A Curse of Gold

by Annie Sullivan

  The Oracle nods.

  Royce and I share a look. We’d always wanted to sail to find the mysterious island that rose and sunk into the sea.

  “Dionysus was supposed to be the last of the twelve Olympians, but he was never allowed there, making him bitter and jealous. He resented the other gods—even Zeus because his father had effectively made him an outcast by banishing him to live on an island instead of punishing Hera. That’s why he’s not only the god of chaos but of misfits—it’s why he creates the creatures he does. He’s formed an army by giving humans his own version of being born twice—of being remade with more powers. Because that’s what he wants more than anything: more powers—enough to control Olympus itself.”

  “Is that why he’s after me?” I ask. “Does he think I belong to him, that I’m one of his creatures?”

  The Oracle shakes her head. “I’m afraid it’s much more complicated than that.” She waves her hand again, wiping the images in the smoke away. Then, slowly, another figure appears. It climbs up the very mountain we’d just climbed, becoming clearer and clearer as the figure ducks inside the Oracle’s cave.

  The Oracle sits inside the cave, much as we found her.

  Her eyes look up toward the stranger. “Welcome, Dionysus.”

  Dionysus pulls back his hood. At first, a young man stands there with a thin walking stick, but then he transforms into an older man—one about my father’s age. He’s average height with a stocky yet solid build. His curly brown beard matches his thick eyebrows.

  He doesn’t look at all like I expect him to. He doesn’t have a twisted smile that’s sickening to look at or big, bulging eyes that track my every move. He has plump cheeks and an easy smile.

  His walking stick has transformed into a staff, one covered in twisted vines and fat grapes. He leans on it as he lumbers down toward the center of the cave. “You’re not as hard to find as I thought you’d be.”

  The Oracle smiles. “Perhaps I wanted to be found.”

  “I hear I’m not the only one looking for you.”

  The Oracle stares into the flames. “Too many of the gods wish to make use of my power and knowledge.” Her eyes flick back up. “You included.”

  Dionysus spreads his hands wide. “I suspect you knew that when you let me in, so you also know why I’ve come.”

  It isn’t a question, but the Oracle nods. “You want me to enter into a bet with you. In exchange, you’re going to offer to set up a series of tests for me so that I can control who finds the way to my cave.”

  He nods. “Exactly. You’ll finally be rid of all those mortals and gods seeking you out, the ones who’ve spent centuries hounding you, not giving you a moment of peace.”

  “And I wouldn’t even have to win,” the Oracle says coolly.

  “Exactly,” Dionysus says. “Instead of having to win, you get what you would’ve won upfront for simply agreeing to my little wager. It’s that simple. Enter into one bet with me and get what you’ve always wanted in return.”

  “Are you so sure of yourself, Dionysus, that you would enter into a bet with one who can see time itself?”

  “I’ve never lost one yet,” Dionysus says, crossing his hands over his chest.

  “Name the terms of this bet.”

  Dionysus rubs his hands together. “I bet that I will prove your next prophecy false.” He licks his lips. “If I win, you’ll hand over your power to me so that I can know everything you know about the past, present, and future.”

  The Oracle steels her face. “I know the knowledge you seek. Every night you travel to Tartarus. You have spent many years searching for a way to free the Titans there in order to have revenge on Hera and the gods who’ve mistreated you. You seek the memory I hold within of how to release the Titans.”

  Dionysus’s face sours, his lips thinning into a tight line. “Will you enter into the bet or not?”

  The Oracle clasps her hands behind her back. “I have no desire to see the Titans released, to relive the destruction and death they once caused.” Her eyes flash white and she inhales sharply, as if she’s lost in a painful memory. “But I will enter into this bet with you, under one condition.” She stares into the flames for a long time. “Neither you nor one you command can kill the one the prophecy is about.”

  “Agreed.”

  The Oracle stands. “Then we have our bet.”

  Dionysus bows. “Then I very much look forward to your next prophecy.”

