Forge of the Gods 2

by Simon Archer

  “Yeah, that’s a thing,” I commented.

  “It’s just…” Mom shook her head slowly. “One second, they’re there and the next, poof! They’re gone.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said lamely. “I probably should have warned you.”

  “You think?” Mom looked at me sideways and shook her head again. “I thought I had gotten used to all this magic, mythic stuff when I was with your father, but it turns out that there really is no getting used to it.”

  I grabbed my mom and pulled her into a tight hug. She swallowed the rest of her complaints and hugged me back. We stood there for a moment, simply holding one another.

  “I love you, Cameron,” Mom said into my ear. “You come back to me in one piece, you hear?”

  “I hear,” I confirmed. I held back tears as I pulled away to look at her in the face. “I love you too, Mom. And come hell or high water, I’m coming home for Christmas this year.”

  “Okay,” Mom said as she put her forehead to mine. “Go be great.”

  She squeezed my upper arms and released me, giving me a small but encouraging shove. I took a large breath in and crossed back to Hailey with a glance over my shoulder. Mom offered me a small wave, and I returned it.

  “You ready?” Hailey asked sincerely.

  I nodded before I could change my mind. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Okay,” Hailey said as she stepped into the chariot and took up the reins.

  When I didn’t immediately follow, Hailey shot me a curious look. “You’ve got to get on the chariot, you know. In order to ride it.”

  “Right, right,” I said more to myself than to her. But even after that, I still didn’t move.

  “Cameron,” Hailey said seriously, “look at me.”

  I swallowed and did as I was told. Her green eyes bore into mine, and I wondered which Hailey I would see behind them. It was her soldier self, as it bore deep into me. It reached for my courage and pulled it out with a yank.

  “Get on the damn chariot,” she commanded.

  I didn’t respond verbally. Instead, I placed one foot, then the other, up onto the golden platform. The inside was more spacious than I would have thought, enough room for both of us to ride side by side up at the front. There was a bar just below the edge of the chariot, on the inside, to grip when things got bumpy. I didn’t want to think about things getting bumpy, especially when there wasn’t a back to this thing.

  The whole journey seemed ridiculously dangerous to me, and I wanted to hop right back off, but before I had a chance to second guess myself, Hailey slapped the reins against the chariot, sending a ripple up to the four majestic horses.

  “Ha!” she cheered, excitement filling her as we darted forward.

  I bumped into the front and then nearly lost my footing due to the intense acceleration. My hands found the bar and gripped it with white knuckles. My knees bent into a crouch as I ducked behind the front of the chariot, shielding myself. Automatically, my eyes closed, and I put all of my weight into my feet in an effort to keep myself steady.

  Like the rising of an airplane, we ascended into the air. It was a slow incline, but I immediately felt the change as my body tipped backward. There was a violent rush in my ears, and I hollered out to counteract the feeling. My voice joined Hailey’s excited whoop as we climbed higher and higher into the air.

  Lunch stirred in my stomach, and I fought to keep it down inside me. It felt like an eternity before we leveled out. My ears adjusted to the altitude, and it took me a second or two to pop them properly. Once I did, the rush of the wind came back and filled my head with cotton. It was impossible to concentrate from down here. The chariot created a sort of wind tunnel, and from my lower position, the noise was much more severe.

  I had a decision to make. It was either stay down here and blow my eardrums out or rise up and possibly lose my lunch. Reason told me I needed to stand up, but my knees shook so badly that I wasn’t sure my legs could hold me even if I could get upright.

  “Cameron,” Hailey’s voice broke through the roaring. “Are you alright?”

  I felt a slight pressure on my hand. I opened my eyes ever so slightly and glanced up to my arms, which remained over my head, hanging on to the safety bar.

  Hailey’s hand rested upon my own. The weight of it was comforting while simultaneously sending tingles down my elbow and up to my shoulder. Slowly, she peeled my fingers, one by one, off the safety bar and took my hand in hers. She looped her fingers through my own and squeezed.

