The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 11: Traitors

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Even after Lord Zeus, Alec and Pegasus disappeared in the storm clouds, all of the Warriors sprinted after them, weapons raised. Their effort was completely pointless, though. When the idiots decided they had had enough of aimlessly waiting around in the pouring rain for Pegasus to land again, they returned to the armory to put away their armor and weapons. All of them wore expressions of hurt, anger, pain, and sadness. After all, Alec had managed to kill one and injure three before he escaped.

There was a huddle around the dead Warrior's sliced-open body now. A lot of women crying and whatnot. Jason was shouting at a bunch of people at once, waiting impatiently for Jan and a few other nurses to arrive on the scene. They did, a few minutes later, and the three injured men were led over to the infirmary, while the mangled and bloodied corpse was carried off to who-knows-where. I didn't want to watch. To be perfectly honest, the sight of dead people had always unnerved me. Once during the War of the Woods I had actually vomited on the battlefield. It was really embarrassing, so I just pretended I had the stomach flu for the week after that.

Anyway, immediately after Jason had ordered everybody else to return to their tents for the afternoon, he stormed over to Hannah, Layna, the twins and I, who had just been standing silently in the background, quaking wide-eyed with fear. He demanded, "What were you all doing when Alec summoned the Lady Aphrodite?"

He looked back and forth between each of us teens, until Layna finally stuttered, "N-nothing. Alec was just spending some extra battle training time with us. Giving us tips and such." She paused to wipe her eyes, which were beginning to water, on the verge of crying in fright.

"Yeah, then all of a sudden there was thunder, and then Lady Aphrodite just appeared out of nowhere," Darius added, taking over from where Layna had left off. He too seemed very pale and shaken-up after our narrow escape from the brief battle.

"What were Alec and Lady Aphrodite talking about? What did you hear?" Jason continued to interrogate us, his voice low and frustrated. We gave him a brief synopsis, but only enough to appease him. We didn't really get into specifics. After that, Jason just scoffed and muttered, "I'll talk to you five later." With that, he stalked off to do other, more important things. I can't say I was disappointed.

"Where do you think he's going?" Layna asked, her voice just barely above a whisper. She was still staring at the lanky Knowing leader as he stomped away, but I somehow knew she was talking about Alec.

"To the Woods, obviously," I answered automatically. "Or, if he really does have a girlfriend, to wherever she lives. Where else would he go?"

Layna just shrugged and was silent again. Hannah, however, asked a much more difficult question to answer: "Do you think Alec will ever come back?"

And really, it was anyone's guess. He obviously should have returned, since he was still obligated to fix the Knowing system, if only to abide by the hero's code. All of his and Lady Athena's previous attempts were apparently short-lived. On the other hand, Alec didn't really need to return to the camp. He had everything he needed either in his backpack or in the Woods. He probably didn't care about anyone left in the Knowing camp, especially not after today, when his clan-mates had literally attacked him for no real reason. In the end, no one knew what he was thinking, so no one could ever figure out his plans.

"I hope he went to get the Oracle," Layna mused wishfully. "She was supposed to tell me why I have the Sight."

"Maybe he's trying to fulfill the prophecy on his own," Damien suggested with a shrug.

"But he can't do that alone," Hannah argued. "The prophecy said six people would venture back to break the clouded wall - whatever that is. And you can't just mess with the prophecy."