by Simon Archer
“And that would be bad?” I checked, though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
“Very bad,” Katlynn said with a definitive nod. “So when you get all of that together, then I’ll take you down there.”
“But when you say ‘something tying me back to the mortal world,’” I began, brainstorming as I was talking, “do you mean like yarn or string like Theseus used with the Labyrinth?”
“No, not like that,” Katlynn said as she waved her hands, dismissing my idea as though it were an annoying fly. “Something physical and memorable. Something that reminds you that you are alive.”
“A physical object?” I clarified.
“Isn’t that what I just said?” Katlynn blinked at me with round, irritated eyes.
I paused and bit the inside of my cheek, thinking of a physical object. The main problem was that I didn’t have a lot of things when I was at the Academy. We weren’t allowed a lot of personal items. Even our clothes were mainly limited to our uniforms and pajamas.
My mind filtered through some of the most important things in my life. I thought about my tools in the forge, but lugging the hammer around seemed threatening, and I wasn’t trying to have a bad first impression when I ventured down into the Underworld.
There were other items that I had made, like the kopis I made during my first year or some of the scythes that were prototypes for the Ultimate Weapon. My thoughts traveled to the Necklace of Harmonia or the pieces I had locked away in the safe. They were powerful pieces of metal, but they were also rumored to be dipped in crime, and I didn’t need any bad luck during this mission.
The faces of my girlfriends came to mind. I wished I had a picture or something of the four of us that I could take with. But since modern amenities like phones and cameras weren’t allowed on campus, we didn’t have any momentos of our relationship. I had some pictures from over the summer with Hailey, but Sarah’s death took everything over at the end of break. I had planned to print some of them off and stuff them into my bag, but I was too preoccupied to remember.
I did have a picture of my mom and me, but something in my gut warned me against bringing that. A picture of the person I loved most in this world was valuable, yes, and did make me feel alive, but it was also easily destroyed. Paper only had to touch a single flame before it could be completely ruined forever.
I needed something sustainable while simultaneously memorable. It was tougher than I thought.
While I was in the middle of contemplating, there was a sudden pop, and Khryseos and Argyreos appeared on either side of me. They both looked rather grumpy, which made sense considering they teleported to find me, and I was not in the location I said I would be in earlier this evening.
The two of them snarled at me in disappointment, and I huffed in exasperation. However, while I knew that the dogs were scolding me, Katlynn had no idea what had just happened. To her, two large black Dobermans appeared out of nowhere and were growling for no reason. To someone who didn’t know Khryseos and Argyreos, their growling might have come off as aggressive at that moment.
So Katlynn launched herself over her own gravestone and cowered behind it, not unlike how I had been crouching only a couple of minutes ago when she first appeared.
“What in the name of Hades are those?” she said, her voice quivering with fear.
I gestured to both Khryseos and Argyreos to back down and sit. While they clearly weren’t happy about it, they complied. I stepped forward and looked over the top of the gravestone at my half-sister.
“They’re Hephaestus’s dogs,” I said suspiciously. “Didn’t you recognize them?”
“Hephaestus has dogs?” Katlynn said as she peeked out over the headstone, her eyes shifting from dog to dog.
“Yeah,” I said slowly, unsure if she was joking or not. “Khryseos and Argyreos. They’re normally metal, made of silver and gold, but they adopted these personas for me.”
Katlynn’s wide blue eyes blinked over the stone, looking like a cartoon. Khryseos and Argyreos blinked back at her, their faces curious at the glowing blue girl.
“I’ve never met them before,” Katlynn admitted. She got to her feet and straightened her transparent shirt, brushing it off though not a speck of dirt was on it. “I didn’t even know our father owned dogs.”
“He made them,” I corrected. “How did you not know this about him?”
“There’s a lot I didn’t know,” Katlynn said with a shrug. “He was rather distant.”
“But, didn’t you learn about Khryseos and Argyreos from the myths?” I asked, confused why the dogs hadn’t come up in her curriculum. When Khryseos and Argyreos were first mentioned in my Greek Mythology class, I asked the teacher Noctua if I could bring them in for a kind of show and tell. They even assumed their original gold and silver forms, which made them seem more robotic, and I didn’t like it. Luckily they returned to their Doberman forms, which put everyone, including me, at ease.
Katlynn shook her head in response. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t remember everything they taught us in that boring class. And besides, there’s too much for anyone to know everything about the myths. Except for maybe Noctua, but that’s only because she’s an owl and Athena’s daughter. It’s her gift.”
I swallowed uncomfortably. “Right, no one knows that much.”
“Well, they seem to have taken to you,” Katlynn commented with a disapproving sniff.
I crouched down to pet both of the dogs, giving them sufficient back rubs. They leaned into my hands and couldn’t help themselves. Their anger at me from before quickly dissipated. While they were my guardians, they were also dogs. They were quick to forgive, which I appreciated.
As I scratched from the top of their heads down their necks, I tried to itch beneath their collars. I made the collars for them when the pair came to live with Mom and me over the summer break after my first year. I knew we weren’t going to be able to get away with them running around without identification in our city like they did on campus. So I took the time before the year ended, right when they made the new smithy, to carve out individual tags for each of them.
