“In what way?”
“In that nothing will ever be the same,” he said. “For reasons beyond my comprehension, not only has Achlys aided the gorgon but Nyx as well. Neither acts without purpose or measured steps.”
Poseidon set his jaw and hummed to himself. “Agreed, but we’ve spoken on all of this already. This is the best choice we have.”
Zeus drummed his fingers on the handle of his ax, smirking at himself. His brother’s insight was far beyond such simple deflection. “Have I ruled unjustly?” he asked, eyes still staring far away.
“I think this is a test of your rule like no other you’ve faced,” he said. “A wife in chains. A daughter in prison. An armorer petrified. Any king would have doubts, and it’s only the one who would not doubt that would see his kingdom stripped away, for he would never find his faults and correct them.”
“Then what faults do I have that led to this?”
Poseidon clapped his brother on the back of his shoulder. “Honestly, each of them are right to a certain degree,” he said, much to Zeus’s shock.
Despite his brother’s sincerity and the fact that he had asked the question in the first place, fires of indignation lit his soul. “A certain degree?”
Poseidon nodded, not faltering or backing away. “Your affairs took their toll on your wife. There’s no denying that,” he said. “And all of us cast Hephaestus out of the city, and no matter how right that was, we were all fools to think that would snuff out his ambitions.”
Zeus went to speak, but Poseidon held up his hand and continued. “None of that, however, means they were right in what they did,” he said. “The same goes for Athena and Euryale. The gorgon had her chance to tell us what we needed to know, as you pointed out, and she paid the consequence. That, in turn, showed us her true character, her true loyalties.”
“And you’d say Athena’s as well?”
“Your daughter is young still, though she’d like to think otherwise,” Poseidon said, shaking his head. “I suspect she feels guilty and indebted to the gorgon after what she suffered at the hands of Arachne and Typhon. No doubt, the encounter has left her second-guessing herself as well. What she needs is time.”
The anger that had built in Zeus’s heart faded as he mulled his brother’s words. “And the gorgon?” he finally asked. “Does she need time as well?”
“Perhaps,” Poseidon said. “But that might not be something she’s able to be given any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“She declared war on Olympus and all who stand with you,” he said. “Will you continue to give her a chance to repent right up until she takes your head from your shoulders?”
That was a question Zeus didn’t have to think on for very long to answer. “No,” he said, clenching a fist. “I won’t. As you said, she had her chance, and if it’s a war she wants, it’s a war she’ll get. Swift and terrible.”
“Then we should set our trap while we still can.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Not here,” Zeus said, driving the chariot forward. “I have a much better spot in mind.”
The God of the Sea held fast and pointed at the entrance to the path with his trident. “An ambush favors us at this spot,” he said. “You said so yourself back at Olympus.”
“I know.”
“Then…” Poseidon’s voice trailed. “There’s another way out of Chaos?”
Zeus nodded.
“You suspect another traitor?”
Zeus nodded again.
“Who?”
“That’s what we’re about to find out.”
* * *
“How?” Euryale managed to get that out relatively quickly. But it wasn’t until Artemis dropped from the ceiling and was halfway to the gorgon that she managed to get out the rest. “I mean…how? How did you find us?”
“Zeus found you,” Artemis said. When Stheno’s face went from shock to rage in the blink of an eye, she was quick to explain. “He and Apollo went scrying with the letter you sent. They know everything and turned Olympus against you—or rather, most of Olympus. We’re here to help, obviously, as are Athena and Aphrodite.”
Euryale cursed before forcing herself to calm. She certainly knew her declaration of war wouldn’t have led to anything else, but still, she hadn’t dreamed he’d find her here in Chaos. She’d still been operating under the delusion that she could save her daughter before any of this came to a head. “Where is he?”
“Setting up an ambush for you at the start of the pass,” she said. “He’s with Poseidon.”
“How exactly do you know all this?” Stheno asked, eyeing the goddess with suspicion.
