Hera, Queen of Gods (Goddess Unbound)

by Thomas, T. D.

  “It’s too dangerous,” Hermes warned. “She could trap you again.”

  “If she does, I’ll shoot her in the face,” Artemis said calmly.

  “Just in case, swear to us that you won’t hurt or trap us,” Justin said to Ekhidna.

  Seeing Ekhidna squirm, I fought back a smile. But she had no choice. And she knew it.

  “By the River Ssstyxss, I will not harm you while you’re inssside my mind,” she said grudgingly.

  She winced, and when she looked at Justin, her eyes burned with loathing. She was like a rabid dog straining at its leash.

  “Without witches, how will you get into her mind?” Demeter asked.

  “Justin was able to get in to rescue me,” I pointed out. “He can do it again.”

  “I could always go alone,” he said.

  “Together, we’ll be faster,” I countered. “Besides, you’ll need me if anything goes wrong.”

  Justin hesitated.

  “We can’t waste time arguing,” I said. “We blinded the traitor’s mortal, but that’s just going to make them even more desperate to find us. We have to move fast. Before whatever monsters they send after us pick up our scent.”

  Sighing, Justin finally nodded. He closed his eyes, and the world around us began to melt away. Everything around me streamed by faster and faster, and then stopped suddenly.

  Justin caught me before I could fall.

  The sea of ooze lay all around us. We hovered inches above its slithering, inky surface. Within the undulating sludge were Ekhidna’s countless memories.

  “How the hell are we going to find anything in all this?” Justin asked.

  “That’s where I come in,” I said.

  I focused on our enemies. I cast the net wide. First, I pictured a faceless god, a malevolent shadow looming over us. Then, I pictured a faceless mortal, a similar shadow skulking below. That was the information I wanted. The identities of those who were behind this. That was what we’d come for.

  Ekhidna had never said she didn’t know who the mortal pet was. As for the traitor, even if she truly didn’t know who he was, they had communicated, maybe even spoken. There could be clues about the traitor’s identity hidden in their conversations, subtle hints Ekhidna wouldn’t recognize, but that I, as Queen of Gods, would know instantly. She had to know something about our enemies. And I wanted whatever that was.

  I extended my hands, and the ocean below us rippled. The ripples grew, becoming larger and larger waves. Soon, I’d exposed the bottom of the sea, covered with large, jagged pieces of rock. Memories.

  Still I forced the waves even higher. They towered on either side of us, exposing more of the ocean floor and layer upon layer of memories. No telling which was the correct one. No glittering like the last time I was here.

  But then, on the far side, I spotted a gleam. Justin saw it, too. He squeezed my arm.

  “Get it, and let’s get out of here,” I told him.

  I was beginning to tremble with the effort of holding up the enormous waves around us. The strain of holding back an entire ocean was brutal beyond words. It should’ve been impossible. It nearly was.

  Justin dove through the air toward the shining memory.

  I slipped. Just for a split-second. But it was enough for the waves to collapse briefly. Ooze spilled onto the ocean floor, sweeping up the memories and mixing them together under a foot of sludge. Justin was too late. The gleaming memory was lost in the ooze.

  Justin landed in the thick sea, and began to search, relentlessly tossing up handfuls of memory-rocks. But none shone. None were it.

  And I was already exhausted. My control was crumbling.

  “I . . . can’t . . .” I gasped.

  Small streams were trickling from the tops of the waves of ooze. More slime poured down onto the floor. Justin’s search was only getting harder. And with every second, I was getting that much weaker.

  “You have to!” Justin shouted.

  He was up to his waist in ooze now. He dove down, bringing up handfuls of memories. But still none shone.

  “Justin . . .” I warned.

  I was doing my best, but I might as well have been trying to hold back the tides with my bare hands. The walls were falling. In a moment, Justin would be swept under a flood of slime, along with the memory.

  And then it was over. All at once. Before I could even warn him again. I was too exhausted. I collapsed under the weight of it all.

  The walls burst. The waves crashed down. Sludge exploded outward.

