by James Hunter
I recalled seeing her pavilion on top of the temple on our way in.
“Okay,” I said, bobbing my head as I eyeballed the staircase. “A race. I can get on board with that, though there are two things I’d like to know. One, are you going to play fair?” I asked, thrusting a finger into the air. “And two, is the ambrosia poisoned?” A second finger joined the first.
She watched me with golden eyes, split vertically down the center. “Yes, I will play fair to a certain extent. And no, I will not poison you. If you drink of the ambrosia before I do, you and your Amazons will be free, and I will answer one question. If I taste the nectar of the gods first, then you lose and your Amazons perish. I swear to the terms of this contract on the River Styx—which as you know, is a vow that cannot be broken.” She bent, undid her sandals, and kicked them off her feet. I noticed that her otherwise normal toes ended in curved cat’s claws.
“Yeah, okay, the River Styx,” I said. “Fine. I swear to the terms.” I clapped my hands together, feeling a flutter of anxious excitement in my gut. “So, when do we start?”
“Now!” she hissed with a grin.
And then she was off, darting up the first of the wooden steps.
Total cheater.
But what else had I expected from a cat oracle with too much time on her hands? I figured she hadn’t won anything in a long time, and she damn sure wanted to win this race. Well, there was nothing worse than a cheater, and I was gonna put her in her place. I sprinted forward, legs pumping, pounding up the wooden steps. Naturally, that section of the staircase tore off from the side of the wall, dust swirling through the air accompanied by the creak of wood. I leapt as boards splintered and fell and kept on running along the steps still attached to the rocky wall.
I caught a flash of movement in the edge of my eye: a golden spike on a spring exploded out of the wall at knee-level. I dove on instinct, the spear missing my thigh by a hairsbreadth, and rolled back to my feet—
Only to have another fist-sized spearhead erupt, this one mere inches from my chest. I backpedaled with a yelp; the spike left a nasty gash across my arm but didn’t wind up in my heart. So yay for me. With a curse, I smashed my way through the projectile and stole a look up. That cheater Ailuros was one staircase ahead and pulling farther away with every breath. Not only had she started the race early, she knew how to avoid the traps. Shit. Now I knew what she had meant by “to a certain extent.”
I gritted my teeth and pressed on, zigging up the steps, speeding around a landing, and zagging up the next section.
A rotten board snapped under my foot—wooden teeth digging at my calf—and I went down, falling even farther behind. With a grunt, I pulled my leg from the jagged hole and scrambled upright, already panting from the exertion. I scurried around the landing, then took a hard switchback … A pair of spears leapt out, one low one high. I hurdled them like an Olympic athlete, which almost earned me a death sentence in the form of a goo-slathered arrow—poison-tipped, no doubt—which loudly clanged off my breastplate.
And above me Ailuros had gained even more ground. She was a full two staircases ahead now. Perfect.
A wicked idea flashed through my head.
Sure, I couldn’t afford to kill her, but no one said I couldn’t maim the crap out of her. Nothing in the rules about that. I thrust one hand out as I rounded another corner and unleashed a Lightning Lance. Boards ruptured and support struts disintegrated beneath Ailuros’ claw-tipped feet as the walkway came loose. She stumbled and fell over the side, narrowly grabbing hold of the edge with one hand. I got my legs under me and sprang up to grab a rung on the walkway as it swayed away from the wall.
Ailuros had pulled herself back onto the walk and regained her feet. She offered me a contemptuous grin before leaping onto the next landing then up the next batch of steps. She’d scampered off by the time I hit that landing and the staircase behind tumbled down to the floor below.
I’d narrowed the gap, but not enough.
A waterfall gushed over the next section of the staircase, mist floating through the air. While Ailuros tore across the slick, wet wood without a hitch, my sandals were absolutely worthless. I hit the wood like a patch of black ice and my legs shot out from beneath me, dumping me hard onto my ass. My momentum carried me forward and I careened right off the walkway. At the last minute, I flung out a hand and grabbed a vine, narrowly stopping a deadly tumble. Dangling high above the floor below, I realized that if I hadn’t had god-like abilities, I would’ve found myself falling.
