“This map helps us keep track of every god or other being in the woods. This is where Patrol One was at their last check-in,” Poseidon explained, pointing to the miniature Zeus, Hestia, and Hera.
“And all of the known entrances to the Underworld are labeled too,” Apollo added, pointing to a red X to the left of the meadow which marked the huge boulder where we first saw Hades and Persephone.
“Nice. This will come in real handy for the battles,” I said and Poseidon nodded. Then I took a glance at my watch. “Apollo and I have half an hour until we have to meet Artemis for our patrol watch so we need to start heading back now.”
Poseidon started to collect his things as well. “I’ll come too,” he agreed and we waved good-bye to Pan and slowly made our way east back toward Main Street, keeping a close eye out for monsters.
The three of us were about a quarter of a mile from the street and hadn’t seen a single monster when a distress call came over the walkie-talkies. “This is Hera. Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, if you’re still in the woods Patrol One needs help. Hades has been sighted heading east toward Main Street. Repeat: Hades has been sighted.”
“On it,” Apollo said promptly into his walkie-talkie and together the three of us sprinted in the direction of the call. As we tore through the bushes and branches, I pulled out the rock from my pocket and squeezed it, instantly revealing the shining sword blade. Meanwhile, Apollo grabbed an arrow out of his leather quiver and readied it in his bow.
We had been running only a few more seconds when I heard Zeus yell, “Hades! Stop right there!” I knew then that we were very close and, sure enough, we quickly rounded one more bend in the winding trail and stopped dead, right before we crashed into Hestia, who happened to be holding a ball of fire mere inches from our faces.
“Where the hell did you come from?” Artemis called out in confusion to the three of us from about thirty yards away and, at once, three other pairs of eyes turned to lock on Poseidon, Apollo, and me.
Bodies stiff with tension, Zeus, Hera, and Hestia stood in a circle with Artemis. Artemis, who was facing west and away from the street toward us, had an arrow already placed in her bow. I guessed that she had heard the distress call and had come from the Fire Pit to cut Hades off before he could burst onto the street in the middle of the day when humans without the Sight would be wandering around in full force. Hera was directly in front of us and adjacent to Artemis, a ball of burning purple light levitating above her right hand which was held out in front of her. To our left, ready to strike out at any second, Zeus had a lightning bolt raised above his head and right in front of us was Hestia, who did not bother to turn around and still stood facing the center of the circle of gods with a ball of orange fire raging on her small palm.
But Artemis’s question was quickly forgotten when the sound of a horse snorting redirected the gods’ attention back to the center of the circle where all of their weapons were trained on one person: Hades. Quickly, I took my place on the circumference of the circle between Zeus and Hestia while Poseidon and Apollo went on Hestia’s other side and the three of us joined in aiming our weapons at the lord of the Underworld.
“Hades, you’re surrounded. Give it up,” Zeus ordered once again, his muscles flexing as he tightened his grip on the white-hot lightning bolt.
Unsurprisingly, Hades didn’t answer the king of the gods and instead just stared down at the angry Zeus from atop his huge, black horse. His dark hood blocked any light from reaching his snow-white face and, coupled with his black staff topped with a tiny crystal skull, I had to admit that Hades did look quite menacing. But none of us were afraid. It was seven against one, after all.
Silently, Hades turned his horse around, now facing Poseidon, who was studying the magnificent creature very closely. I knew that because horses were Poseidon’s sacred animals, he was probably trying to politely convince the horse to buck Hades off.
“Don’t even think about trying anything sneaky, Poseidon. I can feel you trying to talk to it,” Hades growled, obviously realizing the same thing I had. “In case you hadn’t noticed, this horse is under my control now.”
And as soon as Hades said that, I knew exactly what he meant. Taking a closer look at the horse, I could now tell that it was, in fact, very dead. The big Friesian’s nostrils were not moving or taking in any air nor was it even sweating, though I was quite sure that it had been swiftly galloping away from Patrol One for a couple of minutes before Artemis had cut it off. Not to mention the fact that the horse was floating about an inch off the ground.
