The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (54 page)

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Furies hate their sisters, the Fates, so it will turn into some kind of cosmic war between them. You can imagine what that would be like for us.

"Oscar said in a letter that Baskania was planning on giving the Furies two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine people, and holding on to that last one person until they meet all of his demands. I think he wants the Furies to take commands from him when they escape. They're desperate enough that they might agree to anything.

"I thought the process would take years, though. Three thousand people, gradually picked off one at a time. But if he's sending them in groups of almost a thousand, we're in huge trouble."

The room was silent as everybody absorbed this information. Just when they all had felt so safe and comfortable, an awful danger was looming over them. It threatened not just Erec's family, but all of humanity.

"Jam?" Erec said. "Can you get my father and Queen Posey on e-mail again?"

"Certainly, young sir." Jam's forehead creased with worry, and he hurried to find his notes on the contact person at Queen Posey's undersea palace. "I'll be right back."

The Hermit could solve this problem, Erec thought. Or his father could--with help from Queen Posey if he still was too weak to do it himself. Another person had to take care of this disaster. Maybe even his missing triplet brother and sister, whoever they were.
Some
one else besides him.

But a tiny voice told him that none of them would be able to. The Fates were watching him, he thought. And they were laughing.

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BOOK THREE Megaera the Jealous

HEN TRIPLETS ARE born, there is always a youngest, even if it is only by a minute. I am that girl. No matter how strong my powers are, how many years of wisdom are under my belt, I will always be the one looked down upon, belittled.

To make it worse, we have three older sisters--Decima, Nona, and Morta--who think they are so much better than us, and trust us so little, that they locked us away forever. If only I could be one of them, and enjoy the kind of lives they lead--it pains me to no end. They are free of bitterness, and full of laughter.

It's not fair. I've spent millennia wishing, wanting what they have.
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Knowing I'm never going to get it makes me want to shred them into tiny pieces and watch the wind blow them away. Only then might I finally be at peace.

It's not just the Fates, though, that drive me insane. Every single one of you creatures out there, free in the world, makes me sick. How sweet your lives must be! What I would give to have what you carelessly throw away every single day! You all deserve to die torturous deaths.

My life is a painful joke. Surrounded by one sister who is always furious at me, and another who makes me pay for every tiny thing I've done wrong, my long days are more of a prison than any you could imagine.

This knowledge of my existence has gnawed away at my heart until the once-beating thing has completely gone. And every time a bit of my heart threatens to grow back, it's eaten away again faster than it can form. All that is left is a wasteland of misery for me, and an insatiable desire to get even with my sisters, the Fates, and every last human soul on this planet. Even newborn babies make my stomach turn. They don't know how sweet their lives are, they take it all for granted. I want to see the world decimated. And maybe then I will finally have nothing to feel envious for. This is what I deserve.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO A Productive Swim

ING PITER WAS stunned when Erec told him the news. "Are you sure you heard that right, Bethany? They may have twenty-nine hundred souls in Tartarus already? That would leave only a hundred more before the Furies could escape."

Bethany's face crumpled. "I heard that a while ago. The number could be higher by now easily."

"Hold on." King Piter had to go find a chair. Soon he was sitting,

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face in his hands. They watched him in silence, all of them feeling the same pressure. At last he sniffed sharply and lifted his head. "There's nothing we can do, then. It's over. I'd like you all to come here, to Ashona. First of all, it will be the most protected place. When the Furies get out they'll wreak havoc everywhere, and no doubt Ashona will be affected too. But it's more hidden, with all the sea life in the way. We might have more time here. Plus, I'd like for us to be together now. I don't know how much longer we'll have."

If Erec was frightened before, that was nothing compared to the hopelessness he felt now. "But we have to do something, right? We can't just let the world end!"

"I hope not, Erec. Nobody knows how much the Furies will wreck. The world could end, yes. So, until we know, let's stay together down here."

Posey appeared on the screen. "I agree. Would you like a few minutes to get your things together? I'll come bring you here. It's easier."

"Baskania is getting powers in exchange for giving people to the Furies," Erec pointed out. "You know the Draw he used on Bethany? That was in exchange for souls. He's planning to give them all the people they need to escape minus one, and when they're really desperate he's going to make them promise to serve him once he lets them go free."

King Piter couldn't believe it. "He's crazy. Baskania actually thinks the Furies will be his slaves? They're powerful beyond even his imagination. And wild and reckless, too."

"But they'll do anything to get out of Tartarus, won't they? Maybe even do favors for Baskania."

The king's mouth fell open. "Our problems are far worse than I imagined. I was worried about the world ending from the conflict

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between the Fates and the Furies. But if he's commanding the Furies, Baskania will destroy everything before that has a chance to happen."

"Isn't there
anything
you can do? Or the Hermit?"

King Piter dismissed that idea. "It's far too dangerous. The Furies are not to be trifled with. Stay far, far away, Erec. All we can hope for is a little time here together before the Furies are unleashed."

"I guess I can't do any more quests, then." Erec laughed bitterly. Oddly, he would miss doing them, even though a moment ago he had foresworn leaving Aunt Salsa's apartment ever again.

Piter's face darkened. "Erec--you have to promise me. This is really important."

"Okay. What is it?"

"The quests. Get them out of your mind. Stay far away from Al's Well, all right?"

Erec didn't see the connection. "Why are you thinking that?"

