Chapter Find Her
Having already gone to the gorgon’s home and not finding her there, Zeus stormed back to the asclepeion with Apollo and Athena in tow, intent on obtaining Euryale’s oaths once and for all. As far as he was concerned, he’d given her plenty of space to deal with the tragedy of this morning, and if they were all to move forward and handle matters that threatened everyone—not to mention, find her child a cure—he needed to know without a doubt where her loyalties were.
That said, Zeus, Ruler of Olympus, God of Thunder, and arguably one of the hardest-headed deities to ever exist, was not prepared for what he found when he entered the room. Whereas Apollo and Asclepius had always kept the individual wards of their healing temples in immaculate condition, this one looked to be at the crux of a hundred-year war. Not a single piece of glassware remained intact, their shards scattered across the floor in every direction. Likewise, herbs and balms had been flung against walls or ground into the stone floor, and the linens had been thoroughly shredded. In the center of all of that, the small statue of a child sat upright in bed.
Cassandra’s head twisted over her shoulder, and she held her hands up defensively. Tiny legs kicked at something unseen hanging in the air, while her face, once soft and full of love and life, contorted into an eternal scream of terror.
“Dad?”
Zeus turned at the weak sound of Athena’s voice. Though his daughter was addressing him, her gray eyes never left the small girl. “What is it?” he asked.
“You can’t go after Euryale,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s suffered enough.”
Zeus, much to Athena’s surprise, he was sure, didn’t argue. Instead, he quietly made his way around the room to place himself in front of the girl. “Do you suppose the gorgon destroyed the room as well?”
Athena laughed, choking on grief, and cleared her eyes. “Most assuredly. What would you do if you had to do what she did?”
Zeus nodded solemnly. He dropped a hand on Cassandra’s petrified head, felt the unnatural smoothness to the stone, as well as every minuscule contour of the unmoving vipers atop her scalp. “Much worse,” he admitted. “Much, much worse.”
“Then leave her alone, please,” Athena begged.
Zeus steeled himself. What had to be done was often at odds with what one wanted to be done. This was a fact any ruler would attest to. Still, he wasn’t completely without heart. Perhaps there was another way, he thought.
“Apollo?” he asked, turning to the god. “Do you have any insights you’d like to share?”
“If you run Euryale down like a wild beast and force her submission, I think you’ll forever damage your standings with a great many gods,” he said. “Demeter and Persephone for certain. I loathe to speak for anyone else, and I probably shouldn’t for them either out of courtesy, but the future seems clear regarding those two, and their pull with Hades is considerable.”
“Is that all you see?”
Apollo shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “Her oaths still need to be made, regardless of what she’s suffered here,” he said as if the reply poisoned his soul. “Of this, I’m certain.”
Athena furrowed her brow. “You can’t be serious.”
“I stand by what I said before. Avoiding a tumultuous week or even year is not worth eons of misery,” he said.
Zeus hardened both his face and his resolve. “Then we proceed as before. We find Euryale and have her swear herself to Olympus.”
Apollo held up a finger. “If I may,” he said. “Offering to put every resource we can spare at her command to help save her daughter may be the difference between a successful meeting and a disastrous one.”
“She’ll have it once she’s made her oaths.”
“No,” Athena protested. “She’ll have it before.”
Zeus held his daughter’s gaze for a few seconds before looking back to Cassandra. His thoughts were torn between knowing what a parent would do to protect a child and knowing what a ruler must do to protect his kingdom.
“I want her found and brought to me,” he finally said. “And you have my word, I will be cordial and patient, provided she acts the same. But I will not risk my reign nor the safety of all who live here should the gorgon not cooperate fully. She has one chance. If you find her before I do, you’d do well to remind her of that.”
Chapter Hera’s Place: The Sequel
“I bet I can kill two before you kill one,” Stheno said, shooting her sister a devilish grin as they looked upon the cyclopes who still stood guard outside Hera’s estate.
Euryale ducked back around the corner, and though she still had every intention of cutting Zeus’s legs out from under him, she couldn’t help but remember how fond the cyclopes were of her. “We’re not killing them,” she said.
“Ah, right,” Stheno said. “We probably need as much time as we can get searching the place. We’ll kill them on the way out, let their blood flow from here to Zeus’s temple.”
“We’re not killing them.”
Stheno set her jaw and sharped one claw against another. “They’re with him, Euryale.”
“I know.”
“Zeus,” she went on. “The god who—”
“I know!” Euryale snapped, squaring off with and ready to tear into her sister. It wouldn’t be the first time the two had come to blows, and in all likelihood, it wouldn’t be the last, either.
Stheno glared, and for a brief moment, Euryale thought she might strike first. “I thought you wanted justice.”
“I do, and I’ll get it,” Euryale growled. “But not them. They’ve done nothing.”
“Yet.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Euryale said, pointing a finger. “They were kind to me. Genuinely nice to me. I will not be a monster.”
“Is that what you think I am, then? A monster wanting to shed all the blood I can?”
“No,” Euryale said, though deep down, she felt partially otherwise.
“This is war, Euryale. This is self-preservation. This is striking them before they strike us.”
