A City of Brick - Percy Jackson (2/5)
TITLE: A City of Brick
AUTHOR: tvconnoisseur
CATEGORY: Drama, Angst
CHARACTER/PAIRING: Reyna, Reyna/Jason
SPOILERS: The Sea of Monsters, The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: language, implied sexual content
SUMMARY: Reyna's journey from spa attendant to Roman praetor.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson. Or any of the Olympians.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Part One is Here.
Part Two: Lupa
i.
They go to California. Their grandparents are the only people in the real world that they know, so that’s where they head. They steal clothing and accessories from a sunbathing family on the beach, along with a few twenties and get themselves on the cheapest train they can find to take them out west. In anticipation, Reyna carries an old birthday card in her new jacket’s pocket, an address scrawled in the upper left hand corner that she memorized long ago.
Reyna constantly finds herself adjusting her ill-fitting, low-cut top and smoothing her potion-less, frizzy hair. She wonders if she looks terribly out of place. It’s only been six years, she thinks, looking at low-riding jeans and sweatshirts. Has fashion really changed that much?
She sometimes thinks she sees monsters in the corner of her eye-horrible women with snakes for hair or lions with scorpion tails-but they disappear in the speeding plains outside. Once she thinks she sees a pack of wolves. The pack leader stares intently into Reyna’s eyes and Reyna feels all at once terrified and relieved. She blinks and the wolves disappear.
When they finally get to San Francisco, skitter up their grandparents’ front steps, and press the doorbell, Reyna’s heart stops beating as they wait for the door to open. Hylla grabs her hand and the steady thump thump of her big sister’s pulse calms her.
When the door finally opens, a middle-aged Asian woman looks at them curiously. “Can I help you two?” she asks.
“I hope so,” Hylla responds, her hand squeezing Reyna’s hand tighter. “We’re looking for our grandparents. Julius and Arna Warden. Do they live here?”
The woman frowns. “The Wardens died ten years ago. They left this house to the university. As far as I know, their only son disappeared in a plane crash over twenty years ago. Are you sure you have the right names?”
Reyna feels the thump thump grow faster in her palm. “That can’t be right,” Hylla insists. “Julius and Arna Warden. He’s a classics professor. She’s a doctor. They moved here five years ago at the absolute height of health. They can’t be dead, let alone for a decade.”
The woman steps out from the doorframe and stares straight into Hylla’s eyes. “Who are you?”
“I’m their granddaughter Hylla. This is my sister Reyna. Please just tell us where we can find them.”
The woman straightens. “Wait right here.” The woman runs into the house and, after a few painful minutes, she comes out with a photo frame clutched in her hands. She fumbles with the back, peeling out a photo she seems all at once eager and reluctant to show them. Finally she flips it over for them to see. “Is this you?”
It is. Hylla is thirteen with flared jeans and long hair and Reyna is seven with a muddy dress and pigtails. Hylla clutches the photo from the woman’s hands. “Where did you get this?” she hisses.
“It’s from Professor Warden’s personal effects. Those girls are you, aren’t they?” she asks breathlessly.
“Where are our grandparents?!” Hylla’s voice becomes shrill and Reyna’s hand is hurting from how hard she’s holding.
The woman delicately takes the photo back from Hylla’s grasp and turns it over. Scrawled across the back is April 15, 1979.
“So what? I’m eighteen now. People age.”
The woman nods. “I know. But it’s 2007. You should be my age.”
Hylla steps back and Reyna feels like she’s going to collapse. “No, that’s not possible,” Hylla insists. “I’m eighteen. I’m eighteen and Reyna is twelve. This is not possible.”
“I don’t know how this happened, but I can try to explain to you what I do know. Please come in.” The woman ushers them inside with a strong stare that even convinces Hylla to obey.
She sits them on a sofa with cups of strong tea and a haphazard arrangement of cookies. Hylla refuses to drink and repeatedly digs a nail file from her purse into the wood of the coffee table. Reyna is starving, but she crumbles her cookie onto her napkin to appease Hylla.
The woman sits opposite them with a manila folder full of papers. “My name is Margaret Chase. I was your grandfather’s assistant at the university before he died. Generally his place is closed, but I give tours on Sundays. He collected a lot of wonderful documents and artifacts over the years. He was a brilliant man. So kind. I met my husband through him, actually.” She smiles. “They liked to do war re-enactments together.
“Anyway, Julius spoke about you and your father often. Even though it was impossible that any of you survived, he always kept the hope alive. And in case you did, he prepared these for you.” She hands the folder to Hylla.
Hylla opens it. It is full of handwritten letters, photos, and a map. “What is this?”
“These are your letters for Camp Jupiter. Julius said that it had been many years since the Warden family went to camp, but these letters should guarantee you a place in the best cohort.”
Hylla hands the folder over to Reyna, who pores over the papers. A hand-written letter from their grandfather rests on top, signed Julius Warden, Legacy of Victoria. Attached is a photo of him in his twenties in front of a World War II bomber. She keeps sifting through the letters and is shocked by their authors-Douglas MacArthur, Legacy of Mars; Robert E. Lee, Son of Minerva; Alexander Hamilton, Son of Phoebus Apollo -all vouching for the honors and accomplishments of the Warden family over the past few hundred years.
Hylla crosses her arms, the nail file still twisting in her fingers. “Hold on. Camp Jupiter? What are you talking about?”
Mrs. Chase takes a sip of tea. “You are both Roman demigods-yes, I know. You two are among the strongest demigods based on your lineage-daughters of Bellona, legacies of Victoria. I have no doubt that your scent is strong and that you’ve been running from monsters for your entire lives. The only way you will survive is if you train with Lupa and join Camp Jupiter. The Twelfth Legion will protect you.”
Hylla glares. “We can protect ourselves.”
