by Sam Cheever
I stepped out of the tub and reached for a towel. It was warm from the fire. Coming up behind Nidras, I dropped a gentle kiss on the sweet-smelling spot between her neck and her shoulder and draped the warm towel over her.
She shivered.
“We’ll fix this together, Nidras. I won’t let you push me away.”
She shook her head. “You can’t be part of this, Hermes. I gave you up for the power I need to slay Grimsbar.”
“We’ll find a way around that.” Grabbing a second towel, I started to dry myself off. When Nidras left that room I was going with her. I’d go naked if I had to, I’d certainly done it before but this time I hoped to leave the more traditional way, dressed and through the front door.
Nidras sighed and reached for the towel I’d draped over her shoulders. She dried herself off as I pulled on my ripped and soiled clothes with a grimace.
Dropping the towel, she looked around for the clothing she’d discarded. Our eyes fell to the small wisp of pale yellow floating in the tub. Her smile sent desire pooling in my gut. “I guess I’m going commando.”
I laughed. “That visual will get me through anything the damned wizard can throw at us.”
Shaking her head, her smile slid away and she reached for her clothes.
Chapter Twelve
High Stakes
A knock sounded on the door as I was pulling my sneakers on. I reached for my chain. Nidras calmly walked to the door as if she’d known we were going to get a visitor.
The person standing outside the door was distraught and looked as if he’d ridden through the night on a bumpy, bad-tempered horse. His clothes were filthy. His oily, brown hair stuck up in clumps, as if the wind had pulled sticky fingers through it and locked it upright. Blood had dried in streams down a filthy but well muscled forearm.
He dropped to one knee before Nidras. At first, I thought he’d collapsed. Nidras touched his head. “Rise, Caleb.”
The man got shakily to his feet. “Your Highness. The wizard has taken your parents prisoner. We fought as hard as we could but…” His voice choked off under a wave of emotion.
I stepped closer to Nidras and placed a supportive hand in the small of her back.
Nidras didn’t make a sound. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. When she spoke her voice was strong. “Where has he taken them?”
The man shook his head. “Into the castle dungeons. He awaits you there.”
“Are they…harmed?”
A single tear slid from the man’s eye. “The queen was unharmed. She was exceedingly brave, Princess. But your father…” His gaze slid away. Reluctance shaped the man’s entire demeanor. It was obvious that he didn’t want to tell Nidras what had happened to her father. “It would be best if you hurried, Princess.”
Nidras nodded. “You may go. Return to the castle and see that everyone is evacuated safely. Take them to the summer castle in the mountains and await our arrival. I will bring the king and queen there to recuperate once I’ve released them.”
I was filled with a sense of pride at her poise in the face of great personal anguish. Despite the horror of the news she’d just received, she looked every bit the queen she would one day be. It made me love her all the more.
When the man left, Nidras finally turned and met my gaze. Her lavender gaze was cold, emotionless. Only the barest quiver in her chin betrayed her emotions.
I touched her face and the mask fell away. She allowed a single tear to slide down her cheek. She grabbed my shirtfront in two small hands and pulled me close. Standing on her toes, she placed her soft lips against mine and rent my world in half with a kiss that was filled with goodbyes.
When she pulled away her eyes and cheeks were wet. “Take care of yourself, Hermes. I’ll think of you always.”
I reached out for her but she was gone.
“Shitttt!” I stormed out the door and ran down the stairs, into the street. The man who’d come to Nidras, apparently her servant, was just kicking his exhausted horse in the ribs in front of the tavern.
I barreled into the street, grabbing for the horse’s reins. The creature reared up with a shriek of alarm but I managed to hold on.
“Wait! Please stop!”
The man looked down at me with dead eyes. I got the feeling it had taken almost everything he had within him to get to Nidras and give her the news.
“Where is she going?”
He frowned. “Who, Sire?”
“Nidras! The Princess. She disappeared just after you left. Where is she going?”
“Why, to the castle, Sire. Just like I told ye up there…” He jerked his head toward the tavern. “The dark one holds her parents in the dungeons.”
“In her own castle?”
The man nodded. “’Tis a message to the Princess. That castle was warded against evil centuries ago and has never been breached by such as he. It is a very bad sign that he was able to breach its magic now. He will kill her parents if she doesn’t do as he’s demanded.”
Although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer, I asked the obvious question anyway. “What exactly does he want her to do?”
The man’s scruffy eyebrows went north on his filthy face. “Why, marry him of course. Their mating will fulfill the dark prophecy. It will signify the beginning of the end for Olympus.” The messenger sagged in his saddle, sadness evident in the despondent curve of his spine.
“Dark prophecy?”
Gloomy brown eyes found mine. Any light the man had carried in his soul throughout his life was gone. He’d already given up. He believed all was lost. He apparently felt that Nidras would fail.
I couldn’t believe that.
It would kill everything inside me to believe it.
“The dark prophecy portends the rise of one so powerful and so evil, that he will overtake and rule nearly every power in the universe. He would be more powerful even than the Council of Gods, more commanding than Zeus himself.”
“And he’d gain this power just from marrying Nidras?”
