He looked to Thermiandra and he noted the horror that registered on her face. “It couldn’t be…” she started to say.
“Telarchos!” Heliodas screamed into the open air. “Come face me! You will pay for this!”
He saw movement, but it was not the familiar form of Telarchos that he saw. Instead, it was a mass of scaly creatures slithering into view from behind the pillars of the megaron. He did a quick count. There were ten of them, and they were rapidly closing the distance between them.
Rage built within Heliodas as he gripped his spatha and charge toward the approaching creatures.
“Heliodas, do not rush in. They’ll kill you!” Archetus called out.
But Heliodas was beyond reason. The only thing on his mind at this moment was revenge. He cared not who he was taking the fight to, or if they were responsible for Pelephon’s death. They were sufficient for the time being.
As he approached the first creature, he swung his spatha. The monster blocked with its obsidian sword, but the force behind Heliodas’ blow shattered the creature’s sword, and his spatha smashed into the creature’s chest, biting deep. He withdrew his blade and sank it to the hilt in the creature’s torso. He turned to the next one only to see an arrow from Thermiandra’s bow take the creature in the throat. He knew that Thermiandra’s wound must still pain her, but her accuracy was back; her shot had completely incapacitated the creature. Heliodas ran it through anyway then turned to the next one.
It was already swinging its obsidian blade at him. Heliodas lacked the time to parry or dodge the blade. Instead, it impacted on his breastplate. Although he felt a jarring blow, the volcanic glass was no match for bronze armor. Heliodas smiled as he brought his spatha up point first and pierced the snake creature’s jaw. His blade bit deep and emerged through the top of the creature’s head. He pulled it free and the snake thing dropped to the ground writhing.
Despite his early successes, he still faced a mass of snake creatures, and he saw that still more were coming up behind. He suddenly took stock of his situation and realized that between their sheer numbers and their size, he was about to be overwhelmed. He batted back a couple of stone blades, then sprinted away from the creatures as fast as his legs would carry him.
Heliodas saw a bright streak fly past him, followed by a faint trail of smoke, and the odor of open flame. He didn’t watch as the flame spread out onto the ground and filled the area, but he immediately detected the odor of burning flesh.
“What did you think you were doing?” Thermiandra yelled at him. Even as the smoke cleared, she started firing arrows at the surviving creatures. Even though they looked as though they were in too much pain to attack, she kept firing until nothing moved.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Well, figure it out! I want to get out of here alive, and I don’t see that being likely with you dead.”
“I understand,” Heliodas said as he wiped the dark blood from his blade.
“So what are we going to do now?” Thermiandra asked.
“We’re going in,” Heliodas said. “I’m willing to bet that the Sword of Perseus is somewhere in there.”
“And what of the creatures?”
“We’ll have to kill them.”
“There is something you should know,” Archetus said.
“What?” Heliodas asked.
“I sense great power coming from within that place.”
“The sword?”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps not?” Thermiandra asked.
“It is difficult to say,” Archetus said.
“Vague, as usual,” Heliodas said. “In we go. We’ll get the sword and deal with whatever gets in our way. It’s how we’ll honor Pelephon’s sacrifice.”
“By getting ourselves killed?” Thermiandra asked.
“You didn’t actually expect Athena to send me to do something without risk, did you?” he asked.
Crouched at the top of the megaron’s flat-roofed front building, Isacles saw Heliodas and his friends enter the building. Odds were good that the three of them would get killed by the snake creatures within. If that happened, he wouldn’t need to put himself at any additional risk. He had already decided to wait and see if it played out in that way. If not, he was going to have to confront the trio directly. While he was certain that he could take on Heliodas by himself, the cultist made him nervous.
Unfortunately, he could think of no way to confront a swordsman, an archer, and a man who could hurl fire and electricity with a thought, at least not all together. Perhaps if they did manage to come out alive, he would sneak up on them and cut their throats in their sleep. It was not the most honorable way to kill, but he had never stood on honor. He would be paid on them all the same.
Now that he was certain that the three of them were in the megaron, Isacles decided that the rooftop was no longer his most strategic position. He moved to the beveled edge of the roof, grabbed on, and swung himself down. He hung by his fingers for a moment, then grabbed onto the top of the nearest pillar. The fluted columns provided ample hand and foot holds for him as he climbed down to the dusty bone-littered ground.
Heliodas led his companions down a couple corridors and through several large chambers, looking for anything that might have once been a ceremonial place to house an important artifact. So far the rooms they’d seen had either been stripped of valuables, or the remains had decayed into dust. They had yet to encounter any more of the snake people.
They came upon an open doorway, and Heliodas stepped out into a courtyard. Just ahead was a circular chamber inset into the ground and a grand stairway leading from the top, around the outside wall, and into the grand throne room below. Atop this, supported by pillars twenty feet above the ground level was a dome constructed from the same massive stones they had seen throughout the ruined polis.
