At last the biggest, burliest guard stepped forward, his sword drawn and pointed directly at me. “What sorcery is this?”
Several others drew their weapons and surrounded us. I didn’t move. Somewhere nearby, Sprout was sobbing, and the remaining guards took the others into custody. Including Tuck.
But I couldn’t move, not if I wanted Perry to stand a chance. One by one, the guards wrapped rope around their hands, and they dragged them off into the woods. Sprout’s sobs faded, and Mac was silent as ever; Tuck, however, shouted as they carried her away, “James, don’t let him die!”
I gritted my teeth. Apollo—please. I’ll do whatever you want. A dangerous proposition, all things considered, but I was desperate.
Anything I want, all for a mortal?
Apollo’s voice filtered into my mind, much faster than I’d expected. I craned my neck, searching for him in the trees, but of course I didn’t see him. We may not have had powers of invisibility, but no one saw us without our permission.
Yes, anything. Just heal him.
A pause, and then, Fine. Get rid of the other mortals. I can’t do this with them watching. Zeus is going to kill you, you know.
Yes, I know, I snapped. If I get myself captured, do you promise to do everything in your power to save him?
I could practically feel his indignation from here. I’ve already said I would. Now get out of here before I change my mind.
Pushing the last of what energy I had left into Perry, and hoping against hope it would hold him until Apollo reached him, I held up my hands and stood. “All right, you have me. Let’s go.”
For the longest ten seconds of my existence, no one said a word. At my feet, Perry grew weaker, and I let out a frustrated growl. Obviously they were scared, but did they have to be cowards about it?
“Listen, either you can arrest me right now, or I can kill all of you and walk out of here without a scratch,” I said. It wasn’t an empty threat. Perry’s life was at stake, and I wasn’t playing around. Not anymore.
A few guards shuffled forward, still holding their swords, though their fear damn near smothered me. I held out my hands, and the bravest of the lot quickly bound them. Nothing I couldn’t get out of, but I’d drained myself trying to save Perry, and my legs were unsteady and the edges of my vision fuzzy. I could still take them, though. Probably.
“Come on,” I said, stumbling forward in the direction the guards had led the others. In the distance, I sensed some sort of village, along with a castle and a sizable farming community. That must’ve been where Tuck and the others had come from and where the guards were taking them now. Sure enough, I could feel Tuck’s trail, warm and red with panic.
I led the way, and none of the guards questioned me. Despite the binds on my hands and the weapons in theirs, they kept their distance, muttering things to one another that they thought I couldn’t hear. I could, but it didn’t matter. I had to find Tuck.
Apollo? Is he all right? I said once the outskirts of a small village came into view, mostly made up of wooden shacks and dirt. He didn’t answer. Emaciated horses stood at their posts, their heads hanging low. Regardless of the late hour, serfs were scattered throughout the roads, packing or hauling carts filled with food they would likely never get to eat, and they raised their heads to watch us as we passed. No one looked well fed or clean.
Apollo? Still no response. I tried again, but all I heard was silence. Perfect. Either he was ignoring me or Perry had died, and he wasn’t in the mood to tell me. I clenched my fists and pushed onward. He’d healed him. This was a game—Apollo’s idea of a joke. He’d tell me eventually. Everything would be fine.
Despite the rampant poverty the serfs lived in, the walls around the village were staffed by several dozen clean-cut guards dressed in the same black uniforms as the ones who trailed me. All of them looked as if they’d had three square meals a day for the majority of their lives. And inside the stone walls, the homes became better somehow—slightly larger, cleaner, sturdier, infinitely more habitable. The horses in the street were plump and groomed, and the few people still outside after dark wore clean clothes and smiles. Until I passed, of course.
Looming in the distance was our ultimate destination: a castle. Nothing that would ever compare to Olympus, but against the backdrop of menial living, it looked luxurious and much better than it was. The guards took it from here, though they all hesitated before surrounding me. Still, it wouldn’t look good to have a prisoner lead himself in, so the leader took point while the rest of them tried not to get too close.
The inside of the castle was dark and dank, with torches lighting the way. Definitely nothing like Olympus. I followed the guards, who led me straight down Tuck’s trail. She wasn’t far—I could practically see her glow through the stone walls, and I grew more and more anxious the closer we got. What if Apollo hadn’t saved Perry? What if he gave up as soon as he saw how badly he was hurt?
It didn’t matter. I couldn’t tell Tuck the truth.
We entered what must’ve been some kind of great hall, complete with two long tables flanking a shorter one on a raised platform. Sort of like a throne room, except this man—this earl—wasn’t a king. With the way he sat in his gilded chair, however, his head held high as he stared down his nose at the three hunched figures kneeling in front of him, he seemed to think he was.
Tuck. Mac. Sprout. Even from the entranceway, I could sense their pain and terror. Sprout was practically vibrating, he was trembling so hard; Mac was a sickly shade of green; and Tuck…
I’d never sensed such a weird combination of fear, anger and hatred in someone before. Terror rolled off her, filling the room with an odd chill. But she stared up at the earl, her head raised when everyone else’s was bent. That was my Tuck.
