You heard him,” Horace said tersely. “We got to be fast about this. Ten minutes tops.”

It felt like there was ice flowing threw my veins, freezing my blood. There was noise in the castle around us. Thumping from upstairs, doors slamming. Every time something sounded relatively close I nearly jumped out of my skin. Jai’s grip on my arm tightened again, and he murmured close to my ear, “It’ll be okay. We’ll get in and find it and cross over.”

“He must have guards in the treasury,” Manda was saying to Horace. “There’s no way he’d leave the Kronos clock unguarded, unless he's got too cocky for words. Do you have the hourglass ready for her?”

Horace was reaching for his duffel bag when a door at the end of the hallway opened. The four of us faltered, nearly freezing in our tracks, as the long line of soldiers trooped out into the hallway.

They were heading straight for us.

The man at the front of the soldiers wasn’t dishevelled and tired looking like the rest of them. He had close cropped blonde hair and a square face. Steely black eyes swept over us, and he held up one hand to his men and they snapped to attention behind him.

“What’s your name, soldier?” He barked at Horace.

I was rooted to the spot with terror. The soldiers behind the first man were all looking at Manda and I now that their commander had his back turned to them. Most of them slouched and leered at us. One of them, a bulky man with missing teeth, made a obscene gesture at me, and I shrank back in on myself. I would have given anything to be able to melt into the floor right then.

Horace snapped the commander a solute. He was clearly at ease with the gesture, executing it smartly. It made me wonder if he’d been a soldier at some point. There was clearly a lot I still didn’t know about my third guardian.

“Sir, Horace Greendale, Sir.”

The commander narrowed his eyes at Horace, looked over at Jai and looked him up and down as well. He didn’t spare a single glance for Manda and I. “New here, soldier?”

“Sir, yes, sir.” Horace made the words sharp and crisp. It was nothing like his usual slouching and grunting. The transformation was frightening.

“At ease soldier, have you been debriefed?”

Horace floundered for the first time, and the commander must have taken that as “no” because he nodded and said, “Fall in line, both of you.” He turned and gestured at his men. “Clancy and Rob, you two take the new girls up to their quarters. You know the way.”

To my dismay, Horace darted a quick look at Jai, as if they were silently communicating. I could almost tell what they were thinking. Did they blow our cover, or play along? And if they did blow our cover, would we be able to get out of this without waking up Thanatos?

For a second, Horace’s hand hovered over the duffle bag. His dilemma was clear. The hourglass only worked on the people in the near vicinity. If we froze the soldiers and then went to get the clock, someone from the kitchen could easily walk by and see them. The moment Thanatos heard about a bunch of frozen soldiers, he would know I was here.

My heart skipped a beat as two of the soldiers stepped out of line. The first one was tall and lean, with dirty blonde hair that hadn’t been cut in awhile. He made straight for me, a smirk curling one corner of his thin lips. I gasped as he seized my arm roughly.

Manda was getting similarly manhandled by a tall, angry looking man with short black hair. She looked ready to spit nails, and I pictured her snapping his neck or something. Hopefully she could restrain herself, or our cover really would be blown.

“Hold on.” Jai said.

To my shock, Jai slid one hand over my throat. He bent down and whispered in my ear. “Make sure you look scared. Kali, don’t worry. Stick with Manda, see if you can find the treasury when they leave you. I’ll come back for you, I promise.”

I resisted the urge to nod, making sure to keep my eyes wide.

The soldier laughed and yanked me forward. “Come on, precious. We’ve had enough fun time with that boy. Your boyfriend is Mr. Thanatos now.”

This time I didn’t have to repress the shudder. I took one last look over my shoulder and it was to see Jai looking over his. Our eyes met, and I could see how torn he was. My last look showed him glaring at the soldier hauling me down the hallway, and then we were around the corner and out of sight.

The soldiers hauled us up a long flight of stone stairs. Out of eyeshot of Horace and Jai, out of earshot. I had to tell myself over and over that he said he’d come back, in order to stifle the panic that was trying to set in.

I glanced over at Manda. She was busy glaring at the soldier hauling her up the stairs. If looks really could have killed, the man would have been on the floor, stone dead. We paused on the second floor, and the men led us down the hallway. Where had Joe said the treasury was? Second door on the right?

I itched to reach out and grasp the doorknob as we walked past it. The Kronos portal could be just beyond that door. So close, yet completely out of our reach. My guard hauled me past the door, jerking me forward sharply every time I tried to drag my feet. He growled at me to go faster, and I had to repress the urge to tear myself out of his grasp and run for it.

They paused at the end of the hallway, and Manda’s guard leaned forward and rapped on the door sharply with his knuckles. After a second the door creaked open and a squat, bald-headed man poked his shiny head out and grunted at us. “What’s this?”

“New girls.” Manda’s guard shoved her forward, and the bald man stepped back. The room we were pushed into was massive, and done in rich mahogany. Dark wooden pillars supported the four corners, and the roof was arched, hundreds of feet above our heads. There were windows letting in the early dawn light, but they were high enough that there was no chance of escape.

Velvety couches and armchairs served as the only furniture, and there was a raised dais on the far end with a grand piano atop it. Here and there, dark green ferns draped over wicker baskets hanging from the walls.

And then there were the women. My stomach turned when I realized how many of them there were. I counted at least twelve in the ten seconds or so I’d been looking around. They all wore loose fitting white dresses that were nearly see-through. My stomach lurched. Would they try to force us into those dresses?

I glanced over at Manda, who was surveying the place with wide eyes. While I felt sick and scared, she looked furious. I almost hoped someone would try to put her into one of those white dresses. They’d be in for a nasty surprise.

“Leave ‘em.” The bald soldier crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned against the wall. “Sandra will get them ready. You lot can push off.”

Our escorts looked a little crestfallen. They took one last look around at the room, eyes hungry, and then turned and left, shutting the door with a bang behind them. Manda and I both jumped as the bald guard barked, “Sandra!”

One of the women, a tall leggy blonde with a roman nose, glided forward. She looked us up and down, and her face remained blank. “New girls?”

“That’s plain enough to see.” The bald guard’s voice was sarcastic, and he flicked his fingers at her. “Go get ‘em ready. Thanatos will probably want to check them out when he gets up.”

Sandra fluttered dark lashes at him, though the effect was more irritated than flirty, like she had something in her eye. She jerked her head at us, and then whirled around and marched towards the back of the room, muttering to herself as she went.

I looked at Manda, who shrugged. I guess we were supposed to follow her.

Sandra led us to a door in the wall, which wasn’t really a door at all, only a doorway filled with strings of wooden beads. She shoved through these, producing a musical clatter, and we followed. The room beyond was much smaller, and a number of white hammocks were strung from wall to wall. At the very back of the room was a silver wash basin, barely big enough for one person to fit into.

“Let’s get a few things straight,” she said as we walked. “I’m head mistress here. I come first, in everything. You’ll take orders only from me, the guards…and Thanatos of course…” she paused at a sink attached to the wall, where a thin young girl with velvety dark skin and short black curls was washing an armful of white tunics. “Anna,” she snapped, “Ring those out properly. I’ll make you do them again if you leave them like you did last time.”

The young girl ducked her head and mumbled something, and Sandra marched onwards. I glanced back over my shoulder at Anna, just in time to see her make a horrible face at Sandra’s back. She looked dismayed that I’d caught her, so I gave her a quick, conspiratorial grin and she smiled back.

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