Mrs. Chase looks back at Hylla with hard eyes. “No, you can’t. My own step-daughter ran away from home, thinking she could take on the monsters by herself. One of her best friends got killed. This is not a war to take on alone.” She sighs. “I was so scared when the monsters came that I let my her leave without protection. I won’t do that again. I owe it to Julius. I owe it to you. And I owe it to my step-daughter.”
She leans in and taps on the manila folder resting on Reyna’s lap. “You need friends. Go to Lupa. Train. The map will take you to the Wolf House.”
With finality, Mrs. Chase stands up and takes the mutilated cookie from Reyna’s hands. “By Go, I mean now. I have one last gift from your grandfather.” She opens the door to the basement and two dogs come out. Reyna thinks she must be dreaming because they look like they’re made out of metal.
“Their names are Aurum and Argentium.”
“Gold and Silver,” Reyna murmurs, the Latin translating in her head.
“Yes. They have been passed down through the generations and your great-grandfather received them as a gift for one of his good deeds. They can always tell if they are being lied to. They will protect you on your journey.”
Argentium nuzzles against Reyna’s legs and Aurum sticks his nose in Hylla’s crotch. “Lovely,” Hylla sniffs, pushing Aurum away. He whines.
“Good luck, girls. The road is long and hard before you, but I have no doubts you will succeed.” Mrs. Chase smiles. “Your grandfather would be proud of the young ladies you have become.”
Reyna picks up the manila folder and stuffs it in her stolen backpack next to her bag of drachmas and half-eaten tuna sandwich. She’s about to rush out the door, following Hylla’s lead, but she stops and turns. “What’s Camp Jupiter like?”
Mrs. Chase smiles. “Your grandfather told me that it was his home. That’s why he moved back to California. It’s a place where you learn discipline and go on adventures and grow old with people just like you-boys, girls, demigods, legacies, fauns, ghosts! It sounds quite lovely, doesn’t it?”
Reyna feels a warmth grow in her chest, something she hasn’t felt in a very long time. “Thank you, Mrs. Chase.”
Hylla rolls her eyes, but dips her head in a feigned sense of gratitude. “Let’s go, Reyna.”
ii.
On their journey to the Wolf House, they fight their way through monsters and storms and caffeinated pre-teens. During one perilous encounter with a vicious group of centaurs, they find themselves aided by girls who radiate silver like moonlight. They fight well, with devastating aim. After their blades and arrows are coated in centaur blood, the leader of the group stops Reyna from cleaning off her dagger with her sleeve.
“If thou drenches thy clothing in the blood of a centaur, thy clothing will burn thee to death,” she states, offering instead a rag. Reyna takes it and wipes down her dagger and Aurum and Argentium’s teeth.
The girl considers them with thoughtful brown eyes. “Thou fights with fire,” she says, pointing to Hylla, “and thou fights with courage,” she adds, pointing to Reyna. “The makings of a Hunter of Artemis like us. If Artemis were here, she would agree.”
“What exactly would that entail?” Hylla asks.
“Living for eternity in the service of our beloved goddess, traveling the countryside to aid her in the hunt, and forsaking all men who might lead thee astray.”
Hylla raises an eyebrow. “Let me get this straight. You travel around the outdoors as personal minions to a goddess who can’t even afford to put you up in a nice hotel? Not to mention, men are not meant to be forsaken, they are meant to be dominated. Ignoring the problem is your biggest oversight.” She crosses her arms. “Thank you for the offer, but we’ll have to refuse.”
“We’re on our way to the Wolf House,” Reyna clarifies, as if offering an alternative will make Hylla’s dismissal less rude. “To join Camp Jupiter.”
“Speak no more,” the girl answers, visage hard. “I accept thy refusal. But I do not think that Camp Jupiter will bring you the peace thou seeks,” she says to Hylla. “I worry less for thou, young one,” she says to Reyna, “but the road ahead is difficult for both of ye.”
She slings her bow across her back and her Hunters follow suit. “Good luck with Lupa. She is one of the greatest untamed beasts of the wild. If thou thinkest Artemis a hard mistress, thou are to face an unwelcome surprise.”
The girls disappear like the moon as the sun rises over the mountains. Reyna shivers in the tendrils of morning, the girl’s words ringing in her ears. If Camp Jupiter is not their home, where will they go? And, worse than that-what if her home is not Hylla’s?
Argentium nuzzles his head against her hand and she scratches behind his ear. His skin is cold against her fingers.
iii.
The reach the Wolf House. House is a generous description. It’s a burnt mess of stone and wood, a rambling mansion that is somehow both impressive and empty.
Reyna hears a low growl and one hand tightens on her dagger and the other on Hylla’s hand. Out steps a wolf, regal in stature, smooth in movement. She steps down the steps with calculating eyes and suddenly Reyna is aware of how tall the she-wolf is-bigger than Hylla, with mahogany fur. Argentium and Aurum stand at attention, ears pricked.
She circles them, sniffing the air. “Daughters of Bellona,” she murmurs. “You seek to be legionnaires of Rome?”
Hylla looks at the she-wolf with the same shrewd air. “If we do?”
Lupa stops suddenly and her eyes sharpen. “There is no if. I have no patience for if. Do not waste my time. I will ask only once more: do you wish to become legionnaires?”
Hylla still looks standoffish, so Reyna reaches for her backpack. “Yes, yes we do. Our grandfather was Julius Warden, Legacy of Victoria. And I have some papers here that prove what I’m saying is true-”
The she-wolf growls. “I don’t need papers, demigod. I need commitment. You will give me everything or lose everything. Do you agree to these terms?”
“I agree,” Reyna says quickly. A moment passes before she realizes Hylla hasn’t said anything. The air feels thick.
Finally, Hylla speaks. “I agree,” she says, not quite a mutter, but not a declaration. “Train us.”
Lupa raises her nose to the sky, as if sensing an oncoming storm. “We will begin now. And if you cannot stand the trials you face-I can assure you that death is the easiest way out.”
iv.
