by Linsey Hall
“Throw it in my chasm!” the Oracle screeched. This time, she sounded female. And pissed off. “Don’t you dare throw garbage in my chasm.”
Okay, that was an odd choice of words. “We won’t! Will you come out and help us?”
“Will it make you leave me alone? And not attack my statues on the way out?”
“Definitely,” I said.
“Fine,” the Oracle grumbled.
In front of us, the air shimmered with a blue sheen. It grew darker and darker as a figure coalesced from the mist that rose up from the chasm. She was indeed female, and looked to be roughly eight hundred years old. She wore a velour track suit and sat in a ghostly armchair.
She scowled at us, her eyes bright. “You’re interrupting my stories. Now, what do you want?”
“You watch soaps?” I wouldn’t have pegged the ancient Oracle for a soap watcher.
“Of course I watch my stories. Who doesn’t watch the soaps?”
“I do, of course,” Maximus said. “I’m particular to All My Children.”
“That’s been off the air for years!”
“Older episodes, of course.” He delivered the line so smoothly that I bought it. And hey, maybe he did watch soaps, though I doubted it. Not much time for TV when you were pulling double duty at the Order and the Protectorate.
The Oracle grumbled. “I suppose it was fine, but I’m really more interested in General Hospital.”
“That’s a good one, too.” The corner of Maximus’s lip crept up, as if he were trying not to laugh. His shoulders convulsed just slightly.
Oh, shit. He was trying not to laugh.
“So, Oracle,” I said, hoping to distract her from the fact that Maximus definitely had no idea what he was talking about and that his charade was collapsing. “We were hoping you could tell us about Atlas. We want to help him, but we can’t find him.”
She shook her head. “Paranoid ninny, with his bolt holes and hidey holes and all the rest of it. Those gods sure did a number on him.”
“It sounds like the titans got a really raw deal,” I said.
“No, they didn’t do well after the war. Atlas and Prometheus were the lucky ones. The rest of the poor bastards ended up in Tartarus.” She settled back, getting comfy. “Now, don’t get me wrong. A more murderous and dangerous bunch of evil giants I’ve never met. They should be locked up. But Prometheus and Atlas weren’t so bad.”
“Can you help us find him?” Maximus said. “We think he’s sick. We need to help him, like Dr. Quartermaine would do.”
“Now you’re speaking my language.” She got a dreamy cast to her eyes. “Ah, that Dr. Quartermaine.”
I waited a moment to see if she would finish her thought, but she just kept staring off into space, looking relaxed and happy. Hmmmm.
“We’d like to help Atlas,” I reminded her.
She snapped to attention. “Yes, yes. Of course. You will find a portal to his domain here, in Delphi. It is the circle of columns that you passed on your way to my chambers. If you enter it and say the name Atlas three times in a row, the portal will activate and take you to his fortress.”
“Thank you.”
Maximus smiled at her. “Enjoy your stories.”
“I will, dearie. You too.”
With that, we left the famous Oracle at Delphi and walked back out into the sun. As we headed toward the portal to Atlas’s domain, I peered up at Maximus. “Dr. Quartermaine?”
“General Hospital. Though honestly, I was just throwing out TV names and hoping something hit.”
“Really?”
“While I was learning about the modern world, I watched a lot of TV to figure things out.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Though for a while there, I thought modern people were insane. So much coming back from the dead and secret babies.”
“Yeah, they play that up a bit in the soaps.” I stopped in front of the circle.
Twenty columns reached toward the sky, each positioned to form a perfect circle. I reached for Maximus’s hand. He gripped mine.
Together, we stepped inside the circle and let the ether sweep us away.
Chapter Thirteen
The ether pulled us through space, making my head spin. When I arrived on the other side, I blinked, taking in my surroundings. We were still in the mountains, but it was weird.
There were enormous protrusions of rock sticking straight out of the earth, and one of them was wide enough to hold a fortress at the very top. The walls were perfectly vertical—it’d be nearly impossible to get in.
I groaned. “Fantastic.”
“It’s an excellent fortress. I have to give him that.”
“What do you want to bet we have to climb up?”
“I’m afraid I can’t take that bet. Atlas doesn’t seem like the sort of man to make things easy.”
“Nope.” I started toward the massive rock with the fortress on top. It was a few hundred yards away, and we had to pick our way over the hilly ground studded with rocks. The fortress looked silent and still. Not a single person to be seen on the high walls, not a sound to be heard. The setting sun gleamed on the pale rock, making it look more like a statue than a real place.
My comms charm buzzed around my neck. “Rowan? Are you there?” Ana whispered.
“I’m here. I can talk.”
“How’s it coming?”
“We think we might have found Atlas. We may be close to an answer about how to stop this.”
“Good. Because we have a problem. Cell phones have started to go out all over the world. GPS is having problems. We think the satellites are failing. We don’t have long before the military loses their connections, and war will start soon after.”
Shit.
It was Atlas’s job to keep the magic in space from screwing with that stuff. Did that mean he was dead?
Oh fates, please no.
“We’ll hurry,” I said. “Any luck with breaking through the barrier?”
