Dreamless

confidence? He was worth the extra effort.
    “Is that Orion?” Claire asked, her eyes narrowing when Helen jumped to pull out her vibrating phone.
    “He said he found something,” Helen said, ignoring Claire’s disquiet.
    Her best friend shot her a concerned look, and Helen hoped Claire would let it go. She didn’t have the energy to deal with a “Do you like this boy, or like this boy?” cross-examination by her best friend, especially not when so much was at stake.
    “What is it?” Cassandra asked.
    “A scroll from the private diary of Marc Antony that talks a lot about the afterlife. He wants to know if you want him to scan and email it to you.”
    Cassandra rubbed her eyes. They had been locked in the Delos library every day after school for three nights in a row, looking for some kind of clue that could lead them to a plan. So far nothing had come up.
    “Wait, Marc Antony? As in Antony and Cleopatra ?” Ariadne asked with stars in her eyes. “She was such a badass.”
    Helen grinned in agreement and typed the question to Orion. She paused to read his response. “Yup, same Roman. I guess he’s a relative on his mother’s cousin’s side. It looks really convoluted, but Orion’s mother was related to both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar if you go back far enough.”
    “Yeah, but go back far enough and even you and me could be related, Len,” Claire said wryly. She fluffed her inky black hair to point out how genetically different she and blonde Helen were.
    “Huh. I’ve never thought of it like that, but you’re probably right, Gig,” Helen mused. A disturbing idea started to bud in her mind, but Cassandra interrupted Helen’s half-formed thought.
    “Helen, tell Orion not to bother. Marc Antony was trying to become Pharaoh, so he would only have been interested in the Egyptian afterlife.” Cassandra’s mounting frustration was obvious.
    Helen began to type in Cassandra’s reply, adding the “thank-you” that Cassandra so glaringly omitted.
    “Wait a sec, Len,” Matt said before she could send it. “Just because Orion’s information is from a different culture doesn’t make it incorrect.”
    “I agree with Matt,” Jason said, perking up from his study stupor. “The Egyptians were obsessed with the afterlife. It’s possible they knew more about the Underworld than the Greeks did. They could have exactly the information Helen needs to navigate down there. We could overlook it if we’re biased to favor the Greeks.”
    “Sure, it’s possible that the Egyptians had a three-dimensional map of the Underworld complete with magic passwords!” Cassandra responded sarcastically as her frustration boiled over. “But Marc Antony was a Roman invader. An Egyptian priest initiated to the level of knowledge that Helen needs would have died before telling a conqueror even one of the sacred secrets of the Underworld!”
    Everyone knew that Cassandra was reminding them that the same level of devotion was expected from the newly ordained priests and priestesses of Apollo. Jason and Ariadne had been raised to deal with these kinds of expectations. Matt and Claire paused to think about it. Helen watched her two oldest friends give each other worried looks. When they both seemed to steel themselves, she couldn’t help but feel proud.
    Helen glanced around the room, thinking to herself how freaking awesome her friends were, when her eyes landed on Jason. He was looking at Claire like she had just canceled Christmas. When he saw that Helen was watching him, he looked away quickly, but he still looked pale to Helen.
    “What we really need are the Lost Prophecies.” Cassandra started pacing.
    “Wouldn’t that make them the ‘Found’ Prophecies?” Matt quipped.
    “Okay, I’ll bite,” Claire said, ignoring the bad pun. “What are the Lost Prophecies?”
    “It’s a mystery,” Jason answered with a shake of his head. “They’re supposed to be a collection of the prophecies that Cassandra of Troy made right before and during the ten years of the Trojan War. But no one knows what’s in them.”
    “That’s big. How’d they get lost?” Claire asked.
    “Cassandra of Troy was cursed by Apollo to always prophesy with perfect clarity—not easy by the way—but to never be believed,” Cassandra said distractedly.
    Helen remembered the story, even though it was just a small part of the Iliad . Apollo fell in love with Cassandra of Troy right before the war. When she told him that she