Ouroboros (Seven Relics Saga Book 1)

by Brea Essex

  “The gods know we’re here,” Zac said from the other side of the tent.

  “Is that going to make it harder for us to find the gates and get in?” I asked as I sat up and stretched.

  He shrugged. “I have no idea. I guess we won’t know until we try.”

  I ate quickly and packed up my gear. Then I struck the tent and tied it and my sleeping bag on top of my pack.

  “Ready?” Zac asked.

  “Yep. Let’s try this.”

  “Did you leave out the paper with the spell?”

  I drew it out of my pocket and held it up. “Got it.”

  “I don’t know where, exactly, the gates are, so we might have to look around.”

  “I’m guessing they’d be up at the summit.” I pointed at the very top of the mountain. We had camped a little ways down the mountain, on a ledge, so we’d be protected from the wind.

  “So, we still have a little climbing to do, I guess.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I think we need to get to the very top before I cast the spell. Who knows how long it will last once I do?” And who knows if I even can cast the spell? I thought. I’d never actually tried to cast a spell before. I might not have been able to do it. If it didn’t work, we were screwed.

  He thought for a moment before he agreed. “Let’s go then. I want to be done and back down the mountain before nightfall. The way this weather is, I don’t think we want to spend another night on this mountain.”

  I looked at the sky. “Probably a good idea.”

  It didn’t take us long to make the rest of the climb. We had been really close the top already. I unfolded the paper that had the spell written on it. “Here goes.”

  I stared at it a moment. “It’s in Greek,” I finally said.

  Zac laughed. “You didn’t notice that as you were copying it down?”

  “No. I was just concentrating on writing it down exactly and getting out of there.”

  “So, how’d you know that it was the right spell?”

  “Everything else was in English. I just didn’t notice this.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Well, most scribes couldn’t even read. No need to speak the language to be able to copy it. You probably don’t have to understand the spell, just as long as you say it.”

  “I’ll give it a try.” I stumbled over the unfamiliar language. Zac corrected my pronunciation. “I thought you didn’t pay attention when you were supposed to be learning Greek,” I said.

  “I didn’t… at least not for the most part. I’m pretty good with pronunciation, though. But now you have to start over from the beginning.”

  Sighing, I began to recite the spell again from the top. The air shimmered near us and the gates began to come into view. All I could do was stare. The golden gates were humongous. They towered far above us. Elaborate, white marble statues flanked the gates. The one on the left was of a man holding a lightning bolt, poised to throw. On the right stood a woman with a peacock next to her. Her left hand was placed on the peacock’s head. Its tail was flared out, displaying its plumage. Both figures were wrapped in togas and wore sandals. Atop the head of the female statue sat a diadem.

  “Zeus and Hera,” Zac murmured behind me.

  “What?” I asked without turning as I studied the statues. There was something about them that commanded my attention.

  “That’s who the statues are of: Zeus and Hera, King and Queen of the gods.”

  “They look intimidating.”

  “I’ve heard they’re even more so in person.”

  I pointed at the statues. “Are they who we have to talk to about the Helm?”

  He nodded. “Most likely. You can’t get anything done relating to Hades without going through them first. Zeus would probably get pissed. I bet he has a ‘god complex’.” He laughed at his own joke.

  “You probably shouldn’t joke like that in front of them,” I warned him.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. This is serious. We’d better stay on their good side.”z

  “If we can even get on their good side. From what I’ve heard, gods aren’t always that easy to deal with.”

  Zac grimaced. “They’ll likely be easier to deal with than Hades. He probably won’t be very inclined to help us out.”

  “Great.” I took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then forced it out between clenched jaws. It was sounding like this would be a lot harder than I originally thought. “Well, we won’t know until we try, right? Let’s get this over with.”

  Reaching forward, I placed a hand on the gate. It swung open at my touch. “So far, so good,” I murmured.

  The streets of Olympus were wide and winding. They were paved with gold, and inlaid with snow-white marble accents. They sloped up slightly, growing steeper as they neared the very tip of the mountain. I assumed that was where the throne room was located, which was likely where we needed to head.