But god-like abilities I did have. I pulled myself along the vine, bypassing the water-slick section entirely, then swinging myself up, over the railing onto the next landing.
Ailuros was back above me, another staircase away. Damn. I just couldn’t get ahead of her! I couldn’t get even with her! I’d never been in better shape in my life but sprinting up a mile of trap-laden steps was leaving my quads shaking and my lungs sucking wind. My heart rate spiked.
I ran around another landing and up more steps. This time, chunks of the wall came blasting out in a series of boulders, which obliterated the steps in front of me. No choice. I hurled myself into the thin air and only just caught the edge of the next step with the toe of my sandal. I stumbled and dropped to a knee, panting hard, sweat drenching my brow and coating my chest and back. That’s when I knew this game was rigged and that I didn’t have a chance of winning if I just kept running.
Ailuros was faster, nimbler, and had home field advantage. We’d already gone up three-quarters of the staircase, which meant I had a quarter mile to close the gap and win … or lose everything.
What I needed was a plan. Blasting her out of the lead might work, or it might screw me over since I needed to travel up the staircase as well. Still, there was one trick in my tool belt that might get the job done. I took a precious second to draw the War Blade, then triggered the Greater Lycanthropy ability, which I could only use twice per day. The godstone flashed in a supernova as my muscles stretched over my creaking, cracking bones, reshaping me from man into beast. My body absorbed the War Blade; my fingers and toes elongated, steel claws bursting free at the end of each.
With the transformation complete, I dashed forward as a huge wolf-beast capable of tremendous speeds. Another waterfall lay dead ahead, but my claws easily gripped the treacherously slippery walkway. I raced through the falling sheet of water without a problem, skidded around a landing, and loped up the stairs on all fours.
More traps lay ahead, but they’d been built to hurt humans, and me? I wasn’t human anymore. Poisoned darts shot from the walls, missing me by miles, and when the next boulders burst out of the wall to destroy the walkway, I bounded over the gap with ease. I sprinted up the last steps and I hit a rough tunnel hewn into the rock face. Sunlight lit the mouth of the cave at the top of the hollow stalagmite. Ailuros was just ahead of me. Only a stone’s throw away.
I put on a final burst of speed as my hunting instinct kicked in and sprang onto her back. I bulldozed her ass and dug my hind claws into her flesh as I pushed off, bursting from the mouth of the cave and through another waterfall. A sea of cats loitered on the other side of the falls, but they parted as I rushed past them. On a silver table under a red tent sat a golden goblet.
With my heightened senses, I heard another splash of water as Ailuros burst into the open behind me, but she was too late.
I snatched up the goblet in one claw-fingered hand and pressed the lip of the cup against my great jaws. I tipped it back and let the thick ambrosia splash down my throat and into my belly, power rushing out, infusing my limbs with new strength and healing my wounds at once. Flesh tingled and itched as it knit itself back together at quadruple speed.
In my combat interface, I checked my HP—back to full health. How ’bout that? I polished off the rest of the brew, which was damn tasty, then tossed the goblet aside while I reverted to human form.
I whirled, sword in my fist, and stormed over to Ailuros, who stood disappointed
at the mouth of the glimmering waterfall, her army of cats spread out around her in a loose circle.
“Now, lady,” I spat, “free my Amazons or I’m gonna shove a yard of lightning-charged steel down your gullet. You got me?”
The oracle smelled like cat, sweat, and defeat. “As you wish,” Ailuros said wearily. “What is it that you want to know?”
NINETEEN
Don’t Bug Me
Hours later, we marched through grasslands on a dirt track toward the inverted spiked mountain shapes known as the Daggers—the stalactites on the western side of Nyx. It was rather surreal approaching that much rock hanging over us. The matching stalagmites had long since been swept away either by magic or some unknown geological force.
A large mound of rock, maybe the stump of an old stalagmite, rose from the grasslands and that was where we were headed … to a place called the Caverns of Entomo under the Western Daggers.
We’d left the Isle of Cats and Ailuros behind. She’d answered my one question: how we could get access to the Temple of Chronos. Unfortunately, she’d done it using as few words as possible. And naturally, when I asked some clarifying questions, her feline eyes had brightened. “Another race? Another game? Best two out of three?”
