“Yeah, but he killed that guy, like, centuries ago,” Cass said. “What if he doesn’t turn back into a statue until he gets the Loculus back—and then kills us?”
“I say we call your dad,” Aly suggested. “He can get us out of here. This was a bad choice. We need to put an ocean between us and him.”
I thought a moment. Leaving Routhouni now, when I knew the Massa had spotted us, didn’t seem like the best idea. We didn’t have time before one of us had another episode and we used up the last of the shard. “We’ll hide for a while up in the mountains,” I said. “That way, if Zeus escapes, we’ll see him coming. There’s a chance the Massa will come after us there; you know they’re going to want to get this Loculus. But at least we’ll be safe. For a little while.”
“If Zeus comes after us, we’re going to need more than the Loculus of Strength,” Cass said.
“I’ll text Dad on the way,” I said. “Maybe he’ll have some ideas.”
We turned and ran, leaving Zeus hanging.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ESCAPE FROM THE NOSTRIL
I MANAGED TO strap my flashlight to my head by making a kind of cap with leather strips. Holding the Loculus in one hand, I used the other hand to scrabble up the side of a rocky cliff. The Loculus was making this as easy as walking.
By the time I reached the first broad ledge, Cass and Aly were way behind me. “Show-off,” Cass called up. His flashlight beam surfed up and down the scrubby mountainside.
“Take your time, mortals,” I said.
I sat, unhooked my pack, and took a look at the text Dad sent me as we were leaving Routhouni. Just as I figured, he did have some ideas about what we should do:
I didn’t know what was in the package. I hadn’t had time to ask. But already I heard an engine roar overhead.
From the direction of the airport came a helicopter. I stood, waving. As it hovered overhead, a bay opened in its keel. A sack, tied to the end of a sturdy rope, lowered toward me.
He was sending us the Loculi!
“Honey, we’re home,” Aly announced, her arm appearing over the rim of the ledge.
I reached down and hauled her into the air and onto the ledge with one hand—as if I were lifting a rag doll. She sprawled in the dust.
“Curb your enthusiasm, Superboy,” she said.
“Sorry, I’ll try a different method.” I sat on the ledge, dangling my legs just over Cass’s head. “Grab on!”
“What?” Cass said.
“My ankle,” I said. “Go ahead.”
When I felt his hand clutching my ankle, I rolled onto my back. Curling my legs upward, I lifted Cass high. With a scream, he sailed clear over my head and came down onto the ledge near Aly. “Welcome,” I said. “You’re just in time for Santa.”
Cass dusted himself off and looked upward. “What the—? Why is your dad giving us those?”
The sack was just over our heads now. I reached up and untied it. “He thinks that we’re going to change our minds. Like, we’ll take one look at the Loculi and say, ‘Hey, let’s go invisible and fly back to the airport!’”
“Actually, not a bad idea,” Cass said.
“We’re going to stay put and wait,” I said.
We untied the rope and then I gave it a sharp tug, to indicate we were done. The rope rose back up into the bay. In moments, the helicopter was disappearing into the night, toward Kalamata.
Dad had attached a handwritten note to the sack: Good luck and hurry back!
I quickly stuffed the note into my pocket and shone the flashlight around the ledge. Behind me, in the mountain face, was a cave about four feet high. It was empty, its rear wall maybe twenty feet deep and covered with Greek graffiti. “If we need to, we can hide the Loculi in here,” I said. “I’ll try to text Dad to pick them up, after the Massa find us. I wish he hadn’t sent those things to us.”
Aly was scanning the countryside. Routhouni was a distant cluster of dim lights in the darkness. The only other building between here and there was a tiny white house with a cross on its roof, in a field farther down the base of the mountains. “I don’t see any headlights yet,” I said.
“Do monks drive?” Cass asked.
“Of course they drive!” Aly said. “How else would they travel?”
“Sandals?” Cass said. “Camels? I don’t know. We’re just sitting ducks here.”
