Goddess of rain, p.20
Goddess of Rain, page 20
Brandon’s eyes look as haunted as if he saw a ghost. I know exactly how he feels. My mother also came back from the dead. He may indeed have seen Liam, or it may be that the visions and the stress of training have affected his mind and he is seeing things. I know now that he is in no frame of mind to go out there and fight a Cyclops.
“I am going to get you some water,” I say to Brandon. “I will be right back.”
I step around the curtain in search of Hephaestus so I can tell him that we need to call off the performance. I see him and try to hurry over to him because the dancers have finished up and are leaving the arena.
have finished up and are leaving the arena. Hephaestus is picking up his cane and starting to walk over to the stage when suddenly, the ballroom turns dark. The crowd grumbles and shouts in confusion. Images of giant blue peacocks are projected onto all the walls, and the image of a peacock fills the floor of the ballroom. A single spotlight shines on the center of the floor.
Out of the black and blue darkness steps the regal figure of Hera. She steps into the spotlight and beams her eyes at the tiered tables. She turns in a complete circle and the crowd becomes quiet.
Hera’s nude tinted lips spread into a large grin. She stands tall and holds her hands in prayer position. With a flash of her eyes, she raises her arms into the air. The crowd breaks into loud applause. Hera brings her hands down and the crowd goes quiet.
“I am delighted to be here on behalf of my son Hephaestus,” Hera says. “We thank the Martians for their generous hospitality. I have spent the last week getting to know so many of you. Some of you are old friends from Tartarus. As you know, I am the goddess of monsters and you are beloved to me.”
“Our entertainment brings together your old oppressors the Earthlings, with the highly esteemed Martians, in the art of Omedis. I know this is a sensitive time for Martians, as they quite rightly fear the encroachment of Earth on their beautiful society. Please put that aside for now and enjoy this demonstration of Omedis. It will remind you of the proper place for Earthlings. Beneath the heel of Tartarus.”
Chapter Seventeen
The crowd breaks into uproarious applause. Hera pauses in her speech as she basks in their appreciation. She is stirring up Martian hostility to Earthlings. Hephaestus needs to stop this fight. I look around for his familiar silhouette but it is too dark for me to see anything.
“Please join me in welcoming our competitors. Representing the Earth, we have the Earthling Brandon,” Hera says. With a flourish of her hand, the curtain opens to reveal Brandon. He looks out to the crowd with a stunned expression. The crowd applauds and Brandon hesitantly walks into the spotlight with his staff in hand. He puts one hand to his eyes and looks out at the crowd. I wish I could offer him some encouragement. With the bright light upon him he cannot possibly see anyone. He gives up looking and stands patiently with his staff at the ready.
“And representing Mars we have a very special Martian Tartian. You all know the tragic story of how Tartians came to Mars. They are originally from Earth where they made their home in Tartarus. They were displaced by war and became refugees. They sought asylum on the surface of their home planet of Earth but instead of being treated with compassion, they were mercilessly hounded by above-ground Earthlings.”
“The Cyclops Theodosius tried to live peacefully in a cave on the shores of Greece. He was not harming anyone but his cave was invaded again and again by soldiers. Theodosius fought back. As a result, he was blinded in a vicious attack by Earth militia. He had to flee to Mars where he was welcomed with open arms by the Indigenous Martians. They helped him heal and they gave him a home. Now he has a thriving life on Mars, far from the Earthlings who harmed him. Please welcome the Tatarussian Hero Theodosius.”
A spotlight shines on the back of the room. An enormous Cyclops stomps into the light, his heavy step causing the crystal chandelier lights to shake and jingle. Half as wide as he is tall, he looks like a mountain come to life.
He says something to the crowd, and he sounds like a combination of a grizzly bear growling and knives being sharpened. The knife sharpening sound hurts my ears. Hera glides over to him and judiciously offers him her hand as she walks him to the battleground. She looks like a proud mother presenting her beloved son for a playdate.
I hear Hephaestus’s walking stick as he hurriedly makes his way to the arena. He reaches Hera and Theodosius as they meet Brandon.
