The goddess looked at me a moment longer - and then her head began to move.
Seriously, the stone - it just - the statue just turned. One second, Eir was peering straight at me. The next, a series of small scrape-scrape-scrapes sounded. By the time I blinked again, the goddess was looking in the opposite direction. Not only that, but I swore that I saw her raise her hand, her finger pointing toward the back corner of the garden - almost like she wanted me to go see what was over there.
I eased away from the statue. The goddess kept pointing toward that one spot, although her head swiveled back around in my direction. After a moment, her eyes narrowed, as if she was upset that I hadn't already followed her instructions. Once again thinking of poisoned darts and other nasty traps, I decided to do what she wanted. Probably not a good idea to anger a goddess when you were in her house. Or at least standing in what was left of it.
"Okay, okay, I'm going, I'm going," I said. "Give me a second."
I maneuvered around to the other side of the statue. Then, I leaned down so I could get a better look at the spot where she was pointing. Once I had a bead on it, I headed in that direction.
Everyone else was still busy searching for the flowers, so no one noticed me walking along the crumbled right wall of the courtyard. Every so often, I glanced behind me, but the statue of Eir kept pointing in the same direction. Finally, I reached what seemed to be the right spot. I crouched down, my eyes sweeping over the patch of flowers in front of me. Thick stands of vivid purple lilac mixed with some sort of curling vines that were topped by large, grayish morning glorys. No white flowers and nothing that looked like it could remotely be Chloris ambrosia. Frustration filled me, and I looked over my shoulder at Eir.
"Don't tell me you sent me over here on a wild goose chase," I muttered.
The statue's eyes seemed to narrow a little more, as if she was displeased with me and my snarky tone. Well, she wouldn't be the first person - or the last.
"Okay, okay," I muttered again. "Who am I to question a goddess?"
So once again I looked at the statue, trying to see exactly what she was pointing at, and I realized her finger wasn't aimed down at the ground but rather at the rock wall in front of me.
I turned my head, raised my gaze - and almost shrieked when I realized I was face-to-face with another gryphon carving.
Seriously, I looked up - and it was this freaking close to my nose. I rocked back on my heels and almost toppled over before I managed to find my balance. I drew in a couple of breaths to calm my racing heart. Get a grip, Gwen. It was only a carving, one of dozens I'd seen so far in the courtyard. It wasn't like it was a real gryphon.
But the more I looked at it, the more I realized it wasn't just a carving of a gryphon - it was one of Eir too. The gryphon stood in front of the goddess with its head bowed. A few small, fragile-looking flowers had actually grown out of the part of the rock that formed the gryphon's beak, making it look like the creature was presenting Eir with the flowers. Okay, that was a little strange, but my unease didn't keep me from peering even closer at the blossoms.
I used my phone to pull up the photo of the ambrosia flowers. Green vine, white flowers. So far, so good. Now came the real test. I held my hand up and gently turned one of the flowers so that I could see inside it.
Purple and gray streaks ringed the petals.
My heart started to pound with excitement, but I made myself study the flowers that much closer. They were tiny, each one barely bigger than my thumbnail, and I compared them once again to the photo on my phone. Green vine, white flowers, purple and gray streaks.
This time, I knew I hadn't made a mistake - and that we had a chance to save Nickamedes after all.
"Hey!" I called out, a grin spreading across my face. "I found them! I found the ambrosia flowers!"
The others hurried over, and we all peered at the blossoms growing out of the rock wall.
"That's them, isn't it?" I asked.
Ajax held his own phone up against the flowers. "It looks like them to me. Rachel?"
She nodded her head in agreement.
"How did you ever think to look in this remote spot?" Covington asked, staring at me instead of the flowers. "We all assumed the Chloris ambrosia would be in the courtyard itself, not out here on the edge."
I shrugged. "I'm just lucky, I guess."
The librarian looked at me suspiciously, but he didn't say anything else. The others started slapping me on the back and congratulating me, but I could still feel Covington's gaze on me. I wondered what Ajax had told him about me - and what he knew from the gossip he'd heard. But there was nothing I could do about Covington and what he thought about me, so I looked at Ajax once more.
"Now what?" I asked.
"Now we wait until midnight," Ajax rumbled.
Chapter 24
Now that we'd found the ambrosia flowers, there wasn't anything left for us to do but wait, like Coach Ajax had said. I pulled out my cell phone and tried to call Grandma Frost, but I didn't have any reception this high up on the mountain. So I hunkered down with the others.
We heated up our dinner - a thick, hearty roasted potato soup that Rachel had made this morning, along with grilled chicken sandwiches topped with fresh vegetables and a spicy, horseradish mayonnaise on herbed focaccia bread. We washed the meal down with some warm apple cider and hot chocolate. Then, I grabbed marshmallows, graham crackers, and thick bars of dark chocolate out of my backpack, and we had s'mores for dessert.
"Only you would think to pack a bag full of sugar on a trip like this." Daphne snorted, but it didn't keep her from fixing herself three s'mores.
I grinned. "What can I say? I brought the important stuff."
After dinner, Carson, Oliver, and Covington left to go find enough firewood to last us through the night, while Ajax, Rory, Daphne, and Alexei started talking about weapons and fighting techniques. Ajax started demonstrating some moves, and soon, they were all grappling and tossing each other around. That left me sitting by the fire with Rachel. She stared at me for a long time.
"Is there something you want to say to me?" I finally asked.
She shrugged. "You don't look much like a Forseti. Tyson, Rory's dad, had light, sandy hair and blue eyes. So did your dad."
I reached up and tried to smooth down my brown hair, but it only frizzed back out again. "Everyone says I look like my mom. Violet eyes are smiling eyes. She used to say that a lot."
Rachel smiled a little. "She sounds like a nice woman."
"She was. She was the best."
"What happened to her?"