“My lord,” said the lead guard, and the others ushered me forward. “We have found the scoundrel who led the attack this morning.”
The earl paled. “And you have brought him here bound by nothing more than rope?”
The guard hesitated. “That was all we had, my lord. We subdued him, and he is compliant.”
“Are you willing to stake your life on it?” growled the earl, and the guard said nothing. “Come closer into the light, boy. You are a boy, are you not? Certainly not old enough to yet be considered a man.”
Please. I looked Tuck’s age or older. This was some sort of game, something to unsteady me, but he wasn’t going to win. I was older than the wood he sat on. Older than the rock his castle was built with. But I moved forward anyway, eager to get closer to Tuck. The guards sidestepped me, clearly still afraid despite their earl’s show of bravery. Smart.
“What are you called?” said the earl, peering down at me. I glanced at Tuck, who was watching me with red-rimmed eyes.
I did my best. I pushed the thought silently into her mind, and she leaned away from me. Damn. “I’m called James. And you?”
He scoffed, but I held his stare, and slowly the amusement drained from his face. “I am your lord and ruler of this land. That is all you must concern yourself with. How did you fall in with these children?”
“According to you, I’m a child myself,” I said with as much mock innocence as I could muster. Living with Aphrodite for eons came in handy, after all. “Clearly it’s natural for children to band together when no one else will help them.”
“Do not be smart with me, boy,” he snarled. “You will answer my questions, or I will assume your guilt and have you hanged by morning. Is that what you want?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really care.”
The earl’s face turned a strange shade of purple I’d never seen on a human being before. “And your friends? Do you care if they are hanged?”
“I care enough to promise you that if any harm comes to them because of something you do, I will make sure you regret it for the rest of your short life.”
He gripped the arms of his so-called throne. “Guards! Search them for my pendant.”
As soon as t
he nearest guard put his hands on Tuck, she let out a sound I’d only ever heard from a wild animal. Her elbow connected with the guard’s face, and he hollered, blood gushing from his nose.
Half a dozen guards drew their swords, and Tuck stilled. She glared up at the earl though, and he clapped his hands together with glee.
“Dear, dear Laurel, you always did have a flair for the dramatic,” he said with a chuckle, and I blinked. Who was Laurel?
Tuck tensed, her eyes narrowing into slits. “Don’t call me that.”
“And why not?” said the earl with a twisted smile. Clearly he was enjoying this. “It is your name. I remember giving it to you.”
Wait. I glanced at Tuck, who kept her focus glued to the earl, even though she had to know I was watching her. Unless earls had a habit of naming every child in their village…
He’s your father?
The corners of Tuck’s mouth turned downward, and she gave a slight, barely perceptible nod. Perfect. Could’ve known that sooner, but at least now I knew he wouldn’t actually carry out his threat to execute them. Or Tuck, at least. Abhorrent as he was, he wouldn’t kill his own daughter.
“You will stand still while the guards search you,” said the earl, and he gestured toward the boys. “Or my guards will run your friends through with a sword. Is that understood?”
Tuck didn’t move. She had to have the pendant on her—she might have let it drop in the woods, knowing the earl would never be able to find it, but I doubted it. Not when the pendant meant so much to her.
Where was it? Closing my eyes, I reached out for it, and—
In her shoe. How the hell had she managed to get it in there without me noticing? Didn’t matter. As the guards approached her, warier this time, I mentally took hold of it. It was strangely warm, connected to Tuck as it was, and while one brave guard with trembling hands patted me down, I vanished it.
Not an easy trick, and not something I did lightly. But as mad as the earl would be when his search turned up nothing, Tuck would be even worse off if the pendant returned to her father.
She must have felt the pendant disappear, because she finally looked at me, a question in her eyes. If she couldn’t give me the truth, then I didn’t owe it to her, either. At least not yet.
When the guards turned up empty-handed, having searched all of us, the earl stood. “I will find it,” he growled.
“Are you sure about that?” said Tuck with more sass than was wise, all things considered. The earl’s face turned red again, and he slammed his fist down on the table.
“I am sure enough that if you do not produce the pendant or give us adequate information to find it by sunup, I will kill each of your friends. And if you do not tell me by sundown, I will kill you.”
She scoffed, but there was fear in her voice, as well. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
“You won’t,” I interjected. “Else you’ll be the next to die.”
Silence. The earl leaned forward against the table, and if he could’ve set me on fire through hatred alone, I was pretty damn sure I would’ve been ash by now. “And you,” he murmured in a poisonous voice. “You will be the first to die.”
“You can kill me as many times as you’d like,” I said. “Right now, if you don’t mind, I’m tired.”
If it were possible for steam to pour out his ears, I was absolutely positive it would happen right about now. “Guards!” he barked. “Take them to the dungeons.”
“The dungeons? But—” Before Tuck could finish, a guard yanked her backward, half carrying her twisting form toward the door. “You can’t do this to them! I don’t know where the pendant is—I dropped it!”
