Spartan Promise

by Jennifer Estep

  Fifteen minutes later, we strolled through yet another living room stuffed with furniture and stepped into an armory. Swords, daggers, axes, and spears hung on the walls, along with shields, gauntlets, and other pieces of armor. Glass display cases also filled the room, each one boasting a weapon. I perked up, and so did Ian and several other students. We were finally getting to the good stuff.

  “And now we’ve reached the weapons and other artifacts we came here to see,” Professor Dalaja said. “So be the good, industrious students I know you are deep down inside, get out your pens and notebooks, and start taking notes.”

  A collective groan rose from the kids, including Ian and me. The two of us were here to capture Reapers, not take notes about artifacts.

  Despite the groan, Professor Dalaja still smiled. “Well, it is entirely up to you whether you take notes, but don’t blame me if you’re not prepared for tomorrow’s quiz on everything we see here. The quiz that’s worth a significant portion of your grade this semester.”

  That collective groan rose again, louder this time, but Dalaja kept smiling.

  “And that is the lovely sound of students learning,” she said.

  I certainly wouldn’t call it that, but we did as she suggested, rummaged around in our bags, and drew out pens and notebooks. Everyone except Gretchen Gondul, who was still swiping through screens on her tablet. I didn’t know how she was going to take notes on that thing. Maybe she was going to be lazy and record the lecture. Either way, it was her problem, not mine, so I turned my attention back to the professor.

  “We are standing in the armory,” Dalaja said. “Many years ago, this mansion served as the headquarters for the Protectorate, hence all the weapons and armor. When the Protectorate moved its headquarters to the New York academy, the estate owner decided to turn the mansion into a museum so that everyone in the mythological world could enjoy it.”

  That tidbit hadn’t been among the information Takeda had given us, but it made sense that the Protectorate would use someplace like this as their base of operations. I wondered who actually owned the Idun Estate, though. If it had been mine, I wouldn’t have wanted to share it with anyone, and I definitely wouldn’t have transformed it into a museum. Putting all these weapons on display was just asking for trouble. Then again, I was far more paranoid about Reapers stealing artifacts than most people were.

  Professor Dalaja talked for several minutes, pointing out various weapons and armor, and then we moved on to the next room. And the one after that…and the one after that…

  She kept up a steady stream of chatter about the artifacts, and I took pages of notes.

  “Wow,” Zoe’s voice sounded in my ear. “This woman is like a walking, talking encyclopedia when it comes to artifacts. Is there anything she doesn’t know?”

  I blinked. Professor Dalaja’s lecture had been so interesting that I’d forgotten about my earbud and the fact that Zoe, Mateo, and Takeda were watching us on the security cameras.

  “Nope,” I said in a low voice. “When it comes to artifacts, Professor Dalaja is an expert. She knows more about artifacts than anyone else I’ve ever met, even Nickamedes, the head librarian at the North Carolina academy.”

  “Maybe we should ask her about the black jewelry box,” Ian murmured. “Maybe she knows something about it or could at least suggest some reference books that might tell us what the box is or what it does.”

  “That might be a good idea.” This time, Takeda’s voice sounded in my ear. “If we knew that we could trust her. I’m still investigating the academy professors and staff members to make sure that none of them is a Reaper.”

  Professor Dalaja a Reaper? The thought had never even crossed my mind. With her silver glasses, kind eyes, and cheery demeanor, she had always seemed like an enthusiastic academic. Nothing more, nothing less. I just couldn’t picture her working with Covington to steal artifacts and hurt people.

  Then again, I hadn’t thought my parents were capable of doing those things either.

  I eyed the professor, who was pointing to a staff that had supposedly belonged to Hermod, the messenger of the Norse gods. Dalaja gestured at the staff again and began speaking in an excited voice. Reaper or not, Zoe was right. The professor certainly enjoyed talking about artifacts. Maybe I would ask her about the jewelry box. We needed to find out why it was so important before Covington found some way to steal it from the Bunker.