Reyna wakes up every day too early and more bruised than the day before. Her skin is a map of their travels-scars of gryphon’s talons ripping across her shoulder, redwood splinters piercing her palms, her own dagger’s blade slicing her forearm, thigh, cheek. She runs with wolves and gets used to the burning feeling in her lungs and the dirt under her fingernails instead of polish on top of them and thinks that she must be uglier than she has ever been, but at the same time, she has never awakened with the same sense of purpose before. Despite her injuries, she is good at this. She is a good fighter. Her mind, too hard for sorcery, can calculate a battle in milliseconds and devise and execute the best way of attack a half-breath later. Each day Lupa looks at her with less and less disdain and Reyna feels herself drawing closer to Camp Jupiter and the home that it promises.
Hylla trains just as hard, if not harder, than Reyna. She’s always been an extraordinary athlete-an extraordinary everything-and here she is no exception. But despite her prowess, she doesn’t smile in victory or cry out in defeat. Nothing seems to satisfy her. Reyna can’t find the right words to get Hylla to dispel her secrets, so she stays silent, hoping that it’s just a phase. Once they get to Camp Jupiter, it will all get better, she thinks. They won’t be living off stream water and selectively edible plant life. They’ll be home, with beds and a family of hundreds to keep them warm.
Lupa and her pack lead them all over the west coast, from saving migrant workers near San Diego from a swarm of harpies to rescuing the Portland Trail Blazers from some particularly thirsty empousas.
Finally, they rest in Seattle. “This our last stop before Camp Jupiter,” Lupa promises. “If you make it through this final trial, you have my permission to seek out the Twelfth Legion.”
Reyna is excited, but nervous. She is so close to her future, but the thought of it being taken away from her this close to the end haunts her dreams. In some, she is captured and tortured by Blackbeard on the Golden Gate Bridge. In others, she is eaten alive by a dissatisfied Lupa in the shadows of the Wolf House. And in the worst of them, she gets so close-running down the final hill toward her faceless family-only to feel a pain in her stomach and blood on her fingers and, in the last breaths of consciousness, she gazes up to find Hylla’s hardened eyes staring back at her, empty.
Lupa has been tracking a beast of enormous importance, but she betrays nothing to her demigod charges. Reyna keeps close and stays with Lupa even when the rest of the pack, including Hylla, sleeps. The faster they find whatever Lupa’s looking for, the faster Reyna gets to go to Camp Jupiter.
Reyna first sees it during one of her solitary hunts with Lupa. It appears in the corner of her eye at the cusp of twilight. It is a horse with brown skin that flickers gold in the dying sun: noble, with a strong neck and disdainful expression. All of these things make him the most beautiful horse Reyna has ever seen.
Of course, the moment he glimpses Lupa and Reyna, his eyes register both offense and fear and as quickly as he leaped into Reyna’s vision, he disappears like he was never there at all. “What was that?”
Lupa growls thoughtfully. “Arion. He is the fastest horse in the world, son of Neptune and Ceres. He runs like the wind over land and sea and eats precious metals. It has been many generations since I’ve seen him. I worry that he is being hunted.”
“The Hunters of Artemis?”
“No. They are…occupied at the moment. Regardless, they would honor Arion if they managed to best him. No, I worry that there are other interested parties who would be less kind.” Lupa’s stance is stiff. “They laid low for centuries, but they have grown stronger over the past decade. I worry about their intentions.”
“Who?” Reyna asks.
“The Amazons. They are a tribe of the strongest and most ruthless female warriors, living by their own moral code. I do not know what their endgame is, but I fear that it is not the same as our own. They have always valued power over anything else. The way they rule their men is egregious at best, and a fine example of how they treat any outsider. I have no doubt that if they capture Arion, they will use him to exert influence over others.”
Reyna shudders nervously. She has never heard Lupa speak so strongly against anyone or anything, except for Lycaon, who Reyna knows better than to mention. “So what do we do?”
“Stay close on his tail and pray that I am wrong. If he is in no danger, I will let you and your sister go.”
“And if you are right?”
Lupa growls. “We will prepare for battle.”
Reyna’s breath catches in her chest. She has battled monsters before, but Lupa’s words make her fear these Amazons more than any monster she has encountered before.
When Lupa and Reyna return from the hunt, Hylla is not with the pack. It’s not unusual; Hylla often escapes for alone time when the pack is at rest. Normally, Reyna would curl up and fall asleep, waking to see Hylla polishing her blade. But tonight Reyna is itching to tell her about the beautiful horse and speculate about the dangerous Amazons and dream about how close they are to going to Camp Jupiter. So she stays up, curled into a ball with eyes wide.
Hylla returns before dawn. She tiptoes back to her place next to Reyna and inhales sharply when Reyna turns to face her. “Gods, Reyna. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to,” she murmurs, propping herself up. “You were gone a long time.”
Hylla shrugs. “Not longer than usual.” She lays down, facing the fading night sky.
Reyna inches closer to her sister. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“’I’m tired, Reyna. I’ve been running for hours and Lupa will want us up at daybreak.”
With a frown, Reyna lays back and also looks up at the sky. She tries to stop talking, let Hylla sleep, but her mind is spinning too much to stay quiet. “I saw what we’ve been following for the past week. It’s a horse. A brilliant horse-beautiful and fast.”
“Where did you find him?” Hylla’s voice comes out quick, not drowsy, so Reyna eagerly continues.
“A few miles away. But it doesn’t matter because Lupa says that he’ll probably never return to a place he’s been found.”
“So how are we going to find him again?”
“Lupa said that he eats precious metals. So I guess we’re mostly going to look at the local mines in the area to see if he’s stopped for a snack.”
“Precious metals?” Hylla murmurs. “That’s how we’ll catch him?”
“We’re not trying to catch him. Someone else is trying to catch him. We’re trying to protect him.”
