The Immortality Trials Omnibus

by Eliza Raine

  ‘Theseus, there’s nothing here, it’s OK,’ she told him. He ignored her, throwing his hands over his head. Hedone stepped towards him and gripped his arms gently. ‘Theseus, look at me.’

  She tried to get him to fix his wild gaze on her but his eyes darted around the small room and he pulled away from her, stumbling. Hedone’s breath caught as he flailed his arms and lurched towards the sphinx. She tried to grab for him again but he side-stepped, covering his face with his hands once more and brushing his booted foot against the sphinx’s outstretched paw. The creature reacted in a heartbeat. She was up on all fours, her huge wings filling the small room as her serene eyes flashed with fire.

  ‘Touch me again and you will both die,’ she said, her voice loud enough to make Theseus stop staggering long enough for Hedone to pull him to her. ‘Now, answer the riddle. What is as light as a feather but cannot be held by the world’s strongest man for more than a few minutes?’

  ‘Theseus, did you hear that?’ Hedone shook him desperately. Try as she might, she couldn’t work out what the answer was. She knew it wasn’t a physical object, as the world’s strongest man would be able to hold anything that was as light as a feather, but she didn’t know what it could be.

  ‘Responsibility?’ she said, screwing up her face as she said it. She knew it was wrong.

  ‘Incorrect. You have one try remaining.’ The sphinx’s wing rippled.

  ‘Theseus, please, look at me,’ Hedone took his jaw in her hand and held his face steady in front of her own.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered as he focused on her.

  ‘What is the answer to the riddle?’ she asked him, through gritted teeth. He stared back at her vacantly. ‘What can nobody hold for more than a few minutes?’ she half shouted at him.

  ‘Unless you live under the sea, your breath.’ He shrugged and took a huge gulp of air and held it, his cheeks puffing out.

  Hedone stared at him a moment. He was right. She spun around to face the sphinx.

  ‘Your breath,’ she said.

  ‘Correct,’ said the sphinx and stepped to one side, sitting back down on her haunches. The cord hung from the far corner of the room and Hedone jumped as Theseus suddenly gasped for air behind her.

  ‘I held my breath,’ he said.

  ‘I know, Theseus, well done,’ she muttered as she grabbed his elbow and pulled him past the sphinx to the rope.

  17

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Phyleus asked Lyssa as they pulled themselves up yet another rope ladder.

  ‘Thirsty. And a little dizzy,’ she answered.

  ‘Still seeing vines everywhere?’

  ‘There are vines everywhere,’ she scowled. Phyleus laughed.

  ‘Good point,’ he said. They’d been climbing up the trunk of the gargantuan tree that housed the palace for what seemed like forever, and Lyssa wanted to cause Dionysus permanent damage for making her do it in a dress. At least she still had her boots on. She wouldn’t have made it more than ten feet off the ground in heels.

  ‘Will the others still be mad from the wine?’ she asked Phyleus as he held a hand down to her and pulled her off the rope ladder and onto a wide branch supporting a small wooden hut.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, walking towards the next ladder. ‘Yeah, a glass that size will last a while.’

  She shuddered. ‘It was horrible. I thought… I thought I had no legs.’ Her heart ached for Abderos, for what he must have gone through.

  ‘The others will get it worse.’

  Lyssa waited for him to get halfway up the ladder, then stepped onto it herself.

  ‘And you had to drink a lot of it?’ she asked him.

  ‘It’s different when you’re a kid,’ Phyleus answered. ‘No inner demons to face. Just scary monsters.’ Lyssa wondered again what his father had made him do that should have killed him.

  ‘And your brother and sister had to drink it too?’

  ‘Yep. Until they were immune. The door’s here.’ She climbed up onto the branch and instead of another rope ladder, there was door into the trunk of the tree.

  ‘Is that the throne room?’

  Phyleus shook his head. ‘No. There’s a staircase to the throne room. But it’s not a normal staircase,’ he warned her. She raised an eyebrow. ‘It’ll make you think you’re mad again. Just make sure that you follow me, and keep moving up. Never go down.’

  ‘Never go down,’ she repeated.

  He smiled.

