Foreboding trips through me as I crane my neck up. And up. The cliff is soaring. Sheer. “How inHadesam I supposed to scalethat?”
An arrow sings through the air and lands an inch from my boot, sticking between the loose stones. I jump, nearly drop the lyre, and curse like a warlord. Griffin would be proud. Or shocked. Either would be fine.
“She’ll use the stairs if she dares.”
I scan the cliff top for Atalanta, seeing no one.
“I climb, you rhyme?” I call back acerbically.
An arrow knocks my hood back from my head and probably slices off a few frizzy hairs. I shut up and look for the stairs.
They’re not far away, but they climb out of the shallows of the lake, which means I’ll have to get my feet wet to reach them just when I was getting used to being dry and a relatively normal temperature again. Worse, they’re narrow and nearly vertical, and there’s no handy railing. Doubly worse, I don’t trust my balance at the moment. If I fall, a foot of water won’t save me like the deep side of the lake did.
Atalanta seems to have disappeared, and I’m not making this climb twice, so I leave the lyre and follow the shoreline back to Kato’s cloak and clothes. I pack up and then pick my way over to the cliff again, wondering how to get everything up. I need my hands to steady myself and climb, and the lyre won’t fit in my bag.
After some deliberation, I end up making a back sling out of Kato’s cloak. I pin the cloak behind the lyre against the cliff wall, sit down in front of it, and then draw some of the material up between my lower back and the lyre to fashion a sort of pocket for it. With the instrument pressing into my back, I latch the neck clasp above my breasts and then bring the bottom edges of the cloak around my waist, tying them in a tight knot.
Getting up again is a nearly herculean challenge I hadn’t really considered, but I eventually manage to stand with the lyre tucked safely against my back. My contraption works and has the advantage of putting most of the instrument’s weight onto my hips.
Praying my head doesn’t start spinning again, I sling the heavy satchel across my upper body and then step into the lake. A full-body shudder rolls through me when liquid cold seeps into my boots. The climb takes a small eternity, leaves me panting like a dog in the sun, and scares the magic out of me every time I slip on the ice. A bashed shin is the worst of the damage, though, and when I finally haul myself—and the lyre—over the top of the cliff, all my muscles are quivering from fatigue. I thank every God and their pet Pegasus it’s over. Stairs are my new enemy.
I move toward the torch-lined wall, staggering under the weight of the lyre. There’s a good chance I’ll pitch the bloody thing into the lake if it doesn’t end up being useful. I get my shaking under control and then look around, still breathing hard. The cavern consists of galleries and tunnels shooting off into darkness, all of them bordered by a slippery ledge of rock that can’t be more than three feet wide in most places, and sometimes less. The ledge circles a giant pit, and far below, the lake.
Exhaustion weighs as much as the lyre. I don’t let it get the better of me this time. I’m on the same level as the beast now. I’m sure of it after picking up the slack in Ariadne’s Thread and seeing the line coming out of a tunnel about a third of the way around the cavern from where I stand. Atalanta is running around somewhere as well, probably rhyming about an arrow with my name on it. And I need to find Kato more than I need to sleep.
Closing my eyes for just a second against the relentless throbbing in my head, I jiggle the lyre into a more comfortable position. Opening my eyes again, I start toward the only thing that looks different in this dim, inhospitable cave. One spot along the wall is a whole lot brighter than anything I’ve seen since Kato and I stumbled onto the first cavern together.
I’m convinced a snarling, three-headed beast is poised to jump out at me from one of the tunnels, so it’s a nerve-racking walk along the ledge. Finally, I reach a wall of thick but transparent ice caging off what looks like a plush boudoir with an enormous bed, two long couches scattered with colorful cushions, platters of food, softly flickering torches, layers and layers of thick flokati rugs covering the icy floor—and Kato.
My heart takes a painful dive at the sight of him sitting cross-legged just beyond the wall, his head in his hands and his big shoulders slumped. He’s wearing his boots and what appears to be a large, golden fleece. His mace, which he held on to even when he was naked, is on my side of the enclosure, sitting on the ledge.
He doesn’t move. Maybe he didn’t hear my footsteps through the ice.
“Kato?”
His head jerks up, revealing a face I hardly recognize. Pale and drawn, his eyes hollow, he looks more like a wild animal than the man I know. Hanks of long blond hair shadow his eyes and tangle with what’s becoming a very shaggy beard. The little I can see of his expression underneath his disheveled mane speaks of utter devastation.
Panic wells up in me.What happened here?
I peer through the ice. Bloodshot eyes stare back at me, deep-blue bleeding into red. Kato’s hands drop, open and limp, on his knees.
Dread explodes through my chest. Those women did something to him. I’ll kill them. Bludgeon them. Slowly. With my bare hands. Or maybe the lyre.
I bare my teeth in an involuntary snarl, and Kato’s whole body jerks in reaction.
His throat works, bobbing and then eventually producing a voice that’s rough and broken. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I frown. What does he have to be sorry for? He did his part, although it obviously took its toll. That golden fleece covering him from neck to knees is clearly the gift we’re supposed to present to Lycheron.
Kato swallows. It looks painful. “How will I tell Griffin? How can I ever tell him?”
He utters a hoarse curse, and something inside of me cracks. Heat crawls up my throat.
“I’d rather die in here. I’ll die here instead.” Bleak eyes sweep over me, taking me in from the top of my head to the tips of my boots. The total defeat in his reddened gaze pierces my heart like a lance. “We’ll be together. You and me, Cat. That’ll be okay.”
I stare at him. Honest to Gods, I have no idea what he’s talking about, but he’s breaking my heart.
“Haunt me all you like, just don’t haunt Griffin. He…he couldn’t handle it. Not you. Anyone but you. He loves you too much. It would drive him mad.”