“From whom?” Hylla asks intently. “The Hunters of Artemis?”
“No. The Amazons. They’re a militant warrior tribe. Lupa fears they’ll hurt him.”
Hylla scoffs. “She can’t know that. A horse that fast? They could be using him for good.”
Reyna shakes her head. “They shouldn’t use him at all. He’s free. He shouldn’t be enslaved against his will.”
Hylla doesn’t respond. Reyna looks over and finds her sister turned away from her, sleeping on her side. Reyna turns the other way and curls her knees up to her chest. Despite her uneasiness, she wills herself to sleep. She’s just tired, she thinks. We’ll talk in the morning.
v.
“Wake up, child.”
Reyna blinks awake to Lupa’s anxious eyes mere inches from her face. “Lupa. What is going on?”
Lupa steps back and looks behind Reyna. “Your sister is missing. As well as your dogs.”
Reyna snaps up. “What?” She looks behind her, as if Lupa were lying. “Where is Hylla?” She gets up frantically, spinning in a circle. “Aurum! Argentium! Where are you? I order you to come to me!” Her body shakes. “Where are they?”
Lupa looks at Reyna sadly. “I believe your sister has stolen them.”
“Stolen them?” Reyna wants to laugh at the ridiculousness, but can’t. “Why would she steal them?”
“Did you tell your sister about Arion?”
“Yes,” Reyna sputters. “But what does that matter?”
“What does Arion eat?”
“Precious metals. But why-” It hits Reyna like a Cyclops’s fist. “She’s trying to lure Arion with Aurum and Argentium. But why didn’t she wait for us?”
“Reyna,” Lupa begins softly and, in Reyna’s memory, it is the first time the she-wolf has used her name to address her, “I have long suspected that your sister’s heart is not with Rome.”
Reyna’s breath stops. “No, that’s not true. We’re family. That is what is most important to Romans-to us. She would not betray me. She wouldn’t.”
“I hope it is not true, but I am rarely wrong.” Lupa sighs. “Regardless, we must find her and the dogs. If she captures Arion, I fear what she will do with him.”
Reyna wants to defend her sister, her hero, but can’t find the words. So instead she gathers up her weapons and follows Lupa and the pack into the forest, hoping that she’ll just find Hylla on another one of her runs, with Aurum and Argentium clipping at her heels.
Lupa follows Hylla’s scent until they reach a river. She curses in Latin. “Where has she gone?”
Reyna surveys the land around them. One way is a rock face with caves. The other is a clearing. “The caves. She’ll need a good hiding spot.”
The pack heads toward the caves and, after a good dozen yards, Reyna falls behind. Lupa unknowingly moves ahead without her and, after the pack has moved on a fair distance, Reyna doubles back toward the clearing. Hylla doesn’t like trickery in battle. She prefers to meet her opponent in the open and crush them face-to-face.
As she gets closer, Reyna hears the howl of Argentium and the whinny of Arion and suddenly her legs burn as she runs faster and faster toward them. “Hylla!” she screams. “Hylla!”
When she gets there, Arion is kicked up on his hind legs about to trample Hylla, who has Aurum up like a shield. “HYLLA!” Reyna shrieks, and Arion stumbles, startled. He misses Hylla, misses the dogs, and disappears.
Hylla exhales a sigh of relief. “Thank the gods, Reyna,” she breathes, standing. “I can always count on you.”
Reyna slaps Hylla straight across the face. “How could you, Hylla? Grandpa gave them to us! And you used them as bait to capture an innocent beast, just to gain entrance into some cold-hearted sorority?”
Hylla lightly touches her reddened cheek, trying to stay calm. “Reyna, it’s not what you think. The Amazons are right.”
Reyna looks at her incredulously. “They’re right to imprison a free animal?”
“No, they’re right about how the world works.” Hylla runs her hands through her hair. “It’s not about fighting the good fight just to maintain the status quo. It’s about domination. That is how we bring peace to the world. We’re not pawns, Reyna. We’re queens. And if we join the Amazons, we’ll be treated as such.” She begs Reyna with her eyes. “Please, Reyna. I would never hurt you.”
Aurum leaps for Hylla’s throat and she barely reacts in time to throw him aside. Reyna holds Argentium back from doing the same. “You’re lying to me. You’re my sister, my only family in the world, and you’re lying to me?” The words come out of her mouth, but she can barely believe them.
“Reyna, listen to me. You are so strong and so brilliant. Do you really want waste all that on this? This miserable life of following archaic rules, being an ordinary cog in an outdated machine, just for some hopelessly overbloated fantasy of having 2.5 kids and white ionic columns?”
Reyna’s eyes flash. “Yes, Hylla! I want it. I want all of it. I want to have a place to call home. I want a place where people are not struggling for power but share it equally. I want to make friends and fall in love and have a family.”
Hylla’s eyes grow wide and Reyna instantly pales. “Hylla, I didn’t mean it like that. You’re my family. I love you more than anything in the world. But I can’t keep being the person you want me to be. I’m not a witch and I’m not an Amazon. I’m not even in the right time. But maybe, if they’ll have me, I can be a legionnaire. I’ll finally belong.” Reyna takes Hylla’s hands in hers. “Please, Hylla. I don’t want you to go.”
With surgical delicacy, Hylla removes her hands from Reyna’s grasp and stands. “You’ve made your decision and I’ve made mine. Goodbye, Reyna.”
Hylla walks away with such certainty that she almost fades away. Reyna breathes in sharply and clutches Argentium closer to her chest. The pain she feels-it’s worse than anything she has ever experienced before. It’s worse than what she endured with Lupa. It’s worse than her father’s death. It crawls into every atom of her being and refuses to let go.
She hasn’t cried since they left Circe’s Island so long ago, but now the tears fall like they never stopped.
To be continued in Part Three: Jason:
"Apparently being a daughter of the Goddess of War did not prepare her for affairs of the heart."
