“No. No, Homie, you don’t need to come down.”
“Rope, stop,” Pandy ordered.
Alcie’s voice sounded weak and breathless, but there was also a tinge of calm that surprised everyone.
“I’m fine. Just a little tingly, that’s all. Wow … that was wild. Pull it up first, then the rope can come back for me.”
Everyone quickly looked at everyone else.
“Huh?” Pandy asked.
“Pull it up,” Alcie replied. “And I’m gonna ask that you do it fast, because it’s kinda freaking me out.”
“Pull what up?” asked Homer.
“Oh, you’ll see,” Alcie said.
Pandy was so stunned that she just looked from Iole to Homer and back again, a large part of her now not wanting to ever know what was on the other end of the rope. She was silent so long that finally Iole issued the command.
“Rope, pull.”
They all peered into the well as the rope obeyed. At first, their combined shadow obscured any clear outline or shape. Then as the rope continued lifting upward, Pandy was the first to see the glint off Alcie’s red hair. And she could easily make out the white of Alcie’s toga. But copper specks were swirling away from and around the form and there seemed to be something strange about the form—something was missing.
“I see her cloak,” said Iole.
“And I’m seeing copper flickers,” Pandy concurred.
“No mistaking those tresses,” Achilles chimed in.
Then, as the rope brought its freight into sharp focus, Pandy gasped and stumbled backward. Iole clutched Homer’s arm as Achilles grasped hers. The rope lifted Alcie’s toga and cloak, torn and tattered, out into the bright sunlight, but no Alcie.
Only Alcie’s copper skin.
The now transparent copper coating was still somewhat in the form of a person; the contours of the face were almost recognizable as Alcie’s and the hair was, if possible, even thinner, but there were long rips along the backs of her legs, arms, and spine where the copper had split away from her body. The rope set the skin on the snow in a standing position where it promptly shattered into a billion little pieces.
Now, it was Homer’s turn to throw up.
“Alcie!” Pandy screamed, when she thought that her friend might be skinless at the bottom of the well. She became so panicked as all the blood rushed to her face, that she thought the piece of golden teardrop shrapnel might just pop out from its resting place underneath her eye. “Are you bleeding?”
“No,” came the reply.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Alcie said. “You remember that mole I had on my left shoulder?”
“Uh … yes?” Pandy answered, not really remembering at all.
“Well, it’s about half the size now, so that’s a good thing, I suppose. Okay, so I’m kinda clothes-less down here; could someone toss me a spare toga?”
Quickly, the rope magically lowered itself down into the well a second time, carrying one of Alcie’s spare togas (months ago, she’d had the foresight to pack two) and what little was left of Homer’s cloak. Three minutes later, Alcie’s physical form could be seen rising up out of the darkness.
“What happened?” Pandy asked, trying to keep her voice even.
“Hades if I know,” Alcie said, climbing out of the well, holding her sandals and leg wrappings in one hand. “One moment I was freezing, but all in one piece. The next second the rope started pulling and I started coming apart.”
“It was the cold,” Iole said plainly. “Cold makes metal contract. It was so cold down in that well that your skin shrunk on you to the point that it was able to peel away when the rope pulled it. That was the pressure you felt; the copper contracting in on you. It’s a good thing we pulled you out when we did, otherwise …”
“Otherwise?” Pandy yelped.
“Otherwise, I might be shorter, thinner, and deader,” Alcie answered, turning to Iole. “Right?”
“I’m afraid right,” Iole said.
Pandy noticed that Alcie’s skin—her true skin—was positively glowing. If fact, Pandy realized, Alcie seemed to be glowing from both the outside and the inside. Was it possible that she’d become even prettier? Had Alcie also grown a centimeter down in that well? And why was she standing just a little straighter than she usually did? The next moment, and totally without warning, Pandy was pierced through the heart by feelings she’d felt often in her own life, but never—ever—about Alcie and Iole.
Ever.