The man shook his head. “Nay. The mating would be just the start of it. But with the mating he would gain a vast source of power from which he could feed for decades to come.”
I frowned, feeling a cold horror sprouting in my gut. “Feed?”
The man drooped even lower in the saddle. “Aye. The Princess. An enormous legacy of power, passed down from royal family to royal family over millennia, is her dowry. When she is wed, that power will go to her. It is her birthright.”
“But if she’s to gain all that power, why can’t she use it against the wizard?”
He shook his head. “The power is safeguarded. It cannot be used against her mate. The magic won’t flow that way. But if the wizard has control over her, which he would under the marriage contract, he can drain the power from her as much and for as long as he would wish.” The man’s eyes grew wet and the icy ball of horror in my stomach threatened to take me to my knees. “Until he drains her dry.”
Against my will, my mind formed a horrible picture of Nidras quivering in a corner, drawn and sunken from the wizard’s cruel work, her flawless white skin shriveled and blotched and her beautiful lavender gaze glazed with weakness.
It was unacceptable. I had to do something.
I realized at that moment that I no longer cared if Nidras was mine to keep. I only cared that she live, free and safe in this world.
I would die to save her. My last breath would be a happy one, if only she was free.
I grabbed the man’s thigh and leaned toward him, my gaze fierce on his in an effort to draw him out of his hopeless funk. Caleb tried tugging on the horse’s reins to move away from me but I still held one of them in my grip.
I knew I must look like a madman to him but I didn’t care. I needed to get through to him. I needed his help.
“This isn’t over! Do you hear me? Nidras needs our help and we won’t let her down. Do you understand?”
The man shook his head. “There is n
othing one such as I can do, Sire.”
“Yes, there is. You can get me to her. So I can help her slay the wizard.”
He blinked at me. Slowly a smile split his filthy face. “I can do that, Sire. Yes I can.”
“Yes. You can. Now how can I get into those dungeons without the wizard knowing?”
He frowned. “It won’t be easy, Sire. The wizard isn’t alone. He’s brought many of his guards with him. They swamp the palace. Many of the servants and friends of the family have already been killed.” He started to slump in the saddle again.
“So I won’t go in the front door. There has to be another way into the castle. In particular, the dungeons.”
The man started to shake his head and then stopped. He turned to me and it was as if someone flipped a light on behind his eyes. “Why yes, Sire. There is a way.”
“Good.” I slapped the man’s thigh. “Now bring this poor nag to the stables. She won’t make it a mile, let alone the dozens of miles we need to travel to get back to Olympus. I have another way.”
I turned toward the stables, trusting the man to follow and prayed Ashtov was still in residence there. I was counting on the fact that she would be fed and well rested.
She’d need every ounce of strength she had to carry Caleb and me back to Olympus.
*
I left Caleb on the street in front of the Building of Justice and followed his careful instructions to locate the back way into Nidras’ family castle. The moat at the back of the castle was fed from a sparkling river located about half a mile away. Called Aphrodite’s Tears, after the thousands of romances the goddess created and discarded throughout millennia, the river cut a wide, sparkling swath across the mountain’s face for several miles and then disappeared underground. Rumor had it as the source of Lover’s Fall, the waterfall and pool in the Garden of Love, deep within Mount Olympus. The Garden of Love was known to hold deep magics for those who were lucky enough to discover it.
According to Caleb, over the centuries, the river had chiseled itself deeply into the rock on the side of the mountain and a warren of caves and passageways had been uncovered as the water dropped away. Though Caleb had never seen it, supposedly one of the passageways led to the dungeons of the demons’ castle.
Ashtov and I flew along the edge of the river, scanning the rocky bluffs on the City side for signs of a cave or passageway.
I fought against despair during the entire exercise. Hours had already passed since Nidras had popped away from me to take on Grimsbar. If I were standing with her at that very moment, I might already be too late. But I still had to find the right entrance, follow it and make it into the dungeons before I could even begin to help her.
My mind kept telling me I’d be too late.
My heart kept telling my mind to go fuck itself.
I couldn’t be too late.
I wouldn’t accept that.
Though the challenges before me were innumerable, I told myself I had a warrior’s heart. And warriors didn’t let a little thing like low odds for success defeat them.
Right.
My cynical side was telling both my heart and mind they were spongy from Brimstone abuse.
Ashtov let out a squawk of alarm, jolting me from my musings. A dark shadow fell over us and I looked up. A huge black bird, with a thick, sharply curved golden beak dived toward us from the pewter clouds over our heads. It wasn’t Grimsbar but it looked deadly enough that it didn’t matter. Its bright, black eyes were cold, emotionless and reflected like a mirror. I saw a quick, excruciating death reflected on the surface of them.
My death.
I swore and dragged the chain from around my neck. “I don’t have time for this shit!”
As the monster’s wings pounded the moisture-filled air above the raging river, my gaze scanned our surroundings in search of a place to take a stand. Nothing but water and jagged rocks met my search. I knew Ashtov would never be able to outmaneuver the thing, she was bulky and relatively slow compared to the bird-shaped monster coming at us.
I made a sudden decision. “Fly straight and true, Ashtov!”