  ‘We’re nearly there, Captain,’ he said.

  The second they stepped through the carved door the world tilted again. They were in a square stairwell with a black-and-white chequered floor and stairs spiralling up around the four walls, but the checks seemed to move and shift before her eyes.

  ‘Ignore the floor, keep moving up,’ Phyleus said and started up the stairs. She followed him and gasped as her boots made contact with the first step. The floor was actually tilting. She pushed both hands against the wall as the room swung to the side, slowly rotating. She was turning upside down, she realised.

  ‘What’s—’ she started to say to Phyleus, but he was gone. ‘Phyleus?’ she called loudly. ‘Where are you?’ There was no answer. Black-and-white steps just spiralled endlessly and emptily ahead of her. The room came slowly to a halt and she hesitantly let go of the wall. She touched her hair, which was no longer falling over her shoulders but hanging from her head towards what had been the ceiling and now seemed to be the floor. Keep moving up, Phyleus had said. Which way was up?

  She was now at the top. She took a step backwards, and the floor lurched again, a section of the staircase swinging out this time, the square room widening to accommodate it. She stared as new steps grew, zigzagging higher. She walked quickly towards them, closing her eyes when the lurching motion made her feel sick.

  The staircase moved, growing, shrinking and rotating repeatedly, but Lyssa did exactly what Phyleus had told her to do and kept going up, even when it meant retracing her steps. The longer she was in the black-and-white room, the more surreal it felt and the less sure she was that she would ever get out. The feeling of being trapped hovered at the edge of her awareness but she refused to entertain it. She knew that as soon as she let it in the thought would cripple her, panic turning to useless Rage. Phyleus told you what to do, just keep going up, she told herself calmly over and over again. But the steps were endless and the feeling was growing. She was never going to get out. She would be trapped walking these eternally shifting stairs alone forever. Her body ached and her eyes burned and adrenaline started to surge within her, making her stomach churn more.

  ‘Lyssa?’

  Her head snapped up, in the direction the voice had come from. ‘Phyleus?’

  ‘You’re almost there,’ he called back.

  The relief hit her so hard she physically felt it. Renewed energy pulsed through her legs and she picked up her pace, taking two steps at a time as the section of staircase she was on swung out and joined a new, steeper part.

  There he was. At the top of the steep steps Phyleus was grinning at her, and she thought his laughing brown eyes were the best things she had ever seen.

  18

  ‘I thought I was never going to get out,’ she breathed as she reached the top step.

  ‘We’ve only been in here for a minute,’ he told her, pulling her towards an intricately carved arched door. The chequered floor continued to wobble beneath her.

  ‘A minute?’ she said incredulously.

  ‘Dionysus is god of madness. There’s rooms like this all over the palace and time is weird in all of them.’ He gestured at the door. ‘Go ahead,’ he said.

  She pushed open the door and was relieved to see no black and white. It was a warm room and, like the dining hall they had eaten in, it seemed to be carved from the actual tree. Fairy lights hovered everywhere, illuminating a crowd of people lining each side of the room. Four flame dishes stood in front of a throne raised on a dais. Dionysus stood up from the throne when she s
tepped into the room and spread his arms wide.

  ‘Captain Lyssa!’ The images flickering in the flame dishes caught her attention and she stepped towards them. Eryx and Antaeus were in the first one, huddled in the corner of a stall opposite a beautiful sleek black cat that was pacing back and forth. Hedone and Theseus were in the next one, Theseus sat on the forest floor, Hedone trying desperately to pull him to his feet. As her eyes fell on the third she recoiled, stepping backwards involuntarily. The stall was covered in blood, and the remains of a creature were scattered around the small room. Hercules was crouching in the middle of the carnage, rocking, with his hands over his face. Evadne was sat in the corner with her knees drawn up to her pale face, blood indistinguishable from the red of her dress.

  Lyssa pulled her eyes away from the harrowing scene to the fourth flame dish. Her own face, covered in dirty smudges and surrounded by wild red curls, looked back at her. As she watched, a golden crown of leaves grew around her head.

  ‘We have a victor!’ roared Dionysus and the room erupted in applause.