“Perhaps your mother would have believed your lies, but I’m not soft like she was. Take them away,” the earl said again, and the guards marched the rest of us out of the hall. Sprout and Mac look scared out of their minds, their eyes wide as they wore identical masks of terror, but there wasn’t much I could do to reassure them.
Tuck continued to kick and scream the entire way into the dungeons, but the guards didn’t pay her much attention as they artfully dodged her flailing limbs. Somehow I got the feeling this wasn’t exactly the first time she’d been down here, and that only made my hatred for the earl burn hotter. Who locked his own daughter up? No wonder she’d run away.
The guards shoved Mac and Sprout into a cell near the stairs, but they led Tuck and me deep into the darkness, with only torches to light our way. It felt unnatural down here, almost like the Underworld—but unlike the Underworld, my powers worked just fine in the earl’s dungeon. It was a maze to the center, where a high-security cell awaited us, complete with four guards and a stone door operated by some sort of pulley system. No way anyone mortal could knock them in.
The lead guard pushed me into the cell first, and the others threw Tuck down onto a pile of hay before the door dropped, shaking the walls around us and effectively sealing us inside.
“Well,” I said, leaning up against the nearest wall. “This is inconvenient.”
Without warning, Tuck launched herself at me, pounding her fists into my chest. “Who—the hell—are you?”
I stood still, letting her get out her anger and frustration and worry and whatever else she was feeling. Didn’t hurt me one bit, and if it made her feel better, brilliant. “I already told you. I’m Hermes. Sometimes called Mercury, especially in Rome.”
“I don’t know who that is.” With one final punch, she went limp, barely able to keep standing. I wrapped my arms around her before she could fall.
“I’m a god,” I said. No need to dance around it. “One of the twelve Olympians. Well, er, fifteen now. Bit of a long story.”
She shook her head wearily, and I lowered her down onto the ground. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “There’s only one god.”
Only one? I frowned. “No, there’s definitely more. Zeus, my father, he’s head of the council, but—”
“There’s only one. Or are you pagan?”
I blinked. Was she serious? “You really have no idea who I am or how many gods there are?”
“I rather thought it was all just a matter of opinion,” she said. “I mean, here you have one god. Some people say more than one. Some people say there isn’t any god, though how they could possibly believe that and live in this world…” She shook her head. “Do you really think you’re a god?”
“I really am a god.” This was going to get very old very fast if she kept it up. “I’ve been to plenty of places where the people don’t know who I am, but we’re not that far from Greece, where the religion centered around our best-known identities started.”
“Greece?” She frowned. Did she even know where—or what—Greece was? Before I could ask, she changed the subject, confirming my suspicions. “How can you possibly be a god and look so—normal?”
I shrugged. “We can change our appearance at will, and I like blending in, I suppose. Let me prove it to you. Hold out your hand.”
She immediately clasped them behind her back. “If you’re going to show me magic or—something—”
“You’ve already seen what I can do,” I said with a small smile. “I won’t hurt you. The opposite, I promise. Just hold out your hand.”
Tuck eyed me for a long moment, and even though we were in a darkened cell with only a single torch for light, her eyes were as blue as ever. Reluctantly she offered me her palm, and I set my hand over hers. My skin tingled where we touched, and exhaling slowly, I willed the pendant back from nothing. It arrived in her hand, heavy and warm, and she gasped.
“How did you…?” She stared at me, stunned, and without warning, she kissed me on the mouth. “James.”
My entire body grew hot. “It’s nothing,” I mumbled. “Just a trick. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth sooner. It’s sort of…you know. Not something you go around bragging about.”
She snorted, her lips still half an inch in front of mine. “If I were a goddess, I’d
run around the world telling everyone I met. To have that kind of power…”
“It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, you know. I might be powerful, but there are loads of others even more powerful than I am.”
“A frightening thought,” she said with a small, distant smile. “Still, for even a fraction of that…for some sort of control…”
I hesitated. It clearly wasn’t something she wanted to talk about, but I had to know. “Why did you run away?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She made a vague gesture that reminded me all too much of the earl. Her father. “I was trapped here. Never had any freedom. My only friend was my mother, and when she died, I didn’t want to stay here anymore. I didn’t want to be under his thumb. He tried to marry me off, you know, to a neighboring lord. In exchange for land. Land.” She shook her head, as if that were the most insulting, preposterous thing she’d ever heard. “Like he doesn’t have enough of it already. So I ran. Met the others in the village, and the four of us took off together.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Most of us are tied to our lives one way or the other. You’re lucky you had the option of running.”
“We all have the option of running,” she said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not you’re brave enough to do it. It isn’t just running, you know. You have to change yourself completely. Become the person you need to be in order to survive. It isn’t easy, but it has to be done. That’s the only way you can choose your own life, you know?”
I did know, and I nodded, running my fingers through the ends of her tangled hair. Somehow her braid had come undone. “I won’t let anything happen to you or the life you want,” I said quietly. “I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, and she stared at the pendant in her hand, a hint of sadness flashing across her face. “I knew what would happen when I asked you to steal this. Well, actually, I figured the guards would kill you. Sorry.”