Chapter 7

"How did I get myself into this mess?," Lydia thought as she struggled to get loose from the chains that bound her to a pillar.

Meanwhile, she was being circled by a hulking figure claiming to be a king named Aron. He laughed and told the young girl she would someday be his bride.

"Tall and creepy is not my type," Lydia replied, not showing the her enemy her fear.

He slapped her. It hurt.

It hit home the words her mother told her. There would be times when Lydia would find an opponent who would be her equal in strength.

And this one trapped by kidnapping her sister Arianna and the Amazon queen Melanippe.

As she stormed the castle, she found this king was no mere mortal.

He jumped her. He chained her with chains made my Hephestus himself.

"Just my luck to run into a spawn of Ares," Lydia thought as she calculated a way of mistake.

She was across from the cell that held Arianna, Melanippe and two other Amazon warriors.

"Marry me, and I will release them," the King whispered into her ear.

All the while, she looked up at the ceiling. He didn't notice as she wiggled the pillar with her strength.

"Just a little more," she thought, and hoped neither Aron or his henchmen spotted the dust that would full as she inched closer and closer to her goal.

Aron did not have a clue when Lydia forced the pillar free. The block it was once attached to fell off the roof and crashed on top of the demigod's head, splitting in two.

Lyida reached down to check to see if her foe was dead. He was not.

But he was knocked cold.

One of Aron's henchmen rushed to try to restrain her. She grabbed a spear and drove it straight into his heart. The other two guards fled for their lives.

Lydia rushed over to the cell.

"No key," she said after looking around.

Arianna and Melanippe were relieved when Lydia ripped the cell door right off.

"There is not much time," Melanippe said. "We must hurry."

Lydia grabbed her bow and arrows as left the room and darted down the stairs.

Their horses were fenced in, and guarded by a few more of Aron's soldiers. They were no match for the demigoddess and friends.

They mounted their horses, and fled as fast as they could. They knew it would only be a matter of time before they were pursued.

And they were correct. They saw a cloud of dust down the road behind them.

They reached a bridge that seperated Aron's kingdom from Macedonia.

A man who looked somewhat familiar greeted them at the bridge.

"I will take care of them, Lydia," he said. "You just lead them across. Aron will not come into Macedonia after you."

"Thank you kind sir," Lydia said.

"Anything for my niece," the man said.

*****

"Hold still," Phobe said as she tended to Lydia's wounds.

Cuts, bruises were all over her body. Her contained a red mark and a fat lip where Aron struck her in the face.

"How could I have ..." Lydia said.

"You had no way of knowing," Phoebe said. "Had I known, I would not have sent them to Aron's kingdom."

She knew not who Aron's father was. She had heard of his reputation of being cruel to women, but was tricked into thinking he had changed. He had convinced her that he was dedicating a temple to Artemis.

"You had no way of knowing, either, Phoebe," a voiced said.

It was a familiar one.

"Hello mother," Lydia replied.

"Aren't you a sight," Artemis replied. "And a brave, smart one at that."

Artemis explained she knew there had to be a reason her brother Ares wanted to pick a fight, which delayed her coming.

"I should thank my brother Hercules for destroying that bridge into Macedonia," Artemis told Phoebe.

Suddenly, Lydia started screaming,

Blood was flowing from between her legs.

"I don't remember getting hurt down there," she cried.

"I will leave this explanation to you, my goddess," Phoebe said.

"Not before you help me get her into the bath," she said as the goddess and the priestess led the battered Lydia toward the temple bath.

Just as they reached the pool, Artemis pulled the necklace from Lydia's body.

"That should stop the bleeding," Artemis.

*****

"You're kidding," Lysander said to his mother as she brushed his hair in their private chamber.

"I am not," Artemis said. "Your body is fully functional as a for a girl when you are Lydia, just as it is for a boy when you are Lysander. Understand my son?"

He nodded his head yes.

"As Lysander, you are very capable of fathering a child," Artemis said. "As Lydia, you are very capable of bearing children."

That thought made Lysander blush. His stomach felt a little queasy.

"Quite unsettling, isn't it?" Artemis asked.

He nodded his head yes.

"There are a couple of things you should know," Artemis advised her son.

"They are?" he asked.

"Putting on the necklace will turn you into Lydia as you know," Artemis said. "You are Lydia as long as it is on. You change back to Lysander if you take it off. But there are two exceptions."

"Which are?" Lysander asked, once again feeling a little bit nervous.

"Once you conceive a child, there is no going back," Artemis said. "Necklace on, necklace off, you will live the remainder of your life as Lydia. Get caught in the heat of passion with handsome prince like Calias, you better make sure that is your choice. And always be on guard with demigods like Aron, or else you may not have a choice."

She also told him of a lake in Amazon country where she said she and Lydia may someday bathe in.

"Going in there without the necklace as Lysander, and you will come out for good as Lydia," Artemis laughed.

Lysander admitted it was a lot to think about.

"Would you choose to become Lydia and live as a woman?" Arianna asked her brother as they sat by the pool.

"I don't know," Lysander said. "There was a time I would have said no. Now. I'm not so sure. There are times when I really like being Lydia ... except for the bleeding part."

"The Oracle at Delphi says Lydia will bless the goddess with grand-daughters and give birth in this very temple," the priestess Arsana told Phoebe after Artemis returned to Olympus.

"Those words must never be spoken in Lysander's presence, understood," Phoebe said.

The goddess told Phoebe before she left that the Fates had told her that Lysander had multiple paths, but none had him staying as Lysander.

"For that, Zeus is very grieved," Artemis said.

"And you?" Phoebe asked.

"Only if it is a path that is not of his choosing," Artemis said.