Then Poseidon grumbled something I didn’t catch and Hades smirked evilly, which made me despise him even more. I frowned, but took the stiff silence as a chance to speak my own mind. “Why do you even want to take over this realm anyway?” I asked Hades who only returned my frown.
“For the same reasons you all want to keep it,” Hades replied simply. “Power. Comfort. Nothing else.”
Having expected this answer, I retorted, “You know, there is a limit to how much power one person or god can control. That’s partly why the ancient Greeks created so many gods to begin with. The Romans, however, figured out that lesson the hard way when their entire empire crumbled. I don’t want to see that happen to the rest of the world too.”
Zeus added, “If you’re smart, you’ll surrender and things can just go back to the way they were.”
“It’s far too late for that, brother,” Hades answered him coldly, reaching down to pat his horse on the neck. “This war has already started.”
With that, a huge crack sounded from the center of the circle and, at once, every single god who was there reacted by releasing his or her weapon. In one deafening bang, a lightning bolt, golden trident, burning spheres of fire and light, two arrows, and my sword all collided in midair at the spot where Hades and his dead horse had been not a moment before. However, the epic explosion of raw power sent us seven flying backward simultaneously.
Sheer pain spread throughout my body as my back slammed into a tree trunk, but I quickly shook off the aching sensation and focused on blinking to try to regain clear vision. It took a good twenty seconds, but I could finally start to see the other gods and that all of our weapons were in a cluttered pile at the center of the circle.
Miraculously, all of the weapons looked brand new except for the two arrows, lightning bolt, and spheres of fire and light, which had disintegrated in the explosion. The grass under the pile of weapons was now jet-black like the fronts of our shirts, but the other gods seemed otherwise unharmed. The pine trees in the 150-yard radius surrounding the seven of us, however, were not as lucky. The sides of the trees facing the explosion were charred and no longer had any branches. The one thing I still couldn’t see was Hades on his horse.
“Damn him!” Zeus shouted angrily and suddenly chucked another lightning bolt through the thick treetops and into the dark sky, causing loud booms of thunder to fill our ears. When the thunder had finally subsided, Zeus put his head in his hands, perhaps trying to calm down. Sighing, I walked over to the clutter of weapons and picked up my sword, brushing off the blade before silently turning it back into a rock. I was already beginning to formulate a new plan.
“How do you think he managed to get away?” Hestia wondered aloud in exasperation while she twirled her long, light brown hair around her dainty fingers. She was still kneeling on the burnt grass, tilting her head sideways in deep thought.
Hera frowned and pointed to the spot on the black ground where the weapons had been. “That’s how.” The rest of us exchanged curious glances then walked over to see what Hera was looking at. A thin almost invisible crack in the earth ran straight through the patch of charred grass. Hence, it appeared Hades had retreated down to the Underworld for the time being.
“Move,” Poseidon whispered to the rest of us, just barely loud enough to hear. Confusion wavered momentarily on all of the gods’ faces and Hestia was about to ask for some sort of clarification when Poseidon yelled in a loud, d
esperate voice, “MOVE!”
In one split second, we jumped as far away from Poseidon as we possibly could and crouched for safety on the grass as the god of earthquakes slammed his golden trident on the thin crack in a last-ditch effort to break it back open.
I shut my eyes tightly as I felt the earth under my feet give a tremendous shake—the biggest earthquake I had ever experienced (and I had been through plenty of huge ones, mind you). When the shaking finally subsided, I slowly opened one eye, not sure what I might see. But what I saw definitely wasn’t good.
The crack wasn’t open. Poseidon stood alone on the small patch of black grass with his head down, his blue-green eyes glaring at the ground angrily, his black hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. Poseidon dropped his golden trident and I felt the earth give a tiny tremble again as he sank to his knees in defeat and slammed his fists against the ground in frustration, because if there was one person in the entire world who could have opened that crack, it was Poseidon.
