CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-EIGHT

The Gates of the Damned, Part 1

“Are you alright?” Raven Knight asked.

“I should be asking you that,” Sam replied.

They had just escaped Medusa’s temple on the Ceryneian Hind’s back while the ancient horror looked on from the shadows of its entryway with an angry scream spilling forth from her monstrous mouth.

She had tried and failed to stop their escape with a tail strike that whipped across Sam’s face and left his left cheek bruised and bloodied. Despite her violent attack, Sam had resisted the urge to fall off his mount with a combination of pure grit and the Ceryneian Hind’s remarkable ability to keep its rider from falling off no matter what.

Quick as a pegasus, the hind had brought them out of that horrible basement, up the temple proper, and out into what construed as fresh air for the underworld. Now, they were free and safe from Medusa’s reach, which was lucky, as the ancient gorgon’s eyeballs were already healing from Sam’s last attack.

“You were half-petrified when I found you,” Sam reminded Raven Knight. “Why was that?”

“It was my mission,” Raven Knight answered.

Sam frowned. “Um, we just got here. How’d you get a mission so fast?”

There was a pause of confusion between them before Raven Knight’s reply, “I’ve been here for at least a day and a half.”

“Wait… what?”

Raven Knight explained that she and Ice Brand had fallen into Hades at around the same time yesterday, but none of the others arrived with them.

“We were next to jump into the portal after you so I assumed that you would have been here longer than me.”

“But… I just got here…”

Sam recalled that unnerving trip through the black hole and his quick reunion with that annoying giant’s voice in the abyss before he arrived in Hades.

“Sonofa…”

Triple-A would agree with Sam that the elder giant might have screwed with his journey enough to make it plausible for him to arrive later than the other Argo VII crew members.

“I hate that bastard father of mountains…”

“Who?”

“Nothing… so, you were saying something about a mission?”

The Ceryneian Hind was remarkably attuned to its riders’ needs so that it slowed down to allow them to talk without howling winds or uneven ground interrupting their conversation. This is how Sam learned that both Raven Knight and Ice Brand had found themselves close to the City of the Dead—not to be confused with Elysium—which was under the rule of King Minos, one of the three judges of the underworld.

“The guards at the gates refused to let us enter without proving our qualifications as heroes… That’s the only way a living person can enter the city, apparently,” Raven Knight further explained. “They gave us each a mission, and mine was to retrieve a token that the ferryman lost in his ex’s temple.”

“And that led you to Medusa’s lair?” Sam asked, although in his mind he was also wondering if Medusa was the ‘ex’ that the guards mentioned. That thought made him want to barf.

“I didn’t know it would be a gorgon’s temple until I saw it up close…” Sam could hear the irritation in Raven Knight’s voice. “Still, stealth missions are my specialty… I didn’t think she’d be able to see me while I shadow walked or be able to disrupt the ability physically if she did notice.”

“It’s lucky I stumbled my way to that temple then…”

There was another pause before Raven Knight replied, “It’s a strange coincidence…”

Deep down, Sam wondered if it hadn’t just been a coincidence but something more that allowed him to rescue his newest teammate especially since he’d been looking for Farsight and not Raven Knight. He hoped it was the latter. It was one of those rare instances where Sam didn’t mind the gods’ intervening in his activities.

“It’s too bad we couldn’t defeat Medusa ourselves,” Raven Knight stated. “The rewards would have been interesting.”

“Um, I’m just happy we got out of there alive,” Sam chuckled awkwardly.

A thought passed through his mind that made his brow furrow slightly.

“Oh, yeah, what about Ice Brand? He wasn’t at the temple too, was he?”

“He was given a different mission. But I expect it was equally difficult as the one they gave me.”

“I hope he’s okay… we’re going to need him. We’re going to need everyone alive before this adventure’s done.”

They would continue their ride across dead earth and patches of red grass with Sam fidgeting uncomfortably in the front seat while Raven Knight’s arms wrapped around his waist. Luckily, with her being behind him, she couldn’t see him blush. After about an hour of riding across the underworld’s vast plain, the Ceryneian Hind returned to the eastern bank of the River Styx where it dropped Sam and Raven Knight off. Unfortunately, the divine power that sustained Sam’s summon was weak in Hades and the time the Ceryneian Hind could stay by his side was limited while he was in the underworld.

