by Bill Hiatt
Nervous as I was about Dark Zeus, the best we could do from where we were was blast the nearest skeletons with lightning. If the guys could at least get back to a safer position, and if we could keep the skeletons off Athena and Poseidon, Apollo would be free to come and get us back on our feet.
With Ares and Cronus down, and with Dark Zeus, Poseidon, and Hecate all occupied, that strategy might have worked.
However, at just the moment when I was beginning to feel optimistic, I sensed a weird tremor in the network. Looking over at Magnus, we saw him slump down, unconscious. With Tal also out, the network collapsed, as did the shield. Hecate could pick off our now-unprotected comrades relatively easily.
“What do we do now?” I asked Changó. Even without the network, I could still communicate with him.
“Crawl toward that magic instrument,” he said. “I would have much preferred a drum, but that will have to do.”
With only one working limb, even crawling was more than we could do easily, but we had no choice. Having to be inconspicuous about it made the task even worse, but we couldn’t afford to draw the attention of Hecate—or the skeletons, for that matter.
Trying to forget the pain, I focused on something positive. As far as I could tell, Tal was still alive, which meant Changó and I, though we had failed to engage Dark Zeus himself, had changed the flow of the battle enough to save Tal. That plus our other contributions suggested that awakening my past self had been worth the risk.
One thing still bugged me, though.
What had happened to Magnus?
Chapter 21: Unexpected Sacrifice (Eva)
It didn’t take a military genius to see we were in trouble. When I saw Magnus fall, I knew the situation would go from tough to desperate. Artemis and I had been firing on the skeletons in an effort to help the guys extract Shar, but I took a quick look around to see if I could figure out what had caused Magnus’s collapse.
It didn’t take me more than half a minute to spot Nicneven, her gray robe barely visible at the far end of the room.
When Tal had set Magnus up to shut down if Nicneven appeared so that she couldn’t order him to betray us, I doubt it had occurred to Tal that she might show up in the middle of combat. True, she couldn’t recruit Magnus for her side, but she wouldn’t need to now. Without him, we were bound to lose anyway.
I explained the situation to Artemis, who looked grim but was not about to give up.
“Perhaps if we can eliminate this Nicneven, we can revive Magnus,” she suggested.
“I don’t know if that’s the way the spell on him works or not,” I admitted. “Neither she nor Hecate are under any kind of pressure now, though, and with their combined spell-casting abilities, they could make our defeat inevitable. We probably should do something to keep them busy.”
“They are too distant to hit with arrows,” said Artemis, squinting. “Either we need to lure them closer, or we need to try to move in their direction. I would not recommend that second course of action.”
Since neither one of us could figure out a decent way to lure them to us, we started shooting again at the skeletons, who were becoming more and more numerous.
Erato, one of the muses who knew how to play the lyre, took it from Magnus’s limp hands and started to strum it. Given a few minutes, she might figure out how to get strong magic out of it.
Who could tell? Maybe we actually had a few minutes, though I doubted it.
Nicneven was nowhere to be seen, but Hecate made her presence known by lobbing another boulder. This time we were completely unprotected, but a lightning bolt from whoever Lucas was now shattered the boulder just as it was descending toward us. Our team got sprayed with hot rock fragments, and there were injuries, but at least no one was crushed.
I looked over at Lucas, who seemed to be trying to crawl in our direction. He looked back, his eyes begging me to help, though he said nothing.
Artemis and I, together with Hestia and Gabriela, risked running, picking him up, and carrying him back. We got him back just in time for him to explode another boulder for us. Gabriela naturally wanted to fuss over him, but whoever was inside him asked her to step back in such a forceful tone that she obeyed, her eyes filled with wonder.
Artemis squinted again. “Hecate is slowing down, else we would all have been crushed by now.”
“The shadow-assassin poison on Umbra’s weapon,” I said. “Hecate’s probably much more resistant to it than a human, but maybe it’s starting to affect her.”
“Let us hope,” said Artemis, as she returned to picking off as many skeletons as she could.
I should have starting shooting again, too, but I wanted to figure out a way to make Lucas’s situation bearable. Gabriela had not been successful, but perhaps if I approached more tactfully, I would be allowed to help. As I leaned over him, though, I had the oddest feeling: an overwhelming desire to make love to him.
“Stop it!” I demanded, figuring that whoever was in him now must be doing it.
For a minute Lucas looked back out through his eyes. “Sorry, Changó lost control of his natural attractiveness for a minute. I’ve gotten him to dial it back.”
Under other circumstances, that would have been funny.
“I need that instrument,” muttered Lucas, but I could tell from the difference in tone it was really this Changó speaking.
Artemis called Erato over, and she and the other muses came, bringing the lyre.
“Even maimed as I am, I can summon more power if I can invoke it through music,” said Changó. He made a pathetic attempt to play the lyre, as if he had forgotten that one of his arms was broken.
“Let us play together,” suggested Erato. That took effort, but somehow they synchronized what they were doing well enough to create passable music.
“Do any of you dance?” asked Changó. Terpsichore, the muse of dance, stepped forward gracefully.