She stood mute, watching Iole explain in slightly greater detail the laws of contraction and expansion as Homer sat next to Alcie in the snow, his arm draped protectively around her shoulder, as Alcie wrapped her feet and laced her sandals once again. This was something Alcie needed to do, Pandy mused; the still rational part of her brain knew Alcie wasn’t dawdling, for Hermes’ sake. Yet, Pandy suddenly felt as if she were an outsider, and one with a completely different agenda. She was watching these three people as if they were absolute strangers; as if they were all in on some tremendous secret and they were wasting her time talking about it while she was left in the dark. Alcie, for her part, was not making some flip remark or staring at Iole as if she were an unknown creature from a far-off land; she was actually listening and trying to comprehend. Pandy’s hand brushed against her leather carrying pouch. She pictured the box in her mind. Jealousy was in it. So was Greed. And what she was feeling didn’t really compare to either of these. It was—it was—
“… so the basic principle is not that difficult to …,” Iole finished as Homer helped Alcie to stand.
“Hey!” Pandy cried, stamping her foot in the snow. “Here’s a thought: while we’ve been standing around talking about hot and cold metal and how exciting that is, time may have already run out! Anyone think maybe that principle isn’t so difficult to understand? Anyone feel like—oh, I dunno … coming with me to capture Fear, if we’re not too late?”
Without waiting for an answer, Pandy spun on her heel and marched off onto the path of exploded ice-spikes, leaving Alcie, Iole, Homer—and even Achilles—stunned into silence.
Chapter Nineteen
Fifty Heads and One Hundred Arms
“What in the …?” said Alcie. “Where did that come from?”
“Rather uncalled for,” Iole said, looking after Pandy.
“Is she always so touchy?” Achilles asked.
“I’m not sure why, but I think we need to let it go,” Homer said thoughtfully.
They all watched as a spike burst through the ice, sending Pandy, now a good distance away, sprawling on her bottom.
“Well, we can let it go, but I can’t let her go,” Achilles stated. “Not alone, not now. Gotta do my job. Catch up when you can!”
He took off running, desperate to outpace Pandy and make certain that his footfalls were the ones that triggered the spikes.
“Ready?” Iole asked.
“More than ready,” Alcie replied.
“That mole on your shoulder is smaller,” Homer said, taking the lead back the way they’d come.
“Thank you for noticing.” Alcie smiled.
“You’re more beautiful than before you went down that well,” he continued, trying to step in Achilles’ footprints.
“Aw, Homie,” Alcie said, as she and Iole followed. “That’s so sweet. Yes, I guess you could say the underworld has been good to all of us in a weird way. You’re more manly and mature. Iole’s smarter, if that was possible, and not ashamed of it. I feel—well, I don’t know that I’m prettier, but I just feel all-around different. Better. And Pandy …”
All three stopped short in the snow.
“Pandy,” Iole said, understanding.
“Gods,” Alcie whispered.
Not caring where their feet landed, they all broke into a run.
When Pandy realized that Achilles was racing to catch up with her, she began to sprint. She didn’t want to be caught, she didn’t want company, she didn’t want to talk. A
fter what had to be, she surmised, the midpoint of the field, the ice-spikes stopped erupting and she was left with a clear path to the gates of Tartarus—which, though still a good ten-minute brisk walk, were directly in her line of sight. The sky was beginning to fill with clouds, blotting out the underworld sun, in shades of black, gray, red, and orange. The snow had disappeared some meters back and now she was traversing pure, slippery ice; but her sandals were so worn, so beat up, that she found herself with plenty of traction and didn’t miss a step. Achilles, when he saw she was in no further imminent danger, hung back to try to observe what he could about the strange mortal maiden with the large mood swings. Alcie, Iole, and Homer caught up with him and he stopped them from passing him by.
“Why aren’t you leading the way for her?” Alcie asked.
“You see any spikes?”
“He’s right, Alce,” Iole said. “Hera must have never imagined that we’d get past the first half of the field.”
“Well, Hades’ hip replacement!” Alcie cried, beginning to run. “C’mon, then!”
“I think we should give her a little space,” Homer interjected, grabbing Alcie’s arm.”
