by Maz Evans
‘Do what?’ snapped Elliot. He didn’t have time for Virgo’s stupid questions. And not just because he had a world to save.
‘Why did you run out in front of Nyx like that, when we were perfectly safe?’
‘Hermes wasn’t safe,’ said Elliot.
‘But you could have been killed! Did you not think about that?’
‘Nah,’ shrugged Elliot. ‘Seemed like a good idea.’
‘You are epically sub-optimal,’ sighed Virgo. ‘Placing yourself in harm’s way for someone else is highly irrational.’
‘So is letting your friend die,’ said Elliot.
Virgo furrowed her brow, but said nothing. That made a pleasant change.
They charged on through the darkness, following Ariadne’s string, weaving through the intricate tunnel system that lead to the Earth’s core. The heat was immense, but Elliot simply wiped the sweat from his forehead and ploughed on.
‘How far is it to the core?’ Virgo shouted.
The ball of twine came to an abrupt halt.
‘Your destination will mean certain death,’ it suddenly announced. ‘I am not programmed to lead anyone into danger. Unlike Theseus, some of us have principles. Goodbye.’
And with that, the twine ceased to glow and turned into a limp ball of string on the ground.
‘So where is it?’ Virgo cried.
‘Just around the corner,’ Elliot guessed. All of these tunnels looked the same. And he hadn’t exactly been paying close attention the last time he’d nearly made it there with Thanatos.
‘Are you sure you know the way?’ Virgo asked cautiously.
‘Of course I do!’ snapped Elliot, taking the nearest fork. ‘It’ll be right down . . . Whhhhhhoooooooaaaaaaa!’
‘Elliot!’
Elliot smacked into the rocky ground. Something had tripped him. Something large and soft on the ground. Something like . . .
‘Hypnos!’ Virgo cried.
Elliot picked himself up and crawled back to the body on the floor. Virgo was right. It was the Daemon of Sleep. And he was in a bad way.
‘Look!’ said Virgo, pointing to the Daemon’s neck. ‘His kardia! It’s gone. Is he . . .’
Virgo’s hand instinctively touched her throat. Without his kardia, Hypnos was mortal. He could be killed. Were they too late?
Elliot cast his mind back to first-aid training at school. Firstly, he needed to check if Hypnos was breathing. He put his cheek to Hypnos’s mouth. Nothing. Was there a pulse? He held his fingers to Hypnos’s wrist. He thought there was something . . . It was faint, but it was there. He lay the Daemon on his back and tilted his head back.
‘Right,’ said Elliot, crossing Virgo’s hands and placing them on Hypnos’s chest, at the bottom of his breastbone. ‘Pump down like this, thirty times. Then I’m going to breathe into his mouth twice.’
‘Elliot – we don’t have time!’ said Virgo. ‘We have to get to Thanatos.’
‘Hypnos saved my life,’ said Elliot. ‘And he can help us find Thanatos.’
‘I thought you knew where you were going?’
‘I lied,’ said Elliot. ‘Start the compressions.’
Virgo did as she was told, rhythmically pressing down on Hypnos’s chest. Just after the thirtieth compression, Elliot gently pinched the Daemon’s nose and blew into his mouth until Hypnos’s chest rose. He waited for the Daemon’s chest to fall, then did it again. He watched to see if Hypnos would respond. Nothing.
‘Again,’ he said to Virgo, who immediately started pumping Hypnos’s chest. They counted to thirty together and Elliot blew twice more into the Daemon’s mouth. But once again, there was no response.
‘Come on!’ Elliot shouted at the Daemon. ‘Again!’
‘Elliot, I think he’s—’
‘AGAIN!’ Elliot shouted, preparing to breathe rescue breaths into Hypnos’s mouth for a third time.
Virgo resumed the compressions, the effort starting to show in beads of sweat on her forehead. Elliot closed his eyes and sent up a silent prayer.
‘Come on, Hypnos,’ he whispered. ‘I need you.’
As Virgo pumped the final compression, Elliot filled the Daemon’s lungs with a huge breath. Almost immediately, the Daemon started to splutter, desperately sucking air into his empty lungs.
‘It worked!’ cried Virgo. ‘This is . . . super-optimal!’
