When power stops warping the air, I stagger to my feet and look for the Chaos Wizard in the dark. The moon is high and bright, reflected off the lake, and I can see him just fine. He hasn’t moved. He’s right where we left him after several hours of waiting for a big, fat nothing.
He looks straight at me—maybe he neverstoppedlooking at me—and thumps his staff on his crumbling porch. The same debilitating, magic-heavy sound rends the air and shatters my head. I double over, gasping, and Griffin leans protectively over me, not affected in the same way at all. I find his waist and hold on, my head buried against his abdomen.
The Chaos Wizard’s deep voice resonates along with the last of the terrible noise. “Harbinger. Approach.”
Dazed, I try to shake off the aftereffects of those two thundering blasts of pure Olympian magic. Somehow, I step away from Griffin, my head still spinning. Griffin automatically moves with me, and the wizard thumps his staff again. I cry out, crushing power nearly putting me on my knees.
“Harbinger alone,” the wizard commands.
Frowning, Griffin helps to steady me. In a low voice, he asks, “Why is he calling you that?”
Straightening, I press my lips together and don’t answer. I have some explaining to do.Later.
The awful noise subsides, and I move cautiously forward, my tunic flapping in the wind that picked up again as if in answer to the wizard’s magic staff. By the time I cover the short distance to his porch, I feel almost normal again, only a slight hum in my veins reacting to the residual power in the air. I dip my head, attempting humility, although I don’t think we’re in any real danger—except of total hearing loss.
The Chaos Wizard doesn’t bang his staff again, thank the Gods. “Zeus and his daughter Athena choose to aid you in your quest to secure the herd of Ipotane.”
My eyes widen.Fantastic!No explanation necessaryandtwo Gods on our side. I could dance a Fisan jig.
“You must make a worthy offering to the herd Alpha, Lycheron, to keep him from killing you on sight.”
Huh. Cancel the jig.
“Propose a challenge. The Ipotane cannot resist a competition, but Lycheron will only play male Alpha to male Alpha.”
For the first time, the Chaos Wizard’s swirling eyes land on Griffin, and I have to resist the urge to jump in front of him and shield him from the wizard’s unsettling gaze.
“A bargain must be struck.”
Uh-oh.A bargain means us promising something, too.
“Zeus has spoken.”
My jaw drops.What? That’s it?“What offering? What could Lycheron want?”
The wizard doesn’t answer. He just stares at me like before, his eyes infinite and so immeasurably full they’re void.
Turning, I stomp back toward the others. They meet me halfway.
“We waited hours under that frankly disturbing stare; I just got a thumping headache and a magical ass-kicking; andthat’s it?”
Griffin seems at a loss as well. “What do we do now? Leave?”
The owl I heard earlier swoops low over our heads, lands on the wizard’s shabby roof, and then hoots.
Griffin’s eyes sharpen on the bird. “The owl is the symbol of Athena.”
“Climb the northeast needle of the Deskathi Mountains,” the wizard abruptly continues. “The glacial caves hide a treasure that will please the Ipotane Alpha.”
Shock hits me like a Giant’s fist. “But those caves are a labyrinth!” One I’ve hardly ever heard of anyone going into. I’ve never heard of anyone coming out.
The owl hoots again, and a ball of twine appears in the wizard’s hand. He tosses it to me with an awkward, underhanded throw, the gift barely reaching me from not even twenty feet away.
“Ariadne’s Thread. It will not end. It will not tangle.”
I grip the coiled string, feeling its magic nip at my palm. “What will we find there?” I ask.
“Only the Harbinger and the fair one must enter the caves. The other three must not.”