“No, but Hedy has developed a bomb that can take out the entire barrier if we can get it inside the dome.”
“You can’t just throw it in?”
“It bounces off the boundary.”
“I could take it in. I’m the only one who can get past the barrier.”
“No, it will detonate soon after it leaves the power source. You’d die with it. Anyway, as long as the Stryx can call you to them, it’s too dangerous.”
“Okay, yeah, that’s a bad plan, then. I’ll see what I can figure out about the barrier and the Stryx. It’ll be soon, I promise. I’ll figure this out.”
“Stay safe,” she said.
“You too. Love you.”
“Love you.” She cut the line.
I looked at Maximus. “I hope we’re not too late.”
“We aren’t.”
“How do you know?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t. But I’d rather assume we’re not.”
“Sounds good to me.” We reached the base of the rock, and I tilted my head back, staring straight up. “It’s got to be at least three hundred meters to the top.”
Magic swelled around Maximus, and he conjured some modern climbing equipment. He handed me a harness, along with a length of rope and a bag full of something that sounded like metal bits.
He grinned. “Safety first.”
I peered in the bag, spotting a bunch of metal spike-like things and a hammer.
“Put on the harness and attach the rope to it. Every twenty feet, pound in an anchor and attach your rope to it. If you fall, you’re less likely to die.”
“Less likely to die.” I nodded. “Now you’re speaking my language.”
I put the harness on, and he helped me hook up the ropes.
Together, we began to climb. It was easy going at first, the slope more gradual near the bottom. I fumbled the first metal pin I tried to pound into a crevice in the rock, but got the hang of it eventually.
As we ascended, the wall became steeper, turning nearly vertica
l within about sixty feet. My muscles started to burn and my fingertips tingled.
“You’ve got it,” Maximus said.
He didn’t sound or look the least bit out of breath, and I’d have assumed he was a professional mountain climber.
About halfway up, I peeked down and nearly hurled. I’d never considered myself to be someone afraid of heights, but the world looked so far away from up here. The protection of the rope and metal pins seemed iffy when they were the only thing between me and certain death.
I sucked in a deep breath and looked upward.
Don’t think about it.
Hand over hand, I climbed. I focused only on the immediate task ahead of me. Climb. Find a handhold. Pound in the pin. Clip off the rope. Repeat.
By the time we reached the bottom of the fortress wall, sweat was dripping down my back.
“The fortress wall is too smooth to climb,” Maximus said.
“Atlas! Hey, Atlas!” I shouted. “We’re here to help you, but is there a door to this thing?”
There was only silence.
Damn.
I looked at Maximus. “What do you suggest?”
His magic sparked on the air again, smelling of cedar and sounding like the roar of a waterfall. A moment later, he held a weird-looking gun in one hand. A grappling hook and line protruded from the front.
“Nice.” I watched as he leaned far back and shot the thing toward the upper wall. It looked hard to get a good angle, but he caught the wall. “Where’d you learn all this stuff?”
“Did some time with a mercenary band when I first arrived in this century. Didn’t like the work they did, but I learned some stuff.” He yanked on the rope, testing it. “Let me go first. Once I’m at the top, I’ll secure it. Then you climb up.”
“What if it’s not already secure and you fall?”
He thought for a moment, then conjured another grappling hook gun and set it on a tiny ledge next to him. “Hopefully my harness will catch me, though I’ll be falling from pretty far. If I don’t make it, try again with this grappling hook.”
I scowled. “That’s a shit plan. You’re still dead at the end of it.”
“I think it will work. Trust me.” He grabbed the line trailing down from the hook and began to climb, his feet propped on the smooth fortress wall.
My heart lodged in my throat as I watched him. He was quick and graceful, but it didn’t make it any easier to wait while he risked his life.
Finally, he reached the top and swung a leg over. I listened keenly for any sound of an intruder alarm going off, but my new animal senses picked up nothing.
A moment later, he leaned over the ledge and called down, “Your turn.”
I nodded and grabbed the line, climbing as quickly as I could. My hands were sweaty, but I made it. Barely. By the time I swung my leg over the edge, I was tingling and light-headed.
My feet solid on the ramparts, I turned to Maximus. “Looks like I’m afraid of heights.”
“You did great.”
I smiled, then turned to check out the eerily quiet fortress. We stood on a wall that surrounded an open courtyard full of buildings. There were no signs of life—no plants or animals or people—and the buildings looked like they’d been abandoned for years.
“No one is here.”
“Let’s look around.” He pointed to our left. “There are some stairs.”
We hurried to the stairs and descended as quietly as we could. When we got to the bottom of the courtyard, I tilted my head, listening. “Hang on, I think I hear a heartbeat. It’s faint.”
“Atlas.”
“I hope so.” I started across the courtyard to a central building, following my ears.
It was a two-story structure built of rough stone with small glass windows. It had to be at least a few hundred years old, though my knowledge of architecture was iffy.
We were almost to the building when a small wooden door opened. A nearly skeletal man appeared. Though he was tall—well over six feet—most of his muscle had wasted away, and his eyes looked sunken in their sockets.
“Atlas?” I asked.