  “Justin!” I shouted.

  He still hadn’t found the memory. But he refused to give up. He knew how desperately we needed it, and he knew I wouldn’t have the strength to part the sea again. So instead of flying up, Justin dove into the muck, even as the sea of slime poured in above him, burying him deeper and deeper in its thick, opaque layers.

  I waited. And waited.

  Justin still didn’t surface. It’d been too long. Something was wrong. He wasn’t going to make it.

  I dove.

  It didn’t make any sense. It was probably too late to save Justin. Putting myself at risk wouldn’t save him if he were already dead. Worse, it’d put the mission at risk. If something happened to both of us, the world could be doomed. Both our worlds. All the worlds.

  I should’ve left, fled back to my own body where I could come with up a new plan. We’d already lost so many in the war to save existence. One more didn’t tip the scales.

  But I dove anyway.

  I plunged into the thick ooze. It was almost alive. It fought me every inch of the way. But I hadn’t risked everything to be stopped now.

  Down, and down, through an infinity of slime. I couldn’t see. I could barely feel anything. And I wasn’t even sure what I was feeling for. A memory? Justin? Either? Both?

  My lungs burned. It was agony, but it was also absurd. My lungs were perfectly fine. My lungs were sitting comfortably in a Laundromat far away in the real world. I didn’t need to breathe.

  And, yet, somehow I did. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me, or maybe it was real in its own way. Maybe what I experienced as physical was really something psychic, spoken in a language my mind could understand.

  I was out of time. I had to turn back. I barely had any strength left. I’d dived, I’d swum, I’d struggled, and I’d failed. And forcing myself deeper would only make the failure worse.

  But I’d waited too long. Already my body ached. It screamed. I could barely move.

  I clawed my way back through the ooze, drained of energy. I pushed. I pulled. I strained. I crawled. But soon, just moving became too much.

  The edges of my vision began to blur and go black. I was out of time. The last of my strength slipped away. I stopped. Inches from the surface, from precious air, I stopped.

  Then, slowly, I bobbed upward. The writhing of the ooze itself lifted me. I broke the surface, gasping. I floated there. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. I coughed up a mouthful of ooze.

  And then I felt it. A brush. A touch so light I could’ve imagined it.

  I forced myself to move, fighting the bone-aching exhaustion. It took more effort than I’d ever used before. At first, only my fingers twitched. Gritting my teeth, I silently screamed and, grudgingly, my arm moved.

  My hand connected with something. I grabbed. I pulled.

  Justin’s head broke the surface, my fingers firmly entwined in his hair. But he didn’t gasp. He didn’t move. His eyes didn’t open.

  He wasn’t breathing.

  I panicked. I didn’t know how to revive someone who’d drowned, let alone someone who’d drowned inside the mind of a monster. So I did the only thing I knew how to do.

  I peeled open his eyes. I summoned my power.

  But it didn’t work. I found nothing when I looked into Justin’s eyes. There was no mind to invade, no thoughts to replace with my own.

  Because here, Justin was his mind, just like I was my mind and this world was Ekhidna’s mind
. My powers couldn’t function the way they did in the real world.

  But that didn’t mean they couldn’t work at all. I’d already controlled the sea here. I could save Justin. I just had to use my powers differently. I couldn’t force his mind conscious directly, but if his body was his mind, I might be able to use my powers on him that way.

  I placed my hands against his chest and channeled all of the power I had left into him. I didn’t direct it. I didn’t command it. I just poured it into him. I willed him to live.

  More and more energy went in, and still nothing happened. I had so little left to give, but I gave it all. Numb from exhaustion, I began to slip back under the surface of the ooze.

  Justin’s body spasmed once and his eyes flew open. He coughed up mouthful after mouthful of ooze. Finally, his lungs were clear; he looked shocked to see me, shocked to be alive.

  “Get us . . . out of here,” I said. I could barely keep my lips above the surface of the slime.

  Justin took gasping breaths. He knew we’d both drown if we stayed here much longer. But he wasn’t strong enough to use his powers, at least not yet. He needed to recover first.

