Chapter Forty
Suri’s voice was unfamiliar, raspy.
But the shock of her speaking was enough to get us to stop arguing.
“This is a trap by the goddess of discord,” she said. “There’s something on those objects you’ve picked up that is making you fight each other. The longer you hold on to them, the worse it will get.”
“How do you know that?” Io asked.
“We need to leave this room before those feelings start up again,” Suri said, ignoring Io’s question. It was so strange to see her mouth moving and words coming out. “You didn’t pick the right one, either.”
She went over to the table and grabbed a sheaf of barley. I hadn’t even noticed it. Suri walked across the room to the altar. “This is the goddess’s greatest treasure.”
I was about to tell her to stop when she dropped the barley onto the altar. The top of the altar slid open to accept the offering and closed again.
Oh no. My heart beat uncontrollably. Had she picked the wrong one and now we were going to be trapped here forever?
Or were we going to have to fight our way out of this room?
What would the goddess of discord send to kill us?
But the door appeared, indicating that we had passed.
The gem in my hand turned to dust, and I looked up to see the same thing happening with the items my sisters were holding.
“Out now,” Suri commanded.
I shook the dust from my hand and did as she said. I was too surprised by her talking to do anything else but obey.
Once we were all in the hallway, Suri closed the door and we heard it lock. She took her tunic from her pack and used it to wipe the dust off our hands.
“You could talk the whole time?” Ahyana asked.
Suri nodded.
Zalira asked the question we all had. “Why have you not spoken before?”
“Because I was afraid that if I did, I would start screaming and never stop.”
That made the rest of us fall silent as she continued to wipe off our hands. Her words broke my heart. I hoped that someday she would be able to tell us what had been so terrible that she was scared to even speak.
Sensing that Suri might not be in a place where she would be willing to share details, Io instead repeated what she’d asked her earlier. “How did you know what was happening?”
“The owners of the orphanage I grew up in worshipped the goddess of discord. I know what to look for,” she said quietly, her voice still raspy.
I’d initially thought it sounded that way because she hadn’t spoken in so long, but now I wondered if someone at the orphanage had injured her and permanently damaged her voice.
“I can’t believe the things we just said to each other,” I said to my adelphia. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean any of it.”
Zalira nodded. “Neither did I. I felt irrationally angry. I was ready to fight everyone.”
We all apologized to one another. What had happened in that room reminded me of how I’d felt when I’d let anger and vengeance control me. I had behaved in ways I didn’t recognize, said things I didn’t mean.
The discord room had been a good reminder of what I had to remember going forward. To master my emotions, as Demaratus had taught me time and time again.
I could no longer afford to let them master me.
A door appeared at the end of the hallway.
I sighed. “I hope this is the last room.”
“Or there might be five tests, and then the greatest weapon is in a room beyond that one,” Ahyana pointed out.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Io said. She walked to the door and read the final sign. “Worthy.”
“I almost don’t want to open it,” Zalira confessed, and I understood completely.
But there was no other option. We couldn’t go back. We had to move forward, no matter what it might bring.
Io opened the door and we stepped into a room lit up by the bioluminescence. The door shut and locked behind us. In the center of the room, there was a squat stone, about two feet tall, that looked like a seat. Were we supposed to sit there?
Over on the left side of the room, I saw a round boulder that looked to be about five feet tall. And in the right corner . . .
“A staircase!” Ahyana exclaimed and ran toward it. I was about to tell her to stop, but instead I followed her.
The stairs were made of the same marble as the steps at the beginning of the cave, but these went in a straight line to a landing before veering left. Ahyana went up to the top. A few seconds later she returned, using the long steel handrail attached to the wall.
“There’s no way out,” she said.
Zalira tried to reassure her sister. “I’m sure once we finish the next task, a door will open.”
“What is the task?” Io asked.
“Let’s search the room,” Ahyana suggested. “Maybe there’s something we’re missing. Like a secret door that will lead us to the greatest weapon.”
Everyone spread out and began running their hands along the walls, just as we had at the cave entrance, hoping to find some sort of trick that would help us know what to do next.
Zalira started feeling along the cavern floor. It looked like solid rock, but I supposed a hidden trapdoor could be just as likely as one in a wall.
“The sign said ‘worthy,’ and if this is the last room, then the greatest weapon is in here. ‘Let the flame-kissed savior who is worthy pass the tests of the goddesses to claim the greatest weapon . . .’” I was thinking out loud because something was nagging at the back of my mind.
Something I was missing.
The word “worthy” kept echoing in my head.
