Chapter 24 Persephone
Persephone
Morpheus kept us on course as we raced along the Styx, to the gates of the Underworld and Cerberus. My leg was still stiff, but the wound was completely closed now, and any loss of blood I may have experienced was being offset by the power still coursing through me from Fonax.
I was keeping the voice commanding me to kill at bay by clinging to the image of Hades' face, but the more I thought about him, the more intense his fear felt through the bond, which in turn was making me more anxious and angry and susceptible to the dark power.
“Please tell me we're almost there,” I yelled over the rushing wind.
“Over there,” shouted Hecate, and pointed. We were making our way over ground that was gradually sloping upward and I could just make out a dark hole in the rock above us, that the glowing blue river seemed to be streaming from.
It only took a few moments more to reach it, and I flexed my fists as we entered the darkness.
We flew into a long cavern, and my jaw fell open as I stared around myself. The river veered off to the right, immediately obscured from view by the walls of the cavern. But the walls weren't made from rock, they were made from wings.
A hundred feet tall and the same again in length, they stretched the length of the cavern, struts that looked like ribs holding them up at intervals. They were slightly transparent, and I could see huge flames flickering behind then, casting everything in a fiery orange glow.
We slowed as we flew further into the long hall, and I saw what the wings were attached to.
At the end of the room was a huge iron gate with thick bars, and towering above it, a statue of a demon, the wing walls curving from its back. It looked like a grotesque gargoyle, with fangs and horns and sagging stone skin and I shuddered.
“Wow,” I breathed. The gates of hell were terrifying. Impressive, but terrifying. “Where's Cerberus?” I asked. The second the dog’s name left my lips, a rumbling growl began to roll through the air. Morpheus brought the chariot to a stop, just a few feet above the ground.
“I don't know, but here's Minthe,” muttered Hecate, looking behind us. Her red chariot was pelting toward us, and as she neared I saw that her arm was wrapped in fabric, blood seeping through the material. She couldn't heal, I remembered, and Olethros' bite was toxic.
“Are you alright?” I called to her, as they slowed. Sanape growled and leveled her crossbow at me, but Minthe barked something at her.
“Fine,” she shouted back at me. “May the best woman win!”
I nodded at her, as respectfully as I could, and turned back to Hecate, who was giving me a strange look.
“You do actually want to win this, right?”
“Yeah, but not by letting someone else die,” I snapped.
“Her health is not your problem. It's extremely good for you that she's injured.” A loud snarl cut across her words, and all the hairs on my skin stood on end.
“I'll win because I deserve to, not because she dies,” I said quietly, vines snaking from my palms. “Where's Cerberus?” I asked again, before she could say anything else on the subject.
“He doesn't normally guard the inside of the gates,” she said. “Persy, if you get bitten by him, you're not going to have long to fix it. His power over fear is as strong as Hades' is, and that almost killed you once.”
“OK,” I nodded. “I won't let him bite me.” My stomach clenched in anxiety, and I flexed my fingers, my vines turning black. “I'm ready.”
As if on cue, a creature melted through the iron gates, and I felt my knees go weak.
He was a combination of the other two hounds, in the worst possible way.
Thirty feet tall, his dark body was covered in dancing flames.
At his shoulders his neck split into three, and each broad, snarling head had angular eyes that looked like blood-red gemstones, and dark red liquid dripped from lethal fangs.
Terror gripped my chest as I stared at the beast, fear spreading through my body all the way to my bones. Cerberus' ears pricked up, and all three heads barked. The sound rocked through me, and I clapped my hands over my ears as dread coursed through my veins. Fire, flesh, blood... I was drowning.
“Persy!” Hecate caught me as my legs buckled.
I snapped my magical shield up, and for a moment it did nothing. But then light broke through the dark spots in my eyes, the desire to run and run and run fading. My legs steadied, and Hades' face filled my mind, fierce and passionate.
I was here for a reason, I couldn't run.
I had to win.
“Where's the gem?” I said, breathing hard. Morpheus pointed, and my insides clenched again. Glinting in the orange light, on a silver chain around Cerberus's middle head, were two gems the size of my fist. One green, and one red. I gaped, looking between Hecate and Morpheus.
“How the hell am I supposed to get onto his neck? He's on fucking fire!” They both stared back at me, Hecate's eyes filled with apology.
“We can't help you, Persy,” she said eventually.
