“Come on.” Cain tugged at my arm, pulling me forwards, and I followed him blindly, aware of Inés close beside us. We turned a corner and for a brief moment we appeared to be alone. “Map,” Cain said, his voice hoarse from shouting orders above the din of this vile place. I was about to do as he asked when a crack slithered in front of us, parting the ground and as one we scrambled out of the way just in time to avoid the blast of flame that leapt through the gap and licked the skies above us.
With shaking hands I got out paper and pen and the crystal once more. We were all exhausted. We'd had to fight every inch of the way so far and our weapon supplies were being fast depleted, not to mention our energy. Inés passed us another bottle of the tonic she'd made.
“Last one,” she warned and we nodded at her.
I downed the contents, making sure I'd got every drop, before picking up the crystal. I gasped as it hit the paper and met Cain's eyes.
“OK, then,” he said. “You both know what to do?”
We nodded, and he turned his attention to me.
“Jéhenne,” he said, his voice hard though I knew he was just concerned for our safety. “Don't be distracted. There is no time for sentiment here. We tackle him, we get him under control, we move out.” He watched me, waiting for my reaction.
“I know.” I kept my face and voice as impassive as I could but inside I was a wreck. Terror, hope and a desperate longing fought with survival and good sense as I held myself in place and tried not to give in to the urgent desire to run down the path and throw myself at the man who was just around the next corner.
“If you want him back, you have to do as we planned, Jéhenne. No deviation from the plan, no sympathy, no tearful reunion or you'll get us all killed.” His voice was harsh now, and I blinked hard as my eyes prickled.
“I said I got it, didn't I?” I replied, my fists clenched, furious now that he still doubted me.
His eyes held mine for a moment before he turned away. “Come on then, let's go get him.”
We turned the corner and my breath caught in my throat.
He was huddled against the rock. It was a dead end, and he was pressed into the corner, almost out of sight. He was in the same state as all the others we'd seen. His skin was black and filthy, blistered from the heat and with open, weeping sores. The thick blond hair that I had loved to tangle my fingers in was matted and dark with dirt and his body had lost the heavy muscle that had made him such an imposing figure. He was little more than skin and bone, so far removed from the man I had loved that it was impossible to believe it was truly him but when his blue eyes looked up and found mine I knew without a doubt - I'd found him.
For a fraction of a second time seemed to stop and we stared at each other while my heart thudded in my throat, blood rushing in my ears. And then he moved.
He scrambled to his feet, body low as he waited for our attack, snarling at us with lips drawn back over his teeth but his eyes were wide with fear and a fierce determination to stay alive. For just a moment, despite everything, despite Cain's lectures, despite everything I knew I had to do ... I wanted to cry and drop to my knees, to beg him to remember me. Instead I reacted the moment that Cain yelled, “Now!” And we hit him with the spells we'd prepared.
He dropped like a stone and Cain rushed over to him, binding his hands. It was easy to control him for now. Dis Pater had stripped him of his powers when he entered Tartarus. Here he was just a man, starving and crazed and with no powers to match ours. The moment we crossed the threshold back to our world though, his powers would return to him. We had to get everything right or a lot of people would die.
I ran to him and pulled his head into my lap, cradling it gently and stroking his face as tears rolled down my face. I didn't care what Cain said, he was busy securing him, and I needed this moment. I'd dreamed of this moment, and the reality of it was breaking my heart.
“Come on, Nina,” Cain said, not unkindly. I wiped my eyes and nodded, touching Corvus with the spell that would awaken him. He wouldn't be able to speak or resist us. He'd be docile enough for us to control him as we made our way back to the gates of Tartarus.
Cain wrestled him to his feet and Corvus watched us with wide, fearful eyes as he realised he was helpless and couldn't run or fight us.
“Right then,” Cain said to him. “Time to get you home.”
