Chapter 40
Lyssa
We carry on farther and farther, much deeper into Libra than I’ve ever been before.
Even less of the light from the pale gray skies filters through the mist, and the islands we travel across grow darker.
Len looks around nervously as he trots ahead of me, at the metal lean-tos, discarded debris, and people hunched around small fires.
Epizon’s languid strides have become more tense. The trickle of adrenaline in my veins quickens. Lucas seems unaware of any feeling of danger, but Alexios is grinning less as he looks around in the gloom at the heaps of rags and pitiful clusters of belongings people are defending.
I feel a pang of guilt as I remember how I lived before I came to Libra. In a gilded mansion. I wasn’t aware of poverty in Olympus until I saw it myself. I swallow hard. If I’m being honest, there’s a lot I wasn’t aware of until I sailed the skies on the Alastor.
“Captain, there are no more bridges,” says Epizon. He’s stopped at the end of the island and is staring into the empty blackness ahead. The darkness seems to have swallowed the mist.
“There must be,” I say.
“Nope. Just dark,” says Len.
“Well, how in Hades do we get into the middle then?” I put my hands on my hips, anger simmering.
“Longboat?” says Alexios.
I spin to him. “Do you see a longboat here?”
“Wait, cap, there is a bridge here,” calls Len.
We all turn to him. He’s crouched by the edge of the island.
“It’s got no rail, and it’s not very big, but it is there.
” He stands and hesitantly puts one foot over the edge of the island.
Epizon moves quickly, his hand hovering above the satyr.
I hear Len’s hoof make contact with glass.
He smiles. “Yep, it’s here.” He steps out with his other leg.
It looks like he’s suspended over complete nothingness.
“I can’t see it,” says Lucas, peering hard at Len’s feet. I walk to the edge and kneel, then put my hands out, feeling for the glass Len is now standing on. My hands run over the cool surface.
“How can you see it and we can’t?” I ask.
“I’m a different species than all of you,” he replies. “Humans can hardly see anything.”
“Hey,” Lucas protests.
“Don’t take it personally,” Epizon advises.
“How do we know we won’t walk off the side?” I ask, standing back up.
“I’ll go first.” Len shrugs and begins walking out over the abyss. Epizon steps onto the invisible bridge without hesitation and follows him. Lucas looks at me.
“Well,” says Alexios, “he’s got big balls for a small creature.”
“Huh,” I say, for once inclined to agree.
It’s one thing not to be scared of heights. It’s quite another to step onto an invisible bridge leagues high, leading into pitch blackness, in pursuit of a giant, three-headed monster.
My skin fizzes with adrenaline. I flex my hands.
I am no longer the girl who ran.
The thought buoys me, but my breath still catches as I lower my boot, sure for a beat that it will just keep moving through the empty sky.
But it doesn’t. There’s a reassuring tap as I make contact with the bridge.
I look up to where Epizon’s bulk is just visible ahead and step forward with my other leg.
“Captain?”
I plaster a reassuring look onto my face and turn to Lucas. His face isn’t exactly showing panic, but his eyes are wide and he’s tentatively holding out one hand. Begrudging respect for this kid’s courage floods me.
“Hold the back of my shirt, stay straight, and for the love of Zeus, do not drag me with you if you fall,” I tell him.
He nods quickly, then reaches for my shirt and grabs a fistful of fabric before gingerly placing his foot on the invisible glass.
“I’ll take the rear, then,” I hear Alexios mutter.
“You do that.”
I turn back, fix my eyes on the now-almost-invisible Epizon, and start putting one foot in front of the other.
Once I’m moving, I don’t dare stop. And I don’t dare look down.
Nor do I look back at Lucas or Alexios, though I can feel the kid’s tight grip on my shirt. I keep my eyes on Epizon’s back and keep walking steadily forward, breathing slowly.
“Captain, it’s getting lighter,” calls Epizon after a few minutes.
“Good,” I yell back. Ahead of me, a swirling gray fog is starting to take shape, framing Epizon’s figure.
“There’s another island,” he calls. Relief washes through me and I squash the urge to thank the gods.