  We passed graceful, spiraling towers, sprawling complexes, and sparkling lakes. The light playing across the water was entrancing.

  “Rhiannon?” Zac’s voice calling my name broke into my thoughts.

  I pulled my gaze away from the ripples undulating on the reflective surface. Glancing up at him, I discovered that he was several yards down the road from where I stood. “What happened?” I asked him, confused and feeling slightly disoriented.

  “I should be asking you what happened. You stopped walking.”

  “I did?”

  “Yeah. You were staring at the water, and then you stopped walking. Everything okay?”

  I nodded, still feeling a little odd. “Yep. Everything’s okay. The water was just so pretty; it must have distracted me.” I hurried to catch up to him.

  He gave me a strange look when I reached him. “If you say you’re okay, then I guess you’re okay. Let’s keep going.”

  We continued down the extravagant road, climbing higher and higher. Abruptly, we reached the top. I stared in awe at the giant building in front of us. It resembled a castle in structure. Like the road, it was covered in gold, and blindingly white marble. I could barely focus on it. Precious jewels glinted on every surface.

  “Is this real?” I whispered to Zac.

  “As real as any of the rest of it.”

  I stared at the heavy gold doors that formed the entrance. They were several stories high. I wasn’t sure we could open them if we tried. “Are we supposed to knock?”

  Zac shrugged. “Do you think they’d have a doorman or something? Maybe we should just walk in.”

  “That seems kind of rude.”

  “Well, we’ve kind of barged in this far. What’s one more imposition going to matter? Either they’re going to help us, or they’re not.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  Together, we pushed on one of the giant doors. To our surprise, it opened easily.

  “Maybe they’re expecting us,” Zac quipped.

  “They probably saw or sensed us coming, actually. Aren’t they supposed to be all-knowing?”

  “Greek gods? No. You’re thinking of the Jewish and Christian god. He’s the one that’s supposed to know everything.”

  “Ah. I was never much of a student of religion,” I said as we passed through the entrance into a brightly lit hall.

  “It’s a requirement for us. Hazard of the job, you know. We even have a Cardinal bless us so we can’t be possessed by the wraiths.”

  “You can’t be possessed?”

  “We wouldn’t really do anyone much good if the wraiths could come out of them and into us, now would we?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “You know, once we’re out of here, you might want to pick up some religious texts. We’re not done here. Some research might come in handy.”

  “I suppose it would. I’ll take care of that in all my spare time.”

  Zac grinned at me, and we continued walking.

  The halls were completely deserted. I wondered if they were always this way. It certainly was an odd feeling,
to be in a place this elaborate, yet empty. It felt cavernous, and our footsteps echoed as we tread carefully down the corridors.

  “Maybe everyone’s gone home for the day,” Zac mused.

  “I really doubt that, especially considering that its morning.”

  “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.” I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Zac was shrugging his shoulders. “I’m willing to bet that time moves differently here. It could be the middle of the night on Olympus for all we know.”

  I pointed to the sunlight streaming through the high, narrow windows. “But it’s light outside.”

  “Maybe it’s light all the time. They’re gods. They might not be all-knowing, or all-powerful, but they can probably control the lighting in their home—especially if Apollo and Artemis are home. They control the sun and moon.”

  “Interesting,” I said, even though I wasn’t really paying attention. Everything about the building/castle/whatever we were in was odd. It was too quiet. Everything had a strange glow about it. It lent an ethereal quality to our entire surroundings.

  “Rhiannon? Did you hear me?” Zac’s voice came from behind me.

  “I’m sorry? What?” I turned to look at him.

  “Did you hear me?” he repeated.

  Shaking my head, I said, “No. Sorry, I got distracted by the decorations.” A snowy column had mesmerized me with an elaborate relief carved into the top. It seemed to depict some sort of battle scene, but it was too far away for me to really tell.