I wanted to face the Massa. I wanted that badly. I don’t know if it was the Loculus of Strength, or just the incredible rush of feeling that the hunt for the Seven Loculi was still alive. “We can’t count on the Massa following us,” I said. “Let’s wait out the night here. If nothing happens, then we can get back to Routhouni in the daylight.”
Cass was pacing now, squinting into the distance. “What about the lightning?” he said.
“What lightning? It’s a clear night,” Aly pointed out.
“He’s Zeus, right?” Cass said. “What if he throws lightning bolts at us?”
“Zeus is mythological,” I said.
“Oh, that’s a relief!” Cass shot back. “I mean, whew, myths aren’t real. That’s as ridiculous as, like, I don’t know . . . statues coming to life!”
“Easy, Cass,” I said.
“He has a point,” Aly piped up. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. We saw a bunch of monks and we’re assuming they’re the Massa. Maybe the real Massa know enough not to be anywhere near this place.”
Cass threw up his hands. “Yeah, well, maybe this whole thing was just a dumb idea.”
“Whoa, what happened to our team?” I said. “We came up with this idea together. We can’t just give it up. Not only that, we found another Loculus—so the way I see it, we’re one step ahead. Plus, I just saved our lives and hung Zeus on a nail, and no one even said thanks. You guys want to call my dad and be picked up? Fine. But I’m going to finish this quest or die trying. I’ll do what we’re supposed to do, by myself.”
I walked to the far end of the ledge and leaned against the rock face. I could hear Aly and Cass mumbling to each other. As far as I was concerned, I’d go back to the island alone. I had nothing to lose.
After a quiet moment I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hey,” Aly said.
“I don’t know what’s bothering you, Aly,” I said. “You and Cass.”
She was silent for a long moment. “When I came so close to death, Jack, it changed me. I’m not as afraid of it anymore, I guess. Part of me just wants to go home and be with Mom and my friends.”
“I don’t want you to die,” I said. “Or Cass. Or me. Fourteen is too early.”
Aly nodded. “Yeah. I think you’re right. Thank you for nailing Zeus, Jack. You came through for us. I guess what I’m trying to say is, we are in this together. To the end.”
“Bad choice of words,” I said.
Aly laughed. “Sorry.”
We sat, dangling our legs over the cliff. Cass joined us, leaning his head against Aly’s shoulder. “I’m tired. And don’t say, ‘Hi, Tired. I’m Jack.’”
“I’m tired, too,” Aly said. “We’re twins.”
“You guys get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll keep a lookout.”
“How do we know you won’t sleep, too?” Aly asked.
I grabbed the Loculus. “Popeye had spinach. Superman had the power of Krypton. I, Jack, have the Loculus of Strength.”
Cass’s eyes fluttered shut. A few seconds later, Aly’s did, too. I was worried about both of them. I wasn’t Popeye and I wasn’t Superman. I needed them both, and I could feel them pulling away.
Overhead another military plane zoomed by, but neither of them stirred. I held tight to the Loculus and cast a wide glance over the barren countryside from left to right and back again.
And again.
By the fourth time, my eyes were heavy, too. There would be no fifth time until daybreak.
The “Strength” in the Loculus of Strength did not include staying awake.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE DREAM CONT
INUED
HE HAS FOUND me.
Again.
I thought I’d lost him in Halicarnassus. But here he is in Olympia, standing before me in the shop. Standing before a great, massive lump of marble that has traveled here by the work of twenty slaves over three months.
He has that look in his eyes. The Betrayed Commander. The look that caused troops to quake in their sandals. The look that made me cry when I was a coddled little princeling. But now, after all I’ve been through—after all my land has been through—he annoys me.
“You would do this to your own flesh and blood, Massarym?” are his first words. “This trickery? This disloyalty?”
I look deeply into his gray, stern eyes, trying to find the man I once adored and respected. “I would ask the same of you,” I say. “As the king, your people are as your own flesh and blood. And you have allowed them to die. The ultimate disloyalty.”