  They had won. That was two Trials. They had won two Trials. Hope and triumph swelled in Lyssa and she stared at Phyleus.

  ‘We won,’ she said, just to hear it out loud. ‘We’re winning.’

  ‘And you’ve won the loyalty of a chimera.’ Phyleus grinned.

  ‘About that…’ Dionysus said, and the room fell quiet. ‘How about I offer you a trade? Just to see what sort of hero you are.’ Dionysus hopped down off the dais and stepped past the dishes towards her. She narrowed her eyes but bowed her head.

  ‘What sort of trade?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘The madness gripping the other heroes will last some time and the memory of what they saw may haunt them for much longer. I’ll end all of the madness right now and erase everyone’s memory of it, including yours - in exchange for the chimera’s loyalty.’

  Lyssa thought of the mighty creature she’d faced in the stable, its fearsome heads and magnificent wings. Then she looked at Antaeus in the flame dish, the huge man cowering and screaming, Eryx desperate and frustrated by his side. She looked at Hedone, tears streaming down her face as she yanked at Theseus, his normally warm expression replaced by wild-eyed fear.

  ‘I’ll take your trade,’ Lyssa said as she looked at the flame dish with Hercules in the centre. Her voice hardened. ‘But he keeps the bad memories.’

  ‘Deal,’ Dionysus said. ‘I’m quite happy not to do Hercules any favours. He killed my manticore, and I was quite fond of it.’ The god scowled for a second then his face brightened. ‘You’re a smuggler – do you know where I can get a new one?’

  Phyleus stepped forward.

  ‘I’m sorry, my lord Dionysus,’ he said, ‘we don’t trade in living beings. It’s against the code.’

  Lyssa looked at him, and despite herself her heart swelled with pride. Phyleus really was one of them now.

  Hephaestus

  The Immortality Trials

  Book Six

  1

  ‘I hope you’re keeping that dress on,’ Phyleus said. His voice startled Lyssa as she untied the gold band from around her middle.

  ‘Phyleus! What did I tell you about abusing talking through the ship like this?’ she snapped back.

  ‘It’s important!’ he protested. ‘We’re having a party, and that dress is perfect for a party.’

  Lyssa rolled her eyes. ‘Even if I wanted to keep the dress on, which I don’t, it’s filthy.’

  There was a pause.

  ‘You know, I could get you a new one.’

  ‘Don’t you dare. Go away.’ She heard him laugh in her mind and a smile tugged at her own lips.

  ‘You’d look great in green,’ he said.

  ‘And you’ll look great hanging over the edge of the Alastor for dear life if you buy me a dress.’

  ‘Captain!’ Phyleus said in pretend shock. ‘You wouldn’t throw me overboard! Not after I just saved your life.’

  ‘You did, you know,’ she answered softly. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’ Lyssa could picture him shrugging. Was he undressing in his room too? The thought made her blush. ‘Oh, and in case it comes in handy, I’m immune to most madness-inducing things. Including ice-phoenix song,’ he said offhandedly.

  ‘Right. Well. That explains that.’

  He said nothing, and she wiggled out of the heavy satin dress. ‘What did your father make you do?’ she asked him, and instantly regretted it.

  There was a long pause, and she was about to apologise for prying when he said, ‘He sent me to perform an ancient Taurean ritual. It’s kind of a long story and… If I’m being honest, not one I’m not willing to share.’

  Lyssa’s face burned with embarrassment. ‘I get it. Sure. I – I won’t ask again,’ she spluttered. Gods, how un-captain like she was being? She scrabbled for something to say that would re-assert her authority.

  ‘Have you still got the dress on?’ Phyleus said, before she could come up with anything.

  ‘No!’ she exclaimed, grateful for the change in subject.

  ‘Oh. What have you got on?’

  ‘None of your damn business,’ she said, as a knock on her door made her swivel quickly. Was he standing outside her room? Panic filled her as she looked down at herself. She didn’t have anything on.

  ‘Captain?’ It was Len’s voice.

