4

WELCOME, FUTURE LEADERS OF THE WORLD! The banner on the front of the manor waved like a flag in the wind. Lil made her way down the shuttle steps behind Sydney and Charlie. She slowed to a stop and stared at the manor. This was going to be their home for the next twelve days? Lil had never seen anything like it. Windows were splayed open-eyed by wooden shutters. The late-afternoon sun reflected in the glass. Below, old urns and modern plastic buckets sat side by side, holding flowers of every color. Some careened forward in floral waterfalls, and others climbed up the wall toward the balconies above them. There were two stone stairwells that wound from the ground floor up each side and plateaued into simple but decorative gardens before melding into the mountainside. Lil craned her neck, taking in the scene before her.

The natural beauty of the place seemed endless. Back on the ground, over to her left stood a large vegetable garden, and Lil took a deep breath as a warm, salty aroma sailed toward her on the breeze. She spotted a large fire pit with several roast chickens spinning above it. The grease spattered into the flames, as if asking them to rise higher. The garden reminded her of her mother’s herb garden. And the herb on the chicken had to be rosemary. That was Mom’s favorite, and the smell seemed to surround Lil, fill her senses. She stepped toward it without thinking.

“Is that—”

“Dinner,” Aestos said as he handed the last bag to the last girl, closed the bus door and headed toward the garden. “And that’s not all, so do not be late.”

“We’d better check in,” Sydney said, dropping her device into her backpack and retrieving her welcome packet. Charlie led the way to the back of the line as Lil picked up her duffel bag from the dirt driveway and followed.

After about fifteen minutes, they had wound their way to an arched wooden door. The top half of it was open, and an oval sign swung in the breeze next to it. (RECEPTION) was carved into the raw wood.

Lil looked into the office. A short, flustered-looking woman stood in front of them. She had curly hair that had erupted into flyaways all around her head. A set of round spectacles, held together on one side by several pieces of duct tape, were propped on her nose. She wore a lanyard that held her name: Trudy. She flipped to the final page of a logbook and placed a large folded piece of paper in it.

“All right,” she said, looking up at Lil. Lil cocked her head to the side. Was she imagining it or had Trudy’s lips turned up in a smile? The way her eyes twinkled, it almost seemed as though she recognized her.

Lil cleared her throat. “Lili—”

But before she could finish, the woman had retrieved a registration packet from the box in front of her and held it out. Lil saw her name on a sticky label in the upper right-hand corner.

“Welcome, Lilith,” Trudy said in a lilting Irish accent.

She hadn’t imagined the look, then. “How—”

“And this must be Sydney Bennington,” Trudy said, pulling the next one out and handing it to Sydney, “hailing from ‘O Canada.’ I have family on the East Coast.”

Sydney nodded a thank-you and accepted the folder as Lil stepped aside, feeling foolish for thinking that there had been a connection.

“And last, but not least, we have Charlotte Babineaux.”

“Charlie, s’il vous plaît,” Charlie said, accepting the folder.

“Very well,” Trudy said. She pulled her glasses from her face and waved her hand as she looked out over their shoulders. “It’s a hot one. Let’s get ye in out of the sun.” She swung the door open, and the girls spilled inside, hauling their luggage with them.

“Now, your room number is on your registration packet. Please fetch your keys from the rail,” she said, pointing toward a set of hooks that sat next to an interior door. Lil peered at her folder. She was Room 4D. She went to the wall and picked up a wooden lanyard attached to a large cast-iron key.

Trudy rattled on while Sydney and Charlie retrieved their keys.

“You’re all in Hall D, which is the one just above us. You’ll take a left toward the kitchen and head up the back stairwell to get there. I’ll see ye at dinner, I’m sure.” Trudy herded them toward the interior door.

Lil grabbed the knob and pushed it open into a cool stone hallway.

“Second floor, all right?” Trudy called after them.

“Yes, ma’am,” the three replied as they passed into the hallway.

“Wait!” Trudy said.

Lil turned back.

“Ye can’t forget your candles. Remember, we’re an eco-friendly, self-sustaining facility, which means that the whole building is solar powered.” She held up three candles by their wicks with one hand.

“I have a flashlight,” Sydney said.

Trudy stared at her, still holding out the candles. “That’s fine if that is what ye require, but we’re in favor of sustainable living here, and while your flashlight’s batteries fill landfills, these candles were made here at Melios Manor using our very own beeswax.”

Sydney looked skeptical. “A little dangerous, everyone running around with candles.”

Trudy’s eyebrows rose. “The building is stone. We’ve never had a problem before.” She turned to the others. “Bring these to dinner—you’ll want them on the way back. There will be extras in the lobby if ye need them.”

Lil took all three candles, passing one to Charlie and another to Sydney. Sydney hesitated and then took the candle.

“Fine, I’ll use it as a backup.”

“Preserve the water,” Trudy shouted after them. “Kindling is set in the fireplace should you need it. Become acquainted with the materials in your folder!”

They hurried to the end of the hall, where another cluster of girls stood in front of a sign that said KOYZINA. Lil didn’t need the translation that was spelled out: KITCHEN. The smell of the chicken had spilled into the hallway.

The girls turned. It was Vivi again, and two others.

