“They’re known across the Perimeter Lands of Nostos,” Sam said. “Each realm can be two- to three-days’ ride by horse from each other, and in between are miles and miles of empty woods, jungle, tundra, or desert, so plenty of room to hide. Zeus orders each realm to empty out the Perimeter Lands once a year and toss vagrants off The Edge.”
“But he can’t catch them all,” Charlie said, with hope, and Sam shook his head.
We had heroes on our side. “So they’re good guys too?”
“For your purposes, mostly,” Leandro said. “But some have crossed over into crazed lawlessness and are dangerous to all, mortal or not. As you can see, they did not believe you were mortals and would have slit your throats as readily as mine.”
Nothing was as it seemed here, not even people from my own world. “Is that what you are then?” He didn’t answer, but I kept at him. “You’re not a Child Collector either are you, Leandro?”
He kept quiet, guarding his secret.
We rose up to the treetops and beyond. Far away, mountains poked up from the trees as we flew over scattered cottages. No people appeared, only a few wisps of smoke curling from chimneys in this medieval world that held castles, kings, and slaves.
Up ahead, Leandro led the way. His cloak flew around him like a great warrior riding his horse into an unknown battle.
But could he help us win this fight?
Chapter Sixteen
We pushed on up to the top of Mount Parnassus as our kernitians air-galloped along. I dared not relax for fear of falling asleep and letting go. The trees would be a hard landing in this twilight zone where the light never changed. It was dim and colorless, like the time of day back home after the sun sets, when the stars pop out. The sky’s purple deepened as night claimed us again. My second one on Nostos.
Every few seconds, the fog below would clear and reveal the ground far beneath us. Cottages popped up here and there, and a dirt road snaked through the woods up and over the mountain on our left. It curved along a creek and dark things moved along it. Things with tails. The cadmean beast patrol.
Sam and Charlie rested on their kernitians, but not Leandro. He leaned forward as if urging his ride to go faster, and then a dark cloud swelled in the distance. A swarm of black wings moved up and down. Korax—heading right for us.
“Leandro!” I called to warn him. He saw, too, and turned his kernitian down toward the treetops. Our stags followed, and I gripped the rough fur of mine as we fell through the mist that veiled my skin with a chilled glaze.
“The sky is no longer safe,” Leandro said.
Neither is the ground.
Words came to me on the wind in a cackle. Oracle. Oracle. It echoed over across the treetops and into the purple sky, growing louder as the mass drew closer. Leandro looked at me with an expression I hadn’t seen before, as if I knew what these monster birds meant by their chanting. Sam also gave me a questioning look, but there was no time to wonder.
We ducked beneath the canopy and the treetops blocked the swarm from view. We dove down fast between tree trunks, and branches stung my legs and arms as we blew past them. Leandro brought his mount to rest on the ground. We landed beside him and I eased myself off my kernitian, stiff from the long ride. We stood before Leandro, awaiting his instruction. Even Sam and Charlie were silent. We were just too tired to make a decision anymore, or rescue anyone.
“Thank you, my golden friends,” Leandro said. My kernitian stamped its foot and whinnied, pushing into me with warm bristles. Then the animals departed, rising and gliding through the woods, moving their strong legs in unison as they rode the air. They soon disappeared in the unending mist.
Sam, Charlie, and I yawned at the same time. Leandro looked sharply at us. “We must go underground. And we need rest.”
There was no argument with that. He swung around and strode off. None of us spoke, just followed Leandro in fuzzy obedience, hoping he would lead us to a safe, dark place to crash.
“Where are we?” I peered around in the gloom, making sure no fire-red eyes glowed back or Takers poised to jump us.
“We are just over the top of Mount Parnassus. Going down will be easier on foot. Just one Acheron creek remains between us and the bakehouse.”
“What about the korax? Do you think they saw us?”
Leandro shook his head. “We only saw them because of their number.” The woods grew thick and he started bushwhacking to forge a new trail. I grabbed the bushes to help, my arms aching with exhaustion, and branches pricked me awake.