It was absolutely silent for a moment as the reality of the war finally hit us. Reconciliation wasn’t going to be simple and straightforward in any way like almost everything else hadn’t been so far. This war was going to be a long, hard, traumatic struggle, as Hades appeared to have strengthened his powers by a huge margin over the last six years like the rest of us. Maybe the fact that so much death had already occurred in the Woods was enough to fuel him, to inspire a grand finale.
Even the birds were quiet, as if they too understood the gravity of what was going on in our beloved forest. Or perhaps they had just been killed by the powerful explosion.
After a long sigh, Zeus broke the thick ice frozen over our conversation and announced solemnly, his expression grim, “Well, it’s the A Team’s watch now, so anyone else who wants to leave can go.” Apollo and Artemis walked over to my side and neither Zeus nor Poseidon moved a muscle.
“Sorry, Zeus, but Hestia and I are done for today,” Hera said with a fatigued sigh and Zeus nodded in understanding.
“And we still have to clean off our shirts somehow,” Hestia added darkly, trying in vain to brush off the black dust from the front of her lavender blouse. The two girls waved a forlorn good-bye then turned around and walked east toward Main Street.
When the two brunette goddesses had disappeared into the foliage, Zeus’s blue eyes met my gray ones. “Poseidon and I will stay and patrol together for a while. Athena, if Alec calls . . .” His usually strong and powerful voice trailed off into silence and I could tell that he was still distracted by the fact that Hades had escaped his clutches yet again.
“I know what to do,” I confirmed with a weak smile. Zeus then gave a short nod before he and Poseidon picked up their weapons again and set off deeper into the forest. Meanwhile, I spun around to face Artemis and Apollo. “Ready?” I asked softly and they responded in an echo. Together, the three of us slowly headed west and searched high and low for a monster of any kind to kill. I doubted that we would run into Hades again that day, but I honestly wasn’t sure yet if that was good or bad . . .
Chapter 3
THE ABSOLUTE WORST TIMES TO CALL
Artemis, Apollo, and I had been patrolling the woods for about two hours so our watch was almost over. Luckily, I didn’t have to do too much work for once since the twin archers shot almost every monster that came our way. That was a total of five, by the way. I won’t bother recounting all of those details, because a lot of it consisted of Apollo cursing at everything, from the bushes that kept getting caught on his bright red sweatshirt to the monsters themselves. Though, I will say that Artemis and I got annoyed with his behavior after a while.
“Shut up, idiot! You’re giving away our position!” Artemis hissed at him eventually. You might think Apollo would be used to navigating the thick undergrowth after spending nine years of our lives in that forest, but no, he was still just as clumsy as when he accidentally stepped on the skeleton the second day we went in.
Sure enough, I heard a low-pitched rustling of the bushes coming from the east and knew that the monsters had caught up with us. I exchanged curious glances with Artemis and Apollo, who had finally clamped his mouth shut and the three of us cocked our ears toward the sound, waiting for the monster to reveal itself. But as the rustling sounds grew closer and closer, I realized that it couldn’t be just one monster. The creepy sound was coming from every direction now, and the silver mist seemed to be thickening suspiciously.
I tightened the grip on my sword as both Artemis and Apollo placed arrows in their wooden bows, ready to let them fly at a moment’s notice. We were standing back-to-back-to-back, covering each other’s blind spots because we still couldn’t see the unknown number of creatures. I couldn’t help but silently reprimand myself for not bringing my golden shield, as the extra leverage probably would have come in quite handy.
Suddenly, multiple dark figures came out of the shadows, moaning like zombies from one of the boys’ video games. But there was another sound coupled with the moaning, a quieter sound that was definitely less noticeable, though I knew immediately it was the creaking of bones. I had heard the sound once or twice before.
