Age of Heroes (48 page)

The impact was earth-shaking.

T
HEO ROSE TO
his feet, unsteady, groggy. His ears were whining as though there were cicadas trapped inside them, and it was hard to catch his breath. One side of his ribcage felt on fire.

The Minotaur statue lay flat on the lawn, prone. He tottered towards it. He didn’t want to look. He had to look.

The sickle lay on the grass, inches from Chase’s outstretched hand. Of Chase himself there wasn’t much visible, but what there was told Theo all he needed to know.

Crushed, pulverised.

Such thorough destruction that even a demigod couldn’t survive it.

Theo raised his head.

The sky was empty. Not a cloud in sight. Just the endless unsullied blue of the firmament.

But something had hit the statue from above and toppled it.

Something that had blazed, something powerful from the heavens.

Something like...

A thunderbolt?

FORTY-FOUR

Kardionisi

E
VANDER
A
RLINGTON SPOKE
to Roy, Jeanne and the other three Myrmidons. For a man who had just ceremonially beheaded his wife, he seemed remarkably calm. A cold fish.

But then, King Minos, to the best of Roy’s knowledge, had been a despot. Obviously the lives of others, even the life of someone he professed to love, meant little to him. He could snuff them out and square it easily with his conscience.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” he said. “You have seen things today that perhaps you ought not to have. You have been party to events beyond your accustomed sphere of experience.”

“Does that mean you’re going to kill us, too?” said Gunnvor Blomgren. “To silence us?” She drew her pistol, chambered a round and aimed at Arlington.

Roy waved at her to back off. “I don’t think that’s where he’s going with this. Let’s hear him out.”

“I’m merely saying that you have been victims of my late wife’s machinations,” said Arlington. “As her husband, I bear the responsibility for that. It is...”

He took a deep breath, and Roy noticed his hands were trembling ever so slightly. There was turmoil beneath the sanguine façade. Arlington was not as emotionless as he wished to appear.

“It is only right that I make reparation,” he continued.

“Oh, so you’re
buying
our silence,” said Blomgren.

“Gunnvor,” Roy said, “for Christ’s sake, will you just shut up and let Minos speak?”

Arlington raised an eyebrow. “You know who I am.”

The name had just slipped out. “Who you
were
,” Roy amended.

“Of course. Quite right. Who I was. What the legends don’t tell you is that I am very much a man of honour. Perhaps not back then, but now. My wife was paying you handsomely, I’m sure. I will see to it that you each receive every cent you are owed, plus extra.”

“Can’t say fairer than that,” said Sean Wilson with a shrug.

“In return, you will surrender those weapons to me, the antiques. They are worthless in every respect except the one that, as far as I and my kind are concerned, counts. I cannot leave them in your hands. I must round them up and make absolutely sure that they –”

He was interrupted by a sudden flicker of fiercely bright light, followed an instant later by a
crack
so loud it made everyone jump.

For a moment nobody spoke.

Then Jeanne said, “What the hell was that? Was that... lightning?”

In the corner of Roy’s eye there was an afterimage – a zigzagging vertical yellow line.

The bolt of lightning, if that was what it had been, had struck somewhere over in the hedgerow maze.

Out of a clear blue sky.

“Where’s Stannard?” said Roy, looking around. It was the first time he’d noticed that Stannard wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “I thought he was still here, but... in all the confusion...”

Sasha Grace, without a word, broke into a run, heading for the maze.

FORTY-FIVE

Kardionisi

T
HEO WAS TIRED,
bone-deep. So tired he couldn’t face the thought of navigating back through the maze to the exit.

Instead he employed the sickle, putting it more or less to the use a sickle was intended for. He hacked a path straight through the hedgerows. In one cypress wall after another he carved out a doorway for himself, until at last he staggered clear of the maze’s perimeter.

Sasha was waiting, scythe in hand.

She lowered it when she saw him.

“Theo.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

“You’re alive.”

“Just about. You look as bad as I feel. That’s a nasty cut.”

She glanced at the gash in her shoulder as though it was of no consequence. “What about Chase? I saw you run off after something – something I couldn’t see. I assumed...”

“You assumed correctly. And Chase is... He met his nemesis.”

“Oh,” Sasha said. “I’m sorry. I know how close you two were.”

“Apparently not as close as I thought. Same ideals, different wavelengths. What about Hélène?”

Sasha shook her head. “She met
her
nemesis.”

“Crazy woman. Thinking she was triggering a second Trojan War. You know the saying about history repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce? It’s...”

Everything greyed. All at once the world seemed distant, as though behind gauze.

Sasha snaked an arm around him, catching him as he sagged, taking his weight.

“Thanks,” Theo said. “Bit dazed. I guess, from the sound of it, the fighting’s over.”