“Oh, are you in Hall D?” Charlie said, not masking the disappointment in her voice.

Vivi bristled, and then a smile snuck into the corner of her mouth. “No.” She reached out a hand and patted Charlie on the shoulder. “Hall D is like servants’ quarters.” She jutted her chin toward the kitchen. “We just came over to see what the smell was.”

“Servants’ quarters?” Lil said as they passed her and scurried down the hallway. Lil watched as they went to a large spiral staircase that circled up from the foyer. “Do you think we’re really in the servants’ quarters?”

“I have no idea, but I like the smell,” Charlie said.

The delicate acidic smell of tomatoes, sliced garlic and onion poured out of the kitchen. And herbs. The aromas mixed together and made Lil’s stomach dip and churn. “What time is dinner?” she asked.

“We’ll have to check the schedule,” Sydney said.

Charlie peered through a window on the side of the door, and Lil looked over her head. The interior of the kitchen boasted a large counter and a wood-fired oven where three large loaves of bread grew brown in front of the open flames. Lil had seen flatbreads made in something similar. Beside the oven, copper pots and pans of every width and height leaned against one wall next to equally large wheels of cheese. And there was Aestos in the middle of it. He moved quickly, working a mortar and pestle in front of him. Without removing his eyes from his concoction, he lifted his right arm and freed a few thyme leaves above his head, where bundles of herbs were swinging in the breeze.

“Is that the bus driver?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah,” Lil said.

“Of course it is,” Sydney said. “Didn’t you guys read the brochure? It said right in it that Aestos Trika was in charge of the food.” She stared at them. “It talked about how all the food was made on the grounds. Everything is organic. Remember? Eco-friendly.”

“Hippies,” Charlie said, lifting her eyebrows. Lil grinned. Her mom and dad had been called hippies simply for owning a family farm. Nowadays it seemed that any place that was self-sufficient, or even anyone who had a garden and canned their own food, was somehow associated with the free-love era.

“Not exactly,” Lil said, smelling the rosemary roast chicken. Lil suspected the chickens had been freshly killed and plucked that morning.

Sydney turned and attempted to hoist her rolling bag onto the first step. Lil grasped the bottom of it with her free hand, and they climbed toward the landing. A stained-glass window spilled colorful sunlight down the stairs as they rounded the corner and continued up to the secind floor. There was a little wooden plaque right next to a stone archway: (HALL D). The girls pushed a wooden door open.

“This is me,” Charlie said, stopping at the first room on the right. Lil looked up at the top of the door. It was crowned by a rectangular stained-glass window. The corners of the window were blue and wavy, and in the center was a white bull with a woman sitting on its back.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Charlie said as she pushed the key into the lock.

“What’s interesting?” Sydney said, setting her side of the bag down for a moment. Lil did the same.

“It’s Europa.”

Lil tried to remember where she had heard the name.

“You know,” Charlie continued, “the myth about Europa and Zeus?”

Sydney shrugged. “Never heard of her.”

Charlie tilted her head and looked down the hall.

“Ah oui, and that is Daedalus and Icarus.” Her eyes lit up with a smile. “They’re all Cretan myths.”

“3D. That’s me,” Sydney said, going to the door and sliding the key into the lock. Lil grabbed the handle of her bag and followed her. How she had ended up being the bellhop, Lil wasn’t exactly sure.

“Remember Daedalus and Icarus?” Charlie said, coming with them. “They build wings and fly too close to the sun?”

Lil looked up at the stained-glass window and nodded. She did remember it from when they had studied mythology in elementary school. Everyone knew the story of Daedalus and Icarus.

“Oh yeah,” Sydney said. “I read about them in the brochure, too. They were in the ‘mystery and lore of Crete’ section.”

“You’ve not read the Metamorphoses?” Charlie asked.

Sydney raised an eyebrow and pushed her door open. “Have you read A Brief History of Time?”

“No,” Charlie said, “but—I thought you would have read—”

“I mostly stick to applicable reading,” Sydney said matter-of-factly.

Lil gave Charlie a glance as she set the suitcase down next to Sydney. Charlie didn’t seem to be very offended by Sydney’s abrupt way of talking. Instead she smiled and fired back, “One might argue that they are both applicable, in separate disciplines.”

Sydney shrugged. “Anyway, thanks,” she said to Lil, accepting the suitcase and turning back to her door.

“No problem,” Lil said as she grasped her key. Sydney was in 3D, so that would mean that 4D was directly opposite. Lil turned to place her key in the lock and froze.

A chill reached from the stone floor, up her legs, and curled around her shoulders. The stained-glass window above her door was different. She shook her head and looked again.

“Ah, you have the story of Ariadne and Theseus,” Charlie piped up next to her.

“What?” Lil said, trying to steady her hand.

“Ariadne. She gives the ball of thread to Theseus so he can make it to the center of the labyrinth.” Lil stared at the woman holding out the ball of thread. That wasn’t what had bothered her. It was what was on either side of the woman. The shapes were barely visible in the patterned glass. One might not even detect them if they weren’t familiar with them already. On one side was a spiral decorated with pictographs. On the other was a double-headed ax. A labrys. She’d traced the designs a thousand times. They were the images on her mother’s missing necklace.