“Why yes, young ring bearers, I am,” Hecate congratulated.
“But why?” Claire pondered.
“Why did you bother going on a quest to retrieve a very powerful goddess? You mean. Well, I do ask myself that question. Because if they wanted me back on Olympus I could make my way out of this temple quickly and quietly. Then I say, well, they don’t trust me that much. But then who would trust the goddess of magic? I haven’t been that nice to them, or horrible really. To be honest, I think the quest was a great way to test you, and get me back without any monsters coming to talk to me about removing their curse,” Hecate said.
“If you could get out of here easily, then why haven’t you?” Broudie asked.
“Well I had a party with the gods once, we all got really drunk, I don’t know what Dionysus put into that stuff. Anyway, so that night was to celebrate the capturing of all the monsters. I had helped them, so I came to the party. So then I stupidly asked what would happen if a monster got out. Well that’s when Zeus said that I was going to curse them, then I agreed, and swore on the river Styx, that I would curse the monsters and lock myself away till someone retrieves me,” she puffed.
“Swore on a river with sticks?” Jay pondered.
“The river Styx in the underworld. Don’t worry, he’s the newest,” Hollie told the goddess.
“Yes I know, I was informed when you had all been found,” Hecate said.
“Well what happens now?” Jordan questioned.
“We all shall go to your little hideout. Me, Mormo, if you don’t mind, and you five. I’d love to see what it’s like. Then I shall ascend to Olympus, where I know I will be greeted with much, appreciation.” Hecate frowned at the last few words.
“How?” Broudie asked.
“We don’t have to go back through the temple do we?” Jay sobbed.
“Did you hear what Hecate said, she could easily bust out of here. All she needed was someone to come here and retrieve her,” Hollie chirped.
“No Jay, we won’t have to go through that lovely temple,” Hecate repeated.
“Lovely? Do you call fisted fireballs lovely?” Broudie asked quite rudely.
“Fisted fireballs?” Hecate questioned.
“What? Haven’t you seen the monsters in this temple?” Jordan asked.
“Are you on about the Ampherlios?” She pondered.
“Ampherlios? Never heard of those in Greek mythology,” Hollie told.
“You wouldn’t, they’re my very own creation,” Hecate replied.
“You created those things, they weren’t as nice as you?” Claire complimented.
“That’s good. They aren’t meant to. I created them when Frederick led me through to my chamber. He had designed a winding staircase that had loose floorboards. Very terrifying. So then, before we went up, I carved out a moat and filled it full of water. I chucked about a few curses and jinxes. And then I created the Ampherlios and the misty fog at the top,” Hecate said.
“So you put the anti-magic curse on the room then?” Hollie questioned.
“Yeah, but good job I did, Mormo told me what you did. Good thinking,” Hecate congratulated.
“More of an accidental thing really,” Jay told, then being elbowed in the ribs by Jordan.
“Well, it all worked out in the end.”
As soon as Hecate finished her sentence, there was a rumble and the columns began to crack. The baskets of beautiful bugs and plants scurried into their holds for shelter, the petals masking their insides and retreating behind their elongated leaves.
“What’s happening?” Claire squealed.
“I don’t know. Frederick never mentioned anything like this.” Hecate craned her neck around the palace.
“We best get out of here,” Hollie said.
“Too right,” Mormo whimpered, clearly adding to the conversation just because she was feeling left out.
“Come close,” Hecate ordered, holding out her arms.
The five ring-bearers and Mormo scurried over to Hecate. Jay stood beside her, his heart pumping drastically.
Not because of what was happening, it was because of the extremely powerful aura that Hecate was giving off, the liquid power oozing over them.
The palace was trembling, parts of the ceiling were collapsing, falling to the ground in a shower of boulders.
“Stay near me,” Hecate ordered. She raised her one arm and started yelling cryptic words like Kar-me-fay and ho-ra-keelay. She paused, and a shield of translucent green covered their heads like an umbrella. She waved her other hand and all the baskets disappeared, the animals too. Then she looked up and mouthed something quite familiar to Jay, a spell he’d learnt,
“Votaldea.” They were lifted off their feet immediately, thrown upwards. Jay’s face drooped under the pressure.
