“There was a catastrophic event in the north,” Fane said as he chewed on a twig. “Almost two years past. It buried the north in ice and snow. Affected the rest of the continent in various ways we’ve had to adapt to. Some of us had never seen snow before.”
“What is this event?” Melanos inquired, settling back against his saddle.
Fane shrugged and shifted onto an elbow as he gazed at the fire. “I’m not sure. The scholars have varying opinions. Stories range from the wrath of the Titans to cosmic realignments.”
Melanos grunted. Sonah watched him out of the corner of her eye as he frowned down at his thick hands. They toyed with the edges of his cloak.
“What is it?” Sonah asked softly.
Melanos glanced at her, surprise in his eyes before shrugging it away. “’Tis nothing.”
“Your face suggests otherwise.”
The god’s lip curled up. In the months since she’d last seen him, he’d allowed his ashen beard to thicken, and she wondered if it was in response to the cold.
“I do not know of any cosmic realignments from my time, but I do remember the gods affecting the weather similarly.”
“Oh?”
Melanos looked up at Triodos, one of Fane’s Spartan brothers, who watched him with an intensity that made Sonah scoot closer to the god.
“Aye. I’ve seen arguments that have kept Helios from riding his chariot across the sky, forcing weeks of darkness on the rest of us all because of a spat. I’ve seen that wretch, Poseidon, fly into a rage and take out his frustrations on the coastal towns of what was once Sierras, a beautiful island in the Gulf of Heroes. Eventually, the entire island was buried beneath the waves.”
“Oh, aye!” Yianni, another Spartan soldier in their group, spoke up excitedly. “I’ve heard sailors speak of ruins beneath the waves while they patrolled the gulf!”
“If Terena were here,” Sonah sighed, “she’d be able to tell us all about it.”
Melanos laughed and nudged her shoulder with his big hand. “We don’t need your sister for that, little one. I was there when it happened.”
For the next hour, Melanos regaled the group with stories of the gods. Sonah looked around at their small group and saw them listening with rapt attention. She too, listened in fascination, but she also longed for her sister and their friends. Loneliness pressed in on her and tears stung her eyes.
Sighing, she settled onto her side and pulled her thick cloak around her while the men talked on. A few minutes later, she felt something heavy drop over her and her eyes slid open to see Melanos had draped his cloak atop hers.
Too tired to protest, she closed her eyes once more.
The soundof rushing water made Sonah’s heart speed up as they neared the falls where only a few short months ago, Terena and her friends had found Bethana’s lair.
“Do you think we’ll find her?”
Before Melanos could answer her, Fane shouted back at them. Yanni waved his arms, both men grinning at them.
Sonah jogged beside Melanos’s long-legged stride and when they reached the others, Fane pointed to the left. “We found an entrance!”
Following behind Melanos, Sonah rubbed her arms with her gloved hands and huffed her way to the dark cave that swallowed the others.
Inside, it was colder still, and dark enough to make her squint against the change. She heard Fane murmuring to the Spartans as she closed in. When her eyes adjusted, Melanos was making his way further inside, into a narrow corridor.
Sonah followed the others at a much slower pace. If any of them ran into the serpent, they’d deal with her long before Sonah was in sight.
Digging beneath her cloak and leather jacket, she grasped her dagger and unsheathed it from the belt. If she was the last line of defense, gods help them all.
Sonah froze as a long, low hiss sounded in the cavern, bouncing off the wet stone walls around them. She moved closer to Fane, who held out his hand for her without looking back. Tucked into his side, she felt slightly safer as her eyes darted around the dim cave.
“Bethana!” Melanos’s deep bellow made Sonah jump. She clutched at Fane’s bicep with her free hand.
Silence and the roar of water was the only response to his summons. They stood there, frozen, at the edge of a large pool of water, the glassy surface reflecting the stalactites from above. Sonah swore she might faint from the anticipation.
“Bethana! It is I, Melanos!”