‘Turn him on to his left side,’ Elliot instructed, remembering the first-aid instructor’s teaching about the recovery position. ‘It’s OK, Hypnos. You’re OK.’
‘Go,’ wheezed the Daemon, between coughs.
‘Where is he?’ Elliot asked.
‘That way,’ the Daemon spluttered. ‘First right, then two lefts. And hurry.’
‘Will you be OK?’ Elliot asked, rising to his feet.
‘I always am,’ Hypnos said, with a weak smile. ‘Now GO!’
Elliot didn’t need to be told twice. This was it. This was his chance to save the world. And it was the world’s last chance to be saved.
They raced on through the tunnels, following Hypnos’s instructions. But the heat was becoming unbearable. They couldn’t go much further – they would be burnt to a crisp . . .
‘Here!’ Elliot said, as inspiration struck. He pulled Medea’s ointment out of his pocket. He knew he’d been right not to change his clothes. ‘Cover yourself in this.’
‘I appreciate the importance of sun protection,’ Virgo began, ‘but I hardly think—’
‘Just do it!’
They slathered the lotion all over their bodies. Elliot immediately felt the heat start to bend around him.
‘OK,’ said Elliot. ‘Let’s go.’
The tunnel started to glow, the orange light so bright they had to shield their eyes. But still they pressed on. They rounded a final corner – and there it was. A burning orange ball that could only be the Earth’s core.
But there was no sign of Thanatos.
‘Where is he?’ said Virgo. ‘Are we too late? Perhaps we should . . .’
The rest of her suggestion was lost as a blow to the back of her head sent her crumpling to the ground.
‘Virgo!’ Elliot yelled, running to her.
‘You two just never learn,’ said Thanatos, stepping out of the shadows. ‘And I am seriously tiring of your constant interference.’
He lifted his fist to administer a similar blow to Elliot. But, once again, the Daemon was repelled by the invisible force that had kept Elliot safe ever since he freed Thanatos from Stonehenge.
‘How irksome,’ he sighed. ‘Well, now. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Remember this?’
Holding the Chaos Stone above his head, Thanatos roared a sharp command.
‘Earth Stone! Drop!’ And the diamond shimmer of the Earth Stone began to glow.
Elliot looked up at the ceiling. He knew what was coming. He’d used the same trick once before.
The stalactites started to tremble above him, quaking with the power of the Earth Stone. Elliot squatted down and shielded his head as the stalactites fell to the ground, imprisoning him in a stone prison right in front of the Earth’s core.
‘Now. It’s worth pointing out at this juncture,’ Thanatos drawled, ‘that I delivered on my side of the bargain. I kept my oath. I gave you your mother back. If you chose to lose her again, I’m afraid that’s your business.’
Elliot felt a wave of emotion rise up through him. But it wasn’t sadness. It was courage. That’s why he let his mum go. He hadn’t lost her. She was with him every step of the way. He knew that now.
‘So, I’m freed from my oath on the Styx,’ said Thanatos. ‘Now I can do whatever I want. And I want to kill you, Elliot Hooper. Can’t lie – always have.’
Elliot stared the Daemon straight in the eye. He wasn’t going to show Thanatos his fear. He was sick of being afraid. If this was the end, he was facing it head on.
‘Get stuffed,’ he said.
‘Oh, for shame,’ sighed Thanatos. ‘You’ve had all this tim
e to think of the best thing to say when I kill you, and that’s the best you can come up with? Oh, well, it will have to suffice. I have other things to be getting on with.’
The Daemon turned, stepped over Virgo’s unconscious body, and held the Chaos Stone aloft, filling the dark void with its ethereal glow.
‘This is just too sweet,’ Thanatos said. ‘Not only do I get to rid the world of mortal vermin, I get to take you and your little girlfriend with it.’
‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ Elliot scoffed. ‘Gross.’
Whatever was about to happen, he wasn’t going to die with that idea in the world.
‘Silence!’ Thanatos roared, the stone shining from his fingers like a rainbow beacon. ‘The moment has come! It is time for the world to be mine! And . . .’
He lowered the stone until its beam was aimed straight at Elliot’s heart. Elliot took a steadying breath. He’d be reunited with Mum sooner than they thought. That wasn’t so bad.
‘Elliot Hooper,’ Thanatos continued. ‘It is time for you to die. CHAOS STONE! DESTROY THE MORTAL SCUM! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!’
