House of Thebes

by Courtney Cole

  He made valid points. But still. Sleeping directly next to a cliff made me nervous. Cadmus could see it on my face and nudged me.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll sleep between you and the edge. If anyone goes over, it will be me.”

  “How gentlemanly,” I smiled. But secretly, the thought of him plunging over the side of a cliff was enough to give me heart palpations.

  We opened our knapsacks and began to make camp. Cadmus built a fire while I spread out our bedding to form pallets.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  “A little.”

  He pulled a small bundle out of his bag and opened it, handing me a piece of dried beef. I thanked him and took it, finding a place next to the fire to sit. I breathed a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the pine trees that surrounded us here in the mountains. It smelled fresh and clean here. I liked it, although the cool night breeze caused me to shiver.

  “Are you cold?” Cadmus asked, pulling a soft wrap from his bag. He bundled it around my shoulders and then sat next to me. I shivered again and Cadmus smiled.

  “Come here,” he said quietly. Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he pulled me close. I was instantly enveloped by his warmth, by his scent, by him. I took a shaky breath.

  “Are you alright?” he asked in concern, gazing down at me.

  “Of course,” I answered quickly. “I’m just nervous.”

  “Nervous?” He raised a dark eyebrow. “Why?”

  I was embarrassed and self-conscious, but I felt like I needed to get my feelings out there. If I didn’t risk telling him, I wouldn’t gain anything.

  “You.” My one word sounded small in the night and I felt Cadmus tense at the sound.

  “Me?”

  “You. I was going about my life, doing my normal things and feeling perfectly normal. Then you came along and nothing is normal anymore. You are all I think about and then when I see you, my heart feels like it’s going to explode.”

  He looked at me for a moment.

  “Like this?” He picked up my hand and pressed it against his heart. It was pounding like crazy against his sternum.

  “Yes, like that,” I whispered.

  “Why does it make you nervous?” he asked curiously. “It’s amazing. I was beginning to think I’d never meet someone who makes me feel like you do. It’s nothing to be afraid of, Harmonia.”

  He pulled me back a little bit, looking into my eyes. His were dark and bottomless.

  “You never need to be nervous around me, not for any reason. We’ve been given a gift, an extraordinary gift. There is no reason to fear it.”

  “No?” I asked in surprise. “Right now, we can’t even be together. My father would throw a tantrum like Olympus has never seen before.”

  Cadmus smiled. “Right now, yes. Your father would be angry. But Harmonia, I don’t even have a full year of servitude left to serve for him. Very soon, I won’t be his servant any longer.”

  “But you’ll still be a mortal,” I answered weakly.

  “Is that so bad?” he asked in surprise. “I don’t find it to be a horrible affliction. Am I distasteful to you because of it?”

  I looked at him quickly. “Of course not. But Zeus is the only one who can bestow immortality. I’d have to somehow get him to grant it to you. I can’t fall in love with you only to have you grow old and die.”

  There was a pregnant pause full of charged silence before Cadmus finally turned to me and picked up both of my hands.

  “Are you planning to fall in love with me?” He sounded surprised, hesitant, nervous…and pleased. Color exploded in my cheeks and I nodded.

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” he answered before he pulled me to him. “I don’t want to be the only one falling.”

  Before I knew it, he was kissing me and all of my nervousness faded away. I couldn’t remember what I had been anxious about in the first place. Being with Cadmus felt so right, like it was exactly where I was meant to be.

  It was a simple, sweet kiss filled with promise. After a minute or so, he pulled away. I tried to kiss him again, but he shook his head.

  “We can’t, Harmonia. I told your father that I wouldn’t touch you and I’m a man of my word. But this trip won’t last forever and when we return, we can decide what to do. I’m a soldier, Harmonia, and soldiers have sharp instincts. And I have a feeling now, a very strong feeling, that I was meant to find you. You were meant for me. I know it.”

  Warmth flooded me and I suddenly felt more comfortable than I had ever felt in my life. He was right. There was nothing to be afraid of. We might be on the precipice of something life-changing and wonderful.

