A Curse of Gold

by Annie Sullivan

  Hettie pulls back slightly and nods down at me. And I think maybe things are finally going right. We may not have our gorgon head yet, but at least Hettie’s talking to me. That’s a start.

  I smile up at her, dropping my arms. And that’s when I feel it. Fangs biting into my ankle.

  CHAPTER 20

  I inhale sharply.

  The fangs are like knives digging deeper into my skin, ripping through my flesh as they fight to break loose. But they don’t break free. Searing heat shoots into my veins.

  I force back a cry as the fangs finally release.

  Concern washes across Hettie’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  I look down, and a green snake slithers away from my feet. One of the snakes that escaped from the gorgon’s head. One whose bite is fatal.

  I swallow down the fear rising in my chest. Bitten. I couldn’t have been bitten. But I feel blood trailing down my ankle, and my skin burns where the snake’s fangs pierced. The heat doesn’t just stop there, though. It rises through my body.

  My eyes meet Hettie’s, and I start to tell her what happened. But I hold in the words. I can’t tell her.

  Because the only one I can’t save from a snake’s poison is myself.

  I stand there, the ever-increasing heat throbbing through my ankle. If I don’t find Panacea or Hebe, I’m going to die.

  Before I can think what to do, long hisses sound over my shoulder at uneven intervals. I don’t have to look to know that not only are they close, there are a lot of them.

  I find my voice. “Run.”

  Hettie nods and pulls me back toward the others. “Go, go,” she calls.

  We clump together in the pool as we run, but my ankle keeps giving out.

  “Are you okay?” Royce asks, siding up to me as I trip forward for the fourth time.

  My heart aches as I stare up at him. Not from the poison, but from the thought of being without him. Why hadn’t I listened to Prince Ikkin’s journal and stayed out of the battle?

  Because I’m not a good leader. The thought slides through my mind. I shake it away. I chose this because I don’t want to be that kind of leader. I want to be the kind that fights for my people, that protects them. That’s what I was doing when I got bitten. And I wouldn’t change that even now.

  But how long did Triton say I had? A few days? Long enough to get us to Jipper. Long enough to save Lagonia. Or long enough to go after a cure. Just not long enough to do both.

  A tangle of emotions steals through me at the realization. I shove them back down. Because it isn’t a choice. Not to me. No matter what any journal or book says to the contrary, a good leader puts their people above themselves. I didn’t have to read that to know it’s true. I feel it with every fiber of my being, knowing I can’t save myself and lose my people.

  That’s what a true leader is. And that’s who I am. I’d give up anything for them.

  That’s when another realization settles over me. The Oracle had said the tests we’d faced in getting to her in some way mirrored what we would face in the future. And when I’d drunk from the water, I’d been faced with giving up everything—my golden skin, my powers, my relationship with Royce, even my very right to rule. Everything except my life. But those are the things that make up my life.

  She knew I’d come here and get bitten. She was preparing me, testing me to see if I’d give up on my objective and take the easy way out or if I’d keep going, keep fighting to save Lagonia when it would result in losing everything I loved.

  And I kept going then.

  Something in that steels my resolve, ensuring me I’m making the right choice.

  So as much as I want to tell Royce about the bite, I don’t. I can’t risk us losing even a single second arguing about possibly going for a cure. Because as the searing heat jets up from my ankle toward my knee, something tells me I’m going to need every second if I want to save Lagonia.

  “I must’ve just twisted my ankle on a rock,” I say, thankful I can keep my eyes on the pool of murky water.

  “Stay close,” he says. “Lean on me if you need to.”

  I nod. I’ve never lied to him like that before, and I can’t tell if I’m imagining a funny taste in my mouth after saying the words.

  “There are so many of them,” Hettie yells.

  Their tails flick small rocks to the side as they slither behind us, and the hissing becomes overwhelming the closer we get to the shore.

  “What are we going to do?” Rhat asks. “Should we swim for it?”

