The Last Hunter - Lament (Book 4 of the Antarktos Saga) (12 page)

Kainda eyes me and with all humor gone from her voice, and asks, “What happened?”

The others hear the question and come closer. They’d all like to know.

“Hades,” I say. All of them tense at the name.

“He was here?” Em asks.

I nod. “Put the four of you to sleep with that purple powder.”

“The four of us,” Wright says. “What about you? You were sleeping, too.”

“Oh, I was just tired,” I say. Four sets of glaring eyes tell me I need to elaborate on that statement, and fast. I point to the next room, which is now full of drying Nephilim blood. “I was in there.”

Kainda is the first to realize the implications of the plasma-coated ceiling, floor and walls. “In
there
? How?”

“Like this,” I say. Their faces, when they turn around and see me hovering a few feet above the floor, are priceless. What I wouldn’t give for Mira’s Polaroid camera right now.

“You...can fly,” Kat says, sounding dubious.

“I didn’t know, either,” I confess. “But I didn’t have much of a choice. It just kind of happened.”

Kainda stays on task, nonplussed by my new ability. “But you spoke to Hades.”

“Yes,” I say. “And he’s not as bad as everyone thinks, or rather, as he wanted everyone to think.” I tell them about my encounter with the giant, summarizing as best I can.

When I skim past his instructions about the shofar’s location, Em asks for more details. I explain Hades’s warning about mind readers and she and Kainda agree. We’ll figure out each step as we go along. Knowing the location ahead of time could be dangerous, especially if one of us is captured on the way.

I reach the end of my story, explaining how my energy waned, how Hades caught me and laid me on the floor with the others. When I mention Cerberus, neither Em nor Kainda show any recognition. Wright and Kat, however, go wide-eyed for what must be the thousandth time since they arrived on the new world of Antarktos.

“Seriously?” Kat says. “A giant three-headed hound?”

I shrug. “It wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’ve seen. But it’s something or someone none of us has seen before. So, if you happen to come across a three headed...something, maybe be sure it’s trying to kill you before shooting at it.” Then I finish my story with, “Ave atque vale. That’s what he said when he left. It’s Latin, but I’m not sure what it means.”

“Hail and farewell,” Wright says.

“You speak Latin?” Kat asks, sounding surprised.

“It’s from the Army,” he explains. “When a new commander takes over, there is a dinner where the previous commander speaks those words. It’s a sign of honor to the new leader and a goodbye. Historically, the words have been spoken to generals, sometimes kings.”

There’s that word again. King. I ignore it with a casual shrug and say, “Weird.”

All four of them turn to me like I’ve just farted.

Em shakes her head. “Hades, the most feared of all Nephilim, honors you as a new leader, perhaps a king—
his
king—and all you can say is, ‘weird?’”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I say. “There isn’t time.”

No one argues the point, but I suspect this conversation will be continued at some other time.

“The shofar is deep,” I say. “Very deep. We’re going to have to move fast.”

“We’ve been moving fast,” Wright notes.

“Faster,” I say. “Time is...different in the underworld. What feels like a day could be a week. I spent two years down there and later found out that twenty years had passed on the surface.”

“Won’t we be discovered?” Kat asks. “Aren’t there hunters, and other...things looking for us?”

“If we’re fast enough, they won’t catch us by the time we reach the gates. After that, I don’t think anyone will follow us.”

“The gates?” Kainda says. “We’re not going to Tartarus?”

The fear in her voice seems out of place. Having seen the truth of Tartarus, I no longer view it as a land of eternal torture, but a place of freedom. Granted, to those unwilling to be separated from the burden of their personal darkness, it is a land of torture. But for those like Cronus, Hades and me, it is a paradise—a land of mercy, even for those born with the unfortunate circumstance of having a demon for a father.

“We’re not going through the gates,” I tell her. “We’re going past them. Deeper. I don’t know how, but we’ll figure that out when we get there. But we can’t stop. Time will not be on our side. If we linger, we might return to find the battle already lost.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Kainda says.

I turn to Kat and Wright. “Can you keep up?”

Kat just looks insulted.

Wright nods. “I survived hell week. This can’t be much worse.”

“I hope you’re right,” I say, and then head for the exit. I pause by the closed door. “Stay quiet until we’re out of Olympus.”

Wright pats me on the shoulder. “Then we’ll run like hell. Got it.”

Despite looking twenty years apart, Wright and I are the same age. I feel a kinship with him. In some ways, he reminds me of Justin. “Right,” I say, and then push the door open.

I take one step and stop. The open door has revealed two figures. One is fifteen feet tall—not quite a full-grown warrior, but close enough. He’s got long red hair bunched in messy dreadlocks. He holds a large double bladed ax in each hand, and he looks like he can use them.