  But even as I thought it, something else came to mind, a very dark thought. Hades’ warning. Even though he wasn’t here, his words stayed with me.

  You’ve been warned.

  I shook my head, as though to rid it of troubling thoughts, and snuggled into Cadmus. He tightened his arm around my shoulders and all dark thoughts faded away. Whatever bad things that Hades wanted to warn me about… it was worth it to face them, all for the potential of a life with this man.

  I closed my eyes and slept.

  Chapter Six

  We had been walking for hours again.

  This time, the sun was high overhead and the sky swirled in pinks, whites, yellows and blues. It cast a colorful glow onto our skin, a cheerful, happy light.

  “Where do you think the dragon is hiding?” I asked Cadmus. He looked around and shook his head.

  “I don’t know. We’ll smell it before we see it, though.”

  “That sounds pleasant,” I mumbled.

  The scenery here was beautiful. I had never ventured this far into the mountains before. Jagged rocks, pine trees, multi-colored layers of shale and resplendent greenery covered the hillsides. It was a nature lover’s paradise.

  “I haven’t seen Ortrera yet, either,” I mentioned off-hand. “I wonder if that means that we are off course?”

  “I don’t think so,” Cadmus said confidently. “Look.”

  I followed his pointing finger to find giant claw-tipped footprints embedded deep into the ground. Each print was longer than I was tall.

  “Sweet heavens,” I breathed. “It must be enormous.”

  “Yes,” Cadmus agreed as he reached around his back and withdrew a thick arrow from his quiver and loaded it into a bow.

  “No,” I cried out. He looked at me in alarm. “We can’t kill it. We have to capture it. We have to deliver it to my father.”

  Cadmus nodded. “And we will. If we can. But if we can’t, I’m not going to let it eat us for dinner, either.”

  A sudden feeling of panic overtook me. It had never occurred to me that we might not succeed. In my head, we captured the dragon, led it to Ares and lived happily ever after. Killing the dragon instead didn’t enter the equation.

  But I realized now that we might face an impossible feat. A dragon this large would not be taken quietly. We only had the weapons that we could carry. We had no horses. No magic. We didn’t have anything that we needed to be successful and I felt my shoulders droop.

  “Don’t get discouraged,” Cadmus said, noticing my sudden quiet. “I never give up, Harmonia. That’s something you should learn.”

  I gestured toward the giant tracks. “But this… this is crazy. I don’t know what I was thinking. We’ll have to think of another way for you to get into my father’s good graces. This was not my best idea.”

  Cadmus studied me for a moment, his dark eyes thoughtful.

  “Harmonia, do you think that I can’t get into your father’s good graces on my own? Do you believe that I have no redeeming qualities already?”

  I startled and shook my head quickly.

  “No! Not at all. I just wanted to help. I know my father and—“

  Cadmus smiled patiently. “I know that you know him better than I do, Harmonia, but I’ve been with him for seven years now. I’ve gotten to know him and I’ll admit, I like him. He’s rou
gh around the edges, but he is true to those important to him. I have no doubt that when the time comes, he’ll see the situation for what it is. He’ll recognize that I can make you happy and that you want to be with me.”

  I watched him, mesmerized.

  “I do?”

  He nodded. “You certainly do. And I will make you happy.”

  “Will you love me?” My voice was small. He smiled slightly.

  “I will. Eventually.”

  I squeaked at his answer and he smiled, but before he could say anything else, a shriek resounded from somewhere very near. Cadmus’ head snapped up and we whirled about, trying to locate the source of the scream.

  Shoving me behind him, Cadmus once again drew his bow and held it tautly as we searched for whoever had screamed. We felt certain that when we found it, we would also find the dragon.

  We weren’t wrong.

  After ten minutes of downhill hiking, a horrible, acrid odor assaulted my nose and I clamped my hands over it.

  “By the gods,” I muttered. “It smells like…it smells like…” I wracked my brain but couldn’t think of a word bad enough to describe the foul smell.

