The Demigods of Olympus: An Interactive Adventure (12 page)

Brykhon arched his eyebrows. “Did she? What exactly did she say?”

The goddess’s words came back to me.
“Go to Austin,”
I repeated.
“Seek out the river god Barton.”

The god inspected his grimy fingernails. “Nothing about me telling you about your godly parent?”

Sam and I exchanged looks.

“Well, no,” I admitted. “But if you don’t have the answers, why’d we come to Austin in the first place?”

“Because Austin is the hiding place of a powerful magic item,” Brykhon said. “And I know where it is. Long ago, the gods decreed that only the next great hero could obtain this item. Succeed in retrieving it, and you’ll receive a clue to your parentage.” He turned his gaze to Sam. “Unfortunately, getting the item involves risk to
you
, my satyr friend.”

Sam turned white. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.” Brykhon nodded grimly. “The item lies in the lair of the demon satyrs. And they’re not likely to give it up without a fight.”

Sam and I made our way to a three-tiered fountain with a big bronze statue in the middle, our damp swimsuits and the bag of Dorito dust (“I might get hungry later,” Sam said defensively) stowed in his backpack. Brykhon hadn’t offered any clues about how to defeat the demon satyrs. He wouldn’t even tell us exactly what this mysterious magic item was. He claimed not to know. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but what I believed didn’t matter. We were on our own.

We sat heavily on the edge of the fountain and gazed up at a winged lady in flowing robes. The statue held aloft a burning torch in one hand and a bunch of laurel leaves in the other. She stood in a chariot drawn by three fish-tailed horses. Bronze pointy-eared dudes rode the horses bareback. (Actually, just about everything about the dudes was bare.)

“Let me guess,” I said. “More Greek stuff?”

Sam shrugged. “Sort of. This is the Littlefield Fountain. Those half-horse, half-fish creatures are hippocampi. They’re pretty friendly.”

I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that half-horse, half-fish creatures could be real, much less friendly. “And the woman there is a goddess?”

Sam seesawed his hand. “Technically, no. She’s Columbia. She was the symbol of American independence until ol’ Libertas planted herself in New York Harbor.”

Right behind me, I heard an indignant
hrumph
. I turned, but no one was there. Sam and I were alone by the fountain. Sam didn’t look like he’d heard anything. I decided I must’ve imagined it.

“Libertas,” I said. “Uh, you mean the Statue of Liberty?”

“Yeah. Little known fact: the Statue of Liberty doesn’t
represent
the Roman goddess of liberty. She
is
the Roman goddess of liberty.”

I blinked. “Wait, you mean—”

“Yep.”

“—that huge green statue is a living, breathing—”

“Well, I don’t know about breathing. But living? Yeah. Green Girl is an actual goddess. Got herself an island right outside the most powerful city in America, where she can keep an eye on things. After that happened, the old symbol of liberty, Columbia, kind of faded from the scene.”

I looked at the bronze plaque affixed to the fountain. “
Brevis a natura nobis.
That’s Latin, right?”

Sam nodded. “Can you translate it?” His tone was casual, but his expression was intense, as if my answer mattered.

“I don’t have to. It’s written in English right here:
A short life hath been given by Nature unto man
,” I recited.
“But the remembrance of a life laid down in a good cause endureth forever.”

“Mmm.” Sam focused on clouds. “I wouldn’t mind my life being remembered forever. Dying for a good cause.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “But in the meantime, if we could avoid making our short lives even shorter—”

“Oh, I’m with you,” said Sam.

“Let’s think this through,” I said. “What do we know about the demon satyrs?”

“Well,” Sam mused, “they’re demons. And they’re satyrs. Oh, and they eat other satyrs, did I mention that?”

I began pacing. “What else do you remember from the time you saw one?”

“You mean besides abject terror?”

I stared at him, thinking hard. “You said the demon satyr bellowed and then vanished after you collided with a street vendor. Sam, what was that guy selling?”

“Sweet tea. It splashed everywhere, and…” Sam’s eyes widened. “You think the tea did something to—”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But if it did—”

“What are we waiting for?” Sam shot to his hooves. “Let’s get some tea and waste some demons!”

“Sam, hold up! We can’t just waltz in and start emptying tea bottles on them.”

“Why not?”

