ENTRAPPED ₂

16

THEY CLIMBED THE CLIFFS IN SILENCE. Ethan could tell that Jason's mood was wavering, and Piper and Leo weren't very much in the mood to talk, either. Piper, probably because she had almost died of hypothermia. That didn't make a girl very talkative.

Leo, because he had nearly killed them on the bridge. Stupid Leo and his stupid theories. He kept looking at Jason like he didn't know him. Ethan supposed he didn't. That was tragic.

Ethan was rattled, so he was just focusing on putting one step in front of the other. Otherwise, he might implode upon himself and shatter into a million little pieces. That would be unfortunate.

Halfway up the cliff, Gleeson, who was bounding up and down on his hooves, shouted, "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

Ethan sent him a glare sharp enough to cut through steel. The satyr didn't talk again after that.

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds. Twenty-foot-high gates opened automatically, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel. The building was a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Piper said, looking up at the objects.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were divided into four sections like overlarge pizza slices. Each one represented a season.

On their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Ethan wasn't sure if they were alive or decorative.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns of gods, people, and animals. For a moment, Ethan thought he saw Madeleine's face. Then she was gone.

In the distance were two more areas behind the rotunda. One was a green pasture with sheep formed from clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and advertisements that read WATCH AEOLUS NIGHTLY!

"One section for each of the four wind gods," Jason deduced. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture," Gleeson licked his lips. "You guys mind―"

"Please," Ethan said. He was glad to be rid of the satyr. Gleeson got on his nerves in a way that Jason, Piper, and Leo did not.

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Ethan, Jason, Leo, and Piper walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read OLYMPIAN WEATHER CHANNEL, and some that just read OW!

"Hello!" A woman floated up to them. She was pretty in an elfish way, with ears like Leo's and an ageless face that Ethan often saw on dryads. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. There was no wind, but her dark hair blew in slow motion. Her white gown billowed around her. She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord Zeus?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."

Jason worked his mouth for a moment, then asked, "Are you a ghost?"

Ethan wanted to hit him. Immediately, the woman's smile turned into a pout. "I'm an aura, sir. A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don't have ghosts."

"Forgive him," Ethan said, patting Jason's head a little roughly. "He has amnesia."

"And anyway," Piper said, "of course you don't look like a ghost! Maybe my friend simply mistook you for Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal of all time. It's an easy mistake."