  “I know,” Cadmus agreed. “It does. We’re close.”

  We rounded the edge of thick greenery and spilled out into an open meadow. And when we did, we found Ortrera and her one warrior circling the most enormous beast I had ever seen. It was bigger than any chimera I’d ever seen, even bigger than the underwater hydras. It was a massive, massive beast. Red scales larger than my head covered its body and it had enormous black claws that scratched the dirt in agitation.

  I was speechless as I stared up at it. It sensed our movement and turned its large head, its orange eye rolling to look at us. It exhaled quickly in a puff of steam and Cadmus shoved me to the ground behind him as he held his knapsack in front of his face. Fire scorched the earth around us and caught fire to his bag. He dropped it and grabbed me by the arm, yanking me to my feet.

  “Run!” he told me, pointing to a large boulder on the other side of the beast.

  I did as I was told, thinking that Cadmus would be right behind me. But when I got there and turned around, I found that he was still with the dragon.

  “Cadmus!” I screamed.

  The beast twisted around and stared at me with a glittering glare. I screamed again and dove behind a large stone.

  I trembled for a moment before I realized that I couldn’t hide. I was here for a purpose and hiding behind a boulder wasn’t going to accomplish it. As I scrambled to my feet, I heard Cadmus and Ortrera calling my name, but not before I realized why.

  As I peered over the boulder, the dragon’s face was staring directly into mine. It had come to seek me out and was waiting quietly for me to move.

  I froze, unsure of what to do. With one fiery breath, he could burn me alive. I stared into its orange glassy eye and saw a reflection of my terrified face. The quick glimpse was all it took to bolster my courage. I didn’t want to see myself like that…like a frightened child. I wanted to be brave. And people weren’t born brave. They made themselves brave by acting boldly in the face of their fear.

  I took a deep breath.

  In response, the dragon took a deep breath. My heart speeded up. All it would take would be for the dragon to sigh one small sigh of fire and I would be toast. Literally.

  I could hear Ortrera and Cadmus in the background, yelling to me, but I tuned them out. I focused on the dragon’s face, on his fetid breath, on trying to decide what to do. And before I could think of a good plan, I acted.

  Like lightning, and with almost a will of its own, my hand shot out and my fingers jabbed the dragon in its giant eye. The beast roared and reared back on its hind legs and I ran for cover as fire rained down around me. Cadmus and Ortrera motioned for me to join them so I ran with everything I had to reach them. They were huddled behind a large wall of rock and I rounded the corner and flew into them.

  Panting, I leaned into my sister to catch my breath. As I glanced up, I realized that only Cadmus and Ortrera were here. One person was missing.

  “Where’s your warrior?”

  Grimly, Ortrera pointed to a charred pile of remains not far from us and I gasped. There was nothing left of the brave female warrior except blackened ash.

  “Good heavens. I’m sorry, sister.”

  She nodded. “This game has lost its appeal, Harmonia.”

  “Agreed. I believe I bit off more than I could chew.”

  “Ladies, we’ll be fine,” Cadmus assured us calmly. As he spoke, he drew his sword from the sheath at his side. “Harmonia, do not go near that beast again.”

  “I didn’t exactly have a choice!” I snapped. “It found me, I didn’t—“

  “Either way,” Cadmus interrupted smoothly. “Stay out of harm’s way. Stay here with your sister. I have an idea.”

  “You’re not doing anything without me,” Ortrera announced, pulling an arrow from her quiver. “I have a score to settle with this beast.”

  “No.” Cadmus leveled a dark gaze at her. “I need you to stay with Harmonia and keep her safe for a moment. Please.”

  Ortrera glanced at me and then sighed. “Fine.”

  “I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Cadmus crept stealthily around the rocks, keeping an eye out for the dragon. I couldn’t see the beast anymore, which caused the hair to rise on my neck. The dragon could appear at any moment and we would meet the same end as Ortrera’s warrior.

  I gulped.

