Flash and Flame: Portals of Asphodel Series: The Guardian, Book 2

by Sadie Anders

  Even though the cave was initially empty, I felt a particular kind of dread walking into this dark place, the fear of what could be. Still, I knew that it was the next step towards my freedom from the Furies. The sooner I finished this, the sooner I could find a way to be rid of them.

  We walked deep inside, and soon, we found a pathway. It appeared to descend deep inside the bowels of the mountain. I wondered if it were natural, or if people had slowly chipped away at this strange place for thousands of years, willing it to go deeper and deeper into the earth.

  Ahead of us lay something, no, someone stretched across the pathway, blocking our way. A woman, raven-haired and young, was asleep on the cave ground. Moonlight poured from my stone and shone on her face. She lay on her side, her hair draped beautifully across her arm, her delicate and deliberate positioning giving her the appearance of a sculpture or painting.

  I felt wary of her. There was an unknown and forbidding aura around her, like pools of milky moonlight that had turned sour. Had the people of Delphi abandoned her here all alone in the dark? How long had she been alone in this cave? I felt sorry for her, but also, somehow, she felt dangerous.

  Kai sat down on the ground next to her.

  “What are you doing?” Raphael asked.

  “What I am here to do, guardian,” he said, his face more serious than I had ever seen.

  He reached into his traveling bag and pulled out his lyre. The strings rang with a mournful song as he plucked them gently. The tune pulled at my soul, causing me to be drawn inward toward them, to lean in with anticipation.

  The music began to rouse the young woman.

  With a small groan, she rolled on her back and then sat up. There was a dreamy-eyed quality to her look as she batted her eyelids slowly. Her head lilted as if she were still halfway between sleeping and waking, and she didn’t seem to notice us at all.

  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I remained silent.

  Her head continued swaying, then her torso joined in, her body undergoing some sort of trance. A sheen covered the surface of her eyes, and the reflection looked like the stars in the cosmos on a clear night.

  The swaying continued, and she raised herself to a standing position, her body moving back and forth slowly, much as a tall tree bending back and forth in the breeze. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out, no statement or pronouncement. After a while, I realized that I had been holding my breath for her to say something.

  A groan escaped her lips and her arms extended out in front of her.

  “I heed Orpheus’ call, infernal charmer, tamer of beasts. Your mother Calliope guides these words from mountain deep.”

  Her voice seemed quite low for such a young woman. It sounded like the creak of a thick wooden door opening.

  I turned to Uncle Julian and whispered. “What is she talking about?”

  He stared at her without breaking his gaze, completely transfixed. Kai continued his simple song, adding a low humming atop the melancholy melody.

  She spoke again, her low voice getting louder. “Follow me for love, for a dream of fictive kinship. Follow me, for I am your only chance at friendship.”

  She extended one hand and beckoned us towards a small opening in the side of the cave, where a faint silvery light had began to glow. I felt resistance deep down. Every fiber of my being told me not to go with her. Cleon began walking in that direction, but I placed my hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

  I shook my head. “No, that isn’t the way.”

  The prophetess shrieked, her hands coming down at her sides. Kai began playing his music more loudly, and she soon calmed, her oscillating movements returning along with her dreamy-eyed gaze.

  “Like Odysseus, king of deception, I guide you not. The music reveals what poet’s words could not.”

  Kai stood and gathered his things. “We must keep going then.”

  We continued further down the dark path into the depths of the cave, and the dreamy-eyed girl followed along with us.

  As we rounded a corner a short time later, a flurry of movement caught me off guard. I jumped back. A woman, her long hair reminiscent of wild branches tangled along a forest floor, stood before us, rattling two branches full of leaves in my face. The same type of leaves were woven into a crown atop her head, making her look like an Olympic victor of old. Laurel.

  The leaves thrashed into my face as she continued shaking them at me. I raised an arm to bat them away, which only made her redouble her efforts. I swatted furiously at her, much as I would an insect that was swarming around my head. Yes, flailing your arms might make the bee come at you with more fury, but what other reaction could you have when being swarmed? You bat away.

