by G. E. White
Rearing back, the creature bared its fangs before sinking them deep into Pyra’s side.
The cry that the daimon made was cut short as her body quickly turned to stone as the venom of the snake raced through her body.
Now coiled around the statue of Pyra in mid-roar, the silver snake tightened its grasp crushing the defeated creature until it exploded into broken pieces of rubble on the ground. Quinn was suddenly yanked back by the collar of his shirt and spun around to face the other two men.
“What did I just say about looking at that?” Jared fumed.
“I wasn’t looking at its face,” Quinn defended.
“Shh!” Jared hissed.
The two others fell silent as they listened for the slide of scales along cement. Hearing the shifting of the giant serpent as it slithered over the remains of Chimera, the three men behind the tangled wall stiffened in fear. The creature moved closer towards them, pushing the front end of its snout through the entryway.
Quinn gripped the dagger in his hands and tensed to strike, yet the large hand of Leo on his shoulder stilled his attack. The snake flicked its tongue once, twice, tasting and smelling the air.
Suddenly it gave a snort of disinterest before slithering away back across the clearing and out into the second half of the maze. Once it was out of range, the three men gave a sigh of relief and slowly moved back into the clearing.
“Again – what was that?” Quinn asked.
“A basilisk, making eye contact or being infected with its venom will turn any living thing to stone,” Leo said.
Quinn nodded at the man’s explanation. “Like Medusa?”
“Medusa was a Gorgon and a daimon; however she was mortal unlike her sisters and never received the gift that they had.”
“What do you mean?”
“The basilisk was another form for the Gorgons. Just as Pyra went from a human form to that of a Chimera, they were able to go from a humanoid body to a basilisk’s.”
Quinn bit down lightly on his lower lip in thought as he surveyed the wreckage. “So why did it leave?”
“She came to her senses.”
Turning to Jared the teen scowled. “I thought we were done with keeping things from me. What is going on? You obviously know something I don’t…” Quinn trailed off as the faint memory of his time in Erebus came to the surface. “You said basilisks take human forms.”
“All daimons do. Gorgons and basilisks are basically one and the same. Daimons have at least one human parent in the form of an incarnation of a god. It’s what allows them to stay hidden here in the Second Realm,” the Death God explained, his demeanor betraying that he knew Quinn would put the pieces together.
Quinn’s gaze travelled to Pyra’s remains, which were now just bits of rock and dust. “You two weren’t concerned about Surina even after we heard those noises… because you knew she was the one making them. That was her, wasn’t it?”
Jared glanced at Leo for some direction on how to proceed. The large man just gave a wave of his hand as if to say ‘The cat’s out of the bag anyway.’
“It’s not really something she’s proud of – her daimon ancestry,” Jared sighed.
“Her glasses, her unwillingness to look at anyone directly in the eye… I figured there was more to it than just a sensitivity to light. I remember reading the myth of Medusa and thought perhaps she had something to do with it.”
“Medusa’s dead,” Leo reminded him. “No, Surina’s mother was Stheno, one of the eternal Gorgons.”
“Obviously she not completely Gorgon, which left her impaired,” Jared continued.
“Impaired? How?”
“She lacks control over her daimon abilities. Missing from the mythology texts was the fact that the immortal Gorgon sisters could, for lack of better words ‘Turn off their deadly sight.’ Something neither Medusa nor Surina could – same with the Basilisk transformation. Surina’s the granddaughter of an incarnation of Artemis and not only inherited some of her magic but also has some of her power dictated by the cycles of the moon.”
“So every full moon she transforms whether she wants to or not?” Quinn asked, his question sounding more like a statement.
“Just like a werewolf,” Leo quipped. “Though we think she keeps a certain amount of control over her actions – an awareness of some sort.”
“And she didn’t want me to know?” the teen asked, somewhat hurt by the fact that the woman didn’t trust him with that information, or that she believed he would think less of her.
“I don’t think she wanted anyone to know if possible. She sees it as a weakness,” Jared said.
Quinn’s eyes widened at the statement and turned once again to see the rubble that remained of the once fire-breathing Chimera. “She just crushed Pyra! I wouldn’t really call that a weakness.”
“And if she thought you was a threat she woulda done the same to you,” Leo warned.
Quinn shuddered at the thought of being trapped in Surina’s coils, his life being slowly squeezed out of him. He mentally shook himself. Surina was his friend, well, sort of, he was certain that she would be able to restrain herself from attacking. He turned to the others. “So what do we do now?”
Jared looked up through the skylight observing the lightening of the sky. “It’ll be sunrise in an few hours. Surina will be back to her original self then.”
“And lost in the maze,” Leo snorted.
Gazing out the portal that the Basilisk had left from, Quinn couldn’t help but let out an astonished chortle. “I don’t think the maze is going to be much of a problem.”
The two men gathered around him to see what caused his amusement. Where once there had been thick tangles of magically invulnerable wood lay piles of stone rubble in its place, clearing a path to the other side of the cavernous hall.
