by Kate O'Hearn
“Yes,” responded a Titan that Astraea didn’t recognize. “He and the other new leaders are down at the end.”
“Thank you,” Astraea said. “Don’t worry. You’ll be out of here very soon.”
“I hope so,” said an Olympian softly. “They are killing us slowly in here.”
Word of Astraea’s arrival spread through the corridor in hushed whispers and soft murmurs. As she walked down the corridor, the cell occupants waved and stared openmouthed at the huge snake slithering beside her.
“Astraea!” her grandfather called in a hushed voice as he pressed against his cell door. “Where have you been? I have been frantic.”
Astraea clutched her grandfather’s hand and kissed his cheek. “We have so much to tell you. Jupiter and the council are safe. We’re getting you out and taking you to him. We’re preparing for war against the Mimics—that’s what we’re calling those creatures that can make copies of us.” She looked around the cell. “Where is Grandmother?”
“I am here.” Her grandmother’s voice sounded softly from the back of the cell. “I am with Saturn.”
Hyperion nodded. “Those creatures, the Mimics, have just attacked him to create another duplicate. He has grown so weak. The artificial Saturn has taken over. He told our people that Jupiter and Juno and the council have gone to Xanadu and that Saturn is in command until they return.”
Astraea shook her head. “They aren’t on Xanadu. It has been invaded by the Mimics too. They’ve taken everyone from there, including Emily Jacobs and Riza. They tried to kill Pegasus, but he’s with us now.”
Crius approached the bars. It was then that Astraea noticed there were still humans in some of the cells, as two were pressed close to him. “We tried to fight them, but they defeated us. How can we stand against an enemy that we can’t touch?”
“We have a secret weapon. You don’t have to touch them to destroy them,” Astraea said.
“What weapon could defeat those monsters? I doubt even Medusa could have stopped them,” Hyperion said.
Astraea looked at Belis and patted his large head. “He and his kind can.”
Hyperion eyed the snake questioningly. “I do not understand.”
“It’s these snakes. Their venom is lethal to Mimics.” She reached for one of her bracelets and opened it to reveal the two snakes inside. They popped their heads out, but stayed in their compartment. “These are very intelligent and kind. They have agreed to help us. We have thousands of them donating their venom. All we have to do is coat arrows, swords, and daggers with it and even a graze causes the Mimics to melt.” She looked at the huge snake at her side. “This is Belis. When he bites the Mimics, they don’t just melt; they burst into goo. And he’s big enough not to be affected by their residue. Unfortunately, the little ones are like us and they pass out when touched.”
There were shocked expressions from everyone in the cells around them. “How did you find these snakes?” Hyperion asked. “Where do they come from?”
“That’s too long a story to tell,” Astraea said. “I don’t know how long we have before they come back. Grandfather, we need to get all of you out of here. Where are the keys to the cells?”
“The Mimics have them,” Hyperion said.
“Then we’ll use these.” She held up her hand to reveal the Solar Stream ring.
Hyperion shook his head. “The Solar Stream does not work in here. I supervised the building of this prison. It is stronger than Tartarus. Your ring will not work; nor can the walls be knocked down. Not even Brutus and his giant friends could break us out. The keys are the only way.”
“Then we will get them. Do you know which Mimic has them?”
Hyperion nodded. “I have them. Or rather, the Mimic that looks like me. The keys are always with him. And when they make another duplicate of me, that new one is given the keys.”
Astraea nodded. “All right, we’ll have to get them from Mimic Hyperion.”
Crius spoke again. “Who is with you?”
“Well, there’s Belis,” Again Astraea patted the snake. “You know Zephyr; she’s here too. And we have another friend, Darek, with us. He’s a centaur.”
“Is that all?” Crius said. “You’re just children.”
Astraea nodded. “Yes, we’re young, but we’re effective. The Mimics don’t consider young Titans or Olympians a threat. They just call us spawn. But so far we’ve done a lot against them. Right now Darek is gathering more students together. We’re meeting up later. Then we’ll plan how to get the keys from the Mimic.”
