The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (34 page)

“
It
wasn't you, Aaron. It was the gorgon. Ghelena did the same to us.”

“
Right,
right. I remember.” He looked at the others. “But what
are we going to do? They're walking into a trap!”

“
I
know, I know. Look, we have to follow them. Between us, we control
earth and fire. If we have to defend them, that's what we'll do.”
He looked at his friend with concern. “Do you think you can
resist that voice if she starts speaking again.”

Aaron
nodded confidently. “Now that I'm warned, absolutely. And if I
can't, you have my permission to smack me again.”

With a
chuckle, Justin punched Aaron lightly on the arm, then nodded toward
the others. They hurried to catch up.

The
others paid no attention as Aaron and Justin caught up to them and
began following. By their expressions, they seemed excited and filled
with anticipation. Justin could not believe that someone's voice
could change anyone the way that his friends had obviously been
affected.

They
quickly approached the end of the ramp. A huge arch cut into the
stone and led to a broad hallway that burrowed into the rough stone.
There was a peculiar odor in the air. Justin sniffed it and almost
gagged. It was a mixture of rotten meat, an acidic tang and...animal
sweat? It was totally repulsive and Aaron looked like he was trying
not to vomit.

But the
others were now smiling widely, as if they had caught the scent of an
open meadow or the smell of home.

Maria
led the way down the corridor. The floor was shiny and concave with
many years of use; the stone walls thick with moss and spongy fungus,
which only added to the toxic stink in the air. The tunnel turned and
twisted several times until, at last, they saw an opening up ahead.

As they
approached the end of the hall, the voice reverberated around them.
“Ah, there you are, sweet things. How happy I am that you've
come. I have so many secrets to reveal, so many delights to share.
Come. Come into my home, and rest.”

Justin
glanced quickly at Aaron. But his friend winked and gave him the
thumbs up and Justin breathed a sigh of relief, which was choked off
as he tasted a mouthful of the foul air. He and Aaron followed the
others to the end of the corridor and stopped, watching from the
doorway as the others entered the room ahead. Both Justin and Aaron
gasped at what they saw.

The room
was round with a domed ceiling. All of the walls were covered with
mold and lichen. It crept up and hung in sheets from the ceiling.
Lights on the ceiling shone greenly through the overgrown fungus.
Perhaps a hundred feet across, the floor rose to peak in the middle
of the room. Around the middle was a circle of refuse several feet
high. Justin swallowed his nausea as he realized the refuse was made
up of discarded bones, some animal, some clearly human. There were
crushed skulls, moldy items of clothing, the skins of animals, even
the skins of gorgons themselves and, near the top of the heap, wetly
gleaming carcasses that he did not allow himself to look at too
closely.

But all
of that was swept out of his consciousness as he saw what occupied
this huge 'nest'.

It was a
gorgon, but nothing like the snake-people that lived below.

She was
huge, towering above them perhaps twelve feet, supported by a snake
body that stretched out thirty feet behind her, bright pulsing green
with alternating blood red stripes.

She was
covered with snakes. They climbed over her, burrowed under and around
her body and weaved in and out of her long, jet-black hair. But the
worst part of all was her face. She was the first gorgon that Justin
had seen without a veil, and now he knew why they kept their faces
covered.

The skin
of her face was actually scaled like a snake; bands of tiny scales
that followed its every contour. There was no nose, just two slits.
And the eyes; the eyes were enormous and flat black, like a shark's
eyes. Dead-looking, evil, hungry.

“
Ah,
there you are, children!” she hissed. Her teeth were pointed
and looked decayed and rotted. “Let us become better
acquainted. I am Medusa, the queen of my people. And who are you,
hmm?”

“
Hi,
ma'am,” Maria answered brightly. My God, Justin thought, can't
she see what's going on here? “These are my friends,” she
continued. “This is Julia and Yolanda, that's Richard and
Jason. Oh and those two hiding in the doorway are Justin and Aaron.”
Maria looked at them in exasperation. “Come in and say hello,
guys. Geez, talk about impolite!”