Jared gave a huff of amazement, “Huh, would you look at that…”
~ Chapter 28 ~
With the few remaining hours of night Leo told the other two to get some rest assuring them he had already slept most of the day and was fit to stand watch. Though lying on the concrete floor offered little comfort.
Quinn didn’t remember actually sleeping for the short time lying on the floor, his mind racing with the events of the past forty-eight hours.
He wondered what he should say when they met up with Surina – should he say anything at all? Perhaps the best course of action would be to pretend that he didn’t know – that the other two had not spilled her secret.
Yet for the most part he had unraveled the secret for himself. Jared and Leo had just been kind enough to fill in the blanks. Of course, he couldn’t act completely dumb; something had obviously happened and Surina was more than aware of her monthly problem.
Quinn had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before. He figured that if he ever got horizontal he would be out in a matter of minutes, yet his brain would just not be silent. So he lay there gazing at the inside of his eye lids, attempting to block everything else out.
Leo shook him to awareness some time later. Jared was already standing at the ready, scythe in hand and while both were not completely rested they at least seemed alert.
Turning his head to the right Quinn was surprised to see Surina standing there. Other than the slight tangles in her hair and the weary slope of her shoulders, the teen would have assumed that she had been with them the whole time.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she echoed somewhat awkwardly.
“So… when did you get back?”
Surina exchanged glances with the other two before answering, “Not too long ago. Twenty minutes maybe.”
“I see…” Quinn replied.
“It’s okay,” she assured. “I know you know.” Her posture along with how she said the words seemed almost like a challenge, daring the young man to say anything.
However, Quinn could see through the façade and offered a reassuring smile. “I know you might not think it, but I thought you were prett
y cool last night.”
Surina allowed her lips to quirk up in a half smile, “Might seem cool to you but let me tell you, its hell on the teeth sometimes.” She ran her tongue across her pearly whites emphasizing her point.
Leo clapped a friendly hand onto the woman’s shoulder. “And we appreciate it – certainly made short work of the maze for us.”
“I wish I could say that I did it consciously but I think the beast in me was just getting pissed off.”
The others snickered at the comment, Quinn especially grateful to have a moment free of the tension of the last day or so.
Surina turned toward the far side of the hall and began to pick her way through the crumbled remains of the once wooden wall. “Come on, let’s get this over with. I don’t know about you guys, but I am seriously looking forward to a day off and a long bath.”
The blonde eagerly climbed up after her, while the other two followed behind. Quinn stepped up and over the scattered rocks, picking up his pace to walk in step with the demi-god. He kept a light smile on his face as if to prove to the woman that her transformation didn’t scare him, nor change his opinion of her.
Surina would occasionally turn her gaze towards him; her expression one of appraisal. After a few minutes of travel, she broke the silence with a soft clearing of her throat to gain the teen’s attention, though not alerting the two men behind them who were discussing the late Pyra.
“I hear it was you who figured out that Pyra wasn’t what she seemed.”
Quinn nodded solemnly. “Yeah… You know there was a time when I always took people at their word.”
“And now?”
“I can’t say I’m hyper-vigilante or whatever. I’m just more aware – aware that those who lie about the little things will lie about the big things too. I guess I should say that I’m just more aware of everything – I’d often notice when little things didn’t seem to add up, but I never paid it much mind, and now I do. Kind of makes my head heavy…”
The woman simply tilted her head in a sign of understanding, though anything she could have said to him would be empty platitudes. Instead she leapt down from the last bit of rubble to the exit of the hall below, offering her hand to steady the others as they descended.
Leaving the hall, they were greeted with the familiar alcove and staircase that lead into Erebus. Quinn noticing two very distinct differences right away: One – that the hole where Surina had made her impromptu-elevator was gone – not like someone had patched it up, more like it was never there. Two – the god-issue police tape that barred entry to the staircase was missing.
“Good to see they finally fixed the staircase,” Leo commented. “Too bad we can’t use it.”
Quinn turned to the large man, a question in his eyes.
“They’ll be expecting us to come through this staircase, which they’ll be watching,” he explained. “The path gets thinner as it goes down creating a bottle-neck.”
“Another defense tactic,” Jared added.
Quinn’s eyes wandered over to Surina’s jacket and the watch chain that once again spilled out over the edge of her pocket. “I guess we could take the elevator…”
The others turned to the teen, Surina’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the young man’s suggestion.
“Last time we were able to enter Erebus from a different path by using it. The tunnel was technically a dead end. So they wouldn’t be keeping an eye on it, right?”
The woman bobbed her head in agreement, “Makes the most sense if we want to take them by surprise.”
“Let’s do it then,” Jared concurred, though his calm expression gave way to confusion as Surina corralled them to stand closely together as she pulled out the protean watch, turning it into a sword before starting the ritual of drawing a circle around them.
He opened his mouth to voice his question when Quinn beat him to the punch.