“What if it doesn’t work? You really want to be surrounded by a pack of wet, angry cannibal satyrs?”

He sat down with a thud. “Well, when you put it that way…”

“We don’t know for sure whether the tea killed the demon satyr or just scared it away or—”

“I know,” trilled a female voice behind me.

I whirled, but no one was there.

“Yoo-hoo! Up here, silly.” The statue of Columbia waved her frond at me. Her bronze face creaked as she smiled. “Hello!”

I resisted the urge to run away screaming. “Um, hi?”

Sam rose to his hooves again. He bowed deeply to the statue. “Goddess, forgive us for not acknowledging you sooner!”

“You said she wasn’t a goddess,” I whispered.

He elbowed me. “Just follow my lead, will you?” He straightened and folded his hands over his heart, “Please, Goddess, I beseech you to share your wisdom!”

“Oh, so it’s okay for
you
to use
beseech
?” I muttered under my breath. But I figured I’d better go along with it. I bowed. “Yeah, um, I beseech you, too.”

A couple of students passed by, but they didn’t seem to notice the living statue. They just smirked at Sam and me and kept walking. Maybe Austin had a lot of crazy people who talked to statues.

“Sam Greenwood.” Columbia said his name like it was the most beautiful phrase in the world. “It is
so
good to see you again. I remember your first visit to Austin well!”

“Um, you do?” Sam asked.

“Of course! I was out for a quick fly with the bats that night.”

“You…fly with the bats?” I asked. “Never mind. Of course you do.”

“Yes!” said the statue. “That wingless old biddy Libertas can’t fly, you know. Hmph! At any rate, I was circling over the Congress Avenue Bridge when I saw the handsomest satyr—I mean you, of course—being chased by one of those bloodthirsty Aethiopian satyrs!”

“A what now?” I asked.

“That’s the technical term for them,” Sam said. “Now ssshhh. Please, great goddess, go on!”

“Well, of course I would have intervened, but I didn’t have time!” Columbia said. “The demonic beast had his mouth wide open, ready to take a bite out of your cute little furry behind when you bravely tripped over that vendor’s cart, and the monster got a big mouthful of tea. Poof! Bye-bye, demon!” She waved her frond again. “I was delighted to see him destroyed. One less evil goat-man to sully the waters of my fountain. One much more adorable satyr to visit me.” She fluttered her eyelids and giggled.

“Dude,” I whispered, trying not to laugh. “She likes you.”

“She does not!” Sam blushed to the tips of his horns. “Listen, Columbia just gave us the break we need. Sweet tea vaporizes Aethiopian satyrs!
Now
all we have to do is get some and waste them!”

Columbia cleared her bronze throat. “Ah, but they must
drink
it, my very handsome goat-man. Dousing them with tea is not enough.”

“Then we get squirt guns,” Sam said confidently. He pretended to shoot. “Pew! Pew! Pew! Right between their lips!”

“No good,” I said. “You’d have to be a perfect shot, and then they’d have to swallow the tea. Besides, you said there was a whole colony of these things. Even if you dissolved one or two satyrs, the others would figure out what was up. They’d just keep their mouths shut and slaughter us.”

Sam lowered his finger gun. “So…what do we do?”

I reached into my left front pocket and removed the gift I’d gotten from Mnemosyne. “Maybe this can help us?” I said.

“Do you know what it does?” asked Sam.

“Not a clue,” I said, then raised the library card and swiped it in the air like a credit card.

Nothing happened.

I sort of waved it around. “Alakazam.”

Zip.

“Is there anything written on it?” asked Sam.

I examined it again. “Nothing helpful.”

Sam shrugged. “Maybe we’re not supposed to use it yet.”

“Maybe not.” I shoved the card back into my pocket, then turned to Columbia.

“Goddess, what did you mean about the evil goat-men sullying your waters? Do they come here to drink?”

“To drink. To bathe. To scrub their nasty feet! Every night when the bats fly. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I stared at the water gushing from the fountain, splashing over the snouts of the bronze horses.

“Why here?” I asked. “Don’t they live under a bridge next to a river? Why not bathe and drink there?”

Sam shuddered. “You don’t want to drink from that river, Zane.”

“No, indeed,” Columbia agreed. “This water is pure and sanctified by my presence. Also, it’s fluorinated to prevent cavities.”

I snapped my fingers. “That’s the answer, then!”

