Page 13 of Artemis’ Bow (Halfling Academy #5)

“You know, if you were nicer to them, they wouldn’t harass you so much.” I glance over my shoulder at Raven.

There are twigs and leaves stuck in her hair, making her look ridiculous, but I don’t comment, unsure if that will help the situation or make it worse since she’s holding on by a thread as it is.

One wrong word and she will end up racing in the forest and we may just find her strung up in vines, hanging upside down or something ridiculous.

“I wasn’t even doing anything, just walking down the path.” Raven scans the trees.

“You know that spirits hold grudges, especially Dryads and I think you may be as stubborn as they are.” I shake my head as the mountain comes into view.

“You’re back,” Kira calls, excited.

“They had a bit of an ordeal and need to blow off some steam with pointy objects.” Jayden grins.

“Claud is going to be so excited. He misses you,” Kira says.

“I miss him too. I wish there wasn’t always something I needed to do and could visit him out here more often.” I sigh.

“Come on, I’ll show you all the armory. Claud is in there helping us stock the highest shelves.” She waves us into the structure.

My breath catches in my throat as I step inside the building.

The shelves along the walls all reach the second-story ceiling.

The entire building is made of white marble, and the shelves all have small display stands for each weapon with a plate in front that has the name of the weapon that should go there.

A huge hand fills my vision a second before I’m yanked off my feet and into the air. A giggle escapes as a huge blue eye blinks at me.

“Claud, put Beth down,” Jayden grumbles from the ground.

That was a mistake because if I’m Claud’s favorite, Jayden is his second favorite. He reaches with his other hand to grab Jayden, but he shadow travels before Claud can get a hold of him.

“Jayden?” Claud pouts. “Where Jayden?”

“Jayden doesn’t like it when you pick him up like this, remember, Claud?” I pat his hand.

“Beth like Claud.” He nods his head.

“Yes, I like you, Claud. We’re friends.” I smile at him. “Are you helping with the weapons?”

“Claud help.” He sets me back on my feet and grabs a sword, putting it on the top shelf. “See? I help.”

“You’re helping a lot, Claud. I’m so proud of you.” I pat his knee which is about as high as my head.

“You want to see the rest?” Kira bounces next to me.

“There’s more than this?” I ask.

“Oh yes, follow me. We went all out for this armory and command station.” Kira rushes to the back wall.

She moves between aisles of shelves until we get to the back where there’s a metal door with a glowing panel much like a human security lock or a safe.

“What’s in there and how did you power it without electricity?” I ask.

“We figured out something about our creations we probably should have guessed a long time ago.” Kira shrugs.

“That’s cool,” Raven says. “I learned something new with my magic too.”

“If we actively push our magic into an object as we create it, we can become a sort of magical battery for it and it will work for what we meant it to with the intentions we used during creation.” Kira nods.

“How in the world did you figure out something like that at random?” I ask, jaw hanging open.

“By total accident.” Kira snickers. “But it makes sense in a weird way, since our father is the god of metalwork.”

“Just don’t make any evil pigeons.” I shudder.

No good can come from more of those evil birds being made, but now that Kira says it, I’m surprised no one has thought of this before. Hephaestus breathed life into his creations in Ancient Greece. It only makes sense that his children would be able to do the same.

“No evil pigeons, I promise.” Kira claps me on the shoulder.

“So I’m guessing this is some kind of magical lock?” I ask.

“It is.” She waves her hand for me to step closer.

“What do I do?”

“Put your thumb in the middle of it and push a tiny bit of your magic out through your thumb. It will read your magic and if it recognizes you, it will let you in.”

I raise my eyebrows as I step closer to the magical scanner and press my thumb to the button and push a little magic into it. There’s a metallic click, and then the door swings inward.

“You had my magical signature already programmed?” I ask.

“All of you have been keyed in already. Just in case,” Kira says.

Maps hang on the walls and I move toward one of them, recognizing the route from our first adventure. “How did you get this?”

“I thought it might help if we remembered the places you have been and what monsters you faced along the route. Greyson gave me the maps and has been helping to fill in the blanks.”

“That’s actually really smart. We are having issues pinning down the temples of Artemis and where they might be located in relation to Ancient Greece.” I nod, tracing a finger along the route.

“Hey, B, look at this,” Raven calls from the stone table in the center of the cavernous space.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s like a plastic overlay of Ancient Greece over a solid map of the US.” Raven points to Sparta close to the top.

There is a red X over the city of Chicago where we defeated the army that used mind-control on our warrior students. We still can’t rule out Chicago in case the queen hid the bow there to trick us into going to the wrong temple.

“We don’t know that they won’t try the same place twice. But having the routes and the map in relation to the US is really helpful, Kira. This is amazing.”

“Look.” Raven points to Ephesus. “It looks like southeastern Texas and Louisiana are encompassed in Ephesus. That narrows it down a lot further than we had guessed.”

“Why Ephesus?” Kira asks.

“If our guess is correct and the queen hasn’t pulled a fast one on us, then Ephesus is where we will find the bow and the goddess herself,” I say.

And if we are wrong, may the fates help us all because the world will be stuck in a disaster of epic proportions. No one and nothing will survive.