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000
"What's wrong with him?"
Barry and Pythagoras were sitting watching Jason pace around the room. He had been doing it since they'd returned from seeing the Oracle three hours earlier.
"He's in love with Ariadne."
"Ariadne?" Barry was surprised. "But isn't that the Queen?"
"Hence the pacing."
Barry could understand what his new friend was going through; he was in love with someone who didn't feel the same way.
"She's engaged to someone else isn't she? Some Prince?"
Pythagoras had done a lot of talking and Barry was pretty up-to-date with the happenings in Atlantis.
"She chose Telemon," Pythagoras agreed. "Although she loves Jason and he loves her."
"She loves him?"
"Yes, everybody who spends two minutes in their presence can guess their feelings for each other," Pythagoras said.
"So why is she marrying this Telemon?"
"She's the Queen," Pythagoras reminded him. "She has to do what's best for her people and Atlantis."
"What is he going to do?" Barry wondered aloud. Suddenly his problems were miniscule compared to Jason's.
"So, what do you think the Oracle meant?" Pythagoras changed the subject. "What is your strength?"
"I have no idea."
"Any ideas on how you're going to figure it out?" Pythagoras asked.
"No."
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out."
000
The next day the team – Pythagoras, Hercules and Barry, discovered that Jason had signed them up for protection duty. They were to ride with Ariadne and Telemon to Aegena, Telemon's home, for the wedding.
"Why?" Barry couldn't help asking his friends.
"He likes torture," Hercules spoke up. "The boy wants to know for himself that the woman he loves is really getting married to another man."
"He wants to protect Ariadne," Pythagoras said. "Anything could happen to her between here and Aegena especially with Pasiphae on the loose."
"How far away is this Aegena?"
"Three days' ride," Pythagoras replied, "but with a party our size it will probably take longer."
"When you say ride?" Barry asked. "Do you mean like a horse?"
"Of course."
"Great," Barry whispered. "I've never ridden a horse in my life."
000
The journey was slow, Barry fell off his horse thrice until he found his rhythm; Jason was riding as far away as he could from Ariadne and Telemon who were riding side by side.
"He's a stronger person than I am," Barry observed. "I don't think I could do this if I were in his shoes."
Before Pythagoras could reply an arrow hit the ground near them.
"We're under attack!"
They quickly regrouped and started fighting against their attackers. Jason, Hercules and Dion, the Queen's man, were at the front leading the other fighters while Pythagoras and Barry were ordered to take care of the Queen.
"Where's Telemon?"
Pythagoras looked around the cave in which they were hiding. "I don't know, I haven't seen him since the fighting began."
"Don't tell me you suspect him of doing this?" Barry asked him.
"His disappearance is a bit convenient, don't you think?"
"Maybe he was hit," Barry insisted. "You can't be sure he wasn't hit."
"It doesn't matter now, though, does it?" Pythagoras said. "We're definitely outnumbered."
Ariadne had been standing in a corner quietly but now she walked towards them, "I'm not going to die in here like a coward. I'm going to fight."
"You can't." Pythagoras protested.
"I won't any more people die for me. It's obvious what Pasiphae wants; me dead and Atlantis for herself."
Before Barry and Pythagoras could say anything Ariadne was outside the cave. She picked up a bow and arrows and started shooting.
"She's pretty good," Barry was amazed.
"She's a Queen," Pythagoras told him, as if that explained everything, although he was also surprised by her skill.
Barry and Pythagoras also joined the fighting; they were using short swords and were fighting the men who had fallen off their horses.
Telemon was hiding behind some rocks watching the fighting.
When he'd first agreed to help Pasiphae take over Atlantis, he had had only her word that Ariadne was an unfit Queen; but since meeting her, Telemon had had a change of heart about her. She was kind and cared a great deal for her lands and her people, her beauty and intelligence didn't hurt either. Honestly, he didn't think he had the stomach to kill her, 'I should her killed her in her sleep,' he thought to himself, and he'd had opportunity enough, but Pasiphae had thought that dying in battle was a more fitting end for Minos's daughter.
As he watched he saw that Jason and Ariadne were fighting side by side. They were obviously drawn to each other but there was something about Jason that puzzled Telemon; something he couldn't put his finger on. What was more puzzling was the fact that Pasiphae had ordered him no less than ten times to ensure that no harm came to Jason. What was it about that young man?
He had a clear line of sight at Ariadne and if he pulled out his crossbow he was sure that he could end her life with one shot but he found himself reluctant to do so.
He couldn't kill Ariadne.
He saw Medea aiming for her and decided he couldn't let her kill Ariadne either and he attacked her. Medea was stronger than he'd expected and she soon had him on his back. "Don't worry; I'll make it quick," she told him, "your betrothed won't suffer long." She had wounded him and he couldn't walk so he watched in dismay as Medea made her way to Ariadne.
Ariadne and Jason were fighting off the seemingly endless army and he could see that Ariadne had run out of arrows. She ran over to pull out some arrows from people she'd shot earlier and that was when Medea made her move.
Barry thrust his sword into a man's side and then pulled it out. The man fell down wounded and Barry turned to fight off another man who'd charged towards him and that was when he saw Medea aim for Ariadne. Without thinking about it, Barry jumped infront of her.
Medea's blade cut his stomach, spilling blood everywhere, and he fell to the ground feeling his life drain from him.
000