I flapped the split halves of my jacket in my hands. “Are you offering to sew it up then? I seem to recall you having a miniature sewing kit in your shoulder pad.”
He saluted me. “Yes, ma’am!”
“Chop, chop, then. And Garfunkel, you can help hold the flaps together.”
“Aw man, why don’t I get to use the needle—”
I flashed him a look that shut him up.
Simon strapped on a messenger pouch and carefully scaled around my neck and down my back. With Garfunkel helping him, they worked surprisingly fast.
“Your familiars,” Orion said once we’d walked a short distance with only his flashlight to light the path. “I understand your craziness now. Two tiny creatures invisible and silent to all but you. That is quite the burden.”
I winced as Simon poked the needle too far into my back. “That’s what I tell my psychiatrist. That was a joke.”
After a pause, Orion said, “I do not get your jokes.”
“You never did. That’s why you liked them, I think.” I suddenly found myself wondering if the old Orion had laughed at my quips because he’d felt sorry for me …
Nah. Orion wasn’t like that. We understood each other.
Orion stopped and turned to face me. “You really are insistent about the partner thing. Perhaps if you gave me your name, it might jar my memory”
Damn, he was right. I’d spent all this time with him in this tunnel and I still hadn’t told him my name.
“Theo.”
“Theo? That’s a boy’s name.”
I growled. Thanks, Mom and Dad for giving me a boy’s name. Not as gender-neutral as you thought it’d be …
“But a good name.” Orion turned back around and led onward into the darkness.
Clinging to my back, Garfunkel stretched the two pieces of my jacket together. “That’s our Theo,” he said, clearly grinning. “One of the guys …”
I growled again.
“Theo, hold still,” Simon whined.
Just in front of me, Orion winced as his boot stumbled on a loose rock. He pressed a palm to his side.
I reached out and touched his shoulder. “You were stabbed, in Typhon’s lab.”
Orion turned back.
“I can have my familiars take a look at it. Disinfect the wound.”
“I’m fine.”
“Show me then,” I said. “I don’t need you bleeding out on me when you’re the only one who knows where the hell—heck we are going.”
Orion grunted and opened his leather jacket, peeling up his shirt enough to reveal an ugly bruise. The jacket showed no sign of damage, as if it had stopped the Zeus gang blade like Frodo’s mithril jacket.
“Whoa,” I gasped. “What is that jacket made from? The Golden Fleece?”
He waved dismissively at me as he lowered his shirt and continued onward through the blackness. “During one of our centennial furloughs from our duty in the night sky, I won a bet against the constellation Leo. You might know him as the Nemean Lion in another life. Anyways, I—”
“A bet?”
He paused, miffed by my interruption. “Yes. A bet. In a game similar to modern-day poker.”
“Poker?” I scoffed. “How does a lion play poker?”
Orion twirled a hand in the air. “One of the Gemini Twins would hold his cards. Or Virgo.”
“This is true,” Simon said.
Garfunkel shook his head. “Yeah, those Gemini Twins were such cheats.”
I could just barely make out the contours of my familiars sitting on my shoulders in the darkness as I followed Orion. They rarely spoke about their time as the constellation Libra. In fact, I wouldn’t have even known that was their true form had they not morphed out and saved my tail back in Typhon’s Arena the first time.
“So that’s how you spent your free time from the night sky? You played cards?”
Orion shrugged. “Whenever we weren’t preparing for Nyx’s special centennial star-creation rituals. A bit possessive, that goddess. Like it was her night sky.”
At the mention of Nyx, I knew it was time to do some world-class prying. After all, Typhon had hired Lucy to steal Nyx’s scroll from that dwarven mine and I never found out why. Was it connected to the hidden power he was looking for?
“Nyx, eh?” I said. “What was her deal?”
Orion stopped walking and scanned the darkness for a bit before moving again. “Her sons couldn’t join her as constellations when they died. She took it hard. I think that is why she was so tough on us constellations, why she was so strict about her duties.”
“And she’s gone, right? With the other gods? Or was she not important enough?” Mel the curator djinn was holding onto Nyx’s scroll for me and if Nyx was truly gone, I could have the scroll back and finally figure out what it was all about. Maybe I’d frame it and hang it on my wall or sell it to a museum.