“Zeus called a council telling everyone of your treachery shortly before he left,” she explained. “Ares and I were supposed to stay behind. Obviously, we didn’t.”
Euryale’s stomach knotted with worry, and her tail rattled with unease. “Where’s Alex? Is he safe?”
“He’s right—”
“Up here,” Alex finished, looking down from the hole in the ceiling with spear and aegis in hand. He then dropped down as Artemis and Ares had, though much more winded than either of them had been.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “Have you ever tried to keep up with an Olympian before in a foot race? In the mountains to Chaos no less?”
Euryale shot across the cave and pounced her husband, wrapping him in arms and tail, and smothering him with kisses until Stheno cleared her throat.
“Zeus?” she said. “Maybe we should get back to discussing that little dilemma.”
“As I said, he’s setting up an ambush at the entrance to the pass as we speak,” Artemis said. “I can get us around that without him knowing, once you’ve gotten what you’ve risked so much to get.”
Euryale slowly let go of Alex and motioned toward the mouth of the cave. “It’s right out there,” she said. “But that’s only half of it. We still need a way to restore Cassandra.”
“I’ve got that handled,” Alex said.
“You got Hera to help?” Euryale said before wrapping him up once again and squeezing him tight. “What did she want?”
“Practically everything,” Alex said with a snort. “But hey, I talked Ares down to paintball, remember? Trust me. I talked her down, too.”
“What does she want, Alex?” Euryale pressed.
Alex sighed. “I can’t say to anyone. It’s part of the deal.”
“Alex, she can’t be trusted.”
“I know,” he replied. “But I have her oaths, and they’re as binding as any others.” Alex paused to glance over his wife’s shoulder and looked to Ares, who was only somewhat paying attention to their conversation. Most of his attention was on Stheno, even if most of hers was not on him. “I promise it will work out in the end,” he said.
Alex sighed heavily and slumped when she continued to give him a wary look. “Okay, I can probably be vague without the Moirae obliterating me. Let’s just say a certain queen wants a certain king to feel emasculated when his prized possession ends up stolen and effectively destroyed, but not before its power is drained to say, help someone else,” he said. “And a certain queen might want to raze someone else’s house as well. And on a completely unrelated subject, how would you feel about living somewhere a little more tropical? I hear the Virgin Islands are nice.”
Euryale sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Oh, this is going to get messy.”
Alex frowned but said no more.
“How are we supposed to get that from him, anyway?”
Alex hitched a thumb. “I have Hephaestus’s net back at the chariot. I was thinking we could ambush his ambush and take it.”
“And then ruin it,” Stheno said. Her face soured, and she turned to Euryale. “No, we can’t do that. There has to be another way. Think of all we could do with a weapon that powerful.”
“I don’t care about that stupid thing. All I want is our daughter back.”
“Bu
t—”
Euryale shot her a glare. “We don’t need it.”
“Alright, alright,” Stheno said, laughing. “You’re right. We don’t need it. But at least let me be the one to destroy it. That’s only fair.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to gloat. Why else?”
“Consider your wish granted, then,” Euryale said, smiling.
“Now that that’s settled,” Alex cut in. “Where’s the flower?”
“Right over here,” she said, leading him to the mouth of the cavern.
Alex laughed once he peered over the edge. “Damn. It is right here. That was easy.”
“Says the husband who showed up at the end,” Euryale teased. She then carefully started to make her descent. “Be right back.”
“Watch yourself. That’s a long way down.”
“Believe me, I know,” Euryale said. Though she still could feel her incessant fear of heights clawing at her soul, with Alex there, with a way to restore Cassandra in hand, it didn’t feel as dreadful as it had before, and in no time, she reached the small ledge, taking care not to actually touch the plant, per Nyx’s instructions.
“How about that?” she said, huffing with pride. “I did it.”
“Never doubted you for a second.”