“Good,” I call again instead. A few seconds later I can see the edges of the new island forming through the fog, and the inky darkness doesn’t feel so crushing. As I reach the island I risk a look down and sag when I see soil beneath my feet. I speed up, spurred by the hard, safe ground.
“Thank the gods,” I hear Lucas say, then the tight grip behind me loosens.
“Epizon, Len, wait for us there,” I shout, only just able to see my first mate ahead of me now through the thickening fog. I wave my arm through the gently swirling haze and something crashes into me. I cry out in surprise and stumble to my knees.
“Oops,” comes Alexios’s voice. I push myself to my feet quickly and bat his hands away as he tries to help me straighten.
“You’re a colossal idiot,” I hiss, then squeak in surprise as he pulls me into him.
“I was worried about you there, darling,” he says loudly, then whispers, “Madly in love, remember?”
I force myself to wrap my arms around him, and feel his heartbeat, fast and hard. No wonder, really. Mine is too.
I scowl into his chest, before pushing him off and trying to concentrate.
“Where are Epizon and Len?”
“There,” says Lucas, and points. I can just make out Epizon’s large form next to Len’s much smaller one.
“I think we’re in some sort of canyon,” whispers Len when we reach them. I look around and see he’s right. If I watch long enough, I can see high black rock faces in the gaps in the swirling fog a few feet away on either side.
“How high do you think they go?” I’m whispering too. Speaking normally doesn’t seem appropriate in the eerily silent fog.
“No idea, cap.” He shrugs. “I can’t see through the fog any better than you.”
“Then we carry on through the canyon, I guess.”
The rocky banks stretch up endlessly as we walk cautiously between them.
Sparse clumps of boulders dot our route, coming into view only as we’re right beside them, until the path opens out suddenly.
I look from side to side, squinting to see the banks, but they’re gone.
We’ve come out of the other side of the canyon.
“There’s movement ahead of us,” Len whispers. Epizon silently pulls his knife from its sheath.
We creep forward. I can make out a red light, dancing high in the mist, then more lights appear, six in total, all floating high ahead. Fireflies, perhaps?
The fog lifts from the ground as we get farther from the canyon, and I see that we’re approaching the edge of a swamp.
Something huge and dark moves, and I stop abruptly. In my peripheral vision I see the others do the same. A long, low rumble begins and the hair on my arms stands up.
“Captain?” whispers Len. The rumble grows and grows, and within seconds it becomes a screeching roar.
“Get back!” I shout, as the smell of sulfur wafts across me. “Everyone, get back from the swamp!”
I’ve barely finished the sentence when the screeching cuts off and a serpent head the size of Epizon shoots through the mist toward us.
I drop to the ground, rolling to one side and springing back to my feet. I look around wildly, registering Lucas and Epizon sprinting away from the swamp, Len clinging to Epizon’s back.
The thing swings toward me, its long neck disappearing into the swamp behind it, and I freeze.
It hisses and moves its head slowly from side to side. I stay still, praying to Athena that it can’t see me if I don’t move, and that Alexios, wherever he is, is doing the same.
The creature opens massive jaws, exactly like a snake would, and an enormous black tongue flicks between rows of lethally sharp teeth almost as tall as I am. I take a deep breath and hold it.
A mane of black, spiky horns frame the back of the creature’s head and long, writhing tendrils hang under its jaw, skimming the ground, tickling the earth.
I ease back a step, my skin crackling with energy. The creature freezes, then in a flash faces me, its scarlet eyes boring into mine. They weren’t fireflies. They’re eyes. Six eyes.
The monster screeches and lunges for me.
I run straight toward it, ducking under its jaw and racing through the slimy tentacles, guessing that the serpent will expect me to go in the opposite direction.
Please, gods, say Alexios has followed.
The smell of sulfur is so strong that it almost knocks me off balance as I skim near the edge of the swamp.
I swerve, heading inland as I burst out of the mass of tendrils.
There’s a masculine roar, and I’m sure it’s Alexios’s.
I risk turning, and stumble. Alexios crashes into me, legs powering him away from the monster.
“Move!” he bellows.
I do, my heart pounding in my chest, as two more winding necks, their flashing red eyes visible in the mist above, rise from the swamp.