“What were those birds saying?” I said.
“Oracle,” Sam said.
“What’s that?”
“Not what, a who,” Leandro said, using his knife to chop our way to safety. “The Ancient Ones prophesied that one would be born that was mixed mortal. Part Earth, part Nostos, and part Olympian.”
“Another god?” Charlie said.
“Not exactly,” Sam said with a tired sigh. “This being would possess the ancient powers of all the original Olympians combined. And he would know how to re-instate the powers of the twelve gods to their heirs, and immortality would be theirs again.”
“A myth some hope to be true,” Leandro said between breaths. Sweat shone on his forehead and I wiped my own away, leaving behind goose bumps.
“Your myths seem awful real here,” I said, tired of the history of this place where fiction came alive.
“As this one could be,” Sam said, forcing a branch away, but it snapped back across his face, leaving a red welt. He rubbed his cheek, then went on. “If the Oracle brings powers to the Olympian heirs then they are called to use them for good or lose them, and the Lightning Road to Earth will be shut down forever.”
“Bonne! A good myth to be real,” Charlie said, parting leaves above his head. Leandro didn’t answer and, just as I wondered where the heck he was leading us, the reason for his effort became clear. When the bush branches were parted, they revealed a tall entrance cut into rock. A cave. Leandro pulled a glass tube from his satchel and shook it. It glowed neon green like the glow sticks we got back home for trick-or-treating, only brighter. Tiny bugs ran around inside its walls.
“Cadmean beasts.” Sam sniffed the air. “If we get below ground they can’t track our scent as easy.”
I sniffed too, but just got a whiff of wet rock and moss–no monster fox. Leandro quickly moved down into the cool blackness. Sam followed, and then Charlie, muttering about how he would not be dinner for a bunch of stupide les renards.
Down we went into the chilly hideaway. Leandro strode ahead, his height casting shadows from the glow stick. A musty draft wafted over me as we entered a large cavern. The walls gleamed with light in a starry dance, and soon my eyes adjusted, and the room became brighter. Pictures colored one wall in red and black with strange figures and events. My tired vision gave up trying to decipher them. Slabs stuck out from the wall, a couple of feet above the floor. I dropped down on one and its cold seeped into my bones. Water dripped in a steady beat.
“Sit down, my weary travelers,” Leandro said. “It’s been a while since I holed up here.”
It would be nice to know when and why exactly that was, but I was too tired to ask. Charlie and Sam plopped down on slabs, too.
Charlie put his head in his hands and his shoulders shook. No words could make him feel better. Then, from under his hands, he said in a muffled voice, “How long since we left the auction pit?”
“Umm, yesterday,” I guessed.
“I hope my brother was okay alone.”
“I’m sure he was,” I said. “He could have asked a neighbor for help or called your mom, if he knew how.”
He wiped his blotchy face. “You’d be a good brother, Joshua.”
“Thanks.” His words made me wish harder to find Finn. As the days added up, it seemed less and less likely that we would.
Leandro pulled something from his satchel and handed us each a square bar. “This
will fill you up like a meal.”
I ate the granola-tasting bar greedily, sick of bong bongs and slug dogs, and gulped from the leather bag he handed me. The water tasted of honey, like the Spring of Galene.
He peered down his sharp nose at me, then pulled the bag away. “Not so fast, young Joshua. You don’t want to make yourself sick.” He gave me back the water and I drank slower this time.
Sam was already asleep and Charlie curled up on his side away from me, his shoulders shaking again. Then, with a final sob, he was quiet. Both he and Sam soon snored away on their slabs. Leandro plucked a thin blanket from his bag and placed it over me. He tucked it around my legs and chest, driving some of the cold away. Weariness enveloped me and my eyes closed. The last thing I felt was a rough hand on my head. It stroked my hair, and then was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
I woke up cold and sore. Charlie and Sam still slept, and at the cave entrance Leandro was spread out on the floor, his cloak wrapped around him. He breathed even and deep. Next to him, his bag rested against the cave wall that shed soft light. Now was the time to find out who he really was.