Chapter 11
I felt like I had locked my heart away. Every instinct was stretched taut as the foul landscape around us kept up an incessant barrage of attack. If it wasn't the pitiful souls of the condemned it was attacks from the skies as great leathery wings swooped down towards us, or the ground itself that cracked and belched flames and the rotten stench of sulphurous fumes. Added to that were a few of the monsters that prowled the place in daylight, adding to the comforting thought that as soon as night fell, this endless hell we fought through now would seem like paradise.
In a way I was grateful. Every moment my attention was trapped in the here and now was a moment further away from having to confront the reality of the man at my side.
He didn't know me. I shouldn't have been surprised or hurt or heart-broken. Everyone had warned me. I had listened and told them I understood. I had understood. But I hadn't really believed it. Now it was only too evident.
Occasionally there was a lull in the attack and we found ourselves with a few seconds to take a breath before some new danger revealed itself. Every time I had snatched at the opportunity, to reach out a hand, to touch his fingers with mine ... And every time he had flinched. He flinched despite the powerful spells that kept him immobile unless we ordered him to move, proving that it must have been an intense reaction. I couldn't look at Cain or Inés, couldn't bear to see the pity in their eyes and was almost relieved when the next wave of attack came so that I could vent my rage and pain on the pitiful creatures that stood in our way.
Now the bridge stood before us, seething with trolls. Word had obviously spread and reinforcements called for. Cain outlined our plan, drawing in the mustard-coloured dust with a calloused finger. He looked up to make sure we had understood.
“Inés, you'll take Corvus with you.”
“What?” I objected, but he held up his hand.
“No, Jéhenne, I need you focused on this attack not distracted because he's hurt or injured. The likelihood of us all crossing unscathed is slim but as long as we make it across we'll deal with that after.” He scowled at my mutinous expression. “No argument.”
“There's never any fucking argument with you,” I muttered. “Fine, give me that stinking lotion; he'll never make it over the bridge at all otherwise.”
Cain reached into his pack and tossed the tub to me, and I turned to Corvus who was watching us with rapt attention, like we were wild animals poised to rip him apart at any moment if he took his eyes from us. He clearly saw us as the enemy and the thought made my heart hurt.
I walked towards him, keeping my movements slow and holding my hands like I was walking towards a nervous horse. Not that he could move if he wanted, but I didn't want to freak him out more than I had to.
“We have to cross the bridge to get you out,” I said, wondering if he even understood what I was saying. I moved to kneel at his feet and had to swallow down the lump in my throat before I touched his feet. They were raw and bloody. I went back to Inés’ pack and found the healing powder she had used on Cain earlier, ignoring Cain's growl of frustration. I knew we didn't have time, but I wasn't going to let him suffer more than he had to. I worked quickly, not looking at his face. I couldn't cope with the look of fear and distrust that I knew I would find there. Once the skin was healed I slicked the foul smelling lotion over his feet and as much of his exposed skin as I could. I bound his feet with bandages to try and limit the heat, but I didn't have any boots to give him. It was the best I could do.
Inés grabbed hold of the bindings, securing his wrists and she looked him in the eyes. “You will follow me, quickly. You will keep up,” she commande
d him.
I had to turn away. Seeing Corvus commanded by Inés was too hard to bear. He would have been so furious, humiliated. I wished I could see that old hatred for her burning in his eyes, at least then I would have some hope he was still there.
There was no time to dwell on it though, an explosion rocked the ground under our feet and Cain began his attack on the trolls. The bomb was an especially nasty one, and the shrapnel that flew didn't stop moving but gained a life of its own once it hit the ground, moving fast until it found a victim and buried itself beneath the skin where it grew back to the size of the original bomb and exploded once more. The noise and the chaos created by the trolls screaming with pain and fear was incredible, and I ran through the gap in the middle to confront those waiting on the other side while Cain held the way open for Inés and Corvus.