“Stop! This is not right! Clymon was going to fight Brandon,” Hephaestus says. He looks up to the Cyclops and says, “Theodosius, I’m so glad you are here, but this is a demonstration battle and the details have been worked out with Clymon. We can’t accept substitutes at this late date.”
Theodosius snarls and spits some kind of answer to Hephaestus. The Cyclops stands awkwardly under the spotlight. His heavily muscled shoulders and neck meet a head that resembles a cinder block. He has let his hair grow long over his mutilated one eye so that it grazes his nose in matted strands. He takes his staff and twirls it around in a distracted way, causing Hera, Hephaestus, and Brandon to duck.
“Clymon sends his regrets,” Hera says. “Theodosius did not want to disappoint the crowd. If you are worried that he can’t see — don’t. Indigenous Martians have taught him to navigate by echo-location. He is more than capable of fighting an Earthling.” Hera turns to the crowd and says, “Please give us your applause and the fight will begin.”
The crowd whoops and hollers and claps. Some of them give a standing ovation. With all this noise it will be impossible for Theodosius to find Brandon through echo-location. The Cyclops is fighting blind. Hera has been unclear on how the fight will actually start, so the Cyclops takes it upon himself to start swinging his staff in the general direction of Brandon. Hephaestus is powerless to stop the fight. He and Hera make a quick exit from the arena. My heart breaks for Hephaestus because his mother has betrayed him yet again and is using him to get what she wants.
Brandon stands with his staff at the ready, prepared to cartwheel his way into a performance of Omedis, but it is useless. It’s clear that all the Cyclops intends to do is club Brandon with his staff as best he can. Theodosius charges at Brandon and tries to bring the staff down on his head. Brandon is able to duck away using a back-tuck. If Theodosius had succeeded, the staff would have gone straight through Brandon’s skull.
It’s a timed match and it appears Brandon’s best option is to wait out the clock while nimbly avoiding the raging Cyclops with the big stick. As Brandon somersaults and cartwheels his way out of the path of Theodosius, the crowd starts to boo. They came to see a fight. They want Brandon to fight back. He would be crazy to get close enough to Theodosius to try to hit him. Brandon seems to not care what the crowd thinks and continues to duck and roll to avoid the attacking Cyclops.
I look at the clock and there is only three minutes left. Brandon should be able escape this unscathed. It is still dark in here and I can’t see if Hermes and Athena have returned yet. Katie emerges from the crowd and helps with the light situation. She visits all the standing torches in turn and magically illuminates them. She then walks by the ravens on the tables and opens their cage doors with a flick of her fingers. The ravens take flight with the silver discs she had given them earlier. They fly up to the rafters and the silver discs turn into lights that light up the ceiling. It’s now possible to view what is going on in the ballroom.
I can see Athena and Hermes have hurriedly returned and are watching the fight from the sidelines. I run over to join them. I look for Hephaestus too, but I can’t see him.
Brandon is still doing a good job of evading the Cyclops’ attacks. He jumps and dances out of the way at every deathly blow aimed at his head.
“That is the training of Omedis,” Athena says with pride and a satisfied smile. Her hair is in disarray and her sword is askew. “A good warrior knows when to attack and when to retreat. In Omedis, you retreat while dancing.” Athena seems confident that her prodigy will make it through this travesty of an Omedis demonstration. She adjusts her sword belt and smooths back her hair. “This is almost over. I’m going to go get my ship ready so we can leave right away. I’ll meet you outside.” Athena charges out the door. There are only two minutes to go. I am holding my breath until the clock finally ends the match.
I notice there is a commotion on the side of the arena. It’s Dionysus’s followers drunkenly stumbling again onto the floor. Those idiots will be lucky if they don’t get a wayward staff jammed into their stomachs. The Cyclopes security is standing and watching them with their arms crossed. They have lost all interest in insuring the safety of this fight.
Suddenly Brandon stops dancing and ducking. He is not moving and he appears distracted. It looks like he has been frozen somehow. He is staring intently at Dionysus’s followers. Among them is Hera, and her laser-beamed eyes are focused on Brandon.
