Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus (19 page)

Emily’s heart was racing as her rage towards the snake-women grew. The Flame was rising in the pit of her stomach; she did not try to stop it. Emily rose to her knees. ‘I begged you to stop,’ she said furiously. ‘She was an innocent child. You had no right to kill her!’

She raised both her hands and the flames shot from her fingertips. But they did not hit the gorgon as she intended. With her emotions running unchecked, the flames flew through the bars wildly and shot around the throne room uncontrolled. Tange growled in shock and pain as part of the flames glanced off his wide, muscular chest and tossed him backwards as if he weighed nothing. At the front of the throne room, the pink Nirad was crying in fear as the living flames approached her cage. But before the deadly flames reached her, a grey Nirad jumped forward and sacrificed himself to save her. He howled in agony as his marble skin started to bubble and burn.

Emily panicked when she saw the pain and destruction her powers were causing. She pointed her hands down and tried to stop the flames before they did any more harm. But as the flames scorched the marble of the throne room’s floor and caused the stone to smoke and actually melt, their intensity increased.

‘
Stop it, Em
,’ she commanded herself. ‘
Stop it!
’

Suddenly from the front dais Euryale shouted, ‘Turn it off, Flame, or Pegasus will die!’

Emily’s panicked eyes shot up to Euryale as she flew towards Pegasus. Her eyes were already glowing gold. ‘Do not be a fool, Flame. I will kill my nephew if I must. Turn it off now or he dies!’

‘I’m trying!’ Emily screeched as she fought to pull back the roaring flames, but her fear of the terrifying gorgons was fanning them. They would not respond to Emily’s commands. It was as though the flames had a mind and will of their own and would not be stopped.

‘Must we kill again?’ demanded Euryale. She turned from Pegasus and directed her deadly gaze at Chrysaor. The winged boar squealed and tried to dash away from his aunt. As his wings turned to stone he looked pleadingly at Emily.

When their eyes met, Emily saw terror and betrayal. For his final breathing moments, he struggled to drag his stony body closer to her.

‘Stop it!’ Emily cried as her wild emotions fuelled the flames further. She tried to pull them back, to gain some control, but her mind was too frightened and unfocused. ‘Please, you’re killing him!’

‘Then stop the flames!’ Stheno commanded.

Emily concentrated harder than she ever had in her life. She could hear Pegasus whinnying loudly in the cage opposite her. Hearing the anguish in the stallion’s voice gave Emily the power and determination she needed to finally pull back the flames. They weakened and tapered just as Chrysaor made it to the side of her cage. The boar’s transformation was complete as the last of the flames died away. His dark eyes faded and turned to stone.

Stheno stepped closer to the cage and faced Emily with a cold, cruel expression. ‘You will control your temper, Flame, or I promise you, Pegasus and the human with you will suffer the same fate as Chrysaor.’

Emily fell back to the floor panting heavily. Her frightened eyes moved away from Chrysaor to look around the throne room at the havoc her unleashed, uncontrolled powers had wrought. Eventually guards arrived and carried Tange and the burned Nirad away. Tange was moaning softly, but his wound didn’t look fatal. The other burned Nirad didn’t move.

Emily sat in stunned silence at her loss of control. She was grateful Joel was still unconscious and hadn’t witnessed the horror of it all. When her eyes finally settled on Chrysaor, she realized he, like the Nirad child, was dead because of her.

She watched Pegasus drop his head and paw the ground. Despite their constant fighting, the stallion had loved his brother and was grieving his death.

‘I’m so sorry, Pegs,’ she muttered softly. Emily looked at the smooth, unblemished skin of her hands and realized that despite the damage she had just caused, it could have been so much worse. The powers got away from her completely. She was lucky not to have burned Pegasus or the pink Nirad. This time had been much worse than what had happened at the Temple. Her powers were growing stronger, but her control was getting worse.

In that moment, Emily vowed never to use her powers again.

‘Now will you give me your gold brace or must we do this all again?’ Stheno demanded, holding out her bronze hand. She seemed not to notice or even care what had just happened.

Emily sat beside Joel and undid the straps to the complicated golden device. She tossed it to the door of the cage, unable to look at the evil gorgon. ‘Take it!’

‘You are learning, Flame,’ Stheno said, collecting the leg brace. ‘Jupiter will have his proof we possess you. He will have no choice now but to surrender to us.’

The two gorgons came together and held up the gold brace. ‘First we kill Jupiter; then Olympus is ours!’