  “Stand up,” Hailey said, her voice breaking through the onslaught of noise.

  Gods, I wanted to stand up. I wanted to enjoy this alone time with this hot, gorgeous woman who was an excellent kisser and who I had mind blowing sex with. I wanted to experience the exhilaration of riding in Helios's chariot as it blazed across the sky.

  My fear held me down like a rock in my stomach. Slowly but surely, like I would a piece of metal, I chipped away at that rock of solid fear. With each bit I broke away, my knees subconsciously rose an inch. I took my time, and Hailey didn’t rush me, for which I was immensely grateful. She just continued to hold my hand. It was a solid presence, something to anchor myself as I rose to my full height. However, my eyes stayed closed, though I was now standing.

  The roaring was much quieter now that I wasn’t in the wind tunnel of the chariot. I could feel her breath on my skin, and more shivers raced down my body. This time they traveled from behind my ear to my spine and settled at the lower part of my body, warm and soothing.

  “Now, do you think you can open your eyes?” Hailey asked gently.

  I shook my head and rolled my lips over my teeth. “No,” I muttered through my closed mouth.

  “Okay,” Hailey said, not pressuring me. “Take your time. Right now, I’ll just tell you what it looks like. Is that okay?”

  I thought about her offer for a moment and considered it. Then I nodded, declaring that to be safe enough.

  “Alright.” Hailey took in a big breath, preparing herself. “It looks like fresh fallen snow along gentle hills. They roll across in waves and reflect the light of the sun off their fluffiness. Parts of it look like cotton candy, without the food dye. Just white. All white.”

  Hailey inhaled, and I found my breathing matching her. Inhale for inhale. Exhale for exhale. “And the sky, my gods, Cameron, the sky. It is the most beautiful blue you’ve ever seen in your life. I don’t think there’s a word for this type of blue. It’s like the ocean at its purest. But the whole thing is still, unlike the clouds which keep moving. It’s almost as if you can see the dome of the Earth when you look at it, staring up into a bowl of blue.”

  My insides craved to see it. I wanted to experience it with her, share this moment, and remember it. I squeezed her hand tightly, hard enough to rub her knuckles together, but she didn’t complain. We breathed in tandem a couple more times before I managed to open my eyes.

  My vision was blurry at first.

  The first thing I saw was the four glimmering horses straight ahead. They galloped along as if they were running on solid ground. But their hooves moved in silence, clopping against nothing but air. Grace surrounded the creatures as they floated above the clouds.

  My gaze shifted from the horses to the surrounding scenery. It was as gorgeous as Hailey described. Not even da Vinci himself could capture the purity of this beauty. It was Uranus at his best and brightest. While Zeus was now the god of the sky, it was Gaia and Uranus who had first created this gorgeous home we called Earth. Caught between the two, I could finally observe the magnificence of their work.

  “Wow,” I breathed, unable to think of anything else.

  “Wow is right,” Hailey agreed.

  “How often do you get to use the chariot?” I asked, it was more of a distraction tactic than anything else. Because, yes, while the sight before us was a beautiful one indeed, there was still a large part of me wanting to crawl back down to the confines of the chariot, with my eyes glued shut.

&nb
sp; “Only once a year,” Hailey said with a disappointed sigh. “To pick up students like this.”

  “How many can you fit in here?” I asked, chancing a glance about the vehicle. My eyes caught a glimpse of the open back behind me, and my stomach fell to the floor. I immediately turned back to the front and swallowed the bile that dared to rise up in the back of my throat.

  “Only three,” Hailey answered, not noticing my distress as she took up the reins in both hands again. “There are enough vehicles to gather everyone, though some years, like last year, I was lucky enough to get to have more than one trip.”

  “Am I…” I hesitated, unsure why the question made me nervous. “Am I your only pick up this year?”

  “Yes,” Hailey said, staring ahead at the invisible pathway.

  My heart fluttered at the thought. But I didn’t want to say anything like that, so I said the only other thing I could think of. “Well, thank you then.”