AUTHOR: tvconnoisseur
CATEGORY: Drama, Angst
CHARACTER/PAIRING: Reyna, Reyna/Jason
SPOILERS: The Sea of Monsters, The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: language, implied sexual content
SUMMARY: Reyna's journey from spa attendant to Roman praetor.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson. Or any of the Olympians.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Part One is Here.
Part Two: Lupa
i.
They go to California. Their grandparents are the only people in the real world that they know, so that’s where they head. They steal clothing and accessories from a sunbathing family on the beach, along with a few twenties and get themselves on the cheapest train they can find to take them out west. In anticipation, Reyna carries an old birthday card in her new jacket’s pocket, an address scrawled in the upper left hand corner that she memorized long ago.
Reyna constantly finds herself adjusting her ill-fitting, low-cut top and smoothing her potion-less, frizzy hair. She wonders if she looks terribly out of place. It’s only been six years, she thinks, looking at low-riding jeans and sweatshirts. Has fashion really changed that much?
She sometimes thinks she sees monsters in the corner of her eye-horrible women with snakes for hair or lions with scorpion tails-but they disappear in the speeding plains outside. Once she thinks she sees a pack of wolves. The pack leader stares intently into Reyna’s eyes and Reyna feels all at once terrified and relieved. She blinks and the wolves disappear.
When they finally get to San Francisco, skitter up their grandparents’ front steps, and press the doorbell, Reyna’s heart stops beating as they wait for the door to open. Hylla grabs her hand and the steady thump thump of her big sister’s pulse calms her.
When the door finally opens, a middle-aged Asian woman looks at them curiously. “Can I help you two?” she asks.
“I hope so,” Hylla responds, her hand squeezing Reyna’s hand tighter. “We’re looking for our grandparents. Julius and Arna Warden. Do they live here?”
The woman frowns. “The Wardens died ten years ago. They left this house to the university. As far as I know, their only son disappeared in a plane crash over twenty years ago. Are you sure you have the right names?”
Reyna feels the thump thump grow faster in her palm. “That can’t be right,” Hylla insists. “Julius and Arna Warden. He’s a classics professor. She’s a doctor. They moved here five years ago at the absolute height of health. They can’t be dead, let alone for a decade.”
The woman steps out from the doorframe and stares straight into Hylla’s eyes. “Who are you?”
“I’m their granddaughter Hylla. This is my sister Reyna. Please just tell us where we can find them.”
The woman straightens. “Wait right here.” The woman runs into the house and, after a few painful minutes, she comes out with a photo frame clutched in her hands. She fumbles with the back, peeling out a photo she seems all at once eager and reluctant to show them. Finally she flips it over for them to see. “Is this you?”
It is. Hylla is thirteen with flared jeans and long hair and Reyna is seven with a muddy dress and pigtails. Hylla clutches the photo from the woman’s hands. “Where did you get this?” she hisses.
“It’s from Professor Warden’s personal effects. Those girls are you, aren’t they?” she asks breathlessly.
“Where are our grandparents?!” Hylla’s voice becomes shrill and Reyna’s hand is hurting from how hard she’s holding.
The woman delicately takes the photo back from Hylla’s grasp and turns it over. Scrawled across the back is April 15, 1979.
“So what? I’m eighteen now. People age.”
The woman nods. “I know. But it’s 2007. You should be my age.”
Hylla steps back and Reyna feels like she’s going to collapse. “No, that’s not possible,” Hylla insists. “I’m eighteen. I’m eighteen and Reyna is twelve. This is not possible.”
“I don’t know how this happened, but I can try to explain to you what I do know. Please come in.” The woman ushers them inside with a strong stare that even convinces Hylla to obey.
She sits them on a sofa with cups of strong tea and a haphazard arrangement of cookies. Hylla refuses to drink and repeatedly digs a nail file from her purse into the wood of the coffee table. Reyna is starving, but she crumbles her cookie onto her napkin to appease Hylla.
The woman sits opposite them with a manila folder full of papers. “My name is Margaret Chase. I was your grandfather’s assistant at the university before he died. Generally his place is closed, but I give tours on Sundays. He collected a lot of wonderful documents and artifacts over the years. He was a brilliant man. So kind. I met my husband through him, actually.” She smiles. “They liked to do war re-enactments together.
“Anyway, Julius spoke about you and your father often. Even though it was impossible that any of you survived, he always kept the hope alive. And in case you did, he prepared these for you.” She hands the folder to Hylla.
Hylla opens it. It is full of handwritten letters, photos, and a map. “What is this?”
“These are your letters for Camp Jupiter. Julius said that it had been many years since the Warden family went to camp, but these letters should guarantee you a place in the best cohort.”
Hylla hands the folder over to Reyna, who pores over the papers. A hand-written letter from their grandfather rests on top, signed Julius Warden, Legacy of Victoria. Attached is a photo of him in his twenties in front of a World War II bomber. She keeps sifting through the letters and is shocked by their authors-Douglas MacArthur, Legacy of Mars; Robert E. Lee, Son of Minerva; Alexander Hamilton, Son of Phoebus Apollo -all vouching for the honors and accomplishments of the Warden family over the past few hundred years.
Hylla crosses her arms, the nail file still twisting in her fingers. “Hold on. Camp Jupiter? What are you talking about?”
Mrs. Chase takes a sip of tea. “You are both Roman demigods-yes, I know. You two are among the strongest demigods based on your lineage-daughters of Bellona, legacies of Victoria. I have no doubt that your scent is strong and that you’ve been running from monsters for your entire lives. The only way you will survive is if you train with Lupa and join Camp Jupiter. The Twelfth Legion will protect you.”
Hylla glares. “We can protect ourselves.”