“Please dance for me,” he said. She looked confused until he explained that he might be able to draw some power from her dancing, as he was unable to dance himself. Once Terpsichore knew what was needed, she started to dance in rhythm to the lyre. Without asking, Gabriela joined in, and Changó did not complain.
Miraculously, Hecate had not attacked again. I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected she was having a hard time fighting off the poison, and Nicneven must have been helping her.
That gave us a little breathing space, but no more, as the sounds of combat all around us never let me forget for a second.
“What are you going to do with that power?” I asked. Lucas’s face looked so pained I didn’t see how he or Changó could even manage to stay conscious.
“Invoke one of my fellow Orichas, Erinlè, the Oricha of healing. She should not come to this world, but perhaps she will in such odd circumstances.”
“If she asks for entry, I will admit her,” said Hestia, who seemed relieved to have something to do.
However, when the time came, Erinlè did not answer Changó’s call.
“I cannot tell whether she will not heed the call or cannot hear it. I must find another way to get back the use of this arm and these legs.”
“Changó, Apollo can heal you,” I said, “but he has all he can do to keep our fighters from collapsing.”
Changó wasn’t in the best position, but he made an effort to blast the skeletons again, finally managing to clear a path that would at least enable the guys to draw back to their original positions. That was hardly the whole solution to our problem, but at least it was a start.
Changó, looking increasingly more pained, managed to keep the skeletons at bay long enough for Apollo to tend to the worst wounds. I noticed that even Shar was at least conscious. Jimmie gave me a thumbs-up, which made me feel better. Then Hestia brought Apollo over to us, while Changó shot as much lightning as he could manage to prevent our partially healed fighters from being overwhelmed.
I looked around again. Hades and Athena were looking worn down, but so was Poseidon. That
part of the battle looked at least stable. Hecate and Nicneven had still not resurfaced, which I was willing to take as good news. As for Dark Zeus, by some miracle Khalid and Hermes seemed to still have him occupied, though I couldn’t tell exactly what was happening.
“I need to be on my feet,” insisted Changó. “I need to be able to dance.”
“Even healing such as I can do is not instantaneous,” said Apollo patiently. “I can mend bone and muscle, but you will not be able to use your limbs well for a while.”
“What if Changó could generate more power from the lyre and the dance?” I asked. “Could you heal him faster?”
“Hermes is better at working that Celtic kind of power sharing,” admitted Apollo, “but perhaps—if we are left alone long enough.”
That might be a difficult request to satisfy, especially if Changó needed to keep the skeletons back with lightning. In an attempt to avoid that, Artemis and I moved somewhat farther forward and kept up a constant stream of arrows. The guys, still much the worse for wear, had some clue what was happening and did their best to contain the skeletons. Reinforced by Hephaestus, Dionysus, and Hercules, they had at least a chance.
Aphrodite, wanting to reach Eros but realizing she couldn’t, came over and somewhat tearfully offered to help however she could. Apollo made a crude but effective attempt to revive the network and to set up power sharing with those who were not in immediate combat. He didn’t have the same resources Magnus had in the beginning, but he pronounced them sufficient to accelerate the healing in the way Changó wanted.
Changó continued to play the lyre with Erato while Terpsichore and Gabriela danced. Nonmagical as I was, I could feel the power surging from all this activity. So could Apollo, whose now glowing hands had already begun the work of healing Lucas’s shattered limbs.
We might just have a chance.
I was allowed to think that for a few minutes. Then I heard Magnus’s voice behind me.
“What’s happening?” he asked me groggily.
I turned around, thinking Nicneven must be gone. Then, before I had a chance to say anything to the dazed Magnus, I heard her voice and knew she must be standing somewhere nearby, invisible. Anybody who could have detected her was completely absorbed in healing Lucas.
“I invoke your tynged and order you to kill Eva!” she demanded.
Magnus’s face froze in horror. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Artemis spun around and tried to hit Nicneven with an arrow, but the faerie ex-queen of Scotland must have been too quick for her. The arrow hit nothing, and I could tell from Artemis’s expression that she couldn’t figure out where Nicneven was now.
I realized I should have been moving. Magnus was fighting the order; I could see that from the growing agony in his face. Still, I knew he would eventually have to give in, and if I was standing right in front of him, he would certainly kill me. I started to run toward the guys, figuring I might need to touch Zom to evade Magnus’s spells.
Why had Nicneven ordered him to kill me? Lucas was a far more important target, and he was lying semihelpless while Apollo healed him. Arguably, almost anyone there had more importance to the outcome of the battle than I did.
Then the truth hit me like a brick. This was not about strategy. It was about revenge. Nicneven was punishing Magnus for not having tried to return to her when he learned she was still alive, for joining forces with us.
“I…will…not!” he yelled, dropping to his knees, every muscle tensed as if he were receiving a strong electric shock. “I…refuse!”
I was still close enough to see his face when he looked in my direction. He couldn’t speak at that moment, but somehow he mouthed, “I love you.”
Then he simply exploded, his body spraying outward as it disintegrated.
Once, I would have been delighted with that outcome. Now it horrified me.
