‘Tartarus’ they shouted.
33
Emily wondered if she would ever get used to visiting new worlds. It was one thing to read science fiction books or see other worlds in movies, but nothing could prepare her for the strange places she’d been.
The sky above was dark and stormy, just like the Nirad world. But unlike the dry arid air of the Nirad world, on Tartarus vicious winds tore through the seams of her armour. It was cold, wet and miserable. The ground was rough and muddy. Nothing grew here and, as she gazed around, she could see no trace of wildlife.
‘What a wretched place,’ Agent B called through his helmet.
‘It is a prison world,’ Jupiter explained. ‘Nothing lives here but the unfortunates imprisoned far below us.’
Because of the Blackbird helmet covering his head, Emily couldn’t see Jupiter’s face. But she could hear the anguish in his voice. This had been the place of his childhood, where Saturn had imprisoned him and his siblings until they escaped.
Jupiter and his brothers were dressed as Blackbird Titans like Agent B, but strangely, it was easy to tell them apart by their walk and movements.
‘This way,’ Jupiter called as he led them forward. ‘From this moment on, we do not speak, no matter what we see or hear. Understood?’
Everyone nodded.
Each move they made had been carefully planned long before they arrived on Tartarus. Emily, Joel and Agent B followed directly behind the Big Three as they led the way to the entrance of the prison.
The area was teeming with Shadow Titans. As they moved slowly past the thousands of Shadow Titans, Emily’s Flame itched to be freed against them. But their disguises were working. They were not stopped and walked freely among them.
At the prison entrance, Shadow Titans shoved and carried captured Olympian prisoners. A good number of the Olympians Emily knew personally. Jupiter and his brothers knew them all. It took strength for Emily not to call out and try to help them. Not one of them paused or broke their disguise as they watched some of their people being abused by the Shadow Titans.
The heavy main doors to the prison were open, causing a choking stink to rise from below. The Olympians began their descent down the endless stairs cut into the rocky walls. Acrid smoke from the burning torches clogged the dank, stagnant air.
Emily looked back up the stairs behind her and watched Vulcan in his Minotaur armour carrying Stella, while Minerva carried Maxine.
Seren and Jasmine’s faces were filled with fear as the centaurs concentrated on not slipping on the wet steps. Their fear wasn’t an act. The prison on Tartarus was terrifying.
They descended deeper into the bowels of the prison; down past the levels containing the Olympian prisoners. They passed real Shadow Titans delivering prisoners to the cells. The warriors didn’t give them a second glance. Emily was worried that Chiron’s exposed body would give them away. But the centaur had been right. The Shadow Titans did not notice the difference. They were simply drones following orders, with no free thought or independent movement.
They managed to make it deeper than they imagined possible. Venus took the lead and led them to where she and her team had found the Hundred-handers. No words were spoken; she just gave a quick nod that directed them.
They left the stairwell and travelled down a dark, damp corridor that looked like it had seen very little traffic. At the end, they encountered another set of narrow steps.
In her bulky Turtle armour, Emily’s shoulders touched the walls on either side of her. Up ahead, Jupiter and his brothers had to turn sideways to walk down the stone steps. If the Hundred-handers were as big as it was suggested, how did they get down there? And more importantly, how would they get out?
Jupiter had said the Olympians’ powers did not work within the walls of the prison. Here, they were as vulnerable as humans. With no Shadow Titans around, Emily gave a little push of her powers and felt herself lifting off the floor.
‘Yes!’ she cheered softly. The Olympians’ powers may have been neutralized in Tartarus, but hers weren’t. She was still a powerful Xan.
At the very bottom of the stairs, they stepped into several metres of foul-smelling, slimy water that soaked through the armour on their feet. Emily found it very slippery and it took all of her will not to cry out in disgust. She looked over at Joel and could see, by the careful way he was putting his feet down, he felt the same.
‘Paelen would have had something funny to say about this,’ she whispered softly to Joel.
‘Shh!’ Agent B hushed.
Joel shrugged at her and then nodded.
