by Eliza Raine
‘Is it numb yet?’ the satyr asked. Eryx nodded.
‘Why would you help him?’ demanded Antaeus. ‘He stopped you winning.’
The red-haired girl shrugged. ‘Rather you than Hercules,’ she said. ‘Has anyone seen him?’
‘No. Last I saw he was buried under the metal crabs.’
Eryx blinked at his captain. There were two of him. He knew that wasn’t right.
‘Er…’ he managed to say before he crashed to the ground.
‘Get me my bag!’ demanded the satyr, rushing over. ‘I’m sorry, Captain, but we may already be too late.’
‘We can’t be. Athena told me to help him. She said he was important,’ Lyssa protested.
‘Hold on,’ was the last thing Eryx heard Antaeus say before everything went black again.
Artemis
Skies of Olympus
Book Three
1
‘I thought you weren’t supposed to interfere,’ said Hercules through gritted teeth.
He immediately regretted speaking. Pain surged through him from head to toe. He couldn’t bite back his scream.
‘For that, I’ll leave some of these wounds unhealed,’ Zeus replied, his voice deep and angry. ‘I admire your courage, but deplore your stupidity. Next time, you take the girl with you. She can help.’
‘Yes, Father,’ Hercules mumbled, trying hard to sound contrite.
‘If any of the other gods had seen me pluck you from Athena’s metal abominations you would have been thrown out of the competition. Without the lion skin the crabs would have killed you. Fool.’
Hercules closed his eyes. There was no good to be had from losing his temper with the lord of the gods. Especially when Zeus was saving his life.
He was back on the Hybris, on the cold white marble floor of his washroom, where his father had transported him. He hadn’t felt close to death when he had been in the middle of the heaving mass of metal crabs and he was sure he would have fought his way out eventually. But these wounds would have slowed him down for the next Trial, that much was true.
‘I have enough to worry about, without having to nurse you,’ Zeus snapped as Hercules straightened up. ‘That’s as much as I can do without making it obvious I have been involved. For the next Trial, use your head, and use the girl!’ He vanished in a flash of bright white light.
Hercules let out a groan and used the copper bath-tub to pull himself to a sitting position. His head swam. He looked down at his torso and fingered his shredded shirt. Maybe the crabs would have killed him. The few that had gotten under the lion skin appeared to have done more damage than he had realised. He tenderly touched the already fading scars on his chest. If Zeus said he should use Evadne, he would. It didn’t make him weak to follow a god’s orders, he decided. He concentrated on a mental image of her face.
‘Evadne, come to my quarters,’ he said.
‘Yes, Captain,’ she replied immediately, surprise clear in her voice. He stood up, tentatively, and began to peel off his shredded clothes.
Evadne arrived at his rooms in moments and he ordered her to bathe him. Willingly and carefully, she wiped away the blood and grime as he let the hot water soothe his muscles. He didn’t ache, exactly, but he was sore where the pincers had repeatedly bitten into his skin and muscle.
‘How…’ Evadne started, but she trailed off. He looked at her.
‘Who won the Trial?’
Her eyes dropped from his.
‘The Orion. Which is good, really. Theseus is your biggest rival, and obviously…’ She paused and looked nervously at him. ‘Obviously you wouldn’t want the Alastor to win.’
She was right. If it wasn’t him, the giants winning probably was the best outcome of a bad situation. He closed his eyes.
‘When is the next Trial being announced?’
‘Soon.’
He sat up, water sloshing over the side of the bath. Evadne jumped back, startled.
‘How soon?’
‘I’m not sure. Asterion is watching the flame dish,’ she answered. He stood up, barely able to suppress the shiver caused by the water rolling down his body.
‘Get me a towel. Olympus needs to know that their hero lives.’
‘Yes, Captain.’
2
Eryx coughed as light filtered painfully through his half-closed eyes.
‘Welcome back,’ rumbled Antaeus.