The tags resembled those Best Friend heart necklaces you’d wear with your best friend in middle school. The two pieces fit together, but like a locket with Khryseos’s on the top and Argyreos’s on the bottom. When I put them together, their names were where the pictures would be on a normal locket.
As I stared at my dogs, I realized I had my answer to Katlynn’s question from before. I had my physical item. Exuberantly, I clicked off each of their collars. Khryseos shook his neck in relief, whereas Argyreos reached over and licked the spot as though he missed the accessory. I got to my feet and held out the two collars like the catch of the day, right in Katlynn’s glowing face, though she did recoil from the neck bands as though they were real fish.
“What are you doing?” Katlynn asked wearily, her lips curling into a sneer.
“My item,” I said, thrusting the collars forward. “I’ll use these. I just have to take them off and put them together.”
Katlynn opened her mouth and then closed it again quickly as if she was deciding against saying her first thought. “If you believe that will work, it’s your soul.”
I looked over my shoulder at Khryseos and Argyreos, who smiled their goofy smiles up at me. “It’ll work,” I said with confidence.
“Suit yourself,” Katlynn said with a shrug, not bothering to hide her doubt. Then she shifted her weight and crossed her arms over her chest. “But what about me? How do you propose we hide me from Hades?”
“That’s the brilliant part,” I said as I held up a finger. It took me a moment, but I managed to get the tags off the key ring on the collar. After returning the leather parts to the dogs’ neck, I took the tags and clicked them together. Then I released a hidden latch on the side. A chain unspooled from the inside of Argyreos’s bottom tag. I looped the new locket around my neck and held out my arms in a ta-da like motion with a big smile on my face.
I awaited Katlynn’s approval, but she continued to stare at me as if I had just willingly eaten a scorpion.
“What?” I asked, my smile faltering.
“You’re a whole bag of tricks, aren’t you?” Katlynn said. I didn’t know if that was a compliment or an insult, so I didn’t reply right away. Instead, I took the locket off my neck and held it out like an offering.
“Can you go back to flame form and fit in here?” I said, holding out the locket.
Katlynn eyed it with utter disgust. “You want me to get in there?”
“Look,” I said, my cheery demeanor completely disappearing, suddenly replaced by irritation. “I’m kind of under a time crunch here, and I think if you could work with me here, I’d really appreciate it.”
Katlynn rolled her eyes and released an exasperated breath. “Fine,” she relented. “Let me try.”
In the blink of an eye, Katlynn’s form contorted and twisted as though she were being sucked down a whirlpool. When her limbs and distinguishable features disappeared, the small blue flame returned. For some reason, I felt as though I was able to see the sassy gestures and body language Katlynn had, even in the flame. Especially though when it floated to the locket made out of dog tags and shrunk down to fit in the compartment. I closed the lid once she settled inside. I debated leaving her in there for more than just a second or two, Gods knew that she deserved it, but I also didn’t want to make her any more irritated than she already was. Just because she’d been told by our dad that she needed to help me in order to get redemption, didn’t mean that she was going to do it with a good attitude.
So I opened the door again, and Katlynn popped out, returning to her blue-skinned humanoid form. I repeated my ta-da motion with my arms and my ringmaster-like smile.
“What do you think?” I asked cheekily.
“I think we should get going if you feel ready,” Katlynn declared. But then she pointed to the dogs behind me. “They have to stay, though. Cerberus is not too fond of having other dogs invade his territory.”
I looked over at the two dogs, and instantly, I could tell they didn’t like what I was planning. Their eyes drooped in sadness at the prospect of me leaving. I bent over to look each of them in the eye.
“I’m coming back, you hear?” I assured both of them. “It’ll be like I never left, okay? And I need you boys to be good while I’m gone. No running off to Hailey and telling her or the others where I went, alright?” I pointed a sharp finger at them, emphasizing my point. “You can wait in my room until I get back. Or the smithy, or with Ann. Wherever you’re most comfortable.”
Khryseos licked his lips while Argyreos sniffed as though he had a cold. I kissed the top of their heads and turned back to the daughter of Hephaestus.
“I’m ready,” I said as I straightened up and pushed my shoulders back. “What do I need to do?”
“You need to step into me,” Katlynn said.
I cocked my head to one side. “What now?”
“You and I have to occupy the same space, and then I can transport back to the Underworld,” Katlynn elaborated. “Then I’ll slip into your locket as fast as possible. And you’ll be there. At the edge of the Underworld, just like you asked.”
Katlynn then proceeded to mock my ta-da gesture and smile, though it didn’t reach all the way to her eyes. I frowned at her and crossed my arms.
“I still don’t understand what you mean by ‘occupy the same space,’” I said, keeping my tone flat and devoid of as much irritation as possible.
Katlynn resumed her regular stance and gestured between the two of us. “You’re resistant to fire, right?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“You’re going to step into the Eternal Flame, which is my body, and then I’m going to take you to the Underworld,” Katlynn explained through exaggerated gestures as though I were a slow five-year-old.
My face contorted into an expression of worry. “I’ve only done that once.”
“Done what?” Katlynn asked, confused by my lack of specifications.
