When Dan looked up, he spotted the dragon high overhead. It occurred to him that he had no idea how long the crystal would last before it required a recharge. So, he scrambled between rocks, sprinting for the open plains ahead. He spotted a copse of trees, black as night and wrapped in what looked like torn clothing. He reached the trees and halted, looking back. He'd run several hundred yards at least.
He tried to determine if he was still cloaked. With his right hand, he searched in his backpack for anything that could reflect his image. He drew out the bronze dagger, then stuck it in the truck of a black tree and tried to see his reflection.
It was working! He reached out and gripped the dagger. He held it up and while he was touching it, he could see his reflection. Impressed, he returned the dagger to his backpack. He looked around and figured this was as good a place as any to figure out where he was, so he pulled out the map. Unrolling it, he quickly saw that there were several stands of trees near the mountains, so he had to figure out which one he was in. He rolled up the map and tried to climb the tree. If he could make it to the top, he'd have a better idea where he was. But it'd also mean he would be visible, as he'd have to release the crystal in order to climb.
Dan felt relativity safe in the cover of the tree, so he put the crystal back into his pocket, and he reached up. He could readily reach the lowest branch, so he quickly pulled himself up, and sat. The tree limb felt strong enough and now he was able to see what looked like tattered clothing was really black moss. It left a fine dust on his hands when he touched it. He carefully wiped his hands and figured it was best not to touch the moss if he could help it.
Looking up, he plotted his way to the highest branches. He considered leaving the backpack on the ground but didn't want to risk losing it if someone stumbled onto it. When he slung it onto his back, it was hard to balance with it on, making him nervous.
Dan persevered. He pulled himself until he was half-way up the tree, where he found a nice spot to sit and relax. He reached his arm around and grabbed a water bottle. He sighed and took a long drink. It didn't feel overly warm at first, but now he was sweating. He'd have to remove his sweatshirt and pack it away.
After a few minutes, Dan felt rested enough to continue the climb. He found he was grunting more as he pulled himself up. The tree was becoming smaller as well. After two more branches, he definitely felt the tree move. He still wasn't high enough to see very well. That's when he noticed that he'd picked one of the smaller trees.
He edged out on one branch, trying to see out. The moss hung thickly on the branches. He let out a slight sigh and decided to get back on the ground and try another tree.
As he climbed down, he felt the air subtly change. He froze and held his breath. Barely visible through the moss was a flash of gold or copper. Something was flying between the trees. He slowly edged his hand towards his pocket, and he grasped the crystal.
Did it have enough energy left, or was it about drained?
Whatever was flying around seemed to have passed. He returned the crystal to the pocket, and he cautiously lowered himself down. He paused on the last branch, grasped the crystal, and closed his eyes. He wasn't one to get religion, but he did send up a small prayer that the crystal had sufficient power to allow him to avoid whatever it was that had flow past.
He lowered himself down with his right arm and then dropped the last foot to the ground. He held his breath and turned.
A tall, skinny man was leaning against another tree, looking at Dan.
"Hi!" he said, then smiled brightly. "You might be that mortal we've been expecting."
Dan just gawked at the tall man. "What?"
"C'mon, now. Might as well confess. The boss said to take you in alive, but he didn't say in how many pieces," Grimes said. "Mable told me, she did, that she thought she smelled a mortal earlier. I believed her, I did. You always have to believe what a dragon tells you. So, I figured you might have some tricks up your sleeve to have made it this far."
"Meet Mable," Grimes laughed. "She'll be your transportation back to the Black Palace."
Dan slowly turned his head to look where the man was pointing. He was eye-to-eye with an enormous copper dragon, who's head alone was bigger than a car. When her golden eye focused on Dan, its iris widened.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bune stopped outside Megaera's cell. Two guards followed, grasping a nervous human slave. Bune nodded to one guard, who held out the dagger-key and started to open the door.
"Just a moment," Bune said to the guard, then he turned to the slave. "You know what to do. If you're successful, then I shall reward you."
