Chapter 30
Eryx
The tiny girl who captains the Alastor deliberately drops her weapon and spreads her arms out as my captain approaches her.
I’m surprised, although the human on her left looks like he could do some damage with the glinting knife that he’s holding in both hands, and he appears to have no intention of dropping it.
“We know that the lion is in her lair and that Hercules is in there with her, probably unconscious or dead,” Captain Lyssa says to Antaeus as he comes to a stop. “We think it would be best to let her kill him first. One less competitor to worry about.” She gives him an awkward smile.
Antaeus replies with a deep growl, “That man and his whole crew should be dead. They tricked us!”
I wince. I hoped that wouldn’t be shared, especially not with a crew we’re competing against.
I’m in the line of trees at the clearing edge, out of sight, and have been told I’m not to come out unless called for. I’m being punished for my idiocy.
I grind my teeth together in impotent frustration as I watch the idiotic, sweaty brothers Albion and Bergion flanking my captain. To be fair, they’re doing a good job of looking threatening.
“Hercules’s crew are not good people,” Captain Lyssa agrees.
Antaeus folds his arms. “How do we know if, or when, the lion has killed him?” he asks. He’s twice her height and only a few feet in front of her, so she’s craning her neck to look up at him.
There’s a white-haired man on her left I don’t recognize, who appears to be unarmed. I stay poised in the trees, ready to defend my crewmates if they need me.
“I don’t know,” the girl admits.
Antaeus snarls again and strides to the edge of the clearing. He bends his knees and wraps his arms around a massive tree in front of him. Bellowing as he stands, he tears the tree clear from the ground.
He can barely fit his arms around it as he carries it to the cave entrance and throws it down.
The ground shakes, leaves and branches cracking as it lands.
When it’s laid on its side, the trunk is just taller than the cave mouth.
Antaeus shoves it against the tunnel entrance, trapping both the lion and Hercules in the cave.
A roar blares from the forest, and Lyssa and the two men she’s with spin quickly.
The sound of pounding hooves crashes through the air, and Albion and Bergion stamp their feet, bending their knees and shifting their weight like the trained boxers that they are.
Asterion the Minotaur bursts into the clearing. He gives a guttural howl and launches himself at the biggest threat there: Antaeus.
The creature’s bull head strikes Antaeus in the abdomen, and the giant goes flying backward. Albion and Bergion look at each other, roar in unison, and swing toward the Minotaur.
“He’s mine!” bellows Antaeus, already getting back to his feet. “Disarm the humans!”
The giant brothers halt mid-swing and turn back toward the human crew of the Alastor. Lyssa is holding her ground, her slingshot back in her hands. I can’t help being impressed with her resolve against such a huge opponent.
I know Antaeus can handle the Minotaur, and I know I can’t disobey orders, but I burn to join the fight. I grip the tree next to me, watching enviously.
Albion is squaring up to the man with the knife. He must be only about three feet shorter than the giant, a similar size to myself. He’s managing to look both fierce and calm as he raises the big blade level with his head and spins it slowly. Albion laughs.
Lyssa and the other human man are backing away from Bergion, who is smiling as he advances on them. Lyssa is still trying to talk to the giant, but I can’t hear what she’s saying over the grunts and yells of the Minotaur.
I look over just as Antaeus throws the bull-man into a vast tree at the edge of the clearing. Asterion hits it with a grunt and slides unceremoniously down the rough bark. The giant shouts with glee, and the Minotaur’s hooves scrabble for purchase on the forest floor as he shakes his head dazedly.
I’m so focused on the fights in the clearing that I don’t hear Evadne as she creeps up to me. When she touches me on the shoulder, I whip round, hands balled into fists, ready to attack.
“Hey!” she whispers, ducking under my punch. “It’s only me!”
Anger floods me when I see her, her blue ponytail swinging over her shoulders, her dark eyes wide. How can she wear that smile, look so infernally innocent, when she’s such a liar?
“Only you?” I lace my voice with all my fury. “I should kill you! You’re the reason I’m standing in this fucking forest instead of out there! You sly witch, you tricked me!”
“Well, it is a competition. And besides, Hercules made me do it.” She pouts a bit. I don’t unclench my fists.