I went over to the large, circular boulder and ran my hand along the surface. It was dense granite, immovable. I couldn’t even guess how much it would weigh. Or what kind of strength a person would need to possess in order to roll this out of the—
“Demophon!” I said, the name returning to me in a rush.
Io’s eyes went wide. “Yes! My father constantly told Xander and me that story!”
“Who?” Zalira asked as she stood up.
“There was a king who buried his sword under a huge boulder and said that when his son, Demophon, was ready and truly worthy, he would move the rock, claim the sword, and become the new king,” Io explained.
Truly worthy.
“We don’t have a Demophon here,” Ahyana said.
“No, we have me.” And I knew what to do. “Come over here and help me pry this railing off the wall.”
My adelphia got onto the stairs and did as I asked. The screws holding the railing were rusted out and easy to break off with our swords.
But the handrail—it had to be Chalcidian steel, considering how bright and strong it was. I guessed that it was about eight feet long. That seemed like it would work.
“Lia, what are you doing?” Io asked.
“You’re the one always telling me that the goddess has given us everything that we need and we have to figure it out on our own. Can you take the railing over to the large boulder?”
While my sisters carried that, I ran to the center of the room and grabbed the smaller rock, lifting it easily. It was sturdy and solid, and would do the trick. I placed it right next to the large boulder and then took the railing from my adelphia.
“I suppose I didn’t technically figure this out on my own,” I told them. “Archimedes did. My father used to quote him all the time: ‘Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.’”
They helped me put the railing into the right position, wedged between the large boulder and the smaller one.
“Now we apply force by pulling down here to take advantage of the leverage.” I showed them the end of the railing farthest from the boulder. “The lever will act as a force multiplier. Come help me!”
All five of us grabbed the top of the bar and pulled with all our might.
“It’s working!” Ahyana said.
The boulder was definitely starting to move. “Keep going!”
It went a few inches, and I told them to stop so that I could move the smaller rock close again and readjust the railing. We did this several more times, painstakingly slow, but groaning and heaving with all our might, bit by bit, we did it.
When the boulder was moved, it revealed a circular patch of dirt. I got on my hands and knees and started digging. Vibrations rumbled against my hands, and it reminded me so much of my first day in the temple, when I had been digging in the garden with Io as she taught me how to plant flowers.
I had felt a great pool of power, just out of reach.
And now I felt it even more strongly.
My fingers brushed against something hard. I brushed the dirt away to see the hilt of a weapon that gleamed a bright gold. I assumed it was a sword. My chest felt so light, my mouth gone dry.
Dea’s sword. This was Dea’s golden sword.
The greatest weapon.
“Is that . . .” Io didn’t finish her sentence, sounding every bit as exhilarated as I felt.
My heart beat so quickly it felt like it might float away. I dug around the sword until the hilt was totally visible. I grabbed on to it and yanked it out of the dirt.
It came easily, but I was knocked over once it exited the earth because it was taller than I was. I lay there on the floor, hanging on to it.
Everyone stared at me.
“How are you supposed to wield that?” Ahyana asked. “I don’t even think Xander could use it. It’s too big.”
In my dreams the goddess had always been so tall. I hadn’t realized that it was a literal depiction of what she looked like.
So I had come all this way and endured all that I had for a weapon I couldn’t even use?
I pushed down the bitter taste in my mouth and got to my feet. There had to be a way to use it. “Maybe there’s an aspect that—”
The sword suddenly shrank as I held it, adjusting until it was the right size for me. Not much bigger than my xiphos. It even looked like my xiphos—a cross guard at the bottom and a leaf-shaped blade.
Like it had been meant just for me.
“Did everyone else just see that?” Ahyana whispered.
Zalira nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. I was worried I was hallucinating.”
I understood Ahyana’s concern because I was feeling the same thing. It was like the sword had . . . shape-shifted, for lack of a better description.
“Is it real gold?” Io asked me. It looked as if she wanted to touch it but was afraid to.
I did a couple of swings to test the weight. Easy to maneuver. This wasn’t gold.
“No. Gold is soft and malleable and heavy. Weapons made out of gold would bend or deform during battle. This is some other kind of metal I’ve never seen before.” An alloy? A metal found only among the gods?
Whatever this was, it was sturdy. Strong. It shone so brightly. I inspected the edges, and despite being buried in dirt for thousands of years, it was so sharp I accidentally nicked one of my fingers on it.
I finally understood what I had been feeling in the ground.
It had been this sword, calling to me.
“There’s writing on the blade,” I told the others. I held it up so that I could see it better. “Dea.”
I turned it over to see the word on the other side and spoke it. “Nikos.”
The sword became engulfed in fire.