"The Fates have been using you to fix serious problems. And it's obvious from what they've asked you to do that your safety is not their main concern. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Fates plan on throwing you right into the middle of this mess. As much as I believe in them, I have to put my foot down this time. You are going nowhere near Tartarus, Erec. You are not getting involved with the three Furies. Sending you to see King Augeas was bad enough. I want you alive, you understand me?"

Erec remained silent. Would the Fates really involve him in this disaster? And if they did, would he stop the Furies? Or was his father right, and he would die? Then again, weren't they all going to die anyway if the Furies escaped Tartarus?

The king could read Erec's expression. "Son, don't even think about it. You don't mess with the Furies any more than you would mess with the Fates, if you'd like to stay alive."

"Okay." His father was probably right. Erec shouldn't even consider

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it. Let someone else take care of this one, he thought . . . hoping there was somebody--like his father--who could.

The king saw his hopeful expression and shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid I can't. I couldn't even protect Bethany."

"You shouldn't be sorry," Bethany said. "That scepter was messing with you--Erec told me all about it. I didn't exactly come and tell you I was leaving. How would you have known that Baskania put a Draw on me?"

That made Erec feel worse. "Yeah,
I'm
the one she sent a letter to, saying she was leaving. I should have been able to stop her."

Bethany said, exasperated, "Would you two stop blaming yourselves for everything? You sent me a letter back right away, telling me not to go, didn't you? And you did come right away. It was just too late. Nothing could have stopped me, anyway."

The king was looking down, upset, mumbling to himself, and Erec decided to cheer him up. "Everything turned out all right, anyway. But you're not going to believe this. It turns out Bethany has a younger brother! The whole prophecy had nothing to do with her all along."

"I know it." The king's voice was deathly quiet. "Ruth Cleary had three children. Her youngest was just a baby when she died."

Erec stared at the screen, suddenly realizing a new twist to this tale. Of course his father would have been aware of that. Bethany's mother was his AdviSeer, and she lived in the Castle Alypium. "Why didn't you say something, Dad? Why didn't you tell Baskania he had the wrong person, so he would let Bethany go? Or, even . . . way back when he first found out about the prophecy, before he even took Bethany. You could have gotten word out then, so we all knew. Then Bethany wouldn't have been captured."

King Piter's eyes were wet and heavy with grief. "You are right, Erec. I could have done that, and saved Bethany's misery. Maybe

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even saved her life, if you had not been able to. But I couldn't. If he actually knew . . ."

"
What?
You let Bethany get captured on purpose? You let her be a
decoy
?" Erec rubbed his ears as if he had heard wrong.

"No. I didn't want her to get captured at all! I thought I could keep her safe--"

"But you couldn't, could you?" A burst of rage seared through Erec. "Instead you spent all your time thinking about yourself and the precious little scepter. You kept such a horrible watch on Bethany, it was no wonder she was caught. And you didn't even do the simplest thing to protect her--let everyone know that she wasn't the one Baskania wanted to begin with."

"Erec." June reached out to stop him.

He flicked her hand off his shoulder and spun around. "Did you know too? Tell me, Mom. Were you in on this, setting up Bethany?"

Her face blanched. "It . . . wasn't my choice, Erec. I had to listen to your father, the king."

"Wasn't your choice?" He heard himself shouting, but didn't bother to control himself. "That's interesting. So you take no responsibility for what you do, then? If you think you can't defy your king, just take a good look at him. He can barely even hold himself together. His castle is gone, his scepter is gone. Look at him. You want to see somebody defy him? Well, just watch me. I'll show you how it's done. I think I'll start by drawing a quest from Al's Well. Didn't you forbid me to do that,
father
? Then it's exactly what I'll do."

King Piter was hunched over, shoulders shaking. Was he crying? No wonder he felt guilty. He had a real reason to.

Tears were streaming down June's face. She might not have made the decision, Erec thought, but she chose to follow it. He looked around the room. . . . Jam . . .

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"Jam? Did
you
know about Bethany having a younger brother? You've lived in the castle a long time."

He shook his head solemnly. "No, young sir. I am sorry. I came to the Castle Alypium after this happened. So sorry. I had no idea that Bethany had a younger brother. Sorry, sir. So sorry."

Erec almost laughed, despite his misery. "Jam! Stop apologizing. You've done nothing wrong, and you didn't even know. So why are you the only one saying you're sorry?"

"Sorry, sir. I'm sorry about that. Sorry."

"Jam, cut it out!"

"Sorry. I will. Sorry." He was looking more flustered.

"Jam!"

"Sorry . . . yes." He bit his lip before another "sorry" escaped.

"I
am
sorry." June sounded hoarse. "Maybe I was wrong. I just did what I thought I had to. Which was keeping my mouth shut about certain things. I didn't tell you who you were all those years, and you hated me for a while because of that. But then you found out why, and I thought you understood." She sniffed. "I'll say this, Erec. In King Piter's defense, it's not as straightforward as it sounds. Saving Bethany would involve risking her brother's life."

"Oh, okay. So, her brother is more important than she is, then?"

"No." June shook her head. "It's not that. He's weaker, though."

Erec thought he was going to go through the roof. "Like that would have made a difference there! Griffin is the strongest person I know, and he wouldn't last there either. Why couldn't you find Bethany's brother and protect him, then? Keep Baskania away from him?"

"There was another risk, Erec." King Piter sounded choked up. "What if I couldn't protect him, and he was caught like Bethany? Baskania really would have found the secret to the Final Magic. That would have been the end of everything."