“I am so proud of you,” Hyperion said. “But you must be careful. These monsters are unlike anything we have ever encountered before.”
“I know,” Astraea said. “But we’ll get you out of here and show those Mimics they made a mistake coming here.”
Hyperion squeezed Astraea’s hands. “There is so much I want to say and ask you. But you must go. It’s too dangerous for you to linger here. I assume you used the emergency escape tunnel to get here. Use it again. Go now and get the keys. Free us from here.”
He reached through the bars and gave Astraea an awkward embrace. “Go now and be careful.”
Astraea released her grandfather. “I will.” She looked around the cells. “I’ll be back and then we’ll free all of you very soon.”
“Good luck, kid.”
Astraea turned around and saw the human prisoner she’d seen last time, the clown who had brutally grabbed her wing. His face was no longer painted white, and he looked thin and gaunt. “We’re counting on you.”
“We won’t fail,” Astraea said. “We can’t if we want to save Titus.”
29
“LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. so now we have to steal the prison keys from a Mimic?” Zephyr cried. “That’s insane!”
Astraea nodded. “It’s the only way. Zeph, you should have seen it in there. It was horrible. The cells are so full that no one can sit down. That clown guy was still there, but he was so thin, I don’t think the Mimics are feeding anyone now.”
They were walking away from the monument and heading back to Arcadia One to meet up with Darek. It was still dark out, but it wasn’t long before the dawn.
“I just hope Darek found some kids. We’re going to need all the help we can get to free everyone from prison,” Astraea said.
Along the way to the prison, they had to stop and hide several times when Belis warned them of Mimics. Each time he did, he turned black and surrounded them.
“It bothers me every time he does that,” Zephyr admitted. “It shouldn’t because I know he’s protecting us. But it does.”
“I don’t mind it now,” Astraea said, patting the snake’s head. “It was a bit scary at first, but now I know why he’s doing it. What does bother me is how many Mimics there are out here. For being half blind at night, they are spending a lot of time outdoors.”
“I know,” Zephyr agreed. “I wonder why that is.”
Astraea stopped walking. “Zeph, I’m frightened. What if we’re too late and they’ve taken over completely? That’s why there are so many out tonight. Think about it. The prison was full to bursting. What if there are no real Titans left?”
“If that were true, the Mimics would be in their own shape, wouldn’t they? I mean, why would they need to keep duplicating Saturn and Hyperion and the others to keep pretending to be Titans? To me it means we’re not too late.”
That comment gave Astraea a bit of hope that there was still a chance to save Titus and maybe even Xanadu. But it was a monumental task and one they needed a lot of help to accomplish.
They made it to the Arcadia One field. When they started to cross it, Astraea’s eyes went wide at the sight of Darek standing at their meeting place with a large group of kids. There were both Titans and Olympians of all shapes and sizes, talking together.
“Astraea!” Darek cried as he trotted over and gave her a huge hug. “I’ve been so worried. This place is crawling with Mimics.”
“I know!” Astraea said. �
��But Belis alerts us to any Mimics around us. He turns black and then circles around us. He’s done it a lot tonight.”
“Did you find Saturn? What’s the news?”
“It’s not good,” Astraea said. “The Mimics have taken over. They’ve copied Saturn, Hyperion, and Crius. But Zephyr found the originals.”
“Where?” Darek asked.
“In the Titus prison,” Zephyr said. “Though I bet there are probably more in Tartarus as well.”
“There must be.” Darek pointed to the group gathered around him. “Everyone here believes their parents are Mimics.”
Two fawn-colored centaurs clopped forward. A girl a bit younger than Darek had her arm protectively around a much younger centaur. Their eyes were wide with fear. “Our parents have been behaving so strangely lately. They don’t care about me or my little brother anymore. We have to take care of ourselves now.”
