Not again!
Water lashed out of the river like a long whip. It tried to get me, but Hades pulled me out of the way in time.
“What is that thing?” Everett hissed.
“Looks like a giant tentacle to me,” Nick said.
“I don’t think so.” Amanda stared at the location where it had popped out.
“I don’t know.” Poseidon stood in front of us and held out his hand. “I command you to stop.”
Water from the river poured onto Poseidon, drenching him from head to toe. Then like before, it lashed out, like a long whip.
“Back away—” Poseidon didn’t get a chance to finish. Countless water whips slithered out of the river like snakes, crawling, making it too difficult to run. One curled around Poseidon’s ankles and took him in.
“Poseidon!” Zeus bellowed.
Noah stepped in front and created a temporary impenetrable barrier when more came at us. It didn’t help. Water went through the barrier. Hades and I blasted fire while Nick zapped it, but to no avail.
Poseidon popped out of the water laughing hysterically. Engulfed by water in a sphere-like shield, he floated in midair just above the river.
“It won’t hurt you,” Poseidon said. “Let it take you.”
One took the form of a shark and ate Nick. Another took the form of a plunger and sucked up Everett. Amanda and Noah were eaten by a large giant’s mouth. Zeus and Hades got swept inside a cyclone, and I was carried away like a princess on a carriage ride. A clear protective shield bubbled around us. We glided on top of the water in our own private rides.
“This is awesome,” Noah exclaimed.
“My own private ride,” Nick sang.
“Something is waiting for us at the end.” Zeus sounded worried. “It can’t be this easy.”
Though we had been separated and moved at different speeds, we could talk and hear as if we sat next to each other. We streamed across with the flow of the water. Nothing but trees, valleys, and mountains came to view. A rainbow appeared in the distance, and then disappeared when the bubble dipped lower.
Admiring the beauty of the land filled me with serenity. Flying and being one with nature filled my soul, and I wished Mason could experience it with me. There were no homes, no streets, no cars, nothing but what the land had to offer. Purple, red, yellow dotted here and there throughout the land, depending on the type of flower it grew. Nature at its finest. All seemed fine until…
“What’s that ahead?” Hades panicked.
“It’s a cliff.” I gulped. My heart drummed faster. “What do we do?”
“Let it guide us,” Poseidon said calmly.
I knew I should trust Poseidon, but for someone like me who’s afraid of heights, those words weren’t comforting. “We’re so close. Oh my God!”
“You’ll be fine, Skylar. You’ll live.” Hades tried to lessen my state of frenzy, but it wasn’t working.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Here it comes. Breathe. Everything will be just fine, just like—I screamed from the top of my lungs and so did everyone else. My stomach dropped. Our protective shield didn’t fly like Poseidon had thought. We plummeted…falling…falling…endless falling. The only view was the waterfall and the mist covering us.
“Make it stop!” Amanda shouted.
“Do something!” Nick hollered.
“I’m going to throw up,” Everett warned.
Just when I couldn’t take it anymore, we landed. Only, instead of landing smoothly, we bounced on the water like pebbles thrown across the lake. My body tumbled about inside the small space as nausea took over, but I was grateful the shield felt like foam—soft and spongy. Finally, the bubble stilled and burst, dropping us into the shallow part of the river.
I landed on my hands and knees. Everett stayed bent over, sucking in deep breaths while everyone cursed and stood. I groaned and fought for balance when I pushed myself to stand.
The gold arch caught my eyes first, dazzling under the sunlight. As my gaze dropped lower, I saw the statues of people, the trees and flowers, and even the rocks and boulders were gold. Everything had been turned to gold, except the water.
“Well…” Everett splashed water on his face and stood. “I feel much better. I hope we don’t go back the way we came ‘cause I’m not sure if I can go through that again.” Then he seemed to finally see what I saw. “Whoa.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, but my eyes still lingered on all the gold—a fountain spurting water, wagon, chairs, a horse statue, clothes, coins overflowing from a treasure box, and so much more.