Light burst from the Chaos Stone in an incandescent stream. But Elliot refused to close his eyes. He wanted to see the end. He wanted to stare it down. Elliot Hooper wasn’t going to fade into the darkness. He was going to blast into the light.
But before Elliot Hooper could do anything, a huge roar exploded from the other side of the cave. His head flicked to the source of the noise. Had Hermes come to save him? Was Hypnos returning to repay the favour?
But his saviour wasn’t a God. Nor a Daemon.
It was Virgo.
She sprinted across the cave and launched herself at the beam of light.
‘VIRGO!’ Elliot screamed ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOO!’
But there was nothing he could do. Trapped within his stone prison, he could only watch as Virgo threw herself between him and the bolt of elemental power that was about to destroy him and the world together. It was senseless. It was irrational. It was so not Virgo.
Time almost came to a standstill. He stretched out a hand to try to grab her, but she was beyond his reach. One millisecond at a time, Virgo and the Chaos Stone got closer, closer, closer. Until . . .
The beam hit Virgo with the force of a thousand sledgehammers.
Her slight body took the full impact of the combined power of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. It threw her so hard against the bars of Elliot’s stone prison that she shattered the stalactites to pebbles. Elliot braced himself for the beam to blast straight through her, straight through him and into the Earth’s core . . .
But it didn’t.
In half a heartbeat, the beam of light rebounded off Virgo’s body and ricocheted back in the direction it had come from.
Straight towards Thanatos.
‘What . . . NOOOOOOOOOOO!’ cried the Daemon, as the beam he had unleashed to destroy the world struck the Chaos Stone in his hands, exploding it into smithereens. With the Chaos Stone gone, the beam sought a new target . . . and promptly hit Thanatos square in the chest.
The force lit him up with an almighty radiance, swirling around his body in a glow of white, green, red and blue, igniting the Daemon in a tortured blaze. With a roar of pain and defeat, the Daemon of Death collapsed to the ground.
And then, the light simply went out.
Elliot looked behind him. The Earth’s core was just as it had been. The beam hadn’t touched it. Virgo had saved the world.
Virgo . . .
Elliot clambered out of the remains of his prison and clawed his way to Virgo’s body. She was curled up in a ball, protectively, as if she were asleep. He rolled her over and checked her breathing.
Nothing.
He tried to find a pulse.
Still nothing.
Desperately, frantically, he started compressing her chest and filling her mouth with long breaths. Three, four times he tried.
But Virgo didn’t move.
‘You wake up!’ he shouted through hot tears, as he pumped the chest of his best friend. His only friend. ‘You stupid, stubborn, sub-optimal idiot! Wake up! You hear me!’
But the girl lay lifeless on the floor. Elliot felt the cold hand of despair reach for his heart. He couldn’t lose her. Not as well . . .
‘E! V! Mate! Babe! Thank the Gods I found you . . . E?’
Elliot didn’t deviate for a second, compressing Virgo’s chest and breathing into her mouth as the Messenger God flew into the cave.
‘What the—?’ said Hermes, surveying the carnage around them and the Daemon of Death sprawled unconscious on the ground.
‘Help,’ said Elliot desperately. ‘Please. You have to save her.’
Hermes knelt down and took one look at Virgo.
‘Not my skills, mate,’ said Hermes, stopping Elliot with a hand on his shoulder. ‘I need me dad.’
Gently, as if picking up a fragile ice sculpture, he scooped Virgo up in his arms.
‘Easy, babe,’ he whispered, kissing her softly on the head. ‘I’ve, like, totes got you . . . E – hop on.’
Elliot leapt on to the Messenger God’s back.
‘We’re OUTTA HERE!’ cried Hermes and blasted off through the tunnels of Tartarus, back towards the Earth that one young girl had saved.
22. Superstar
Zeus looked at the sky for the hundredth time that hour. The Earth was still intact. That was a positive. But it had been hours since he last saw Elliot, Virgo and Hermes. If they had indeed defeated Thanatos, where were they?
‘They’ll be here,’ said Athene, answering his silent question.
‘Elly will have done it, I just know it,’ Aphrodite echoed, her voice sounding less certain than her words.
They anxiously scanned the horizon, waiting for a sign, anything to show them that not only was Thanatos defeated, but their loved ones were safe.