He nodded. “Most definitely. She was, quite possibly the strongest god of the sky—aside from Zeus.” Turning back and piercing me with suspicious eyes, he said, “Why do you want to know so badly, Tia—”
“Theo,” I corrected. “And because I’m curious. Now you were saying about this poker game …”
“If you would quit interrupting me … Yes, back to the game. Leo’s, what is the modern term …? Full House didn’t vanquish my Four of a Kind, so he had to give me some of his hide. It’s impervious to mortal weapons—”
“What if you lost?” I interrupted.
He drew in a deep breath. “If I lost, I had to give Leo my trusty bow. A foolish wager on my part.”
“Your bow? What would a lion do with a bow? Wait, never mind. Oh, you star people.”
“The term is ‘constellation,’ and it is quite an honor to become one.”
So prideful. I chuckled. Walking had diminished my strength but oddly enough, my discussion AKA argument with Orion had seemed to fortify me with just enough energy to keep moving. “I’m sure it was, Star Boy.”
Orion thrust up a finger at me, blinking as if he’d suddenly remembered something important.
“What?” I said.
“Do not call me that,” he said simply.
“What? Star Boy?” I said.
He jabbed his finger in the air again at me. “No. Not again.” He turned and trudged off.
“Star Boy,” I whispered.
“Heard that,” Orion said as he increased his speed.
“Tsk, tsk. So prideful,” Garfunkel said.
Simon clapped his hands hopefully. “I think he’s starting to remember you. Keep it up, Theo! He’ll be his old self in no time.”
“You think?” I said as calmly as I could. But a part of me smiled.
“The Tunnels Have Eyes”
When we came to a fork in the tunnel, Orion paused and sniffed the air. I counted six different tunnels before us. “You know where we—”
Orion silenced me with a raise of his hand and after a quick inspection of the rock floor, he turned into a branching fork without hesitation.
“You sure we’re still heading in the right direction?” I asked.
He tossed a glance over his shoulder. “Are you doubting me? Orion, The Wayfinder?”
“A little bit,” I said, cautious of the wrath creeping into his voice. “You did get us lost in Typhon’s labyrinth beneath the Arena.”
Orion stopped and studied me for a few moments before turning back around and walking on. “Why do you persist to make up false memories? That was not me.”
“That’s apparent,” I huffed, following him. “Are you sure we’re not going to accidentally run into Typhon and his merry band anytime soon? Or the Brotherhood of Zeus hot on his tail and out for revenge … It’s a bit dark in here and we’ve passed so many other branching tunnels. Hate to get blindsided by either crew especially when we’re trying to ambush Typhon at this ‘ancient gate.’ ”
Orion laughed. “I should say not. We’re taking a shortcut.”
“Shortcut! I love shortcuts,” Garfunkel said.<
br />
Simon scratched his tiny chin. “In my experience, shortcuts usually turn out to be excessively dangerous and oftentimes not worth the effort of deviating from the main path …”
“Oh come on, pal,” Garfunkel said, filing his fingernails into claws. “Stop and smell the roses. Don’t you forget, we’re mortal now.”
“We’re in some Underworld passage!” Simon shrieked. “There are no roses down here—”
My familiar’s voice trailed off as my gaze caught on some grass growing in the cracks of the rock floor. Glancing up at the walls of the tunnel, I saw some weedlike growth.
How did weeds grow down here? For that matter, how could anything live down here? I mean that hell-hyena … what did it even eat? Where did it get water?
Orion led onward, the darkness seeming to crowd in on us the farther we descended. It was hard not to be scared of the dark this far underground, especially when …
“Something is watching us,” Simon whispered.
I kept walking but slowed enough so that I could better hear over my footsteps; I didn’t hear anything.
“Something is definitely watching us!”
I wanted to look, but I also didn’t want to look. But the farther we walked, the louder the warning sirens in my own head sounded. Something or somethings were following us and I needed to know what.
Picking up my pace until I could reach out and touch Orion—just in case he needed to use his crossbow—I tightly gripped my flashlight …
And spun.