“The queen is at fault,” he shouts, “and you, ungrateful wretch—”
“You cast a blind eye to Mother’s actions then—but now you protest,” I say. “You did not protest while she disturbed the balance of Atlantean energy. While she dissected and analyzed the power like some curious experiment. When she trapped it away from the earth itself into seven spheres—”
“Stealing those spheres is what caused the destruction!” he bellows. “Playing with them! Showing off!”
I am tired of this argument. I have work to do.
“Of that last part I am indeed guilty,” I say. “But I realized early on that I was wrong. I returned them. If you are correct, everything should have been perfect again. Was it?”
The king is silent.
“Why the earthquakes, my king?” I say. “Why the monsters?”
He turns away.
“Mother’s actions—not mine—depleted the energy,” I say. “She doomed Atlantis. Had we left the Loculi in place, they would have sunk away with the rest of the continent. Only by taking them and making them safe—stealing, as you say—could we have any hope for rebuilding. Minds of the future, minds greater than ours, will figure out what to do. I am not seeking glory; I am not foolish. I want to house the Loculi for future generations, in the most magnificent forms imaginable.” I gesture toward the block of marble. “Behold Zeus, Father! Does he not look like a living man?”
It looks nothing like a man. One can discern only the back of a giant throne—and the outline of what will one day become, according to plan, a likeness of the mighty god. The architects would have liked Zeus to be standing tall, but no temple could have been built high enough to do justice to this vision. So he will sit on a regal throne, his feet planted firmly. His staff has been separately sculpted, and it leans against the marble block. By its side is the Loculus of Strength.
It is this I want my father to see.
The lines of his face deepen, his eyes hollow. I have been waiting for this moment. In my time since leaving Atlantis, I have marshaled my own powers.
IMMOBILITUS.
My father is rooted to the spot. He tries to move toward the Loculus but cannot. “I will not allow this,” he bellows. “I command you to return that to me!”
“I am not your soldier,” I say.
“You are my son!” he replies.
I must fight a desperate pang of guilt. Shall I show mercy? His words tug at my heart.
But the deaths of thousands of Atlanteans tug harder.
I have much work to do. Structures to build. And I will not be stopped. Not by any army. Not by Uhla’ar.
“You wish for your hands to be around that Loculus, rather than Zeus’s?”
“Immediately!” he thunders.
“Then your wish, my father, shall be granted,” I say. “Now and forever.”
I feel the power welling up from my toes, spreading through my body like an intruder. It hurts. It blinds. I raise my hand toward my father, and I feel a jolt as if a hundred knives course through my veins.
Father’s mouth drops open. His feet leave the ground, and he floats.
He is in midair now, screaming. I have never heard the king scream before. I know it is the last time I will ever see him.
But I turn away. I have already mourned the loss of my father. The loss of my people. My family now is the future. The people of the world yet unborn.
I walk away, forcing my ears to hear nothing.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A GOAT MOMENT
MY EYES FLICKERED open. I tried to hold on to the dream, but it was fading. I wanted to remember the details, to trap them in my brain, because they always seemed to mean something.
Already, in early versions of the dream, I’d seen Atlantis destroyed and the Loculi stolen away. Back then, it was as if I’d been trapped in the body of Prince Karai. But in these latest dreams, I’d been Massarym.
Somehow, being Massarym felt a whole lot worse.
“Hey,” Aly said softly. “Are you okay?”
I sat up. The images were drifting away like smoke. I was on the ledge outside Routhouni. It was still dark. Middle of the night. Aly lay next to me on the ground, and Cass was curled up into a fetal position behind us. I blinked myself deeper into reality.
“I wanted to kill him . . .” I mumbled. “Not me. Massarym.”
“You wanted to kill Massarym?” Aly asked.
“No! I was Massarym,” I said. “In my dream. I wanted to kill my father. The king of Atlantis, Uhla’ar. It was the second time I dreamed about him. The first was back when you were getting sick. I was Massarym then, too. Back then, the king was mad at me for stealing the Loculi. I threw a fake Loculus over the cliff in Halicarnassus. To fool him. This time we were near the Statue of Zeus. But it wasn’t a statue yet.”
