The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (22 page)

The spool of gold wire unwound from his back pocket as he made his way down the straight corridor. Ten paces, twenty, thirty, forty. Somewhere around one hundred sixty paces he lost count. Stopping, he looked back, but there was only the inky world behind him.

“Ariadne?”

No answer.

He walked another fifty paces and came to a ninety-degree turn. No other paths had intersected into this one, at least that he had seen. They were in the clear.

For a second he felt like Dorothy from the
Wizard of Oz. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.
But no amount of clicking his heels was going to get him out of the hell he had created for himself, his son, and Ariadne. And he had created this hell when he’d been after glory and one-upping his colleagues by going after the Labyrinth.

What would glory bring him that he didn’t already have? He already had a great son, a great life, and his job … well, his credibility was shit at the university, but what did that matter? Those bastards could go to hell. The people that really mattered were more important than the judgments of some pretentious assholes.

Besides, even if he never told anyone else about this place, he would know that he had been right. He had found a place that everyone had thought fictitious. He had followed his desires for fame, recognition, and grandeur and it had brought him only heartache, a divorce, questionable colleagues, and now his son was sick — all because he had put his yearning for prestige before his family. Never again would he be such a fool.

When he turned the corner, a blue circle of light shone from the darkness. He stopped and stared.

Something didn’t seem right. Ariadne hadn’t mentioned anything about the staff glowing, but then again she hadn’t mentioned much about the staff. There was nowhere to go but forward — to save his son and the woman he loved. He put his fingers to the knife at his waist. For a moment he wished he were back in Texas, where instead of a knife, there would’ve been a gun on his hip.

He shuffled his feet in the direction of the glowing light. He thought to the picture he had seen of the monstrous angler fish, which lived deep in the ocean and used its light to lure naïve little fish into its gullet.
Goddamn it, I hope I’m not the stupid little fish.

He exhaled as he tried to calm his nerves. The hilt of the dagger was wet with his sweat.

The light which had he had first seen at about the size of a baseball grew to almost three feet wide as he moved closer.
Too big to be an angler fish.

He squinted as he tried to make sense of the light as it seemed to vibrate.

“Hello?” He called.

A soft wind blew against his face. He pulled the dagger out and pointed it at the strange orb. “Who the hell’s there?”

Please, no one answer.

A faint chill prickled up his spine. He forced his body to move forward.

The tunnel that surrounded him came to an end, and opened up into a wide room. The blue light was so bright that he flipped off his flash light and pushed it into his back pocket. He could clearly see the black walls around him.

The glow slowly began to dim and at the core of the orb, he could make out the shape of a woman. The light shone through her skin, her hair was as black as the wet walls of the cave that surrounded them, and her gaze was focused on him.

He stared at the woman’s long white dress. The cloth flowed around her as if it floated on her skin. On her arms, there were the same black tattooed snakes that were on Ariadne’s, except on this woman, they circled around each arm and curled and writhed like they were alive.

Under the glowing woman’s feet was the golden head of a bull.

He stepped back into the shadowy tunnel.

“Stop.” The woman’s voice echoed.

What was he to do? Should he run?

“Beau?” The woman’s voice was softer.

“Who are you?” he asked, trying to sound more courageous than he felt.

She smiled and motioned for him to step closer. “It’s all right, Beau. I vow I haven’t come to this world to hurt you.”

He stepped out of the shadows and toward the beautiful woman who beckoned him. “That’s a good man.” She smiled at him like a mother to a child. “Do you love her?”

He felt a strange energy wash over him. His heart lightened in his chest and his fears disappeared.

The beautiful woman smiled. “I have seen you with Ariadne. I’ve seen the hunger in your eyes and the need in your touch. Do you love her?”

“I … I love her,” he stammered.

The glowing woman stepped down from the bull’s head. “Do you know of the curse?”

He nodded. “Who are you? Are you going to kill me because I love her?”

“So you do know of the curse.” She laughed, but the sound wasn’t dangerous, instead it was pitying and the wave of calm washed over him again. “I’m not here to hurt you. I believe in true love and the power that it exudes. What you and Ariadne have is special.”