  “Thank you,” Hailey replied. “It’s because of you that I get to fly this thing at all. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

  “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to be drafted to Oura?” I joked.

  Hailey smiled at my comment. “No, I’m Enka all the way. Always and forever.”

  “Watch me end up drafted to Vreg or something like that,” I groaned. “That would be just my luck.”

  “They won’t do that,” Hailey said with enough confidence to make me think she already knew the answer. “It wouldn’t make any tactical sense.”

  “So then I guess I’ll be Enka if we’re going with logic,” I said with a smile of my own. “Always and forever.”

  Hailey didn’t reply to me. She had a serious look on her face and didn’t spare me a glance for a moment. It made me think I had said something wrong, which sent my doubts and anxieties in a spin. I wondered what she was thinking about and wanted to keep the conversation going. Not only to ease my fear of heights, but also because I enjoyed talking to her.

  “Did you ever think you would be drafted to any other branch?” I asked, suspecting the answer but still wanting to hear it directly from her.

  “No,” Hailey said with a slight shake of her head. “It’s always been Enka for me. Even when we were kids, both Kari and I knew…” Her voice trailed off as she said her name.

  The surrounding air, once crisp and beautiful, grew heavy and stale. The mere mention of Hailey's former friend, the traitor who tried to kill us both, would sour any conversation. I thought of a way to turn it around, change the subject, get the banter going again. Turned out that Hailey spoke first.

  “Is it weird to miss her?” Hailey said, baring a bit of her feelings out in the open.

  “No,” I said automatically. “She was your friend for a long time. It’s like a breakup, that just doesn’t go away overnight.”

  Hailey sighed and leaned her head back to look directly up, as if the answer to her problems was written out among the blue sky. “I still can’t believe she did it, you know. I never would have thought it of her. I keep thinking that there had to be signs or something, but I never saw any.”

  “Love is blind or something like that.” I said the words without thinking.

  Hailey didn’t respond to me right away. She bit the inside of her cheek, looking like she wanted to say something but didn’t. We stood in the weighted silence, both clearly uncomfortable. Even though we were flying through the air at an alarming rate, I felt stuck and still.

  “I guess it's hard to see the flaws in the ones we love,” Hailey said, more to herself than to me.

  “It is,” I agreed with her.

  “I’ve spent all of last semester and this summer trying to forgive myself,” Hailey said, once again spilling her guts. “I think I’m getting there, but it’s hard. And I do. Miss her, I mean.”

  This time, I reached out to comfort her. I released the safety bar and put a hand on her forearm. Hailey turned to look at me and rested her free hand atop mine.

  We looked into one another’s eyes, and I was shocked to realize how many times Hailey let me see her true self. I peered into her soul over and over again, unafraid and even exhilarated that she trusted me that much. We were close enough to kiss, and with a single step towards her, I had her lips captured with mine.

  She moaned and raised her hands to grip my shoulders as we stabilized each other, lost in our desires.

  When the chariot lurched to the side, we broke apart as our feet became tangled. Hailey had loosened the reins in her grip when she had been kissing me and suddenly the reins were loose and threatened to slip over the side.

  Unthinkingly, I made a grab for them, but they fell out of my grip, like a slippery salamander, and fell further over the edge. I pushed away from Hailey and leaned over the side of the chariot with an open palm. My fingers clasped around the thin leather, and I released a triumphant whoop!

  “Got them!” I cheered.

  My excitement was short-lived, however, as the horses decided to begin our descent with me hanging over the side of the chariot. We pushed through the sea of clouds, and suddenly, the ground appeared.

  It was wide and vast. The whole earth rested far, far, far below me. Everything was miniature and vaguely indistinguishable. I could distinguish the trees of the woods surrounding the campus, but they were still way down there.

  I let out a choked gasp and froze out of pure fear. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the ground as it hurtled up towards me. My mouth hung open, and I babbled incoherent sounds of bewilderment, terror, and surprise.

  The horses pummeled downward, and I found I could barely push myself up and away from the edge due to the pure force of our descent. The hand with the reins shook violently.