They shot upwards at sonic speeds, braking their way through the mountains of rubble.
Darkness engulfed them for just a few seconds before they were blinded by the morning sun. It must have been about six o clock in the morning. The birds were singing in the evergreen forest that surrounded them below their feet. The sight of buildings a mile or two away seemed so appetising after exploring the monstrous tunnels in the temple of Barthimia.
They stopped midair for a couple of minutes, watching the temple tremble to pieces. The temple itself they now realised was just a humungous boulder.
It cracked into pieces, crushing trees and sending giant puffs of sand and dust up into the exotic air. Next to one side of the large rock stood four trees, the ones they had battled at the entrance. The four trees spotted them, started growling with their black mouths, then got forced to the ground by part of the rocky temple. Water poured out from parts of the crumbling rock, even the lava, which immediately turned to rock, poured into the forest.
But the most frightening thing of all, was when Jay spotted three birds. Black winged birds, like vultures.
The sirens were flying out from the rubble, completely unharmed. They were closely followed by millions of water and fire balls.
Hecate must have spotted them too, for she used her unused hand to try and blast some of the monsters.
The sirens descended into the trees, making it impossible to shoot them down. Hecate sighed then changed her aim.
She drew an imaginary circle around the heap of rubble and smoke. Then she whispered something, and the whole scene disappeared. The whole temple just disappeared in a puff of, literally, smoke.
Jay gasped, how lucky he should be, he was being protected by an amazingly powerful goddess.
“I say our work here is done, anyone like to do the honours.” Hecate glanced down at Jay and his mates beside her.
“I will,” Claire replied.
“Go ahead.” Hecate smiled.
“Decendio.”
They plummeted to the ground, Jay’s ears popping and his belly tingling. It looked like they were going to crash into the trees, but the trees seemed to know better than to stand in the way of a goddess.
They swept sideways, leaving a patch of clear landing space. They were about to hit ground when they stopped an inch from the ground, just like they did when Jay went to camp from his foster home with Jordan.
“There we go,” Hecate announced, stepping forward onto the hard ground. “How much this place has changed, used to be covered in trees and beautiful animals. No mortal buildings.”
“I bet it was much better then,” Hollie agreed, leaping to the ground.
“Yeah, you mortals pop up a few towers wherever you go. All Prometheus’ fault really. But you are quite helpful sometimes,” she told with a pleasant smile.
“Where shall we go now great Hecate?” Mormo questioned.
“Well I hope you have some guest rooms?” Hecate looked around.
“Yeah we have, probably not to your standard though,” Claire answered.
“We have?” Jay pondered.
“One of those doors like the weapon room,” Broudie whispered.
> “Transport won’t be a problem.” Hecate let out a small grin.
“Oh we can all fly, maybe not all the way, but with you around we could do it easily. It seems your powers of magic strengthen ours,” Hollie informed.
“Yes they will, I am the goddess of magic. I choose to build up your skills,” Hecate revealed.
“You can control how good or bad we are?” Jordan asked.
“No not really, I just feel the power you have, it’s up to how skilled you are, if you can use that power.” She winked at Jordan, who bowed his head disappointedly.
“So shall we start?” Jay questioned eagerly.
“I shall create our transport.” Hecate turned to face the trees. She raised her hands, and the trees parted to make another wide open space. Then the goddess threw her hands forward and a ball of fire shot into the centre of the ground. The fire shot up high and out wide, making the fire the size of a house.
“Dragon,” Hecate growled. The fire spun into a tornado. Seconds later the fire extinguished into smoke and it began swirling round in rhythmic circles. The smoke wove into a shape like a giant dog with spines and bony wings.
Then the smoke faded into purple. The spines went darker burgundy, the ears and tails as well.
It was a dragon.
Its eyes were deep black, the nostrils a metre in width. The scales seemed to change from red to blue as it moved to face its master.
“May we ride?” Hecate questioned aloud.
The dragon snorted, two puffs of smoke exploding from its nose like a chimney.
