Chapter 2: En Route
"How are Leda and David getting up to the Legacy?" Ariadne asked as she and Sondra approached the massive old elm tree in the center of the quad.
"Leda's flying up from Louisiana," Sondra answered. "She'll take a taxi from the airport to Litchfield. David's taking the train up from Princeton, so we'll meet him at Penn Station."
Ariadne sighed to herself. Sondra's boyfriend David Butler, a freshman at Princeton, was good-looking enough to be a male model, and Ariadne had always had the tiniest crush on him. Not that she would ever do anything about it; Ariadne would never cheat on Daniel, and of course she idolized Sondra the same way she'd looked up to Leda before the Benny incident.
Everyone else from Clairmont who was going to the Legacy was already gathered under the old elm tree. Leda's boyfriend Andrew Calder was idly running his fingers through his hair. Ariadne disliked Andrew for two reasons: first, he had the brain of a walnut, and second, he cheated on Leda. Even though she and Leda weren't friends anymore, Ariadne hated to see her used like that.
Echo Williams had been Ariadne's roommate last year, and unlike Ariadne, she was an actual legacy. Echo's grandfather had been one of the first African American students at Wakefield back in the thirties. Ten years later, he patented something to do with the first computers, and the Williams family fortune was born.
Jeff Willoughby and Wendy Kim, one of Ariadne's fellow scholarship students, were holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes. As far as Ariadne was concerned, Jeff's weak chin and slightly watery blue eyes were overshadowed by the fact that he was a genuinely nice guy. Wendy's a lucky girl, Ariadne thought to herself as she watched them together.
Jessica Markus, a fourth-generation legacy on her mother's side, was writing in her notebook while she waited. A gifted poet and short story writer, Jessica was also rumored to be a serious Valium addict. Watching the glazed expression in Jessica's eyes as she wrote, Ariadne was inclined to believe the rumors.
Finally, Christian Powell stood apart from the others, his hands thrust into the pockets of his long black overcoat. Christian was a quiet boy best known for being a Dungeons and Dragons geek. Still, Christian's father was president of one of the oldest brokerage houses on Wall Street, while Ariadne's parents owned a diner on the Jersey Shore, and that made all the difference.
Three cabs pulled up next to the residential quad, and everyone piled in. Ariadne and Sondra sat in the back seat of the final cab as the driver, a triple-chinned Pennsylvanian who smelled faintly of onions, wove in and out of traffic on the freeway. When they arrived at the Harrisburg train station, Sondra paid the driver, and she and Ariadne got out of the cab.
Daniel was waiting for her on the other side of the platform, his dark hair and penetrating green eyes visible even from this distance. Ariadne ran across the platform, threw herself into Daniel's arms and kissed him hard. Her tongue slipped into Daniel's mouth as his smooth hands caressed her bare shoulders. Leda had always had a real dislike of public displays of affection, but Ariadne couldn't help it; she wanted the world to know that Daniel was her boyfriend.
More accurately, she wanted Nora Michaels to know it. Ariadne looked at Nora, the only one of the seven other Wakefield students she recognized. Although she was dressed more traditionally for the Legacy, Nora usually looked quite the bohemian: she wore lots of black and huge silver hoop earrings, and most scandalously of all, she smoked—clove cigarettes, to be sure, but still cigarettes. The only reason Ariadne even knew who Nora was was because Nora had told Daniel on more than one occasion that she wanted to hook up with him. Ariadne glared at Nora, who smiled and waved at her.
A whistle blew, and the Keystone train to Manhattan pulled into the station. The Clairmont and Wakefield students all climbed on to the first-class car reserved for them in the rear of the train. Ariadne sank down into one of the plush seats next to Daniel and closed her eyes.
A little while later, Ariadne got up to go to the bathroom. On the way back, she noticed Christian Powell sitting by himself. Christian's father probably knew most of the partners at New York's largest law firms, the places Ariadne dreamed of working in ten years. Plus, Christian was actually kind of cute in a mysterious, brooding sort of way. Surely it couldn't hurt to at least talk to him…
"What are you thinking about?" Ariadne asked as she sat down next to Christian. As soon as she said it, Ariadne bit her lip, realizing it came out more flirtatiously than she intended, but Christian didn't seem to notice.
"I'm trying to figure out how many fire giants fit in a twenty foot by twenty foot room," Christian explained.
"That's what you're thinking about on the way to the Legacy?" Ariadne wondered incredulously.
Christian shrugged. "I didn't really want to come, but I knew my father would be disappointed if I didn't. The Legacy is like an affirmation of our world, our way of life, you know?"
Ariadne stood up. She had been looking forward to the Legacy since the start of the school year, and she couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to go. Ariadne stepped out into the aisle, then paused and looked back at Christian.
"Christian," she said quietly. Christian glanced at her, his face unreadable. Ariadne smiled at him. "If they're giants, you probably can't fit that many in such a small room." Christian smiled back, and Ariadne went back to sit with Daniel.