“You’re in luck, then. Your captain’s likely dead already, so you needn’t worry about him making you do anything else,” I spit.
Pain flashes across her face, and I’m annoyed at the guilt it makes me feel.
She’s a liar. I don’t owe her kindness, or sympathy.
“Do you know where he is?” she asks, her voice now low and quiet.
“In the lion’s lair, under that rock.” I nod at the clearing.
She pushes past me and looks toward the blocked cave. I follow her gaze and see that Lyssa and the other human have gone. Bergion has joined Antaeus, and they’ve trapped the Minotaur between them. He’s pawing the ground and snorting hard.
Albion and the human are dancing around each other, the human jabbing with the knife and Albion throwing punches. They both look like they’re having a good time, under the circumstances.
“Under the rock?” Evadne asks me. “How?”
“There’s a passage down there. I guess there are caves under us or something.” I shrug. “I shouldn’t be talking to you. Go and help your bull friend.”
She snorts. “Asterion is no friend of mine. I just share a ship with him. How do we get down there?” She looks up at me, her face resolute.
“We?” I goggle at her. “Why would we go down there?”
“To kill the lion. What else are you here for?”
“To serve my captain,” I snap.
She wrinkles her nose and frowns. “Then what are you doing hiding in here?” I shift uncomfortably and look away. “Is it because you’re not a proper giant like them? They don’t let you fight?”
I give a bark of frustration and punch out at the tree next to me. “Because of you! I’m being punished because I believed you, you snake!” I expect her to look triumphant or mocking at my admission, but her face softens.
“I’m punished for things all the time on the Hybris,” she says quietly.
“Then why do you stay?” I snarl. I don’t want to empathize with this girl. She tricked me.
Her eyes light up when she answers. “Immortality,” she breathes. “What a prize! Just imagine, having forever to learn anything you need to, travel anywhere you like, gather anything you want. Try all the world’s wonders, meet all the realms’ people…”
I grunt, refusing to engage her in this conversation. What I would do with immortality is none of her damn business.
“And we’re going to win it, starting right now. Come on, we’ll prove to your captain that he needs you by slaying this lion for him.”
She says it so matter-of-factly that I almost follow her into the clearing.
“Wait!” I say, and grab her arm. She turns to me.
“No! We need to do this now, and I can’t do it by myself. Then you can take me with you on board the Orion and explain how much I helped. Apparently, I’m looking for a new captain.”
She smiles at me, and I hesitate.
If her motivation is truly to win immortality, then she could genuinely be trying to help me now. But the pain I saw in her face when I told her Hercules was dead is at odds with this sudden indifference.
“Fine,” she says, pulling out of my grip. “You stay hidden in the forest. I’ll go and talk to Antaeus myself.”
“He’ll kill you,” I say.
“Then you’d better come and help me kill the lion instead,” she says, and strolls away from me.
With a hissed curse, I follow her.
I don’t know why—it will likely earn me another punishment, or get me killed. But I can’t watch this small human woman be torn apart by a lion, can I?
“What exactly do you think we can do?” I bark as I catch up with Evadne halfway across the clearing to the tree. The big human male has vanished, and I find myself hoping Albion hasn’t killed him. I should like to fight him myself one day.
All three of my crewmates are engaged in tying the Minotaur, by his ankles, to one of the highest branches they can reach on the massive tree. None of them notice Evadne and me.
“Just move this out the way first so we can get down into the caves.” She gestures at the trunk Antaeus has laid across the cave entrance. If she’s nervous about being spotted by the giants, she hides it well.
“Fine,” I grumble, and fall in beside her.
When we reach the trunk, I crouch and curl my arms as far underneath it as I can. When I try to lift, it barely moves.
Embarrassment washes over me. Only my mother is a giant—I’m half human. Antaeus is much stronger than I am.
I don’t want Evadne to think that, though.
Why the Fates do I care what she thinks? What’s wrong with me?
I stand up straight and wrap my arms over the top of the fallen trunk instead.
“It’ll be easier if we roll it away,” I tell her, as assertively as I can. She nods, and, with a mammoth effort, I heave the huge trunk away from the entrance.