  My resistance sent her into a frenzy. She started raving, talking quickly and incomprehensibly, thrashing me with the laurels.

  “Burn and renew. Flash and flame. Power’s path shall never be the same.”

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I couldn’t let her keep smacking me with the branches. Raphael tried to put himself between us, pushing her away with one arm.

  From behind me, I heard Kai plucking the strings of his lyre. It was a tune similar to the one before but somehow different, like it was adjusted to accomodate this new person. After he went on for a short time, the woman instantly stilled. She listened to his music peacefully, staring at the ground ahead of her.

  After a few moments, she ran the branches of the laurel languidly up and down the sides of her body, alternating their motions. Her movements became graceful, like a dance.

  “Son of stars. Son of dawn. Past obscured. Memory gone.”

  I looked at Raphael, confused. “Whose son is she talking about?”

  The prophecy wasn’t about me, and I didn’t see how it applied to this situation. None of this was bringing us closer to finding the Phos Eos. Frustration welled up inside me.

  “Follow me into the light. Together we will destroy the night.”

  A small nook in the cavern wall began to glow, this time with an amber light, as if a bright fire were burning just inside. She extended her hand, asking us to come with her, and again, I felt a reservation, more like a revulsion. Going with her did not feel right.

  “That isn’t the way, either,” I said. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did.

  Raphael nodded, and Kai stopped playing his song.

  The woman crossed the laurel branches in front of her chest. “What you seek to reveal, you will beg to conceal.” She bowed before us and then cleared the way for us to pass.

  Our little group continued down the pathway, now trailed by both of the seers.

  We descended further into the cave. Yet another woman sat on the floor in the corner, her robes the rich jewel tone of emerald. Her hooded face was partially obscured, and what could be seen was warped by shadows being cast by a candle lit in front of her.

  A black sheet made of silk lay on the floor ahead of her. In her hands was a velvet pouch of a rich green color, much like her robes. She shook the pouch vigorously, the contents inside rattling together. She lay the pouch before her on the black silk, gently untying the top and smoothing the fabric into a flat square. Gemstones, large and rare, glinted in the candlelight, topaz, diamond, garnet, and sapphire, as well as others I didn’t know the names of. She tilted her head, taking in their position. The rocks seemed to be communicating some sort of message to her, but I wasn’t sure how. They looked like gemstones to me, nothing more.

  She held her hand up to the light in such a way that the rocks began casting jewel-toned beams on her left palm, their hues swirling and becoming mottled as a phantom breeze caught and caressed the flame. With her right index finger, she traced the colors on her palm and gazed at them with affection, like a woman tracing the lines of her lover’s face as they slept.

  For the first time, she looked up at us. Using her fingertip, she traced the air in front of her. Sparks flew, leaving a line of illumination. It reminded me of playing with sparklers as a
child. I would try to write out words or make shapes like hearts or stars and make Uncle Julian guess what I was trying to communicate.

  The woman moved her fingertips. Letters appeared and then faded quickly. I couldn’t make out what they said. She looked up at us expectantly but said nothing. Kai took out his instrument and struck three or four notes. The woman’s face melted into a smile. He continued playing, his slow plucking of the strings encouraging her to continue.

  Grabbing two of the gems in her hand, she ran towards us. She placed one stone in my hand, wrapping my fingers tightly around it, and then another in Raphael’s. He raised up his hand and held a diamond in front of him, the candlelight flickering off of it. I uncurled my fingers and looked down. What appeared to be some kind of clear quartz lay in my palm. It was translucent like Raphael’s diamond, but the crystal patterns were different, as mine had a white streak running through it.

  The woman grasped each of our hands, took a deep breath in, then let go. She took a fingertip and placed it on the top of my crystal, then did the same with her other hand and Raphael’s gem. Her eyelids slowly closed, and her body rocked gently. Kai’s playing resounded even louder throughout the cave.