Once the gorgons had the gold leg brace, they cackled with laughter and gleefully left the throne room. Emily concentrated on Joel. His face was bruised and covered with dried blood. His nose was broken badly and his eyes were swollen shut. As she gently stroked his forehead, her healing powers started to work on him and the bruises began to fade.

His eyes fluttered open.

‘It’s all right, Joel,’ Emily said softly. ‘You’re safe.’

‘Em,’ Joel muttered ‘What happened … ?’ His eyes shot open and he sat up. ‘Nirads!’ he cried. ‘Emily, the Nirads are awake.’

‘Joel, be quiet!’ Emily slammed her hand over his mouth. Her nervous eyes looked towards the doors the gorgons had disappeared through. She helped him sit up and watched his reaction as he took in his surroundings. ‘What happened?’ he asked in a whisper. ‘Where are we?’

‘The Nirad world.’

Emily explained how she and Pegasus had been attacked at the Red Apple and brought here. Then she told him all she knew of the Nirads and how it was the gorgons who were behind all the attacks on Olympus and not the Nirads themselves.

Joel shook his head in disbelief. ‘The gorgons? Really? There’s not much written about Medusa’s sisters. Just that Medusa was mortal while they were immortal. And they were as bad as she was and could also turn people to stone.’

‘They’re the most terrifying and hideous creatures I’ve ever seen,’ Emily said. ‘Much worse than the Nirads when we first saw them. Their heads really are filled with hissing snakes and they are covered in scales.’

‘Just like in the myths,’ Joel mused.

‘Joel, this isn’t a myth!’ Emily shot. ‘The gorgons have enslaved the Nirads and are killing their children to keep them under control. When I wouldn’t give them my leg brace, they turned that poor Nirad child to stone right in front of me!’ Emily dropped her head. ‘She died because of me. Then they said they’ll do the same to you and Pegasus if I don’t do what they tell me to do.’

‘What’s that?’ Joel asked.

‘They want me to kill Jupiter.’

‘What?’ Joel cried.

Emily wouldn’t have thought it possible for Joel to look any more shocked. But when she told him the gorgons’ plans, his eyes grew as big as saucers. ‘You can’t do it!’ he insisted. ‘No matter what they do to Pegasus or me, you just can’t do it!’

‘I won’t,’ Emily said. ‘I won’t use my powers again. They are too dangerous. You should have seen what happened at the Red Apple and here right before you woke up. They got away from me. Joel, my powers are growing and I can’t control them. I think I just killed a Nirad and I know for sure I hurt Tange.’

‘Tange?’

Emily explained to Joel about the large orange Nirad and the damage she did in the throne room. She pointed at the big burned spot in front of their cage. ‘It could have been even worse.’

Joel tried to comfort her, but Emily was almost as frightened of her own powers as she was of the gorgons. She was terrified that eventually she wouldn’t be able stop them and her nightmares of burning up the whole world would come true.

‘Emily, I’m sure Tange is fine. The Nirads have skin as tough as stone.’

‘You didn’t see it, Joel. It was like a fire storm I just couldn’t stop.’

‘But you did stop it,’ Joel said.

‘Barely,’ she answered. ‘But what about the next time?’

‘I’m sure your dad, Paelen and Cupid will get us out of here before then.’

‘My dad?’ Emily cried excitedly. ‘Joel, you’ve seen my dad? How is he? Did you get him out of the CRU facility? Does he know about me and what happened at Olympus? Did you tell him how much we wanted to get back to him?’

Joel caught hold of her hands, ‘Emily, calm down. Your dad is fine.’ He filled her in on what happened at the CRU facility. ‘The Nirad caught me, but I’m sure the others got away safely.’

Emily sat back against the cage bars. This was the best news she’d heard in a very long time. She was both grateful that her father had been freed from the CRU, but still worried if he’d been hurt by the Nirads. ‘So they brought you here alone?’

Joel shrugged. ‘I guess so. The Nirad hit me and I passed out. I woke up with you here.’

Emily and Joel sat together, holding hands. Having him here made her feel much better. When Tange returned to the throne room, Emily tried to see how badly she’d hurt him. Tange first approached the pink Nirad’s cage and then walked slowly back to his post.

His chest was covered in a thick dark-green paste, but there were exposed burn marks around the edges, showing where her flames had touched him. They were swollen and dark orange.

‘I’m so sorry, Tange,’ Emily called. ‘Please forgive me. I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you or that other guard. The power ran away from me. I don’t have any control.’

Tange didn’t react to her words and stood stone-still at his post.