It wasn’t that I loved him. Still, there had been something about him in these last days, something almost worth loving. He had been robbed of his chance to get to the end of that journey.
In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to put an arrow through Nicneven’s heart.
I supposed that normally defying a tynged that way would have utterly destroyed the person involved. In this case it broke the spell sustaining Magnus and released poor Robin Goodfellow, who looked more stunned than anything else. Fortunately, he had not died for Magnus’s defiance.
“Keep going!” demanded Apollo. The performers went shakily back into action.
At least they did until we heard Khalid’s scream. Then everything stopped. Even Apollo was jolted away from his work by that heart-piercing cry.
Chapter 22: Unexpected Company (Tal)
“Let me in!”
I couldn’t tell who was speaking or remember what had been happening. I felt as if I were at the bottom of a very deep, very dark hole, and someone was shouting to me from somewhere far above.
“Let me in!”
I still couldn’t place the voice, but I began to remember the battle I’d been in. I needed to get all the way back to consciousness fast. The fact that I still seemed to be alive meant we hadn’t lost yet, but we might at any moment. I had no idea how long I’d been out.
“Boy Scout! Let me in!”
“Magnus?”
“I’ll be…I’m dead.”
“What?”
“Dead! But you promised you’d help me get a new body, remember?”
“I…remember.” My thoughts were as disjointed as a jigsaw puzzle someone had scattered out of spite and then stolen half the pieces. “But if you’re dead—”
“If you take me inside of you, you can prevent me from passing on until I get that body.”
My first reaction was to say “Good riddance!” How long had I wanted Dark Me to cease to exist? His stolen life had haunted me for weeks.
“I can help!” he shouted.
I struggled to keep my thoughts in some kind of coherent stream. He had been different lately—but letting him in might risk his taking over my body.
For a moment I almost lost consciousness. I knew passing out now would probably mean death—for me and for Magnus, if he was being honest about his current situation. I started clawing my way back from the abyss. I felt as if I were making progress, but with agonizing slowness. Probably I was moving back toward consciousness more rapidly than I realized, but even losing a few seconds could mean losing the battle—and my life.
It’s funny how the mind picks up random details. Just as I felt more in control, I heard buzzing somewhere nearby.
Flies! First in Tartarus, where they couldn’t have survived. Now here, on Olympus, though I didn’t remember ever noticing flies before. Why hadn’t they all died in the maelstrom of magic that surrounded them?
A scream pierced my shadowy awareness. Someone was in trouble.
“Tal, please!”
In my present, weakened condition, Magnus had a better-than-even chance of seizing control of my body. Particularly if he had lost Robin’s, taking mine would have been just like him.
He had been different lately, though. He really had.
I didn’t know if I truly had started to trust him, or if I was too disoriented to make a good decision if my life depended on it—which it very well might. I was probably being an idiot, but something about his tone made me feel sorry for him. I rolled the dice and let him in.
“You’re a wreck!” said Magnus as soon as he was within me. “I’ll see if I can start your healing. Everybody needs you—and fast.”
Well, so far, so good. He’d gotten through a few seconds without trying to hijack my body, anyway.
I started to open my eyes.
“Better to play dead until you’re ready to fight,” Magnus cautioned me. “You’re only a few feet away from Dark Zeus, Hecate is somewhere around—and, Tal, Nicneven’s here. She’s why I died.”
“How? Did…she attack…while you were unconscious?”
“No, she mus
t have undone the spell that kept me shut down. She woke me up and ordered me to kill Eva.”
For a second I saw those events through Magnus’s eyes, felt the rending agony he went through when he refused Nicneven’s order.
If he wasn’t fooling me, he had given up his life for Eva.
If he had still been physical, I would have hugged him.
“I’m having a hard time getting anything done,” said Magnus. “Link up, and let’s work on this together.”
I had difficulty even managing a link with another consciousness in my own body, but once Magnus and I were in sync, it wasn’t hard to begin putting our combined energy toward healing.
As my body began regenerating, I left the details to Magnus and tried reaching out with my mind. Chaos seemed to be everywhere. There was so much magic in the air that in my weakened condition, I couldn’t tell what was happening.
“Who screamed?” I asked. That seemed so far in the past now, but it might have been just a few seconds ago.
“Khalid,” Magnus replied. “And no, I don’t know what happened to him.”
The idea that Khalid might be dead was worse than the pain I was feeling. I had to get up, to do something. Maybe—
“What you have to do is get healed enough to do Khalid or anyone else any good,” warned Magnus sternly. “All you’ll accomplish otherwise is your own death.”
Another scream echoed in my head, but not Khalid’s. One of the Olympians, maybe.
I heard Magnus cursing—never a good sign.
“Dark Zeus just nailed Hermes. He’s going to remember you any minute and check to see if you’re dead. Your body isn’t strong enough yet to run away, much less fight him.”
“What—”
“Umbra is somewhere nearby. See if she’s still alive. If she is, see if she can shadow sweep us out of here.”
It was hard to concentrate, but I tried. I could sense Dark Zeus, then Nicneven, then Hecate, all nearby. Finally my scan brushed across Umbra.
“Alive, but unconscious,” I told him.