"You promised. I have your word," the skinny man said, nodded quickly.
"Yes," Bune said as the door opened. He kicked the slave into the dark cell. "And I always keep my word." The demon guard slammed the door.
"Well, not 'always'. Often. Yes, that's the phrase, often." Bune nodded and turned away.
Inside, the slave landed on the dirty floor and slid, hitting the far wall. The room was in total darkness. He rubbed his head where it had impacted the floor.
"Light!" The room stayed dark. "Bloody fucking hell. Don't the lights work?"
"Who the fuck are you?" Megaera growled. Her voice still raspy from a recent episode of vomiting, explaining the mess that the slave had landed in.
"Who's there? I'm Idaeus," the slave said, backing up against the wall.
"I don't need a cell mate. Tell your green lizard overlord you failed." Megaera's voice dripped with venom.
"You've been sick? I have expertise in the healing arts. I used to tend the ill people in my village, back in the day. Perhaps–"
"What part of 'Fuck off' are you having problems with?" Megaera scrambled to her feet. "I know what he's trying to pull, and I will not talk. LIGHTS!"
The room grew brighter.
"I guess I didn't know the magic word." Now that the cell was illuminated, he could see the Fury. Her hair hung in wet tangles, her face haggard and cheeks sunken.
"I can see you're very ill. I can help," Idaeus offered.
"I don't know what's wrong with me. I can't keep food down and my strength is gone," Megaera confessed.
"Are you an immortal?"
"Not now, I'm not."
"I don't know of any immortals who turned... mortal."
Megaera moved closer to the slave and looked him in the eye. "You know one now, and the minute that guard opens the door, you go out first, as my cover."
Idaeus' eyes went wide, and he flattened himself the wall. "What?"
"You'll be my shield. I know what he has in mind, and it will not work." Megaera shoved the man against the wall and returned a spot near to the door. "As a slave, what did you do to get tossed in the cells? Shit in his soup?"
"I have no idea. I was just talking to some demons in the army camps, when Bune and his henchmen grabbed me and dragged here," Ideaus said.
"Bullshit. You're a spy. I may have lost my immortality, but I still know bullshit when I smell it, and you reek," Megaera spat.
"I assure you, madam, I am no spy."
"Keep it up, I'll crush your neck and use you as a bludgeon on the guards."
"I believe you."
"You were talking to the demon soldiers?"
"Yes."
Megaera finally smiled. "What is the word? When you think they attack?"
"I heard the attacks have already started. Something about destroying the only immortals in their way, a pair of sisters –"
Megaera interrupted him by quickly kicking him the side. "Not my sisters! No demon can ever defeat us!"
Ideaus tried to catch his breath. In between gasps for air, he said: "I heard they were crippled. Gaia is also dead."
At the news, Megaera grabbed the skinny man by the tunic and smashed him into one wall. Then into another, swinging him back and forth. She only released the slave after she felt bones begin to break.
"I never held to the belief of not killing the messenger,"
Megaera said, her eyes flashing with blue sparks.
<<<>>>
The Furies House
Delfina finished taping up Tisiphone's side, then she sat back and looked at her patient. The Fury was still unconscious and her breathing was shallow. The charring on her face and arms was deep, cracking open and clear fluid was draining. She had covered the burns with a moist cloth, but that was all.
"She might not wake for a while, if ever," Delfina whispered. Brianna was gathering up the unused bandages and the instrument tray.
"She has to wake up!" Brianna objected.
"Child," Delfina breathed, "Without Megaera, they're all likely to die, or whatever happens to immortals when they stop. When they stop being."
Brianna bit her bottom lip and rushed out of the room, carrying the tray. She stopped when she saw Hermes in the hallway, then shook her head and ran down the hallway to the stairs.
Hermes slowly entered Tisiphone's room.
"They were both covered in that disgusting black blood. It got into both of them. Unless we get Megaera back, and soon, we'll lose all three," Delfina told Hermes.
