Blue throws his arm across Tallon’s shoulders. “My boy here has the peculiar ability to trip the Rift. He can get us across the realms.”
Tallon doesn’t say anything, and I study him, trying to see past the attractive exterior. There’s apparently a lot I don’t know about him.
Cass sighs. “How do we know we can trust you?” she asks, getting right to the heart of the matter.
Blue grins, completely unfazed. “Ah, that’s the tricky thing about trust, isn’t it?” The answer seems to mollify Cass some, and even though she doesn’t lose her defensive posture, she does seem to relax a little.
“So are you guys coming or not?” Tallon asks, shrugging off Blue. Now that’s the impatient little boy I remember. I grin and tug on his hair.
“Lead on! Tallyho!” I say, just like we used to when we were kids.
He doesn’t say anything, just rolls his eyes and sets off toward the river in the direction that Cass wanted to go. Blue follows him, giving me an apologetic smile. Cass stands next to me, and we watch the guys walk away.
“I would guess that the kid you knew has changed some.”
I nod. Now, like Cass, I wonder if I can trust the brooding man my childhood friend has changed into.
We walk for what feels like forever. There’s no time in the Underworld, but it still feels like hours. We alternate our walking with running, covering a large distance before Tallon finally calls a halt. We stand on a slight rise, and the view is impressive. To our left is the Acheron, as yellow and wide as it was when we left the cliff. To the south is the Styx, a black ribbon of water that still seems impossibly far away. And to our right is more of that black forest that makes me very, very nervous.
As soon as we stop, Cass heads over to find out what Tallon’s plans are, and Blue comes over to sit next to me on a large rock.
“So, you’re the infamous Zephyr Mourning.”
I nod. “Yep.” I like Blue and his playful attitude. It’s a welcome relief from Tallon’s sulkiness. The entire walk he’s done nothing but bark out orders, yelling at me when he thought I wasn’t running fast enough. Give me a pair of wings, and I’d show him.
But even though I’m fond of Blue, I don’t trust him. To be fair, there aren’t many people I trust these days.
“You said you and Tallon were brothers,” I say suddenly.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “We are. Half brothers. We share a mother.”
“I never saw you at Nanda’s house.” We never went to Nanda’s house; she always came to visit us at the Aerie. But I’m willing to bet Blue doesn’t know that.
Blue’s normally friendly expression shutters, and he sighs. “I didn’t grow up with Nanda like Tallon did. I just visited her during the summers, until it was time to start high school.” There’s a whisper of sadness in his voice, and the scent of rain on asphalt stings my nose. I want to pry, but it’s obviously a topic surrounded with pain, so I change the subject.
“How come you never came with Nanda to the Aerie?”
Blue grins. “Dragons aren’t allowed. Too dangerous.”
I laugh. “You’re a dragon?”
“Hey, don’t sound so impressed. You’re the Godslayer. That’s way more awesome.”
“What did you just call me?” He actually said Godslayer like it was a good thing, instead of the insult it’s meant to be. Godslayers are worse than murderers. We defy the natural order of things. A Godslayer kills Æthereals, who are supposed to be eternal.
“Zephyr Mourning, Godslayer and Hero to the Vættir,” Blue says, announcing it like I’m the main act in a circus. I just blink at him. My confusion apparently shows on my face. “You haven’t heard the stories?” he asks.
“What stories?”
Blue clears his throat and begins to tell the story like he’s the voice-over for a movie trailer. “Zephyr Mourning, brave Harpy and loving sister, found her dear sister slain by the hand of the General of the Acolytes, the dread Ramun Mar.” He pauses to boo and hiss, and then launches back into the story. “But Zephyr could not let such an insult pass, and she called down the blackest of lightning to avenge her sister and punish the dastardly Ramun Mar. And for her brave defense of family, she was exiled to the Pits of Tartarus.”
“Where’d you hear that?” I ask. I can’t breathe, and my heart beats triple time.
He shrugs, sobering suddenly. “It’s what everyone’s saying. Just a rumor, that’s all.”