  Professor Dalaja finished talking about the staff, and we headed into the next room. This area had the same gray stone floor as the rest of the mansion, but the walls and ceiling were made of glass, letting the morning sunlight stream inside. Instead of furniture or artifacts, all sorts of flowers filled the room. Laurels, hyacinths, anemones, winterblooms. I even spotted a couple of palm trees standing in the corner. Most of the flowers were housed in clay pots that were sitting on waist-high tables, along with bags of soil, gloves, and gardening tools.

  “This is the mansion’s main solarium and greenhouse,” Professor Dalaja called out. “This is where the estate workers grow and cultivate the flowers that we’ll see in the gardens outside later on. The glass walls and ceiling let in plenty of light for the flowers…”

  She kept talking, and I wandered over to one of the tables and picked up a small paper packet of seeds. Like everything else at the estate, the packet was stamped with that curlicued I that blossomed into a red flower.

  Ian came up beside me. “You find something interesting?”

  I put the seed packet down on the table. “Nope. Just gardening stuff.”

  He nodded and headed over to the other side of the room, where Professor Dalaja was pointing out various flowers. I had started to follow him when a cascade of gold sparks caught my eye. I looked to my right and realized that Kylie was glaring at me.

  She had her arms crossed over her chest, and gold sparks were streaming out of her fingertips like raindrops. She was obviously angry that Ian and I were taking the tour together. Kylie turned and said something to Gretchen, probably something snotty about me, but Gretchen ignored her friend and kept tapping on her tablet.

  Kylie didn’t like being ignored, and she gave me another angry glare, like it was my fault that Gretchen was more interested in her electronics. Kylie stomped to the other side of the room. After a few more swipes on her tablet, Gretchen followed her, although she kept her eyes on her screen the whole time.

  The two Valkyries had been standing in front of several glass shelves attached to the wall, and I headed in that direction, since I hadn’t seen that part of the solarium yet. More gloves and gardening tools crowded together on the shelves, along with several empty clay pots.

  I’d started to move away from the jumble of items when a slice of sunlight hit the top shelf, making something up there gleam a bright blood-red, as though it were made of ruby or some other precious stone, instead of ordinary glass, metal, and clay like everything else.

  I frowned. What was that? Oh, I didn’t think the item was an artifact, since it was just sitting on the shelf instead of housed in a protective glass case like all the other artifacts were. It was probably just another pot or gardening tool that had been painted red. But for some reason, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, so I stood on my tiptoes, trying to see exactly what the object was—

  “And that’s all for the solarium,” Professor Dalaja called out. “Follow me, please.”

  She headed for the open glass doors at the far end of the room. Several students moved in front of me, cutting me off from the shelves, and I had no choice but to fall in step with them and follow the crowd over to where Ian was waiting for me by the doors.

  “All right, guys,” Mateo’s voice sounded in my ear. “Game time. Serket’s Pen is in the library, which is the room you are going into right now.”

  “Roger that,” Ian and I murmured in unison.

  I slid my pen and notebook into my bag, and Ian stuffed his things into his bag as well. We both wanted our hands
free in case the Reapers attacked. Then we stepped into the library.

  Like everything else, the library looked the same as I remembered from last year. Floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with books. A large stone fireplace flanked by overstuffed chairs. Thick rugs covering the floor. An enormous crystal chandelier hanging down from the ceiling.

  Yes, everything was exactly the same, right down to all the artifacts on display.

  More than three dozen glass cases ran down the center of the library, dividing one side of the room from the other. Still more cases lined the walls on either side of the fireplace, while others crouched at the ends of the bookshelves and in other spots around the library. Each case contained at least one artifact, and all sorts of weapons, armor, and jewelry glimmered under the chandelier’s bright light. The library housed more artifacts than all the other rooms combined, and there were almost as many objects in here as there were in the Bunker.

