stood up.
Something was still bothering Helen. There was a hole in the
story Ariadne had just told her.
?Who was it?? Helen asked suddenly, looking up at Ariadne?s
puzzled face. ?The way we were taught the story, Odysseus tricked
the Trojans with a giant wooden horse. Everyone knows about the
Trojan horse. But you said someone betrayed Troy, and I don?t
think it was by mistake.?
?I was hoping you wouldn?t pick that up,? Ariadne said, looking
like she was mentally kicking herself. ?There was no wooden horse.
It?s a nice fairytale, but that?s all it is. Odysseus was involved, that?s
true, but all he did was convince Helen to use her beauty to charm
the guards into opening the gates at night. That?s really all it took.
It?s why we Scions never name our children after her. For us, naming
your daughter Helen is like a Christian naming their child
Judas.?
Helen ran past her dad and upstairs when she got home, claiming
she wanted to turn in early. She did her homework and then made
herself lie down, but she couldn?t sleep. Her brain kept sifting
through everything Ariadne had told her that afternoon, focusing
mostly on the cult of the Hundred Cousins. To distract herself from
thinking about just how many people would want her dead so that
they could live forever, she got out of bed and attempted to fly.
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She tried to think lighter, then higher. She even tried to sneak up
on it by pretending to trip, but all she succeeding in doing was
jumping up and down until her father yelled up the stairs for her to
stop clowning around.
Hoping a little ancient history would put her to sleep, she picked
up the copy of the Iliad that Cassandra had given her and read as