But it isn’t a rumor. It’s the truth. And if Blue heard that I used black lightning to kill Ramun Mar, that means the Æthereal High Council has too. Somehow my secret has gotten out.
The Æthereal High Council has been playing with me all this time. They know that I can use the erebos.
I’m already dead. I just didn’t know it.
Terror clutches at my brain, silencing whatever Blue is saying. Tallon calls him over, and he walks off while I try not to burst into panicked tears. I have to get out of the Underworld. We don’t have time to rest.
Hades sees everything that happens in his realm. What if the chimera attack was just a distraction to get me alone so that some Æthereal assassin could take me out? What if Blue and Tallon are really here to kill me?
I take a deep breath and fight back the hysteria. I have to try to think about this rationally. If the High Council wanted me dead, they wouldn’t have to send anyone. They could’ve paid off one of the inmates back in the Pits. More than likely all of the attempts on my life over the past year have been as a result of one bribe or another. I probably have Cass to thank for their collective failure.
So where does that leave me now? It’s just a matter of time before Hera and the rest of the Æthereal High Council get tired of playing with me and demand my death. It’s better if I’m in the Mortal Realm when that happens. The Æthereals have less influence there, and if I’m lucky, I can lay low for the next twenty years until everyone forgets about me.
Suddenly, getting to the Mortal Realm isn’t just about saving my sister’s shade, but about saving my life as well.
Tallon strolls over while Cass and Blue disappear into a nearby cluster of trees. Tallon stops when he sees my expression. “Are you okay?”
I nod but don’t say anything. I don’t want to tell him what I suspect, that the Æthereal High Council is hunting me. Tallon was always a cautious kid. I don’t want him to change his mind about getting me and Cass out of hell.
It seems to be enough for him. He drops down into a crouch and pulls at the grass. “Cass and Blue went to go find something to eat. We need to make it to the Styx before we can cross, and from what I can tell of the terrain that’s still a ways away.”
“Okay.”
He seems to take the hint that I’m not in the mood to talk. Tallon stands and walks off, staring into the distance back the way we came. Heartbeats pass before his soft curse cuts through my haze of fear.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Come see for yourself.”
I jump off the rock and stand next to Tallon, close enough that I’m aware of the heat he gives off but far enough away that we aren’t touching.
From our vantage point we can see two cerberus chasing down a pack of far-off vættir. We’re obviously not the only ones who had the bright idea to use the chimera attack as a chance to escape. If we’d been walking at a more relaxed pace, they would’ve caught up to us instead of them.
I have a feeling Cass and I are next on the menu.
“We need to get going,” I say, my heart in my throat.
Tallon nods. “It’s going to be a hard sprint to the Styx.” There’s warning in his voice, like he thinks I’m the weakest one here.
Unfortunately he’s right.
Cass and Blue come running out of the forest with their arms full of the prickly, purple things. I have to swallow a groan.
Tallon hears me. “They’re kind of an acquired taste,” he says, a glimmer in the dark depths of his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s what Blue sa
id,” I grumble.
“Here,” Cass says, shoving one of the fruits at me. “Eat quickly. We need to get moving.”
“You heard the cerberus?”
“Kind of hard to miss,” Blue says around a mouthful of fruit.
Tallon rips open his fruit and takes a bite while heading down the hill. “Let’s eat while we walk. We don’t have time to sit around like a bunch of blue hairs at lunch.”
I shoot him a dirty look, even though I know he really means old women, not me and my blue Harpy hair. Still. It’s kind of a jerky thing to say.
We start walking. The others eat their fruit without a word, but once again I can barely choke mine down. It isn’t very appetizing, and my belly rebels at every bite. It takes everything I have not to gag.
As we walk, the screams and shouts of the vættir behind us start to fade. We still pick up the pace once everyone has finished eating. I get a stitch in my side after only a few steps, but I don’t say anything.
I’ll survive a little pain in my side. I may not survive staying in the Underworld.