So no, this was not our first encounter with a few of Hades’s undead warriors—the “zombies” of our world—but we had never come across so many at once. There were about ten of them—skeletons with brittle old bones in disgusting shades of yellow and gray shrouded with the ripped remains of what looked like black, hooded cloaks. As they marched toward us, surrounding us, they growled menacingly and waved their swords made of sharp iron, slicing their way through the thick mist. And as if their appearances alone weren’t enough to scare any child to death, the tips of their black iron blades were glowing like embers with a bright orange heat that would make skin boil on contact. Thin streams of smoke rose up from the blades into the cool air, making it quite obvious that the undead warriors were happily ready to burn, slice, and dice their poor victims all at the same time. What a way to die.
Frankly, Hades would have been stupid not to use the millions of souls down in the dark Underworld, though my side of the war would have been lucky if he hadn’t.
“Athena, now!” Apollo yelled.
I heard a terrible cracking noise come from behind and knew the battle had begun. I didn’t even look behind me to see what had happened because I was confident that either Apollo or Artemis had just sent an arrow straight through the skull of one of the undead. I wouldn’t have had time to risk a glance, anyway. Instead, my courage unflagging, I just rushed head on at the skeleton a few yards in front of me, aiming for the rattling rib cage where its heart should have been.
I deflected a weak swing by the skeleton and managed to crush a few of its ribs before the inward-curving blade of my own Greek kopis sword punctured its rickety spine and the damned creature crumbled to a small pile of dust. I took a quick step back and its burning flat-iron sword narrowly missed my tight stomach as it fell down to the grass.
Relieved, I whirled around in preparation to face another attack, though it was hard to see through the thickening mist. I spotted Artemis furiously sending arrows in every direction at the creatures, but half of them did no harm at all and just went straight between the undead warriors’ rickety bones. The only signs of her true capability of hitting her marks were the undeads’ cloaks, which had even more rips and holes than before.
Off to my right was Apollo who had been forcefully knocked to the ground. He was angrily looking up with his normally cheerful hazel eyes into the shadowed face of an undead. His leather quiver full of arrows sat a few feet out of his reach in the long grass so, instead, he was smashing his wooden bow into the side of the single undead warrior standing above him. I raised my eyebrows, silently wondering how much more bone smashing that bow could withstand. It was of much more use to us in one piece and no matter how many times I’d told Apollo how important it was to have skills in more than one area of battle, such as hand-to-hand combat in case of times like these, I wasn’t sur
e he’d ever taken my advice seriously enough.
I whirled around quickly, refocusing on the undead warrior that was now stumbling toward me, its sword pointing right at my chest. I deflected its weak attempt to stab me then blocked the next swing before kicking the skeleton in the pelvis. It fell backward onto the ground, though it wasn’t yet reduced to ashes. When the skeleton got up with its bones seemingly guided back into their rightful places by the air, I easily avoided its next swing and used the opening to chop its skull right off.
Yet, as the skull rolled a couple of feet away and its jaw actually dropped off, the skeleton itself continued to run at me. Somehow not too surprised, I guessed that because an undead warrior didn’t actually have a brain or eyes, its skull wasn’t very important. Its spine, however, was obviously vital to its movement. Indeed, it was a blow to that area which had killed my first one.
“Go for the spines!” I shouted over my shoulder to Artemis and Apollo before readying myself for the next part of the fight: slash, parry, and repeat.
“Is that a cell phone I hear?” Artemis called out, breaking my concentration. This time I was forced to duck Matrix style to avoid the strike of an undead trying to sneak up on my left side.
But she was right. Now I heard the soft ringing too so I reached unconsciously for my back pocket. For the life of me, I wasn’t sure how our cell phones still had service deep inside the forest, but especially now it seemed like more of an inconvenience than a utility. The outside world, particularly the Sightless part of it, wasn’t supposed to be able to penetrate the forest’s mysticism or, at the very least, I didn’t want it to. Take that moment for instance: I was trying to fight off more than five undead warriors at once in order to stay alive and someone happened to choose that exact moment to call me. You can imagine my annoyance.
The Forest Gods' Fight Page 4