After following Venus through a narrow passage, the walls opened up. They entered a deep and impossibly large cavern that was dimly lit from a roof far above their heads.
The deeper they walked into the cavern, the more their senses were assaulted by the worst stink Emily had ever encountered in her life. It smelled like rotting vegetables mixed with old sweaty gym socks and just enough scent of skunk to make a person violently ill. It was worse than the worst of the grey Nirads and nearly made Emily gag in her helmet.
Looking around, she could tell the others were feeling the same. Seren and Jasmine were pinching their noses while Stella held her hand over her nose and mouth.
With every step, the smell got worse. Just when Emily didn’t think she could take any more, they came across three massive prison cells along the walls of the cavern. The steel bars in the front of the filthy, wet cells rose up to at least five levels.
They approached the first cell. Jupiter and his two brothers removed their helmets and leaned closer to the bars. They started to speak softly in Olympian.
In the dim light, she could not see who they were talking to. But then she heard heavy shuffling as something big moved closer to the bars. Emily nearly screamed when she saw her first Hundred-hander. She had been warned by Stella and Agent B about what the myths said they looked like. But nothing could have prepared her for the creature she now beheld.
It was huge. From its sturdy shoulders sprang a hundred long arms with thick hands and fingers. At least fifty heads extended from its neck and Emily watched in astonishment as they all spoke together as the Hundred-hander talked with Jupiter and his brothers. The sound reminded Emily of music concerts she’d been to when the crowds sang in unison with the singer.
‘This is Briareos.’ Jupiter turned to Emily. ‘He is the strongest of the Hundred-handers and has agreed to help us if we free all his brothers from here.’
‘I thought there were only three Hundred-handers?’
‘There are,’ Jupiter agreed. He pointed to another cell. ‘There is Cottus and, in the final cell, Gyges. But they have other brothers down here. The Cyclopes.’
‘Are you going to free them all?’
Jupiter shook his head. ‘Not me, Emily, but you. Our powers will not work within this dark place of misery and our strength is not enough to open the doors. But you are unaffected by Tartarus. Will you open these cell doors?’
‘Of course,’ Emily agreed.
Everyone took a step back as Emily removed her helmet and stood alone before the immense door. She reached out with her powers and commanded all the cell doors on their level to open.
Moments later, the air was filled with the horrendous sounds of the creaking and groaning metal hinges that had not been opened in thousands of years.
When the prison door swung open, Briareos and his two brothers charged out of their cells and ran to each other in a noisy reunion.
‘So much for a stealthy escape,’ Agent B said. ‘I am sure they can hear those three on the surface.’
‘Perhaps,’ Vulcan agreed, ‘but it will take more than all the Shadow Titans in Tartarus to contain them again. The Titans had to trick them into their cells long ago. The Hundred-handers will not be fooled again. They are free and will remain so.’
The sounds of other calls filled the noisy chamber as Cyclopes charged in and greeted their brothers.
Joel cam
e up beside Emily. His eyes were as big as saucers. ‘Are they cool or what?’
Emily nodded. ‘They sure are.’ Then she turned away, fighting a wave of nausea. ‘But they sure could use a bath!’
As the massively huge Hundred-handers greeted all the Olympians, the sound of organized marching filled the air.
‘I think we’ve got company,’ Agent B said.
Jupiter donned his helmet. ‘All right everyone, just as we planned it. Minerva, take your team and head up. Free as many Olympians as you can on the way. Then take Cottus, Gyges and the Cyclopes back to Earth and arm them with flame-swords. We must let the Titans see we have the Hundred-handers on our side.’
To Venus he said, ‘You and Briareos stay with us. We will free the Four Warriors and then head straight to Titus for the weapon.’
Shadow Titans had begun to pour into the cavern. They drew their weapons and charged forward blindly.
The pent-up fury from their long imprisonment exploded as the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes attacked the Shadow Titans. Despite being badly outnumbered by the Shadow Titans, the large fighters made easy work of them.
