by Simon Archer
When the pair of us came to through the surface, we both gasped. The air slapped me against the face, and a surge of clarity brought me back to my senses. I felt Phae move on her own, also rejuvenated by the oxygen. The two of us swam over to the side of the pool so we could have something to hold on to while we regained our breath.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Phae asked through gasps.
“What do you mean?” I balked at the goddess. “I just saved your ass.”
“I’m immortal,” Phae snapped. “I would have been fine.”
“You didn’t look fine,” I snapped right back, refusing to be scolded for helping her. “You still don’t.”
Phae looked herself over, examining the marks on her arms and hands. She sighed but kept the angry expression on her face. “You should have helped Arges.”
“Hailey and Katlynn are on it,” I assured her. “I trust them both with my life, and neither of them had fire resistance, so your rescuing was left to me.”
“I guess I should say thank you,” Phae muttered quietly.
“You’re welcome,” I said, my voice still sharper than I wanted it to be. We both looked up at the burning house which crumpled before our very eyes.
“What happened?” I asked Phae, trying to get as many details as I could, so I knew what we were up against.
“It came out of nowhere,” Phae said, her eyes glazing over as she remembered. “There was no warning. The perimeter wasn’t even breached. Or at least I didn’t get the warning for it. Suddenly there was a swarm of monsters in the house. Minotaurs, harpies, serpents, a lot of them. They separated Arges and me, taking him down with a surprising amount of strength. We fought back, but we found that we couldn’t injure them. Our weapons and attacks would just slice right through them as though we were attacking water.”
I winced as I thought back to my own battle with these seemingly indestructible creatures.
“They took Arges away and chained me to the bed,” Phae continued. “Then, there was this explosion, and the house erupted into flames.”
“Did they say what they wanted?” I wondered, vying for any information.
“Not a word,” Phae answered. “They didn’t speak. It was all action. A total ambush.”
“She has to be around here somewhere,” I said more to myself than to Phae. I pressed myself against the edge of the pool in order to get the best look of the property that I could from my lowered position. “She can’t control the creatures from that far of a distance.”
“Who?” Phae immediately asked, her eyes alight with a fire of her own.
“I’m pretty sure it’s Kari,” I told the goddess. “Those clay creatures are her doing, but why she set the fire, I don’t know.”
“Because I want this whole place to burn to the ground,” a new voice answered.
Immediately after the words were said, a cold prick of steel pinched the back of my neck. I sensed the weapon, identifying it as a longsword. Even without my powers, I could also sense who wielded that particular weapon.
Kari had finally decided to show herself.
24
“Get out of the pool,” the daughter of Prometheus growled. When I didn’t move right away, she added, “Now!”
Phae and I hauled ourselves out of the pool. Our movements were slow and calculated as we tried to get a better handle on the situation. We stood with our hands in the air, the universal sign of surrender, as we turned to face our captor.
Kari stood before us with the long sword pointed inches from my throat. Her chin was raised, a sign of her confidence. She wore the same Grecian Amazonian uniform, with a metal bodice and a pleated skirt, that I had seen in Aphrodite’s memory of her. Her strong legs held a wide stance, as though she were ready to lunge at me any second. Her brown hair pulled back into a tight french braid so that I could clearly see the loathing that adorned her face.
“Cameron, son of Hephaestus,” Kari sneered as her nostrils flared. “I have to say, it’s a surprise to see you here in Italy. Aren’t you supposed to be bowing down to those Elemental Officials back at the Academy?”
“I’m studying abroad,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual as though we were old friends out for coffee rather than prisoner and captive.
“Oh?” Kari raised a sarcastic eyebrow. “I can’t believe they let their precious blacksmith off-campus. I figured they would have you chained to the anvil so you could forge their Ultimate Weapon.” Her voice dripped with disdain and mocking. It irked me to hear her talk that way about the Academy. As much as I disagreed with the Stratego and a lot of the actions of the Elemental Officials, I still believed in the Academy and the lessons it had to offer.
“See, I’m so good that they don’t need to oversee everything I make,” I retaliated. “They trust me.”
“Only because you are Hephaestus’s son!” Kari howled, her voice rising over the remaining crackles from the burning villa. She shoved the sword closer to me, and I instinctively stepped back, knocking into Phae, who set me upright.
“Maybe,” I said, lowering my voice back to its causal tone when I realized that provoking her wasn’t going to be the best tactic. “But I still have a lot to learn, which is why they let me come here. What brings you to Italy?”
Kari narrowed her eyes at me. For the first time since I discovered her betrayal, I realized that her eye color had changed. When I first met the soldier, she had brown eyes that were kind and often filled with amusement. But this was the closest I had been to her since she doused me with lotus gas and disappeared. Even when we met in the woods, she had been several yards away from me.
With only the long sword between the pair of us, I saw that her eyes were darker, closer to black rather than brown. It was an unnerving sight, for it made her far more sinister and evil-looking than before.
The color also was eerily familiar to me.
I didn’t have time to place it, though, because Kari’s wicked laugh interrupted my train of thought. It was not the response I thought I would get to my innocent enough question.