  “Cameron,” Hailey called out from somewhere that sounded a thousand miles away.

  There was a fierce tugging at my midsection. An arm wrapped under my arms, and yanked me backward. My knees buckled just then, and I collapsed into Hailey’s arms. We fell to the floor of the chariot together, pushed by my weight and the force of the decline.

  In the midst of all the commotion, I lost hold of the reins I’d worked so hard to retain. We crouched together at the front of the chariot, staring out the open back as the horses raced downward, without a guide.

  I held Hailey close. We were in freefall, and there was a slight lightness to my body that frightened me the most. I felt like I didn’t have control. Even with one hand clutching the safety bar for dear life, there was no guarantee that we wouldn’t crash and burn into the earth. Well, I wouldn’t burn, but crashing was still a definite possibility.

  “Hang on!” Hailey called out as the whirl of wind returned.

  I gripped her shirt, tufts of it popping out between my fingers, while my other hand remained glued to the safety bar. The fall felt like it would never end, so when we finally reached the ground with an unsteady bump and jolt, I couldn’t believe it at first. We rolled forward and decelerated as best we could. We rolled along uneven ground, and my stomach felt like it was on a trampoline.

  Finally, we grounded to a halt. Hailey and I fell back against the chariot as the horses stopped. We sat there for a moment, holding on to one another, too stunned to move.

  Suddenly, Hailey released a bark of a laugh. At first, I pushed her off and looked incredulously at her unstoppable, almost insane laughter. As I watched the happiness roll off her, I found my own face breaking into a smile. Soon, my own laughter bubbled up to the surface and joined in harmony with hers. The pair of us laid in the chariot together, laughed our asses off as the relief of almost dying came loose.

  “Next year,” I said through fits of laughter, “I’m taking the Argo.”

  5

  We tumbled out of the chariot like a pair of drunken sailors gaining their sea legs again for the first time. Our laughter finally subsided when we saw a lean figure running towards us in the distance. I realized, then, that we’d landed over by the farmhouse which made sense considering it was one of the large
st parts of campus with an open area for landing, or crash landing, flying chariots.

  Fear took hold of my throat and held my laughter captive as I saw the older woman coming for us. It took me a minute, though, to realize that I had nothing to be afraid of. The woman was wearing a cowboy hat and overalls with brown leather boots. She walked with a slight limp and had dirt splashed across her face.

  Ann, the resident campus farmer and caretaker of the animals, pounded over to us with a grim expression. “You two nearly gave me a damn heart attack!”

  “Sorry, Ann,” Hailey said apologetically.

  “Damn right, you’re sorry!” Ann cursed again. “Holy Hermes, you two. Falling out of the sky like that. I thought you knew how to drive that thing, Hailey.”

  “I do,” the soldier insisted, her pride obviously wounded.

  “Then what the hell happened?” Ann said as she put her hands on her hips. “Because that was the most chaotic landing I’d ever seen in my life.”

  “I… well, you see…” Hailey scratched at the back of her neck, lost for words.

  “It’s my fault,” I jumped in. “I’m afraid of heights, as you may remember.”

  “Oh, I remember,” Ann said, eyeing me as I referred to the pegasus incident from New Year’s. “I’m surprised you didn’t come on the Argo with some of the other students.”

  I shot Hailey a glare which she didn’t catch because she was still looking at the ground, embarrassed. “Yes, well, I didn’t know that was an option at the time. Anyway, I was freaking out on the chariot, and Hailey tried to help me, and we lost the reins, and hence,” I gestured to the chariot, “crash landing.”

  “You’re lucky that Aethon, Pyrois, Phelgon, and Eous knew where to go,” Ann said as she crossed over to the horses. She pulled out some sugar cubes from the front pocket of her overall and fed a couple to each of Apollo’s horses. “Because otherwise, you would have been driving blind up there and might have landed in worse shape than you did.”

  “At least we didn’t break it, or anyone,” I said, trying to find the bright side.