Wings of Fury

by Emily R. King

  The mountain seemed to never end. My legs and lungs burned, and my bad ankle throbbed, but I pushed myself to the end of the path. The message was still on the line outside the cave. Just as we’d hoped, Zeus’s guard came out to retrieve it. I crept up behind her, hooked my arm around her neck, and covered her mouth with my opposite hand.

  “Shh,” I said, muffling her protests.

  She flailed, wore herself out, and ran out of air. I laid her unconscious body on the ground and strode to the cave.

  “Sibylla!” Zeus called from inside. “I’m cold without you.”

  I pulled Theo’s knife from the sheath at my waist and padded in.

  Scant light danced from a candle on the floor near a pile of satin pillows. No more guards were anywhere to be seen, nor was Zeus. Then suddenly, he was behind me, kissing my neck.

  “Mm,” he said, his hand slipping down my hip. “You’re not Sibylla.”

  I’d thought I might need to seduce him to gain his attention, but I should have known that he would attempt it first. In one motion, I grabbed his hand from my waist, spun around so I was behind him, twisted his arm, and pressed the blade of the knife to his throat. He wore breeches and nothing else. Even his feet were bare.

  “You’ve a real eye for women, Your Excellency.”

  “Oh, it’s you. Again. Didn’t I send you away?”

  “I have trouble obeying imbeciles.” I pushed the blade closer to his skin. “Move.”

  He shuffled out of the cave with me. “I hope we aren’t going far. My feet hurt.”

  “You should try wearing clothes.”

  “What did you do with Sibylla?”

  “She’ll wake up in a little while.”

  He winced as he stepped on a pine cone. “Where are you taking me? You are aware that we’re on an island and you’ve nowhere to hide?”

  “You’re the one who likes to hide.” I yanked on the arm I had twisted behind his back and shoved him forward. “How big an escape boat do you think your life is worth to the tribe?”

  “You’re overestimating my value.”

  “Or you’re underestimating it.”

  “Are you kidnapping me?” He laughed. “I thought you were ambitious before, but now? You ask me to dethrone the God of Gods, all right, I can see the merit in that. But kidnapping me on your own?”

  “She isn’t alone.” Bronte stepped out of the trees, aiming my spear at him.

  He preened a little. “Good evening, fair sister. Look at the two of you. Are either of you wed? But, of course, you aren’t. Any man would be a fool to trust you.”

  “That may be the first sensible thing he’s ever said,” I remarked.

  “You couldn’t have grabbed him a robe?” Bronte asked, making a face.

  “I don’t think he owns different clothes.”

  “Oh, really,” Zeus scoffed. “What do you two sleep in?”

  Bronte held up the muzzle she had swiped from camp. “Can we gag him now? Please?”

  “That’s a delightful toy,” Zeus remarked. “Would you like to know how I use it on my maidens?”

  “No,” Bronte and I replied in unison.

  “Oh, I see. Your exoticism only applies to ambushing people in their homes at night.”

  “Stop your harping,” I said.

  “Is this kidnapping another plea to make me ruler of the world? I’ve no interest in leaving this place, let alone to conquer the First House. Why would I? I have everything I need right here.”

  “My sister told you to shut up,” Bronte replied. We each grabbed one of his arms and started into the woods.

  “Althea!”

  I stopped. “Did you hear that?”

  “Althea!”

  “That’s Theo,” Bronte said.

  “Who’s Theo?” Zeus asked.

  The three of us had agreed to meet him at the boat. Something must have gone awry.

  Theo ran up the trail and into view, still naked. A blush fired across my cheeks.

  “The guards are coming,” he panted. “Euboea woke them. I held her off as long as I could.”

  “Not long enough,” Bronte said.

  “How long did you think she would be distracted by my nakedness?” he retorted.

  I was still distracted, but I didn’t say so.

  Shouts sounded nearby, and torches bobbed in the trees.

  “We still have our prisoner,” I said. “Let’s return to the cave.”

  Bronte and I dragged Zeus inside. Theo took his sword back and watched for the incoming guards.