‘Tange, please,’ Emily begged. ‘I swear I would never hurt you or your people. It was an accident!’

Across the throne room, Pegasus was pacing the confines of his cage. His head was down and he was whining softly, stopping occasionally to lunge at the bars trying to break out.

‘What happened to Pegasus?’ Joel asked, seeing the burns covering his body.

‘
I’m
what happened to him,’ Emily said miserably. ‘He was hurt in the fire I started at the Red Apple. And then the gorgons killed his brother.’ Her eyes went over to Chrysaor. In his final, agonized moments, she saw the change in him. He’d realized his mistake in siding with his aunts. That regret was now permanently etched on his stone face. She crawled over to the bars closest to Chrysaor. Joel joined her and looked at the boar.

‘That’s his brother?’ he said in shock. ‘I’d read that Pegasus had a twin brother, but most of the stories say he was a giant. I didn’t know he was a winged boar.’

Emily nodded and reached out to stroke the boar’s cold stone snout. ‘Chrysaor led the Nirads to the Red Apple.’ She looked at the statue. ‘I wish you hadn’t done this, Chrysaor. If you hadn’t betrayed Olympus, we could have been friends.’

Beneath her fingers, Emily felt the stone snout of the boar warm up. She pulled her hand back. Had she imagined it? She looked and could see the stone was fading as brown rose to the surface.

‘Em, did you see that!’ Joel cried. ‘Touch him again!’

Pegasus stopped pacing and stood watching her. He bobbed his head up and down and snorted as Emily reached her hand through the bars and stroked Chrysaor’s face. Once again, the stone beneath her hand grew warm.

Suddenly from the front of the room, the pink Nirad the gorgons called Segan made a single sound.

They both looked up as Tange left his post and approached their cage. Joel moved forward to protect Emily. ‘Stay back!’ he cried, bravely preparing to fight the huge Nirad. ‘Emily told you she was sorry and didn’t mean to hurt you.’

Tange shook his head, grunted a few soft words and pointed at the stone child in their cage.

‘What’s he want?’ Joel asked.

‘I think I know.’

Emily crawled closer to the statue of the Nirad child and touched one of its marble arms. Instantly the stone started to warm as colour rose to the surface. She released the child and looked up to the orange Nirad.

Tange’s eyes went wide and he let out an excited cry that was repeated by the three other orange guards in the room. He turned back to Segan and called out to her.

Pegasus was jumping in his cage as Emily’s heart went wild with hope. ‘Tange, I can save the children!’ she cried. She looked at Joel. ‘They’re not dead! All those poor children can live again. If we defeat the gorgons, I can heal everybody!’

As Emily reached for the child again, Segan made another strange sound. Tange reached into the cage and caught hold of Emily’s hand. He shook his head and pointed to the doors by the thrones.

‘Em, they’re coming back,’ Joel said. He helped her move to the back of the cage while Tange returned to his post as if he’d never moved.

Emily sat back against the bars and clutched Joel’s hand. She stole a peek back at Chrysaor and saw her hand marks still on his face. If the gorgons were to look, there would be no way they could miss it.

‘It is done,’ Stheno said. ‘The message has been sent. It is only a matter of time before Jupiter surrenders to us.’

‘We must prepare,’ said Euryale. She turned to the pink Nirad. ‘Order your men to clean this area. We have a very special guest coming and we do not want to give him any clue as to what is happening.’ The gorgon’s eyes trailed over to their cage and settled on Joel.

Emily’s heart nearly stopped and she felt Joel’s hand tighten on hers.

‘You are awake,’ said Stheno as she drew near. ‘What is your name, boy?’

Emily could feel Joel’s hand trembling as the gorgon concentrated on him. The snakes on her head hissed and spat at him.

‘Joel,’ he answered softly, staring at the grotesque creature.

‘Well, Joel,’ the gorgon continued, ‘we brought you here because we know the Flame of Olympus cares for you. As long as she cooperates with us, you will be perfectly safe. But if she tries to use her powers against us, you will be the first to suffer.’ Her vicious eyes settled on Emily. ‘You would be wise to remember this. We used to feed on the flesh of young humans like Joel. It has been too long since I have savoured such a sweet, tempting morsel as him. Mind your manners, child, or you will see horrors beyond your imagination!’ As Stheno walked away, she stepped up to Tange and looked him up and down. She touched his burn and sniffed the dark-green paste. Finally she pointed to the stone Chrysaor. ‘Have that thing removed.’