Stheno appeared next to Alex and called down to her. “Mind the roots!”
Euryale nodded, though she’d already replayed Nyx’s instructions a dozen times in her head. Petals were lethal. The stem was forever paralytic, and even the slightest damage to the roots would greatly hasten how fast it would wilt—which wasn’t very long to begin with and was something that, if it happened in its entirety, would render the plant useless.
“I will. Give me a moment,” Euryale said. When she crouched down for a better look and her hands grew a nervous twitch, she muttered under her breath. “Or twenty.”
The gorgon took in a long, slow breath and thought of Cassandra, of her bright smile, her melodic laugh, all the dreams she’d shared with her, and all the dreams she had yet to realize. All of that steadied Euryale’s nerves, and she began to carefully use a claw to scrape around the mountain soil.
The work proved tedious and slow. Though Euryale had tried to give as much of a wide berth to the root system as possible, the ledge was narrow, and the soil shallow. Time and again, she’d scrape away a few grains of dirt to find she’d almost nicked a root cap or split a hair. Each time, her heart skipped a beat.
Finally, after the Fates knew how long, Euryale eased back with a cautious smile on her face. “I think I got it,” she said as she pulled one of the leather sacks that Nyx had given her off her waist. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Alex said. “And may the Force be with you.”
Euryale paused and shot him an inquisitive look. “The what?”
Alex laughed and shook his head. “Never mind. Just a movie quote.”
“Right, then here goes nothing,” Euryale said, returning to the task at hand.
Carefully, she slipped the leather bag over the plant, being sure she didn’t inadvertently brush any of it with her fingers. Once it was completely inside, she grasped the plant with the pouch and gently lifted it out of the soil.
The flower came free without protest, and then it was simply a turn right-side-up to get it all the way in.
“I did it,” Euryale said, sinking against the wall and exhaling sharply. “I actually did it.”
“Of course, you did,” Stheno said. “Stop acting surprised and get up here.”
Euryale was about to look for her first handhold when her eye caught the glint of something white near her tail. She squinted at first, unsure what it was, but when she drew near, her breath left her.
The tiniest sliver of a root remained in the soil, and when Euryale frantically opened the bag she carried, she could already see that one of the petals of the hemalander was turning brown.
Chapter An Inevitable Meeting
“Damn it!” Euryale cried, feeling her throat tighten. She fought off the tears and scrambled up the rock to rejoin the others. “I broke a tip!”
“That’s bad?” asked Alex.
“That’s bad,” Stheno replied before directing her question to Euryale. “How long do we have?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Not long. It’s dying already.”
“Then we’d best hurry,” Artemis interjected. “Can you make it back to your chariot?”
Euryale nodded. “The tunnels are straightforward enough.”
“Good. Then make haste. Ares and I will bring our chariots and meet you there. We can then all leave together.” With that, the goddess broke into a trot before bounding out of the hole in the ceiling, Ares following right behind.
Euryale didn’t waste any time leaving, either. She raced across the cave, sped through the tunnels, and at the end, descended the cliff with a speed that would raise an eyebrow of Hermes himself. She flew down the pass and reached her chariot even faster. There, next to hers, stood Alex’s with his pair of ponies at the yoke, and on the other side, was a massive war chariot made of steel and bronze, complete with spiked wheels, armored sides, and four warhorses, six feet at the shoulder, with fiery manes and giant hooves that could probably shatter boulders with ease. Inside that chariot, Artemis and Ares were patiently waiting.
Euryale’s spirits lifted seeing the two, thankful she wouldn’t need to wait. And as she climbed into her own chariot and scrambled for the reins, only then did she look back to see if Stheno and Alex were following.
They were.
“You weren’t going to leave without us, were you?” Alex chuckled as he hopped into his own.
Euryale’s face held no amusement. “Maybe.”
“You were?”
“Just you,” Stheno said, taking her place at Euryale’s side.
