…how did that girl know about me?" She asked. "And I know you know, so don't give me any crap."

"Now's not the time to discuss it, Red."

"I think I have the right to know. Something isn't right about all of this."

"You don't say."

"You're the Pythia, Chloe," Ace said, rearranging his pack on his shoulder, "The one tha' was––"

"Am I not your Prince, Ace?" Strafford snapped, "I said,
not now
."

THUD!
Something huge came whooshing past them from above and landed with a bone-crunching thud at their feet, stopping them dead in their tracks.