I don’t say any of it.
A whoop goes up somewhere to our right. I turn that way instinctively, even though I can’t see anything but hedge. A few moments later, Minos’s voice booms from the opposite direction. “We have our winners! Charon and Atalanta.”
Eurydice smiles. “Charon really is the best, isn’t he?” She tilts her head to the side. “I wonder what the prize is.”
We find out a little while later. I’m able to get us back to our entrance without too much trouble, having memorized the route, and I’m no small amount of relieved to see Cassandra and Dionysus chatting as they come around from the opposite side. Pairs trickle in slowly, but the last one isn’t a pair at all.
It’s a trio.
“You must be joking me,” Eurydice murmurs.
Ariadne walks between Atalanta and Charon, an arm slung around both of them. “You’ve won me, friends. Whatever shall you do with me?” She’s grinning and seems like she’s actually having fun. I can’t blame her. Both Atalanta and Charon are attractive and charming and have proximity to power that’s almost as alluring as the power itself. It takes skill to do what they do and everyone knows it.
I’m pretty sure I hear Eurydice growl a little, which is confirmation enough that her interest in Charon goes beyond friendship. Impossible to say if it’s returned, but he laughs and artfully slips from beneath Ariadne’s arm. “I think it’s time for a drink.”
“A man after my own heart.”
I search for Cassandra again in the group, finally landing on where she’s still speaking with Dionysus. I start to pick my way toward them, but Minos appears before me as if by magic. The big man smiles. “Apollo, I’d love a word.”
I fight down the instinctive desire to go to Cassandra instead of being diverted; this is what she’s here for. Either I trust her to be able to handle herself, or I don’t, and if I don’t, I had no business asking this of her in the first place. I manage a smile for Minos. “Of course.”
We follow the group inside, but he leads me down a different hallway. I make a mental note as he unlocks a door with an honest-to-gods skeleton key and pushes it open to reveal a traditionally decorated study. We’re right in the heart of the house, which is a part of the downstairs Cassandra and I didn’t manage to map before dinner.
What are the odds that he keeps the security room close to his office? Or, rather, that Hermes did when she built this place?
It’s what I would do.
I slide my hand into my pocket and send out the prearranged signal for Hector to get to work. I won’t know if he’s successful until I can check in after this, but he needs a good ten to fifteen minutes to hack into the security system using the device in my other pocket as a booster. It’s cutting-edge tech, the kind of thing I would have spent time inventing if I’d secured a spot as Hephaestus instead of Apollo.
Now, instead of inventing the tech, I have to use it.
To give myself time, I look around the room. There’s nothing of Minos’s personality here. He might as well have picked the big mahogany desk, the tasteful chairs, and the generic bookshelf out of a catalog. I wander over to the bookshelf, more out of curiosity than anything else, and have my suspicions confirmed. All the books are hardcovers with the wraps removed to show foiled edges. They’re too uniform not to have been bought together, and they’re so new, they’re practically shining.
If Minos is a reader, his collection isn’t in this room.
“Drink?”
I’m not overly interested in drinking with this man, but we’re doing a dance as old as time. “Please.” I move to take one of the chairs as he pulls a crystal decanter off a nearby cart. Truly, this room reminds me of a set off the soap operas my mother used to watch when I was young. I’m reasonably sure the glass he passes me is the exact style from the show, which just confirms that it’s all new.
By all appearances, Minos didn’t bring much in the way of personal effects when he came to Olympus. That seems to support his story that he’s fleeing an enemy who intends to take the city, but it could very well be that he wants us to think that. He’s smart enough to take that into consideration.
And someone is funding him. He got some resources from Zeus as part of the bargain he struck, but he bought this house before that deal went through.
I wait for him to take a sip of his drink before I do the same with mine. It’s whiskey, and expensive, but it’s not my drink of choice so I don’t know it well enough to identify the year and maker. It’s tempting to break the silence, but he asked me here for a reason so I intend to make him execute the opening bid.
He doesn’t make me wait long. Minos sinks into the chair behind his desk with an exaggerated sigh. “Have you spent much time out in the greater world?”
I raise my brows. “No. My responsibilities lie with Olympus.” I’ve had cause to leave the city a few times for one reason or another, but most of my work is here, which means my time is spent here.
Best I can tell, the rest of the world isn’t that different from our city. The people with the most money and power sit at the top, and the rest are left to figure things out for themselves. The true benefit of Olympus, the reason we are such a tempting fruit to Minos’s former employer, is that we’re essentially a sovereign nation.
When the rest of the world realized the barrier kept them away, they were forced to be satisfied with trading agreements some distant-past Poseidon set up. I don’t know if those agreements will hold even if the barrier falls. It’s a different world out there than it was a few decades ago, let alone a few hundred years. Instead of razing our city to the ground, there’s more likely to be an attempt to take over our positions of leadership in a bloodless coup. They can’t get around Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades, but if the rest of the Thirteen are united, not even those three can do much about it.
It’s what I would do if I wanted to take the city.
“It feels different out there.” He contemplates his drink. “I realize you have no reason to trust me, but I want what you have. Stability for me and my family. Surely you can’t fault me for that.”
Bold of him to come right out and say it. “If you really want that, then I don’t see why you’re holding back information that might keep you and yours safe.” I set my drink aside. “Don’t bother to lie. We both know you didn’t tell Zeus everything. You’re too smart to put in so much work without knowing what the endgame is.”
Minos smiles slowly. “I like you. You’re not the same as the rest of them. You actually care.”
The pivot has my mind whirling. We’re being remarkably frank with each other, so I risk a blunt question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I took the liberty of looking into Cassandra. She’s lovely, but you must know your parents will never welcome her. Not after her parents brought so much shame on the family. Olympus doesn’t like to forgive and forget. I’ve been here a short time, and even I know that.”
“Do you have a point?”
“By all accounts, her parents reached beyond their means, and look what happened to them. It’d be a shame if something similar happened to her for the very same reasons.”