“That’s because they’re not your real parents. But don’t worry. We’ll get them back.” Astraea turned to Darek. “We have a problem though. My grandfather supervised the building of the prison and says the keys are the only way to open the cells. The Solar Stream won’t even work in there. The trouble is, Mimic Hyperion has the keys to the cells. We’re going to need to get them. I suggest we pull a small group together and go after them.”
“I’ll go after Mimic Hyperion,” offered a student.
“Me too,” said another.
Before long there were loads of volunteers offering to help get the keys to the prison.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Zephyr said. “We can’t all go. We must be careful or we’ll alert the Mimics. We need a plan.”
“I might have one.” A winged Olympian stepped forward. He was much older than Astraea, although he looked to be only a few years older than her. He was tall with multicolored feathers on his wings and was known as the most handsome Olympian ever born.
“Cupid?” Astraea gasped. She had only ever seen him from afar but had had a big crush on him for years. All she knew about Cupid was that he was a good friend of Emily Jacobs and was very close with his mother, Venus.
“Cupid?” Zephyr repeated.
Cupid stood before them. “I am so glad that you are here and that Jupiter and the others are free. I had been noticing strange things happening around here for some time, so I broke the rules and flew to Xanadu to warn Emily. But when I got there, everyone was gone. Those creatures, the Mimics and the Shadow Titans, took them. They tried to catch me, but I got away and flew back here. They’ve taken my mother and everyone I care for. I’ve been searching for them, but it is difficult with the Mimics looking for me.”
“They’re after us, too,” Astraea admitted. “Which is why we need to find a way to get the keys off Mimic Hyperion without the others finding out.”
“As I said, I might have a plan,” Cupid said. “The Mimics are smart, but they don’t see younger Olympians or Titans as having any value.”
“We already know that,” Darek said. “Believe me, we’ve been fighting them a lot longer than you have.”
“So do you know what would happen if one of these young Titans were to knock on Hyperion’s door?” Cupid asked.
Astraea frowned. “He wouldn’t care about them or why they were there.”
“Exactly,” Cupid said.
“What?” Zephyr said. She looked at Astraea. “Have I missed something here?”
Astraea considered what Cupid said. Then she understood. “So while the kids are distracting Mimic Hyperion with a question or something, some of us could sneak in the back and search for the keys.”
“That is the plan,” Cupid said.
“It’s dumb,” Darek said. “What if Hyperion is keeping the keys with him?”
“Then we melt him with Belis or one of the other snakes,” Zephyr said. “The other Mimics will feel it, but we should have time to get to the prison and get everyone out.”
“So when do you want to do this?” Darek asked. He looked up at the sky. “It will be light soon.”
“I know it’s not ideal, but we should do it now,” Astraea said. “Otherwise we have to find somewhere to hide all day, and that will be difficult.”
“No, we must do this now,” Cupid insisted. “If my mother is in that prison, I want her out immediately.”
Everyone around them was nodding, and the little-boy centaur started to cry. “I want my mommy and daddy.”
Astraea looked at the gathering and then over to Zephyr. “So we do it now.”
* * *
Two volunteers were selected to be the ones to knock on Hyperion’s door while Astraea, Zephyr, and Cupid would break in the rear and search for the keys.
At the same time, Darek would lead all the others to the monument that contained the secret entrance to the prison. If everything went to plan, Cupid would fly the keys to Darek and they could start to empty the prison.
That was the plan. It was dangerous, it was untried, but they had no choice. Time was against them, and they had to succeed before the sun rose and the Mimics came out in full.
After brief good-byes, Astraea and her team headed back to Hyperion’s house.
“Do you really think this is going to work?” Zephyr asked.
Astraea was walking beside her with her hand on Zephyr’s neck. “It has to. You didn’t see inside the prison. I did. It was awful.”
“I cannot imagine my mother in there,” Cupid said softly. “It horrifies me.”
