by Eliza Raine
Hercules had turned to face the last centaur standing. In contrast to his easy, solid stance, the horse-man was shaking. Lyssa didn’t know if it was through fear or anger. To hear about Hercules’s superhuman strength was one thing, but to see it in action was quite another. She could see sweat rolling down the snow-white flanks of the centaur, his hooves clicking frantically as they faced each other. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than this magnificent creature to back down, to disgrace himself but to retain his life. There was no way he could best Hercules. But with another roar, the white horse-man reared up on his back legs and tried to bring his front hooves crashing down onto Hercules.
He was too fast though. Hercules ducked under the centaur’s huge body and took hold of his front and back leg. He pulled hard as he stood up. The creature was flipped, his human chest and head hitting the ground hard. There was a sickening snap and a scream of pain. Hercules laughed as he took another leg in both hands and twisted. The centaur’s screams got worse, and Lyssa turned away. She dropped back under the table, and Epizon caught her arm and pulled her up on the other side.
‘The longboat is waiting,’ he murmured as another snap cut through the screams.
She didn’t respond but headed straight for the boat, where she could see her crew were now boarding.
Nobody spoke on the trip back to the Alastor. When the longboat docked and the crew filed silently onto the deck of the ship, Lyssa tried to feel the familiar sensation of relief and safety she usually got from the Alastor. But all she could feel was roiling disgust, fear and anticipation. She felt ashamed for doing nothing to help. But her Rage had not come. Fear had overpowered her anger. Witnessing the reality of what this man, her father, could do after so many years had left her unable to do anything but stare in horror. She turned to Epizon, quiet beside her.
‘Should we have helped?’ she asked, silently praying he wouldn’t say yes.
‘The only way we can help is by stopping him becoming immortal. If you had gotten involved tonight, you would not have lived to enter the Trials.’
She nodded. Although she knew it was true, she would never admit that she couldn’t have helped if she’d wanted to. Epizon nodded meaningfully towards the rest of the crew, heading across the deck to the hauler.
‘Guys,’ she called, and jogged to catch up with them. ‘Don’t let what we saw tonight affect what we do tomorrow. It just proves how important it is that we stop him winning.’ She looked at each of them. Phyleus was pale, and Abderos wouldn’t meet her eye.
‘He broke that poor creature’s legs,’ Abderos said quietly.
‘Yes,’ replied Lyssa. ‘He is a monster who enjoys torturing as much as he does killing. And we are going to stop him.’
13
Eryx was tense as he watched the orange flames flicker gently in the wide iron flame dish. It was raised on a sturdy wooden post next to the navigation wheel on the stern quarterdeck. He was desperate to see the flames flash white and to have their first Trial revealed.
After that idiot girl had let slip that Hercules had inside information and the first Trial would be on Leo, the crew of giants had boarded their ship, the Orion, and started to make plans. They didn’t want to leave too early, or it would look suspicious, but a head start for a ship like theirs could make all the difference. The crew of the Orion needed a Zephyr, as no other ship in Olympus was large enough for three full giants and two half-giants to live aboard, but nothing they possessed could make a Zephyr fast enough to compete with the others in speed.
Eryx ran his hand through his black hair apprehensively. A thud behind him indicated Antaeus’s arrival on the quarterdeck.
‘Anything?’ he asked gruffly.
Eryx shook his head without turning around, his eyes glued to the flames. They had left the Void a few hours after everyone had quietened down, following the end of the feast, and they were well on their way to Leo. The only ship still showing any sign of life when they had left had been the Virtus, and that had likely continued all night. Eryx screwed his broad face up in distaste. He couldn’t understand how people could enjoy a party after the gruesome fight Hercules had caused. It wasn’t that he was squeamish; he just had more respect than that. If he hadn’t been fed up with the others arguing, he wouldn’t have gone back to the platform for one last beer and witnessed the brutal scene. His feelings for the pretentious airhead who had sat with him last night soured further. Anyone on that crew was of no interest to him.
Antaeus spoke aloud. ‘Everyone on the stern quarterdeck, now,’ he barked.