The details were growing faint. Aly put an arm around my shoulder. “I have nightmares, too, but they’re not like that. Shhh, it’s okay.”
“Yeah. Just a dream.” Her arm felt warm, and I let my head touch her shoulder. In the distance, the lights of Routhouni flickered faintly. “Is it almost morning? We’re going to have to make our move.”
I heard a dull thump from above us.
Cass’s eyes flew open. He spun around, looking up the hillside. “Did you hear that?”
Aly and I stood. “What kind of animals live on Greek mountains?” Aly asked.
“Goats?” I said.
My flashlight was still strapped to my head. I shone it upward just in time to see something small and sharp hurtling downward.
Cass fell back, almost to the ledge. “OWW! The goats are throwing rocks!”
Another rock flew downward. And another. “I don’t think those are goats.”
“Let’s get in the cave,” Cass said.
As Aly and Cass headed for the opening, I grabbed my backpack and the Loculus of Strength. I meant to follow them, but something happened when I tucked that thing under my arm.
I didn’t want to hide. I was angry. Someone was trying to scare us. What if this was a trap, bandits trying to force us into a cave, a place we couldn’t escape? After all we’d been through, no way was I going to let this happen. I held tight to the Loculus and dug my foot into the mountain wall.
“Jack?” called Aly from inside the cave. “Jack, what are you doing?”
My fingers dug into the dirt wall like hooks. They were both yelling at me from the cave opening, but I blocked it out. My muscles felt like steel coils as I climbed the cliffside.
“Woo-HOO!” I couldn’t help shouting. I mean, come on. Jack McKinley, the last guy picked for any sports team. The boy who collapsed after one push-up. The winner of the Most Times Shoved to the Ground by Barry Reese Award five years running. Now my friends were in danger and I could do something about it. I was climbing with the ease of . . . a goat!
This felt awesome.
Concentrate.
I hauled myself upward, maybe fifty feet, and reached my fingers over the rim of the next ledge. Then I hoisted myself straight upward and managed a three-sixty somersault in midair.
Well, maybe three-forty, because I landed on my back. It wasn’t the Loculus of Perfect Coordination, I guess.
Still, it didn’t hurt at all, and I sprang to my feet. I turned my head, training the flashlight beam right and left. This ledge was narrower but longer from side to side.
There.
Above me. A tiny movement. Black against the blackness.
“Hello?”
As I looked up the hill, an outstretched body leaped at me. It knocked me off-balance, spinning me around. I fell to the ground, dropping the Loculus.
As I rolled away, my flashlight slid off my head. I grabbed it, the leather strips dangling. “Who’s there?” I shouted, shining the light into the blackness.
“Jack? Are you okay?” Aly yelled from below.
I felt a hand land heavily on my shoulder. Leaping away, I spun to face my attacker.
Two eyes glared at me as if they contained light sources of their own. They were silvery white and definitely not human. “What do you want?” I said.
“WHAT DO YOU GO-O-O-OT?” came the reply, as the massive figure of Zeus hurdled toward me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
BATTLE ON THE MOUNT
IT FELT LIKE a cow had dropped out of the sky and landed on my chest. I couldn’t breathe under the weight. Zeus’s mouth was inches from my face, but I felt no warmth and smelled no breath. He had one hand on the Loculus and it took all my effort to keep hold of it myself.
As long as I had contact, I could match his strength. I twisted my body hard. I kicked. Finally I just reared back my head and butted him on the forehead.
It hurt like crazy. But I guess it didn’t feel too great for him either. He roared with surprise. And I took that moment to curl my legs upward, between his body and mine, and push hard. He fell away.
Unfortunately, the Loculus fell the other way. I scrambled to my knees, swinging the flashlight.
The god-statue stood before me, legs planted wide, the broken section of his staff in his right hand.
“We’re coming!” came Aly’s voice from below.