“
She's
nuts,” Aaron muttered as he stared at Medusa in shock.

“
Nope,
not nuts, Aaron. Controlled,” Justin said in a low voice.

“
So
nice to meet all of you. I have not seen a Titan in many a year.”
She glanced at Justin and he felt a shock of horror as their eyes
met.

“
So
this is Justin, is it? Yes, how nice. I've heard a little something
about you, child. It is pleasing to meet the person behind the
stories.”

“
What?”
Justin spoke up in spite of himself. “How would you know
anything about me?'

“
So
modest. Charming,” Medusa replied. “Well, I was told of
your little group by a mutual friend. Now what was his name? Ah yes,
Dominic, was it? Yes. We met a little while back. Sweet boy, truly.
He was most cooperative, telling me all about your adventures. Well,
cooperative after I spoke to him for a few moments anyway. I asked
him to bring you here, so that I might meet you in person. He did a
fine job, did he not?”

She
smiled and her scaly skin stretched back in a jester's grin that was
more horrible than anything Justin had ever seen.

“
Justin!”
Aaron whispered frantically. “Dom wasn't a traitor! She had him
under her spell or whatever.”

“
Yeah,
she did,” Justin answered, feeling ashamed that he could have
believed that Dominic would betray them.

“
Wait
a minute. You know Dominic?” Maria spoke up. Something in her
tone made Justin look at her sharply. She no longer had that dreamy
smile on her face. Instead, a look of confusion dominated her
features and she shook her head several times.

Come on,
Maria, Justin thought desperately. Shake it off.

“
Oh
yes, we had a lovely chat. And when he returned a short time ago, to
tell me that you had arrived, well, I could not have been more
pleased.” She sighed dramatically. “I shall miss our
little talks, but for his service, I gave him the greatest reward
that was in my power to give.” She sounded pleased with
herself. Maria was nodding again, apparently slipping back under
Medusa's spell.

“
What
honor would that be, lady?” Maria asked curiously.

“
Why,
to become part of my court, my dear.” The gorgon rummaged
around in the detritus of her nest. “Ah, here we are.”
She reached down and lifted something up. Maria stared blankly for a
moment and then let out a scream of anguish.

“
He
fed a queen. Now he will be a part of me forever,” Medusa said
with obvious relish.

She held
up what was left of Dominic. It was only by his clothes that Justin
could even identify the remains and he refused to stare at them for
more than a second. He heard Aaron vomit beside him but continued to
stare at the gorgon.

For that
you will die, monster, he thought savagely and took a step toward
her.

But he
never had a chance to attack. Maria had fallen to her knees, sobbing
and shaking her head in denial. Now she glared up at the creature
above her. And Justin finally got a chance to see what real speed
was.

Maria
launched herself at the gigantic snake-lady. As she ran up the side
of the nest, she grabbed a thick, shattered bone that had a
splintered end snapped off to a point. When she reached the rim of
the debris, she launched herself into space, straight at Medusa's
head.

The
gorgon had no time to react. Perhaps centuries of power had made her
complacent; perhaps she believed her control of the teens was
absolute. But for whatever reason, she reacted too slowly to Maria's
attack.

She
slammed into the monster's head, which was almost as large as she
was, and Maria stabbed the splintered bone straight through one
enormous, dead black eye. The gorgon screamed in agony and Justin
fell to his knees and covered his ears. The sound was almost visible
in its intensity. Before Medusa could do more than scream, Maria
ripped the bone from her eye and stabbed the other one. Again the
gorgon screamed as she thrashed about in agony. The snakes that
covered her were flung in all directions as she writhed and twisted,
trying to dislodge her attacker. But Maria had a firm grip on the
gorgon's long hair and, as Justin watched in amazement, she wrenched
her weapon from Medusa's eye and slammed it up and into the
creature's throat.

With one
last mighty convulsion, Maria was thrown from her perch and flung
across the room, coming to rest near the group of teens, who were
blinking and looking around themselves with horror.

