“Now all you need to do is choose a champion.” He stood up and bowed formally to Helen. “I accept.”
“Like hell,” Lucas said, standing up and squaring off with Orion. “I’m Helen’s champion.”
“Can’t let you do that, bro,” Orion said with an apologetic shake of his head.
“Did you just say let me?” Lucas asked in a disbelieving voice.
“Ladies, please,” Hector said as he nudged Orion and Lucas apart and stood between them. “Weren’t you listening? The champion is supposed to be the best fighter. Clearly, that’s me.”
“Really? Prove it,” Lucas said coolly.
Helen could see a brawl coming. It killed her to think of any of her guys hurting each other, and although she wasn’t ready to face it just yet, she knew that there was only one of them that she would ever be able to send into danger.
“Hector,” she said firmly. “If I’m the leader, I want Hector to be my champion.” Helen looked at Lucas and Orion, her face set. “He is the best fighter.”
“Atta girl. Already making the right decisions. You might be a better leader than you think.” Hector grinned.
“Hold on,” Lucas objected.
“Do you accept?” Cassandra asked Hector, ignoring her brother.
“I do,” he replied immediately.
“I bear witness. Hector is Helen’s champion from this day forward. If anyone challenges Helen, Hector will fight in her stead.” Cassandra looked sharply at Orion. “Lucas will be Hector’s second.”
“Wait just a damn minute,” Orion sputtered.
“And you will be my champion,” Cassandra said loudly over his protestations. “That way Atreus leads, Thebes protects Atreus, and Athens and Rome protect Thebes. We need to show them all that the time of fighting between the Houses is over. The best way to do that is for the five of us to trust each other with our lives.”
Orion closed his mouth with a snap, thought about it for a moment, and sighed reluctantly. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“Do you accept?” Cassandra asked him, a timid note entering her tone. “Will you be my champion?”
“Yes,” Orion answered seriously. Then he cracked a smile and gave her a little push. “Of course I accept, Kitty.”
Cassandra smiled back, relieved.
“I’ll witness,” Helen said, sensing that this needed to be voiced. “Orion is Cassandra’s champion.” She looked over at Lucas, who she could tell was barely holding his tongue. “Do you have something you want to say?”
“I don’t like being sidelined,” he said angrily. “But I’ll deal with it.”
“Okay. So we’re a team now,” Orion said, looking around at everyone. “This should be an interesting meeting.”
“Matt!” Claire snapped. “Can you focus, please?”
Matt’s head turned, and he looked at Claire blankly. She had just said something about Helen, but he wasn’t sure what.
He was distracted.
At that moment, a ship was landing on the beach at Great Point, right under the lighthouse. It was a small ship. Matt didn’t hear it scrape across the sand all the way from his house in Siasconset—nor did he see the three Myrmidons vault lightly out of the vessel, grab hold of the sides, and carry the boat up the beach at an effortless run. Matt wasn’t physically present when ten more small ships followed and his soldiers took the beach, but he was aware of it happening as if he were. Even as Claire waved a hand in his face and sighed with frustration, his eyes could also see the precise steps of his thirty-three men as they tracked silently up from the waterline.
“Greetings,” Claire said with a worried grimace. “Are you ever going to land that spaceship and join the conversation?”
An ironic laugh burst out of Matt. “Land that ship,” he repeated as he sensed members of his landing party regarding the terrain with soldierly precision. With this new double awareness, Matt saw a Myrmidon warrior, his skin black and shiny like a carapace, kneel and lay a hand on the cold sand in one sleek, swift motion.
“He’s here. Our master’s mind is with us right now,” said Telamon.
Matt remembered that Telamon was a prince of his kind, and one of Matt’s best captains.