‘Captain?’ Eryx croaked, unsure where he was. He raised his head gently, pain throbbing in his skull as he looked around. He was in a bed that wasn’t his, but the wood-panelled walls looked like those of the Orion. Antaeus was sitting in a big chair beside him, smiling. ‘What…’
His voice tailed off as memories started to slam into him. He had been on the Hydra head over the burning swamp, he had smashed its eye and got that weird metal ball, he had… ‘Did we win? I thought I saw Athena…’ Antaeus cut him off with a deep belly laugh.
‘Yes, Brother. We won. You won.’ Pride swelled in him and he tried to sit up but his chest constricted painfully.
‘Where are we?’ he asked, wincing.
‘My chambers. Don’t get used to it, it’s just until you feel better,’ he said as Eryx’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You had us worried. It was close for a while but Captain Lyssa’s medic knew about the poison in the Hydra’s horns and was able to treat it. He just left.’ Antaeus tapped his shoulder, more gently than Eryx would have thought he could manage. ‘You’ve been blue for the best part of the last hour. I didn’t know if you would make it.’
‘Why would they help us?’ Eryx asked slowly, looking down at his bandaged chest. His skin was so pale it was almost white. Antaeus shrugged.
‘She said that they were more interested in stopping Hercules than winning themselves, and it was the decent thing to do. But I heard her say something to her medic about Athena believing you were important.’ Antaeus leaned forward. ‘You know anything about that?’
Eryx screwed his face up.
‘I’ve never spoken to a god in my life,’ he said. ‘Even Poseidon. You know that.’ Antaeus nodded and stood up, his massive frame filling Eryx’s vision. ‘And I’d have told you if something like that happened.’
‘That’s what I thought. Get some rest. You need to drink all of that.’ He gestured at some sludgy blue liquid in a glass on the stand next to the bed. ‘The next Trial will be announced soon.’ He strode to the door, paused and turned back. ‘Eryx, you did good. Really good.’
Eryx beamed.
When Antaeus had gone he laid his head back on the pillow, enjoying how much nicer it was than his own. He’d done it. He’d redeemed himself in his captain’s eyes and shown himself a hero to all of Olympus.
A slow cramping pain rolled through his chest and he took a sharp breath in. He reached for the sludge and sniffed it warily. Saliva filled his mouth at the sour smell and he grimaced. If what Antaeus said was true, he’d been saved for a reason. Why would Athena think he was important? Was he important?
His fingers were weakening around the glass as he held it. He tipped some of the blue sludge cautiously into his mouth and spluttered as he tried to swallow. It was disgusting. But barely moments after he had forced half of the foul stuff down his throat, the pain in his chest receded to nothing and a warm drowsiness engulfed him.
3
Lyssa scrubbed hard at her smudged, dirty head-scarf. She’d become quite attached to it, after her initial protestations. It was more comfortable than tying her hair back, and though she wouldn’t admit it to any of her crew, she did think it looked good. She held it up to the porthole in her washroom, inspecting it for lingering dirt, then, satisfied it was as clean as she was going to get it, wrung it out over the basin. Hope was skittering around in her belly, making it impossible for her to settle. Hercules had been buried under the metal crabs. He had the impervious lion skin and Zeus’s sword, but… There had been a lot of pincers, and nobody had seen him since.
‘On board, Captain.’ Len’s voice sou
nded in her head.
‘Good. Eryx?’
‘He’ll make it.’
Lyssa didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure how she felt towards the giant who had dangled her by the ankle and dropped her over a pit of flames, and she didn’t know why Athena had told her to save him, or told Len how to. Why had Athena proclaimed her a hero, forced her into the Trials, then insisted they save their rivals? She had transported everyone to their own ships when Eryx collapsed; all except Len, who she sent straight to the Orion to help Eryx. Were the giants going to win? If so, why did she have to be involved at all? She scowled at her reflection as she wrapped the damp head-scarf across her wild curls.
‘Stop being stupid,’ she muttered aloud. Of course an omnipotent goddess kept things from her. She’d been chosen for a reason. She was going to help stop Hercules. It didn’t matter if the Orion won.