The scene in the chamber below was unlike anything Heliodas had expected to see. The center of the chamber was occupied by an enormous, fleshy, blackish- purple mass of tentacles and eyeballs. Clustered around it were more of the snake creatures than he could count. He knew that this was the throne room of the megaron, which meant that the actual throne, if it was still intact, was located beneath the massive thing in the center of the room.
Heliodas saw a sword that looked unlike any he had seen before within a rectangular inset in the wall. It was difficult to gauge its size from where he stood atop the stairs, but he guessed that it was at least a third longer than his spatha. The blade was long and straight. Both edges were sharpened, and the tip tapered to a clean point. And it was a brilliant and untarnished silver color. He had never seen a sword that looked like it before. In that moment, he was certain that he had found what he had been sent to retrieve.
“What’s that creature down there?” Heliodas asked.
Archetus looked at him with round eyes that, for the first time since he’d met the cultist, betrayed alarm. “That is one of the fathers of your gods,” he whispered. “That is one of the Titans!”
“Is it awake?” Heliodas asked.
“No,” Archetus replied. “But it has enough presence of mind, even when asleep, to kill the three of us with a thought. We should flee from this place and never return!”
“That’s a Titan?” Heliodas asked incredulously. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. He had always imagined them as giant humanoids, like men, and like the gods, only somehow more savage. He wasn’t sure how to put it into words, but the thing he saw below him was nothing like he had ever imagined. “Are they all like that?”
Archetus shook his head. “I have no way of knowing. I have never seen one before.”
“That’s the sword,” Thermiandra said. “We need to get it.”
“I’ll go,” Heliodas said. “You two stay up here and be ready to help out if something happens.”
“How are you going to make it through the snake people?” Thermiandra asked.
“I’ll sneak in and kill them if I have to,” he rep
lied.
“That’s a horrible plan,” Thermiandra stated.
“Do you have a better one?” Heliodas asked.
“No,” she admitted.
“I do,” Archetus said.
“Then let’s hear it,” Heliodas said.
“I’ll reach out to it with my magic and bring it to us. Then we leave this place… quietly.”
Heliodas knew that going down there would probably be suicide. On the other hand, he suspected that channeling Titan magic this close to an actual Titan might not go as the cultist expected. Nevertheless, it was between that and taking his chances against the monsters down there. There were no easy options. “Go ahead and try.”
Archetus closed his eyes for a moment, then reached his hand forward as though grabbing the sword. He then lifted it and to Heliodas’ amazement, the sword slid from its resting place and slowly drifted up.
And then the plan went terribly awry.
The mass of tentacles began to writhe violently and the snake creatures rose as one. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain within his skull and he was instantly paralyzed. Archetus howled in pain, and the sword suddenly plummeted down, falling tip first, impaling one of the snake creatures below.
The pain in his head ceased the moment the sword hit the ground. Heliodas rubbed his temples for a moment as he cleared his head. “I have to go down there,” he said.
Thermiandra was already firing arrows as he took the staircase. To her credit, she was focusing her attacks on the creatures that were closest to him, so the first couple he came upon were already dead.
The first living to meet him on the stairs already had two arrows protruding from its chest. Heliodas brought his spatha down on its skull, and he kicked the creature off the staircase. He glanced down and saw that the Sword of Perseus was almost directly below, and there were few of the snake creature near it since they were all rushing to the stairway. Heliodas sheathed his spatha and jumped.
His stomach turned as he fell, and as his feet hit the ground, he pulled them to his chest and rolled, absorbing as much of the shock of landing as he could with his body rather than his legs. His shoulder struck the ground painfully, and the rest of his body hit with a thud. However, he was not seriously injured by the fall.
Adrenaline rushing through his veins, he jumped to his feet, pulled the sword from the body of the snake creature, and immediately felt a surge of power flow through his body. This was indeed the blade of the legendary Perseus, no doubt permeated by a thousand years of magic. One of the snake creatures approached and he struck out with the blade, slicing cleanly through the obsidian blade, then he cleanly chopped the top half of the creature’s head off. Heliodas smiled and charged toward the next nearest creature.
Thermiandra fired arrow after arrow at the slithering creatures as they hurried up the stairs. One would fall to her onslaught of missiles and another would take its place, moving over the fallen without difficulty. She paused for a moment and looked over the edge to see Heliodas, the Sword of Perseus in hand, hacking at the snake creatures with a fury that she had never witnessed in him before, and they were falling all around him. Nevertheless, there were countless more, and they were throwing themselves at him. Thermiandra tried to help by firing a couple of arrows at them, but there were more approaching from the staircase.
She turned her attention once again to the ones approaching from the staircase and fired arrow after arrow. Despite three more of them falling to her rain of arrows, they were getting closer. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Heliodas can come get us after he carves his way out,” Thermiandra said.
Archetus did not move, but continued clutching his head. “Let’s go!” she shouted.
Archetus gave her a pained look, but didn’t move. She realized that he must be held, enthralled and immobile, by the Titan below. She couldn’t leave him here to die. “Damn!” she said.