  “Could you ask him to put something on?” Zeus asked.

  Bronte rolled her eyes. “The irony of that request . . .”

  I threw Theo a robe, which he yanked on. It fit so snuggly across his chest and shoulders that he might as well have still been naked.

  I had to stop thinking about him naked.

  “Zeus, is there another way out of here?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “He’s lying,” Theo said. “He has no reason to help us.”

  Zeus laughed, once. “Who is this man? And why isn’t he dressed?”

  “He’s covered now,” I pointed out.

  “Hardly an improvement,” Zeus countered.

  Theo lowered his voice. “I see what you mean, Althea. You took no liberties when you described him.”

  “What . . . what did she say about me?” Zeus asked, his face falling.

  Voices and the clatter of armor approached from outside. Theo backed away from the cave’s entrance, ready with his sword. The noises grew louder, and then Adrasteia called to us inside.

  “We have the entrance surrounded! There’s no other way out.”

  “The Boy God was telling the truth,” Bronte muttered.

  Zeus’s sky-blue eyes flashed. “I am many things, but I am not a liar.”

  Just our luck. He had one noble trait, and it worked to our detriment.

  We were trapped.

  12

  Don’t panic.

  I thought I might have said this aloud, but a moment later, Theo said the same thing, as though it was a new idea.

  “Don’t panic. Zeus is a valuable hostage. We can use him to negotiate.”

  But our hostage was the Titan we returned here to negotiate with.

  “Colonel Angelos!” Euboea called. “Come out, and no harm will come to you or your party.”

  “When someone promises to do no harm, they probably intend to do just the opposite,” Bronte grumbled. She pushed a stack of parchments off a floor cushion and plopped down.

  “Careful!” Zeus kneeled and picked up the scattered parchments.

  Bronte picked one up. “Who’s Metis?”

  “That’s private.” He snatched it from her grasp.

  Bronte scanned the other parchments still on the floor. “She must be of importance. Most of these letters appear to be from her.”

  “I don’t see how that’s any of your concern.” Zeus gathered the letters and set the pile out of her reach.

  One of them slid from his grasp and fell at my feet. I noticed Rhea’s royal seal, a lion’s head, and her elegant signature at the bottom. I retrieved it before he could and started to read.

  My dearest Zeus. You will bring about monumental change. Reorganize the sky, my beloved stormking—

  “Give that back!” Zeus cried.

  “Your mother believes in you,” I said, holding the letter away from him. “She risked everything to protect you. She didn’t do that so you could laze about all day eating and fornicating.”

  “To be fair, he would probably be doing that at the palace,” Bronte chimed in dryly.

  Zeus locked his jaw and spoke through clamped teeth. “My staying in hiding doesn’t only protect me. It protects Adrasteia, Ida, and the tribe. If my father discovered that they and my mother secreted me away . . . I dare not imagine what he would do.”

  I respected his caution and his desire to protect his friends and family, but not at the expense of mine. “C
ronus raped our mother. She died giving birth to his child.” My voice trembled. I cleared my throat, hardening myself. I would not gain Zeus’s respect by dissolving into hysterics, as men were wont to think all women did. “Now he has our sister Cleora. We cannot abandon her.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “but there’s nothing I can do.”

  “You’d rather be alone?” I asked. “As long as Cronus rules, you will be without your mother and the rest of your family.”

  Zeus threw up his hands. “Even if I wanted to stand up to my father, I could never overpower him. He watches the whole of the world from his great hall. Using my strengths as a Titan could draw his eye, so I’ve never even tried.”

  His Titan strengths were inborn. All Titans could run faster, jump higher, lift more weight, and hit harder than any man on earth. I couldn’t fathom not utilizing such advantages.

  “No mastery comes without practice,” Theo said. “You must train, like any good soldier.”

  My mind lit up with an idea. “Theo, you should train him.”

  “Me?” he asked skeptically. “No.”

  Bronte munched on a nectarine. “That isn’t a bad idea.”