Mrs. Chase looks back at Hylla with hard eyes. “No, you can’t. My own step-daughter ran away from home, thinking she could take on the monsters by herself. One of her best friends got killed. This is not a war to take on alone.” She sighs. “I was so scared when the monsters came that I let my her leave without protection. I won’t do that again. I owe it to Julius. I owe it to you. And I owe it to my step-daughter.”
She leans in and taps on the manila folder resting on Reyna’s lap. “You need friends. Go to Lupa. Train. The map will take you to the Wolf House.”
With finality, Mrs. Chase stands up and takes the mutilated cookie from Reyna’s hands. “By Go, I mean now. I have one last gift from your grandfather.” She opens the door to the basement and two dogs come out. Reyna thinks she must be dreaming because they look like they’re made out of metal.
“Their names are Aurum and Argentium.”
“Gold and Silver,” Reyna murmurs, the Latin translating in her head.
“Yes. They have been passed down through the generations and your great-grandfather received them as a gift for one of his good deeds. They can always tell if they are being lied to. They will protect you on your journey.”
Argentium nuzzles against Reyna’s legs and Aurum sticks his nose in Hylla’s crotch. “Lovely,” Hylla sniffs, pushing Aurum away. He whines.
“Good luck, girls. The road is long and hard before you, but I have no doubts you will succeed.” Mrs. Chase smiles. “Your grandfather would be proud of the young ladies you have become.”
Reyna picks up the manila folder and stuffs it in her stolen backpack next to her bag of drachmas and half-eaten tuna sandwich. She’s about to rush out the door, following Hylla’s lead, but she stops and turns. “What’s Camp Jupiter like?”
Mrs. Chase smiles. “Your grandfather told me that it was his home. That’s why he moved back to California. It’s a place where you learn discipline and go on adventures and grow old with people just like you-boys, girls, demigods, legacies, fauns, ghosts! It sounds quite lovely, doesn’t it?”
Reyna feels a warmth grow in her chest, something she hasn’t felt in a very long time. “Thank you, Mrs. Chase.”
Hylla rolls her eyes, but dips her head in a feigned sense of gratitude. “Let’s go, Reyna.”
ii.
On their journey to the Wolf House, they fight their way through monsters and storms and caffeinated pre-teens. During one perilous encounter with a vicious group of centaurs, they find themselves aided by girls who radiate silver like moonlight. They fight well, with devastating aim. After their blades and arrows are coated in centaur blood, the leader of the group stops Reyna from cleaning off her dagger with her sleeve.
“If thou drenches thy clothing in the blood of a centaur, thy clothing will burn thee to death,” she states, offering instead a rag. Reyna takes it and wipes down her dagger and Aurum and Argentium’s teeth.
The girl considers them with thoughtful brown eyes. “Thou fights with fire,” she says, pointing to Hylla, “and thou fights with courage,” she adds, pointing to Reyna. “The makings of a Hunter of Artemis like us. If Artemis were here, she would agree.”
“What exactly would that entail?” Hylla asks.
“Living for eternity in the service of our beloved goddess, traveling the countryside to aid her in the hunt, and forsaking all men who might lead thee astray.”
Hylla raises an eyebrow. “Let me get this straight. You travel around the outdoors as personal minions to a goddess who can’t even afford to put you up in a nice hotel? Not to mention, men are not meant to be forsaken, they are meant to be dominated. Ignoring the problem is your biggest oversight.” She crosses her arms. “Thank you for the offer, but we’ll have to refuse.”
“We’re on our way to the Wolf House,” Reyna clarifies, as if offering an alternative will make Hylla’s dismissal less rude. “To join Camp Jupiter.”
“Speak no more,” the girl answers, visage hard. “I accept thy refusal. But I do not think that Camp Jupiter will bring you the peace thou seeks,” she says to Hylla. “I worry less for thou, young one,” she says to Reyna, “but the road ahead is difficult for both of ye.”
She slings her bow across her back and her Hunters follow suit. “Good luck with Lupa. She is one of the greatest untamed beasts of the wild. If thou thinkest Artemis a hard mistress, thou are to face an unwelcome surprise.”
The girls disappear like the moon as the sun rises over the mountains. Reyna shivers in the tendrils of morning, the girl’s words ringing in her ears. If Camp Jupiter is not their home, where will they go? And, worse than that-what if her home is not Hylla’s?
Argentium nuzzles his head against her hand and she scratches behind his ear. His skin is cold against her fingers.
iii.
The reach the Wolf House. House is a generous description. It’s a burnt mess of stone and wood, a rambling mansion that is somehow both impressive and empty.
Reyna hears a low growl and one hand tightens on her dagger and the other on Hylla’s hand. Out steps a wolf, regal in stature, smooth in movement. She steps down the steps with calculating eyes and suddenly Reyna is aware of how tall the she-wolf is-bigger than Hylla, with mahogany fur. Argentium and Aurum stand at attention, ears pricked.
She circles them, sniffing the air. “Daughters of Bellona,” she murmurs. “You seek to be legionnaires of Rome?”
Hylla looks at the she-wolf with the same shrewd air. “If we do?”
Lupa stops suddenly and her eyes sharpen. “There is no if. I have no patience for if. Do not waste my time. I will ask only once more: do you wish to become legionnaires?”
Hylla still looks standoffish, so Reyna reaches for her backpack. “Yes, yes we do. Our grandfather was Julius Warden, Legacy of Victoria. And I have some papers here that prove what I’m saying is true-”
The she-wolf growls. “I don’t need papers, demigod. I need commitment. You will give me everything or lose everything. Do you agree to these terms?”
“I agree,” Reyna says quickly. A moment passes before she realizes Hylla hasn’t said anything. The air feels thick.
Finally, Hylla speaks. “I agree,” she says, not quite a mutter, but not a declaration. “Train us.”
Lupa raises her nose to the sky, as if sensing an oncoming storm. “We will begin now. And if you cannot stand the trials you face-I can assure you that death is the easiest way out.”
iv.