  Professor Dalaja moved over to the artifacts in the center of the room. The other students followed her, but Ian and I hung back.

  “Where’s the pen?” I asked in a low voice.

  “Southeast corner,” Mateo replied. “There should be two cases that are standing off by themselves. The pen is in one of them.”

  I glanced in that direction. Two artifact cases were tucked into that corner. “I see them.”

  “You make sure that the pen is secure in its case,” Ian said. “I’ll keep an eye on the doors and windows and watch for the Reapers.”

  I nodded back at him.

  Ian stayed where he was, his gaze moving back and forth from the open doors behind us to the windows set into the walls. I sidled forward and moved along the edges of the crowd, working my way over to the artifact.

  Takeda and the others thought that Covington and Drake were going to show up in person to steal the pen, but I was worried that they were going to have help—maybe even from someone in the library right now.

  What made Covington a truly disgusting person was the fact that he had been recruiting Mythos students to join his new army of Reapers. Kids like Lance Fuller, a guy I’d had a crush on before he had, well, tried to kill me. Lance had wanted revenge on the Protectorate for his dad’s death, and he had joined up with Covington and Drake to try to get it. I had killed Lance at the Cormac Museum in order to save Ian, but Lance probably wasn’t the only kid Covington had recruited.

  The other students, Professor Dalaja, the estate staff members hovering outside the doors. Any one of them could be a Reaper, which meant that Ian and I needed to be extra careful.

  I glanced around, but everyone was focused on Dalaja, who was pointing out the artifacts, and no one was paying any attention to Ian or me. Even Kylie had quit giving me dirty looks and was taking notes. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there were no Reapers here.

  I casually moved around the other students, as though I were trying to get a better look at the artifacts in the center of the room. I waited a few seconds, but no one glanced in my direction, so I slipped away from the crowd and headed over to the two cases in the far corner.

  I stopped and peered at the first case, which contained a polished jet amulet that was bigger than my palm and attached to a long silver chain. Thin, delicate silver tendrils wrapped around the amulet, as though they were protecting the black stone, although there was a large hole in the center of the design, as though the amulet was missing a jewel or some other decoration. Curious, I read the identification card inside the case.

  The Chloris Amulet. This amulet once belonged to Chloris, the Greek goddess of flowers. Chloris imbued the amulet with her magic, and whoever wears it can control all the flowers, vines, trees, and other greenery around them, along with other magical objects associated with flowers, plant growth, and the like…

  As far as artifacts went, the amulet seemed pretty harmless. What could you do with flowers? Make someone sneeze?

  Still, something about the amulet seemed vaguely familiar, like I had seen it—or at least its colors and shapes—somewhere before, although I couldn’t recall exactly when or where.

  I shook my head. Of course, I had seen the amulet before when we visited the library last fall. My unease was probably just a bit of déjà vu from being back here. Or maybe the fact that I was trying to stop Covington and Drake from stealing another powerful artifact. Either way, the Reapers weren’t after the amulet, so I moved on to the next case.

  Jackpot.

  Serket’s Pen looked exactly the same as the photos I’d seen in the Bunker during yesterday’s briefing: a silver ink pen topped with a large, glossy black feather. At first glance, the feather looked like it was floating in midair, although I could see the clear wires that were holding the artifact up inside the glass case.

  The longer I stared at Serket’s Pen, the more I realized that the photos didn’t do the artifact justice. The black feather gleamed like wet ink, and the crimson streaks that ringed the edges seemed to ripple continuously, as if the feather were about to start dripping blood at any moment.

  I shivered, but I leaned down to get a better look at the silver nib on the bottom of the pen. Once again, I was struck by how much the basilisk looked like a Black roc with its birdlike shape and wings, but the resemblance ended there, and the basilisk’s rooster comb and rattlesnake tail transformed it into a truly grotesque monster. A tiny ruby topped each sharp spike on the basilisk’s comb, as well as the spike on the end of its tail. The rubies winked at me, almost in warning, as did the larger ruby set into the creature’s eye.