  “Yes, it is,” Zeus argued.

  “Listen to the boy,” Theo replied. “He’s not nearly as impressive as the rest of his kin. Maybe he’s right to stay in hiding.”

  “Do you think I’ve wanted to hide in this cave for fifteen years?” Zeus rejoined. “If Cronus finds out I’m here, he will send mercenaries to punish anyone who has ever helped me, then he will capture me and cast me into Tartarus. I live in constant fear that he will come for me.”

  “You just described every day of every woman’s life in Thessaly,” I said.

  “We’re wasting our breath.” Bronte picked up the box of letters, flipped the lid open, and took out a fistful of the parchments. “Zeus isn’t going to listen to reason, but this might convince him.” She tossed a letter into the fire.

  “No!” Zeus sank to his knees and tried to fish out pieces, but the parchment disintegrated in the flames.

  Bronte held another letter over the fire.

  I put up my hand. “Wait.”

  “I’m not ignorant of my father’s capacity for cruelty,” Zeus said, teary-eyed. “It’s because I know who he is that I hesitate.” He hung his head, his shoulders bowed. “Cronus cannot fall.”

  I felt an overwhelming desire to help Zeus up. The oracles had shown me future Zeus on his throne. I couldn’t imagine how this boy would ever become that great ruler, but I wouldn’t stand in the way of his destiny.

  I offered him my hand. “You’re Zeus, son of the God of Gods, and the next in line to rule. You don’t kneel to anyone.”

  My ring began to glow.

  Half a second later, his ring began to glow too.

  Zeus reached for me, and as his palm slid into mine, warmth coursed up my arm, and the vision of him reigning from his great hall returned, so vivid I could hear the clouds sliding past the tower. Zeus would become a true god worthy of respect. Far inside him, past his fear, this was his mission.

  He rose to his feet, paling. “Who are you?” he asked slowly.

  “You know my name.”

  He blinked several times. He looked at me differently now, as though he had suddenly shared my vision of what was to come.

  Euboea called from outside. “Your Excellency? Are you all right?”

  Zeus withdrew his hand from mine. Though the slight glow of our rings faded, the warmth lingered, humming through my veins.

  “Call them off, Zeus,” Theo said.

  “You’re not doing this alone,” Bronte added. “We’ll be with you.”

  Zeus glanced from her to me and grinned. “You know how much I favor the company of sisters.”

  “Oh, Gaea help us,” Bronte groaned.

  Zeus chuckled. “Colonel Angelos, can you train me without getting yourselves and everyone on the isle slaughtered?”

  “That would be to my benefit,” Theo replied.

  Zeus smoothed back his frizzy hair. “Euboea, stand down!”

  She called out cautiously. “Your Excellency, are you certain?”

  “I am.”

  Silence.

  “Oh, for stars’ sake, Euboea!” Zeus said. “It’s the middle of the night. Send away the guard. Our guests will return to camp soon. Provide them with anything they need. They’re staying.”

  “Including the colonel, sir?”

  “Him as well, and he may retain his weapons.”

  After another long pause, Euboea spoke. “Yes, Your Excellency. Good night.”

  The clatter of armor faded away.

  Zeus flopped into the bed of cushions. “Could anyone else use a drink?”

  “I could,” Bronte mumbled, putting his letters back in the box.

  Theo picked up Zeus’s chalice, sniffed the contents, and immediately dumped it into the firepit. “No nectar while you’re training. Your senses and faculties cannot be dulled by spirits.”

  Zeus rolled over onto his stomach and dramatically stuck his head between two pillows.

  I dug through a trunk and threw some clothes at him. “Dress appropriately for training tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” Zeus replied. “Must we start so soon?”

  “We have a lot to do,” Theo answered, already sounding weary about the work ahead. “Be ready. We start at dawn.”

  13

  We had won no one over with our attempted kidnapping. In the morning, I left Bronte asleep in our tent, and as I crossed camp, every masked woman I passed paused to glare at me. I couldn’t leave fast enough.