“I just need a minute, but we should get moving.” Everett pointed. “Looks like we have to climb.”
“What in the world,” Nick breathed.
Amanda gasped and pointed to everything to make sure Noah was seeing what she saw.
“Wow. Do you think the statues were once real people?” Amanda grimaced.
“Who knows?” Noah helped her take a step. The small gold boulders piled together created stairs, leading up to a cave.
“Be careful,” Zeus warned.
Hermes flapped his wings and floated in midair, guiding Zeus.
“Don’t touch anything. It may turn you into gold.” Poseidon followed behind Zeus.
“I think we’ll be fine for now,” Hades said, helping me up when I almost slipped.
Getting a solid grip on the trail seemed difficult. Everywhere I stepped felt slippery. Water flowed gently up, not down, like a soft, backward waterfall. I guessed we were still in the Land of Reverse, but everything else seemed in its right position. Finally, we reached the top.
“Who or what are we looking for?” Everett’s voice echoed in the cave.
No one answered him, enchanted by the gold tunnel we had to pass through. I assumed, like all the caves we had encountered before, it would be dark, but light impossibly penetrated it. The water continued to flow, even on the gold walls, glistening on every inch of the space. The cave wasn’t as big as I had thought, just narrow and long. At the end, rays of light illuminated a well and a being, sitting on a gold throne. At first I thought the being was a gold statue, but when he blinked and his smile widened as we approached, I gasped softly.
“You made it,” said a man dressed in a gold robe and gold crown, holding a fennel staff, tipped with a pine cone. He was short and bald. His big round belly, evidence he drank way too much, bulged through the open robe. He reminded me of a Chinese Buddha.
“Dionysus!” Hades boomed, sounding agitated. His jaw clenched and fist rounded. “You put us through hell.”
“Nothing new for you, considering you lived in the underworld,” Dionysus mocked.
Zeus stuck out his arm in front of Hades, stopping him from forging forward with flames in his hands and maybe even killing Dionysus.
“Now, now, Hades.” Dionysus sat up taller, squaring his shoulders, but shortly after, he slouched again. “Put out that fire. No need to get hasty.” His breath stunk of alcohol and his words came slowly.
Hades growled. “Don’t test me.”
“Do you know why we’re here?” Zeus took a step closer.
Dionysus stood, holding out his fennel staff. He stumbled a few steps. “Don’t come any closer. Of course I know why you’re here. Silenus warned me.”
“You keep weird company,” Nick threw in.
“I would say the same for you.” Dionysus gazed at the gods.
“Touché.” Nick smirked. “I kind of have no choice.”
Zeus darted an evil glance at Nick and tapped his staff on the ground. “If you knew we were coming, why didn’t you just hand it to us? Why make us go through all this trouble? You know who I am. That is not how you treat me.”
Dionysus released an annoyed sigh and paced next to the well, the only part of the wall that had turned to gold. He slumped over and placed a hand on the well for support. “You can’t simply get something precious and valuable by asking for it. You must earn it, even a god.” He plopped back down to his
throne again, his round belly jutting out. “You also must have polite behavior and a good attitude.” He winked.
Zeus’s staff flickered and sizzled, electricity surged down his staff and onto the ground. “Don’t wink at me.” He scowled. “We’ve wasted a lot of time playing your game. Now, hand it over. And for my sake, close the robe. Your fat stomach disgusts me. You should take better care of yourself.”
“I can’t just hand it over.” He rolled his eyes and threw his hand in the air. “Why do you care if I take care of myself?” He patted his stomach and rubbed his bald head.
When Zeus didn’t answer, Dionysus continued. “Anyway, enough of me. The girl must take it.” He glanced my way. “If I turned to gold, who would watch over my place?”
Poseidon lightly shoved me toward Dionysus. I stumbled a little and took out the bottle I had stuck back inside my pocket.
“Drop it in the well,” Dionysus ordered.
“How will I get it back?”
“You shall see.” He snickered. Reaching over to the gold table beside him, he picked up a gold jug and drank deeply. I assumed he was drinking wine, seeing a shelf of wine jugs behind him. Finally, he placed it down, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and then burped. Disgusting!