  The crackling of the fire breaks my gaze from the smoke as it dissipates. The cave comes into focus around me once more as the vision fades.

  “The next prophecy I made was about your father becoming king,” the Oracle says as her eyes take on their dark hue once more.

  “But he became king,” I reply. “So Dionysus didn’t win the bet. Is that why he’s mad?”

  She shakes her head. “The entire prophecy was that your father would not only be made king, but that he would also have a prosperous rule.”

  My shoulders slump forward. “So Dionysus is going to win because my father’s rule has—” It’s hard to say the words. “Because his rule has destroyed the country.”

  The Oracle’s lips thin. “Dionysus has not won yet. He only wins when King Midas’s rule ends. Until then, there is still time for your father to turn his rule around and bring the country to prosperity.”

  Royce straightens. “So if Dionysus finds a way to kill the king right now, he would win the bet since the kingdom is still struggling?”

  The Oracle nods. “He cannot kill King Midas. But he wants to kill you, Princess, in hopes it weakens your father.”

  Her words course through me like ice, as my father’s cursed gold once did, chilling my insides and making me numb to the world. My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out all sound. My mouth opens and closes, searching for something to say, anything that could make this better.

  But there’s nothing. Dionysus wants me dead. And if he succeeds, he might just shatter the little progress my father has made over the past month since his gold returned. He could send my father into a downward spiral he’ll never recover from. And then Dionysus would win the bet. He’d have all the knowledge he’d need to free the Titans. And in his quest to destroy the other gods, he might just destroy the world.

  The smoke in the cave is suffocating. My throat is dry and my head continues to pound. I can’t even swallow. I force my eyes to meet the Oracle’s, to be swallowed by those black abysses. She sits watching me, her hands resting easily in her lap as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.

  “We have to find a way to stop Dionysus,” Royce says, his gaze flashing to mine. His eyebrows are scrunched in concern as he searches my face.

  The Oracle’s eyes flash white. “You must be very careful. Your actions have already set new paths in motion, for Dionysus has learned the man he sent to kill you has failed. He’s now using his island to speed around the world, gathering all the humans he’s remade with new powers. He’s on course to attack Lagonia in five days with the army he’s created.” She sucks in a breath and shivers. Her eyes darken, and when she looks at me, sadness mars her features.

  “If Dionysus reaches Lagonia’s shores,” she says, “he will win, and many will die.”

  I shake my head, trying to make sense of her words. That can’t be possible. That can’t be the only outcome.

  But before I can voice that thought, she draws my eyes to the haze in front of her. In it, an image of the palace appears. Between wisps of smoke and charred boulders, bodies litter the ground. Royce runs forward into the fray. He sneaks behind boulders and dashes across open expanses. He has a cut on his forehead and another on his arm, and I watch as he shouts to someone behind him and then runs forward, sword at the ready. But a column of fire blasts into him, blowing him backward. He hits the ground hard and rolls toward the palace steps as the flames cut off. He lies unmoving as smoke curls away from his charred body. Then Hettie appears, sword in hand and hair flying. She charges at a
figure whose body is made entirely of metal. Where arms should be, swords wait at the ready. Hettie swings again and again at the creature, but even when she does hit him, it does no damage. Sweat dots her brow as she moves forward again, determined to not let the man get any closer to the palace behind her. But as she moves, the ground beneath her heaves unnaturally. She stumbles, and that’s when it happens: twin swords slice through her chest. They rest there for a heartbeat before ripping free, leaving Hettie to collapse to her knees. She falls forward, and her eyes stare blankly, reflecting the flames as they take over the palace walls before engulfing the entire image.

  “No,” I gasp as the image disappears. I fall forward and clutch my chest. I struggle to suck in air. Heat flushes my cheeks, and I can’t get thoughts to stay in my mind. “That can’t be true.”

  “What can’t be true?” Royce asks, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer.

  Before I can answer, before I can even attempt to voice the words and describe the images I so desperately want to erase from my memory, the Oracle’s gaze finds mine. “That vision is for you alone to carry.”