Slowly the rest of the crew arrived on the deck. Busiris was first. His skin was the colour of gold, and he had thick black liner around his onyx eyes. He was a half-giant, like Eryx, but the similarities stopped there. Busiris was the only son of Poseidon on the ship without the bright blue eyes. He was also the only member who hadn’t made his living as a fighter. He was a ruler of a small settlement on Aries called Egypt. Busiris had been more than happy to leave his people under the charge of his deputy for a place on the crew of Poseidon’s sons, in return for funding the ship. He had bought the Orion, kitted it out to accommodate the giants and used everything else he was willing to part with to attempt improvements. Eryx thought they would have been better off spending money on supplies, as they had no idea where they would have to go or when, but nobody on board listened to Eryx.
Albion and Bergion stumbled up not long after Busiris, having clearly just woken. Bergion pulled at his beard as he yawned, and Albion tried to squish his huge, fat stomach past his brother to get nearer to the flame dish.
‘Have we heard anything?’ he asked, excitement tinging his groggy voice.
Right on cue the flames jumped to life, flashing white. They flickered for a second, then died right down. A pretty blonde man in a deep-blue toga appeared.
‘Good day, Olympians!’ he beamed. ‘Are you all ready to find out what the first Trial is?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I’m sure you are, so without further delay, let it be revealed!’
Eryx rolled his eyes. Trust the gods to turn this into some sort of cheesy entertainment.
‘Here’s the god hosting the first Trial.’ His eyes were gleaming and his excitement was infectious, even through the flame message.
Eryx silently prayed they were about to see Zeus’s face. The image faded for a moment, and Antaeus growled with impatience. Eryx’s stomach sank as Hera’s striking figure materialised. She was standing in front of a huge, glittering lake, the banks of which were lined with pale stone buildings.
‘Good day, heroes of Olympus.’ Her voice was deep and clear and calm. Eryx tried to look at his captain without moving his head too obviously. Nobody made a sound. ‘The first of your many deadly, near-impossible Trials will be to slaughter a long-standing threat to my peaceful realm. There is a lion stalking my people.’ She spread her arms, gesturing at the settlements behind her as she spoke. She was wearing a traditional, conservative toga with a vivid turquoise sash over the shoulder that shone next to her dark skin. ‘It eats living creatures and is a source of constant terror. The death toll stands at fifty-two as we speak. This monster has skin that is impervious to all weapons, and as such, it has evaded the attempts of the citizens of Cancer to kill it. Whichever crew kills the beast wins the task. Good luck.’ The image vanished and the flames flickered red and orange again.
There was a silence that lasted another moment, then the booming roar of an angry giant.
14
Normally, Hedone loved a good party, and Theseus’s ship, the Virtus, was made for parties. She sat on the empty quarterdeck alone, watching the few guests still up on deck, gorging on the expensive food and wine they had brought from their home realm of Pisces. Theseus visited with Aphrodite regularly, and she gave him a constant supply of exquisite culinary treats. Hedone wasn’t quite sure what Theseus was giving her in return, but she could make a good guess. She didn’t really care what Theseus got up to.
She listen
ed absently as an old satyr berated a drunk human for wasting good opportunities. She held a glass of her favourite rich red wine, but it was barely touched. She had tried drinking last night, at the start of the party, hoping to clear her head of the beautiful man she had met, but the wine had made it worse. She had tried dancing with the others, but it felt pointless without him there, and the attention she got was unwanted. When the guests had started to leave, or head down to the numerous living quarters, she had come up to the quarterdeck and sat alone, trying to work out her feelings for Hercules.
The more she had thought about him, the more desperate she had become. His intense grey eyes and his fierce power made her shiver. She longed to touch him, to feel him, to kiss him. She wanted him to need her too, to fill with passion when he saw her and claim her as his own. She needed him to notice her, and the best way she could think of doing that was to help him win the first Trial. But she couldn’t do that if it meant putting her own crew at risk. She didn’t care if they won or lost, but she didn’t want to hurt them. She had sat for hours, trying to come up with a way to help him.
