Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(45)
Author: Jennifer Estep

And once again, I was surprised by the number of gryphons.

They were everywhere, just like they’d been at the academy. Carved into splintered pieces of rock, painted on parts of walls, looming up out of piles of rubble in statue form. I even saw something that looked like a giant stone column with a gryphon perched on the top of it, as though it was keeping watch over the ruins. The gryphon’s eyes met mine and then seemed to follow me. Creepy, as always.

Rachel led us through the ruins, pointing out interesting things, like songbirds that had been chiseled into one of the boulders or the bears that lumbered across another. She even showed us some patches of dill, sage, and other herbs that she picked and took back to the academy to use in the kitchen.

Finally, though, we reached the courtyard in the very heart of the ruins. Once again, Covington’s photos didn’t do the area justice. The toppled walls and crumbled bits of stone formed a sort of rocky garden at the edges of the courtyard. Then, the flowers took over. Hundreds of thousands of flowers, vines, and small trees crowded into the enormous space. After the endless rows of green pines along the trail, it was like a rainbow of color had exploded at my feet. Pinks and blues and purples and reds stretched out for a hundred yards. The only things that broke up the relentless riot of color were the stream that wound through the courtyard and the stone fountain in the middle. But even they seemed to somehow reflect back the cheery brightness of the blossoms around them. Perhaps the most amazing thing was the scent – a sweet, sharp, crisp aroma that made me think of flowers and water and snow and wind all at the same time.

"If there are any Chloris ambrosia flowers, they should be here," Rachel said. "This is where the goddess Eir had her garden, and as you can see, all sorts of flowers still flourish here today. They’re the real magic of the ruins."

I snorted. Well, that was an understatement. A sea of blooms filled the courtyard. I’d never seen so many different types of flowers in so many different colors, shapes, and sizes before. It was a breathtaking sight, but it made my heart sink all the same. Because how were we supposed to find one flower in a field of thousands? I doubted even Hercules could have completed such an impossible task.

The others must have had the same depressing thought because everyone was silent as we stared out at the blossoms. For a moment, the only sound was the sharp whistle of the wind as it gusted through the courtyard, causing the flowers to flutter and a few petals to swirl up into the air like colorful snowflakes before slowly spiraling back down again.

"Come on," Ajax rumbled. "Let’s get started. We need to find the ambrosia flowers before nightfall."

Alexei and Oliver helped Rachel set up our tents in a clear patch of ground on one side of the courtyard, then the three of them went in search of some firewood. Ajax and Covington stood guard at the edge of the courtyard, while Daphne, Carson, Rory, and I started looking for the ambrosia flowers.

I moved from one vine and one patch of flowers to another, comparing the plants in front of me to the image on my cell phone. Chloris ambrosia looked sort of like honeysuckle, as Carson had said. A pretty, curling, green vine topped by a white, trumpet-shaped flower. The only difference was the streaks of lavender purple and light gray on the inside of the white petals. So it wasn’t enough to pick out the patches of white flowers in the courtyard, wade over, and look at them. You actually had to take the time to lift up the flower, peer inside, and see if it had the streaks of color. And of course every time I went over to a flower and picked it up, it was just white inside and not purple and gray.

Farther into the garden, Carson let out a series of violent sneezes that told everyone how much his allergies were acting up. Rory gave him a slightly pitying look, but they both went back to the search.

"I’ve never seen so many flowers before in my life," Daphne muttered, picking her way through some vines a few feet away from me. "We’re never going to find the ambrosia. All I see are white flowers. Not to mention all the ones that are cream, ivory, eggshell, and every other white and off-white color."

"We have to keep looking – for Nickamedes."

Daphne’s eyes darkened. "I know. I’m just worried we won’t be able to find it."

"We’ll find it," I said, trying to make my voice more confident than I really felt. "We have to."

We kept looking. Alexei, Oliver, and Rachel reappeared, all of them carrying an armload of firewood. A few minutes later, Rachel started a fire in a stone pit close to the tents. I took a break from the search to go warm up. I turned this way and that, letting the heat from the crackling flames soak into the front and back of my body, before diving into the flowers once more.

Another hour passed. By this point, camp had been made, and we were all searching for the ambrosia flowers. But no one was having any luck.

"Anything?" Ajax called out, his voice tight with frustration.

We all shook our heads. He sighed and crouched back down, peering over the flowers in front of him and comparing them to the image on his phone, like the rest of us were doing.

I finished sweeping a section and stood up to stretch out my back. I was close to the right edge of the courtyard, and my heart sank once again as I looked out at all of the plants and vines. We hadn’t even covered half of the courtyard yet. We could search for a week and still not come across a single ambrosia flower – and Nickamedes didn’t have that kind of time left.

I sighed and leaned against a half-crumbled wall. At least, I tried to. I winced as something sharp dug into my back, poking me even through my purple snowsuit and all the layers I had on underneath. I turned around and realized it wasn’t a wall I’d been leaning against – it was a statue of the goddess Eir.

I straightened up and stepped back. "Whoops. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to block your view or anything. I can imagine how much you like to look out over your flowers."

Of course, the statue didn’t respond. Instead, it seemed to stare at me.

Somehow, the goddess’s head had turned in my direction until her empty stone eyes were firmly fixed on me. I sighed. Every statue stared at me. That was just a part of my life at Mythos. I’d thought that I’d quit being creeped out by it, but apparently not. Or maybe my unease was because a goddess was looking at me – a goddess whose ruins I was standing in right now. It wouldn’t surprise me if her eyes suddenly popped open, and a series of poisoned darts shot out and slammed into my chest. That was what always happened in the movies.

I held my breath for a moment, but Eir kept staring at me. Apparently, I wasn’t going to get pumped full of poison darts after all. Good. That was good.