She removed Hylas’ saddle to give him some respite from the chafing leather and sat down beside the river.
In her haste to escape Athens, she’d barely given herself time to revel in how close she was to finally finding a doorway to the Underworld. She’d known it was going to be difficult, but she hadn’t expected it would take this long.
She had not been able to divine the first two visions theomphalos shard had shown her when she asked it how to enter the kingdom of Hades. The third vision it revealed to her, a twelve-pointed sun floating above a crowned skull, had led her to Athens. It wasn’t common knowledge that King Theseus had ventured into the Underworld, the journey not being one of his heroic deeds immortalized in song or pottery. But after lurking in enoughkapeleiaand asking the right questions, she’d teased out the tale.
She glanced at the saddle beside her. Hylas was now lying down in the shadow of the trees, his head tucked into his breast. Danae ran a hand over her face. She should rest. Tomorrow they would continue on to Cape Taenarum, and she would need every crumb of strength for what awaited her there. Even so, her fingers twitched towards the left-hand saddle bag.
Just once more.
She slipped her hand beneath the leather flap and drew out the wrapped omphalos shard.
There was another question she had asked of the stone, besides seeking the location of the entrance to the Underworld. It had not given her the answer she sought. Even now as she contemplated asking again, her pulse quickened and her palms grew clammy.
She unwrapped the obsidian rock and let it roll, naked, onto her hand. Immediately, her life-threads shot into the stone, her consciousness soon following.
As she floated, suspended in the void of nothingness, she asked, ‘Where is my sister’s soul?’
Her ephemeral self vibrated with the hope that this time it would give her a different answer.
She deflated as the tapestry of life-threads began to weave into the same vision she’d been shown the first time she asked the question.
Twisted branches laden with apples. A glowing, ever-moving sketch of the tree. It towered above her, shimmering as shining threads drew the outline of its trunk, its leaves, its branches and those ripe, golden orbs.
She was ripped from the vision as Hylas knocked her hand with his muzzle. The omphalos shard tumbled across the grass and she retched, her head spinning as she fought to orient herself. Hylas stood over her, wings splayed, whinnying and rearing onto his hind legs.
A moment later she realized why he’d dragged her back to the physical world.
Behind him in the ever-brightening sky, two dark shapes soared towards them.
In an instant, Danae was on her feet, a clutch of life-threads tingling in her hands. She’d known the risks of choosing to linger for five days in Athens, but she had been careful. She had been so careful.
Even so, the harpies had found her.
2. A Familiar Song
Danae hurled her life-threads into the air and shot a blast of wind at the harpies, sending one tumbling into the trees on the far side of the river, while the other dodged her torrent of air, tucking its leathery wings into its sides and streaking towards her like a javelin. The creature expelled a blood-chilling shriek as they collided, its taloned feet raking Danae’s thighs. Pain stabbed through her legs, but she remained upright and with another surge of power threw the harpy from her, sending it crashing into a nearby tree trunk. Hylas brayed triumphantly and emerged from the forest to kick the harpy in its scaly chest.
‘Hylas, stay back!’ Danae staggered forwards, her legs screaming. She could not risk the horse being injured. She could mend herself by consuming the life-threads of another living thing, but she could not heal others.
She leapt on the fallen harpy before it had a chance to rise as Hylas disappeared back into the trees. Its jagged teeth were stained with blood, its yellow eyes bright with fury. Danae pulled the knife from her belt and plunged it deep into the creature’s shattered chest. As its wings stopped flailing, she placed her hands either side of the blade and called the harpy’s fleeing life-threads towards her.
Yes, crooned the voice.Yes!
Suddenly, searing pain ripped through Danae’s shoulders and before she could drain the harpy’s life force she was dragged backwards. The second harpy lifted her into the air, talons digging into the flesh below her collarbones.She gasped, barely able to draw breath as the harpy carried her higher and higher. Haphazardly, she hurled blasts of air upwards, but none found their target.
Pain beat through her like a battle drum. She was running out of strength, the river beneath her an ever-narrowing vein of shimmering water.
Theriver.
Danae gathered her life-threads and channelled them downwards in a glowing rope that cut through the air to plummet into the water. Then, with an agonizing roar of effort, she pulled them back towards her, bringing the current upwards as though it were erupting from a spring.
The churning column of water smacked into them both. The harpy’s talons retracted from Danae’s shoulders as they tumbled downwards like seeds blown through the sky, the harpy desperately flapping, one wing hanging limp.
Danae fell into the embrace of the river and hit the bed, lungs swelling with liquid as she tried to draw breath. She spluttered, unable to command her body after the shock of the fall.
Then she was jerked to the surface, Hylas dragging her tunic between his teeth. The pain in her shoulders was so great she could barely raise her arms to heave herself onto the bank, but her need for breath forced her to push. She hit the earth like a speared fish, retching and coughing until her lungs filled with sweet, life-giving air. Rolling onto her back, she stared up and watched the lone harpy falteringly flying away across the sun-bleached sky.
Hylas let out a soft whinny and gently nudged Danae’s back. She groaned and rolled onto her front. Forcing herself to her feet, she staggered towards the nearest tree and threw her arms around its trunk. The moments where the tree fought to retain its threads felt the longest of her life,a century of agony stretched into each one. But finally, the familiar surge of energy tingled through her limbs, and her flesh repaired itself. She detached herself from the withered tree. Her tunic was still shredded and bloodstained, but her body was whole once more.