“I’m really sorry if I throw up on you,” he told his friend.
“What?”
But before he was able to expand on the query, Surina finished the ritual, stabbing the center of the circle with her sword that Quinn was quick to latch onto.
And then they were falling.
The sudden stop didn’t jar the teen as it had before, though the other two men weren’t as sure on their feet. Regaining their balance, the four stepped out of the shaft and into the dank tunnel.
“Why doesn’t the floor keep going?” Jared asked, glancing back the way they came.
“It’s better not to think about it,” Quinn assured.
Surina sharply threw her hand to her mouth gesturing for silence. Far off to the right, a faint light flickered against the wall of the tunnel entrance, while the sound of clashing and clanging metal echoed along the corridor.
She stepped softly, motioning for the others to do the same. Jared followed silently, while Leo ushered Quinn to walk in front of him. The teen attempted to be as quiet, slowly putting one worn sneaker in front of the other.
The group paused as they approached the entryway.
Peering into the hall, Quinn’s jaw dropped as he gazed upon men of gargantuan stature. When Surina had mentioned the Cyclopes being involved he had prepared himself for the vision of one-eyed men, but nothing could have prepared him for the giants that stood illuminated in the Olympian fire.
Two of the hulking figures crowded around the multi-colored flames, one dressed in jean overalls, the other in what looked like a mechanic jumpsuit. Propped in the middle of the flame were the three pieces of the North Star. Perfectly fitted together, the seams of the star were almost non-existent as the two used oversized sledgehammers to pound away at the star. Sparks flew with each strike, though the two that worked to re-forge it each wore a protective visor hiding their single eye.
The third of the Cyclops brothers stood off to the side of the hall beside the main entrance, an intimidating axe clasped in his hands.
“Okay, so we have Arges watching the door, while Brontës and Steropes work on the star,” Surina informed them, identifying each of the Cyclopes with a jut of her chin.
For a moment, the teen could only hear the blows against the star and the grunts of the laboring daimons; yet a soft shuffling was also present. Quinn tilted his head up, following the sound to once again see the gleaming eyes of the remaining danaids as they scuttled about the tops of the columns like spiders fearful of the light.
Jared followed the teen’s line of vision to see the savage women nesting near the ceiling, waiting for any unsuspecting prey to walk under them. Yet despite their blood lust, the mere size of the Cyclopes kept the danaids from attacking the daimons working below.
“And they’re still keeping the daniad’s on call,” Jared whispered in disgust.
“I was afraid of that,” Surina replied.
Quinn swallowed thickly at the opponents now clearly out-numbering them. He had a lot of faith in his three companions, but as for himself he wasn’t too sure. When he had insisted that he come along with the others he knew that there was to be the threat of harm. His tumble with Pyra/Chimera had already confirmed that. But now facing down the numerous foes that awaited them in the next room Quinn felt his bravado waver. His eyes trailing over the glint of the blade held in Arges’ hand, he could easily picture himself cleaved in two by it, or worse crushed by the monstrous hammers that Brontës and Steropes swung with little effort.
“Maybe we should get some back up? I mean, there’s gotta be someone else we can call,” Quinn whispered urgently.
“No time,” Surina hissed.
“No time, for most people,” Jared said turning to the scythe he held in his right hand before tapping the base of it on the floor three times. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small whistle. Quinn stiffened as Jared brought it to his mouth, fearful he would reveal their position. Yet as he blew, no sound seemed to escape it.
A moment passed and Quinn looked up at the older man expectantly when nothing else happened.
&nbs
p; “They’ll be along shortly,” he assured.
“We have to act now, the star is only a few hits away from being whole,” Leo insisted.
“A room full of danaid’s and three armed Cyclopes, sounds fun,” the woman snorted. “So what, we just rush the place?”
“Do you have a better idea?” the man countered.
“What about a diversion?” Quinn piped in.
Surina’s brows furrowed behind her glasses. “What did you have in mind?”
~ Chapter 29 ~
Arges sneered as he watched his two brothers toil over the Olympian fire to re-forge the Star. His siblings seemed more than happy to do the grunt work for their employer, despite the fact that the use of the wish was already planned out. Still Arges didn’t completely trust the woman.
Scarlet had contacted him two months after their initial meeting with another of their daimon siblings in tow. Chimera, or Pyra as she was calling herself now, wouldn’t have been his first choice for an accomplice; at least not in the role she was playing.
Arges was willing to concede that Pyra was strong and agile, but not the stealthiest of their kind. He had assumed that Arachne would be the one to pull off the actual thefts, but according to Scarlet the woman was preoccupied with another task – whatever that meant.
Yet Pyra had proven herself time and again as she returned from each temple successfully, each time with a star fragment in tow.
The Cyclops supposed he should be grateful to Scarlet’s stooge, who had provided both the disguises and floor plans used, but he trusted the man less than he did his mistress.
Yes, everything was coming together just as Scarlet had planned it.