  “Poor Melaina and Daphnis have suffered forsooth. Hark now, hear Kleodora reveal naught but truth.”

  Her voice was lilting, welcoming, inviting. Still, it wasn’t right. I felt like I was being lured in by something false, something disingenuous.

  “You seek the means to light your path, but beware the aftermath. Come with me child, have no fear. He is not what he appears.”

  She raised her finger, pointing to Raphael, then extended her hand to me. A light began glowing in the corner behind her black silk spread, revealing a low passageway the height of a small child. I hesitated, still not trusting her. I wasn’t going to abandon Raphael and the rest of my party to go with her, even if I did believe her. Her hand waved at me, beckoning me to come with her quickly.

  “Now is the time to forego lust. Flee the peril. Away, we must.”

  Again, I felt a sense of dread, like that way forward wasn’t the one for me, although I was tempted by the idea of running away from the danger she was trying to warn me about. I looked at Raphael and shook my head.

  “We keep going,” he said to the others.

  We descended further and further down, with all three women trailing behind us now.

  At the base of the cave, a small chasm was carved into the rock floor. Flickers of light and vapors crept up from beneath, giving me the eerie feeling that we were at the center of the earth, although I knew that to be impossible.

  A woman sat atop a wooden stool, its legs straddling the rift below her. Smooth skin peeked out from beneath her clothing, which barely obscured her nakedness. Her long crimson robe fell around her bare legs, the last bits of fabric obscured as they sank into the steamy gash in the ground below. A sickly sweet scent, like flowers that had gone past their prime, hung in the air.

  The hood of her robe had fallen low over her forehead, obscuring her eyes, and her ruby red lips matched the hue of her clothing. A grim set to her tightly clamped mouth gave the impression that she was silent and would remain so.

  I looked into the pit, and I noticed a pot lying on a ledge of rock beneath. It was made of thick black metal and looked like a witch’s cauldron. Hot coals filled the inside, the glowing orange squares pulsating with heat. The young woman, the dreamy one, walked over to a small bucket in the corner. She pulled a long ladle from it and walked to the chasm, casting the ladle’s liquid onto the coals below. Steam billowed up, giving the room a more medicinal smell, the vapors visibly bursting upward with great speed.

  The seated woman began swaying in place, a small circular motion that gradually became more pronounced. Her legs began caressing the stool, writhing up and down, up and down, her bare feet curling around the wooden legs. It all seemed extremely sexual, and I felt a bit like I was intruding on something intimate.

  The other three seers began swaying similarly, all of them moaning, moving in coordination with one another.

  Suddenly, the seated woman’s movements became more erratic, her torso and shoulders jerking in various directions. For a moment, it looked like she might fall off of her stool into the chasm below. I wanted to reach out to her, to help her, but Raphael placed his hand on my shoulder, holding me back.

  Kai took up his instrument once again. He began playing, but this time, the song was different.

  The woman’s hood fell down onto her shoulders as she threw her head back, revealing her black hair lightly streaked with grey. Around fifty years old, she looked beautiful and severe. Her words came out in a melodic trance, like a song being written as the breeze itself forms and flows over your body.

  She sang to us.

  You have come to our soil, with a man dear to the heavens.

  You have come in self-interest, with impure intentions.

  You have come in haste, with death on your path.

  You have come to find your history, but you ask far too much.

  You are going to the land of light, but you bring darkness.

  You are looking for the light, but you must look in the dark.

  You are seeking the means to avoid war, but you bring war with you.

  You are seeking what is hidden by others, but the path is hidden in you.

  You shall found a people, if return you do.

  You shall tear down walls, but you open doors.

  You shall create a land, a sky, but also a bridge.

  You shall know peace, but peace you shall break.

  When she had finished singing, she began moaning once again, along with the other three women. This strange pronouncement didn’t sound anything like what I was looking for either. I was beginning to get disheartened, thinking that the visit to the oracle had all been a huge mistake. These lines, like the ones from the other women, were not only cryptic, they were pointless.