‘Whoa!’ Joel watched mesmerized. ‘Now I get it. Look at them go!’
‘Draw your flame-swords, let us move!’ Jupiter shouted.
Standing up front with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, Emily joined the fight and charged forward through the swarming Shadow Titans. She shot blast upon blast at the attacking warriors. Briareos took up the rear and waved half of his hundred hands at his departing brothers, while he used the other half to keep tearing Shadow Titans apart.
With the light of her powers guiding the way, Emily spotted the entrance the Shadow Titans were using to enter the cavern – it was huge, large enough to fit Briareos and his brothers.
Shadow Titan reinforcements were arriving every second and the fighting intensified. But the combined efforts of the Olympians, Hundred-handers, Cyclopes and Emily cut a path through the warriors.
With Minerva leading her fighters in one direction, Venus led Jupiter’s group in another. There seemed to be an unending supply of Shadow Titans as each step they took was blocked by more warriors. They fought their way to the stairs that would lead them up and out of the prison. Emily stole a glance behind her and watched Joel and Agent B fighting shoulder to shoulder.
Further back, Vulcan had put Stella in Maxine as he wielded a flame-sword in each hand. Stella used her own weapons against the attackers. Even the very girly centaur twins looked fearsome as they shouted and fought their way through the Shadow Titans.
They emerged from the stairwell and Venus led them into a long corridor. But the Shadow Titans did not follow.
‘Where are they going?’ Joel asked, pulling off his helmet. His face was bathed in sweat. ‘Why aren’t they following us?’
‘I do not know,’ Neptune said. ‘But I think we should be on our guard. Something feels very wrong here.’
Jupiter stopped the group. ‘Venus, how far?’
Venus removed her Turtle helmet. ‘Not far at all. They are just down at the end.’
Emily peered down the silent, dark corridor. ‘This feels like a trap.’
‘I agree,’ Jupiter said, ‘but we do not have much choice. We will not succeed if they keep creating more Shadow Titans. They must be stopped.’
He studied the large group with him. ‘Chiron, will you, Stella and the twins wait here? Briareos will stay with you for support. Do what you can to keep others from coming after us. We will find the Four Warriors and free them.’
The remaining fighters followed Venus towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was made of thick bronze and appeared heavily secured. As they drew closer, they could hear moaning coming from behind it.
‘That is Aronder,’ Jupiter said. ‘I recognize his voice. He is suffering.’
‘They all are,’ Venus added.
Jupiter inspected the door. He called his brothers forward. ‘Together, we push on three.’
As they pushed against the bronze door, Emily raised her hands, ready to fire at anyone on the other side. But behind the open door was a sight more horrible than anything she could imagine. Even after the horrors she’d witnessed first-hand on the battlefield, she was unprepared for the sight of the original Four Warriors.
Suspended from the ceiling was the Minotaur. Thick chains cut into his bleeding wrists and wrapped around his feet to keep him in place. His sturdy man’s body was covered in deep burns, and soft moans came from his bull’s mouth.
Beside him was the Blackbird Warrior. But in the flesh, he didn’t look like a warrior at all – just a very large blackbird. Like the Minotaur, he was suspended in the air by thick chains that pierced through his large black wings, while floor chains wrapped around his clawed feet. His head was lowered and his long black beak hung open as a soft, pain-filled mew issued forth. The feathers on the bird’s back were singed off.
The Turtle and Dragon Warriors also looked vulnerable and writhed in pain. These were large, intelligent animals and nothing like the deadly Shadow Titans that were created from them.
No more than a metre in front of each of the Four Warriors was a hole in the floor. Emily approached the nearest hole and discovered it was a chute. But she couldn’t see where it led.
‘My God,’ Agent B said, pulling off his helmet. ‘What is happening here?’
At their approach, the Four Warriors lifted their heads and spoke words Emily couldn’t understand. She didn’t need to. It was obvious they were begging for help.