"Perhaps I should seek Asclepius[2]?"
"Do you have any idea where he might be?"
"It's been millennia since I last saw him, no telling where he is now, if he even continues to exist," Hermes admitted. "He is most likely left for where their kind goes when belief disappears."
Delfina stood, and they walked out of the room. Delfina pulled the door shut. They walked to the stairs.
"What did you have in mind, if Dan should be able to get Megaera?" Delfina asked.
"With none of us being able to assist, I figure the area where they'll emerge would be where the Acheron exits the cavern system," Hermes mused.
"Then either you or your skinny companion should meet them," Delfina suggested. She paused at the top of the stairs. "If they're successful."
"I'll see to it," Hermes said as they descended the stairs. "I know Thanatos is there doing what he can, but once he's in Tartarus, it's out of our hands."
<<<>>>
Plains of Tartarus
Dan just gawked at the large, golden eye. Then he gradually turned back to the skinny man. His fingers found the crystal. Did it have enough of a charge to work? He bit down on his lower lip and just locked eyes with the pilot.
If this didn't work, that dragon would flame him. Still, his fingers closed around the crystal.
"There now, just stay still and behave yourself. And, keep your hands where I can see them," Grimes ordered.
Dan held up his right hand, his left still in the pocket.
"I warned you, both hands!" Grimes yelled. He held up a small blade and approached Dan.
Now or never. Dan pressed on the flat edge of the crystal.
Grimes' eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped.
He rushed forward, swinging the knife through the empty air. He looked up to Mable.
"Can you smell him?" Grimes almost shouted. Mabel lifted her head and snorted. Then she sniffed through the area where Dan was just standing.
She looked to her pilot.
"What? You smelled him earlier! Why not now?" Grimes was beyond frustrated. He had entered the event horizon of frantic and anger's love-child: full-blown panic. "Why the fuck not?"
Mable pushed her nose against some hanging black moss.
"Are you fucking kidding me? That shit?"
Mable had the look of a trusted hunting dog caught frolicking with a rabbit. She hung her head down and just blinked at her pilot.
Grimes took a moment to calm down, then he sighed. He reached out and scratched Mable on her nose, between the horned nostrils. His hand came back covered in the powder from the black moss. He grunted and shook his head, then wiped the black powder on his trousers. He climbed into the riding harness and glared around him.
"You understand that guy can't be a mortal. Just can't. He just couldn't have vanished if he was a mortal. Gone who knows where? Let's get some altitude and search to the north. He can't have gotten far, we'll track him somehow." With that, Grimes touched his heels on the dragon's side, her great wings beat the air as they rose swiftly.
Dan stepped sideways as soon as he pressed on the crystal. Then he broke away from the pair and once he was a few yards away, he took off in a run fueled by terror.
He didn't look back, but by the noise, they were already in the air. Looking up, Dan saw a huge shadow fly over him and he turned to his right quickly, trying to stick to the rocky ground and avoid the sandy area. Soft ground would leave footprints.
He slowed down and tried to think. He used to chase criminals and he knew panic often caused them to get caught. Like criminals, he also had to deal with air cover. Dan stopped and looked up. He spotted the dragon circling. He turned and ran back to the black trees, hidden under the mossy branches. He spotted a boulder field about fifty yards in the distance. Luckily, it was in the direction he needed to take to get to the prison.
He entered the rock field and looked for some type of shelter. Dan kept the crystal in a firm grip as he rounded large rocks, many at least twice his height. He scouted around for any that had hollowed areas at the base. He inspected almost all the boulders and none were suitable. He peered around a boulder that marked the northern edge of the field and watched the copper dragon gain altitude, still circling the area. He pulled back and tried to go through his options.
Dan realized there was no shelter anywhere close by. He had no idea how much longer the crystal would work, and he had no idea how to tell when it stopped working. Only way to know is by trial and error, with a tremendous downside to the error part. Dan needed a mirror. It would have never occurred to him, in an epoch, to bring along a mirror.