  I shake my head. That won’t get us the blood we need, and we need that blood fast. As fast as we can get it.

  But how can we face so many at once? Too bad we can’t crush them all as easily as we did the snakes on their heads.

  Or maybe we can.

  “Keep leading them to the shore,” I say. “I have an idea.”

  We quicken our pace and surge through the fog. The shoreline rears up ahead of us.

  The crew leaps up at our appearance.

  “Quick,” I call, “everyone up the hills. We can crush the gorgons with those boulders if we can get them loose.” With any luck, we’ll crush the snakes on their heads right along with them.

  Men start scrambling up the rocky slopes. Pebbles rain down in their paths as they fight upward toward the bigger boulders.

  “Kora, come on.” Royce holds his hand out to me as he dashes toward the cliffs.

  I don’t make it more than a few steps upward before pain sears through my ankle. I cry out and drop to my knees. I land on jagged rocks and inhale sharply as more pain blossoms.

  Royce is there in an instant. “Are you okay?”

  “Just my ankle,” I manage. I stare up the incline, each loose rock looking like an obstacle. “I don’t think I can make it up there.”

  “I’ll carry you.” Royce moves to pick me up, but I stop him.

  “You’ll barely be able to get up there yourself.”

  We both look to where the men are fighting their way upward, some sliding down when they lose their footing.

  The hissing is getting closer and closer.

  Royce glances toward the fog and then back up the hill, no doubt trying to calculate if he could get both of us up.

  I bite my cheek, searching for a plan, another option.

  “I’ll stay with her,” Triton says to my surprise. “I can signal your men when to release the boulders from here.”

  “You’ll both be crushed when the rocks come down,” Royce counters, his chest still heaving from jogging across the island.

  Triton gestures to the water at his feet. “There is just enough here that I can turn it into an ice dome to protect us.”

  Behind us, rocks scatter as the thick gorgon bodies crush them under their immense weight and brush them aside with their tails.

  Royce looks between Triton and me. “Are you sure about this?”

  I don’t see another option, and I want Royce as far from the gorgons as possible.

  I nod. I slide off the shield he’d given me and hand it back to him. “Be careful.”

  He clenches his jaw but doesn’t say anything else. He sprints toward the slope.

  Triton helps me settle down into the rocks. “Thanks for staying with me,” I say.

  “That’s what human friends do, right? Stick together?”

  I smile up at him. “I think you might be catching on.”

  “Or maybe I didn’t think anyone else would still go after Dionysus if you didn’t make it, so it’s in my own interest to stay.” He gives me a teasing smile.

  But his words settle over me. Would the others go on if I didn’t make it? I’m not sure. I hope they would, but I had always planned on being the one going up against Dionysus. And I’m not sure how the others will fair against him.

  All I can do is hope I last until I can face him. I have to.

  “You’d best look toward the hill,” Triton says, all his usual cockiness gone. “I’ll give the signal to the crew when the
gorgons are close enough.”

  I nod and stare back toward the rocky slope. Men wedge themselves against boulders. Hettie and Rhat brace against a particularly large rock, pushing it back and forth to be sure it’s loose enough to knock over. Lenny is lying wedged between the ground and a boulder, ready to shove it with his feet when the time comes.

  They’re all up there fighting for Lagonia, and I can’t let them down. I brace myself against Triton and close my eyes.

  The throbbing in my ankle wells up. My heart races faster, as if it knows it only has so many beats left. My breathing drowns out the sound of rocks crunching under twisting bodies as the gorgons slither closer.

  Hissing presses in from nearly every side. It sends tingles through my skin and causes my hair to stand on end.

  Triton goes still.

  They’re close. Sweat trickles down my back. I tense, waiting for his signal, waiting for the cascade of boulders.

  Rocks scatter to my right then off to my left. They’re too close.

  “Triton,” I whisper, not daring to open my eyes.

  “Not yet.”

  The hissing twists through my body. It weaves through my veins and pulses under my skin.

