A Curse of Gold

by Annie Sullivan

  Not to mention I’m glad he was able to get the pegasus we’d let him take to the other side of the island. When I’d first broached the idea as a place to hide the staff, he’d said it was impossible, that he couldn’t get a pegasus safely to the far side of the island anymore than he could get us there alive, that it was hard enough to fly to the closest shore. He’d said he couldn’t use a wave because the pegasus would no doubt thrash in confusion trying to escape the water, either losing the staff or being killed when the wave hit the island—just like we would be—since the creatures weren’t immortal like he was. But I’d pushed him. Even if he couldn’t get us all there, there had to be a way he could get one single pegasus to arrive alive with the replica staff in tow.

  And after much back and forth, an idea had popped into my mind, spurned on by the ice dome he’d created around us on Gorgon Island. He could freeze the pegasus in a block of ice, and that way, when it crashed into the island, it wouldn’t get injured. After thinking about it for a while, Triton had said it wouldn’t work with us humans since we would freeze to death, but since pegasi are born of the sea, they could probably survive the ice casing.

  And clearly, it must’ve worked.

  “He got what he deserved,” Triton says. He looks back at the chunks of gold amidst the rubble. He props himself on Dionysus’s staff, which he must’ve taken, though I can’t imagine why.

  “You mean, he was part of your plan to stop Dionysus?” Hettie asks. She stares at Triton critically.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you,” I say. “I needed you all to believe he’d left. I wasn’t sure if Dionysus would be watching us somehow.”

  “I’m just glad Dionysus didn’t twist your bet some other way,” Triton replies.

  I nod. We’d both been so worried about how Dionysus would spin our agreement against me. I’d had to think so carefully about each word, about what was said and unsaid, what was clarified and what was left open to interpretation. But after realizing how big a predictor the Oracle’s tests had been for other parts of our journey, I’d gone back over the test of drinking from the crystal—the one test I didn’t think we’d encountered on our path yet, the one I could only assume was meant to parallel facing Dionysus. It made me think about what people infer based on what is actually before them, and I’d used that as my guide in hopes of getting Dionysus to think he was getting the best of me by only cleansing my father and not me. I’d also purposefully left gaping holes in my bet, and he’d fallen right into them in his bid to outsmart me.

  “Do you think Dionysus is dead for good?” Rhat asks.

  “We shouldn’t have to worry about him for a very long time,” Triton says.

  The ground heaves beneath us as the island shakes. The volcano rumbles in the distance.

  “We do have to worry about this island blowing up,” Hettie bellows.

  The first blast of fiery red lava spills like blood over the edge of the volcano.

  “The cliffs,” I say, pointing past the pantheon. “We can jump off there.” I move toward the steps.

  “No,” Triton exclaims, grabbing my arm. “You can only leave Jipper where you entered it.”

  “What?” I cry as another blast of lava shoots skyward, painting the clouds like a mock sunset.

  “How do you think Dionysus made sure no one could win those bets about making it off his island before sunset? You can only leave the way you came.”

  “So we have to go all the way back across?” Royce says, raking a hand through his hair.

  “I’m afraid so,” Triton says. “And I won’t be able to lead you. I also have to leave where I came on. I’ll take this pegasus and wait for you on the other side.”

  “There has to be another option,” I say. I stare back across the tops of the trees. They stretch on and on, an impassable sea of green.

  The island tosses beneath us.

  “There’s no other way,” Triton says with finality. “You must go. When you get back to the beach, you’ll see a small shimmering in the sky or at the edge of the sand. That’s where you entered the island.”

  “Go,” Royce calls.

  Triton runs toward the pegasus and leaps on.

  “Be off before sunset,” Triton shouts after us. He wheels the pegasus around and flies it straight toward the cliff edge. I watch as they fly into the air, disappearing as the island speeds onward without them.

