‘I have ears!’ A muscle pulsed in Telamon’s jaw. ‘But it makes sense … the strength elixir. Atalanta, Heracles hasn’t been the same since he had the last of that potion. For months now he’s been growing weaker every day.’
‘I will not put my life in her hands.’
‘Gods damn you, woman, there is more at stake here than your pride.’
Danae’s head snapped between them as they argued, her heart beating in her throat. Then the pair fell silent and glared at each other, the battle continuing without words. Finally, Atalanta loosed a grunt of frustration and kicked the rock wall of the passage.
‘Fine,’ she pointed her knife at Danae. ‘Take us to Heracles, but if you so much as think about betraying us, I will slit your throat.’
Danae almost smiled. After everything she’d been through, being threatened by the warrior was strangely comforting.
She turned to Charon. ‘We have to go back.’
The ferryman shook his head.
‘I’m going with them, whether you come with us or not. If you really want to help me become the light, show us the way.’
Charon gazed at her, crimson eyes pleading beneath his hood. Danae remained defiant. The ferryman’s shoulders sagged, and he turned back the way they had come, raising his staff to illuminate the gloom.
‘There’s something you should know,’ said Danae as they hurried back down the labyrinthine tunnels. ‘Down in thedepths of Tartarus, Hades tasked me with killing Heracles. I stabbed Hades instead, and while he healed himself, Charon and I escaped. I imagine he will be angry.’ Her blood chilled at the thought.
‘Perfect,’ grunted Atalanta.
‘How is Heracles? Is he injured?’ asked Telamon, his sword flashing in the crystal staff light.
‘He’s not in a good way.’ After a breath she added, ‘I really am sorry –’
‘Not now,’ Telamon cut across her. ‘Since you failed to kill Heracles, will Hades have harmed him?’
‘I don’t know …’ The hero’s gaunt face blazed in her mind, blank with resignation as she raised Hades’ knife above her head. ‘It wasn’t really about Heracles … it was a test.’
‘Where are Heracles and the Missing being held?’ asked Atalanta.
‘A cell at the end of this passage. You should know, Tartarus is not like the stories. It’s a mine. Hades has creatures working down there, giants and shades …’ Danae wondered how much to reveal. How much they’d believe. ‘They’re not what they seem either. Shades are mortals, taken from the Missing. Hades replaces their skins with that of an Underworld lizard that can make itself invisible in its surroundings, then they’re tortured until –’
‘I think I hit her too hard,’ said Atalanta.
Before Danae could argue, a terrible stench wafted through the tunnel. She gagged.
‘What the fuck is that?’ asked Telamon.
Immediately the ferryman gestured for them to be quiet and draw back towards the rock walls of the passage. Then he hid the glowing end of his staff beneath his cloak.
As darkness descended, another wave of putrid air hit them. Danae fought the urge to wretch again, bile stingingher throat. Her heart thudded against her ribs as she strained to listen.
From somewhere far away, she thought she could hear a high, cold laugh.
Then, much nearer, something growled.
Breath, warm and ripe with the tang of rotting flesh, raised the hairs on her neck. Whatever it was had scented them.
Coming to the same realization, Charon unleashed his staff, casting light on the passage. A creature hovered above them. It had the wings of an engorged bat, the body of a lion with blood-red fur, and, like Kerberos, a curved scorpion’s tail. Its face resembled that of a man stretched over the skull of giant cat, slashed ear to ear with a hideously wide mouth, its blood-stained lips peeled back to reveal three sets of knife-sharp teeth.
‘Manticore,’ breathed Telamon.
Another creature of legend. Another of Hades’ monstrous creations.
Charon jabbed his staff at the manticore, yet unlike the beasts on the Asphodel Meadows it did not recoil. The ferryman faltered and tried again. The beast roared at him, blowing the hood from Charon’s patchwork head.
