Chapter Thirty-Seven
“How did that rope come off the tree?” Xander yelled at someone. I didn’t understand how it had come loose from my waist. I had used the double knot Demaratus had taught me. It shouldn’t have slipped off like it had.
The howling wind became louder, echoes bouncing off the rocks around us. It felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane, being violently swung from one side to the other as the air screamed at me from every direction.
“Rokh, can you fly a rope out?”
I looked up to see him try, but every time he attempted to lift off, he was thrown back.
“Dolion, shoot a rope to her!”
“I’ll hit the plank just in front of her,” he said, tying a rope to an arrow and then letting it fly.
But as soon as it reached the chasm, the wind tossed the arrow aside.
“I’m going to get her,” Xander said, and I saw Stephanos grab him.
“You can’t! The weight will be too much!”
At that Xander dropped to his hands and knees. “Lia, look at me.”
I was trying but the bridge’s swinging made it impossible to keep my gaze on his. “I can’t!”
“You can. Keep moving. And as soon as you get close enough, I’ll grab you. I promise.”
Part of me wanted to stay put but I couldn’t. With these winds, at some point the ropes on this bridge would snap, and I would plummet to my death.
Things couldn’t end this way.
I wouldn’t let them.
My hair whipped around me as I started to crawl forward. My heart was in my throat as I grabbed the ropes that held each plank in place and used them to propel myself forward, scooting along the wood. My legs were getting scraped up but I didn’t care.
“That’s it, keep going.” Xander tried to sound calm, but I heard the panic and desperation at the edge of his voice. “You’re doing it. Almost there.”
Somehow the wind got stronger and the ropes cried out in protest, as if they would burst apart at any moment.
“Just a little bit farther,” he encouraged me.
All I could do was edge forward, keeping my head down and moving inch by inch until . . .
I felt his hands on my back, grabbing my tunic and hauling me to him. I was so relieved to be with him I nearly wept. I threw my arms around his neck and held on.
“You’re safe, you’re safe,” he murmured to me over and over.
He was who I’d crawled toward.
Not the cave with the greatest weapon.
Not my adelphia.
Xander.
The winds immediately ceased and the chasm went silent.
“What was that?” Stephanos asked, alarmed.
“The trial of air,” Io said.
It was difficult to argue with her. If the other trials all happened this quickly . . .
“Stop almost dying,” Xander ordered me.
“Lia, will you please stop almost dying?” I teased, but he didn’t smile back.
“You can’t joke now. I have never felt so helpless. I can’t watch you die.”
Now I was the one comforting him, telling him that things would be all right, that I was safe, that he didn’t have to worry.
And I didn’t truly mean any of them. The winds had felt like a portent of things to come.
When he finally released me, we decided to eat and drink something before my sisters and I went into the cave.
“Maybe we should camp here and you could try to enter it in the morning,” Xander said.
I knew that he wanted to delay me possibly putting myself in danger again. None of us knew what was in the cave.
And he wouldn’t be able to follow me there. He would have to wait, without knowing whether we were safe.
“We have to go,” I told him. If the trials were going to keep happening so close together, I was running out of time.
“I know you do,” he said, putting his forehead against mine. “I wish I could come with you.”
“We’ll be all right,” I said, and I prayed to the goddess that it would be true. I turned to my sisters. “Shall we?”
As I started to walk away, he grabbed my hand and tugged me back to him so that he could kiss me. It was sweet and delicious and overwhelming, and it made my toes curl.
And it had a message.
Come back to me.
“Do not die in the cave,” he said when he reluctantly pulled his lips from mine.
“I won’t.”
He walked with me to the mouth of the cave. I had to tug my hand away. “I’ll be back,” I promised.
“You had better. I don’t care what the scroll says. I will come in there after you.”
My adelphia and I walked into the darkness. The bioluminescence I had seen when I’d first crossed the ocean somehow also covered the cave walls and ceiling and suddenly flickered to life when we entered.
I took out my xiphos. Just in case. We walked down a short hallway, and at the end of it, there was a thick wall. I pushed against it. It didn’t budge.
The walls on either side of us were also thick and immovable.
“There’s a sign,” Ahyana said, pointing up toward the top of the cave. “What does it say?”