Immortality. The word popped into her head, with surprising clarity. She stared at her own green eyes in the mirror. Was Phyleus right? Did she want to be immortal? What would living forever mean? It wouldn’t just be her. She would have Epizon, and Abderos, Len and… And Phyleus. Maybe she should make more of an effort with him, if she might have to put up with him for a long time.
She snorted aloud at the direction of her thoughts. They hadn’t won a Trial. Worrying about who she would be spending her immortal life with was laughably pointless. ‘One step at a time, Lyssa,’ she said, stepping back from the mirror. Hercules hadn’t won. He might even be dead. And that was something to celebrate.
Lyssa had no idea where her first mate was, but she wanted to talk to him. ‘Epizon?’ she asked mentally.
‘Cargo deck,’ came his quiet response. She sat down on the end of her bunk and laced up her boots, then headed out of her rooms to the hauler at the back of the ship. When she reached the cargo deck Epizon was sat on the crate again, watching Tenebrae. She was staring back at him, her purple scales shimmering in the light from the portholes and her eyes bright and unblinking.
‘You sure it’s a good idea for you to be alone with her down here?’
Epizon looked at Lyssa, his eyes slightly unfocused. She thought of when she’d been alone with the creature. How happy and detached she had felt, for no reason. Her eyebrows creased in concern. ‘Ep?’
He blinked.
‘Yeah, it’s fine,’ he mumbled. ‘Len said there’s not enough light down here for her to do anything serious.’
‘Len is guessing,’ replied Lyssa, pulling herself up onto the crate next to him. He handed her a hip-flask and she took it gratefully.
‘Long few days, huh?’ he said. She nodded as she tipped the flask back, relishing the burn of the ouzo. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Good. I’m good. I don’t know why Athena wanted us to save the half-giant.’ Epizon scowled.
‘Because it’s the right thing to do? And he could have dropped you into the flames but he dropped you safely into a longboat?’
‘Not everybody is as virtuous as you, Ep. There’ll be more motive than that. We should keep an eye on the giants. I wonder if they’re supposed to win.’ She tipped the flask to her lips again.
‘Nobody is supposed to win, Lyssa. It’s a competition between mortals; the gods can’t decide who’ll win, it’s up to us. The heroes.’
She snorted, handing him back his flask. ‘So you’re saying the gods aren’t getting involved? Why was Len transported back to the Orion to help, then? If Athena is breaking the rules, you can bet Zeus, Poseidon and Aphrodite are too.’
‘Hmmm. Hercules did pull that sword out of nowhere,’ Epizon conceded. He took a long drag from the flask and they sat in silence. Tenebrae stared, eyes flicking between them.
‘Do you think he’s dead?’
‘I hope so. But until we know for sure…’ She nodded at him.
‘I know. We assume the worst.’ They lapsed into silence again.
‘Do you want to win?’ Lyssa said eventually. Epizon turned to her, surprised.
‘Well, yeah. Don’t you?’
‘Honestly, I hadn’t got past the thought of facing Hercules. Now we’re here, doing this, risking our lives… It’s hard not to think about it.’
‘Imagine what you could achieve with eternity,’ said Epizon.
‘What? What would you achieve? It would just be us and the gods. Forever. Might be kind of lonely.’ Epizon put his hand on hers, for the briefest moment, then pulled it away.
‘You’ll never be alone again, Lyssa. We win this together, or not at all.’
A small laugh escaped her. ‘We should probably start winning before we see this conversation through.’
He smiled at her. ‘The next one. The next one will be ours.’
‘What do we do about her?’ she inclined her head at Tenebrae.
‘I don’t know. Should we take her up top again, try to communicate?’ He sounded wary.
‘Let’s see what the next Trial is, how much time we have. And we should ask Len.’ Lyssa looked down, fiddling with her hands in her lap, uncomfortable with what she was about to ask. ‘Do you… Do you want to talk about what happened? What you saw when you collapsed?’