Yeah, that was a big ol’ pile of nope. Racing her once was chore enough, and now that she knew about my Greater Lycanthropy ability I very much doubted I’d win another round. Still, the oracle was nice enough to have her sphinx drop us off on the southwestern side of the lake. From there, it was grasslands as far as we could see. That was a nice change from the jungles and swamps we’d had to suffer through before.
Herds of the huge prehistoric buffalo blackened the horizon, so we’d have plenty to eat. That put a bounce in both Loxo’s and Asteria’s step. They’d gone off to hunt via Sophia and her teleportation abilities.
I walked next to Phoebe in her mech as we argued. Our shadows had started to grow longer as the afternoon wore on.
“You’re just jealous I knew the riddle,” I said. “Babies crawl on four legs—”
Not again! Phoebe sighed so loud I heard it through our messaging system. Everyone knows that riddle. It’s like a classic. All I’m saying is you mentioned to Euryale that you knew the riddle, and that’s the same one the sphinx asked. I find it fishy.
“It’s a classic riddle, and that was a classic sphinx,” I protested. Then I had to catch myself. I’d be stupid if I didn’t listen to Phoebe. She was the smartest person I’d ever met, and she was only getting more clever as she leveled. “Okay, Phoebe, yeah, I can see it. We’ll be careful, okay?”
Myrina drifted over. “Yes, we would be foolish to trust Euryale. I overheard your suspicions. And speaking of which, I have some suspicions of my own. Loxo … I have given this much thought, and if Hades wanted a spy, Loxo would be the perfect Amazon to steal our secrets. She can move silently, hide in shadows, and we trust her. More than that, she is gone for hours at a time. She could easily have told Earl Necro Earl about the Crystal Scythe.”
I shook my helmed head. “Nope, you’re definitely wrong about her.”
Phoebe ignored my protests and took up the Warden’s line of thought. Now that is an interesting theory, Myrina. It would be a case of hiding in plain sight. How convenient that she remembered Hades hunting her. And she, herself, told Jacob about the possibility of a Dark Amazon being resurrected. All that truth would make us believe any lie she wanted to slip in. I hate to say it, but Myrina is right. Loxo should be our prime suspect.
“And I was thinking it was Antiope,” I said. “Before our fight with the mantises, she disappeared for a bit. When she showed up, she was wounded; her story held water, but I don’t know … There was just something off about it. Didn’t sit right in my gut, you know?”
Indigestion, probably, Phoebe sent with a grin. Though in all seriousness, they both could be spies. Now, that would make sense. Hades infiltrates our army with two Dark Amazons, so if we catch one, he still has the other. Fucking diabolical.
“And heartbreaking,” I said. “I hate that we’re even talking about this. At least we can trust each other.”
Myrina smiled at me. “We can. And on an unrelated note, I am very proud that you bested Ailuros in the race, though deeply saddened that I was asleep the whole while.” Wow, a smile and praise from the Battle Warden? If I could’ve, I would’ve bought a lottery ticket. I was feeling lucky.
We walked until the inverted mountain peaks were directly above us. The wind whisked away the water streaming from their tips. Unlike the still air on the eastern side of the cave, the western side was far windier. I faltered for a moment and stared up, shifting uncomfortably. I felt tiny and exposed under all that rock. If one of those peaks let loose from the ceiling, none of us would survive.
We finally reached the rock mound which we discovered was the entrance to the Caverns of Entomo.
But before we headed in, we stopped for a quick break and a bit to eat. My Amazons and I needed a lot less food and sleep than normal mortals but marching indefinitely on empty bellies was a good way to kill morale and weaken ourselves unnecessarily. Loxo had already dressed a buffalo and was cooking thick slabs of steak on flat rocks, worn smooth by time and beating wind. Sabra sprinkled crushed herbs and salt onto the meat.
My mouth watered at the divine aroma assaulting my nose like an infantry squad. Asteria was in her wolf form, tearing raw, bloody meat off a leg and gobbling it down.