“It is. I think we’re done. Listen, Theo, there’s something I have to say.”

“Can it wait?”

“No. It’s just – I may have judged you too harshly. A long, long time ago, when you eloped with my sister, I couldn’t for the life of me understand what she saw in you. I thought you were a prig and a deceiver, too crafty for your own or anyone’s good. I... I was wrong. All the bad blood it caused, the rift between Melanippe and me, not to mention the Amazonomachy. I’ve always regretted it, but I’ve never apologised for it. I’m doing that now.”

“Better late than never, I suppose. For what it’s worth, Melanippe always loved you, in spite of everything. Why else did we name our son after you? It was her idea. A token of respect.”

Sasha nodded sombrely. “You’re a far better man than I have given you credit for. It’s a shame it’s taken something like this for me to realise that.”

“I grow on people,” Theo said. “Like fungus. Shall we re-join the others?”

“Sure.”

They began walking, Sasha supporting Theo despite the additional pain it caused her.

“What happened back there?” she asked. “We saw what looked like lightning.”

Theo grimaced. “There’s a name for it, and it’s something I never expected to hear myself say in this day and age.”

“Which is...?”

“Divine intervention.”

FORTY-SIX

Kardionisi

R
OY COLLECTED THE
antique weapons off the other Myrmidons.

“I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for all of this,” Gunnvor Blomgren said as she handed him the spear. “I’m sure it all makes sense somehow.”

“It does,” said Roy. “I’ll fill you in when I can. You might have trouble believing it at first, but...”

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll have trouble at all,” said Sean Wilson. “The strange shit we’ve seen and heard tonight, and before tonight, for that matter.”

Roy presented the weapons to Evander Arlington. “That’s the lot.”

“No, it isn’t. There should be twelve.”

“Stannard and Sasha Grace have some of the others, maybe the rest, I don’t know. Do you have a checklist or something?”

“Not on me right this moment, but I have a friend – a guest on the island, in fact – who might be able to help.” Arlington frowned. “To be honest, I’m surprised he isn’t up and about. All the commotion – I doubt he could have slept through it. I wonder where he’s got to.”

“Might I ask a question?”

“Hmmm? What’s that? A question?”

“I realise this isn’t the best time, you have other things to think about, but... I have a daughter, and she’s in grave danger.”

“That concerns me how?” said Arlington sniffily.

“It concerns you,” said Roy, “because your wife was responsible for her being in danger, sort of.”

“Ah. How so?”

“Does the name Holger Badenhorst mean anything to you?”

“Not a thing. Who is he?”

“Your wife never mentioned him?”

“It would seem that Hélène” – Arlington flicked his gaze to the decapitated corpse – “was keeping more than a few secrets from me. I assure you, upon my word, I do not know any Badenhorst.”

“Shit. I suppose it was a long shot. He’s her fixer, you see. The man she got to recruit us Myrmidons and make arrangements. And he’s – he’s...”

“He has placed your daughter in jeopardy somehow. Would that have been with or without my Hélène’s connivance?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“If it was without, then I doubt I can help you in any way. If not even Hélène knew about it, then...”

Arlington’s brow creased.

“Wait a moment,” he said. “These past few weeks my wife has behaved absolutely normally. Nothing she did struck me as curious. But just the other day Hélène enquired about one of the properties I own, an apartment. Over breakfast, as I recall. It was out of the blue, à propos of nothing. ‘Are you intending to use the place in the near future?’ she asked. I wanted to know why, and she said, ‘No reason.’ She said she was considering a trip, to do some shopping I think, and was wondering if the apartment would be available. Nothing odd about that. Hélène likes –
liked
her shopping trips. I told her I had no plans to go there. The apartment was free for her to use if she wished. And that was that.”

“Did she go?”

“Not to my knowledge, but it was only a few days ago. The trip may have been scheduled for next month, or may have been cancelled and she didn’t tell me. It could have no relevance whatsoever to the situation with your daughter.”

“Or it could be exactly what I’m looking for,” said Roy.

At that moment Theo Stannard and Sasha Grace limped into view. Stannard looked battered, shellshocked, dead on his feet.

“Please,” Roy said to Arlington, “if you could tell me where the apartment is...”

He was clutching at straws, he knew it. There was every chance the information would be useless. Wherever this apartment was, there was no guarantee Josie was there.

“You truly think there is some link between it and your daughter?” Arlington said.

“Your daughter, Roy?” said Stannard. “You know where she is?”

“I hope so,” Roy said.

“I’m not convinced myself,” said Arlington.

“Listen, Evander,” Theo said to him. “If you know something – anything – that gives Roy a chance of rescuing his kid, you damn well tell him right now.”

“All right. All right.” Arlington raised his hand. “I never said I wouldn’t tell him. The apartment is in Vienna. I can give you the address.”