  “I said that I think this is the entrance to their throne room or something. Look.”

  I followed the line of his arm to see where he was pointing. At the end of the hall, directly across from where we stood, was a set of double doors inlaid in gold, nearly as tall as the ones we had walked through to gain entrance to the building from the outside. “I think you may be right.”

  We scurried down the hall toward the doors, both excited and terrified. Who knew what would happen once we had passed through those doors? Of course, that depended upon whether we were allowed to enter or not. We might have gotten this far, but it didn’t necessarily mean that we would be granted an audience with the Olympian gods.

  Zac turned to me when we reached the doors. “So, are we supposed to knock or something?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the expert on the gods and all things religious.”

  “Yeah, but my training and textbooks didn’t cover all this.” The gesture he made encompassed the doors and the entire hall. “Most mortals don’t make it up here, nor do they have any reason to believe this place actually exists.”

  “I wouldn’t have believed it existed if we weren’t actually standing here.”

  “My point, exactly.” He paused. “I suppose it would be rude to just barge in without knocking.”

  “You’re probably right,” I agreed.

  “Well, here goes.” He winced and, taking a deep breath, knocked on the heavy door. The sound of him rapping on the gilded door echoed throughout the hall. “Someone had to have heard that.”

  Before I could reply, both doors swung open. They made a slight creaking sound, which I found funny for some reason. It was hard for me to hold back my laughter. I would have thought the doors to the Olympus throne room would be better oiled!

  We stared into the bright light that shone from the doorway. “Is anyone even there?” I whispered to Zac.

  “Enter!” a voice boomed, sounding far away.

  “Guess that answers my question,” I muttered.

  We started forward. “How the hell are we supposed to see where we’re going?” Zac complained loudly. “I feel like I’m going to trip over something—like my own feet.”

  Someone or something must have heard him, because the blinding light suddenly dimmed.

  “That’s better,” I said in relief.

  I still couldn’t make out much of the room we were in. I could barely distinguish some shapes in the distance. As we drew closer, I then realized they were thrones: twelve of them, set in a semi-circle. The two in the center of the curve were, by far, the most elaborate. One, the largest of the entire group, was massive. It looked to be solid gold, and cut in sharp lines. To its right stood a delicate silver throne, with graceful, sloping curves. The other ten thrones were carved of the same white marble as the exterior of the castle. They all appeared to be empty.

  “I thought there was someone here,” I whispered, turning my head toward Zac. “I heard a voice when we came in. Did you hear the voice, too? And who opened the door?”

  “What do you want of the gods of Olympus, Necromancer and child of the Zayin?”

  I jerked my head back in the direction of the thrones in surprise. I swore they had all been empty a moment before, but now the gold and silver thrones were occupied, as well as four of the ten marble thrones.

  As I stared at the gods sitting in their thrones, Zac nudged me in the ribs. “Curtsey, quick,” he breathed.

  I hastily dropped into an awkward curtsey, trying not to trip over my own two feet. To my left, Zac was executing a perfect, deep bow. He must have had a lot more practice than I had. Maybe bowing was part of his training.

  “Lord Zeus, Lady Hera,” Zac said, inclining his head in turn toward the god and goddess who sat in the gold and silver thrones. He turned toward the others, nodding to them as well. “Lady Aphrodite, Lord Hermes, Lady Athena,” and concluding with, “Lord Ares.”

  How he knew who each of them were was beyond me. He really must have studied hard. I had guessed that the two in the center were Zeus and Hera, since he had told me they were King and Queen of the gods. As for the rest, I wasn’t sure whom he had addressed. I couldn’t tell Aphrodite from Athena, or Hermes from Ares. I figured I should keep quiet until I figured it out. Hopefully, Zac or one of the gods would say something to help me.

  The three goddesses and one of the gods nodded back to him. Zeus and one of the other gods remained motionless. “I ask again, Zayin, what is your business with us?” Zeus asked, his voice stony.

  Zac cleared his throat loudly. “We wish for assistance in locating The Helm of Hades.”