The low orange flames in the flame dish suddenly crackled to life. She jumped and watched as the excitable man introduced Hera. The first Trial was to kill a flesh-eating lion. No doubt Theseus would come up with some clever strategy before they even arrived on Cancer. As she got up to go and wake him, it occurred to her that she was the only crew member who had seen the message. A smile spread across her beautiful face. Maybe she could keep the Virtus safe and help Hercules have one less competitor to worry about after all. She took a long drink from her glass and sat back down.
15
Time was dragging as Lyssa waited to find out what the first Trial was. She’d given up trying to sleep in her plush new blankets, and headed to the cargo deck to check on the tank creature. She wasn’t surprised to find Epizon already there. He was sitting on a crate that had been dragged over to the tank. The creature looked exactly as Lyssa had last seen it. It was hovering, facing Epizon, unblinking, and he stared back at it.
‘I think she’s female,’ he said as Lyssa pulled herself up to sit next to him.
‘Me too,’ she said. ‘Any idea what she eats yet?’
He shook his head. ‘She shimmers though. Do you think she might need light?’
‘If she does, she can go a while without it. She was inside the crate for weeks,’ Lyssa replied.
‘You did well at the ceremony,’ Epizon said, looking at her.
She felt a surge of pride at the compliment. ‘I nearly lost it,’ she told him, looking down at her lap. ‘Athena spoke to me. She calmed me down.’
Epizon raised his eyebrows. ‘She may be the only one of the gods that isn’t a sadistic lunatic,’ he muttered.
‘I wouldn’t be so rude about them now they’re paying attention to us,’ she warned him with a smile. ‘Even I can’t rescue you from the wrath of a god.’
He smiled back at her. ‘Sure you could,’ he said.
They both looked back at the tank creature.
‘We should name her,’ said Epizon.
‘We should work out how to ask her what her name is,’ Lyssa replied.
They sat silently for a while. The creature alternated her gaze, looking between them, only blinking once.
‘I think you should trust Phyleus. He’s on the crew now,’ said Epizon.
Her face creased into a grimace, her green eyes narrowing. ‘He’s a jumped-up idiot, and he doesn’t care for any of us.’
‘Lyssa, do you remember when we first met?’
‘Of course I do,’ she said. She thought about the night she’d met Epizon, his huge frame squished into the cramped metal lean-to he was living in. ‘I thought you were after my stolen drachmas.’
He smiled. ‘It took you a long time to trust me. I’d never known anybody as desperate for freedom as I was.’ He put his huge, callused hand on her leg, dwarfing her thigh. ‘That freedom is at real risk now. We need to accept all the help we can get.’
‘Guys, the flames are white! Get up here!’ Abderos’s voice rang in their minds simultaneously. They leapt off the crate together.
‘Showtime,’ breathed Lyssa as she ran to the hauler.
Lyssa was relieved the first event was on Cancer. Hera was a merciful god to those who had never crossed her. With any luck, the event would be exactly as she had described, with no hidden surprises. Also, Cancer was not far from the Void. The sky realm of Leo was regarded as being the centre of Olympus, as it belonged to the lord of the gods, Zeus himself. It was over two hundred feet above the surface, but only empty ocean existed beneath it. Most navigation was done using Zeus’s realm as a starting point. The Void was a little to the north-east, about fifty leagues away from Leo, and Cancer was south-east of Leo, about a hundred and fifty leagues. It wouldn’t take the Alastor more than a day to get there.
‘If she wants the lion gone, she could just remove it, right?’ Lyssa mused, aloud.
‘Of course she could. But what fun would that be?’ answered Epizon. He was leaning against the back of the quarterdeck, watching the orange clouds swirl past the ship. The flickering edges of the clouds shimmered, greens and purples glimmering through the bright umber.
‘Any ideas yet?’ Lyssa asked him.
‘No. If its skin is impervious, then we can’t use traditional weapons, like slingshots or arrows.’
‘Poison?’ Abderos suggested.
Epizon scowled. ‘That seems a cowardly way to kill anything.’
Abderos shrugged, looking over his shoulder at Epizon’s unimpressed face. ‘That’s how you’d get rid of pests on Libra,’ he pointed out.