Gritting my teeth, I jumped to my feet and pushed myself upright on her back. Wobbling dangerously, I held the chain in one hand and began to swing it in deadly circles above Ashtov’s head.
She rolled her terrified, brown gaze upward but flew straight and steady as I’d asked.
The monster in the air was a mere fifteen feet away at that point and was pounding its wings to slow its descent. As it slowed, dropping toward my head, its massive legs slid forward and its deadly claws opened, ready to snatch me from Ashtov’s back.
I forced back panic and held my position, waiting for the monster to get within chaining distance. My goal was to get the chain around the thing’s neck. I knew if I captured a leg it would just take me for a ride.
I’d never been one for thrill rides. Especially ones that culminated in me being smashed into bitty pieces against a rocky wall.
Unfortunately, my plan had one, teensy, tiny flaw in it. The creature’s vulnerable throat wouldn’t be within range until its claws had hold of me.
Sighing, I watched the jagged, ice-pick sized things slide into my shirt.
The bright, edge of excruciating pain pierced me and I screamed, both because it hurt like hell and pissed me off and because I was hoping my girlish shrieks would distract the monster from the fact that I’d jerked my arm to send the chain spinning around its scrawny neck.
As the chain closed and began to tighten, my feet left Ashtov’s back and I found myself dangling in the air without a horse.
The claws in my shirt dug deeper in an effort to keep their grip and pierced deep, heading for bone. Warm blood poured down my sides and I almost lost my grip on the chain. But the thing was weakening from my grip, sliding sideways as it lost its sense of the currents holding it aloft.
The deadly black gaze began to dull from pain and loss of air. I knew I could finish the monster off with a healthy jerk of my wrist but the pain in my body was too great. I was having trouble breathing as I felt my flesh tearing away underneath those claws. The weight of my own body was killing me.
Ashtov returned. I felt her bony back beneath my flailing feet and relief flooded me as the tearing pain in my chest lessoned. I grabbed a claw with my free hand and wrenched it away, jerking the hand with the chain hard enough to break the massive bird’s neck.
I felt bone give way with a very satisfying crack and managed to pull the other claw free of my chest before the monster started to plummet toward the ground.
The thing pitched sideways as it fell, sending a giant wing slamming into me and knocking me off Ashtov again. I plummeted off her back and into nothing but air.
The river raged beneath me, not all that far away and I prayed I’d remember how to swim.
Unable to get my feet underneath me before I hit, I slammed chest first into the unforgiving surface of the icy water. The impact knocked the wind from my body and slammed my head backward. As I struggled to climb back toward the surface, my limbs quickly grew numb from the intense cold of the water and I discovered the current was every bit as strong as it had looked from above.
My arms and legs were heavy from the cold. Trying to do anything with them was like attempting to swing a bat under water. It was nearly impossible.
Finally, I was reduced to just keeping my face above water so I didn’t drown. The river carried me inexorably downward, toward what, I had no idea.
After a couple of minutes I realized I was getting woozy.
I was jolted awake once by water in my nose as my head slid downward.
This spurred me to try swimming again but my limbs were too numb to work. The next time my head slid under I knew I didn’t have the strength to rise above the water again. As my lungs screamed from lack of air, a strange, unexpected warmth came over me. At first I thought I’d swum through a warmer stream of water, like when you swim through a pee spot in the pool. Grimacing at the thou
ght, I finally slammed into something large that seemed to be anchored in the midst of the raging water and was able to pull my head out of water.
It was a huge rock, jutting out from the shore into the river. I pulled my arms out of the water and let the sun warm them until I could move them again. Then I dragged myself out of the water and lay there, panting and exhausted, until the sun performed its magic on me.
After a few moments’ rest, I pushed myself to my feet and looked around. The only good thing about having been immersed in frigid water for several minutes was the fact that my wounds seemed to have been cauterized by cold. They only ached a bit and had stopped bleeding.
The rock wall jutted sharply inward, away from the river. It created a small, protected inlet with a sandy floor. Almost hidden from view.
A deeper shadow in the rock looked promising and I started toward it. The sand in the area was smooth, all except for a narrow band of footprints, heading toward the shadowed space in the back.
My heart rate picked up. I was pretty sure I’d found the cave.
I followed the footprints toward the shadow and entered the mouth of the cave. I noticed two things as soon as I entered, leaving behind the roaring sounds of moving water. First, much to my surprise, the space flickered with some kind of light. And second, I could hear voices not too far away.
*
Clotho looked up as I rounded the passageway about a dozen yards in from the cave mouth. “Well finally! We thought you’d never get here.”
Nidras swung around, knives at the ready. “Hermes!” Her beautiful face was dark with anger and worry. “Are you responsible for this?”
I smiled. I couldn’t help myself. Nidras was safe.
Unfortunately she took this to mean I was responsible, for whatever I was looking at.
“Dammit, Hermes! If my parents are dead…” Her throat closed around the words and she couldn’t go on. That was when I noticed the tracks from spent tears on her pale cheeks.
I was at a total loss, turning to the Fates, I lifted a questioning eyebrow.
They had the good grace to look slightly ashamed. Atropos waved a hand in the air in front of her face and something popped.