Beau shook his head. “She doesn’t know how I feel.”

“She may not be ready to accept it, but she knows. Every woman knows when a man is in love. And you would have never forgiven her for what she had done to your site if you didn’t love her.”

Is the woman right? Had I loved her even then?

“Who are you?”

“I’m Epione, the goddess of all Nymphs. You should know me; you came to my temple.”

He thought back to the elaborate paintings on the wall, in which the sick sat around Epione’s feet, waiting to be healed. “Epione, uhh, ma’am, I need your help. My son and Ariadne are hurt. I need you to help heal them.”

“I must have my staff in order to heal a human.”

“Do you know where it is? Ariadne said Kat hid it in here, but we haven’t been able to find it.”

“Katarina Homeros isn’t all that she portrays herself as being. When she ran from my villa, I had instructed her to put the staff in the Labyrinth — to hide it away. But as she was running, she fell and the staff was shattered. In an attempt to cover up what she had done she buried the pieces around the island, so that no one could put them together again.”

“Is that why she is so afraid of someone going to look for it? So no one finds out that she is a fraud?”

The goddess nodded solemnly. “Exactly. You’re a smart man.”

What was he going to do? If the staff were broken, the last hope he had in saving his son’s life was gone. His stomach fell and nausea washed over him.

“Don’t worry, Beau. We can still save your son,” Epione said, with a soothing touch to his shoulder. “From the heavens, I watched where she placed the pieces. And one by one, I found them and put them together, mending the staff as best I could. The staff is almost complete.”

“So you have it?” Beau was filled with a sudden surge of hope.

“I couldn’t take it to the heavens with me, out of fear of Zeus’ retaliation. So I decided to hide it here in the Labyrinth. Unfortunately, it’s no longer where I left it, but I think I know where it is.”

Epione stepped down and held out her hands to him. “Put away your dagger and take my hand. I will show you.”

He looked down at the forgotten golden hilted dagger in his hand. Gently, he pushed it down into the sheath at his waist. Epione’s glowing hand was still as he stared at the perfect skin of her palm.

“What about Ariadne? Why don’t we go back to her?”

“And then what? Are you going to carry her?” Epione’s voice carried a strange edge.

“If that’s what I need to do. I will carry her to the ends of the earth. I made a mistake leaving her back there. I won’t go any further without her.”

Epione smiled, as if he had passed some test. “Let’s go to her.”

They followed the golden wire back to where Ariadne lay. Her nose was more swollen than when he had left, and the blue light of the goddess accentuated the bruising beneath her closed eyes.

He knelt down to her side. “I’m going to wrap her neck with my coat. Maybe it’ll help stabilize her spine, but there’s nothing I can do for her arm,” he said as he motioned to her broken left arm. “Can you hold her neck still while I carry her?”

Epione gazed down at Ariadne. “I believe I can do something to help her. Once I could help others with just my touch, but I have been without the power of my staff since the day Zeus forced the curse upon us. Perhaps, however, since she is Nymph … ”

Her flowing white dress splayed around her as she knelt down next to Ariadne’s head. She rubbed her hands together and placed them gently on Ariadne’s temples. Epione whispered in a strange high-pitched language. Closing her eyes, the goddess rubbed her fingers in slow circles. The glow of her skin brightened.

Her brows furrowed, a strange desperation came to her eyes, and her hands moved quicker. Her anxiety was contagious and his hands began to sweat
.

The goddess has to fix her.

Beau lifted Ariadne’s hand to his face and put her palm against his skin. She felt like ice. “Aria? Please. We need your help. Please, wake up.”

He brought her fingers to his lips and brushed her skin against his. Epione’s light again grew brighter.

“Don’t stop, Beau,” she ordered. She started another chant in her strange tongue.

Ariadne’s nose straightened and her contorted arm pulled back into a normal shape with a subtle pop. The blood that had dried on her face began to disappear and the cuts beneath slowly faded into her skin. A faint pop like that of her arm setting came from her right leg.

He feathered his lips over Ariadne’s soft fingers. up her index finger, over the tip, and down to the inside of her palm. His lips stopped at the head of the black snake in her palm. He could feel a strange quiver beneath his touch. Leaning back, he watched as her fingers slowly curled over the blinking snake.