‘Who’s a pest?’ said Len, his hooves clicking on the floor as he stepped out of the hauler and onto the quarterdeck.
‘That depends,’ Lyssa said. ‘Has anyone ever tried to poison you?’
Len grunted. ‘Never accept berries from angry wood nymphs, that’s all I’m saying,’ he muttered as he pulled himself up onto one of the benches that lined the right side of the deck, next to Phyleus. He turned to face Lyssa. ‘So.’ He clapped his small, hairy hands together, looking hopeful. ‘What’s the plan?’
‘Poison it,’ Abderos said.
Len guffawed as he looked at him. ‘You volunteering as bait? Or have you forgotten that it only eats living things?’
Abderos stared back at the satyr a moment, then turned to Lyssa. ‘Captain, I propose we use Len as bait. We could pick up a new medic on Cancer. They can’t be worse than him.’
Lyssa laughed aloud at Len’s outraged face.
‘Stars, I’m only joking,’ Abderos said with a big smile at the satyr. Len continued to scowl.
‘Well, it seems pretty obvious,’ said Epizon. He straightened and turned away from the hypnotic skies. ‘If we can’t kill it from a distance, we’re going to need to get close to it. And one of us will need to be strong and quick enough to fight it and win.’ He looked at Lyssa. Phyleus and Abderos followed his gaze. She swallowed.
‘Do we know how big it is?’ asked Abderos.
‘No,’ replied Epizon. ‘We only know what was in Hera’s message.’
‘But we know where it is, right?’
‘Ab, you watched the same message we all did. We have no idea where it is.’ Lyssa could hear the strained patience in Epizon’s voice. She thought he might be more nervous about the Trials actually starting than he had let on.
‘Someone on Cancer must know where we can find it,’ she said. It was easier to think about the less fatal parts of the plan, like finding the creature, than what she was expected to do with it.
‘Where are we landing then, Cap?’ asked Abderos.
‘I don’t know. The largest settlement on Cancer is Corinthia. All the towns there have docks big enough for the Alastor, so I guess we’ll pick a port and start there. We moor up and start asking questions.’ She shrugged.
‘Can I suggest Port Galatas?’ Phyleus had stood up.
Lyssa felt a
stab of annoyance. He had no right to offer opinions. She also couldn’t help noticing how tight his new shirt was across his muscular shoulders. She blinked the thought away. ‘No, you can’t. I don’t know anything about Galatas.’
‘Then I know more than you do, Captain,’ he said, stepping forward, brown eyes sparkling. He was ready for a fight.
‘Gods, you’re irritating. Why Galatas? Have you been before?’ She had visited a number of ports on Cancer before, but never that one.
‘Yes, years ago. And there are a few reasons. It’s close to Port Nemea and a couple of other large docks, so we have a higher chance of being closer to the lion. It has the busiest docks, which means we have a larger number of people to talk to. And if any other crews dock there, they’ll see our ship and be disheartened that we’ve beaten them to it.’
Lyssa cocked her head, considering. Phyleus looked pleased with himself.
‘Shouldn’t we be going all stealthy?’ Len asked.
Epizon answered. ‘Stealth is pointless. We’ll give ourselves away as soon as we start talking to people to find out where the lion is.’
‘Added to which, we’ve been on every flame message in Olympus,’ Lyssa said.
Len grinned. ‘I know! I’m finally famous!’
Lyssa rolled her eyes. ‘You won’t be leaving the ship this time,’ she told him.
‘You’re damn right I won’t!’ he shot back, suppressing a small shudder. ‘The place is littered with peacocks. I don’t get on with peacocks.’
The corner of Phyleus’s mouth quirked up in a smile. ‘Why don’t you like peacocks?’ he asked.
Len turned and looked up at him. ‘The same reason I imagine you don’t like harpies. Enormous, pecking, stupid animals larger than yourself are unnerving. At least you can reason with a harpy.’
Phyleus raised an eyebrow, still smiling. ‘Fair enough,’ he said.
‘Abderos, we’ll likely need you to stay on the ship too, in case we need a quick getaway, or a lift out,’ said Lyssa.