“Unfortunately, our time together is at an end,” she murmured. “Fight well, Rory Forseti. More lives depend on it than you know.”
The goddess reached out and touched my hand. Her fingers felt as cold as ice against my skin, making me shiver, and I felt a wave of…something wash over me. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it made me feel strong and powerful, like I could keep on fighting, despite all the wounds I’d suffered in the library.
Sigyn smiled at me, dropped her hand from mine, and stepped back. Her elegant gown swirled around her again, like a snowstorm increasing its intensity, and the fabric glowed with such a brilliant silvery light that I had to shut my eyes against it. When I finally opened them again, the light and the goddess were gone.
And so was I.
Chapter Six
My eyes snapped open, and I sat up with a startled gasp.
Instead of being in the courtyard of the Eir Ruins or even back in the library, I found myself lying in a hospital bed. I glanced around the room, which was full of medical equipment, along with a monitor that hooked into the clip on my finger and steadily beep-beep-beeped out my heart rate.
I looked down at my hand, but all my burns and blisters were gone, replaced by whole, healthy skin. The deep, ugly gashes in my arm had vanished as well, and I was wearing a fresh white T-shirt and a pair of matching pajama pants. Someone had healed me and cleaned me up, and I seemed to be in some sort of infirmary. I looked around again. This wasn’t the regular school infirmary. The walls there were painted a soft blue, not made of dark gray stone like these.
Where was I?
Worry tightened my stomach, and I ripped off the finger clip, threw back the covers, and surged to my feet, determined to figure out where I was and what was going on—
Someone cleared her throat, and I whirled around in that direction.
Babs, the talking sword from the library, was propped up in a chair in the corner. I couldn’t see the sword’s blade, since it was encased in a black leather scabbard, but she stared at me with her emerald-green eye.
The sword was here, with me, which meant that I hadn’t imagined my talk with Sigyn. The goddess really had given me a weapon and wanted me to fight some great evil. Once again, I didn’t know whether to be honored or frightened.
“Rory, right?” Babs said in her Irish accent. “That’s what everyone kept calling you when they brought you in here.”
“Who is everyone?”
She shrugged. Well, as much as she could shrug with half a face. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them before.”
Well, that didn’t tell me anything. I glanced around the infirmary again. I spotted my clothes lying on another chair in the opposite corner, so I walked over to them.
I picked up my green T-shirt, which was ruined, given all the blood and gashes in the fabric, so I wadded it up and threw it into a nearby trash can. My jeans, socks, and boots were all still in one piece, if a bit bloody, so I left the white T-shirt on and slid back into the rest of my regular clothes. I held up my green leather jacket, examining it with a critical eye. I had taken it off in the library earlier, and it had survived the chimera attack unscathed. I shrugged into it as well.
Babs looked at me the whole time. The sword opened and closed her mouth half a dozen times, as though she wanted to ask me something. Finally, she worked up her nerve.
“Are you a Valkyrie?” she asked in a hopeful voice.
I snorted and waved my hand around, but of course nothing happened. “Do I look like I have princess-pink sparks of magic streaming out of my fingertips? Of course I’m not a Valkyrie.”
Her face fell, as though she was disappointed, but she perked right back up again a second later. “So you’re an Amazon, then? A nice, quiet Amazon who just happened to be studying late in the library when those chimeras attacked?”
“Oh, I was studying in the library, but I’m not an Amazon either.” I lifted my chin. “I’m a Spartan.”
Her green eye widened with shock. “A Spartan? No! No! You can’t be a Spartan!” Her voice dissolved into a bitter wail.
I slapped my hands on my hips. “And what, exactly, is wrong with me being a Spartan?”
She winced at my sharp tone. “Well, nothing, on the face of it. It’s just…”
“What?”
She sighed. “Spartans have a tendency to be exceptionally reckless. Always charging into battle without thinking things through. Always taking on more enemies than any sane warrior would ever dream of. Always believing that your fighting skills and killer instincts are going to be enough for you to win, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against you.”
“Why do you have a problem with that?” I asked. “Because that’s what Spartans do. We fight the battles that others don’t or can’t. That’s why we’re the best warriors in the Mythos world.”
Babs sighed again. “Yes, yes, and you die at an exceptionally alarming rate because of it. Which doesn’t work out so well for me.”
I frowned. “What does that mean? What does Spartans dying have to do with you? What kind of sword are you, anyway? What kind of sword doesn’t want to be picked up and used in battle?”
Babs’s mouth opened and closed and opened and closed again.
“Well?” I demanded.
So far, all I had were a whole lot of questions and no answers. Somebody needed to tell me what was going on, even if that somebody was a talking sword.
Babs sighed for a third time. “Never mind. Forget that I said anything. It doesn’t matter anyway. It never does in the end.”
She was talking in riddles like Sigyn had, but since I didn’t know who or what might be waiting outside this room, I went over, grabbed the scabbard, and hooked it to my black leather belt. Then I practiced pulling the sword out of the scabbard, getting a feel for the weapon like I had in the library earlier.
Babs’s hilt fit perfectly in my fingers, like she had been made just for me. Her nose hooked over my hand, forming a sort of wrist guard, with her eye clearly visible above. Sure, it was a little odd, feeling Babs’s lips against my palm, but I quickly grew used to it. Once I was sure that I could pull out the sword and use it with ease, I slid Babs back into her scabbard, opened the door, and left the infirmary.