Reyna wakes up every day too early and more bruised than the day before. Her skin is a map of their travels-scars of gryphon’s talons ripping across her shoulder, redwood splinters piercing her palms, her own dagger’s blade slicing her forearm, thigh, cheek. She runs with wolves and gets used to the burning feeling in her lungs and the dirt under her fingernails instead of polish on top of them and thinks that she must be uglier than she has ever been, but at the same time, she has never awakened with the same sense of purpose before. Despite her injuries, she is good at this. She is a good fighter. Her mind, too hard for sorcery, can calculate a battle in milliseconds and devise and execute the best way of attack a half-breath later. Each day Lupa looks at her with less and less disdain and Reyna feels herself drawing closer to Camp Jupiter and the home that it promises.
Hylla trains just as hard, if not harder, than Reyna. She’s always been an extraordinary athlete-an extraordinary everything-and here she is no exception. But despite her prowess, she doesn’t smile in victory or cry out in defeat. Nothing seems to satisfy her. Reyna can’t find the right words to get Hylla to dispel her secrets, so she stays silent, hoping that it’s just a phase. Once they get to Camp Jupiter, it will all get better, she thinks. They won’t be living off stream water and selectively edible plant life. They’ll be home, with beds and a family of hundreds to keep them warm.
Lupa and her pack lead them all over the west coast, from saving migrant workers near San Diego from a swarm of harpies to rescuing the Portland Trail Blazers from some particularly thirsty empousas.
Finally, they rest in Seattle. “This our last stop before Camp Jupiter,” Lupa promises. “If you make it through this final trial, you have my permission to seek out the Twelfth Legion.”
Reyna is excited, but nervous. She is so close to her future, but the thought of it being taken away from her this close to the end haunts her dreams. In some, she is captured and tortured by Blackbeard on the Golden Gate Bridge. In others, she is eaten alive by a dissatisfied Lupa in the shadows of the Wolf House. And in the worst of them, she gets so close-running down the final hill toward her faceless family-only to feel a pain in her stomach and blood on her fingers and, in the last breaths of consciousness, she gazes up to find Hylla’s hardened eyes staring back at her, empty.
Lupa has been tracking a beast of enormous importance, but she betrays nothing to her demigod charges. Reyna keeps close and stays with Lupa even when the rest of the pack, including Hylla, sleeps. The faster they find whatever Lupa’s looking for, the faster Reyna gets to go to Camp Jupiter.
Reyna first sees it during one of her solitary hunts with Lupa. It appears in the corner of her eye at the cusp of twilight. It is a horse with brown skin that flickers gold in the dying sun: noble, with a strong neck and disdainful expression. All of these things make him the most beautiful horse Reyna has ever seen.
Of course, the moment he glimpses Lupa and Reyna, his eyes register both offense and fear and as quickly as he leaped into Reyna’s vision, he disappears like he was never there at all. “What was that?”
Lupa growls thoughtfully. “Arion. He is the fastest horse in the world, son of Neptune and Ceres. He runs like the wind over land and sea and eats precious metals. It has been many generations since I’ve seen him. I worry that he is being hunted.”
“The Hunters of Artemis?”
“No. They are…occupied at the moment. Regardless, they would honor Arion if they managed to best him. No, I worry that there are other interested parties who would be less kind.” Lupa’s stance is stiff. “They laid low for centuries, but they have grown stronger over the past decade. I worry about their intentions.”
“Who?” Reyna asks.
“The Amazons. They are a tribe of the strongest and most ruthless female warriors, living by their own moral code. I do not know what their endgame is, but I fear that it is not the same as our own. They have always valued power over anything else. The way they rule their men is egregious at best, and a fine example of how they treat any outsider. I have no doubt that if they capture Arion, they will use him to exert influence over others.”
Reyna shudders nervously. She has never heard Lupa speak so strongly against anyone or anything, except for Lycaon, who Reyna knows better than to mention. “So what do we do?”
“Stay close on his tail and pray that I am wrong. If he is in no danger, I will let you and your sister go.”
“And if you are right?”
Lupa growls. “We will prepare for battle.”
Reyna’s breath catches in her chest. She has battled monsters before, but Lupa’s words make her fear these Amazons more than any monster she has encountered before.
When Lupa and Reyna return from the hunt, Hylla is not with the pack. It’s not unusual; Hylla often escapes for alone time when the pack is at rest. Normally, Reyna would curl up and fall asleep, waking to see Hylla polishing her blade. But tonight Reyna is itching to tell her about the beautiful horse and speculate about the dangerous Amazons and dream about how close they are to going to Camp Jupiter. So she stays up, curled into a ball with eyes wide.
Hylla returns before dawn. She tiptoes back to her place next to Reyna and inhales sharply when Reyna turns to face her. “Gods, Reyna. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to,” she murmurs, propping herself up. “You were gone a long time.”
Hylla shrugs. “Not longer than usual.” She lays down, facing the fading night sky.
Reyna inches closer to her sister. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“’I’m tired, Reyna. I’ve been running for hours and Lupa will want us up at daybreak.”
With a frown, Reyna lays back and also looks up at the sky. She tries to stop talking, let Hylla sleep, but her mind is spinning too much to stay quiet. “I saw what we’ve been following for the past week. It’s a horse. A brilliant horse-beautiful and fast.”
“Where did you find him?” Hylla’s voice comes out quick, not drowsy, so Reyna eagerly continues.
“A few miles away. But it doesn’t matter because Lupa says that he’ll probably never return to a place he’s been found.”
“So how are we going to find him again?”
“Lupa said that he eats precious metals. So I guess we’re mostly going to look at the local mines in the area to see if he’s stopped for a snack.”
“Precious metals?” Hylla murmurs. “That’s how we’ll catch him?”
“We’re not trying to catch him. Someone else is trying to catch him. We’re trying to protect him.”