As they entered the tunnel leading to Manhattan, Daniel turned to Ariadne, his face grave. "Are you going to hook up with somebody while you're there?"
Ariadne considered the question carefully. On the one hand, she didn't want to seem like a prude, or like she wasn't getting into the spirit of the Legacy. On the other hand, she really, really didn't want Daniel hooking up with anyone else. "No, of course not. Are you?"
Daniel smiled, and Ariadne saw a look of relief cross his face. "No, definitely not."
Ariadne squeezed his hand. "Not even Nora…?"
Daniel laughed. "Look, Nora likes me. That doesn't mean the feeling's mutual." He draped a possessive arm around Ariadne's shoulders. "I want my girlfriend to go to Harvard, not Bennington."
When they arrived at Penn Station, David Butler was waiting for them in the upstairs waiting room. Ariadne's heart skipped a beat when she saw David. Daniel definitely had better eyes, but David's blond, chiseled good looks made even some adult women turn their heads. David embraced Sondra and gave her a light kiss on the lips, then led everyone out to the limos parked on Seventh Avenue.
It was dark when Ariadne stepped outside, and the streets were filled with people in Halloween costumes, their laughter mingling with the shouts of the hot dog vendors. The Clairmont students, including David, went in one limousine, the Wakefield students in the other. Daniel rode with Ariadne, much to Nora's dismay.
The limo left Manhattan and eventually drove across the border into Connecticut. The further they drove, the more civilization seemed to recede. Litchfield must really be in the middle of nowhere, Ariadne thought.
"This is my last year doing the Legacy," David announced as he mixed himself a drink from the bar.
"What are you talking about?" Sondra asked with a look of concern.
"The Legacy's just not cool in college anymore," David explained. "You wouldn't believe the shit I had to hear just for coming here."
"What do you mean?" Ariadne asked. She couldn't imagine anyone of any age thinking the Legacy wasn't cool.
"Well, for example, my roommate said, and I quote, 'Big fucking deal. Sounds like a bunch of kids playing dress-up.'"
Sondra's lips tightened. "Obviously, your roommate doesn't belong at Princeton."
David shook his head. "Actually, he's got a point, babe."
Ariadne could see the hurt in Sondra's eyes when he said this, but Sondra just smiled and took a sip of her wine. Ariadne followed her lead. She was drinking exactly as much as Sondra did, no more and no less.
A little while later, Sondra pulled a metal tin out of her bag as the limo raced past empty cornfields on either side of the road. She opened the tin to reveal a bunch of tiny powder-blue pills.
"Ecstasy," Sondra announced proudly.
"I thought Ecstasy came in tabs, like acid," Jessica Markus said.
Sondra patted Jessica's hand. "That's the cheap stuff they sell at raves, dear. This is the good stuff."
"Does it really make you horny?" Ariadne whispered to Sondra.
"Sometimes," Sondra whispered back. "But don't worry, it's the Legacy. No one will care if you and Daniel are indiscreet."
Sondra passed the tin around, and everyone except Christian took a pill and swallowed it with their drink. Ariadne was the last to receive the tin. She hesitated, remembering newspaper articles about how Ecstasy can sap your spinal fluid. Daniel flashed her an encouraging smile, and Ariadne finally downed the pill with a gulp of her wine.
Ariadne sat back and waited for the Ecstasy to take effect. She didn't feel particularly horny, but she did begin to get uncomfortably hot after a while. She hoped she wasn't sweating, but it didn't feel like she was. Colored lights danced along the tinted windows of the limo, and Ariadne's skin was glowing in the dim light.
"What's going on?" she whispered frantically to Sondra.
"I guess I should have told you," Sondra said in a bored tone. "Ecstasy is also a mild hallucinogen. Just relax, and you'll be fine."
"I never would have taken it if you'd told me that!" Ariadne hissed as her overheated brain began to panic.
"Yes, you would have," Sondra snapped back in a low voice. "You want to be one of us so badly, you would have taken poison if I'd given it to you."
Stunned into silence, Ariadne's eyes darted around the limo, but no one else appeared to have heard what Sondra said. Sondra was smiling every bit as pleasantly as if she'd just complimented Ariadne on her hairstyle.
Leda had turned on Ariadne the same way when she forced Ariadne to break up with Benny, but at least Leda had been acting out of misguided concern, whereas Sondra was simply being spiteful. Ariadne knew why Sondra had done it. Sondra had been upset ever since David criticized the Legacy, and she lashed out at what she perceived to be a challenge to her authority. Still, knowing why Sondra did it didn't make Ariadne feel any better.
To cover her embarrassment, Ariadne turned and started talking to Echo about last week's Law and Order, one of Echo's favorite TV shows. The banal chatter relaxed her, and when Ariadne looked around, the hallucinations were gone. Only the hotness and a faint sense of euphoria reminded Ariadne that she was still high on Ecstasy.
Finally, Ariadne saw their destination ahead: a huge Gothic manor house perched precariously on a hilltop. As the limo approached the main gate, Ariadne abruptly felt a chill as she remembered the inscription over the gates of Dante's Inferno: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."