A pale assortment of flora and fauna-esque Others traipsed soundlessly behind us like creatures out of Fantasia, their wobbly appendages stretching lazily for us, their eyes dark and beady. They moved painfully slow, recoiling silently from the flashlight beam.
Were we in a silent horror film? No, we were a hundred feet under the ground. Still, the mime-like quality of their teeth-lined tentacles and mushroom heads made me shudder. Even Garfunkel looked a bit squeamish but maybe it was the stale Skittles he’d eaten earlier.
Still moving forward, I collided with Orion’s turned chest. He chuckled.
“I see you have met our pursuers.”
I swallowed, raised my arms defensively as if I’d stand any chance against these … hungry, hungry Others. “You’re not worried?”
“Worried?” Orion scoffed. “These are some of the outcasts who live down here. Timid folk.” He paused. “I would say that their bark is worse than their bite … but they don’t bark. And their bite …”
Simon fluttered. “I’m going to faint.”
“Outcasts? Others live down here too?” I asked.
Orion nodded, playing his flashlight over a Venus-flytrap plant-like Other; it hissed, its vine-y arms and stalk-like trunk swaying as if to belly dance music only it could hear.
We continued onward, the hardy vegetation growing thicker.
“Uh, where exactly are we?” I finally asked after several more glances over my shoulder to make sure we weren’t about to be set upon by teeth and tentacles.
Tracing the fingers of one hand along the wall, Orion said, “This place was once magically connected to the Greek Underworld.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “So we’re in hell?”
Orion chuckled. “Hell isn’t all fire and brimstone. So I’ve been told.”
Nibbling at his fingernails, with squinted eyes, Simon said, “It’s been rumored that since the gods left, many less-fortunate Others took up residence down here. Humans were really frightened of them in the beginning.” He gulped. “The Others were just as frightened.”
Can’t say history isn’t full of that kind of human behavior. I shook my head. “I didn’t know that many Others were living underground here. I mean, it’s so dark and damp and cold.”
Maybe it was just my depleted energy reservoir, but I pulled my jacket tight.
Orion frowned. “Life is cruel—got to live somewhere. When Typhon awakened me, the first thing he drilled into my head was how expensive living topside is in this GoneGod World.”
Tell me about it, I thought.
Simon gave a scholarly nod. “That’s what Daryl the Dwarf said.”
Good ol’ Daryl.
I expected Garfunkel to make some rude comment about dwarves or the prices of underground real estate. When he didn’t, I realized he wasn’t even on my shoulder. Spinning around, I saw Garfunkel peering intently at the floor a few feet back with a tiny penlight. I rushed back to him as he pulled his tiny hand out from inside a crack in the stone. Clenched between his fingers was a miniature pale rose.
“Told you, hah!” he said, smugly crossing his arms.
“I … uh, that’s very nice but you can’t just disappear like that. What if …” I quickly scooped my familiar up and backed toward Orion, trying not to freak out as my flashlight beam illuminated a giant billowing mushroom with teeth hovering up to us, its finlike filaments swaying in a slow churning inaudible beat.
Simon gasped and slid into his shoulder pad. “I hate, hate, HATE it down here!”
Garfunkel held up the rose. “It’s not so bad.”
“You could’ve wound up in that thing’s stomach,” I scolded.
“Tia’s right,” Orion said, observing me as I scolded my “bare” shoulder.
“Theo,” I corrected.
Orion chuckled. “Yes, I forgot. Best keep up with me or you’re lunch. Myconids like flesh and will eat anything they happen upon.”
Orion continued ahead through the darkness, probably smirking to himself.
Only a few minutes later, Orion converted his walking to a silent trot, which made it hard for me to keep up since I had to keep tugging Garfunkel’s curious mind (and fingers) away from the glow-in-the-dark vegetation now swaying all around us as if we were in zero-gravity or underwater. It probably would have been pretty neat to admire if not for the circumstances—mainly, I wanted to be topside but in order to complete my deal with the Jersey Devil, I had to keep descending into hell. All while being followed—or hunted—by a pack of hungry, silent Others …
“Just keep walking,” I muttered as I faced forward once again, and ran right into Orion. “Oomph—”
“Shh!” Orion said, suddenly throwing a hand up behind him. He edged slowly backward, extending an arm and pressing me back against the stone wall while shining his flashlight behind us. The phantasm of pursuers melted like silently howling wraiths back into the darkness. A jigsaw-toothed mandrake chomped its head angrily before slipping into a crack.