Thermiandra nocked another arrow and fired, one after the other, trying to hold her position. Despite this, the snake creatures were nearing. She fired two arrows into the hide of one of the creatures, but it continued toward her. It was now so close that it would be able to snatch the bow from her hand.
She dropped her weapon, grabbed the short blade from the scabbard at her waist, and struck at it. The creature dodged her clumsy attack. She could see malevolence in its unblinking eyes as it darted forward. Its mouth and human-like arms encircled her, and she could suddenly feel its clammy body encircling her and tightening. She tried to draw a breath, but found that breathing was difficult. Dark spots formed in her vision. She let out a scream.
Heliodas heard Thermiandra’s cry and looked up to see her held motionless by one of the snake creatures. He focused on the one in front of him and chopped into it. The broken creature twisted and fell to the ground.
Heliodas charged through the mass of snaky bodies before him, chopping as he went. Clawed hands and fanged mouths crowded toward him, but he sliced and hacked at them as they neared. The nose and front half of the face of one separated from the rest of the body, spraying him with bloody ichor. He felt arms pull at him, but he chopped them from their torsos before they could grab hold.
He glanced back at the carnage behind him and realized that he had single-handedly killed at least twenty of the things himself. Suddenly the creatures parted and a tentacle from the Titan shot toward him. He met the incoming appendage with an overhand chop. His blade cut into the rubbery tentacle, chopping off the tip, and the creature bellowed in pain in a voice that he could only hear within his mind. It was a sharp, powerful noise that he felt as much as heard, and it hurt like it had split his skull.
Thermiandra felt the squeeze of the creature, and she was completely unable to move. Suddenly she felt a familiar feeling come upon her, as though there were a surge of power within that needed to be released. She quickly pushed it forward, forcing the transformation to progress faster than it had during the other two times she had experienced it.
Thermiandra felt her hair become snakes and her skin become rough and scaly. She looked at the snake holding her. It was looking at her. It convulsed, releasing her, and then it hardened into stone.
She then looked to the creatures approaching. “Heliodas, do not look at me!” she shouted. She saw him cover his eyes while the sudden outburst drew the attention of the snake creatures. They turned their eyes to her, and she saw them slowly change from dark green to gray as they transformed into non-living statues below.
“Come on, Titan, look at me!” she screamed. “Look at me!”
She saw the god-like being’s eyes turn toward her for an instant. Nothing happened. The tentacles continued writhing as they had before.
Thermiandra felt the power abating. Her form was reverting to its natural state.
“You may be one of the daughters of Medusa, but even you cannot turn a Titan to stone,” Archetus said with a slight laugh.
“It’s good to have you back!” Thermiandra said.
Heliodas looked around and saw what had become of the snake creatures. He smiled, but realized that he was still in serious danger. The massive cluster of tentacles continued to writhe. He ran to the stairway, smashing and knocking over the stone forms as he went.
He reached his friends and grabbed them both by the waist, trying to usher them out of the courtyard.
“Wait,” said Archetus. “This one will not leave us alone if we leave now. It will track us down, and it will be relentless.”
“Is there anything we can do about that?” Heliodas asked.
“There is,” he said. He reached his hand into his pouch and produced the Pearls of Atlantis. They rose up into the air and began circling his head as they had in the past. The color seemed to drain from the courtyard and the chamber below, but the blackish purples of the Titan remained. “Get out from under the dome!” he called out.
Heliodas and Thermiandra scrambled out as Archetus backed up. Once he was a scant few feet out from under the stone ceiling, he threw his hands for
ward and brilliant raw power flowed from them, striking the dome in its center. Heliodas heard and felt a peal of thunder, and the ground shook. Suddenly the massive stones began dropping and landing on the Titan below. It started with just a few, but then the entire structure imploded.
The ground stopped shaking after a few moments, and dust filled the air. “Is it dead?” he asked.
“No,” Archetus replied, “But it will not be able to move again for a very long time. By then, it will become sleepy once more. We will not need to worry about it again.”
“Then let’s leave,” Heliodas said.
Isacles felt the earth shake, and he knew that something had happened. Whatever it was, he wasn’t interested in staying to find out what was going to emerge from the megaron. If it was Heliodas or Archetus that had caused the disturbance, he knew he lacked the power to challenge them himself. If it was something else, then he shuddered to imagine the horror that would emerge. In either case, Mycenae was not the place to move against Heliodas.
He ran for the Lion’s Gate. If Heliodas still lived, there would be another day and another time.
The day passed and Heliodas took Pelephon’s body away from the ruins of Mycenae. That night he built a pyre out of the few sickly trees he could find. Under starlight, he placed the body atop the pyre and lit it. Flames rose up, engulfing the body of his friend.
“I will get revenge!” he stated.
Thermiandra put an arm around Heliodas’ shoulder and leaned her head against him. “It isn’t fair,” she said.
“No,” he said, wiping tears from his cheeks.
“Pelephon died a hero. His soul is at peace,” came a powerful female voice.
Echoes of Olympus (The Atheniad Book 1) Page 31