  I followed a well-worn path to the beach, gulping in the cleansing sea breezes, and padded across the wet sand to a pair of figures in the distance. Theo stood on a boulder that was half buried in the shoreline. Zeus picked up a massive rock and hurled it into the surf. A high tide pummeled the shore with roaring, rolling waves of gray under a moody sky.

  Zeus bent his knees and hefted another boulder. He spun in a circle and cast it easily into the sea, where it sent up a tremendous splash. As far as I could tell, the Boy God’s strength was typical for a Titan, though still impressive.

  Theo folded his arms across his chest. “You’re still working too hard. Release the rock before you make the full rotation and let the impetus of your spin finish the throw.”

  Zeus’s knees shook as he picked up the next boulder. He spotted me in midrotation and stumbled, crashing backward, the boulder landing on his chest. Theo and I both ran to him.

  “How many times must I tell you to watch your feet?” Theo said.

  Zeus pushed the boulder off and wiped at his sand-speckled brow. “I got distracted.”

  “You’re not concentrating.” Theo used his ultra-calm voice, which was much scarier than yelling. “You’re a Titan. Your strength is intrinsic, but you must not shy away from it.”

  “I’m only a second-generation Titan.”

  “Keep thinking like that, and you will be second rate.”

  Zeus sat up and brushed off his sandy hands. “I’m not my father.”

  “Your father wouldn’t trip over his own feet.”

  The Boy God stood, too fast on his gangly legs, and nearly fell over again. “Agh! I cannot do this.”

  “You fail only by giving up,” Theo barked. “Quitting isn’t an option. Too many lives depend on you.”

  “Then you save them.” Zeus took off down the beach.

  “Zeus!” I called.

  “Let him go,” Theo replied. “He’s due for a break anyway.”

  “You should go easier on him.”

  “Cronus won’t hold back. Zeus must think of himself as greater than his father, or this will never work. I’ve no patience for wasting our time.”

  “Maybe I can help by training with him,” I said.

  “No,” Theo answered immediately. “I need time alone with him. You’ll be a distraction.”

  “Zeus wasn’t expecting me earlier. That w
asn’t his fault.”

  “It was absolutely his fault. Rhea sends him maidens for his entertainment and pleasure. He has no self-control.”

  I had never seen Theo blush, but this seemed the proper moment for it. My own face felt on fire. “You won’t let me train with him because I’m a woman?”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “You might as well have.”

  Theo offered no apology. I wondered who he was worried about me distracting—Zeus or him? Or did he simply think I couldn’t train like a proper soldier?

  I walked to a boulder, squatted, and wrapped my arms around it like I had seen Zeus do. I heaved, but the rock didn’t budge.

  Theo flapped a hand at me. “Stop. You’ll strain your back.”

  “I can do it.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s too heavy.”

  Theo didn’t want me training because I was a woman. The matron didn’t like me using my spear and shield because I was a woman. I had to dress like a hoplite to go anywhere without permission, and when I did go, I had to mask myself.

  Because I was a woman.

  I pushed into my legs and hefted the rock. Careful of my footing, I spun in a circle and hurled it out to sea. The boulder didn’t go as far as Zeus’s, but it went farther than I thought it would.

  Theo gaped. “Althea . . . you—” In a heartbeat, his expression changed. “We need to leave the beach. Find cover in the trees.”

  “Why?”

  “Slave ship. Go now.”

  I spotted the vessel on the horizon as Theo urged me to run. We retreated to the tree line and crouched in the underbrush. The back of my neck burned as the trireme sailed closer, propelled by hundreds of rowers.

  “Will they come ashore?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of slave traders coming this far south.”

  “Could they have found out about the tribe?”

  “They’re trolling for something. They’re moving too slowly just to be passing by.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. I didn’t want to think about what the flashes of pain meant, but I had put off wondering why my tag suddenly hurt. Blood oaths tied two souls together, the benefactor and the victim. Both were beyond even a god’s power to break. Did my neck burn when Decimus thought of me? When he spoke my name? What did it mean?