“Put my whole body into a flame,” I clarified. “I mean, three if you count the two times with Hailey.”
“I don’t know or care who Hailey is--”
“Daughter of Apollo and one of my girlfriends,” I replied, though she hadn’t asked.
“Great,” she sighed. “Now that we have that useless information, this is how it needs to be done, or you’re not going.”
“Isn’t there a river or something I can follow?” I asked, not sure I was hesitating.
“You said you were in a hurry, and this is the fastest way,” Katlynn reasoned. “Come on, Cameron, do you want to go or not?”
I licked my lips and knew the answer, though I didn’t say it aloud right away. I needed to talk to Sarah come hell or high water. I couldn’t let them believe that she had committed suicide when clearly that wasn’t the case, even if no one believed me. I needed answers, and this was the surest way to get them: directly from the source.
“Okay,” I conceded. “How do we do this? Do I just stand in front of you, or…” I trailed off, completely out of ideas.
“Actually, come and stand behind me,” Katlynn instructed.
I followed her direction and got between her and her gravestone. She told me to copy her body positioning as exactly as I could. I put my arms a little out to the side and widened my stance a bit.
“Now, when you’re ready, step forward into me,” Katlynn continued the instructions. “But give me some warning first because this isn’t going to feel comfortable for either of us.”
“Okay,” I said wearily. I took a big breath and released it. “I’m coming in.”
With a step forward, I put myself into the line of fire.
8
I felt like I was suffocating.
The minute I stepped in line with my half-sister, it seemed as though all of the air shot out of my lungs. They shriveled into prunes, making my chest tight and heavy. My ribs pulled in towards one another, shrinking my organs as though they were being forced through a straw. My mouth flew open in search of oxygen, but there was none to be found. My eyes bulged, my skin grew dry, and my muscles melted. It was the most uncomfortable sensation I had ever experienced, and for a solid seven seconds, I thought I was going to die.
“Just hold on, Cameron,” the voice of Katlynn whispered in my ear. “We’re almost there.”
As much as I appreciated her words, I would have appreciated a breath of fresh air so much more. My hands wanted to reach up and cling to my throat. My legs begged to be allowed to step forward, out of this torture. But I couldn’t move. I was trapped within the blue cage of the Eternal Flame.
It didn’t burn, but it forced me down, compressing me until I was the size of a quarter. I couldn’t tell up from down, right from left, as the world contorted around me. Nothing prepared me for this. I thought Apollo’s chariot was bad, but that was a piece of cake. At least I had open skies or Hailey’s gorgeous face to look at when I was scared. Here, however, I stared into a sea of blue flames, claustrophobia taking hold of me.
“Just a few more seconds,” Katlynn said, though this time, it felt like her voice was coming from far away, an echo on a mountain.
I didn’t believe her. There was no way I was going to survive this. She had tricked me, that damned ghost! I was dying, she was sucking out my soul, she trapped me in one of the lanterns. My brain raced through a thousand possibilities for what had happened to me, how this long lost spirit of my distant half-sister tricked me.
Right as I decided that the only answer was her trading her soul for mine, I gasped my first breath of fresh air. Everything re-inflated. My bones popped back into place while my skin stretched. I could move my fingers and toes, the freedom of movement slowly but surely returning to my body. My mouth fell open, gasping for air as I collapsed down on all fours.
My back curled like a cat’s as I heaved in and ou
t, shaking the squished sensation from my body and my memory. I jiggled every joint and muscle in silly ways, just to rid myself of the feeling.
“What… the hell… was that?” I said, spitting out the words as I found my voice.
“That bad, huh?” Katlynn asked with a cautious hiss.
I slowly turned my head to look up at Katlynn over my shoulder. She twisted her fingers over one another, full of nerves. To her credit, she did have a worried expression on her face, with pinched eyebrows and pursed lips.
“Bad is one word for it,” I hissed.
“I’m sorry, but if I told you how awful it was going to be, you never would have done it,” Katlynn reasoned, her spinning fingers going faster with each word.
“I still would have appreciated a warning,” I countered as I rocked back on my heels, slapping my palms against my thighs.
“And how was I supposed to do that?” Katlynn asked as she put her hands on her hips, the worried expression instantly disappearing. “Hey Cameron, in order to get to the Underworld, you’re going to have to die and then come back to life.”
“I died?” I balked, my mouth falling open.
“See!” Katlynn exclaimed as she gestured dramatically towards me. “That’s the reaction I was trying to avoid.”
I rubbed my hands over my face, stopping for an extra second at my cheeks to massage my jawbone. “I don’t seem to recall Odysseus or Orpheus having to die even just for a second.”
“Oh, they did,” Katlynn assured me. “They just leave that painful part out in the poems.”
I rolled my eyes and sucked my teeth. “But I’m not dead, dead, right?”
“No,” Katlynn said with a shake of her head. “There was no permanent death in this whole process.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t warn me,” I groaned.
“Well, it got you here, didn’t it?” Katlynn said as she opened her arm and gestured to our surroundings with the elegance of a showgirl.
After one more annoyed glance at my half-sister, I finally took a minute to examine our new environment.