“Be ye worthy to enter here,” Io read out loud.
“That’s not at all ominous,” Zalira muttered.
“But how do we enter?” I asked. There had to be some trick I was missing. I thought of the secret passageways in the palace in Troas. Was there a seam to indicate a door? A lever we could pull to create an opening?
What if there was nothing here? Would our quest be over before it began?
As I ran my hand over the cool wall, I felt an indent. As I outlined it with my fingers, I realized that it was a handprint.
I told my sisters what I had found, and then Ahyana said, “Here’s another one.”
“I’ve got one!” Zalira said.
“There’s five,” Io told me.
Of course. One for each of us.
This had never been intended for the savior alone. I had to have my adelphia with me. It wouldn’t have worked otherwise.
“Let’s put our hands on them and see what happens,” I said. Because we didn’t know what we were dealing with, part of me was afraid that we would spring a trap, like the rocks suddenly growing up around our wrists and holding us in place while some beast came and attacked us.
“On three,” I said. We lined up and I counted. “One, two, three.”
We each put a hand against the print in front of us at the same time, and there was a terrible sound of rocks grinding and rending.
I jumped back, seeing my sisters do the same.
The wall in front of us pulled apart, revealing a staircase, also lit by the same bioluminescence.
The stairs had been hewn from marble and looked as if they’d never been used.
I went first so that I could take the brunt of whatever might be waiting below. We walked in silence and I strained to listen, to hear if there was something waiting for us.
Io whispered, “Which goddesses do you think have created tests?”
I shushed her. I didn’t want to think about that—I needed to be ready for whatever was coming. I also really hoped that the trial of water and trial of aether weren’t in this cave.
At the base of the stairs, there was a door with a sign:
Bravery
I spoke the word for my sisters who couldn’t read.
“That can’t be good,” Io said. “A trial or test that’s going to require us to show our bravery.”
Like being sucked into the earth or nearly tossed into a ravine hadn’t been trial enough of my bravery.
“Ready?” I asked.
The others nodded and I opened the door. There was a large room, but it was completely dark. We walked in and I kept my sword out.
“Do you see anything?” Ahyana said.
When we were all inside, the door slammed itself shut. I felt Zalira moving next to me and heard her grunt.
“The door is locked. I can’t get it open,” she said.
That had been our only source of light.
“We should have brought a torch with us,” Io said.
A light flickered at the far end of the room. A tiny spark.
“Is anyone there?” I called out.
The flame floated in the air. It turned into two flames. Then four. And eight. It kept doubling and doubling.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zalira said.
The flames combined to form a giant wall of flame, filling all the space in front of us.
“Lia can go through it, and then we’ll see what happens,” Ahyana said.
“Did we all just see the same thing?” I asked. “That is not a normal fire. What if it’s a magic fire that can burn me?”
“Magic fire? That doesn’t make sense,” Zalira said.
“None of this makes any sense,” I told her.
Ahyana took a step back. “It feels like a real fire.”
She was right. The room had become exceedingly hot. Almost like we were standing in an oven.
“Could you call a storm down here?” I asked Zalira. “Put the fire out?”
“Let me try. Dea Maimaktes.” She waited and then shook her head. “Nothing’s happening.”
“I know which story this is!” Io said, and we all turned toward her. “Maia told me this tale once where Dea thanked human hosts for taking her in and sheltering her by putting their infant son in a fire.”
“What?” Ahyana asked.
“She was trying to burn away his mortality, but his parents snatched him from the fire and he didn’t become immortal. She was angry and told them that he had been worthy of immortality but their fear had kept him from it.”
“So you think we have to go into the fire?” I asked incredulously.
“We’re worthy, we’re brave, so we have to believe that no harm will come to us and pass through,” Io said confidently.
“We can’t go back the way we came,” Ahyana pointed out. “It seems like we only have one option.”
Zalira nodded. “I suppose if we burn, Io has salves.”
“I do,” Io confirmed.
Suri pointed at the fire and then drew her hand toward herself.
She was right. The flame wall was creeping toward us.
Soon we wouldn’t have a choice. With every moment that passed, the heat became more intense. “We either go through it or we let it burn us slowly,” I said. “Together?”
“Together,” Ahyana said.
We all took each other’s hands.
“Go!” I yelled.