  A loud boom is followed by an explosion of volcanic rocks. They barrel into the ground around us. We scatter back toward the vineyard, the golden vines a blur as we run past. When we reach the jungle, the giant bees dart above us in a frenzy as smoke hazes over the trees. They appear too preoccupied to bother us, colliding with each other as the smoke thickens.

  “This way,” Rhat calls from his position near the rear, where he helps keep Phipps and his diamond arm moving.

  We tumble through the jungle, tripping over tree limbs and thrashing through vines. Birds cry out and hop along the trees above us, as eager to flee as we are. The heat from the volcano turns the air around us sticky. Sweat soaks my clothes. Even my revitalized lungs beg me to stop and rest, though I ignore their pleas.

  We pass through the harpy field, slipping across the streaks of rich red blood that stain the grass.

  Next to me, Lenny pants and then doubles over.

  I stop to tell him to keep going, but when I turn back, shadows crawl across my body. Everything around me grows darker and darker. My muscles tighten as a storm of ash clouds clog the sky above us, blocking out the sun. The sun that’s sinking very quickly toward the horizon. The sun that will trap us here. The sun I can now no longer see, as it’s been swallowed by the billowing blackness.

  “Come on, Lenny,” I say between haggard breaths. I crouch next to him and tug on his shoulders. “We’ve got to keep moving.”

  He looks up and nods. He takes a deep breath and starts slugging forward again.

  All around me, men are moving slower and slower, their legs fighting to keep pumping forward. Some trip or stumble as they look up to see the darkness pressing in from above. The shadows hang heavily across their faces, highlighting sunken cheekbones and eyes.

  We rip through the field and back into the jungle, where the darkness is blinding. Tree limbs scratch and exposed roots trip up our feet.

  Murky figures of men fall around me, letting out grunts and groans as they collide with the ground. The heavy sound of them pulling themselves to their feet mixes with my own overwhelming heaves for air.

  “Keep your eyes on me,” I cry, thankful my skin stands out a little better than anything else in the dark jungle.

  I grab Lenny’s shoulder and guide him toward the figure in front of me.

  It’s Royce.

  “Which way?” I ask, resting against a tree.

  He spins around. “I don’t know. It all looks so different in the dark. And that diamond girl is still out here somewhere, along with who knows what else.” I can barely make out the whites of his eyes as his gaze searches the jungle for anything familiar.

  I shove my hair back where perspiration has pressed it against my forehead.

  More men crowd around as we search for the right path.

  Every minute we waste could cost our lives. But so could choosing the wrong path. “Royce, the sun is setting. We need to hurry.”

  “That way,” Phipps says. He uses his good arm to point to our right.

  “Are you sure?” Royce asks.

  “Aye, Captain. I can see a twinkle from one of the diamonds I dropped from my pockets when we were running from that diamond creature.”

  Hope wells within me.

  “Good job,” Royce says. “Keep your eyes out for more.”

  “Now there’s a task I’m good at,” Phipps says. “I’ve always had an eye for treasure.”

  Using Phipps’s haphazard trail, we make our way back toward the stream.

  “What about the diamond girl?” I ask as we get close to the gurgling water. Amidst the darkn
ess, the diamonds at the bottom reflect the little bits of light they catch, causing the banks to glow unnaturally.

  Royce creeps forward, trying to rustle the leaves as little as possible. He leans over the banks. After a moment, he turns around. “I don’t see her, but it’s hard to tell with all those diamonds glimmering underwater. She could be hiding amongst them.”

  As he speaks, there’s a ripple behind him.

  “Royce,” I yell as a hand shoots from the water.

  On reflex, Royce dives, rolling across the ground and pulling his sword.

  The diamond girl rises out of the water, her pointed, angular shape reflecting the small amount of light filtering through the trees. Her fingers spread wide, ready to catch any of us she can.

  “Come back for more, have you?” she asks. Her voice is as sharp and hard as her skin.

  “I’ll distract her,” Hettie whispers to me. “Get the others across.” Without waiting for my response, she charges forward.

  “I’m going to hack you into tiny gems and wear you as a necklace,” Hettie says to the creature, twirling her sword around and charging forward.