  I shake my head. I can’t carry that.

  “It’ll be okay,” Royce whispers, kissing the top of my head.

  But he’s so wrong. It’s not okay. I just watched him die. I just watched my entire world be ripped apart, and it feels like it took a piece of me with it. My whole chest aches as though I’ve just run up the mountain.

  I shake my head. “There has to be something we can do to stop that.” But less than one week? How can we stop him in so little time? How can we stop him at all? He’s a god. And he’s going to kill us all.

  “You must prevent him from reaching your shores,” the Oracle says.

  “Then we’ll take the fight to him,” Royce says, his voice hard and unforgiving as his arm tightens around me. “How can we find Dionysus?”

  “Where anything can be found. Right where it wants to be.”

  Her answer is as confusing as the thoughts racing around my mind. Five days to find Dionysus. Five days to stop him. Or I lose everything. How could this have happened?

  I stare at the Oracle, at the woman who’s been toying with lives since before I was even born. Is this just another one of her manipulations, her way of altering my life again? Will I end up cursed like my father if I follow her path?

  But what happens if I don’t?

  The image of Royce’s burned body flashes through my mind. I shake it away. I can’t risk that happening. Especially as something tells me the Oracle truly doesn’t want the Titans released anymore than I do—nor does she want to lose her power to Dionysus.

  And that means we truly only have a handful of days to stop Dionysus.

  “And where does this man want to be?” Royce asks. “Is he on Jipper? How do we find it?”

  The Oracle turns her eyes to him. “He’s no man. He’s an immortal, free to go virtually wherever he wants whenever he wants. He is never in one place long, and even when he is, mortals often cannot easily reach him.”

  “Then you mean you don’t know how we can find him?” My voice is hollow as I sink back in dismay, the image of those swords plummeting into Hettie’s flesh replaying over and over again in mind.

  “There is one who could take you to him . . .” The old woman trails off, focused on something in the flames before her. “But I’m not sure if you’ll wish to follow where that path leads.” The fire crackles, and small embers sizzle out.

  I find myself holding my breath as a hush falls over the cave. Not even the shadows seem to move.

  “Where does it lead?” I whisper, both needing and fearing the answer.

  “To Poseidon.”

  “Poseidon, ruler of the seas?” Royce exclaims.

  “Yes.” The Oracle’s lips purse together. “But many dangers await that path.”

  “Like what?” I say, my stomach coiling inward.

  But it isn’t the Oracle who answers.

  “Triton,” Royce says, looking intensely into the flames.

  “What?” I ask, my heart skipping a beat. That can’t be true. I swing my gaze toward the flames. But all I see are the tendrils of blue and orange dancing together until they peak in a yellow tip.

  “Nobody gets to Poseidon without going through Triton first,” Royce says. “Triton is his messenger.”

  My throat goes dry. The smoke from the fire irritates my eyes as I blink over and over again, trying to find some way that the words he said don’t mean what I think they mean.

  “We can’t find Triton,” I sputter.

  Images of the Temptresses of Triton flash through my memory. Human women spurned by Triton. When he grew tired of them, he changed them into sea witches so that no other man could have them. I’d faced them just a month before. They were women who’d become part of the sea, fluid beings bent on revenge against all men. During the fight to escape, I’d killed one, and that wouldn’t exactly put me in Triton’s good graces.

  In fact, I’m probably the last human he wants to see.

  Smoke swirls around my head, as jumbled as both my thoughts and my stomach. I cough and try to fan it away. It was foolish to come here. We’re as good as dead if we seek out Triton. And everyone in Lagonia is as good as dead if we let Dionysus reach our shores. There’s no way to win.

  I get to my feet and pace back and forth, running my fingers through my hair. The Oracle had clearly known this all along. And yet, she’d led us to believe there was a way to find Dionysus, a way to stop him.

  She and Royce continue to sit, staring into the fire, at something I am unable to see. And I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take her secrets and her visions and her manipulations. I take off toward the entrance. I just need a moment to think—to clear my head.