Theodosius strikes at Brandon and only misses because the Cyclops is clumsy. Theodosius is getting tired from the fight. He stops and rests his chin on his upturned staff for a moment while he catches his breath.
“What’s wrong with Brandon?” I say to Hermes, “why isn’t he moving? Has Hera done something to freeze his feet? I better go down and try to move him or that Cyclops is going to get him.”
Hermes puts a strong hand on my arm, “No, don’t do that. Hera is laying a trap for you. She wants you to go down there so that you will get in the way and Theodosius will hit you.”
I look at Brandon and follow his gaze again. Beside Hera is another person who looks familiar. With a jolt of recognition, I realize this person looks remarkably like Brandon. This must be his lost brother, Liam. I don’t know if this is really Liam, or is part of a hypnotic suggestion by Hera, but in any case, Brandon is in trouble because he is stunned and frozen.
The Cyclops takes his staff and aims it like a spear at Brandon’s heart. With a mighty thrust, the Cyclops tries to drive the staff into Brandon’s chest. The staff hits Brandon and then is deflected by the aegis. The staff bounces back and out of Theodosius’s hand. The blow to the chest appears to have unfrozen Brandon and he begins to move again. He zigzags around the arena, out of his opponent’s reach. The Cyclops angrily stomps around the arena in search of his staff. As the Cyclops finally locates his staff, the bell rings, signalling the end to the match.
Brandon begins to walk off the arena but the Cyclops is not finished with him. Theodosius swings his staff in the air like a baseball bat and comes at Brandon in a fury. The Cyclops obviously only has a general idea of where Brandon is located and in his rage is having trouble focusing on his target.
The Cyclops brings the staff down hard to where Brandon had been standing and sends the staff crashing through the floor. The ferocity of the strike would have decimated Brandon. The Cyclops is fuming at having missed his opponent. He yanks the staff out of the hole he created and turns around to storm after Brandon.
The Cyclops aims flailing strikes at his retreating opponent. Theodosius growls and flashes his jagged teeth in frustration. The crowd starts chanting “Get him!” “Get the Earthling!”
Brandon is narrowly escaping getting hit, but only because the Cyclops has such bad aim. Theodosius manages to get right behind Brandon and raises his staff high in the air. He is about to inflict a deadly blow, when suddenly there is a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream. The Cyclops stops his staff in mid-air and turns to look for the source of the screaming. Standing at the far side of the arena with a crazed expression is Lamia.
She’s not supposed to be here but she must have snuck into the ballroom. Seeing Brandon in trouble, she sprints towards the Cyclops. Her lips are curled back, exposing her teeth in an animal-like grimace. Her eyes are black and her nostrils are flaring. She reaches the battleground and with a running jump, she leaps onto the back of the Cyclops. She scrambles up his back to his head, digging her fingers into him as she goes. She holds onto his head and sinks her teeth into his ear. Lamia tears at the ear while the Cyclops tries to shake her off.
He falls to ground and Lamia continues to bite at him, going to work on his shoulder. In her frenzy, she looks up at the crowds and blood is pouring from her mouth. Theodosius appears to have lost consciousness. The security Cyclopes race to the arena and pounce on Lamia. She is spitting out pieces of Cyclops as they pull her by the legs off of Theodosius. The security Cyclopes each take one leg and start to drag her away. Blood drips from her mouth as Lamia lets out an angry roar. She twists her body to get away from the security but they hold on tight. Then something happens that causes them to drop her legs.
She begins to shake violently. Her body convulses and her legs ripple back and forth like they are made out of jelly. She lets out another roar and her body splits open at her belly button.
A long, scaly tail emerges from her body, like the tail of a snake. Lamia wriggles and rolls in her new body. She is now half snake, half woman. With a slap of her tail, she launches herself through the air across the arena. She lands with a hard thump near the entrance to the ballroom. Without a backward glance she slithers away out the door.
I look for Hera to see if she has been affected by seeing Lamia again but there is no sign of her or Ganymede. They appear to have made a hasty retreat. The ravens in the rafters caw and fly in frantic circles before finding the door to the ballroom and flying away.
