Chapter 47 Eryx
Eryx
Itighten my grip with my legs and hang on a moment more, conscious I’m wasting precious time but unable to stop myself.
I need to make sure the red-haired girl and her boyfriend landed in Theseus’s longboat, where I tried to throw her.
I want to win, but I don’t have a taste for killing innocent folk.
And honestly, I wasn’t expecting him to jump after her.
Relief washes through me as I see them both hit the wood with a thud, and I pull myself back up around the serpent’s neck. I get my arms wrapped around two horns just as the Hydra head lurches forward, moving down dangerously close to the flames, then veers sharply back upward.
I clamp my mouth shut and grip the metal beast harder. My eyes narrow as we duck down toward the fire again, adrenaline coursing through my tense body. The beast won’t get rid of me that easily.
I pull hard on the horns, turning my massive body slowly as the thing weaves back and forth and up and down, trying to dislodge me. After a few painstaking minutes I’ve rotated myself enough that I’m on the back of the thing’s neck instead of hanging under its jaw.
Lyssa’s wrecked longboat hangs beside me, smashing against the gleaming metal scales every time we swerve.
I reach forward and grab the huge central horn.
Just as I wrap my other hand firmly around it there’s an almighty clash, and I’m catapulted sideways as another gleaming serpent head smashes into the one I’m riding.
I’m barely able to hang on as they fly sideways, both beast heads snarling and hissing. The bottom half of my body skids across the scales as the creature recovers, then darts back toward the gaping maw of the new head.
I need to finish this, now.
I bare my teeth and summon all of my strength, struggling to get my feet on the writhing neck. I get one huge boot flat against the metal and use the purchase to heave myself forward, reaching my right arm over the fierce horns.
Pain lances through my ribs and I jerk my body backward. One of them has pierced my skin, under my arm. I ignore the stinging pain and scrabble around with my hand, trying to feel for the thing’s eye.
It thrashes harder as my fingers brush across something angular and jagged, different from the smooth metal scales. I plant my other boot against the thing’s neck and stretch, trying to see over the horns without them impaling me.
Another burning surge of pain shoots through my torso, and I hiss. I clench my hand into a fist and punch blindly at what I think is the Hydra’s eye, hoping it’s more vulnerable than the scales.
A shadow moves over me and I glance up. The other head is above me, and it’s looking straight at me. It opens its mouth slowly, showing lethal teeth, and its tongue starts to flick out.
I smash at the eye again with my fist, as hard as I can. With a crack it shatters beneath my hand and the monster roars, whipping its head back.
Instinctively I push my hand into the hole I’ve just made, surprised to feel nothing inside the thing’s head. I push farther in, feeling around for anything that might control the creature.
A loud hiss above me accompanies the wet drip of something on my back. Saliva.
I’m out of time.
My hand closes around something cold and spherical, and I immediately yank my arm out of the eyehole, pulling the sphere with me.
The effect is instant.
Everything freezes. The head above me and the one I’m clinging to just stop moving. The fierce red eyes glaring down at me dim to nothing. The only movement I can see is the flames below, dancing and flickering.
I let out a long breath, trying to give my hammering heart a chance to slow, and look at the sphere in my hand. It’s made of the same dark, shining metal as the Hydra and has an intricate pattern carved in it, covering the whole surface. I think the pattern has a faint blue glow as I stare at it.
“Well done, Eryx,” says a deep female voice in my head.
I’m nearly startled enough to drop the sphere, and as I look around for the source of the voice, everything goes black.
It’s only dark for a split second, and then I’m standing on the banks of the swamp, alongside my captain. Antaeus beams at me, and claps me hard on the back.
“Congratulations to our victors, the Orion.” Athena herself stands before us. She’s as beautiful as ever, and pride swells in me.
I won. I destroyed the Hydra, won the Trial, and am now being addressed by a goddess.
“You will want to attend to that wound,” she says, and gestures at my chest.
I look down, surprised. Blood is streaming from the tear in my shirt. I can’t feel it, though. I tentatively touch the edge of the wound. Nothing.
“Your next Trial will be announced in one hour,” Athena says, and vanishes.
“Congratulations.”
I spin. It’s Captain Lyssa, her crew fanned out behind her.
She points at my chest. “My medic, Len, tells me that will kill you before the next Trial starts if you don’t treat it now.”
“Is it numb yet?” the satyr asks.
I nod, suddenly feeling very strange.
“Why would you help him?” says Antaeus brusquely. “He dropped you into the flames.”
The red-haired girl shrugs. “Alexios here says he aimed for Theseus’s boat. Is that true?”
Her words seem calm, maybe even indifferent, but there’s fire in her eyes.
“Yes. I wasn’t trying to kill you. Just beat you.”
Her eyes flare with anger, and I’m fairly sure she’s mad as Hades. But when she speaks, her voice is casual. “It is a game, after all. And we’d rather you win than Hercules,” she says. “Has anyone seen him?”
“No. Last I saw, he was buried under the metal crabs.”
I blink at my captain. There are two of him. I know that isn’t right.
“Er…” I manage to say before I crash to the ground.
“Get me my bag! I’m sorry, captain, but we may be too late,” says the satyr, rushing over.
“We can’t be. Athena just told me to help him. She said he was important,” Lyssa says angrily. I can hear her voice, but everything is getting dark and fuzzy.
Strong hands roll me onto my back. The little satyr’s face appears above me, his expression grim.
“Eryx, hold on,” is the last thing I hear Antaeus say.
But I can’t hold on.
Before I drift off, I think about blue hair and dark eyes, and I wonder where she is now.
Wherever it is, I hope she’s safe. And I hope she saw me win.