Chapter 26
Lyssa
We move more quietly through the woodland, swearing less when we trip over roots, and carefully checking the canopy above us for signs of flying creatures. The stench gets stronger. It smells like rotting fish, and I’m sure it’s made worse by the oppressive heat.
“It’s getting lighter, captain,” says Epizon quietly. “That means there’s probably a clearing ahead.”
He’s right. The thickness of the undergrowth is lessening, and the wall of green trees ahead of us is brighter.
Epizon straps his knife back to his thigh, and we carefully and quietly climb through the tangle of vegetation until we reach the edge of the clearing.
The smell is now almost overwhelming, the rotting-fish stench mixing with the smell of excrement.
In the middle of the clearing is a cluster of trees at least sixty feet tall that have had all their leaves removed, leaving bare branches that start about ten feet up from the ground.
Harpies line them, some asleep, some chattering to each other.
Up to the shoulders, they look like overgrown birds with disproportionately large, clawed feet, but from the neck up, they all have wrinkled necks and heads with the distorted features of a human woman.
They’re not tall, only around four feet, but I know their folded wings can span double that.
Under the trees, surrounding them in a ring, are bits of wood hung together clumsily to make cages.
Voles and squirrels run backward and forward inside, trying to squeeze through the gaps in the wood.
Littering the forest floor around the rudimentary cages are small bones, and I feel sorry for the scrabbling little creatures.
There can’t be many things worse than ending up as a harpy’s dinner.
I catch my breath as one of the harpies shrieks and expands her leathery wings as she dives from a branch. The bird creature lands silently in front of the cages. She shakes her wings out, hissing.
Epizon tenses as the harpy turns and begins stalking around the group of trees, coming closer to where we’re hidden. The quiet buzz of chatter increases sharply, and then all the bird-women begin dropping from the branches, stretching and shrieking single words repeatedly.
“Fresh!” one nearby yells in an ugly, high-pitched voice.
“Flesh,” replies another, its wings folding behind it.
“Ripe,” calls another.
My legs are tense, ready to run, and I hope the other two are ready as well.
I never have time to give the signal, though. I jump violently as a reeking harpy drops down right in front of me.
“Strangers,” it hisses.
“Run!” I yell, and turn back to the forest, my legs already moving. I have time to register that Epizon and Alexios have already started moving, before pain shoots through my left shoulder, and I’m being dragged backward.
I struggle and kick, anger surging through me, then the liquid fire assaults my stomach.
I’m more than twenty feet from Alexios.
Rage erupts through my body, but it’s not stronger than the pain.
I hear pounding feet and then the fire is gone. Viselike claws dig into my right shoulder, and then I’m off the ground, being lifted out of the forest and into the clearing.
As the harpy moves higher, I can see the mass of leathery creatures below, shrieking and chittering excitedly, then I see two of them beside me, carrying the hulking form of Alexios between them.
Did he come back, or did they catch him?
I try to reach my arms up, but the clawed grip on my shoulder stops me. Power is flooding my body, and my vision narrows as the harpy brings me toward a massive branch on one of the central trees.
Please bring Alexios to the same branch, I pray. Otherwise, I’m as good as dead.
“I’m in the forest—what can I do?” Epizon’s voice sounds in my head.
“Stay there. They’ve taken us up the tree, and there’s too many of them for you to fight alone. I’ll tell you when we need you.”
I tense as the bird-woman drops me, flinging my arms and legs around the branch to stop myself from falling.
The impact thumps through my chest, and I take a huge breath.
My Rage overtakes the pain, and I haul myself up to a sitting position quickly as the harpy lands expertly next to me.
The branch shakes as they set down Alexios.
Thank the Fates.
“Strangers,” the harpy hisses again. Other harpies begin landing on the branches around me.
“I mean no disrespect,” I say slowly, trying to calm my racing pulse. I have nothing to lose by trying to reason with the creatures. I don’t want to fight them—I have a lion to kill. Plus there really are a lot of them. “We were just passing by.”
“So close?” the harpy says, cocking her head. She has one red eye much lower than the other, and slits for nostrils. Her lips are thin and parched, and lank hair hangs in patchy threads from her scalp.
“Yes. We didn’t mean to. We’ll leave now.” I roll my shoulders as I speak, my legs wrapped tightly around the branch. I glance across at Alexios, who is also sitting, a remarkably calm expression on his face. Heat prickles across my skin in anticipation.
“Payment,” says the harpy.
“I have drachmas,” Alexios says.
“Harpies have no need for silver,” I growl at him.
“Payment,” the ugly creature repeats, lifting a clawed foot toward me.
“What do you want?” I ask, leaning away from the sharp claw, every muscle tense and ready.
“A finger,” the harpy says, eyes shining.
As the hooked claw lunges for me, I throw myself sideways.
My legs grip the branch for a moment, then I’m falling toward the ground.