“Fluorination?” asked Sam.

“No! We mix iced tea into the fountain water!”

Sam glanced nervously at the bronze horses. “I don’t know if the hippocampi will go for that. They already look pretty angry to me.”

“Oh, don’t worry about my horses,” Columbia said. “Your idea has merit! A few gallons of sweet tea should do it, if they are dumped in just before sunset.”

I bowed again to Columbia. “So we have your permission, O Goddess?”

“On one condition. If you ever get to New York City, promise to go to the Statue of Liberty and yell
Columbia Rules!
as loud as you can. She hates that.”

I was a little concerned about what Libertas might do to me, but I nodded. “Promise. Once the satyrs are destroyed, they’ll never sully your waters again. Then Sam and I can find the magic item we need from their lair.”

Sam rubbed his hands together. “Great. Now, where should we get that tea?”

I grinned. “I happen to know a place that offers free refills.”

“The Xenia Diner? You think B will help us?”

“Worth a shot!”

“I hope this works,” Sam whispered.

It was almost sunset. The area around the fountain had cleared out. I guess most of the UT students were back in their dorms. Armed with a pitcher provided by B and Phil, we began pouring sweet iced tea into the fountain. Sure enough, no matter how long we poured, the pitcher never went empty. We could easily have overflowed the fountain, but then the bronze hippocampi gave a snort, which was our warning signal.

I stirred the water with my hand, hoping the demon satyrs wouldn’t notice the ice cubes floating around the horses’ hooves. Then Sam and I hunkered down behind a bench to wait.

“Let’s go over the plan again,” I whispered. “One: demon satyrs drink from the fountain. Two: we make sure they all get vaporized. Three: we head to the bridge to find the magic item. Four…”

My voice trailed off. Sam bit his lip. Neither of us knew what would happen at step four. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any satyrs left back at demon satyr headquarters. Hopefully we’d find the magic item, and it would give me some answers.

“When we get to the bridge,” Sam said, “be sure to stick close to me. There could be hundreds of people there. We don’t want to get separated.”

Warning bells went off in my head. “Sam…if there’s a crowd of mortals like that at the bridge every night, how did the demon satyr zero in on you?”

“He probably smelled me. Monsters can smell satyrs, and demigods, and—”

“Sam, if the demon satyr could smell you in a huge crowd, won’t they pick up your scent here tonight?”

Sam’s eyes widened with panic. “I didn’t think—it never occurred to me—
blah-ah-ah! Blah-ah-ah!
” He bleated in terror.

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Too late!” he moaned. “Look!”

In the growing gloom, a dozen shadowy figures crept toward the fountain. They walked hunched over, sort of like gorillas, except gorillas didn’t have cloven feet—or glowing red eyes. The biggest demon satyr straightened and sniffed the air. His head swiveled in our direction, his slitted ruby eyes searching the dark.

Next to me, Sam shivered. “All my fault,” he whimpered, his tone anguished. “I should’ve known.” He tensed, ready to flee.

“Don’t move,” I hissed. “You run and they’ll get you!”

Sam stayed put, but I could sense his terror growing.

Another demon lifted its head and sniffed.

Sam looked at me, eyes wide. “If we don’t run,” he whispered, “you’ll have to either fight them or outsmart them.”

Do you have any ideas?”

“None,” whispered Sam. “Zero. And you gotta decide
now.
”

I peeked over the bench and saw the hulking monsters all raising their heads now, all sniffing the air. Time was up.

I went with my gut.

Suddenly, an idea came to me. As quietly as I could, I grabbed Sam’s backpack and fumbled inside until I found what I was looking for—the bag of Dorito dust.

“Zane?” Sam asked. “You’re going to have a snack
now
?”

Ignoring his question, I shoved the toothbrush and the library card into Sam’s backpack, not wanting to get them wet. I opened the foil bag and dumped the contents over my head.

“Here’s hoping they like the smell of nacho-flavored demigod more than original-flavored satyr.” Before Sam could stop me, I strode to the fountain.

“OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL EVENING!” I said loudly.

The satyr leader turned and snarled at me. His eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared.

At that moment, I detected the flaw in my plan. Namely, the plan didn’t include an escape route. Nevertheless, I had to throw these things off Sam’s scent and still find a way to make them drink the tea.