Above them, standing on one of the lower stone walkways, was Hades. A golden gauntlet gleamed on his right hand, bright against the midnight dark of his robe.
Fear, raw and immobilizing, spread through Danae’s limbs.
Telamon crouched low, curling his torso over Heracles. Atalanta twitched her hand towards her bow, and with a lazy flick of his wrist Hades hurled her into the cavern wall, her armour clanging against the stone. She did not get up.
Danae forced herself to stagger to her feet.
‘It’s me you want. Leave them be.’
Hades descended the stairs, his obsidian robe rippling like a poisoned stream.
‘Like you let my wife, Persephone, be?’ His voice was calm, but his pale eyes burned with white-hot fury.
‘I …’
In a heartbeat, Telamon twisted, flinging his sword straight at Hades. The Lord of the Underworld reached out his gauntleted hand and turned his fingers. The blade halted mid-air, crumpling in on itself, then plummeted to the floor below. With another flick, Hades threw Telamon across the cavern to crash into a barrow of gems.
In the commotion, shades had emerged from their caves and clustered to the walkways, peering down at the scene unfolding below. Danae dared not look towards the passage where Charon and the Missing hid, praying with all her soul they remained out of Hades’ sight.
Suddenly, she was hoisted from the ground, held by a vice of life-threads she could not see.
‘You murdered my wife.’
Danae gasped, the invisible rope around her ribs squeezing the air from her lungs. Hades stepped down onto thecavern floor, his chest heaving, his grey eyes full of wild anger. It was the most human she’d ever seen him look.
‘I see now how deeply your mortal sensibilities cripple you,’ said Hades. ‘You will never be free of them while you live in this form.’ He paced across the space between them, reached up and closed his gauntleted hand around her throat. An intense dragging sensation ripped through her, as though her organs were being torn out through her skin. So, this was how it felt to have the life-threads drained from one’s body. ‘Don’t worry, little Titan,’ he whispered, ‘I will cut you a new one.’
Suddenly, Hades’ grip slackened, and she crumpled to the floor as Charon leapt at the god from behind and brought him crashing to the ground. The ferryman straddled his master, the knife Danae had dropped gleaming in his hand as he stabbed Hades again and again. Danae crawled towards them, knowing once the shock wore off, Hades would kill Charon in a heartbeat.
Then a bone-rumbling crash shook the vast cavern.
Both slick with blood, Hades and Charon paused their tussle, as the iron grate to the dragon’s pit shuddered, rising out of its open locks.
‘No,’ Hades moaned, eyes wide and dancing with brazier light.
The ferryman grinned, reached below his cloak and jangled his keys.
Danae gasped as the dragon’s head bashed against the metal, momentarily lifting it off its hinges.
Hades was on all fours, his gauntleted hand stretched towards the grate. Danae knew he was manipulating a stream of life-threads in an attempt to contain his prisoner.
There was a crack so loud it sounded like the breaking of the world.
Even with Hades’ life-threads holding down the grate, the dragon’s next attempt to break free ripped the iron cage from its hinges and sent it smashing into the cavern wall.
Danae stared in slack-jawed amazement as a head the size of a ship reared from the pit. Wreathed in steam, water sluiced from its great emerald snout. A ridge of obsidian horns ran like a small mountain range down its nose and up between its eyes: two umber orbs glowing like the heart of a forge. Then it opened its jaws to reveal a mouth packed with teeth the length of Danae’s legs, each wickedly sharp, and she was blasted with a gust of heat from the great furnace of its belly.
She crawled towards the ferryman, lying prone on the ground.
‘We have to move,’ she rasped, ‘Charon.’
It was then she saw the knife protruding from his chest.
‘No … please.’
Blood poured from the wound, his life seeping into the charcoal fabric of his cloak.
‘Come on, we have to go.’ She tried to drag him, but Hades had drained what little strength she had.