He leaned against the boulder and let out a long sigh. As long as the search pattern did not include this boulder field, he was ok. He peeked out again and saw good news. The dragon was turning west, away from his hiding spot.
Dan sat his backpack down and looked at what he had along. He had tied Megaera's bronze armor against the back of the backpack, acting as it's frame. The armor was comprised of four parts, the largest was a breastplate tied to the rest with worn leather straps. He regretted what he was about to do: Use the back to dig a shelter in the black sand.
Grimes kept scanning the landscape. He had Mabel hover over some sandy areas, and no tracks showed.
"Nothing! He must have teleported," Grimes said. "All right, girl, let's head back and report. It's all we can do!" Mabel executed a slight bank to left and aimed for the dragon barns just outside the army encampments.
In a few minutes, Mabel was circling over the other dragons, who let out a welcoming noise, an annoying cross between a kazoo and trumpet. The other pilots came out and watched as Mabel glided in for a landing. As soon as they were on the ground, Grimes slipped down and rushed to the small tent that served as the headquarters for the Dragon Force.
Grimes entered without knocking and went to Genda's desk. He stopped and stood as straight as he could muster.
"Sir! I need to report a sighting of a trespasser," Grimes said.
"Did you drop the spy off at the palace?" Genda asked, sitting back to he could look at Grimes' face.
"No, sire. Mabel and I lost sight of him, and she could not track his scent," Grimes confessed.
"How is that possible?"
"The intruder was in the black moss trees. And he just up and vanished while I had him," he explained. "We were warned about a mortal possibly on a mission, but this could not have been him. He vanished and left no trace."
"I ordered you to capture all spies and either dispose of them or deliver them to the palace. Especially any mortals." Genda's eyes tightened in anger. "You were my best pilot."
"Sir?"
"I must administer discipline. As ordered by Sorath, who has implemented a zero-tolerance policy. He deals with all failures with in the most extreme fashion imaginable." Genda stood and looked up at the pilot, trying to make eye conta
ct. "Unless there was outside interference."
"There was interference! The black moss and the intruder was a sorcerer who used his magik to vanish," Grimes blurted out.
"I shall have Mable interrogated. If she backs up your story, we can be lenient. His highness may only take an arm, which will grow back, eventually. Go to your quarters and wait my call," the Japanese commander said, smoothly. He sat back down, the meeting was over.
Grimes turned smartly and left the tent. He made it as far as his quarters when he stopped and looked over to where Mabel was resting with another dragon. She made eye contact and Grimes felt her voice in his head.
One of the side-effects of bonding with a dragon is the communication between dragon and pilot.
When Mabel made eye contact, she sent a vision into his mind, of the scent she had of the intruder, then the black moss and how it overcome her senses and made it impossible to find the intruder's scent afterwards. Then a feeling of sorrow. Grimes just nodded and made sure not to let her feel his rising panic. All he heard then was an emotion of comfort and mothering.
He sighed and went into his tent, then fell down on the straw pallet he used as a bed.
<<<>>>
Plains of Tartarus
Dan pulled himself out from under the overhang of the one boulder he'd found. He slowly crept out and surveyed the skies. Not a sign of anything in the air. He reached back into the small hole and pulled out his backpack and jacket.
He had no idea how long he'd slept. He grabbed some jerky, and a chewed on a strip as he repacked the pack. He stuffed the crystal in his left pants pocket, pulled on the heavy backpack and set out in a direction he hoped was towards the prison.
As he hiked, the ground slowly gave way to a vast plain. No more boulders and no trees of any type. He kept the blue glow of Elysian to his right as he plodded along. Occasionally he spotted what appeared to be pale forms, drifting along the ground, like deflated helium balloons. He planned to avoid any spirits or demons, but he knew he'd have to figure out what he'd do once he started seeing condemned souls.
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