The trolls saw me coming and began to thunder towards me, their massive weight pounding against the bridge. The first three were easy, down they went, and I leapt onto their huge corpses, climbing up the saggy, grey skin to confront those who were still moving towards me. I shrieked as a spear whistled towards me, and I ducked, hearing the whoosh of air as it nearly parted my scalp. The delay had cost me, though, and the next troll was almost on me. I didn't have time to prepare the spell and instead snatched at the knife in my belt, flinging it at the oncoming beast just as Cain had instructed me over hundreds of lessons. There was a sickening thunk as it buried itself in the creature's eye. It wailed, clawing at the knife with big, ungainly fingers. I vaulted out of the way as it crashed about and just avoided being crushed by its huge bulk. The next ones went down easier but the bridge was becoming an assault course as I had to clamber over the bodies of the fallen that were beginning to stack up. Suddenly Cain was beside me.
“Down!” he yelled, pushing my head to the floor, or against what was actually the leathery belly of a dead troll. Another massive explosion rocked the bridge. The noise was deafening, and I screamed in disgust as unidentifiable pieces of troll guts rained down over us and the bridge. The bloody pieces fell into the burning river with a hiss and a smell that was disconcertingly like barbecued pork. I swallowed hard before I gave into the urgent desire to throw up and then scrambled to my feet.
The surviving trolls wandered about dazed and clutching at their heads in the thick dust that blew up around the crater that Cain's bomb had left. We slid and slipped down into the hole and then climbed back up the other side, our eyes stinging and mouths full of dust. My ears still rang but there was no time to stop.
“Move, move, move,” Cain barked at us, hauling us bodily out of the crater before pushing us on, back towards the rocks above that overlooked the hellish depths of Tartarus.
By the time we made the rocks, my lungs were burning and my legs so heavy I felt I couldn't move another step. I stumbled and fell to my knees, but Cain hauled me up again.
“No time, Jéhenne, keep moving.”
“Can't,” I rasped, my throat raw from the sulphur dust. “Just ... give me a moment.” I looked to see Inés had taken the opportunity to sit down too. She was yellow with dust and covered in blood, only the burning green of her eyes recognisable in the filth she was plastered in. Cain looked at us with no pity whatsoever and grabbed us each by one arm.
“Move or die,” he said, his face implacable. He released me and pointed at the skies, and I felt my stomach turn with fear as I realised how low the sun was now. It would be dark soon.
“Gods,” Inés murmured.
There was no more protest, and I pulled my aching limbs back upright as Inés did the same. Cain took hold of Corvus' restraints this time and we pushed on, back towards the gates.
***
“Cain!”
I saw my brother roll as the pterodactyl swooped, the serrated jaw slicing at his shoulder as thick blood bloomed under the ragged tear in his shirt. Cain lashed out with his knife and severed one of the massive clawed feet before the talons could also sink into his flesh and the creature shrieked, rising back into the air with a powerful thrust of the massive leathery wings.
I threw a fire spell lancing high into the skies above us and heard the screams as the rest of the flock dispersed ... For now. The wretched things had been harrying us from the moment we'd left the shelter of the rocks. Now the massive walls of Tartarus loomed before us, the gates almost within reach, and they had intensified their attack.
“Inés,” Cain rasped, his voice distorted from the dust and hours of shouting and sheer exhaustion. “You need to go back now, get the gates open.”
“You need me here,” she shouted, her own fire spell illuminating the darkening skies overhead as another of the great birds dived for us. I hit the ground with a thud, heedless of the bruises and cuts and grazes that covered me from head to foot, stinging with dirt as the bird aimed for me again. I heard the throwing star hit and the crash of the body beside me, and I scrambled away as claws lashed out.
“Move!” Cain grabbed my hand and towed me behind him, his other hand pushing Corvus in the small of the back. “Run!”
I didn't know how Corvus was still on his feet. Cain and I had trained months for this and even Inés was strong and fit, well fed. He had been starved and abused for longer than I dared to contemplate. He had to obey the spell, though, there was no option for him. He would run until his body couldn't physically take any more and then he would die ... and return to Tartarus. He had to hold on until we could get him back to our world.