  I felt Justin press something hard into my hand. A memory.

  I let it fill my mind.

  “It’s not the right one,” I said regretfully, as the images and sounds sped by. “Nothing about the traitor or his mortal pet. It’s just Ekhidna talking.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “She’s swearing the vow.”

  He smiled. I smiled back.

  Drawing on what little of my power had returned, I snapped the memory between my hands. It crumbled into the sea.

  “Take us home, Justin,” I said.

  And he did.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  “I’ve taken care of the vow,” I said. “It won’t be a problem.”

  Everyone stared. No one broke a Stygian vow. Not me. Not anyone. But Ekhidna could feel that I was telling the truth. She felt the weight of the vow lift. It was written all over her face. The surprise. The relief. The freedom.

  “How--” she began.

  “Forget how,” I said. “Now you can help us. And you will. Or Justin will take me back inside your mind and I will destroy every memory you have.”

  Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but I’d certainly try.

  But looking over at Justin, I started to worry. His irises had turned from brown to crimson, and the crimson showed no signs of fading. If anything, it was only growing. He was using his powers too much, and I remembered all too well what would happen if those powers ever swallowed him again.

  “Tell us the name of the traitor,” Hermes said.

  “I told Hera the truth. He never told me hisss name,” Ekhidna replied, “and he blocksss all augeriesss and divinationsss. He’sss made sssure there’sss no way to dissscover who he isss. It’sss hisss only protection againssst the other godsss.”

  “Then I think we’re just about done here,” Artemis said grimly, drawing her bowstring.

  “Wait! The name of the mortal working with the traitor,” Ekhidna said quickly. “The one who’sss been ssspying on you and doing hisss dirty work? It’sss Ian Cunningham.”

  “I know him,” Justin said, surprised.

  “What?” Demeter asked.

  “He was a friend of mine,” Justin said. “A long time ago. Before high school.”

  “Where can we find him?” I asked.

  Ekhidna shrugged. “We’ve never met. He usssesss magick to contact me.”

  “I know where he used to live,” Justin said. “But he might have moved after his parents split up.”

  “Let’s hope he didn’t,” I replied. “We don’t have anywhere else to start.”

  “What do we do with her?” Artemis asked, gesturing at Ekhidna with her bow.

  “We bring her,” I replied. “This mortal, Ian, seems like he’s got quite a few tricks up his sleeve. The traitor’s tutored him in the most powerful magicks, and Ian’s drained the artifacts at the museum for power. And probably the Fates, too. He’s practically--”

  “A god,” Demeter murmured.

  “Ian doesn’t know Ekhidna’s working for us now,” I continued. “She’s going to pretend that nothing’s changed and get us some answers, so we can figure out who this traitor is and how to stop him.”

  “What if he figuresss out what I’m doing?” Ekhidna protested. “He’ll--”

  “Do nothing that we won’t do to you right now if you don’t help us,” I finished coldly. “Now swear you won’t betray us.”

  Ekhidna looked ready to explode with fury. But she managed to choke it back. Her life depended on it. “I ssswear that I will not betray you. By the River Ssstyxss. Sssatisssfied?”

  Artemis reluctantly returned her bow and arrow to the quiver on her back.

  “Hermes,” I ordered, “go invisible. Don’t let Ekhidna out of your sight. If she does anything remotely offensive, stab her anywhere you like, as often as you like.”

  Hermes smiled and vanished, but not before he gave Ekhidna a wink. She seethed silently.

  “After you,” I told her.

  Ekhidna got to her feet with serpentine grace. She looked over her shoulder as she stalked out of the Laundromat.

  “The bigger the vow, the fassster it breaksss, Hera,” she warned archly.

  We followed her out. Then Justin and I took the lead.

  “So what can you tell me about him?” I asked.

  “Ian? Not much,” Justin replied. “We lost touch after his parents split. It was a pretty ugly divorce. Like, the ugliest. They were always in court, cops got involved, the works. It was all anyone talked about for a while. I mean, people still talk about it. And Ian was caught right in the middle. He just kinda shut down. Sorta became a hermit. But I never would’ve picked him for the go-crazy-kill-everybody type. He was nice guy. A good guy.”