“I’m on a bit of a mission, Cameron,” Kari answered, stepping closer to me with each word. I promptly matched her forward steps with backward ones of my own. Phae followed suit. “One you couldn’t possibly hope to understand.”
“Try me,” I said with a shrug.
“Oh no,” Kari said with a shake of her head. “I’m not going to monologue my whole scheme to you. That would ruin all of the fun when it comes together, and everything falls into chaos. I can’t have you getting in the way any more than you already have.”
“Then why haven’t you run me through already?” I said, sensing that there was a reason she was threatening me rather than just stabbing me.
“Because I need you to tell me something that that dumb cyclops couldn’t,” Kari hissed. “I assume you’re here because you’ve been working with him in the original forges. I know they’re somewhere in these mountains, but I can’t seem to find them due to the stupid protections he has up. So you’re going to tell me where they are, and then I might just save your life and the lives of the cyclops and the daughter of Apollo.”
Kari rolled her eyes just then. “I don’t know why you thought Hailey could ever possibly fight against me. She might fuck you, but she’s still madly in love with me, and when I showed up, she toppled like a house of cards.”
“You’re lying!” I shouted, instantly provoked by her words, just like she wanted.
Kari released another pitch of laughter. “I’m not, and something deep inside you knows it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so angry. Now just tell me where the forges are, and I’ll be on my merry way.”
“You’re crazy if you think you’re getting anything out of me,” I spat.
“Fine,” Kari said with a frown and shrug. “I’ll just have to kill Hailey like I killed the cyclops.”
“You killed Arges?” Phae said from behind me, her voice giving away her own anger.
“I mean, not
exactly,” Kari said with a snicker. “He’s immortal, so I just slew him and sent his ass to Tartarus for a while. Don’t worry, sweetie, he’ll return soon. Like in the next hundred years or so.”
I felt the burst before I saw it. Thank the gods too because otherwise, I was pretty sure that my eyeballs would have melted out of my head.
If I thought the explosions from the fire in the house were bad, they were nothing compared to the daughter of Helios’s explosion.
I quickly shut my eyes as the goddess behind me burst forward with the full power of the sun’s radiant beams. I dove to the side and flattened myself on the ground as Phae charged for Kari. Through the infrared like vision behind my eyelids, I could see the forms of Phae and Kari grapple with one another. But something was extremely weird. Well, other than the fact that I was watching a battle with my eyes closed.
Kari looked different. Instead of the broad-shouldered, strong, Amazonian woman that stood before us, her figure lengthened and thinned out. I would have blinked if I could because I knew that Phae fought Kari. There was no one else around, but even just by the outline of the two figures, Phae was there, but that woman was not Kari.
I didn’t have a second to wonder what was going on, however, because I got a swift kick to the jaw that sent me sprawling on the ground, rolling like a ball along the line of the pool. When I looked up with my closed eyes, I couldn’t see anything. So I peeked through a narrow gaze to see my new enemy.
Tyche must have been smiling over me because I only saw part of this monster’s form before I promptly had to close my eyes again. I heard the hissing of a dozen snakes that protruded from the skull of the gorgon and knew that I couldn’t look into the face of her without turning to stone. Sure, she, like the other monsters, were made of clay, and I wasn’t sure if their legendary powers applied in clay form, but I didn’t want to take that chance.
Flat on my stomach, my top half hung over the edge of the pool, so close that I could smell the chlorine. I dared to open my eyes, getting an idea as the gorgon approached. I saw her spotty reflection on the surface of the water and knew I had to get out of the way. I completed another barrel roll, tucking my arms in under my chest to move away from the threatening beast.
When I righted myself, I caught a glimmer of metal beneath the water. I didn’t have time to react to the thought that popped into my head. I simply reacted by shoving my hand in the water and calling out to the metal that I’d unknowingly left down at the bottom.
The sickle and the helm snapped up into my hands just as the gorgon raised her hands to slam them down into me. I rolled onto my back and stabbed her in the stomach with my sickle.
Or at least I assumed it was the stomach because I had to close my eyes again. But I knew I hit my target somewhere painful.
The gorgon howled like a banshee, and while I knew it wasn’t a killing blow because the clay would just heal her instantly, the strike would buy me some time. I scrambled up onto two feet and ran for the fire that still blazed with the remnants of the villa. When I got closer, I dared to open my eyes, so I could see what I was doing.
Once again, I thrust the sickle into the fire. While I gave it a minute to heat up, I put the helm on my head. Even though I knew it didn’t turn me invisible, it was easier to put the piece of armor where it belonged rather than trying to carry it around.
The gorgon revealed her position to me as she released another harried scream. It increased in volume as she rushed up behind me. In one swift movement, I spun in a circle so I could face the beast. I kept my eyes cast downward so as not to see her face, but kept my right arm raised high. The curve of the sickle’s blade sliced cleanly through her neck.
There was a squishy thunk as the snake-filled head clattered to the floor. The heat of the blade cauterized the clay so I could break it with my weapon and finally defeat the monster.