“Inés, now! Get us through the gate,” Cain demanded. Inés gave a curt nod and reached into the inside pocket where she had stashed Aradia's spell. I saw the feather in her hand as she spoke the words and then there was a flash of light and she'd gone. I prayed Inés’ trust in Aradia wasn't misplaced and she would get Inés back to Arima and the other side of the gate as quick as she could.
I didn't have time to consider it, though, as the tell tale shadow flickered in my eye-line. I didn't have time to warn Cain either and just shoved him as hard as I could. Thankfully he ducked, and I sent the fire spell into the sky after the creature that had just tried to grab his head in its vicious talons. It hit the huge bird in the wing and it tumbled, spiraling out of control to hit the dirt with a crash.
“Thanks,” Cain said, coughing in the dust, and I glanced at the wound in his shoulder. It was pouring blood, his shirt sodden with it as it dripped too fast down his back. We needed out of here. Now.
The gates were just ahead of us as we ran, stumbling and pulling each other along, stretched to the limits of our endurance. Only the terror of what awaited us if we were still here at nightfall kept us moving forward.
We fell against the gates but didn't have a moment to catch our breath as the skies darkened overhead.
“Shit,” Cain muttered as he forced Corvus behind us where he fell against the gates, barely conscious. Cain's face was gaunt beneath its mask of gore and dust, and I knew he had lost a lot of blood. I stepped up and began to throw fire spells into the air as the damn birds came at us again and again. Anger and frustration and my broken heart filled me with a rage that was the only thing that kept me on my feet as I lit the skies, until I felt a hand on my shoulder and was thrust through a tiny crack between the open gates, and I fell to my feet in Arima as the gates crashed shut behind me.
I gasped as I realised we'd done it. We were out. I began to laugh. Hysteria caught me up, and I was laughing and crying, gasping to catch a breath and staring at the skies to be sure the damned birds hadn't followed us, but whatever magic kept the creatures in Tartarus clearly applied to them too and the skies held nothing more dangerous than the vultures that had greeted us before. I took a great sobbing breath and looked to Inés and Cain and Corvus to see their reaction to our great escape, but they weren't looking at me, they were looking at the perfect image of the goddess standing in our midst. Hekatê had found us.
Chapter 12
The laughter died in my throat. Nothing like the arrival of a goddess to provoke a sense of hu
mour failure. I got to my feet, grateful for Cain's unobtrusive hand to steady me, especially as he looked dead on his feet himself. It didn't do to show weakness though, not in front of Hekatê.
“Well, well, Jéhenne, and here we all are.” She smiled at me, a pleasant expression that made me nauseous as I knew how fake it really was. “I knew of course that you would come here and rescue your lover. Dis Pater believes you fear him too much to try it ...” She walked around as though she was chatting at a garden party as she spoke, and I wrenched my eyes away from the grass at her feet as the ground around her writhed with snakes. “That's true of course,” she continued with a negligent wave of her hand. “You do fear him, as well you should. But you fear life without him more don't you?” She pointed at Corvus, who had collapsed to his knees, his head bowed down. I hadn't had time to check his injuries but he looked in bad shape - even worse than when we'd found him at any rate.
“What do you want, Hekatê?” I demanded. I'd had a lot of time to decide how exactly I was going to deal with her next time we met, and I was pretty sure I had leverage. I was asking the question to give me time to think, but we both knew damn well what she was after.
She stopped and raised one elegant eyebrow. “Why, Jéhenne, I think we both know you have something that belongs to me.”
I walked towards her, ignoring her look of disgust as I dripped blood and troll guts in front of her in her godly finery. She held up the hem of her pristine white dress between an elegant finger and thumb, keeping it well away from our stinking filth.
“But it was never meant to be yours, was it, Hekatê?” I sneered at her. “He always planned to take the key from you and give it to me ... But you know that already.”
I saw the pleasant façade of her expression crumble and her face grew cold.
“What he planned is nothing to me. I will have the key returned to me now, Jéhenne. Dis Pater will not protect you this time and if you do not give it to me now I will make him aware of your presence here and all of you will suffer.”
The Fires of Tartarus Page 9