  A scream rent the air, but I wasn’t sure who had released it. It sounded like it had come from afar, like the airy shriek of a banshee. A scream that was a memory more than real. It chilled me to the bone.

  I noticed that Kai had stopped playing his lyre.

  The moaning abruptly stopped.

  Each woman looked at me directly, staring me down.

  They all began to speak in unison, pointing at me.

  “Three lies and one truth. Many truths and one fiction. Choose, you must. Choose, you must.”

  Oh, no.

  This had turned into something horrifying.

  It sounded like I had to select the true prophecy, the one that came from the real Oracle of Apollo. This was not what I had expected. I thought that I would take the prophecy back to the temple, the priest and the officiants would help me decipher it, I would understand where I needed to go and what I had to do, and then we could go about our journey. I didn’t expect to be put on the spot.

  If I had to choose the right prophecy on my own, I wasn’t sure that I would make the correct choice. Still, I felt in my heart that the paths that these first three women had shown me were not the way. I felt compelled not to follow them. Their lighted exits felt dangerous, but I wasn’t sure about their words. I didn’t have the same sense of unease from what they had said. Just confusion.

  I had to think this through. I recalled that the jewel reader had mentioned their names, the names of the first three seers, and they were unexpected. I thought back to Eryx and his blunder. He had told me that the oracle’s name was Phemonoe. As best I could recall, nothing the jewel reader had said sounded like Phemonoe, but my memory wasn’t known for being the most accurate. A lot had been thrown at me in this cave, and I wasn’t sure that I could recall it all correctly.

  Also, Eryx had also told me to trust my feelings, not my mind. But my mind told me the last seer was the true oracle, and my guts did as well. What the heck was I supposed to do if my feelings and my brain agreed? Trust both? Trust neither?

  The o
nly thing that made sense was to go with what my whole body was telling me. The last woman was the oracle. The first three, whatever abilities they might have, were not the ones I was here to consult.

  They all stared at me expectantly, awaiting my decision with outstretched hands. I assumed I was meant to take one of them, holding their hand in my own, their prophecies guiding my way.

  I walked to the crimson robed woman, the last seer. I extended my hand to her, my fingertips lightly touching her own.

  “I choose the Pythia. Phemonoe.”

  Unrestrained anger and hatred crossed the faces of the three other women.

  They cast off their robes, their bodies revealing wings like insects, their bottoms possessing stingers like bees. They began circling us, screeching and hissing, and the cacophony soon started to sound like a buzz.

  “You dare choose her? The lower being? She who learned her gifts from us?” They piled on their questions, speaking as one train of thought.

  I nodded, certain with my choice now.

  “We offered you safety, love, and friendship. Now, we can only offer you pain.”

  The three women, terrifying bee hybrids, rushed towards us.

  15

  The frenzied women brushed me with their wings, and I could feel the sharpness of them beneath my own robes. Raphael and the others tried to get in between us, attempting to focus the seers’ fury away from me.

  Their attacks still came on strong. There was no way that I could take on three such powerful creatures. I had no idea what they were or how to combat them.

  Bee creatures? Seriously? I felt like I was in the middle of the midnight B-movie of the week.

  Thinking quickly, I took off my robe, wadding it into a ball. I ran over to the chasm by the Pythia and lowered the robe inside. The beautiful fabric touched the cauldron of hot coals. I held it there, but nothing happened. It wasn’t hot enough. I closed my eyes and focused, willing the heat from the coals to spread into a full-blown flame. I felt a surge of energy, and new heat licked my face. When I opened my eyes, flames from the fire had begun to consume my robe. I ran to the bucket by the corner, grabbing the ladle. Returning to the chasm, I used it to fish my robes out of the cauldron and place them on the ground beside me. Turning the fabric into a great heap, I poured the water out of the bucket onto the ground, and then used the bucket to cover the fabric.