  ‘Hang on,’ she called out loud, with a relieved sigh. ‘Len’s here, so go away,’ she said to Phyleus, and hurriedly pulled on trousers and a shirt from the trunk at the foot of her bed. She opened the door a fraction and looked down at the satyr.

  ‘Len?’ she said. He had a frown on his small goat face.

  ‘Captain, you need to do something about Nestor.’ Lyssa raised her eyebrows. ‘She says we can’t have a party.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Lyssa.

  ‘She says it’s inappropriate to celebrate.’

  ‘She does sort of have a point,’ said Lyssa. ‘I mean, we’re winning now, but we’ve still got seven more Trials to go.’

  Len stamped a tiny hoof. ‘All the more reason to celebrate and boost crew morale while we’ve got the chance!’

  Lyssa sighed and looked mournfully towards her bath-tub. ‘Fine, I’ll come and talk to her,’ she said and stepped out of her room, pulling the door shut resignedly behind her.

  ‘Nestor, I understand that it doesn’t feel right to celebrate—’

  ‘Captain, Cyllarus died and the monster who killed him is still out there,’ Nestor interrupted angrily, her tail swishing hard.

  ‘I know. And I’m sorry you’ve not been able to be more involved in the Trials so far. But we are ahead right now and that is something to celebrate.’ She looked beseechingly at the centaur. ‘I understand, more than anyone, that this isn’t about winning. But it is about stopping Hercules. And we’ve just taken a big step towards that.’ Nestor huffed. ‘It’s just a few drinks, maybe some music. The crew will do better in the next Trial if they get a chance to relax, I’m sure of it. We all need something to be cheerful about.’

  ‘Fine,’ said the centaur. ‘But I shall not be celebrating until that brute is dead.’ She wheeled and stamped across the planks, away from the quarterdeck. Lyssa sighed and strode to the railings. She stared out over the Palace of Elis, its deep, lush greens standing out against the soft purple sky. Should she celebrate while Hercules was still alive? The truth was, she didn’t even know if they could stop him winning, let alone actually kill him. She’d been running all these years, chasing freedom in the skies, knowing deep down that she could never truly rest. Would Hercules’s death change that? Or would preventing him from living forever be enough?

  ‘So this mind-talking thing works off the ship as well?’ Phyleus’s voice cut through her thoughts again.

  ‘For gods’ sakes, Phyleus, stop it! Go and bother Abderos or something!’

  ‘There’s no point talking to Abderos like this, I share a room with him,’ he answered.

  �
�There’s no point talking to me like this, I’m not bloody listening,’ she snapped.

  ‘Bet I could make you listen…’ he said, and there was no mistaking the flirtatious tone. She gritted her teeth, the memory of his lips on hers flashing through her mind.

  ‘The party starts soon. Until then, leave me alone,’ she said.

  ‘Got it. Don’t annoy you until the party. I look forward to it.’

  2

  ‘Epizon?’ Lyssa projected his name as a question.

  ‘Cargo deck,’ he answered immediately. She headed to the hauler, unsurprised that he was down there. He was sitting on the large wooden crate opposite Tenebrae’s tank, staring at the creature thoughtfully. Tenebrae turned slowly to look at Lyssa as she pulled herself up next to Epizon.

  ‘It still worries me, you being down here alone with her,’ she said.

  ‘I don’t think she’s dangerous,’ Epizon replied.

  ‘Tell that to Lady Lamia,’ Lyssa snorted.

  ‘That’s different. That woman was a monster.’

  Lyssa thought of the decayed flesh and grimaced.

  ‘So. Two Trials won. The Alastor in the lead.’ She grinned at her first mate and he grinned back.

  ‘Told you we could do it, Captain,’ he said.

  ‘Do you really think we can? We had a bit of an unexpected advantage in that last one.’

  ‘Not just the last one. That phoenix song would have kept us both in the garden in Capricorn for the rest of time. Phyleus has turned out to be your secret weapon.’ Epizon looked sideways at her as he spoke.

  She shrugged. ‘You were right. It was worth taking a chance on him.’

  ‘The Alastor has accepted him,’ Epizon said.

  ‘So he’s bothering you with mind talk too?’ she asked.

  ‘Probably not as much as you,’ Epizon chuckled.