“It will only make things worse.”
“How?” Stheno argued. “We’ve set ourselves against Zeus already, have we not? I promise their loyalty to him far outweighs their fondness of you. If we’re going to unseat their master and take the throne, they’re going to have to be dealt with. We can either do it on our terms or theirs.”
Euryale groaned, hating all the inevitable consequences that were barreling toward her. “Why can’t you trust me on this?”
“Why can’t you trust me?”
“Slaughtering everyone in a quest for power is not the way.”
“It’s justice,” Stheno said, not batting an eye. “Justice that only comes from toppling Zeus, and that’s not going to happen without having to deal with everything he can toss at us, faithful gods and servants included. The power is, admittedly, a nice spoil we’ll collect once this ends.”
“You don’t know how loyal they are,” she said. “They might side with us later, especially if they know some of the other Olympians are.”
Stheno crossed her arms and huffed. “Fine,” she said. “But they’re going to come after you, after us, the moment Zeus tells them to. You know it, and I know it.”
Euryale sighed heavily and nodded, conceding the point. That said, she still clung to the hope it might not come to that. “We can deal with them then if they do,” she said. “There’s something else, however, you haven’t considered.”
“What’s that?”
“If we’re taking the throne, it would be stupid for us to kill everyone,” she said. “So, if for no other reason than selfish practicality, let’s leave a few of the servants alive, yes?”
“You’re capable of so much more than slinking through the shadows, afraid of a couple of giants.”
“I know. That doesn’t change me wanting to spare them.”
Stheno lolled her head to the side with an exaggerated groan as her eyes rolled
back. “This is so unfair,” she said. “The Fates give you all this power, and you waste it. You know what I would’ve done by now?”
“I already know,” Euryale replied.
Stheno shook her head and shooed a hand at her sister. “I can’t think about this anymore,” she said. “Let’s get back to finding Achlys. And since you don’t want to do the easy, fun, and sensible thing that lets us by the guards, how do you propose we get inside?”
“I haven’t gotten that far,” Euryale admitted. “But there has to be another way in. Let’s see what we can find.”
Stheno reluctantly followed, and the two skirted around the outer walls, using the orchard that grew nearby for concealment. Unfortunately, every portion of wall they saw stood smooth and tall, and worst of all, not a single foot remained unwatched.
They did spy a side entrance, but the door stood inside a recess that had its gate closed and was no doubt locked. And who knew what lay on the other side. Surely Zeus wasn’t so sloppy as to leave such an obvious entrance open to any would-be burglar.
When they reached the very back of the estate, where the walls met a sheer cliff, Stheno stopped and grinned. “There we go,” she said.
“There we go, what?” Euryale asked. She’d felt queasy the moment they drew within a few dozen yards of the edge, and she hadn’t bothered to get near it.
“Come. Look,” Stheno replied, pointing to something on the backside of the estate that Euryale couldn’t see.
“Tell me.”
“There’s no point in telling you if you’re going to have to come here anyway,” Stheno said, laughing. “Now get over this acrophobia of yours and get over here—or we do it my way and go in through the front.”
Euryale muttered some curses under her breath and slithered forward, keeping one hand pressed against the wall for extra comfort, which amounted to little, if anything at all. The closer she drew to the edge, the more wind whipped her face, and the dizzier she felt.
“Are you sure you’re the one who flew a chimera into battle? Because it looks like you’re about to have a heart attack,” Stheno teased.
“This is a lot higher up than that,” Euryale countered. She paused a few feet away to steady her nerves, and once she felt better in control, she eased up to her sister. “What am I looking at?”
“That,” the red-snaked gorgon said, pointing upward.
Euryale had to lean over the edge to follow her sister’s finger—an act that nearly cost her her balance and sanity—but it only took a split second to see what had grabbed Stheno’s attention. While Hera’s estate had indeed been built on a hill with one side overlooking a sheer drop, there was a set of tiny ledges that jutted out of the back wall of whatever building had been erected there. Near the top of that building sat a solitary window, open and inviting.
“Easy enough,” Stheno said, pressing her body against the wall and sliding on to the nearest ledge. “If I can do it, so can you.”
With her heart thundering in her chest, Euryale tried to move forward, but her body refused. All she could do was stand there, petrified, eyes vacantly staring out into the clouds beyond. She had no idea exactly how far the drop was, but since they were on Olympus, a shooting star would probably fall from lower heights.
“Don’t make me open the front door for you,” Stheno called back, now about halfway to the window.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Shall we see?”
“Fine…I’m coming,” Euryale said. She breathed deep a few times and repeated those words again for her own sake. “I’m coming.”
Euryale tore her eyes away from the drop and instead focused everything she had on the actual climb. As she eased around the wall’s corner and onto the first ledge, she reminded herself that she had scaled much more demanding places before.
“I can do this,” she whispered, pushing herself along with her serpentine tail. She reached out with her fingers, digging them into small holds, and used her lower half to press her up on to the next ledge. Her tail anchored where it could on the occasional rocky outcropping, and though those points were tenuous at best, they were still better than nothing.