‘Not today,’ he answered, softly. She was relieved. She would do anything, anything at all for Epizon, and she couldn’t stand to see him in pain. She had avoided asking him how he’d ended up on Libra for years, because she didn’t want to shatter the image she had of the strong, kind man before her. She knew it was selfish. That he may want somebody to tell. That maybe he had no story at all, and she was unnecessarily creating one. Either way, she sagged in relief at knowing she wasn’t going to have to find out today.
‘Hercules is alive,’ Phyleus’s voice rang across the quiet cargo deck. Lyssa’s head snapped up as he strode over to them.
‘How do you—’
He cut her off before she finished. ‘He just sent a flame message out to all the ships. He said that he wanted everyone to know that he was saved by his almighty lion skin and that he was fighting fit for the next Trial.’
Anger and disappointment coursed through Lyssa. She had been stupid to hope.
‘No gods involved, my eye,’ she growled. ‘There’s no way he survived all those metal pincers on his own.’
‘Didn’t Athena just save the half-giant?’ Phyleus shrugged. ‘He’s not he only one getting help.’
‘Athena is supposed to be backing us! Poseidon should be helping the giants, Athena should be helping us!’ She realised as she shouted the words that they sounded petty. But it was true. Athena was using her, not backing her. Even the god who chose her didn’t think she could win.
She jumped off the crate, skin tingling as her temper soared. Phyleus took a step back.
‘You really wanted him dead, huh?’ he said.
‘Of course I did,’ she hissed. ‘I was wrong to hope it would be this easy.’
‘Easy?’ Phyleus said incredulously. ‘Easy isn’t a word I would use to describe the last few days.’
‘Nobody has died yet,’ she snapped. He gaped at her.
‘And that’s your definition of easy?’
‘Grow up, Phyleus. Join the real word. The real Olympus. The one outside your aristocratic courts and mansions, the one where people die.’
Anger flashed across his face, the first time she had seen something stronger than defiance or annoyance since the loathing glare he had given Lady Lamia.
‘I’ve seen more than you give me credit for, Captain. You know as little about me as I do you. You should take your own advice, and stop acting like a jealous child.’
‘Jealous!’ She stared at him. He was more deluded than she thought. ‘You think I’m jealous of you? Do you have any idea—’
‘Captain, we should all go up to the quarterdeck for the Trial announcement.’ Epizon’s voice sliced through her own, deep and calm, and she closed her mouth. She and Phyleus glowered at each other, tight-lipped and tense. ‘We wouldn’t want to miss it.’
Epizon eased himself off the
crate and walked slowly between them to the hauler. Lyssa bared her teeth and followed him.
4
Abderos was by the navigation wheel as usual, flicking through a book filled with drawings of ships. Len was sat on the bench along the back of the deck, reading a book with ‘Herbs native to Gemini’ written on the cover.
‘Captain, I hope we’re going to Gemini next,’ he said as she stepped out of the hauler, waving the book at her. ‘They’ve got some stuff I’d really like to pick up. Very interesting properties, some of these have.’
‘Nothing to do with the large number of nymphs and sirens in Gemini, then,’ teased Abderos. Len sniffed, but said nothing, pointedly opening the book again.
‘How did it go on the Orion?’ Lyssa asked the satyr. He looked up from his book, face serious.
‘I really thought I’d lost him for a while. He was completely blue. But the concoction Athena told me to make worked. As long as he drinks it all, I think he’ll be all right.’
‘Did you learn anything useful about the Orion while you were there?’ She asked hopefully. He shook his head.
‘I only really saw the captain’s chambers, then he took me up to the top deck in a hauler and rowed me back in their longboat. It’s massive. Reinforced handrails and haulers, and the sails were in really good condition, but I can’t tell you anything we couldn’t see from getting up close.’
‘They put him in the captain’s chambers?’ Lyssa didn’t know why she was surprised. She would do the same for any of her own crew.
Len nodded enthusiastically.
‘Captain Antaeus was very worried. It was quite touching, really.’
‘Huh,’ she said softly. At least it sounded like Athena was helping the good guys.