“No!” Alcie cried. “No space. She can feel whatever she wants, but I for one am not going to let her walk into Tartarus alone. She can hate me for the rest of her life, if she has one, but I’m going in there with her.”
“Agreed!” shouted Iole, who took one step, slipped on the ice, and went spinning off on her bottom almost ten meters. Alcie tried to help her up, slipped herself, and took them another three meters off course. Homer slipped trying to get both of them up. Naturally, Achilles reached Pandy first.
“Hey, intrepid explorer,” Achilles said when he’d caught up with her. “Mind if I take the point?”
“Point?” Pandy said.
“The lead? Go ahead of you? I see that the spikes are no more, but you never know what other delights that red-headed, blue-robed Kraken has planned.”
“Fine,” she answered brusquely. “Take the point. Whatever. Knock yourself out.”
“All righty, then,” Achilles said, facing forward.
Long moments passed in silence; Pandy could hear Alcie, Iole, and Homer gibbering as they struggled to catch up, but she never once turned around. The gates of Tartarus loomed large now. Pandy saw that they weren’t really gates at all, just a gargantuan opening in the face of a sheer rock wall from which balls of red-hot lava and black ash would spew forth. She also saw three enormous creatures, each as large as her uncle Atlas and each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. One had heads with coal-black hair, cut to just above their eyes. A second had several patches of bright red hair sticking straight out from the sides of all fifty heads. The third was completely bald, not one strand of hair on any of his heads. Their clothes were dirty and tattered; all three creatures were lumbering back and forth, carrying rocks from a pile off to one side to the opening, where they were slowly sealing it up.
“Hide here,” Achilles said, maneuvering Pandora into a crevice in some boulders on the edge of the Elysian Fields. “Let’s wait for your friends to reach us.”
“I’m not interested in waiting for my …”
“Very well, then, Miss Sass,” he hissed, indicating that she should lower her voice. “But those are the hecatonchires.”
“Cottus, Gyges, and Briareus. I know,” Pandy said, rolling her eyes.
“So let’s just take a moment to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with here, all right?”
“Fine.”
“Fine. Sheesh!”
They observed the creatures for only a moment before Pandy noticed something odd. There was some type of black pitch or tar over every mouth on the three huge monsters. Every mouth but one. Then, as one creature was passing another on his way to the entrance, he dropped a huge stone on the second creature’s foot without realizing it. The second hecatonchire jumped up and down in pain for a moment, then spun the first to face him and smacked him on all fifty foreheads.
“Hey, Bri!” said the only open mouth. “What was that for?”
“That was for dropping a rock on my foot, you lead-brain!”
“I’m sorry, Bri.”
“You oughta be.”
“Where do you want me to drop it next time?”
“Why, you!”
Bri poked the other hecatonchire right in all his eyes.
“Ow!”
“Hey, Bri,” said the third creature, “stop beatin’ up on Cottus!”
“Quiet, you,” said Briareus, “and get back to work.”
Gyges stepped up to Briareus and puffed out his chest.
“I’ll do it when I’m ready.”
“Are you ready?”
Briareus stared Gyges down for a long moment. At last Gyges shrugged.
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Hey, Bri,” asked Cottus. “Why do you think Hera wants us to put all these rocks in front of the opening?”
“What do I look like, a scroll in a library? A know-it-all?” said Briareus. “Besides, you’ve got a hundred ears. You heard her just like I did. Something little is comin’ in and she wants to make sure it doesn’t get out again. And if we find it first we’re to take it right to her.”
“You mean little like a mouse?” said Cottus. “I love little mice!”
Gyges leaned in to Cottus.
“I like mice too!”
Briareus yanked Gyges back by his bright red hair.
“Spread out!”
“Ow!”
“Listen, you pea-brains,” Briareus said. “I don’t want you messin’ this up. You think we got it good now; well, Hera could make things even better around here for us.”
“Like the last time we did something for her?” asked Cottus.
“What did you do for her?”
“Nothin’, what’d she ever do for me?”
