CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE

The Gates of the Damned, Part 2

In his rush to rescue their teammate who was being chased by what they assumed were the city guards, Sam had forgotten a very important problem; he was still cursed with the Mark of Hector, and the dead were all around him now.

His meeting with Achilles had made Sam complacent because the shade of the ancient hero hadn’t attacked him when they’d met. He didn’t realize until now that Achilles must have been a special case—a strong spirit that could ignore the curse Hades placed on Sam—while every other shade in his immediate vicinity snapped their heads in his direction so that he was suddenly beset by hungry gazes.

“Oh, crap…” Sam pressed the node to the left of his belt buckle and summoned Gram into his hand. “Why’s the damn mark acting out now of all times?!”

Luckily for Sam, the shades surrounding him were unlike the phantoms or revenants of a typical haunted zone. Their touch barely cooled his flesh, and they lacked the hatred and corruption that made phantoms so determined to steal the lifeforce of the living. Still, with enough skeletal hands grasping at him, Sam was beginning to feel a slight drain to his health that he knew would become a problem later on.

“Get out of my way!” Sam swung Gram in an arc hoping its magical properties would keep the shades away. He’d read somewhere that the dead hated the touch of blessed steel and gold which is what his weapon was made of. “A little help here?”

An explosion of shadowy hands springing forth from the ground tied down the shades too stubborn to shy away from Gram’s touch, making Sam grateful for the companion who just arrived at his side.

“Why are they after you?” Raven Knight asked.

“Long story.” Sam waded forward while holding his sword aloft like a torch warding off the shadows. “Tell you later.”

They could see a wall of ice explode out of the ground about fifty yards ahead, with Ice Brand clinging to its top half to avoid his pursuers.

“Are those…?” Sam began, to which Raven Knight replied, “They’re spartoi…”

Half a dozen soldiers appeared into view, with all of them decked in Greek-style armor similar to the antique Apollonian breastplate Sam used to wear. They were armed to the teeth; swords, spears, and shields, all sporting the same jagged bone design of the weapons that Sam and Jackboot had become very familiar with a while back.

“I thought spartoi served Aries… why are these guys in the underworld?” he asked.

“Have you noticed how their bones are all blackened?” Raven Knight pointed out this glaring difference between these new enemies and the ones Sam fought on the Golden Gate Bridge.

The spartoi’s narrow faces were bone-black and looked to be a cross between human and lizard; blackened scales around high cheekbones, bulging eyes, and noses that were little more than a pair of slits.

“These are a special breed—a detachment of undead warriors cultivated only in Hades by the god of the underworld and his minions,” Raven Knight explained.

Sam glanced sideways at his companion with admiration. “You’ve researched this place a lot, huh?”

“I never go anywhere without knowing what I’m walking into… at least until Medusa’s lair,” she replied begrudgingly.

She pulled out a black canister from her utility belt and lobbed it over the heads of the shades in front of them. It landed ten yards away and then exploded into a shower of sparks and vapor that caused a cluster of shades to disappear as if they had just been swept away by a strong gust of wind. Seeing this happen, the nearby crowd of recently dead dispersed everywhere except where Sam and Raven Knight stood. They gave those two a wide berth.

Sam looked aghast. “Did you just… kill them?”

“You can’t kill the dead,” Raven Knight stated flatly. “I just made their forms dissipate for a while with the help of a salt grenade.”

Salt is an ideal ingredient in warding off spirits. Mixing it into an explosive device for wide-range dispersal is an ingenious idea.

“Will they reform?” Sam asked as he followed after Raven Knight.

“Most shades will reform in minutes, but the stubborn ones will only take—”

A shade reappeared right in front of Raven Knight. It gave her a reproachful look just before she stabbed it with her rapier, causing the pitiful ghost to disappear once again.

“Coated my blade with a salt paste to increase its utility against the dead,” she stated matter-of-factly.

It was so reminiscent of Farsight’s nonchalant explanations that Sam couldn’t help but smile. “Of course, you did.”

It turned out that Ice Brand wasn’t alone in fleeing the city gates. Four hooded figures in scarlet cloaks were running ahead of him while he protected them from the spartoi with his wall of ice. And, with Raven Knight’s scare tactic clearing the way for them, they ran straight toward the two heroes without anyone trying to stop them. It seemed like they were about to pass by without causing trouble, but then Raven Knight jumped in front of the lead runner with her rapier drawn, but not pointed at them.

Sam wasn’t sure why she’d chosen to get in their way, but he couldn’t let them gang up on her so he followed after Raven Knight with his sword still drawn but lowered to suggest he wasn’t itching for a fight. Little good that tactic did either of them as the second closest hooded figure—the shorter and thinner of the two leads—drew a black-edged gladius from the barely-seen sheathe around its waist and lunged for Sam, while its companion clashed steel with Raven Knight.

Blades whistled in the air while sparks flew as Raven Knight’s rapier traded blows with the lead hooded figure’s gladius. Meanwhile, Sam was trying to avoid clashing steel with his opponent, opting instead to duck away from its assault.

“We don’t have to fight!” Sam protested.

His opponent wasn’t listening to him though. It had already swung its gladius down on Sam’s head, and he was forced to parry it with Gram’s blade.

“I’m not a bad guy!” Sam reasoned to deaf ears.

A flurry of sword clashes began, with Sam barely getting a word out because he was too busy parrying his opponent’s expert use of a sword that was shorter than his. Its strength was lacking compared to Sam’s though, and it didn’t take long for him to overwhelm his enemy with swings that could push back even a boar-type horror that was known for its strong defense.

“Stop!” Sam finally had room to yell. “We’re friends with the white-haired guy who was helping you!”

The hooded figure paused, and that’s when Sam caught a glimpse of what lay under the hood; an olive brow with pale blue eyes and strands of dark curly hair. Underneath its fluttering cloak, Sam saw a lithe feminine form that seemed used to a hard day’s labor. What surprised him the most, however, was how this person’s body was solid, suggesting that she was more like Achilles than the semi-corporeal forms like the shades around the canyon entrance.

“Quit it!” came a familiar cry.

Sam looked up and found Ice Brand sliding down his ice wall while waving excitedly at them.

“They’re my friends!” Ice Brand yelled.

At Ice Brand’s declaration, the four combatants lowered their weapons. Meanwhile, the last two members of the hooded figures’ group ran past Sam without giving him a second thought. The first of them was a short dwarf-like figure with a rotund shape around the belly. This person was carrying a duffel bag over their shoulders. As they passed him, Sam could smell the scent of dried meat wafting out of the bag. The last of the hooded figures, a tall broad-shouldered being with a slight limp, was carrying a bundle in his arms that made Sam’s gut clench.

Two children, their faces pale and matted with dirt, clung to the man carrying them. These children looked far too young to be dead too, but they must have been or they wouldn’t be in the underworld. Even worse, each of the children had broken manacles around their wrists.

“Holy Zeus…”

“That is not a name you hear often in Hades,” whispered the female hooded figure Sam had been fighting. “You are not from around here.”

“No, we’re not,” Sam said while he stared at the broad-shouldered figure’s retreating back. One of the children was looking up from his shoulder, its sad eyes locking with Sam’s. “What’s going on here?”

“I can… explain… that,” Ice Brand huffed as he finally reached them.

“No time,” said the hooded figure who’d attacked Raven Knight.

To Sam’s surprise, his was a voice Sam thought he’d heard before. Although he couldn’t quite place where, and there was no time to think about it now because the spartoi that chased after Ice Brand were already within spear-throwing distance of their group.

The first figure passed Sam, stopped, and said, “Come with us if you want to live.”