Don’t eat too much, I messaged her. We’re going to be fighting soon.
The big blue beast growled at me. You ugly as man. Me remember you as wolf. You were pretty. You good as wolf. Mateable. You bad as man. Unmateable. Me eat now. Shoo.
That made me laugh.
Jacob, come and look at this, Phoebe sent.
She’d climbed off her mech and onto the mound. I clambered up after her, the stone like smooth granite under my fingers. At the top, I saw that friezes had been chiseled into the rock circling an entrance twenty feet square. It dropped straight down for fifty feet or so. It looked almost like an oversized well, except instead of water at the bottom there was an otherworldly blue glow seeping up from the earth.
Yeah, Phoebe sent, the blue down there doesn’t seem right. But look at the pictures sculpted into the stone. She jabbed a finger toward the rock face.
I backed away from the entrance and studied the friezes. A few of the images showed massive insects on thrones being worshipped by Greek soldiers. Others displayed Greeks being devoured alive by centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, dragonflies, and gigantic spiked snails. At least there were no spiders on display. After the endless sea of arachnaswine on Lycastia … Well, I’d had my fill of ’em. Still, studying the pictures, I couldn’t help but shudder.
Looks like we’re going on a bug hunt, Phoebe sent.
Yeah, the message was pretty clear: go down there and either worship your insect overlords or die. Well, I wasn’t about to start bending my knee.
“Great, sounds like a blast,” I replied with a confidence I didn’t exactly feel. Bugs were never my strong suit, and centipedes were pretty much smack-dab at the top of the list of grossest things on the planet. “How are we going to get our troops down there?” Then I answered my own question. “Sabra and her magic vines. We can send Sophia and Loxo to scout, and we can follow up with our crew. Asteria loves caves. She gets all black widow-y in them.”
Phoebe and I slid off the mound and beelined for our impromptu camp.
The meat was ready, and we went to eat with our team. Buttercup and Asteria chewed down their buffalo raw. Thunderfoot was in herbivore heaven as he munched the tall sweet grasses around him.
As we ate, I went over the mission. “Okay, guys, so Ailuros said that in order to get into the Temple of Chronos, we need the Sower’s Glass from the Caverns of Entomo under the Western Daggers. Don’t ask me what the Sower’s Glass is, I don’t know, and Ailuros wouldn’t tell me. I wasn’t about to risk my biscuit again to get more information.”
I paused and took a small nibble of charred bliss. “I’m just glad she told us where it is,” I added after downing the bite.
Myrina wiped her greasy fingers on some grass and then took up her spear and her shield. “Very well, Jacob. Let us commence. I desire to have the Sower’s Glass by nightfall so we can sleep victorious. Then on the morrow, we can make our way north to the Temple of Cronos and quit of this strange place.”
Phoebe messaged me directly. She sounds like a Shakespeare play, am I right or am I right?
That made me laugh. When Myrina glanced over, I put on my serious face. “Okay, like Myrina said. Let’s move it.”
Then it was business as usual. Sophia grabbed Loxo and they teleported down to the entrance at the bottom of the pit, ready and willing to run recon. Asteria risked a Stymphalian Omega attack by becoming a giant eagle to lift Buttercup and Thunderfoot up onto the mound, but there was no other option. From there, Sabra grew vines that entangled our animals as well as Phoebe’s mech. Growing them slowly, we were able to ease our bear, our bull, and the steampunk contraption down onto the floor of the cavern below.
We listened for an attack. None came.
Our Forest-Witch kept the vines in place so we could climb down the plant life dangling against the stone walls to the floor of the cave. Like I thought, Asteria became a horse-sized spider and easily scurried down after us. So much for never seeing a spider monster again.
The blue glow turned out to be from bioluminescent mushrooms. The spores grew out of dirt scattered in crevasses in the wet rock. Most likely it was topsoil blown in from the winds above. Not only did the mushrooms glow blue, but lichen and moss on the walls also emitted an azure radiance, lending us just enough light to see by. Awfully helpful, those mushrooms, though they filled the air with the pungent stink of mildew and rotten cabbage. I wrinkled my nose and tried to ignore the odor as I moved further in.