Then Briareus smacked both of the others on all their foreheads.
Cottus did a goofy little wave in front of Briareus’s noses. Then Briareus smacked his foreheads again. Cottus put all one hundred hands behind his head, waggled all of the fingers and barked like a dog. Briareus reached down and tickled Cottus, who jumped up and down.
“Woo woowoowoo woo!” he cried, a lopsided grin on his face. “Pardon me if I laugh.”
Briareus smacked him again.
“Why, I oughta …!” said Cottus.
“What?”
“Nothin’.”
“That’s right!”
Pandy could hardly believe her ears or her eyes. These were the dreaded and fearful hecatonchires? Briareus was obviously the one in charge—and the bruiser—but he was just as silly as the other two. They looked like they would probably end up killing each other before they could harm anyone else.
“These guys are in top form today,” Achilles whispered. “Sometimes, some of the other heroes and I come to the edge of the Fields and just watch and laugh for hours.”
“Fascinating,” Pandy said snidely. “But I don’t have hours. I may not even have minutes.”
“You know those are the hecatonchires, right?” Iole said, overhearing Pandy as she came up, following behind Alcie and Homer.
“Gods!” Pandy shouted, worming out of the crevice and out into the open, as far away from her friends as possible. “Yes, Iole, yes! I know that those creatures with the fifty heads and the one hundred arms are, indeed, the hecatonchires! Did you think that maybe I would think they were, oh, I don’t know … winged horses? Are you that concerned that I’m that stupid? You know, I’m really glad that you’re even smarter now and that you’re not ashamed of it or afraid of it or whatever you were about it anymore, but that doesn’t mean that no one else around you can think for themselves, okay? Yes, I know exactly what they are!”
She turned and gestured to the opening of Tartarus. But the hecatonchires were gone.
“Huh?” Pandy humphed.
Suddenly a net dropped over the crevice, trapping Achilles, Alcie, Ho
mer, and Iole underneath. From behind the boulders, Briareus and Gyges stood up, towering over the crevice as Pandy watched, too stunned to move.
“Hey, Bri! Look what I found? Little mice!”
“Those aren’t mice, ya maroon. Those are people. And I’ll just bet they’re the little things Hera’s lookin’ for!”
“Pandora, run!” shouted Achilles.
Without thinking, Pandora began to race toward the opening in the sheer rock wall. But she hadn’t gone ten paces when a giant hand blocked her way. Another came down right behind her blocking the rear, and two more came down on either side. A fifth hand reached in and held her firmly as it lifted her high into the air. The next instant, she was staring at Cottus’s hundred eyes as they all stared back.
“Hey, Bri,” said his only open mouth as Briareus came up alongside. “Can I take this one to Hera?”
Briareus plucked a large coin from the folds of his shredded garment.
“We’ll flip for it.”
He tossed the coin into the air with one hand, caught it with another, and slapped it onto the back of a third.
“Zeus’s head, I take ’em in; Zeus’s backside, you don’t.”
“Sounds fair.”
Briareus revealed the coin.
“Zeus’s head. You lose.”
“Shucks,” Cottus said, his shoulders sagging as he gently dropped Pandy into one of Briareus’s waiting hands. “I’m just a victim of soi-cumstance.”
“Tell you what,” said Briareus. “I’m feelin’ generous, so you and Gyges take the net in while I carry this one.”
“Gee, thanks, Bri.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Fortunately Briareus, as ridiculous as he was, didn’t squeeze Pandy too tightly as he held her. From the vast height, she was able to see the snowy Elysian Fields behind her and a narrow road off to her left, which she surmised led back to the place of judgment and the iron entry gate.
“Hey, Bri!” said Gyges, as he and Cottus approached the entrance into Tartarus, each one gingerly holding two corners of the net. “We made the hole too small for us to get through now!”
“Why you … you two have oatie cakes for brains, y’know that!” Briareus grumbled. “Gyges, you take some rocks away and we’ll just have to wait.”
Pandora Gets Frightened Page 16