  I can only imagine that long claws are racing toward me. But I don’t dare look.

  Triton lets out a shrill whistle.

  Then he’s pulling me close. A gurgle of water signals the barrier going up. There’s a sharp crack as it hardens into ice around us. My breath goes cold in my lungs.

  There’s a small sound, like the soft plinking of rain. Then the boulders come crashing down.

  An endless thunder rumbles across the earth. The ground shakes beneath us, sending pebbles bouncing into the air.

  A boulder crashes into our ice dome. I can’t help opening my eyes at the sound of cracking ice. Shards rain down on my head, melting against the heat of my body. Above me, a slice is missing, revealing the hazy brown sky through splintered cracks.

  Triton melts water from a different area to repair the crack as another boulder smashes into the side of the dome and glances off. The dome rattles.

  I dig my fingers into the dirt as I fight to stay anchored to something. My breath comes out in white puffs. I swallow, my throat dry from the heat of the island and aching from the cold of our cave.

  Gorgon shadows loom large through the cloudy ice. Some screech as boulders smash into them and they disappear from view. Others let out battle cries, their voices gurgling deeper before rising sharply over and over again.

  I tuck in closer and closer to Triton as our ice dome keeps getting smaller and smaller as bits break off and Triton fills the cracks with water from other areas.

  A gorgon circles around our dome and drags her claw along the ice. Her tail lashes into the side, sending a sickening groan through our shelter.

  I don’t know how much more the dome can take—and how long until the ice is so thin, I’ll be able to see straight through it. Straight into the gorgon’s eyes.

  Despite the ice, sweat drips down Triton’s forehead. He frantically waves his hands around again as the gorgon’s tail smashes through.

  We need a plan. I don’t have a good sword. But I have small rocks. And I have my powers.

  I grab the gold rock from my pocket.

  “Next time the tail breaks through,” I say, “don’t fill up the crack.”

  “Are you crazy?” Triton’s eyes are wild.

  “Trust me.”

  A piercing screech fills the air. It’s followed by a gorgon tail knocking away the top half of the dome.

  Before I can rethink my plan, I dive through the opening and come eye to eye with a gorgon.

  CHAPTER 21

  I’m not sure what I was expecting a gorgon’s face to look like, but it’s much more human than I imagined. There’s an oval mouth, bigger than a normal human’s, full of fanglike teeth. There are two slits for a nose and two round eyes.

  Eyes that are now frozen.

  I can’t help but study them, wondering what they would’ve looked like if they’d been the last thing I ever saw. They’re two blank circles, like unminted gold coins. There aren’t any eyelids, and I wonder if gorgons can blink.

  I pull my hand away from where I’d crashed into the gorgon. I duck around the body, careful not to touch it and reabsorb the gold.

  Royce comes skidding down the hill screaming my name.

  He cuts through snakes wiggling across the rocks as they escape from crushed gorgons.

  Hettie and Rhat aren’t far behind.

  Triton climbs out of what’s left of the dome and lets it melt. “Stay here. Let me check if it’s safe.”

  He studies the battlefield, squinting into the fog.

  “Did we get them all?” Hettie asks breathlessly as she slides down next to Royce.

  Rhat holds up his shield so we can survey the scene behind us.

  Triton roves around, stomping on a few escaped snakes and checking behind boulders. “It’s all clear,” he says. “There’s one gorgon crushed over here whose head is sticking out.” He kicks the head so the eyes face away from us.

  Just as he does, a gorgon lunges out of the fog.

  “Look out,” I exclaim just as Rhat rips the shield away, cutting off my view. He heaves the shield with deadly accuracy. It spins through the air, slicing right into the gorgon’s neck. The creature’s head rips backward as the metal lodges into its throat. The head doesn’t detach, but it’s enough to send the beast crumpling to the ground.

  “Nice shot,” Triton says just as more hissing sounds farther inland.

  “Let’s grab a head and get out of here,” Royce cries.

