‘I heard.’
‘Heracles still had one more labour to perform, so the bastard sent him down here to kidnap Kerberos. Wanted to use the beast as a weapon to reclaim his kingdom.’ Atalanta sucked in a sharp breath as she shifted to check Heracles’ pulse. Satisfied, she drew back.
‘Why didn’t you go with him?’
Atalanta’s scowl deepened.
‘We told him he wasn’t up to it, so he left without us.’
Shame swelled inside Danae until she could contain it no longer. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she blurted, ‘for everything that’s happened. Please believe me, I never wanted to abandon you, I feel –’
‘I don’t care what you feel.’
Neither woman spoke for a long while after that.
The fog grew dense, blanketing the hard ground up to Danae’s knees by the time the warrior rasped, ‘Where are the dead?’
Even though she’d known this question would come, it still threatened to crush Danae. She owed Atalanta the truth, but not yet. Not here.
‘Elsewhere. The kingdom of Erebus is vast.’
She was relieved when Atalanta did not press her further.
Silence fell once more, punctuated by the rush of the river, the staccato clip of Hylas’ hooves against the stony bank and the dogged footsteps of the Missing. The rock walls were narrowing, now close enough that Danae could see the roots twisting through their cracks, some finger-thin, some as thick as fully grown cypress trees. All were dull, their light extinguished when Persephone died.
‘How far until we reach Lerna?’ Danae called ahead to Telamon.
‘Not long now, judging by how narrow the cave walls are,’ he shouted back. ‘Hopefully we’ll emerge in daylight.’
Light. Real sunlight. She could barely remember what it felt like to have warm rays kiss her skin.
She suddenly remembered Hylas’ pack, her belongings, the omphalos shard, presumably hidden away in Hades’ palace. They had come too far to retrieve them now. The prophetic stone Phineus and Manto had guarded, her link to the future, the compass that had guided her for the past year was lost forever.
Ahead, Telamon stopped walking and held up a fist. Behind him the Missing staggered to a halt.
‘I’ll find out what’s going on,’ Danae said to Atalanta and jogged along the line to Telamon.
‘What is it?’ she whispered.
The flame-haired man was squinting into the gloom ahead. ‘Thought I saw movement.’
Danae followed his gaze but could see nothing.
Then there was a scream behind them.
She swung around as the Missing scattered like a shoal of fish.
‘Something took Leon!’
‘It grabbed him –’
‘– I couldn’t see.’
Danae ran back to Hylas, knife drawn, cursing the dim light from the crystals above. Atalanta drew her bow, grimacing with the effort of clinging to the horse with her injured legs. The rocks encasing the vast passage were jagged, full of large nooks and crannies for creatures to hide.
A smudge of black smoke hazed through the air, momentarily shadowing the light from the glowing crystals.
Then something fell into the midst of the Missing. Atalanta clung to Heracles so he would not fall as the horse brayed and backed away from the broken body lying bleeding on the rocks.