“It should because what I saw horrified me.” Astraea had heard that Cupid was a bit of a coward, a troublemaker, and liked to use his good looks to cause mischief. That might have been true of him at other times, but it wasn’t tonight. This Cupid was brave and determined to save his mother and the others from the Mimics.
Along the way, they had to hide as a few Mimics moved around. Astraea was growing used to relying on Belis. At the first sign of him changing colors, she warned the others to hide. This worked all the way back to Hyperion’s house.
When they reached the street of their target, Astraea looked at the two volunteers. They seemed so young and innocent. She wondered if that was how she’d looked not so very long ago. She had changed so much. She wasn’t the same Astraea that dreaded going to school. This new Astraea was now a fighter. Would it be the same for them?
Their new team members were a girl and a boy. Angitia was a bit younger than Astraea, and then there was Picus, who was her age. They were selected from the group of volunteers because of their special talents. Angitia was known to charm snakes. Considering how important snakes were against the Mimics, anything she could do would help.
Picus had the best vision Astraea had ever encountered. She thought she could see well in the dark, but for Picus, night and day were the same. He even saw in full color at night, down to the tiniest details. This was probably because his mother was a day Titan and his father was a night dweller. Though he was pale like a night dweller, Picus could go out in daylight without injury from the sun. He also had all the night dweller vision talents. This extended to not only seeing well at night, but also seeing across vast distances. His talent became evident when they were at the end of Hyperion’s street.
“Stop,” Picus called. “Hyperion and Theia are outside their house talking to someone. I can’t tell if the other one is Titan or Mimic. He is waving his hands and appears to be shouting at Hyperion.”
“Can you tell what they are saying?” Cupid asked.
Picus shook his head. “No. They are talking too quickly. But Hyperion looks angry.”
“No change there, then,” Zephyr said. “Hyperion is always angry.”
They stayed where they were and waited for the argument to end. Finally Picus said, “It’s all right now. We can move. The other one has gone, and Hyperion and Theia have entered the house.”
As they made their way down the street, Astraea said to Angitia and Picus, “So you know what you’re going to say when you get there?”
“Yes,” Angitia said
. “We’re going to ask Hyperion for help because he’s the head of security.”
“And what are you going to say?” Astraea made them repeat what they’d already rehearsed.
Picus responded. “That our parents are acting strangely and that we need him to speak to them so that things can go back to normal.”
“Perfect,” Astraea replied. “The hard part is going to be for you not to look scared. But, if it helps, know that Mimic Hyperion looks exactly like my grandfather, so while you’re talking to him, imagine it is the same person.”
“I’d be terrified if I were speaking to the real Hyperion,” Angitia said.
“He’s really scary,” Picus added. “I try to avoid him.”
“Astraea, let them show fear,” Zephyr said. “They’re right. Hyperion is intimidating. If they weren’t afraid, it would look suspicious.”
Astraea nodded. “I keep forgetting. For me, he’s just my grandfather. But to others he can be a bit scary.”
“A bit?” Zephyr teased.
“Okay, a lot scary,” Astraea said.
“We know what to do,” Picus said. “Just be sure to get in as quickly as you can. We don’t know how long we can distract him or your grandmother.”
“We will,” Cupid said. “And if we can’t find the keys, I promise that Mimic Hyperion and his Mimic wife will be turned into puddles.”
Before they parted to go to the front and rear of the house, Astraea pulled off one of her bracelets and handed it to Angitia. She showed her how to open the secret panel to reveal the two snakes hidden inside.
“Keep this with you. If things turn bad, use the snakes against the Mimics. It’s horrifying to watch, but they melt into goo. You must get the snakes out of it because it’s just as dangerous for them as for you. Just remember not to touch it.”
“We’ll remember,” Picus said.
Angitia cooed at the snakes and stroked them lovingly. “They’re so adorable. We’ll be careful.”
Zephyr leaned closer to Astraea. “Adorable? Not the word I would have chosen.”
“I’m sorry, Zeph, but I agree with her,” Astraea said. “These snakes are cute.”