CHAPTER NINE
WITH THE FEAR OF THE Cerberus motivating us, we make good time. It’s probably because my growing dread that we’ll be caught hurries my steps. The screams of the vættir have faded but haunt my memory. I can’t let that happen to me.
I spend a long time trying to think about nothing, just focusing on keeping my feet moving. Our pace continues to be brutally fast, but no one complains. Even Tallon manages to stop scowling, although I prefer the frown to the worry that now creases his brow. We need to hurry. If I’m caught, I’m dead. It’s as simple as that.
The cerberus will either tear me to pieces or take me back to the Pits. I won’t spend long in the Pits before I’m taken before the Æthereal High Council and executed. I’m not sure what will happen to Cass, but I doubt her fate will be much better. There’s an urgency to her movements that makes me think she doesn’t want to return to Tartarus either.
Deep down I almost want the cerberus to attack. Something inside me wants to take on the demon dogs, to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. The craving for violence is a strange discovery, like finding out I suddenly have an extra toe. I recognize it as part of me and yet completely separate, a foreign impulse that I know comes from some facet of my personality I’ve yet to discover. It’s a very Harpy response to jump blindly into a fight. It’s also a drive I’ve never had before, and the unfamiliar feeling isn’t welcome. It makes me anxious, and that’s something I don’t need right now. I push the emotion aside and try to ignore it. I already know that I stand absolutely no chance against a cerberus. No need to tempt the Fates.
We keep walking. The sky doesn’t get any brighter or darker, and there’s no way to tell how long we’ve been traveling. Hours or days. Lethargy has begun to seep deep into my bones. All I want is to lie down for a little while and take a nap, cerberus be damned.
I smell the river long before I see it, the stench of rotting flesh and dead fish wafting across the plain toward us. It smells like hatred and lies, and I wonder if that’s why some vættir refer to the Styx as the River of Deceit. Harpies aren’t the only vættir who can smell emotions, and it makes as much sense as any other explanation.
The terrain shifts from the tall blue grass to charred brown grass. It reminds me of the Mortal Realm, and for a moment I think we must be very close to home.
“Did we cross over?” I ask, my tone hopeful. Cass walks beside me, while the boys lead the way in front of us.
She shakes her head. “No, a lot of the Underworld looks like the Mortal Realm since it was all one world before the drakans created the Rift. It’s only Tartarus that’s bad. The rest of the Underworld is almost normal.”
Just when I’m pretty sure that I cannot take another step, we climb a rise and the Styx is right there, a black ribbon of water cutting through the landscape.
I want to cheer, but it seems wrong somehow. Now the stink of the water is strong enough to make me gag, and I cover my nose and mouth. Blue has the same reaction as me. Cass and Tallon are completely unaffected.
The Styx is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Rivers in the mortal realm are brown and rowdy, their currents full of debris. Even the Acheron was full of motion, the yellow water tumbling over stones in its dash to meet up with the Styx. The Styx is flawless. The black water is smooth and undisturbed, a dark mirror that reflects the blood-red sky overhead. There’s no sign that the water is even moving. The river is a midnight swath that stretches off in both directions as far as the eye can see. It’s still and quiet, and it terrifies me.
Blue marches up next to Cass and peers into the water. “So if I jump in there will I be invincible?”
“Try it,” Tallon says. There’s a teasing tone in his voice. He even smiles a little.
Maybe I’m not the only one excited to get out of here.
“More than likely you’d end up getting eaten by one of the creatures that live in the river’s depths,” Cass says, her eyes scanning the surface of the water.
Blue takes a step back. I know how he feels. If the fear of river monsters wasn’t enough, now that the possibility of returning to the Mortal Realm is so close, I’m filled with an anxious excitement. I never really thought we’d make it out, and now that it’s about to happen, I can’t stop myself from bouncing. The thought of going home after all this time makes me light-headed. Getting to the Mortal Realm will solve all of my problems.
Right now I have to believe that.
Tallon sighs and points to a whirlpool a few feet from the river’s edge. “There’s the portal. I can only take two people at a time, so we’ll have to take turns. I’ll jump in and take Blue and Peep across first, and then return for you.”