I carried his heavy bag back to my slab, wondering how he traveled with such a load, and pulled out the first thing that poked out. A book. It was wrapped in a worn leather cover and filled with stained pages of scroll-y writing. Leandro’s journal. I made sure his chest rose up and down in the steady rhythm of sleep, then moved closer to the rock wall for more light and read the first entry.
History of Our People
By Leandro of the Arrow Realm, as handed down to me by my father, Mortimer the Steel Twister
Long ago, the Greek gods fell from power. They were real and all mighty until the rise of other people questioned their rule—the Romans and then the Christians. And so, Zeus, the king of the gods, commanded his family to leave Mount Olympus and conquer a new world before their powers drained completely. They called our new world Nostos and took over rule of the primitive folk that dwelled here. On Nostos, the twelve Olympians would come to each rule a land with Zeus leading as their great king. Zeus ensured they would have a way to plunder Earth for their own use and, with his dying thunderbolt, created a Lightning Gate for each realm and a Lightning Road to travel between our lands—and between Earth and our new world. And so the Greek gods left their home, never to return or be immortal again. Or so we new people thought.
The Greek god’s super powers faded forever, and over the years the powerless heirs of the original twelve Olympians squabbled amongst themselves while the lesser Greek gods blended in with the conquered people and quickly became lost in our new culture on Nostos. A select few of mixed blood held ancient powers and immortality and were forced to serve the heirs in any capacity. Many of these few came to hide their powers to remain free from enslavement. Chaos soon reigned across Nostos, and our land was plunged into the darkest of ages, leaving thousands starving and dead. The Olympian heirs believed their time had come to an end, when one discovered that mortal children of Earth had powers to fuel their world. And so began the stealing of these children for vile purposes. In time, a deep hatred of these mortals grew inside the Olympian heirs, for these Earth beings held power they now needed to survive.
Yet before this tale of woe and oppression was set in place, the Greek Ancient Ones foresaw what would become of the Olympians. Angered by the corruption their people would come to embrace, the Ancient Ones prophesied an Oracle would arise to save their world. Today the Secret Order of the Ancient Ones hides on Nostos, watching and waiting for the Oracle to come forth and redeem their people. They will protect him at any cost to save their lost world, if an immortal Ancient Evil One doesn’t kill—
I flipped the page, lost in Leandro’s words, when air moved across me and the book was snatched from my hands.
“What are you doing?” Leandro thundered over me, blocking out my light. He shoved the book into his bag and tossed it on the floor away from me.
“Sorry, I just want to find out who you are.”
“Sneakery won’t get you that. You’ll know who I am when, and if, I tell you.” He pulled me up, his strong hands pressing like a vise around my arms. His piercing eyes stared into mine and I leaned back, fearful he would kill me. “Don’t ever go in my satchel again, Reeker. There’s plenty in there to kill you with. You were afraid of the Takers? They are nothing compared to the wrath I bring.”
I believed it. “Okay.”
His narrowed eyes widened and he shook me loose. I staggered back and fell on my slab.
“You like to take things that aren’t yours, don’t you, boy?”
I shook my head and dared a glance at Sam and Charlie. Lucky them, still sleeping.
He thumped a fist to his other hand, his shape outlined against the gleaming rock walls. “You stole that lightning orb.” It wasn’t a question, and his fierce eyebrows furrowed in sharp lines.
I rubbed my eyes. “I borrowed it from my grandfather. He told me it had powers.”
“Borrowed. Hmm. So you thought it might be useful to have on a rescue mission without knowing its purpose or the danger behind it?”
Good thing he couldn’t see my cheeks burning with shame in the low light. “Why is it so dangerous?”
“It’s a powerful weapon. And power in the hands of those who don’t understand it is a very dangerous thing.”