  I shivered again, straightened up, and turned my back to the display case. Now that I knew the artifact was secure, I didn’t want to look at it any longer. Maybe it was superstitious, but I felt like if I stared at the pen too long, I might somehow activate its magic and accidentally summon a basilisk.

  So I looked out over the library instead. Everyone else was still focused on Professor Dalaja, except for Ian, who was standing in the opposite corner with his back up against the wall. He frowned at Gretchen, who was standing a few feet away from him, but she was still swiping through screens on her tablet, and she didn’t even glance over at him.

  Ian’s gaze met mine, and he shrugged, telling me that everything was fine.

  “Mateo,” I whispered. “You see anything on the security cameras? Any sign of Covington, Drake, or any other Reapers?”

  “Nope,” Mateo replied. “The only people in the mansion are you guys and the estate staff, and no one is on the lawn or in the gardens outside. I don’t even see anyone hiking through the woods. If Covington and Drake are here, then they’ve managed to avoid all the cameras so far.”

  “Maybe they aren’t here,” Zoe chimed in. “Maybe they don’t even know about the artifact.”

  “Maybe,” Takeda murmured, joining in the conversation. “But we can’t take that chance. Even if the Reapers don’t show up today, we’re still going to move Serket’s Pen to the Bunker for safekeeping.”

  I shivered for a third time. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the creepy artifact, but at least if it was down in the Bunker, no one would be able to use it, especially not Covington.

  “Rory, Ian, hold your positions,” Takeda said. “We’ll keep monitoring things from here.”

  “Roger that,” I whispered.

  Ian discreetly echoed my words, and we both stayed where we were, with me guarding the artifact and him looking at the doors and windows. I curled my fingers around Babs’s hilt, ready to defend the artifact from Covington, Drake, or anyone else who might come after it.

  The minutes ticked by, each one seeming longer and slower than the last, but everything remained the same. Professor Dalaja lecturing, the students taking notes, Ian and me discreetly standing at attention, on the lookout for trouble.

  Fifteen minutes later, Dalaja clapped her hands together. “All right, guys. This concludes the first part of our tour. We’re going to take a break for lunch, then come back in an hour and explore the rest of the mansion. This way, please
. The staff has prepared a lovely meal for us in the main dining hall.”

  Dalaja strode out of the library. The students shoved their pens and notebooks into their bags, pulled out their phones, and followed her.

  I glanced up at the closest security camera on the ceiling. “What do you want us to do?”

  “It will look suspicious if you stay behind, so go have lunch with everyone else,” Takeda’s voice sounded in my earbud. “It doesn’t seem like the Reapers are going to show up, but we’ll keep watch in case they do.”

  I nodded and walked over to where Ian was standing, and we left the library along with everyone else.

  We strolled back through the solarium and along a hallway until we reached the dining hall. None of the furniture was roped off here, and several long tables stood in the middle of the room. Smaller tables lined the walls, each one filled with trays of sandwiches, fruit, veggies, pasta salads, and cookies.

  I perked up. The Reapers might not have shown up, but at least there were cookies for lunch. Cookies always made things better.

  Ian and I were the last two people to enter the dining hall, and a couple of staff members shut the glass doors behind us. I guessed they didn’t want the students wandering around the mansion without adult supervision. Maybe they were afraid we would duck behind the red-velvet ropes and break the antiques if they weren’t around to watch us. Or maybe they knew about Mythos students’ habits of hooking up and making out in inappropriate places. Either way, all those cookies weren’t going to eat themselves, so I got in line, with Ian stepping up behind me.

  The girl in front of me glanced over her shoulder. It was Kylie. I bit back a groan. Of course I would get in line behind her. She stared at me a moment before her gaze flicked to Ian. Her lips pinched tight, and she whipped back around and started talking to the girl in front of her.