  The cave’s heavy darkness leaves me as soon as I step across the threshold. It feels like I’ve been in there for hours. My muscles are cramped, and my eyes sting. Not to mention it still hurts to breathe.

  The world seems bigger after being in the cramped cave. I close my eyes and let the breeze wash over me, sucking in a deep breath.

  “Why do you run away so quickly?” the Oracle asks.

  My eyes snap open. How did she move so swiftly and silently?

  She props herself up with a walking stick. And yet she looks solid, as if despite her age, she needs no manmade object to keep her upright.

  “Triton won’t help me. He’ll kill me. I’m sure you know that.” I can’t hide the bitterness that seeps into my voice.

  “There are many possible endings to that story.” She stretches her arms wide, indicating the scenery around us, but I can’t find her meaning.

  I cross my arms tight across my chest and stare down at her petite frame. “So we won’t die if we face Triton?”

  “I tell no one of their death—just as I cannot see my own.” The Oracle smiles, an almost grandmotherly smile. “He’s an elusive friend I’ve yet to invite in.” Her eyes find mine, and it feels like they hold the soul of the world in them. And I worry if I keep looking, I’ll never be able to look away. “It’s why you mustn’t speak of what I showed you to your friend or your cousin, for I find that if you tell mortals of their deaths, it only hastens them all the more.”

  I dig the tip of my shoe into the dirt at my feet for a distraction, for anything to get the image of Royce lying there from my mind, and I swallow down the lump forming in my throat.

  “So much pain inside you.” The Oracle shakes her head.

  She should know. Most of it is her fault—hers and Dionysus’s. She’s the one who entered into a bet with him that put the whole world at risk, not to mention the prophecy that ruined my father’s life.

  I swipe away a tear that threatens to slip unbidden down my cheek.

  “Your path is not an easy one,” she says, lightly resting her hand on my arm and drawing my gaze back toward hers. “Being a leader requires tough decisions and sacrifices that others aren’t required to make.”
>
  Her gaze is so intense it burns right through me. Yet it doesn’t focus on any one part of me, and I realize in that moment that she’s blind—at least to the things I can see. But something else hides in her eyes that wasn’t there before. Sadness? Sympathy? It’s hard to tell. But whatever it is, it causes the tension in my shoulders to loosen as I wonder what kind of life she’s had.

  “I cannot tell you how your journey ends,” she continues. “That depends on the choices both you and Dionysus make. All I can tell you is to remember what you encountered on this mountain, and trust the path you’ve been shown.” She gives my arm a squeeze and then turns back to her cave.

  I clear my throat, finding my voice. “What path?”

  She turns back and pauses. “The one you were shown.”

  “Shown when?”

  But the Oracle doesn’t answer. She disappears into the cave. Sighing, I move to follow her, to demand answers, but Royce emerges, smacking right into me. He grasps my shoulder to keep me from falling backward.

  Once I’m stable, he releases me. “The Oracle showed me the way to Triton’s fortress in the flames of the fire.”

  I drop my gaze. Is this the path the Oracle meant? She’d said to trust it. But how can I? Not when it leads to Triton.

  “How can we go there?” I say. “Triton’s not going to invite us in and give us a tour of his gardens. He’s going to attack us with things worse than Temptresses.”

  Royce presses his hands against my upper arms. “Are you not even going to try? The Kora I know marched into the Temptresses’ lair unafraid.”

  “That Kora had no idea what was waiting for her. This Kora does,” I say.

  “That’s just it,” he replies. “I was thinking about something the Oracle said, about how we’d have to take the same path again—like the first challenge. I think she means we have to find Triton and his Temptresses. We have to walk that path again.”

  “We almost died last time,” I say.

  “But we didn’t,” he counters.

  I stare at him, at the way his lips turn up ever so slightly at the edges. At the freckle that hides just below his left ear. I place my hand against his cheek and rub my thumb against the skin weathered by the sea. I can’t lose him.