“Almost there, Euryale,” Stheno called back.
The gorgon paused and glanced up to see her sister, who was now inside, leaning back out the window with a bright smile on her face. “What’s in there?”
“Storeroom.” Stheno disappeared for a moment before returning. “Bed linens mainly.”
“No rope?”
“I’m afraid not,” she replied, holding her smile. “The Fates aren’t going to grace you that much today.”
Euryale nodded and went back to her climb. A few minutes and one terrifying slip later, the gorgon pushed herself up and through the window. She fell to the floor with a heavy sigh before rolling on her back with a burst of laughter. “The ground has never felt so good,” she admitted.
“Can I ask you something?” Stheno said as she helped her sister up.
“Of course.”
“How tall do you think the fires will be?” When Euryale cocked her head, Stheno expanded. “Of Olympus. When we burn it.”
Euryale smiled. “I haven’t the smallest of clues. Not big enough for you, I’m guessing.”
“I hope they’re so big, the light pierces Chaos,” she said. “And as it burns, I want a host to sing for us.”
“Sing for us?”
Stheno nodded. “To spread the news across all of creation that the Olympians have fallen.”
Euryale’s smile faded. While her anger burned as hot as ever against Zeus, some of the gods she still felt favorable toward. Persephone, for certain. Aphrodite, as odd as that still seemed. Even—
“Let’s boil Athena,” Stheno said, cutting into her thoughts.
“No.”
Stheno cocked her head. “No?”
“No.”
“She cursed the three of us,” Stheno said, blinking twice and stepping back. “She killed our sister. Cursed me into oblivion.”
“I know, but…” Euryale sighed as she clasped her hands in front of her face. “She’s changing.”
“So?”
“And she also gave you back to me,” Euryale added. “And convinced Artemis to help us as well.”
Stheno huffed, disgusted, and gestured at her body. “And that’s supposed to make up for this? We did nothing wrong!”
“I know,” Euryale said, hating how much this conversation tore her in two.
“Do you?” Stheno challenged. “Do you, really? Or are you starting to cower and make excuses for those who tormented us? Who destroyed our lives and raped our sister?”
“I’m not making excuses!” Euryale yelled. Her rebuke carried such power that it was the first time in her life she ever saw her sister shrink at something she’d said.
It surprised even her.
“You have every right to be upset,” Euryale said after spending a moment to de-escalate herself. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t wanted revenge on the goddess who heaped thousands upon thousands of years of torment and misery upon us. But I was shown mercy when I didn’t deserve it. I have to do the same to others.”
“Athena? Showed you mercy?” her sister scoffed. “Never on my life will I believe that.”
“No. Not her. I meant Alex when I tried to kill Jessica,” Euryale clarified. “And then Jessica did as well when she refused to kill me after I killed him, even though I’d broken her heart. And if mortals can do such things, how can I ever be their equal, let alone claim divinity, if I can’t do the same?”
Stheno dropped her brow and sneered. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “Who’s next? Are you going to forgive Zeus, too?”
“No,” Euryale said, not hesitating in the least.
“You promise?”
“I will never, ever, forgive him.”
“Good.” The next few moments were spent in a tense silence, which Stheno broke first. “Since we’ve
finished that, where do we go now?”
“Hera’s library,” Euryale replied. “That’s the most natural place to start looking for where Achlys might be.”
“I imagine. Where is it?”
Euryale laughed and shrugged. “No idea. I’ve never been here before.”
Stheno shook her head and laughed, too. “This is a brilliant start to our conquests,” she said. “I thought you at least had an idea where to go in all of this.”
“I do,” Euryale replied. “We’re looking for the place with all the scrolls.”
Stheno rolled her eyes, and the conversation ended there. Quietly, Euryale went up to the door at the other end of the storeroom and pressed her ear against it. When she couldn’t hear anything, and her vipers only tasted the unique scent of cotton lingering in the air, she opened the door and slipped down the hall on the other side, Stheno following right behind.
The hall had a few rooms on each side, each one holding more stores that were of no interest to the gorgon. Every dozen yards or so, Euryale would pause, listen, and taste the air. It didn’t take long for her to pick up on the cyclopes roaming the place, and given the uniqueness of each one she could sense, there had to be at least a half dozen.
She amended that to ten when they found the stairs and reached the bottom. Heavy footsteps drew their attention a moment later, and the two sisters quickly ducked into a side room that ended up being a private study. A lavish desk took up most of the space, and shelves filled with books and scrolls had been built against three of the four walls. The other wall, the one on the opposite side of the room, held a pair of arched windows, six feet tall, that looked out onto the inner courtyard, which for the moment was empty.
“Oh, what do we have here?” Stheno purred once the footsteps passed, and she noticed a gorgeous eight-foot dory on display in one of the corners. She hurried over to the spear, face awash in delight, and snatched it from its stand.
The gorgon ran her fingers along its flawless cornel shaft and shuddered. “You are much too fine a weapon to be trapped inside a stuffy place like this,” she said. “Much, much too fine.”
A Storm of Blood and Stone (Myths of Stone Book 3) Page 12