  He signals for the men.

  “Oh, come on,” Phipps says, sliding down the mountain with Lenny at his heels. His eyes land on the golden gorgon. “This one’s too big to carry too. Can’t you ever turn a small creature to gold?”

  “Maybe next time,” I reply.

  “Here’s the head we can use,” Triton calls, straightening from where a gorgon’s body is crushed, leaving the shoulders and head exposed. Triton has again already turned the head away from us with his foot. But the snakes still attached to it are squirming, trying to snap at him.

  “How are we going to get it into the water?” I stare toward the edge of the sea, about a ship’s length away from us.

  “I think I know someone who can help with that,” Phipps says.

  He pushes Triton to the side with great fanfare and makes sure Lenny is a few steps behind him.

  He nods to Lenny, then he chops off the gorgon’s head.

  Before any snakes can escape, Phipps leaps out of the way and yells, “Now, Lenny.”

  Lenny takes a few running steps forward and kicks the gorgon’s face. The head spirals into the air and drops down into the ocean with a satisfying plunk.

  “Taught him to do that myself,” Phipps said.

  We all wait, watching where the head disappeared. The first things that surface are loose green snakes. They bolt off in all directions. Grax crashes to the surface within seconds. He starts chasing down the snakes one by one, slurping them up with a satisfied grin.

  A giant gurgle of bubbles billows up where the head disappeared into the ocean. Shapes burst out of the water. Great winged shapes.

  Pegasi.

  They’re a rich red color. Bloodred. And taller and wider than normal horses.

  They fly in a circle above us before floating back to land.

  The winged horses land regally on the ground, their black hooves clicking against the rocks. Somewhere around thirty of them prance around, picking their feet up to avoid the uneven rocks and shaking specks of dirt from their glorious hair.

  But it’s their wings that demand attention. Each is larger than I am tall, and every feather glints like the ocean water when the sun hits. The pegasi fold their wings against their bodies and stand there waiting—which is not something I want to be doing as the hissing echoes closer.

  “We should g
rab them before they fly away,” I call.

  “No need,” Triton says. “Pegasi belong to the one who created them.”

  Everyone looks to Lenny, but he and Phipps are hunched over another gorgon, whose forehead is barely visible beneath the rock that crushed the rest of its body. All the snakes have escaped the head.

  But when Triton’s words reach them, the brothers straighten.

  A wide smile stretches across Lenny’s face as the realization dawns. He and his brother share a look, then Phipps takes off, hooting and hollering toward the closest pegasus.

  Lenny buries his head in a pegasus’s hair while Phipps has his arms looped around its neck, kissing it over and over again.

  Triton snorts and rolls his eyes. “They act like they’ve never seen a pegasus before.”

  “They haven’t.” Hettie, who’s gotten a sword from someone, lobs off the head of an escaped snake and kicks its body away as she searches for more.

  “They’ve seen me,” Triton quips, leaning against the nearest pegasi. “And we’re half-brothers.” He stares down the creature. “Although, I think I got all the good looks in the family.”

  The pegasus snorts and turns its head away.

  Somewhere rocks scatter.

  “Hurry,” Royce says, “before more gorgons show up or someone gets bitten.”

  I duck my head.

  Phipps helps Lenny climb onto the closest pegasus, then heads to the next creature and clambers ungracefully on. He beams like a king from atop the proud beast, unable to stop himself from running his fingers through the creature’s mane.

  The other crew members quickly do the same, eager to be away from the island. There’s more than enough pegasi for everyone, and I assume the rest of the herd will follow when we take off.

  I spend a few moments brushing my hand along the closest pegasus’s nose. Pegasi may be magical creatures, but they look too similar to all the horses that used to rear when I got too close with my gold skin.

  This pegasus doesn’t seem bothered at all. It leans into my touch, nuzzling me. Its hair is soft and plush, almost like silk.

  I pat it on the nose, and Royce helps me mount.