  “Or maybe I’ll stop your heart cold,” the woman replies. She digs her feet into the diamonds lining the stream, readying for Hettie’s attack. She sneers, displaying rows of diamond teeth.

  “Quick, Lenny, head that way,” I move him forward, keeping my eyes on the creature as I usher him across the river. He leaps across easily. I motion for others to do the same.

  The diamond woman tries to wade toward us, but Hettie is there, stopping her at every turn. The woman retaliates by trying to catch Hettie in her grip any way she can. But Hettie moves like a cat. She jumps, she leaps, she arches her back, doing everything she can to avoid the woman’s grasp. Every time her sword connects with the jeweled body, there’s a tiny flash where the sword transforms from metal to diamond.

  Royce joins the fight, making sure the woman is so distracted she can’t spare a thought for us.

  “Hurry.” I motion to Rhat and Phipps.

  “Let me go,” Phipps yelps. “I’ll use this arm to crush her where she stands.”

  The diamond girl claws toward Hettie’s stomach. Hettie stumbles back, rolling onto the ground.

  The creature uses the opening to plow toward us.

  “Hurry,” I cry, throwing up my arms to act as a barrier between the woman and Phipps.

  Royce trudges behind the woman, tripping over the uneven diamonds.

  I transfer Hebe’s cup to my other hand and reach for the last gold button on Royce’s jacket.

  The woman watches the movement, but she stops short.

  “Hebe’s cup,” she breathes.

  Royce’s sword crashes into the woman’s head. She stumbles forward, not turning to attack back.

  Something about her demeanor has changed. Her sneer is gone. “The cup,” she says, her voice rising. “Give me that cup.” She charges forward faster than before.

  I stumble backward as she advances, but I don’t get far because the ground around us heaves. Leaves explode into the air and the diamonds in the stream clink together as the soil pulses up and down in shaky waves. I fight to stay on my feet as an inexplicable vibrating thrums through the landscape. It pulses through me, growing stronger and stronger.

  Above me, the trees sway and groan. There’s a loud tearing sound as several of them rip free from the earth and crash into the ground, sending clouds of debris to clog the already ashen air.

  Then the world cracks open with a shattering roar as the island splits apart around us.

  CHAPTER 30

  The stream rips in half as parts of the island tear away from each other. Water and diamonds glint and glitter as they disappear down the gaping hole.

  I dive toward Phipps and Rhat at the same time Royce does. We roll into the dirt, and I drop Hebe’s cup.

  The woman pulls herself out of the pile of diamonds she’d been thrown into on the only remaining section of the stream that hasn’t fallen into the crack.

  Her eyes and mine land on the cup at the same time. She dives for it just as my fingers wrap around it, drawing it back to my chest.

  I stagger to my feet.

  “No,” the diamond woman cries, wedging herself on a small shelf of the remaining stream.

  Her voice is echoed by more shuddering as a giant rift separates pieces of the island even farther. Stringy roots stick out of the mud lining the edges, and clumps of dirt fall and disappear into a dark abyss. I don’t hear them hit bottom. I lean forward, but there’s nothing as far down as I can see. Just utter darkness.

  I move away from the edge, from where the diamond woman crouches on our side of the break, ready to grab us if we try to run forward and jump across. But there’s no way we can leap that far.

  I search for another way out. I scan the trees, but even if we could drag a fallen one and prop it across, the diamond woman is there, waiting.

  I stare down the gap. “We might be able to head inward and find somewhere small enough to cross,” I say.

  Royce nods. He calls to the men on the other side of the gap. “Get to the pegasi. Get off the island before sunset.”

  Lenny struggles to the front of the group on the opposite edge.

  “Don’t worry about me, Lenny,” Phipps calls. “You go with them. Not all the gods in the world could keep me from getting back to that beach.”

  Lenny hesitates.

  “You’ve got to go without me,” Phipps says. “Go get the pegasi ready for us.”

