Page 169

‘Go,’ she said, looking back to her sister. ‘I’ll deal with him.’

‘You can’t fight him alone,’ said Discordia.

‘I will not be alone,’ she said. ‘I summoned Bellona.’

‘You could’ve just done that all along?’ said Claudia. ‘Why didn’t you say?’

She shrugged. ‘It made for a better ending.’

Discordia grabbed Claudia’s hand, pulling her away as Invidia and Proserpina faced Pluto together.

She looked back to see Invidia’s snakes attacking the god, as a winged warrior goddess with the same serpent hair as Discordia descended from above, along with three others.

They tore at the god like vultures.

Claudia and Discordia hurtled through an archway as the noise of a fearsome battle echoed beyond them.

‘Do you think they’ll be okay without us?’ asked Claudia.

‘You’d best hope Minerva lives up to her word and overthrows her father, or all of us will be done for.’

‘What happened between them?’ Claudia asked, her voice shaken by their running pace. ‘Invidia and Proserpina?’

‘They were friends, once. They met in the Asphodel meadows. That was as far as Proserpina’s mother allowed her to go into the underworld, because she knew Pluto wanted her daughter for himself.’

Claudia pulled a face.

‘The goddess of spring and a daughter of night. They were quite the pair, always up to trouble. Pluto saw Proserpina there one day and snatched her, driving her into the ground with his black-winged chariot. To prevent them from chasing, he turned her attendants into birds. My sister tried to stop him but she was banished – from the palace, from Asphodel, and from the mortal realm. Jupiter stood by his brother, even after that. I don’t know if she and Proserpina ever spoke again.’

‘Until now,’ said Claudia.

‘Until now,’ echoed Discordia.

A door flung open, as skeletal guards came charging towards them, the clacking of their dry bones making Claudia’s skin crawl.

‘This way,’ said Discordia, pushing her roughly through another dark archway. ‘I think.’

‘You think?’

Through the dark maze of Pluto’s palace, pursued by a horde of guards, they came upon a dark room filled with more locked doors. Discordia attempted to find the right one, and the right key, trying each in turn as Claudia barricaded the door they’d come through, using a large decorative sword off the wall. It was almost as big as her shield.

She peered through the keyhole, watching as the guards smashed up against the door on the other side, their bones breaking and bursting apart, forming a macabre mound.

The sound of a large volcanic explosion shook the room, causing dust to pour through the ceiling. Everything around her was crumbling, rumbling, rotting away to nothing.

It was just like the beginning of her death-dream, back in the collapsing palace. Pillars toppled as the floor gave way beneath her feet.

‘What’s happening?’ she asked, caught by Discordia.

‘Sounds like the war is starting. Bellona must’ve convinced all the gorgons and harpies and furies to serve her.’

The room shuddered again.

Discordia struggled with the endless ring of keys, more keys than Claudia had ever seen, each one sliding optimistically into the lock before revealing itself to be yet another disappointment.

‘Come on, come on. Hurry!’ she urged.

‘I’m not Janus, the god of doors. I’m going as fast as I can.’