  Zeus eyed us critically. “You speak of Hades’ Helm of Darkness?”

  Zac nodded. “Yes.”

  “And why should we grant you assistance? The Helm of Darkness is not something we generally allow mortals to access.”

  “I understand that this is an odd request,” Zac said politely. “However, there is a great evil abroad in the world. There is a war coming. Some would use Hades’ Helm to raise an army to take over the entire Earth and everything in it.”

  “War is not necessarily a bad thing,” one of the other gods said.

  “This is true, Lord Ares. But I believe this one would be. That is why we ask for your help in locating the Helm before this other person does. My fiancée and I wish to prevent this war.” He gestured toward me.

  One of the goddesses leaned forward slightly. “Fiancée? You two are in love? A necromancer and a Zayin warrior?” She breathed a dramatic sigh. “Oh, how terribly tragic! Zeus, we must help them!”

  “Aphrodite, do not jump to decisions without us discussing this,” Zeus told her, disgust coloring his voice.

  “Now, Brother, like it or not, Aphrodite is correct,” the one I assumed was Hera said. She held up a hand to cut off his protest. “I’m not saying help them just because they are in love. It is the right thing to do.”

  “The world cannot afford another war just now,” the third goddess cut in. “Use some wisdom, Zeus, Ares. Our Earth is in enough chaos as it is. Why should we allow it to become worse when we could do something to prevent it?”

  “Because we cannot allow another living mortal to go into Hades, Athena!” the last god present spoke up. “That never ends well.”

  “Perhaps you could aid them, Hermes. After all, who other than Hades himself knows the path there better than you?” Athena told him.

  He shook his head. “I will not be responsible for their
fate. Leave them to their own devices.”

  “If you don’t help us, everyone’s fate will be ended!” I cried out, my voice somehow carrying over the gods’ discussion. “Even you, with all your power, might be gone if we allow The Necrovorst to win.”

  They all stopped talking and stared at me. I suddenly felt incredibly small.

  “You have an opinion on this, Necromancer?” Zeus asked.

  Now that he was directly addressing me, he seemed to be a lot more intimidating than when we had first walked in. “Yes, sir… uh, Your Majesty?” I asked with uncertainty, not entirely sure as to how I should address him.

  “Lord Zeus is fine,” he said, answering my unspoken question.

  “Lord Zeus,” I repeated. “I’m new to this whole supernatural thing. I admit I don’t know much yet.”

  “Yes, I noticed that you have come into your powers early. You are young, for a necromancer.”

  I nodded. “Yes, due to an accident. I can’t control my powers yet. I’m not even sure if I’ve seen a ghost, other than Zac.” I waved my hand in his direction. “What I do know, is that this Necrovorst guy is bad news. Now, I haven’t met him, but what he wants to do would change the world—and not in a good way. If he’s left unchecked and he collects the Helm and whatever else he’s looking for, we’re all in trouble. That might include all of you here on Olympus, too. It wouldn’t only affect the living, but the dead, and the immortal.

  “Zac and I are trying to stop him, but right now, your help is desperately needed. We wouldn’t have come here to disturb you if it wasn’t of the utmost importance. The Helm's location is unknown. We thought here might be the best place to start. If anyone would know the location, it would be the gods of Olympus.” I paused and looked at each of them in turn, ending with Zeus.

  I may not have known much about the Greek gods, but I knew that Zeus was the head honcho, so to speak. If we didn’t get him on our side, we were likely screwed. “Now, please, will you help us to stop this evil from infecting the entire world and Underworld? If you know where the Helm is, please tell us. Help us get it before The Necrovorst does.”

  All in all, I thought it was a pretty convincing speech, but I wasn’t a god. They had probably given and heard plenty of speeches over the years. They didn’t respond to me right away. Instead, they turned away from Zac and me and began to argue among themselves. Their voices rose and fell, and yet somehow, I couldn’t really understand what they were saying. Maybe they were speaking in Greek. It was hard to tell.