Vulcan pointed to a large, round, slowly turning cut crystal behind the warriors. Attached to the back of the crystal was a thick and powerful magnifying glass. Imprinted on the surface of the glass was the outline of the four armoured Shadow Titans. ‘Look here. This is how they are casting them. First the light strikes the magnifying glass with the designs of the armour. It passes through the crystal and hits the Four Warriors. The shadows they cast create the Shadow Titans!’
‘How is that possible?’ Joel said. ‘It’s just a glass crystal.’
As they watched, the crystal turned again.
‘Shield your eyes!’ Vulcan warned.
With little time to spare, everyone put their hands up to their eyes. Even so, they could still see a searing white light and feel a great temperature rise in the room. As it intensified, the Four Warriors cried out in agony.
The light faded, the temperature dropped and the crystal continued to move around on its slow turntable. Lying on the floor before each of the Four Warriors was a newly created Shadow Titan. The hollow, armoured creatures rose to their feet. Without a backward glance at their creators, they took a step forward and disappeared down the chutes.
Jupiter ran up to the Minotaur. ‘Help me,’ he called to the others. ‘Their suffering must end now!’
Emily was already moving. She burned through the chains binding the Four Warriors to the ceiling. When they were free, the others were waiting to receive them.
‘Mind the crystal,’ Pluto warned. ‘It will be turning against us soon.’
‘Oh no, it will not!’ Vulcan cried. He approached the large round crystal and magnifying glass, hoisted it off the turntable and cast it aside. It struck the stone floor and shattered into thousands of harmless pieces.
Behind where the crystal sat, they saw the light source. It was a very small fire no bigger than a fist. No fuel fed the flame. It was simply burning on a small marble plinth.
‘That is part of me! ’ Riza called in alarm. ‘I can feel it. That Flame-shard landed here and has been the cause of their suffering. I am the reason for this terrible war.’
‘No, Riza,’ Emily said. ‘It was the Titans. They found the fragments of Flame and figured out how to do this.’
‘So that is why the Shadow Titans are drawn to you,’ Agent B reasoned after Emily explained what Riza had said. ‘You carry the Flame within you – the source of their creation. We must extinguish it before they can do it again.’
&nb
sp; ‘Do not let them extinguish the Flame,’ Riza called in alarm. ‘Pull it into you. Perhaps this Flame-shard will contain my lost memories. I ache to be made whole again and not remain in fragments scattered throughout the universe.’
Emily approached the Flame and held out her hand. She didn’t need to do anything; the Flame leaped from the plinth into her outstretched hand.
‘Em!’ Joel screamed.
But Emily was smiling. ‘Joel, it’s OK. It feels strange, but really wonderful. Like a piece I’ve been missing has suddenly been found.’ She could feel Riza’s joy. But it was tinged with sadness. The Flame-shard did not contain her lost memories.
With the Flame secured deep within her, Emily turned her attention to the Four Warriors lying on the floor, moaning softly. One by one, she reached out and let her healing powers work on their burns.
‘How did the Titans figure out how to do that?’ Joel asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Jupiter responded. ‘But it is truly a twisted mind that could conceive of such a hideous plan. Saturn’s malevolence knows no limits. This was nothing less than pure torture.’
When Emily finished healing the Four Warriors, she stood. ‘At least we’ve stopped it.’
‘YOU HAVE STOPPED NOTHING!’ a bodiless voice boomed.
A blinding flash filled the room as the Solar Stream opened. Huge figures burst from the light. Before anyone could react, a large net was tossed over Emily and Mike, and then Joel. They were dragged back into the Solar Stream and disappeared.
34
Stella heard shouts from within the chamber where the Four Warriors were held. Before Chiron and Briareos had a chance to charge down the corridor, Jupiter burst from the chamber.
‘Titans have captured Emily and Joel! They used the Solar Stream to get in and out. They are gone.’
Chiron cursed. ‘How? Our powers do not work down here. Nor do the Titans. How could they do it?’
‘I do not know,’ Jupiter mused. ‘Perhaps they have more of the Flame.’
‘This will not stop us!’ Neptune cried. ‘There is too much at stake.’