The other is thin and wiry, like Xin, but green skinned and sporting tufts of wildly growing red hair. He’s dressed in rags, and seems to be covered in some kind of caked on muck. Given the odor rising off him, it could be something worse. His chosen weapon is...Whipsnap! I’m confused for a moment, but then recognize the stone mace and bone tip. He has the original Whipsnap that I created. This offends me deeply, like he’s taken an old friend of mine hostage, but I don’t linger on the weapon.

Something else has caught my eye. While I have never seen anything like these two before, they share a matching feature I know well.

Their blue eyes.

My eyes.

Like the thinker clone, these two share my eyes.

These are two of my three remaining duplicates. My stomach twists with revulsion. I felt the same thing upon discovering Xin was my duplicate, but he turned out to be a brother—more human than Nephilim despite his appearance.

But these two, the hatred in their eyes is easy to read. They are the hardhearted sons of Nephil through and through.

The pair snaps into action. I’m not sure what they’re going to do, but I respond with overwhelming force, thrusting my hands out. A gust of wind flows past me. My whipping hair stings my forehead.

Then they’re airborne. Part of me wants to stay and take care of these two, but I hear shouting voices echoing from distant hallways. We are found.

“Change of plans,” I say to the others. “Run. Now!”

13

The slapping of feet on stone pursues us downward through the network of subterranean tunnels. The hunters giving chase have abandoned stealth. Their numbers have bolstered their confidence, and since we’ve given up stealth in our flight, tracking us is a simple thing. This has become a race.

Wright and Kat, who had been saving their flashlight batteries earlier, click their lights on, illuminating our path. Kainda, Em and I don’t need the flashlights, having long since grown accustomed to the pitch black, but the light brings out details that would normally remain hidden and allows us to pour on the speed.

Our path is winding, but downhill. There are more direct routes to the gates of Tartarus, but they would be tight fits for a group of five and might require squeezes that Wright and Kat are not accustomed to navigating. So I stick to the underground’s version of a freeway, following a shallow stream that was once a raging river. The stream leads toward Asgard and more familiar territory. It eventually merges with a larger river—what I call the High River. In the past, it flowed to a waterfall that emptied out in the massive chamber containing the ruins of New Jericho. But the last time I saw that cavern, after leaving Tartarus, it was nearly flooded. If we can make it to the water, we’ll be okay. Hunters are good at many things, but swimming, since there is little call for it, is not one of them.

Several miles into our downward run, I slow to a walk and sniff the air.

“What are you doing?” Kainda says, sounding urgent and confused.

“Trying to get a sense of the—”

“Is your nose not working?” she says, taking a deep breath through her nose. “They are nearly upon us!”

“If it makes you feel better,” Wright says, his hands on his knees, his head lowered. “I can’t smell a thing.”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “We’re safe for now. You can only smell them because I am pulling the air toward us more quickly. They’re miles behind us now.”

“I thought you hunters were supposed to be real hotshots,” Kat says. She looks winded, but ready to keep going if need be. “How come they can’t keep up?”

Em smells the air. “Because they’re not trying to catch us anymore.”

I nod. “At least half of them have separated from the main group, though the two...creatures are still with them.”

“It’s a trap,” Wright says, doing a half way decent impression of Admiral Ackbar from
Return of the Jedi
.

The quote and memories of seeing the movie with my father and Justin makes me laugh. Wright and I are definitely part of the same generation.

“Seriously?” Kat says. “You’re quoting movies?”

“The point is,” I say, “Sooner or later, we’re going to be cut off. Those that make it ahead of us will try to stall us long enough for the rest to catch up.

“Hunters working together, against us,” Em says. “This isn’t normal.”

She’s right. Hunters typically think only of themselves, at least while they’re still loyal to the Nephilim. They must have a very good reason to cooperate. “It’s Ophion.”

“Who?” Em and Kainda ask together.

“Nephil. Ophion was his original name. He’s a Titan, like Cronus, one of the first twelve born of human mothers and demon fathers. He must have promised rewards, or more likely threats. They’re being compelled.”

“Which gives us an advantage in combat,” Wright says, standing back up. “They might be moving together, but they’re not going to fight together. Not like us.”

“Right,” I say, starting downward again, though at a slower pace. If the group behind us starts closing the distance, we’ll speed up, but I don’t want us to be exhausted when the hunters, who are likely already ahead of us, spring their trap. “Just steer clear of the two clones, if—”

“Clones?” Wright says, sounding surprised.

I’ve tried to fill Wright and Kat in on as much as I could since I met them. I left nothing out, including my explanation of Luca, Xin, the thinker clone and the three mystery clones, all created in a failed attempt to duplicate my abilities. So he understands the implications of what I’ve said. He just hadn’t seen it.

“Are you sure?” Em asks.

Apparently, neither did she.