Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(96)

They squeezed into the same formation they had the previous day: Nim behind the wheel, Jason in the passenger seat, and the rest of them wedged into the back, Diana sandwiched between Alia and Theo like the really gorgeous filling in a pressed panini. Alia felt almost guilty for the room she had behind Nim and silently blessed her friend’s short legs.

They decided to keep to their plan to take the Langadha Pass, and a few hours later they skirted the town of Kalamata, pausing only to get gas—after a negotiation that went considerably more smoothly with Diana doing the talking—before they joined up with the road heading east through the hills.

It didn’t take long to realize why locals didn’t use this particular route. It clung to the cliff in a narrow ribbon, bracketed on one side by unforgiving gray rock and on the other by a steep plunge into a tree-choked ravine.

Alia tried to control her nausea as they snaked around another hairpin turn. The road shrank to a single lane in some sections, with no way to see who might be coming the opposite direction or how fast. Even when there were two lanes, they were so cramped that whenever another car sped by, the Fiat shuddered. Alia told herself it was just because of the change in pressure between the two vehicles, but attaching Bernoulli’s principle to the shaking didn’t make her feel any less like they were one careless driver away from a crash that would smash them into the side of the mountain or send them sailing into nothingness.

“This is an ancient road,” said Diana, looking past Alia out the window. “Telemachus traveled it by chariot when he rode from Nestor’s palace to meet Menelaus in Sparta.”

“Menelaus? As in Helen’s husband?” asked Alia.

“I bet Telemachus didn’t get stuck behind a tour bus,” growled Nim, laying on the horn.

“Hey,” said Jason. “We’re trying not to attract attention, remember?”

“Don’t worry,” said Nim, punctuating every word with a horn blast. “No. One. Is. Paying. Attention. To. Me.”

Eventually, the bus found a place to pull to the side and Nim zoomed by as Alia clenched Diana’s arm and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Nim,” she gasped, “I realize we’re fleeing for our lives, but that’s not going to matter if we don’t actually survive this drive.”

“It’s fine!” said Nim, taking another turn with such enthusiasm everyone in the car slid hard to the left.

They’d had to sacrifice the car’s air conditioning to the climb up the hill, and now that they were free of the bus’s exhaust fumes, Alia tilted her head out the open window and breathed deeply.

The part of her brain that wasn’t preoccupied with trying not to vomit could appreciate the beauty of this place, the dense clouds of pine, the jagged peaks and twisting spires of the pass. There were places where the rock hung low over the road like a wave frozen just before it broke, others where the road narrowed and the car passed through a slender, rough-hewn furrow in the stone. Whoever had cut through the rock had left little room on either side. Alia felt like the Fiat was caught in some monster’s gullet, and that at any minute the beast might clear its throat.

They flew past a sign and Jason said, “That was the Kaiadas pit.”

“The what now?” said Alia.

“It’s where the Spartans dropped their enemies so no one would find them. It’s supposed to be bottomless.”

“Yeah, and their kids, too,” said Theo. “If the babies weren’t up to snuff.”

“That’s awful,” said Alia.

“It was a martial culture,” Jason said. “They had different priorities.”

Theo flicked Jason’s ear. “So you’re saying it was okay for them to dump anyone who wasn’t a perfect physical specimen like yourself?”

“I’m just saying it was a different time.”

Nim shuddered. “A barbaric time.”

“Is the world we live in so much better?” said Jason.

“Flush toilets,” offered Nim.

“Antibiotics,” said Alia.

“Smartphones,” said Theo.

“But that’s what I mean,” said Jason. “Antibiotics have created new strains of super bacteria. People are so dependent on their phones that they don’t bother learning anything for themselves anymore.”

Alia leaned forward and swatted Jason’s arm. “I cannot believe you’re talking smack about science.”

Jason held up his hands defensively. “I’m not! I’m just saying all those things that make our lives so convenient have a price. Think about the way technology has changed modern warfare. How much courage do you need to launch an air strike from behind a computer screen?”

“It’s true,” said Diana. “You’re efficient killers.”

“Sure,” said Alia, thinking of all the advances her parents had made at Keralis Labs, even the things they’d been working toward with Project Second Born. “But we’re also efficient healers.”

“And that has a cost, too,” said Jason. “Every generation is weaker than the last. Unable to adapt and thrive without being propped up by vaccines, gene therapy.”

Theo kicked the back of Jason’s seat. “Jesus, Jason, you’re sounding more Spartan by the second.”