I steadied my hand on the base of the stone well and looked down. Pure darkness filled my vision and no sound of water reached me. For all I knew, I could be tossing my bottle into a deep abyss. I imagined it shattering at the bottom or just simply falling with no end. Magic was unpredictable and so were the gods.
“Hurry, Skylar.” Nick’s words gave me the push I needed.
I inhaled a deep breath and let go. “For Mason.” I listened for any noise that the bottle had hit the water, but none came. How deep was this well? When it seemed minutes had passed, I lost my patience.
“Where is it?” I huffed. My eyes burned and my fingers tingled.
He shrugged. “It’s taking longer than I thought it would. Maybe it doesn’t like your bottle.”
“That’s enough!” Poseidon had lost it. He had been cool and collected until then. Using his power, he directed his hand at the well. The ground trembled and the well shook. A spider fracture split the front of the well.
Dionysus’s eyes widened, looking horrified. “Stop!”
“Stop!” I yelled.
“Poseidon,” Zeus warned, slapping Poseidon’s back, causing him to drop his hand.
Gold water gushed out, aiming at all of us except for Dionysus, as if the water knew where to aim. My gut instinct told me if that water touched us, we would turn to gold. I extended my hands and used my water power ability to freeze it in place. One wave of water touched the tip of Nick’s hair, turning that single strand into gold. Another wave stopped right in front of Hades’ chest. The water droplets must have landed on Amanda’s shirt, creating gold polka dots. Then to my horror, Everett turned gold from head to toe. I’d thought I reached everyone in time, but somehow that one slipped by me.
“Everett,” Nick hollered in panic, his hand by his side, afraid to touch Everett. “Turn him back.”
“Oh my God. Is he breathing?” Amanda shuddered.
“The correct term would be, ‘Oh my Zeus,’” Zeus corrected. “Yes, he’s fine. We’ll have to go back where we started and wash him off.”
“See what happens when you don’t respect my place.” Dionysus scoffed. “You can just leave him here with me. I can add him to my collection.”
Nick stuck out his middle finger at Dionysus. “You’re crazy and you’re drunk.”
“Dionysus?” Hades roared, fire flaming in his eyes. “Give me that bottle right now, or I’ll burn this place down.”
Dionysus gulped down another jug of his wine and hiccupped. “Oh, how I love my life. I get to make wine, drink more than I need, and be merry.”
“I’ll drop this,” Nick warned, waving a jug of wine. Nick had sneaked around to get closer to Dionysus and got ahold of one.
Dionysus jumped out of his throne and stumbled back. The well broke his fall. “No, not my wine.” His eyes rounded in shock.
Nick’s eyes sparkled, and he loosened his grip. “Oops, my bad.”
The jug bounced instead of breaking into pieces, but red liquid poured out. Nick grabbed another one from the shelf and dropped it.
“Stop!” Dionysus cupped his face with his hands in disbelief.
Nick ignored him and grabbed another one. “Where’s the bottle, Dio?”
“Stop, stop, stop!” Dionysus stuck out his hands, as if he could stop Nick. “My name isn’t Dio. It’s right here.”
“Where?” I barked.
Dionysus reached into the well and magically pulled out the bottle. “See.” He handed it to me. The clear bottle glittered with gold. The liquid swished beautifully inside. “You must be careful. Anything that water touches will turn. If you dip it twice, you can’t ever undo it, even at the river.”
“How much of it is in the well?” Zeus took a closer look at my bottle.
“There’s only water in the well. I must pull it out to make it magically. I gave Midas the gift by sprinkling the gold water on his hand. If I had done it twice, he could have never reversed it.”
Hades’s brow furrowed. Flame flickered in his hands, threatening Dionysus. “Take us back to the Land of Reverse.”
The wine god curled his lips mischievously. “But you are here.”
Hades gripped Dionysus by the throat. “I could make a torch out of you.”