  Lenny stands there for a moment before nodding.

  The ground quakes, and the gap widens again. The ground under Royce falls away. I pull him back before he can plummet to his death.

  “Let’s go,” Hettie says as soon as the men have been swallowed by the gray haze settling all around us.

  We move along the edge of the crack, Hettie and Royce walking backward to watch for the diamond woman’s attack.

  “Wait,” the woman cries. She hasn’t moved from the edge of the stream still clinging to our part of the island. “Please.”

  My pace slows. Something in her voice calls me back.

  Her jagged hand reaches forward, but she still doesn’t advance. Her face looks almost human behind all the sharp edges, and if it were, I might just recognize agony on it.

  “Come on, Kora,” Hettie says. “There’s no time.” She pulls at my arm as the ground continues to sway under our feet.

  But something about the woman won’t let me leave. Why hasn’t she abandoned the stream?

  “Kora, there’s no time,” Hettie urges.

  “Please,” the woman repeats.

  I hold the cup back, still unsure.

  More ground falls away beneath her. She cries out, casting frightened glances into the abyss.

  “Please,” the woman begs. “My name is Janalisa. I was cursed by Dionysus years ago and trapped here. That cup—if you twist the silver brim, the face will change. If you drink from the cup, it will heal any physical ill. But if you drink from the cup when it shows the face of the god or goddess who cursed you, it can undo curses. Please, don’t leave me here. Please undo what he did to me.”

  Something about the way she says her name—as if it’s the first time in a long time, or it’s the first time she remembers she has one and was once human—pulls at my heart.

  I twist the brim of the cup. Faces flash across the crystal with each turn.

  There’s another rumble behind me.

  I bite my lip. I wish I had more time.

  “Kora,” Hettie says, “don’t listen to her. It’s a trick. Let’s go.”

  I hesitate. Because I know that if she’s telling the truth, I can’t leave her trapped in that state. And I see something in her eyes that once matched my own, the desperation I’d had when searching for a way to get rid of the golden tinge to my skin.

  “Hands behind your back,” I say.

  I dip the cup into a small puddle of water caught in a dip in the b
ank of the stream, not taking my eyes from her. I twist the brim until Dionysus’s bearded face grins back at me from the cup. “Open your mouth.”

  I pour the water in. It splashes against her teeth and dribbles into her mouth.

  She swallows. Instantly, Janalisa’s hardened skin melts away to reveal flesh so pale I can trace every blue vein in her body. Long blonde hair tumbles over her thin, bony frame.

  She cries out, holding up her hands to inspect them. Then her hands jump to her face, massaging the skin of her cheeks and running fingers through her hair.

  Her deep breaths turn into sobs. She collapses onto her hands and knees and into the mud, which doesn’t turn to diamond at her touch. “I can feel. I can feel it all.” She stretches her arm out in front of her, looking at the mud staining it. She stares down, turning her arm back and forth in inspection.

  She rises back to her knees and takes a deep breath. “I’m free.”

  She’s entirely naked but doesn’t seem to care. Now that I can see her face, she only looks a few years older than me. Her features are plain and pleasant, with a few freckles dotting the bridge of her nose, cheeks, and forehead.

  When she opens her eyes, tears stream down her face. She reaches out to me. “Thank you.”

  Flaming bits of rock and ash crash through the canopy above us, singeing leaves as they hiss downward. They ignite the brush where they crash.

  “Run,” Rhat shouts.

  “Let me come with you,” Janalisa begs as another round rains down.

  “All right,” I say, praying I don’t regret the decision. “Come on. But you can only get off the island where you came on.”

  “Dionysus throws all his creatures onto the beach when they first get to the island. If they can’t make it across to him, they’re not worth his time,” she says as I pull her upright. “If you were headed to the opposite beach earlier, you likely arrived not far from where he left me.”

  She wobbles on her feet, as if she’s not accustomed to using them.

  “I’m sorry,” she says as her weight sags against me. “I guess my real feet aren’t used to running.”