My chest heaved with heavy breaths. My veins pumped with adrenaline from the fight. My muscles burned with the prospect of a fight.
I turned towards the house behind me. The fire still chomped away at the remnants. The flames began to spread to the surrounding grass. I knew that there would be no stopping this flame if it reached the fence of trees around the property. It was already burning high and loud. I knew this property was remote, but I figured someone would have noticed it by now.
A new worry came over me. We couldn’t have any mortals coming to the property and encountering the clay monsters. That was a battle I was nowhere near prepared for. I had to put out this fire.
In all my years resisting fire, I’d never been able to control it until I encountered the Eternal Flame. But as I learned many times over, that was a completely different element. Still, I wondered if I could take what I had learned about sensing metals and controlling the Eternal Flame and apply it to this ordinary fire.
I set my sickle down and stretched out my hands. I closed my eyes and pictured the blaze before me, praying that there weren’t any other gorgons headed my way. I reached out and stuck my hand in the flames so I could get a sense of the temperature and temperament of the element.
It raged, hungry and violent. The fire was elated at the feast provided for it. I sensed elation and jubilation. I reached out to the fire with my will and told it that it was full. There was no more need to grow. It had its fill of this feast and needed to rest.
The fire resisted at first, insisting that there were so many more riches to enjoy. I warned the fire that if it didn’t stop, it would be forced to cease, and it didn’t want to be forcefully snuffed out. The fire shivered in fear at the prospect of being completely dissolved.
Slowly, I felt the temperature decrease. The square footage of the flame shrank as well. It collapsed into a small bonfire at the center of the house, like a pop-up book finally being closed.
The fire promised not to spread if I would let it live in the smaller space it had created for itself. I examined the four-foot square it resided in and relented. The fire could have its space, but if it went an inch beyond that, I would be forced to snuff it out.
I sent a surge of power into my words, thinking of the times I’d wielded the Eternal Flame, an element much more powerful than the one I spoke to now. The fire recognized my authority and agreed to obey.
Satisfied, I thanked the fire and opened my eyes.
The fire, once alive and thriving on the structure of the villa, had been reduced to a simple bonfire. It shivered and danced in the center of the former house which now guarded over it with its blackened walls and charred floors.
“Holy shit,” I said to myself as I bent over and put my hands on my knees. “That actually worked!”
I didn’t give myself much time to celebrate, however. Now that I had reduced the fire, I knew I needed to find Hailey, Katlynn, and Arges. I had to see if what Kari said was true. If they were really in danger or worse, dead, I had to see it for myself and do what I could to save them.
I bolted towards the side of the house where I had seen the minotaurs holding Arges, but before I could get there, I tripped over something and nearly lost my footing. I thought it was a stray piece of debris that I just wasn’t paying attention to when I heard a grunt come from the ground. I whirled around and nearly threw up at the sight of what I nearly fell atop.
It was Kari.
She was lying on the ground, straight as a board, but she began to stir as if my trip had woken her from a deep sleep. The former soldier held the heel of her hand to her head and sat up. Immediately, I put the edge of my sickle against her throat, as she had done to me only minutes ago.
Her eyes traveled up the length of my weapon, wide with surprise until they connected with my own.
“Cameron?” she whispered.
My stiff arm threatening her with the sickle slacked. As I looked into Kari’s eyes for the second time in minutes, they were once again a different color. They were back to their boring brown, filled with fear and confusion.
“What’s going on?” she asked me. T
hen with a surprising amount of trust, she moved her head from left to right, and I let her. “Where are we? And what the hell do you have on your head?”
“Wh--what did you just say?” I balked, in complete and utter awe at her words. Everything I had experienced in the last two years suddenly seemed murky and muddled.
Did Kari really not know where she was? Or was she just trying to trick me?
Suspicion took over my instincts, and I straightened my arm again. Kari recoiled from the tip of the blade and held up her hands. I saw her eyes harden, but not with the same loathing as before. This time it was that of a soldier preparing for a fight, analyzing the situation before she made a move.
“Do you want to tell me why you’ve got a sickle at my throat?” she asked, her tone flat.
“Do you want to tell me where Hailey and Arges are?” I countered unrelenting in my own tone.
Her eyes widened at the mention of Hailey’s name. “Hailey’s here? And who’s Arges? Do you mean the Hesiodic cyclops from mythology?”
The corners of my vision blurred as my eyes wanted to go cross-eyed from confusion and surprise. She couldn’t be serious! Everything about her demeanor, tone, and expression told me that this Kari had no idea what was going on. But I couldn’t just let myself believe that, not after everything had happened. It would be foolish to do so.
“Call off the monsters,” I commanded.
“What monsters?” Kari asked innocently.
“Oh, come on,” I snapped. “I know you can feel them, sense them, or whatever. Call them off to show me you’re serious.”
“Okay,” she agreed. The former Eda soldier closed her eyes and held out her hands, stretching her fingers wide. Slowly, she curled her pinkies in towards her palms, each finger following the last, until she clutched white-knuckled fists. Her face scrunched up with concentration.