The crowd thinks leaving is a good idea too and start to quickly get up from their tables. In their hurry, a panic takes over the crowd and they begin to knock each other over as they try to get out of the ballroom. Hermes whispers to me. “Come on, it’s time to go. No one will notice if we take Brandon now. The ships are waiting.”
I find Brandon on the side of the arena and take his hand. “Brandon, the ships are ready. We have to go now.”
I pull at Brandon’s arm but he remains locked in place. “I can’t go now,” Brandon says. “I need to find Liam. He went over this way.”
I consider for a moment if that is a good idea. Hera clearly had a plan to kill us. We have a chance to escape now and we should take it immediately. Before I can open my mouth to say anything, there is a deep rumble under my feet. The chandeliers sway back and forth ominously over our heads.
If one of those were to come down, it would crush us. The floor is shaking and I am afraid I will fall over. I get low to the ground and protect my head with my hands.
“Is this an earthquake?” Brandon shouts over the noise of the rumbling. He has dropped to the floor too, and is crouched right beside me.
Katie and Hermes crouch down on either side of us so that they are flanking us. “It’s not an earthquake,” Hermes shouts, “this volcano is about to blow. Olympus Mons is the biggest volcano in the galaxy. It’s the size of Arizona. When it blows, Earth will be able to see this from space. We have to get out of here, now.”
“But if it’s a volcano, can’t Hephaestus stop it?” I shout. “He’s the god of volcanoes.”
Hermes shakes his head. “Hephaestus awoke the volcano. He started the eruption but he couldn’t help it. He was upset. He told me to take you to safety. He was worried about what Theodosius and the crowd would do to Brandon and you. Has everyone got their feathers? Hold on tight to each other and hold on tight to your feathers. I’m going to get you quickly out of here.”
“Wait, I want to get my brother! He’s with Dionysus,” Brandon shouts.
“No time,” Hermes says. “He’ll be okay. Dionysus is with him. He’ll protect him. Now hold tight because we are going to go fast.”
Hermes’ feathers have multiplied so that we are in feathery cocoon together. I feel like we are travelling on a high-speed train. Hermes is the conductor and he is taking us on a bullet express out of here. We are going too fast and are too densely packed in feathers for me to see around us as we race out of the ballroom, through the casino, and out the side of the volcano to the surface of Mars. Once outside, there is the briefest hint of sand, wind, and cold hitting my face, but then Katie adds her powers to our protective cocoon. The storm goddess shields us from the harsh environment of Mars as we travel suspended in our feathery casing. Within minutes, we have reached the crater where our ships have been hidden.
The feathers retract and we are left free of the cocoon. The rumbling from the awakened volcano grows stronger and we keep close to the ground to prevent being knocked over. Inside the biodome we are able to breathe easily. The biodome will also facilitate take-off because it mimics Earth’s atmosphere.
Athena is already sitting inside of her ship. Our two ships rattle loudly as they sit atop the quaking crater. Thin cracks have appeared on the sides of the crater. Smoke pushes out of the cracks and they widen and grow. Streams of steaming lava are flowing out of cracks and they begin trickling slowly towards our ships. Even before the volcano blows, we will have to fly out of here quickly to avoid our ships being consumed by the molten liquid.
“Brandon, I have room for one person. Come into my ship,” Athena shouts over the sound of the growling volcano. Brandon looks at me with a pained expression. He is going to have to leave me. There is not enough room for all of us in one ship with all the fleuranium and it would be ungrateful to decline Athena’s invitation. He reaches for my hand and pulls me close to him. The rumbling in our ears has grown too intense for us to hear each other. We squeeze our hands tightly together. We lock eyes and try to communicate.
I want to tell him that I will help you find your brother. That Hephaestus triggered the volcano because he feared you would get hurt and he knew that would destroy me. That Hephaestus knows I need to hold on to you because you are the best person I know. Because you are family. Because I love you.
Over the growing noise, I can only mouth “Your brother.” His beautiful eyes look intensely at me and I think he knows what I mean. He nods his head yes and puts his arm around my waist. He brings his face close to mine and we press our lips together and kiss goodbye. A wave of warmth moves through me even as the ground is threatening to explode beneath us.