They didn’t have to wait long.
‘Look!’ cried Aphrodite, spotting Hermes flying towards them, carrying both children. ‘They’re here!’
But her father and sister were already hurtling towards the Messenger God, who laid Virgo gently down on the grass.
‘Elliot – thank the Gods!’ Athene cried, gathering him into her arms.
‘Virgo!’ cried Elliot, scrambling out of her embrace. ‘She’s . . . she’s . . . You have to save her!’
Zeus and his daughters sank down beside the pale Virgo, checking for any signs of mortal life. But Virgo had no pulse. She wasn’t breathing. She was . . .
‘What happened?’ cried Zeus, as Aphrodite tipped out a bag full of potions on the grass.
‘I don’t know!’ cried Elliot. ‘One minute she was unconscious on the ground, the next she . . . she threw herself between me and the blast from the Chaos Stone.’
‘She did what?’ Athene cried. ‘She took the full force of it?’
‘Yes,’ said Elliot, choking on tears. ‘She saved me.’
Zeus exchanged a look with his daughters. The Chaos Stone wielded the force of all four natural elements. It possessed devastating power. No one could survive that. Especially not a young mortal. It was a horrible but simple truth: there was nothing they could do. Virgo had gone.
He knelt to the floor and put his hand on Virgo’s lifeless head.
‘What . . . what are you doing?’ Elliot screamed. ‘You have to do something! You have to save her!’
‘Elliot . . .’ Zeus began, reaching for his hand. How many more impossible losses was this one child going to have to bear?
‘Aphrodite, I’ll do the compressions, you do the breathing,’ said Elliot, shaking his hand free of Zeus’s and pumping on Virgo’s chest. ‘One, two, three, four . . .’
But Aphrodite simply cradled Virgo’s head in her lap and sobbed softly.
‘No!’ Elliot cried, searching desperately for someone to help him. ‘No, not her – you have to do something!’
‘Mate,’ said Hermes softly, gently placing his hand on Elliot’s shoulder. ‘We gotta let her go.’
‘They said that about you!’ spat Elliot, frantically pumping Virgo’s chest. ‘They wanted to kill you. My mum, she stopped them – and now look! You’re back! We just need to find a way to save Virgo!’
‘E,’ said Hermes, taking Elliot’s hands gently in his own. ‘I was still alive. I am immortal. V ain’t. It is the worst anti-bosh I have ever known and then some. I love that babe. We all do. But, mate – she’s gone.’
Elliot searched for some sign of hope in Hermes’s warm, caring eyes. But to Zeus the answer was clear. Virgo had saved Elliot. She had saved the world. But none of their powers could now save her. In all his infinite lives, the King of the Gods had never felt so powerless.
He watched this poor mortal child finally give in to the burden of grief that had weighed him down: tears flooded Elliot’s face and tortured sobs shook his body as Hermes held him tight.
‘It’s gonna be OK, mate,’ Hermes promised him. ‘We’re all gonna find a way. Not even joking.’
‘It’s not fair,’ Elliot raged. ‘It’s . . . it’s just not fair!’
‘It ain’t,’ Hermes choked. ‘It really, really ain’t.’
Zeus had no idea how long they all stayed there, his daughters tearfully holding the young girl who had sacrificed her life to save her friend, and the boy who had lost her trying to save the world. There was so much the King of the Gods loved about mortal life. But in those moments, it seemed unspeakably cruel.
His thoughts were interrupted by a throat-clearing behind him.
‘Your Majesty?’
Zeus turned to find the members of the Zodiac Council standing in a line.
‘What do you want?’ he snapped. This was no time for senseless procedure.
‘I wonder if we might be able to help?’ said Pisces, stepping forward.
‘Help? I seriously doubt that,’ glowered Zeus. ‘Look – look at what you’ve done. If it wasn’t for you, she’d be . . . she’d still be here.’
‘She’s a million times better than all of you put together!’ screamed Aphrodite. ‘She’s just . . . she was just a little girl!’
‘Yeah, no offence or nothing,’ said Hermes, holding the sobbing Elliot close. ‘But just do one, will ya?’
‘Leave us,’ said Athene, reaching for her sword. ‘You’re not welcome here. If you’d only given her kardia back . . .’