He stared hard at us for a moment, then nodded. “Come in.”
He turned and retreated into the building, moving slowly.
I shared a glance with Maximus, catching the worry in his eyes.
We followed Atlas into the building. My eyes took a second to adjust to the darkness, and I realized we were standing in a small foyer. Atlas was still retreating down the hall, and it only took a moment for us to catch up. The whole place smelled dusty, and I doubted he came here often.
“Come, we must talk immediately.” The words sounded like they’d cost him half his energy.
We followed him into an old kitchen that looked like it’d been modified only slightly from its original form a few hundred years ago. Atlas went to a worn old dining room table in front of a nearly dead hearth. Maximus knelt by the hearth and stoked the fire. As the warmth billowed out, Atlas sighed.
Though he looked to be in his sixties, the illness that had wasted him made him look far older. What the hell was he doing up here alone if he was so sick?
I sat next to Atlas, and Maximus joined us.
Atlas stared at us. “Why are you here?”
“I’m Rowan, an Amazon and a DragonGod.” Wow, it sounded kinda cool when I said it out loud. I explained about the Amazons and the Stryx. My heart twisted as I thought of the Amazons, wasting away. They did so much good in the world, and now they could just…die. I finished with, “And I think you’re sick for the same reason. I want to help.”
He nodded slowly. “You’re right, it’s all connected.”
“Why are you all the way out here, alone, if you’re so sick?” Maximus asked the question that had been burning in my mind.
Atlas shrugged. “Because of what the Stryx are doing. That hole they’re blowing into the earth is their attempt to break into Tartarus and release the titans.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“You heard me. They’re trying to release the monsters within. I don’t know why, but I felt it as soon as they blew the first crater into the ground there.”
That really could end the world. The titans were monstrously powerful. If the Stryx got ahold of them, we were all screwed. Starting with that village near the entrance to Tartarus. They’d destroy that first. The memory of the boy and his dog flashed in my mind.
“How can you feel that they are trying to get into Tartarus?” Maximus asked.
“The layer of stone that covers Tartarus acts as the gate to their prison. It keeps them trapped by the weight and strength of the stone, but also by the magic imbued within the stone. Every bit of rock that is blown away weakens the gate.” He shook his head, as if remembering terrible things. “I was cursed to hold up the heavens instead of joining my brethren in Tartarus. Long ago, I escaped that fate. Zeus and the other gods weren’t pleased. If I wasn’t holding up the heavens, they wanted me thrown in Tartarus. The same with Prometheus, who also escaped his torture. It was too late for the gods to reopen Tartarus and put us in, but they cast a spell that ensured that if the gate to Tartarus was ever opened again, I would be sucked in. As the gate to Tartarus is broken, it pulls on me, weakening me and making me sick.”
“And the Amazons, too?” I asked, my heart thundering.
“We’re connected, so what happens to me, could happen to them. And I also believe that the gods placed the same spell on them, though I don’t know it for sure.”
Jeez, that sucked. The Greek gods really were a piece of work, and I was one of them. Sort of. Trapped in the middle between the Amazons and the gods. This new life of mine wasn’t as simple as I’d expected, but then, life rarely was.
“Don’t they realize you do important work, keeping the magic that’s in space from interfering with the satellites?” Maximus asked. “They aren’t just modern conveniences. Militaries rely on those satellites, and if they all go down at once, at least one of th
ose militaries will interpret it as an act of war. A seer has prophesied that World War III could start if the satellites fail.”
“Their vendettas are more important to them than human wars. Even human wars that would cost millions of lives.” He looked at me. “And I believe they are counting on you to stop this. That is why you are the Dragon God. And this is your hero’s challenge.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “How much longer can you hold the satellites up?”
“I’m weakening. It’s taking everything I’ve got to protect the satellites from the magic in space. But they’re starting to malfunction. When they go out entirely, the world’s militaries will go on high alert. War will follow soon after. You have a few days, at most.”
I didn’t tell him about the call from Ana that had confirmed it. “So why are you up here? You should be down where you can get help with staying strong and fighting your illness.”
“The only way to help me is to close the gate to Tartarus. I can’t do that myself, because if I get anywhere near it, it will suck me in. I built this place ages ago and imbued it with magic that would prevent that. But the pull is strong. I lost my strength far faster than I expected. I’ve been sending messages to the Amazons and Prometheus, but I don’t think they are getting through.”
“So you’ve been trapped here, wasting away,” I said.
“And quickly.” He frowned. “I thought this fortress was a good idea. In a way, it was. But it hasn’t gone as I planned.”
“Things rarely do.” I studied him. “So if we close the gate to Tartarus, you and the Amazons will get better?”
“I believe so.”
Oh, thank fates. “Can you feel if the Stryx have already broken all the way through to Tartarus?” I swallowed hard, chills racing down my arms. This was the million-dollar question. “Have they released any of the titans?”
He shook his head. “I cannot tell. Perhaps they have.”
“Do you know what they intend to do with them?” Maximus asked.
“No.” Atlas’s voice turned grave. “But it cannot be good. You need to stop them before they release them. If they haven’t already.”