Dionysus’s feet dangled in the air while his hands smacked Hades’s arm. He must have weighed like feathers to Hades.
“Hades, that’s enough,” Zeus snapped. He’d run out of patience too. I was surprised they lasted that long. “Put him down so we can get out of here. Maybe he would rather be electrocuted.”
Dionysus coughed relentlessly when Hades let go. He lost his footing and dropped to the ground by the tipped vase. Like a dog, he crouched and lapped at the spilled wine.
“For the love of gods, Dio, stay on track.” Nick rolled his eyes. “Get us out of here.”
When Dionysus didn’t say a word, but kept licking, Nick zapped him.
Dionysus jerked and screamed. “That hurt.”
“It will hurt ten times more if you don’t send us back to the river.” Nick’s fingertips sizzled and crackled to show he meant business.
“Very well. Don’t ever come back.” Anchoring his hands against the wall, Dionysus stood. “None of you come back. I won’t ever give you gold water again.” His lips slowly spread wickedly. “Have a safe trip.”
I didn’t like the sound of his tone nor the expression on his face.
Chapter 13
Skylar
The ground shook. Then tiny long lines appeared on the ground, getting longer, and then finally…
“Watch out!” Noah pushed Amanda away from the splitting ground that had cracked opened.
Nick held onto the statue of Everett.
Hermes picked up Zeus, but he couldn’t pick up all of us.
“What did you do?” Hades roared.
Dionysus wiggled his fingers while his other hand held a wine jug, smirking. “Bye-bye. Have a fun ride.”
Every inch of the ground beside where Dionysus stood by the well tilted to the open hole. We had nowhere to stabilize ourselves and no choice but to drop. Amanda’s scream vibrated through the air. Poseidon used his power and created a water slide, but there were too many of us, dropping every which way. My stomach dropped as I plummeted with my back facing down. The cold air slapped my body, throwing me into a whirling spin. The dirt, pebbles, and boulders plunged too. I pictured them falling on top of us when we landed on solid ground, if we landed on solid ground. While nothing but darkness engulfed us, I prayed there would be an end. However, that wasn’t the case.
The Land of Reverse amazed me. As we continued to fall, the dirt, pebbles, and the boulders flew back up, as if someone had pressed a rewind button. Just before the ground sealed itself back
up, I used the ice slide Poseidon had created and made a bubble around us, but it did little to help.
“We’re not stopping.” Hermes pointed out.
“Skylar, do something.” Nick’s bolt crackled around the protection. One of his hands sizzled while the other arm held steadfast to Everett.
“I don’t know what to do,” I stammered as I zapped out my bolts.
The gods exerted their powers, too. I didn’t know if it was from Hades’s flames, but light replaced darkness. The grass came to view. Then, bam! Like a marble being thrown across space and landing in sand—dead stop. We collided with the ground.
“Ugh,” I moaned.
“I’m tired of being thrown around,” Amanda complained as usual, but she took the words right out of my mouth.
“Get Everett into the water,” Zeus said.
Everyone got up, except for me. I needed a second. With my back pressed to the ground, I watched Nick and Noah submerge Everett in the river, again, and again until the gold completely washed off him. Gold from Everett flowed down the stream like a long, slithering snake. When Nick washed his hair, I took the time to fill the second bottle with the water washed from Nick’s hair with a thought in mind. Though it was gold, it wouldn’t have the same effect as the pure gold water.
Everett gasped and breathed hard. “What happened?”
“Let’s get you out first, and then I’ll explain,” Nick said, as Noah assisted with helping Everett out. Drenched, the three of them left wet trails behind them on the sand.
“How do we get back to Eris?” I asked Hermes, since he seemed to know the location and direction to everyone and everywhere.
Hermes frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re not going to like it.”
I groaned and sighed in agitation. “I don’t care. Just get me there.” I turned to the others. “You don’t have to come with me. I’m going to take this to Eris and bring Mason back if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Of course we’ll come.” Hades’s tone softened. “You’ve done so much for me. We owe you our lives, at least the gods do. Mason means the world to you, as he does to us.”