“This way dears, our transport is ready.” Hecate walked slowly over towards the dragon, casually, walking up through the air as if there was a staircase.
“Do we follow?” Jay asked.
“Yeah,” Broudie answered.
“It’s a dragon…” Claire stated nervously.
“C’mon guys, Broudie’s right. We should go,” Hollie told.
“I’m sure we could find a safer way to get back home,” Jay muttered, following the goddess and Mormo to the fearsome monster.
As they drew nearer a powerful odour was getting stronger. It was like burnt dung, except it was sweet, and almost made the manure-like stench likeable? Weird.
“Climb aboard,” Hecate called happily, stepping onto the creatures back, between one of its terrifying spines. Mormo floated behind her.
“Relacian formalios,” Broudie chanted, gliding up into the air and landing behind the ghostly child biter.
“Do hurry, he won’t wait you know,” Hecate urged.
“C’mon,” Hollie encouraged, darting into the air elegantly, and filling the space behind Broudie.
“Relacian formalios,” Jay called. His feet set alight and he flew up towards the back end of the dragon. It moved its bony wing as Jay swept above it, sending a chill of cool air up his back.
He landed beautifully between the spines. Hollie was right, Hecate was strengthening their powers! He felt so much more in control, it was amazing!
“He’s getting inpatient,” Hecate warned.
Jay looked behind him to see Jordan, and finally Claire, looking very frightened.
“Let’s go.” Claire forced a smile, glancing worryingly at the dragon’s wings as it moved.
Hecate leant forward and whispered something to the dragon, who immediately fell back, shifting all its weight on to its two back feet. They were held in a near vertical position before slamming back down onto the ground and starting a run.
The wind swept past them like formula one racers. The trees also seemed to move like they had done for Hecate, making a clear runway.
The dragon unfolded his wings and they took off from the ground. Jay heard Claire screaming behind him and Broudie yelling about how cool this was in front.
The dragon squawked like a bird as it reached the height it wanted.
The creature stretched his neck outwards and then began to flap its wings. They soared through the air, rising and descending slightly as the monster flapped. Not a pleasant feeling at first, but very beautiful once you got used to the whole seesaw effect.
Jay looked down and could see the whole of the island they were on, plus the little island they’d landed on, and loads more. They were already crossing the sea, the pacific, if Jay had studied right in class.
“What if they see us?” Jordan called from behind him.
“Who?” Hecate questioned.
“Humans,” he replied.
“Invisible, even to the invisible,” Hecate told.
“Wow, how can she do that?” Jay asked Hollie in front of him.
“She’s a goddess, and not only that she’s the goddess of magic, if you‘d forgot!” Hollie shouted back in a what-a-stupid-question sort of tone.
“Well if she can do it, why cant we? She could teach it to us,” Jay suggested.
“Doubt it,” Hollie answered.
“Why.” Jay pondered.
“Because that’s one of the lost spells.”
“Lost spells?”
“There are a list of lost spells and forbidden ones. The lost ones Hecate never taught, the forbidden ones are just, forbidden. Haven’t I told you this already?” Hollie finished.
“Yeah, it rings a bell now. She burned all the spells, right?”
“Did I tell you how good at ancient Greek you lot are?” Hecate shouted from up front.
“What do you mean?” Jay asked.
“Well you’ve had a very in depth conversation with me,” Hecate replied.
“Have we?” Claire questioned.
“You’re speaking Greek now. It’s quite amazing,” Hecate informed.
“I’m speaking English,” Jay stated.
“No, you think you are,” Jordan corrected.
“What?”
“You think you’re speaking English but you’re speaking ancient Greek. The ring gives you that power, like it gives you magic and some sort of hidden knowledge about Greek mythology,” Broudie said.
“Right,” Jay said confusedly. He glanced down and saw that they were passing over land. It must have been Brazil or one of the other South American countries. It was beautiful.
The sun rose quickly as they passed over sea once again. The journey was so fast. They must have been about half an hour tops. The ride had been really clear as well, no clouds or storms, ‘Zeus must have been having a good day,’ Jay laughed to himself.