Orion didn’t say a word.
“Wha—?” I managed to get out before I was shushed again. Rude! Needless to say, I was really getting sick and tired of the new and unimproved Orion.
I waited, and Garfunkel studied the flora on the wall beside my shoulder, barely breathing as stillness once again settled upon us in the heavy darkness. And then I heard it. A soft scuttling far off in front and below us.
Below us …?
I peeked over Orion’s shoulder and gasped. My partner stood just inside the rocky lip of an opening, beyond it, a sheer drop-off, an abyss soaring out like the flattened valley of the Grand Canyon at twilight. Off to the left, a smattering of will-o’-wisps cast pale light upon multi-tiered plateaus of varying height stacked with mud-and-straw constructed hovels. Dirty, disorganized, poorly lit … I thought I saw an ogre sitting with his legs dangling over one of the ledges, blowing smoke rings from a pipe pressed between his surly lips.
Kameno tost … I thought. Others actually lived down here?
A small stream cut its way down the rock formation, too far away to hear as it cascaded to the cavern floor. So that’s where the Others got their water from …
On one of the lower plateaus, a small herd of glowing sheep bahhed, static forming on their wool whenever they brushed up against each other. Beside them a goblin shepherd stood watch, resting upon a shepherd’s crook. I smiled. The sheep looked so fluffy and innocent; it was hard to believe such beauty existed this far underground. On my right, Simon
cooed with delight.
My smile faded at the sight of something very large and very creep-crawly, ticking along on stalk-like legs behind the herd. Bulbous, multi-faceted eyes gleamed under the will-o’-wisp disco ball lights high above it as it slunk along the rocky passage like Gollum in the Mines of Moria except that we were watching it and not the other way around. At least I hoped.
The creepy-crawly creature stopped, encroaching on the heard of fluffy, glowy Other-sheep. Then it broke from its cover like a fluttering of bats and the herd scattered in all directions, a goblin shepherd chasing after them.
“What was that?” I hissed after the shiny, dark-hulled creature had scurried across the expanse of rock and disappeared away from us over the cliff’s edge. I didn’t really want to know but, well, Miss Curiosity had to know.
Orion unpursed his lips and said, “Maximus,” in the soft tone of a hunter on the trail of a dangerous prey.
Maximus? I wracked my brain for an explanation before turning to Simon, my Others encyclopedia. I shrugged my shoulders in a silent question.
Simon nibbled at his fingernails. “Roman emperor?” he offered apologetically, and I flashed him a look that said, Really, that’s all you’ve got?
I turned back to Orion and gripped his shoulder so he hopefully wouldn’t shush me again. “What is Maximus?”
“You mean who?” he whispered back. “Maximus. Scorpion ruler of the Underworld. Hades’s pet. Big brother of the constellation Scorpio.”
I gave a slow, exaggerated turn of my head so that I faced Simon again. Gave him a look that said, Are you freaking kidding me?!
Simon buried his face in his palms. On my left shoulder, Garfunkel said, “Cool.”
“And getting past it is part of the ‘shortcut’ between us and Typhon?” I asked.
Orion chuckled as he took off his tactical backpack and drew out some coils of thick rope. “Not just a pretty face.”
“The Descent – Starring Theo Apollonia and Her Familiars”
Before we descended, Orion indicated the far wall of the canyon about a mile away as the crow er, wisp flies. Separating us from that wall, way down at the bottom of the cliff, was a flat expanse of forlorn stone floor. After that came an intimidating jungle of stalagmites jutting from the ground, obscuring the floor in thick shadows. “That’s where Typhon is headed. The hidden gate of Atlas.”
Axes and Angels: A Snarky Urban Fantasy Novel (Better Demons Series Book 1) Page 47