“It’s okay.” He patted the hind’s neck while it was slowly disappearing beside him. “I’ll call on you again later. So, you get a good long rest.”

The Ceryneian Hind’s muzzle caressed Sam’s cheek.

“Thanks for saving us back at the temple,” he said.

As the hind disappeared from the underworld, Sam noticed that Raven Knight was gazing at him with curiosity alight in her eyes.

“What?” he asked.

“You’re different from the rumors,” she stated after a bit more scrutiny.

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Maybe.” She turned around and began walking in what Sam assumed was a southern direction. “Come on. It’s a long trek to the City of the Dead.”

She was right. It took them more than two hours of walking alongside the River Styx—with whispers of broken promises and unfulfilled oaths for background music—before Sam caught sight of a structure in the near distance.

They hadn’t met anyone living or dead along the way, and that worried Sam because he didn’t think Achilles was the only shade roaming the underworld’s wasteland. He mentioned this to Raven Knight as they drew closer to the city gates, and she explained that only a powerful shade—a legendary hero like Achilles—could live outside the few habitable sanctuaries in Hades without meeting gruesome ends to the various horrors that live in the barrens.

“My research on the land of the dead found three points of interest; Elysium, the Asphodel Meadows, and the City of the Dead,” Raven Knight enumerated.

Sam’s eyebrow rose a little. “You’ve researched the underworld?”

“It’s the proper thing to do before visiting a dangerous place, isn’t it,” she stated. “Didn’t you do the same?”

“Y-yes,” Sam lied.

He didn’t do any research at all, which he rationalized by stating in his mind that he had Triple-A for all the background stuff.

As the creator would say… Lesson number seven: Be prepared! Preparation is key to your survival. Whether it’s your suit or your consumables, make sure you’ve got everything ready for the fight ahead because it just might save your life.

I know, I know… Sam sighed. But it’s not like there’s a lot of factual material about the underworld that I could find on the surface that wouldn’t already be in your database.

Triple-A made a strange whirring sound in Sam’s head that he could have sworn sounded very much like a sigh. Or it might have been a negative-sounding neigh. Chiron’s influence, no doubt. Something strange and underworldly drove his retort from his mind though, and Sam was left speechless and wide-eyed at the sight ahead of him.

A good hundred yards away was a towering rocky surface much like a canyon they’d passed by on their way to Death Valley back before they’d jumped into Medea’s black hole. Separating this wall right in the middle were two thirty-foot iron front gates. A long queue of shades was gathered around those gates waiting to enter the city. It was a line that stretched out to where Sam and Raven Knight hung back, with the tail end of the line turning curious gazes at the two people who’d just arrived.

“They can sense that we’re not dead,” Sam realized.

“Yes,” Raven Knight replied.

“That’s not good, right?”

“Don’t worry.” Raven Knight’s hand reached out for Sam’s. “I told you. Stealth is my specialty.”

When her fingers wrapped around his, Sam felt a cold sensation begin to cover his hand. This strange chill spread upward to his arm, drawing his gaze down on it.

“Holy…”

“This will help keep them from noticing that we’re not dead,” she explained.

A layer of shadow enveloped Sam like a cloak that fizzled along the hemline. It didn’t just feel cool either. He thought it looked cool too. And he said as much while they joined the queue of shades making their way to the city’s front gates.

“Don’t use your gift or make any sudden moves,” Raven Knight instructed. “The slightest disruption to its flow will cancel the Shadow Cloak’s abilities.”

Her instructions would be impossible to follow as it turned out because that’s when they both noticed a figure running away from the city’s gates. This figure stood out because he looked nothing like the gray-toned shades milling around the canyon entrance. He was tall, with fluffy white hair, and a light gray coat that swept behind him as he ran. They recognized him instantly, although they had never seen him looking so panicked before.

“Godsdamn…” Sam pushed past the crowd while Raven Knight’s cloak fell off him. “Let’s go help Ice Brand.”