The
gorgon collapsed, black blood streaming from her eyes and throat. But
as she fell, Justin heard the hundreds of snakes that had been shaken
off in the battle start to hiss and slither in the nest. He saw a
wave of them rise above the rim of the debris and start to wriggle
down toward Maria, who was on her back, obviously dazed from the
impact of her landing.

Justin
turned toward a green-tinged Aaron. “Aaron, quickly,” he
pointed at the snakes headed for Maria. “Burn them. Now!”

Aaron
shook off his sickness, looked at the snakes in revulsion and made a
sweeping gesture in mid-air. A wall of flame sprang up between Maria
and the reptiles and swept back toward the nest, immolating
everything in its path. When it reached the top of the nest, Aaron's
face convulsed with fury and he brought both fists up and thrust them
straight out, as though punching an opponent,

The nest
exploded! Medusa's body, Dominic's remains and the rest of the
horrible debris went up in an inferno and the other teens, finally
themselves again, grabbed Maria and retreated to the doorway, getting
away from the incredible heat.

Justin
reached out and gently shook Aaron's shoulder. His friend had tears
streaming down his face as he controlled the flames.

“
It's
over, bud,” he said quietly. “Let the fire go.”

Aaron
dropped his arms and turned away, staring at the far wall, lost in
his thoughts and grief.

Maria
was wrapped in the arms of Julia and Yolanda, all of them crying
softly. Richard stood staring at the burning nest, eyes wide in
disbelief and Jason was looking at Justin.

“
I
can't believe that...thing controlled us like that. If it wasn't for
you, Justin...”

He
shrugged. “I'm grateful that I was immune to her voice, Jason.
But save your gratitude for Maria. She's the one that killed that
monster.”

As he
let the group work through their grief, Justin looked around the
room. The walls were so covered with thick fungus that, if there was
another exit, he couldn't see it. He told Aaron that he was going to
follow the wall around and see if there was some sort of door. His
friend just nodded dully, still staring off into the distance and
sorting out his thoughts.

“
Be
right back,” Justin said to the group and he turned to the
right and began walking slowly around the edge of the room.

He had
only been searching for a few minutes when Justin heard Aaron calling
him. He turned to see that Aaron had, thankfully, decided to do
something constructive, probably to take his mind off of his grief,
and had been searching along the other side of the room.

“
I
found a door, Just!” he called and pointed at the wall next to
him.

“
Cool,
Aaron. Be right there.” Justin retraced his steps. He had no
intention of getting any closer to the now smoldering nest than he
had to, so he took the long way around. Jason and Richard joined him
as he walked past the entrance. The three girls had stopped crying
and were talking softly and sadly about Dominic. Maria gave him a
wane smile as he passed her and he returned it.

Aaron
was ripping swaths of moss from the wall as they joined him, to
reveal a small doorway. There was a rune in the wall beside it and,
at Justin's nod, Aaron pressed it firmly.

The door
quivered, screeched open a crack and stopped.

“
C'mon,
boys, give me a hand,” Aaron said as he put his hands on the
door. Between the four of them, they managed to get the door open
wide enough to squeeze through. It obviously hadn't been opened in
ages.

“
Let's
take a look before telling the girls,” Jason suggested. They
all agreed and slipped through the door one by one.

A very
narrow hallway, lit by several flickering ceiling lights, led off for
a long way. The floor was choked with dust and all of them began
coughing in the stale, gritty air.

“
Well,
I don't think anyone's used this for hundreds or even thousands of
years, Just,” Aaron commented as they cautiously walked along.
“If this is an exit and Ghelena ever visited her 'sisters', she
didn't come this way.”

Justin
agreed. “I think I was wrong about Ghelena, Aaron. Just like I
was wrong about Dominic,” he added sadly. Richard spoke up.

“
You
weren't wrong about him, Justin. You were only wrong about his
motives. He was working against us, but because of Medusa, not
because he wanted to.”