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Ariadne had a long shower and climbed into bed, knowing she had precious few hours before Minos decided to summon her to the Temple for a full debriefing of the Botsaris job.
"One day soon, you'll never have to answer that bastard's call again," she said to herself like she did every day.
I'll kill him, Lia, I promise.
Curling into a ball under the blanket, Ariadne closed her eyes and let the nightmares take her.
Ariadne managed to get five hours of sleep before she was in a taxi, heading into the city center. The Diogenes District consisted of six blocks in the very heart of Styx, and it had more money than the rest of the city combined. It housed not only the Acheron and Serpentine towers but also five banks, two courthouses, and more overpriced jewelry and luxury item stores than one city needed.
It never ceased to surprise Ariadne that the city she knew disappeared as soon as the taxi entered the 'Dio Bubble' and everything was clean, shiny, and expensive looking.
The taxi stopped in front of the Temple, and she paid the man a handful of drachmae before climbing out of the car.
The Temple had earned its name thanks to the row of shining marble columns that stretched out along the façade of the mansion. Minos had grasped firmly to the nickname, even going as far as to have bronze lettering bolted into the marble to announce it to the world. What he didn't want the world to know was that the Temple was the training ground for Greece's deadliest assassins.
Those that were rich enough or connected enough knew what the Temple really was behind its pretty architecture. Everyone else thought it was a finishing school for underprivileged girls, run by the philanthropist Minos Karros.
Minos had his grubby hands in a lot of Greece's pies, from the stock market and real estate to oil refinery and shipping, not to mention that all the little priestesses that were raised at the Temple owed Minos a hefty debt. Ariadne felt like she would be a hundred by the time she paid him off.
Schooling her face to pleasant neutrality, Ariadne walked through the polished black and silver doors and into the cold darkness of the mansion.
Girls walked together in huddled groups, all wearing the pleated white chitons with thick black belts that were the Temple uniform. Lynx, one of the teachers in weaponry, gave Ariadne a nod in greeting.
"The master is in the training rooms, Spindle," she said in greeting.
"Thank you, Lynx," Ariadne replied politely, ignoring the watching students' wide eyes.
Once they graduated, they would be able to refer to the other assassins by their chosen names, but until then, they were restricted to titles only. Minos said it was a sign of respect to be referred to by their titles, but Ariadne saw it as just another way to prevent the girls in his charge from developing any personal attachments. If he could've found a viable excuse to give them all a number, Ariadne was sure he would have.
The training room was a rectangle pit of sand in a sunken floor. Minos was still physically fit enough to take on even his best students and liked to oversee certain aspects of their training himself.
Ariadne paused by a wooden pillar to watch him hold a girl's arm in a lock behind her back. She was about ten years old, and her small face was red with anger and embarrassment.
"Think, girl, how do you get out of this without a broken arm?" Minos demanded, sidestepping the kick the girl aimed at his knee.
Ariadne's right arm ached, and she fought the urge to rub the place where he'd broken hers around the same age. Minos still hadn't seen her, but the girl's pain-filled eyes rested on hers, and Ariadne made a small movement with her left hand.
The girl's left hand tightened into a fist and swung it back in a powerful strike aimed between Minos's legs. The strike cracked hard against the cup he was wearing, and he let her go with a jerk of surprise.
The girl rolled and was up on her feet in seconds, the folds of her training chiton smeared with dirt and sweat. Ariadne clapped her hands loudly, and Minos's furious attention turned to her.
"Well done, girl. I've found nothing slows down a handsy man like a good strike in the balls," said Ariadne.
"That's a compliment coming from the High Priestess herself," Minos replied as he straightened out of his fighting stance.
The girl turned to Ariadne and rapped her small chest twice with her fist. "Spindle."
"Go on, you have javelin training with Lynx," Minos said to the girl, and she bowed before hurrying away. Minos watched her go before turning back to his visitor. "If she can keep her temper, she will be good priestess one day."
"A bit of fire is a good thing."
"Only if I can control it," Minos said as he joined her at the top step. "How did the Botsaris contract go?"
"Easy. The man's wandering eye made him a gullible target."
"It was in the news this morning. Your cat's cradle has all of Botsaris's associates shitting their pants and thinking they are next. I can't say I ever approved of you doing it, but it's become a symbol to fear, andthatI can appreciate."
Ariadne laughed, just as he expected her to. Laugh at his jokes, make him think she loved and respected him, and keep pretending that she didn't want to crush his eyes between her fingers.