“Ariadne?” He laced his fingers between hers and pulled them to his mouth. “Sweetheart?” He kissed her hand again.

Her eyes fluttered open. She stared at him, then glanced to the glowing goddess. “Beau? Epione?”

Epione stopped rubbing Ariadne’s temples. “Yes? We are here, my sister.”

Beau’s heart pounded. He wanted to pick her up and pull her into his arms, but the fear of hurting her stopped him.

A thought struck him. “Epione, you healed Ariadne, do you think you could heal my son? We wouldn’t need the staff … ”

Epione looked at him with an expression of sadness upon her face. “She is different. She is Nymph, flesh of my flesh. I healed her as I would heal myself. Your son is human. It’s an entirely different kind of magic.”

He dropped his gaze from the goddess.

“I’m so sorry,” Epione said. “But we will try to get the staff, I promise you.”

Ariadne groaned.

“Are you okay?” Beau asked. “Do you hurt anywhere?”

With a slight groan, he helped her sit up. She rolled her neck and flexed her feet, inspecting her body. “What happened? All I remember is walking through the tunnels.”

“It’s my fault. I should’ve walked in front of you,” Beau started. “You fell down a hole. I’m so sorry.”

She looked at their entangled fingers and smiled. “It’s not your fault.” She glanced to Epione. “My goddess, I’m glad to see you, but how did you come to us?”

“Your lover … ,” Epione motioned to Beau. “He prayed for help when he found your body. I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but I have a soft heart when it comes to true love.”

He stared at the goddess.

Did she say true love?
She had to have been confused. Yes, he loved Ariadne. But true love meant that they both had to feel something, didn’t it?

He looked back at Ariadne. She was looking at the ground at her feet.

Questions flew through his mind, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask them. If she loved him, she would tell him. Damned sure, she wouldn’t be staring at her feet.

Beau dropped her hand and stood up. “We need to get going.” The backpack thumped as he threw it onto his back.

The goddess looked up at him with a knowing smirk. As he watched her, her glowing blue skin began to dim. She lifted her skirt and moved to stand up. He extended his hand and she accepted with a gracious tilt of the head. “It’s a strange thing, life. One must look past their own judgments and insecurities in order to truly understand and love another.”

Ariadne rolled to her knees.

Beau’s heart clenched in his chest as he noticed a line of blood as it ran from her hair and down the skin of her pale neck. He let go of the goddess’ warm hand, put his hands beneath Ariadne’s arms and helped lift her to her feet. She grabbed his arm as she wavered.

“Are you okay?” he asked, with his hands still around her.

“I’ll be fine.” Ariadne moved out of his hands.

True love, my ass.

His hands dropped to his sides.

“My goddess, do you know where we can find the crystal staff Kat took from you?” Ariadne asked, as if she was unaware of the injury she had inflicted upon him.

“As a matter of fact I do, but I will be of no use in getting it. It is in a place no goddess or demi-god can reach.”

“What? What do you mean?” Ariadne stammered.

“The staff is in the hands of the dead. And only Beau can retrieve it.”

The blue light of Epione’s skin reflected off the black oil pool at their feet and made a macabre arc of rainbow colors on the walls around them. Ariadne’s body ached and her head spun.

“What do you mean … we can’t reach the staff?” she stammered. “We can’t die. I can go after it.”

“No,” Epione said with a wave of her hand. “If we go in, we can’t return to this world or the heavens. We would be condemned to spend the rest of eternity with Hades — as his private concubines.”

Beau stepped close to her and took her hand. “What do you want me to do?”

The goddess pointed out at the slick. “The crystal staff is at the bottom of this pool, but this is no ordinary pool. When Ariadne’s brother, the Minotaur, was killed, Poseidon was in a rage and in his anger caused the blood of the demi-god to flow untamed. The blood filled the tunnels of the Labyrinth, until Poseidon gained vengeance upon Theseus. This is what is left of that flood. It is said that this is a portal between this world and the afterlife. Spirits are free to come and go as they please, but if a living person touches the fluid they are forced to become a spirit of the underworld.”