Chapter 53
Evadne
Islide, as quietly as I can, out of the soft sheets. Hercules doesn’t stir. The cold air makes me shiver as I cross the room on silent feet.
Although the sky dims at night, it’s never properly dark in Olympus, so the room is lit well enough for me to see where I’m stepping.
I pick up Hercules’s shirt, discarded on the floor, and pull it on over my head.
I creep to the bedroom door, closing it quietly behind me, and make my way to the bar.
Once I’ve lit a lantern, I pull Realms of Olympus by Apollodoros from one of the huge bookcases, then ease myself into the soft armchair, cross my legs beneath me, and begin to read the words under a detailed map of Olympus.
It was agreed, by all of the gods unanimously, that they would divide Olympus into equal realms. They could govern these realms as they pleased, choosing which races made their home within their boundaries and which races were welcome as guests.
Realms could exist within earth, sea, or sky, and anything between could be used freely by mortals.
Zeus claimed a realm first in the center of Olympus and, not willing to risk further warring between themselves (or indeed his mighty wrath), the other gods accepted this and claimed their own around his.
Two created sky realms, Zeus and Athena; two created ocean realms, Poseidon and Hephaestus; and the rest created islands floating in unclaimed water.
All realms have climates controlled by the gods, Apollo’s Capricorn typically experiencing the most extreme seasons.
Four gods chose to forbid all but a few races from entering: Artemis, Hades, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus.
Dionysus’s realm and Ares’s eponymous realm are forbidden to no creature but are generally considered too dangerous for most to visit.
I scan the words, stopping whenever I see Artemis or Sagittarius in the text. The best way I can prove my worth, outside of Hercules’s bedroom, is to know more about what we’re going into than anybody else. Hopefully, if I learn enough, I’ll get an opportunity to prove myself.
“We’re half an hour away.”
Asterion’s voice in my head jolts me out of a riveting account of the last mortal attempt to breach the border mountain range on Virgo.
I hear Hercules stirring in the bedroom and stand, stretching my arms above my head.
It’s still dark. Artemis said the Trial would be revealed at sunrise.
Apollo, Artemis’s twin brother, controls sunrise and sunset, though Olympus has gone through many suns in its long life.
Another nugget of information gleaned from good old Apollodoros.
I reach down, pat the book on the chair fondly, and make my way back to my own quarters to dress.
When I arrive on the quarterdeck, Asterion and Hercules are already there, waiting expectantly for the flame dish to leap to life. I look out over the railings, past the ballista turrets and tall, triangular sails, at Sagittarius.
We’re hovering, maybe twenty feet from the ground, over bare, pale plains.
Dusty, yellowing grass covers the flat expanse and low green hills rise up on all sides of us.
Clouds glittering with orange and green swirl through the sky above me and I can smell the rich smell of soil.
The Alastor, Virtus, and Orion are all moored over the same field, looming and quiet in the morning dusk.
Hercules doesn’t look at all like he nearly died the previous day.
He stands tall, his muscular frame filling the black shirt he wears, his gray eyes reflecting the dancing orange flames.
I felt every inch of his body last night, and only a few scars remain from Athena’s metal beasts.
I know Zeus must have helped him. A thrill runs through me at the thought.
The lord of the gods himself. Quite an ally.
The flames flash white, and Artemis appears in the dish. She doesn’t look older than fourteen, with no curves to her lithe body or lines on her honest face.
“Good day, heroes. I want you to catch my prize stag, Cerynea, on his way across Sagittarius. He is very fast, and you will need to use a longboat to keep up and navigate the route he takes across my realm. If you can’t catch him, then the first to make it across my realm after him will win.
You must take the route he does, or you will be incapacitated.
And ‘incapacitated’ means your longboat will disappear from under you, instantaneously, regardless of where you are when you break the rules.
You have until sunset to prepare your vessels, though you may not leave the plains you are currently moored in.
If this rule is broken, you will be executed, immediately. ”
I swallow. It’s unnerving seeing the young girl talk so simply about death.
“Good luck, hunters, and I beg thee, do not break my rules.” She vanishes from the flames.
“It’s a race. In longboats,” I say.
Hercules nods, a smile spreading across his face. “And we have the best longboat silver can buy.”