“Okay, Artemis,” Euryale said, not wanting to delay any longer. “Lead the way.”
The goddess nodded, and with her instruction on where to go, Ares sped off. His horses blazed a familiar path through the mountains, their hooves beating on the rock so hard and fast, had the gorgon not been there to see it firsthand, by the sound alone she’d have sworn a stampede of a thousand heads thundered through the pass.
After only a few minutes of racing back the way they’d originally come, Ares veered to the side, taking a winding path with a half dozen switchbacks. It ran alongside the lower mountain pass for about a mile before shooting off to the side and into territory they’d not seen before.
This path felt similar to the original at first, but quickly became more treacherous with numerous drops and a layer of thunderheads hanging above it that felt as if they were practically within arm’s reach. Inside the clouds, flashes could be seen, and thunder could be heard. How deadly those clouds would be had yet to be seen, but Euryale was certain every second they spent under them was one too many.
This little fact was accentuated when bolts of lightning exploded the ground next to them, spooking the horses and sending Euryale’s already stressed nerves into overdrive.
The three chariots rounded another corner when the path suddenly took a sharp dive, taxing all of Euryale’s skill at the reins not to end her travels in disaster. Down they went, hammering over rock and crack, bouncing in their chariots and off one another, in what was little more than a controlled crash to the bottom.
Her chariot skipped off the ground once they reached the end of the steep slope, Stheno clutching the rails to stay onboard and nearly losing her spear in the process.
“Let’s not—”
A colossal bolt of lightning cut Stheno off. It streaked through the air, striking the lead pair of horses on Ares’s chariot, before jumping to the back two and finally passing through Artemis herself. As the animals collapsed in a smoldering heap, overturning the chariot and throwing its occupants, a second, smaller bolt ripped by.
This next one missed Ares by a foot but found its mark when it grazed one of Alex’s ponies in th
e shoulder. The animal jumped and reared, toppling the cart and throwing Alex, and before he could recover, his ponies ran off in the opposite direction, taking the chariot with them.
“To the right!” Stheno yelled, grabbing Euryale’s arms and yanking down on the reins for all she was worth.
The chariot veered to the side, smashing into a small alcove into the mountainous wall right as a third streak of lightning shot by. For a few tense seconds, Euryale kept absolutely still, unsure what was going on, but then a thunderous voice called out to her—a thunderous voice she knew and abhorred.
“Gorgon!” Zeus yelled. “At least have the decency to face justice with your head held high!”
Euryale growled and dared a peek. The path they were on opened up onto a wide plateau with a few house-sized boulders scattered across it. Standing on one of the boulders to the left was Poseidon, trident in hand, eyes full of determination, while Zeus stood off to the right on another. The Ruler of Olympus held the ax with one hand, keeping it resting on his shoulder, while his other gripped another bolt of lightning.
“There’s nowhere for you to run, Euryale,” he said. “Don’t make your friends pay for your treachery more than they already have.”
Instead of answering, Euryale surveyed the others. Ares had scrambled behind a rock, spear ready, face hardened, muscles taut. Artemis, on the other hand, lay unmoving several yards away, her clothes scorched black and smoke drifting off her skin. Alex, thankfully, hadn’t shared her fate. He took cover behind another boulder, and while he didn’t look quite as eager to square off against Zeus and Poseidon, he did have his shield and spear in hand.
“I’m not going to tell you again,” Zeus yelled. “Surrender and spare the others your fate.”
“I’m going to rip your head off and stick it on a pike!” Stheno shouted back.
Zeus replied with a bolt of lightning, but it wasn’t aimed near any of them. It struck the mountain high above their position, sending chunks of rock raining down. A particularly hefty chunk landed near Ares, who promptly scooped it up and hurtled it at Zeus’s head. The rock failed to connect, but his aim was true enough, and the missile flew fast enough, that it sent Zeus ducking for cover.
A Storm of Blood and Stone (Myths of Stone Book 3) Page 27