  “The most dangerous people are the ones you don’t notice until it’s too late,” I said. “Look at me. There was a traitor living with me, and I never even guessed. None of us did.”

  Silence.

  “How long do you think your vow will bind Ekhidna?” Justin asked.

  “The Universe favours freedom. Chaos,” I said. “Order takes constant effort, or it starts to collapse.”

  “So not very long,” Justin said. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  We walked in silence. Eventually, Justin stopped in front of a house.

  “This is it,” he said. “This is where Ian used to live.”

  “Ekhidna,” I ordered.

  “Hera,” Demeter whispered. “We don’t know how much longer your vow will hold. We can’t let her go in alone.”

  “Justin will go with you,” I informed Ekhidna.

  “Ian knowsss Jussstin,” Ekhidna reminded me. “And he’sss been watching you. He knowsss that Justin’sss been helping you.”

  “Then lie to him,” I said. “Tell him that we finally cut Justin loose, because he was holding us back . . . No offence, Justin.”

  “None taken,” he assured me. “Though you did come up with that a bit fast.”

  “We’ll talk about it later,” I said. I turned back to Ekhidna. “Tell Ian you decided to take Justin prisoner to see if you could use him against us, and that’s why you brought him to Ian. So Ian could contact the traitor for instructions about what to do with him.”

  “Damn! For someone who never lies, you’re getting kinda good at this,” Hermes remarked.

  “It’s the company I’ve been keeping,” I replied archly. “Hermes, you’ll slip in with Ekhidna. Artemis will do her best to follow you from the outside. Signal her when you get Ian alone, and we’ll meet you. Then I can use my powers on him.”

  Justin nodded and hauled Ekhidna to the front of the house. The rest of us hid in the shadows under a tree by the side of the house.

  Justin rang the bell. A middle-aged woman answered. Ekhidna said something to her, and the woman nodded. Then they all went inside.

&nbs
p; But that was the easy part. I could’ve mesmerized the woman to get us all inside. The hard part would be pumping Ian for information. He knew about my powers, which is why he’d sent half-human, half-animal monsters after us. I couldn’t take the risk that he’d be ready for me. I had to catch him unaware.

  When she was sure there were no people on the street, Artemis shrank into a small bat and flew off to monitor what was going on inside the house.

  “I guess we wait,” Demeter sighed.

  Like me, she hated waiting. All this adrenaline, and nothing to do with it.

  It felt like forever before Artemis returned. Demeter and I didn’t even talk. We didn’t want to risk being overheard, no matter how unlikely that was. We didn’t want to risk anything, not when everything was hanging by such a thin thread.

  “They’re heading upstairs,” Artemis said.

  I almost screamed when I heard her voice behind us.

  “How can we get up there?” I asked. “We can’t fly.”

  Demeter squeezed my hand, and when I looked at her, she patted the tree beside her.

  “It got us down from the apartment,” she said. “It can give us a lift.”

  Artemis changed again and flew off to see where the others had wound up. Demeter laid her hands on the tree. Slowly, the branches began to twist lower. She worked carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible. Not that there was anybody outside to see what she was doing. Soon we had a living ladder of tree limbs.

  Demeter scrambled up, stepping onto the roof without any difficulty. She waved me up.

  I had my hand on the first rung when I heard the screech. It was high above us, but in the silence of the night, the sound carried far. A harpy. Ian must’ve cloaked this whole neighbourhood. That explained why it was so deserted.

  Demeter heard the harpy’s screech, too. She flattened herself against the roof, but it was too late. The harpy shrieked again. We’d been spotted.

  Maybe Ian hadn’t heard it, and it’d just attack us. We could finish it off before it gave us away.

  But the harpy was too smart. It circled down, but it wasn’t an attack dive. It wanted to get a closer look. It’d get as much information as possible and then return to its flock. Then the harpies would come for us in force.