“But Minthe has a plan, so you'd better come up with something fast,” said Morpheus, and I spun to see the other chariot powering toward the giant dog.
There was no way I could land on top of him, I'd be burned instantly, I thought, trying to play out scenarios as fast as I could in my head. But from underneath him, perhaps I could use my vines to reach the silver chain collar.
“Take me down,” I asked Morpheus, and he nodded, the chariot immediately dropping to the rock. I wasted no time, sprinting toward Cerberus. He snarled as I approached, then his right head moved up sharply, snapping at Minthe's chariot.
Taking advantage of the distraction, I threw myself to the ground and slid. One huge flaming head came down, fangs terrifying as they chomped at me, but I made it underneath his massive chest before he could reach me. He barked again, the sound so loud I thought my head might explode.
I wriggled around on my back, looking up at the underside of his body as his clawed paws stamped around me.
The flames didn't extend under his chest, and I saw a pendant on a chain that was stretched over his barrel shaped ribs, bouncing against his black fur.
Squinting, I made out the image of a skull, with a rose wrapped around it.
Without thinking, I leaped into a crouch and jumped for the pendant. The second my hand closed around it, Cerberus howled.
It was so much worse than his bark. The sound instilled a terror that I had simply never felt in my life, waves of fear beating against my shield, impulses to run and hide and cry pulsing through my mind as I fought them.
After what seemed like an age, the howling mercifully stopped. Gasping, I inched forward, trying to get under his heads to see the collar, and I realized with a start that he was no longer on fire.
The pendant... Had it somehow stopped the fire? Mind racing, I changed course, running instead for his tail. If he wasn't on fire, I could climb up his back.
But so could Minthe.
As I emerged from underneath him, I twisted, launching my vines at the base of his tail and pulling myself up fast. His left head turned, snapping at his rear end, but he couldn't reach me as I landed at the base of his tail.
My stomach twisted as I looked up and saw Minthe, wrapped tight around the neck of his right head. Tears streaked her pretty face as the head thrashed, and blood still seeped through her bandage. But she was closer to the collar than I was. And I had to win this.
Focusing on the central head, I ran up Cerberus' enormous spine, my arms flailing either side of me like a damned tightrope walker.
The only thing that kept me upright as the dog stamped around was my speed.
I threw myself at the middle neck as my foot finally slipped, but I missed.
I fired my vines as I slid, and one coiled around Cerberus's neck, catching me as my body followed my foot, dangling between his middle and left heads.
The third head snapped and snarled, and I swung myself desperately out of the way.
I could see the gems glinting on the collar, high above me.
But then I saw Minthe, her head appearing over the top of his central neck, gripping the chain collar.
She saw my vine and paused, her gaze following it to where I was dangling.
Her hand appeared by her head, a knife in it. She was going to cut the vine.
I sent another one up fast, and it coiled around the collar. A blast of hot breath was my only warning that the third head was coming in for another go at eating me, and I pulled on both vines hard, willing them to shorten.
The giant jaws missed me by inches. Cerberus howled again, and I winced, pain and a feeling of utter hopelessness lancing though my head.
I only had seconds before Minthe reached her gem. But she hadn't cut my vine. I looked up at her as I grabbed for the underside of the collar, and saw that she had one arm wrapped across her face, the other clinging to the top of the collar. I was only a few feet from her now.
I scrabbled at the collar, trying to twist it to reach the green gem, but it was thicker than my arm and wouldn't budge. The left head chomped at where Minthe was and I heard her whimper. She couldn't block out the fear like I could.
I yanked on the chain, pulling myself up and around the other side of his neck, closer to the gem. The right head swooped at me, and I launched a black vine at it, adrenaline powering through me.
I was so close.
The vine collided with Cerberus' temple, then began to coil around his ear. I couldn't make the dog weak by draining his power, or Minthe would have a chance too. The only reason she hadn't already got her gem was the fear crippling her. But I could at least keep one of the heads distracted.
Cerberus shook his head violently, trying to dislodge my vine and making me wobble, but I held on. Using my legs I hauled myself up next to Minthe. She was trembling but her breathing was slowing.
“Do you really love him?” I heard her say, her voice weak. I froze.
“Yes.”
The left head barked suddenly, twisting toward us. I moved fast, lunging for the green gem. My fingers closed around it, and I pulled.