They had been riding in silence for most of the time until they passed over land once again.
“Nearly there dears,” Hecate informed.
“Gods, already?” Broudie said.
“So where’s your little hideout then?” Hecate questioned.
“It’s near London,” Hollie told.
Jay had never asked where the camp actually was, he had just presumed it was in a cave with a small stream. That means that when Jordan took them to camp, they must have been travelling extremely fast. He got them there in just several minutes.
“I was told you had a secret entrance, in a cave, yes?” Hecate asked.
“Yeah,” Broudie replied.
“How does the dragon know where it’s going?” Claire pondered. She must have been scared to death throughout the whole of the journey.
“I told him to go to your camp and he does. Even I don’t know how,” Hecate said.
“Maybe he has a sat nav implanted in his brain,” Jay laughed.
“Sat nav?” Hecate questioned.
“Mortal technology,” Hollie translated.
“Oh,” she chuckled. “We’re here.”
The dragon slowed down in the air, gave one last flap with its humungous wings, and nose-dived towards the ground. The sun was high in the clear blue sky.
There wasn’t much of a breeze, before they began the fall. From up above they couldn’t see anything, but as they got closer Jay could make out a large coppice.
Then, just like they had done before, the trees shuffled to the sides to make another perfect landing space.
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The dragon lifted back his head and then spread out its wings. He flapped several times to steady himself as he lowered them to the ground.
Then, with one giant thud, the creature hit the ground. The trees swayed back and forth from the gusts made by the landing, must have really annoyed the tree nymphs.
The dragon shook a little bit, making Claire squeal, and then folded in his wings.
“Off we get.” Hecate waved her hand, and they all rose from their seats between the dragon’s spines. The dragon trotted over to the side, and Hecate sliced downwards with her hand. She cut off the levitation, and they fell to the floor.
Hecate landed perfectly on her feet, and Jay landed as an elegant clump on the floor. He lifted himself to his feet and stretched.
“Well, wasn’t a bad journey really was it?” Hecate announced.
“If you take away the last bit, yeah,” Broudie agreed.
“Thank you,” Hecate told the dragon, throwing her hand towards the creature.
A huge chunk of red meat, the size of a small car, erupted from her finger tip. The dragon craned its neck and grabbed the piece of meat between his teeth. He turned around once or twice then fell to the ground in a ball, like a cute, household pet.
The dragon sat there chewing his slab of meat with his super sharp teeth.
“So, let’s see what this place is like then, the finished project.” Hecate smiled.
Whatever she meant by finished project as if she’d seen it in the making, Jay decided not to bother asking.
“What about the dragon?” Claire questioned.
“Oh, yes, well we’ll have to wait for him to finish his meal first,” Hecate answered.
“What will you do with him then?” Jay asked.
“Oh, I don’t like to destroy my work, you know what I mean. So, I think I’ll shrink him and use him as a messenger. He can send my mail,” Hecate decided.
“Doesn’t Hermes do that for you?” Hollie pondered.
“Oh, whenever I send a message with Hermes, Zeus goes to him and reads it first. Then it gets sent. They don’t trust me at all, do they Mormo?”
“No, don’t trust great Hecate, they don’t,” Mormo agreed.
“The dragon’s finished,” Broudie said.
“Greedy thing ate it one bite probably.” Hecate shook her head, and with another wave of her hand, the dragon shrunk to the size of a large bird. “Come on you.”
The tiny dragon sprinted along the ground and flew up onto Hecate’s shoulder.
Claire gave a quiet ‘aw’, now not minding the creature because it had shrunk a bit, though Jay reckoned he could probably still give a nasty bite.
“Which way is it?” Jay asked, looking from the left to the right at the two paths.
“It’s that way isn’t it?” Hecate suggested, pointing to the left.
“What about the trees?” Jordan questioned.
“Oh yes.” Hecate waved her hand and bought the trees back into place. “Off we go then.”
“Follow me,” Hollie said, marching off along the track. “Off back home.”
Olympus calls.
(Chapter 19)