I sure didn’t understand its power, even though driven to use it, but I kept that to myself.
Leandro crossed his arms. “So tell me, thief, why you possess ancient Olympian powers.”
“You mean talking to animals? No idea. It never happened back home.”
Leandro waited for more. I looked away, uncomfortable under his gaze.
“A rare number of my people carry the ancient power of malumpus-tongue which enables them to speak to animals,” Leandro said.
“Great, but why do I?”
His words cut through me. “You must be from Arrow Realm, too, Joshua.”
He couldn’t be right! A boy like me couldn’t be connected to these Greek gods and this world. Yet, the Child Collector had smelled so familiar …
Leandro’s eyes shone in the light that glowed from the cave walls. “And only the elite Storm Masters from the Sky Realm are awarded a lightning orb upon completion of their training to serve as soldiers to King Zeus.”
“But that has nothing to do with me.” I pushed my hands into my thighs, wishing everything around me would disappear. “Oh, man, if we had just stayed out of the attic.”
Leandro was silent, and Sam and Charlie stirred on their slabs as water trickled in a lifeless ping. “Even if you do get home, your life will never be the same again,” he finally said.
The truth hit me like a fist to my gut. Nothing had changed. I was sore and tired. My friends snoozed away beside me. The water hiccupped in its endless drip. And yet something shifted in me. I was connected to this realm.
“Do these people steal kids for all the other Nostos lands too?” I said, wanting to change the subject.
“Yes.”
“That’s so wrong. I’d like to tell them that … and hit them!”
Leandro smiled, his anger with me fading. “I like your spirit, Joshua. It reminds me of someone I once knew. Someone I seek now.”
“Who?”
“My wife. You see, Sam was right. I have fallen away. I’m a deserter. And I’m not a Child Collector.”
He let that fact sink in for a moment.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t be like the man who took me,” I confessed.
“Not like him in that respect, no.” He didn’t share any more. “I was once a guard in the Arrow Realm at the adult work camp. It’s where the mortal children from all Nostos lands are sent when they turn eighteen and lose their power. It’s where I guarded those I loved.” He looked away. “And it’s where my wife and son disappeared.”
I sat down, pulling his blanket around me, not knowing how to respon
d and wanting to know how he got a Child Collector’s belt. But I didn’t think it was the right time to ask. “What do they use kids for in your land, Leandro?”
His chin dropped to his chest. “Bait.”
“Like in traps, for hunting?”
He rocked on his heels and nodded. “To hunt the big beasts of the Wild Lands.”
It couldn’t be true. “Do they live?”
“Not all.”
“And that’s okay with you?”
“It is not!” He strode to me and wrenched up his sleeve. Rough scars crisscrossed his arm. They looked like a broken arrow. I hesitated, then reached my fingers out to trace the smooth ropes that rose over his hard muscles and he flinched. “I saved many mortals from the beast hunt by chasing them into the Wild Child camp to be rescued. And I was ultimately fire-branded a failure when my arrows did not hit their targets on one hunt that Queen Artemis proclaimed ‘a great celebration of our plentiful life.’”
“What were you supposed to shoot?” I pulled my hand away and crammed it back under the blanket.
He dropped his sleeve and lowered his head. His hair fell like two curtains, hiding his face. Then he sighed and bumped a fist to his chin. “Not what, who. Mortal children.” Coldness soaked further into me, imagining myself being hunted by him. “I was the best huntsman there was. I provided food for my people and guarded the mortals in the work camp.” His voice grew deeper. “But this I could not do.”
Visions of kids being run down by arrows in a dark forest filled my head. It struck me—maybe they were the lucky ones. They wouldn’t have to live anymore as slaves.
“Is that why you’re helping us?” I said.
“Partly.” He looked up. “I feel responsible for what my people have done to you—and continue to do. In my underground travels, I’ve saved a few mortal children and secretly sent them back to Earth, but that has been few and far between.”
Joshua and the Lightning Road Page 8