  Cadmus crept up on the rocks and looked around, pausing for a moment to gain his bearings and then continued to scale the wall of stone. As soon as his back was turned, Ortrera grabbed her bow and leaped onto the rocks after him. I pulled at her arm in alarm.

  “No! You need to wait here. You could put him into danger!”

  I didn’t realize that my voice was so loud until it echoed on the rocks around us. Ortrera clamped her hand over my mouth, but it was too late. I felt the ground rumble as the dragon moved and then I saw the spines of his scales emerge over the rock wall. My stomach sunk like a lead weight. My words had brought the beast straight to us.

  Cadmus spun and when he saw where the dragon was at in relation to us, his jaw clenched. He looked this way and that, trying to think of a way to help and then suddenly, he froze. He pulled his sword and in a flash, he had wedged it into the rocks of the wall beneath him, putting all of his weight on the handle.

  What in the world was he doing?

  And then the rocks began to break away and tumble down.

  The large boulders rolled to the ground, filling the open walkway that would have allowed the dragon to get to me. Cadmus had prevented the dragon from reaching me. But in the process, the rocks that he had been balanced on so precariously had crashed down onto the ground, and Cadmus had gone with them. He was trapped with the dragon.

  Chapter Seven

  I shrieked and leaped to my feet, clawing at the jagged rocks.

  Ortrera pulled at my hands.

  “Stop it, Harmonia. You’re going to hurt yourself. We’ll get to him.”

  She wasn’t moving fast enough and I grabbed her arm.

  “Ortrera, you don’t understand. I have to save him. I have to. He…I…”

  “This is the first time I’ve seen you speechless.” His voice came from above us.

  Cadmus.

  I gasped and looked up. He was perched on the top of the rock ledge, balanced carefully amid the newly piled rocks.

  “I thought you fell in with the dragon!” I cried. “I thought you were going to die.”

  He gave me a droll look as he began carefully climbing down toward us.

  “You thought a dragon would kill me? Trust me, when I die, it will not be from a dragon.”

  He scaled the remaining stones quickly and then leaped the rest of the way to the ground, standing in front of me.

  “I’m sorry,” he told me seriously. “I interrupted what you were saying before. You have to sa
ve me because…why?”

  His arrogance knew no bounds and my cheeks exploded into color.

  “You know why,” I muttered.

  “No, I don’t,” he argued. “I really don’t.”

  As I was trying to decide what to say, Ortrera rolled her eyes in disgust.

  “There’s no time to talk about it now. These rocks won’t contain the beast long. We should get back to the palace and bring father here. We can capture it after all.”

  “Cadmus already captured it,” I pointed out. “And he saved our lives.”

  Ortrera rolled her eyes again. “I don’t need anyone to save me,” she snapped. “I would have been just fine on my own.”

  “But you weren’t on your own,” I answered. “Cadmus saved us so that you didn’t have to.”

  I turned to him. “Thank you. I’m sorry my sister isn’t being very gracious. She’s not accustomed to being saved. But I’m grateful. Very, very grateful. Thank you for saving us.”

  Cadmus smiled, a beatific smile that weakened my knees. “You’re most welcome,” he answered regally. “Anytime.”

  I was taken aback by his incredible beauty and grace. Even though he was a man, he just seemed too beautiful to simply call him ‘handsome’. Ortrera rolled her eyes again, both at his words and at my thoughts, and I found myself wishing again that she’d be a little more polite. She shook her head at my thought.

  “You’re polite enough for the both of us,” she told me as she strapped her knapsack onto her back. “I’m going back to the palace. Are you coming?”

  “Of course,” I answered. “Cadmus?”

  “I’m right behind you,” he replied.

  We walked in silence for miles. Ortrera stormed ahead, anxious to report back to father. She moved so quickly that we lost sight of her after a few moments. Cadmus lagged behind with me. I buried myself in my thoughts, anxious to sort out my confusing emotions. It was still amazing to me how many strong emotions had passed through my heart over the past few weeks. It was almost disorienting.

  After a couple of hours, Cadmus spoke.