Cass shakes her head. “No. What’s to make you come back for me?”
Blue nods. “She’s right. Take the girls first. The cerberus aren’t going to be coming for me. I’ll be okay.”
I take a step backward, away from the dark water eddying nearby. My nervous excitement drains away. I’m not sure I want to jump into a whirlpool. It doesn’t really seem safe. “Maybe you guys should go first.”
Tallon gives me a sharp look. “It’s perfectly safe.”
Cass shakes her head. “Blue’s right. He’ll be fine waiting here by himself.”
I hear what she’s not saying, and my face heats in embarrassment. She knows that I’m scared, and that I’m a train wreck when it comes to defending myself. She wants us to go first because I have no chance of surviving a run-in with a cerberus on my own.
I sigh. “Fine.” I want to cop an attitude, to call her out for doubting me. But she’s right. Cass knows me too well. I can’t defend myself against a cerberus. I was lucky to even survive last time. It was only Persephone’s timely intervention that saved me from becoming a dog treat.
I don’t know whether to hug Cass for her generosity or scream in frustration at my complete and utter lameness.
Tallon holds out his hand to me, and once again the electric tingle shoots down my arm. Cass already holds his other hand. We step into the water, which is oddly warm. I gag at the stench. This close I can taste the dead fish in the air. I clamp my mouth closed and try to take as few breaths as possible.
Tallon adjusts his grip on my hand before looking over to Cass. The water barely covers Tallon’s hips, but it’s a little more than waist high on me and hits her in the center of her chest. I never realized how small she was.
Tallon looks down at me. “Are you ready?” I give a quick nod.
He steps forward, and we go under. I hold my breath and squeeze my eyes closed. There’s a moment of warmth, and then blistering cold.
And then I am nowhere.
I wake suddenly. It’s strange, because I don’t remember falling asleep. It takes me a moment before I remember the portal, and Tallon.
And the Mortal Realm.
I sit up. Little explosions of pain protest the movement, and I know I pushed myself
too hard trying to get to the Styx. I ignore the aches. It’s hard to think about a little hurt when the sun is shining on your face.
The sun. Actual sunshine. It’s bright and warm and utterly amazing. I giggle, euphoria sweeping over me. I made it. It’s almost impossible to believe.
But this is definitely the Mortal Realm. I sit in the middle of a cow pasture, and a little ways off a few black-and-white cows moo their disapproval at me. I look around, noting the trees, a nearby pond, and the sweet, sweet scent of somewhere that isn’t the Underworld. Everything is so blessedly normal.
If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.
I creakily climb to my feet, feeling much older than I am. I’m lucky to be alive. The old stories are full of cautionary tales about what happens to heroes who try to travel the Underworld. I’ve managed to escape Tartarus, outrun a chimera and a pack of cerberus, and make the jump across the Rift dividing the realms. That’s pretty impressive, even for one of the old heroes.
But for a failure like me? It’s a gods-damned miracle.
Now I just have to find my sister’s shade. I don’t have any idea where to start, and the realization dampens my joy a little, but not much. Because I’ve already done the impossible by escaping the Underworld. For the first time since I discovered that her shade wasn’t in the Elysian Fields I feel like I have a real chance of helping her. And that’s kind of awesome, as long as I don’t remember that the gods want me dead.
There’s a rustling sound, and Cass stumbles into view. For the first time since I met her in Tartarus, she actually seems lost and maybe a little uncertain. She spots me and walks over. Cass glances around. “Where are we?”
“I think it’s a cow pasture.”
She sniffs. “The Mortal Realm hasn’t changed much.”
I fight back a smile. “When exactly were you sent to the Underworld?”
“Right after the Spartan War. A very long time ago.”
I think of the rustic clothing of the villagers in the memory Hades showed me, and I nod. That had to be about two, maybe three thousand years ago. Cass’s head is going to explode. Gods, she’s missed so much. How in the hells am I supposed to explain something like the Internet to someone who doesn’t even understand indoor plumbing?
Promise of Shadows Page 8