“Not good enough for him. Also, he says I have to learn to speak Mandarin. Or Hindi. My choice.” Seth gave a thin smile. “I barely made it through Spanish.” He sat down and put an arm around her, drawing her close to him.
Jenny leaned against his strong, warm body and listened to his heart. She didn't want to think about him moving out of town, or about the future at all. She was having enough trouble figuring out the past. “So, Pericles,” she said.
“Yeah, sorry,” Seth said. “What’s up with Pericles?”
“He was like the ruler of Athens for years and years,” Jenny said. “In ancient Greece. I looked him up, and they say he built up the city, the Parthenon, all kinds of stuff. And Athens kind of ruled the ancient world while he was in charge.
“But then Athens got into a war with another powerful city, Sparta. And there were all these rumors and accusations about Pericles and his friends, religious crimes and embezzling gold. And then the Athenians weren't happy with how the war was going. Another politician named Cleon accused Pericles of some crimes, which knocked Pericles out of power. And then Pericles died of the plague. And then Cleon took over Athens, and he controlled the city for years, until he died.”
“That's totally interesting.” Seth kissed her. His hand drifted down to the hem of her shirt, then began to pull it up. “I know you didn't sneak out in the woods with me to talk about ancient Greece, though.”
“Yeah, actually, I did.” She laid back on the rock, out of his reach, and tucked her hands behind her head. “In my dream, there was this gray-eyed woman who was Cleon’s wife. It seemed like she was behind a lot of the rumors and accusations, and basically destroyed Pericles’ reputation behind the scenes. And then I read today that Cleon, her husband, ends up as the most powerful man in the city.”
“Sounds like Ashleigh,” Seth said.
“Exactly like Ashleigh. I think it was Ashleigh. You see what I mean?”
“Okay,” Seth said. “Ashleigh was a manipulative bitch in all her lives. Gotcha. And who were you, in ancient Athens?”
Jenny didn’t want to say it. “I helped destroy Athens.”
“You should put that on your college application.” He lay down beside her and kissed her. Jenny wanted to just give in and let him do what he liked to her, but this was too important. She fought down her feelings and nudged him back from her.
“You’re the one going to college, not me. Anyway, I was working for the king of Sparta. His name was Arky…Archidamus. He sent me to Athens to spread a plague there, and to kill Pericles. And I looked it up, and Athens really was hit by a huge plague during that war, and Pericles died from it, too. And Cleon and his people took over Athens, and they were vicious. And eventually Athens lost the war against Sparta. It was called the Peloponnesian War. After that war, Athens stopped being a powerful, important kind of city.”
“Okay,” Seth said. “But I don’t see how it matters now. That was like hundreds of years ago.”
“Um, thousands,” Jenny said. “And it matters because of this guy Cleon. You know that guy who had Ashleigh’s eyes?”
“Old spooky-touch?” Seth said. “I don’t think I’ll forget him.”
“That was him, I think. I’ve got it worked out here.” Jenny leaned up on her elbow. She took a folded sheet of notebook paper from her pocket and spread it out on the boulder between them. “This is what I’ve figured out so far.”
The page had two columns of names:
Euanthe = Me
Cleon’s wife = Ashleigh
Cleon (politician, takes over Athens) = that scary guy (Ashleigh’s opposite)
Archidamus (king of Sparta) = Seth (???)
“Hey, how did I get on the list?” Seth asked.
“The king of Sparta,” Jenny said. “When he touched me, the Jenny pox didn’t infect him. He was immune. So it had to be you. Right?”
“I don’t know. It’s your dream.”
“I don’t know, either,” Jenny said.
“So who was Pericles?” Seth asked.
“I don’t know if he was one of us or just a regular person,” Jenny said. “Anyway, who else is there for me to recognize, besides you and me, and Ashleigh and her guy?”
“So…what does any of this mean, Jenny?”
“I just wanted to tell you. That guy and Ashleigh have a long history together. And he knows I killed her. So I think he’ll be back.”
“After that nasty infection you gave him? I bet he’ll stay away.”
“What if he brings a gun and shoots me?”