“From whom?” Hylla asks intently. “The Hunters of Artemis?”
“No. The Amazons. They’re a militant warrior tribe. Lupa fears they’ll hurt him.”
Hylla scoffs. “She can’t know that. A horse that fast? They could be using him for good.”
Reyna shakes her head. “They shouldn’t use him at all. He’s free. He shouldn’t be enslaved against his will.”
Hylla doesn’t respond. Reyna looks over and finds her sister turned away from her, sleeping on her side. Reyna turns the other way and curls her knees up to her chest. Despite her uneasiness, she wills herself to sleep. She’s just tired, she thinks. We’ll talk in the morning.
v.
“Wake up, child.”
Reyna blinks awake to Lupa’s anxious eyes mere inches from her face. “Lupa. What is going on?”
Lupa steps back and looks behind Reyna. “Your sister is missing. As well as your dogs.”
Reyna snaps up. “What?” She looks behind her, as if Lupa were lying. “Where is Hylla?” She gets up frantically, spinning in a circle. “Aurum! Argentium! Where are you? I order you to come to me!” Her body shakes. “Where are they?”
Lupa looks at Reyna sadly. “I believe your sister has stolen them.”
“Stolen them?” Reyna wants to laugh at the ridiculousness, but can’t. “Why would she steal them?”
“Did you tell your sister about Arion?”
“Yes,” Reyna sputters. “But what does that matter?”
“What does Arion eat?”
“Precious metals. But why-” It hits Reyna like a Cyclops’s fist. “She’s trying to lure Arion with Aurum and Argentium. But why didn’t she wait for us?”
“Reyna,” Lupa begins softly and, in Reyna’s memory, it is the first time the she-wolf has used her name to address her, “I have long suspected that your sister’s heart is not with Rome.”
Reyna’s breath stops. “No, that’s not true. We’re family. That is what is most important to Romans-to us. She would not betray me. She wouldn’t.”
“I hope it is not true, but I am rarely wrong.” Lupa sighs. “Regardless, we must find her and the dogs. If she captures Arion, I fear what she will do with him.”
Reyna wants to defend her sister, her hero, but can’t find the words. So instead she gathers up her weapons and follows Lupa and the pack into the forest, hoping that she’ll just find Hylla on another one of her runs, with Aurum and Argentium clipping at her heels.
Lupa follows Hylla’s scent until they reach a river. She curses in Latin. “Where has she gone?”
Reyna surveys the land around them. One way is a rock face with caves. The other is a clearing. “The caves. She’ll need a good hiding spot.”
The pack heads toward the caves and, after a good dozen yards, Reyna falls behind. Lupa unknowingly moves ahead without her and, after the pack has moved on a fair distance, Reyna doubles back toward the clearing. Hylla doesn’t like trickery in battle. She prefers to meet her opponent in the open and crush them face-to-face.
As she gets closer, Reyna hears the howl of Argentium and the whinny of Arion and suddenly her legs burn as she runs faster and faster toward them. “Hylla!” she screams. “Hylla!”
When she gets there, Arion is kicked up on his hind legs about to trample Hylla, who has Aurum up like a shield. “HYLLA!” Reyna shrieks, and Arion stumbles, startled. He misses Hylla, misses the dogs, and disappears.
Hylla exhales a sigh of relief. “Thank the gods, Reyna,” she breathes, standing. “I can always count on you.”
Reyna slaps Hylla straight across the face. “How could you, Hylla? Grandpa gave them to us! And you used them as bait to capture an innocent beast, just to gain entrance into some cold-hearted sorority?”
Hylla lightly touches her reddened cheek, trying to stay calm. “Reyna, it’s not what you think. The Amazons are right.”
Reyna looks at her incredulously. “They’re right to imprison a free animal?”
“No, they’re right about how the world works.” Hylla runs her hands through her hair. “It’s not about fighting the good fight just to maintain the status quo. It’s about domination. That is how we bring peace to the world. We’re not pawns, Reyna. We’re queens. And if we join the Amazons, we’ll be treated as such.” She begs Reyna with her eyes. “Please, Reyna. I would never hurt you.”
Aurum leaps for Hylla’s throat and she barely reacts in time to throw him aside. Reyna holds Argentium back from doing the same. “You’re lying to me. You’re my sister, my only family in the world, and you’re lying to me?” The words come out of her mouth, but she can barely believe them.
“Reyna, listen to me. You are so strong and so brilliant. Do you really want waste all that on this? This miserable life of following archaic rules, being an ordinary cog in an outdated machine, just for some hopelessly overbloated fantasy of having 2.5 kids and white ionic columns?”
Reyna’s eyes flash. “Yes, Hylla! I want it. I want all of it. I want to have a place to call home. I want a place where people are not struggling for power but share it equally. I want to make friends and fall in love and have a family.”
Hylla’s eyes grow wide and Reyna instantly pales. “Hylla, I didn’t mean it like that. You’re my family. I love you more than anything in the world. But I can’t keep being the person you want me to be. I’m not a witch and I’m not an Amazon. I’m not even in the right time. But maybe, if they’ll have me, I can be a legionnaire. I’ll finally belong.” Reyna takes Hylla’s hands in hers. “Please, Hylla. I don’t want you to go.”
With surgical delicacy, Hylla removes her hands from Reyna’s grasp and stands. “You’ve made your decision and I’ve made mine. Goodbye, Reyna.”
Hylla walks away with such certainty that she almost fades away. Reyna breathes in sharply and clutches Argentium closer to her chest. The pain she feels-it’s worse than anything she has ever experienced before. It’s worse than what she endured with Lupa. It’s worse than her father’s death. It crawls into every atom of her being and refuses to let go.
She hasn’t cried since they left Circe’s Island so long ago, but now the tears fall like they never stopped.
To be continued in Part Three: Jason:
"Apparently being a daughter of the Goddess of War did not prepare her for affairs of the heart."