Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 05

Perseus did the same, and strapped on armor with speed and efficiency. His face looked like it belonged on a farmer boy, not a warrior, but the ease and familiarity he showed when donning his battle clothes was telling. And it was impressive armor at that, gold and black. It looked like typical hoplite armor, but just as Bellerophon's armor was something magical, so too must have been Perseus's. Something crafted with the power of the Fates, like her bow, quiver, and arrows.

All gifts from their leader. Otrera frowned at the great bow as she lifted it, its white body, its gold string. The quiver looked of regular leather, but along its body was more of the gold threads that marked Perseus's armor as well. And within, the arrow tips were white, large, and they shined with an unreal polish. She felt like they were warriors sent by the gods themselves. The thought made her chuckle, and she slung the bow and quiver onto her back.

"So what's the plan?" she said.

"Andromeda thinks Bellerophontes can track us, or her baubles." He pulled out a necklace, and handed it to her, a copy of the one that Bellerophontes had stolen. "Andromeda's magic hides us here in the secret garden, but it isn't perfect. We go where they can find us more easily, away from here. And we make sure where they find us will serve to our advantage."

Otrera slipped the necklace on. Just a rock on a stone, but it glowed when she touched it before it settled into quiet darkness once again.

"Advantage?"

"Andromeda will summon for us reinforcements," Perseus said. "We'll pretend like we're performing a ritual, and that Bellerophontes has found us, interrupting our dastardly plot." He laughed, a warm and gentle sound. "Won't that be enjoyable? A fake ritual. We'll play the part of thwarted villains, and then Andromeda will cast her magic. Soldiers from the nether will come to our aid."

"The nether..." Well, she had to hand it to Perseus, he bought into Andromeda's style and words through and through. "Alright. But that doesn't change the fact they have Medusa with them. She can turn people to stone with her gaze. Any idea how we're supposed to fight that?"

"You won't. I will." He gestured, and she followed. A moment later, they were by Andromeda's favorite boulder; the sorceress was nowhere to be found. But against the rock, a giant shield was laid. Gold, with black drawings on its face. The drawings Otrera did not recognize, but they spiraled inward to the center of the massive, round shield, like two whirlpools, or chaotic eyes.

And then Perseus picked it up. He slipped it onto his arm, and guarded the front of himself with it for Otrera. The damn thing was as tall as the Amazon! She could probably lift it, maybe even wear it, but it was too damn big for her to be able to use. Perseus though, he was a tall, broad-shouldered man, and he held the shield like a Spartan.

"This will stop Athena's power, even that bestowed on Medusa."

"I see... so you'll deal with Medusa, I'll deal with Bellerophontes?"

"Of course." He set the gargantuan thing back down, and smiled at her. "Andromeda gave you her word, didn't she?"

"Then who's dealing with the giant? I wasn't kidding when I said he was a giant! An actual, real giant. He—"

"He is the reason we're laying the trap where we are."

"Which is?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A volcano!?"

The island before them rose high as a mountain. Black soot covered the ground, the rocks and the air. Heat lingered, danced in the distance, and blurred her vision.

"A volcano." Perseus looked over his shoulder at her, smiled his typical perfect smile, and kicked his heels into the horse's sides. Pegasus neighed, and lowered down onto the beach.

Poor horse. She couldn't deny the sad look in his eyes, and while she tried to remind herself Pegasus worked with Bellerophontes, and was the reason her enemy had become the famous man he was today, she still felt bad. He was a beautiful horse, and he looked at her with heavy, dark, deep eyes.

She patted him on the back when she hopped off him. It was wholly inadequate. Then she remembered Bellerophontes, and how the bastard had apologized to her before running off. Did Pegasus feel the same now, as she did then? Furious to the point of delirium?

As she walked up the valley of ash, toward the black mountain, Pegasus and Perseus leading her, her thoughts drifted to the small bastard who ruined her life. He apologized to her. Apologized. Apologized! She couldn't see much of his face then, helmet and all, but she caught a glimmer of his eyes. And the sadness she found in them was seared into her mind.

He didn't get to feel sad, he didn't get to feel sorry. He butchered her whole clan, slaughtered them like cattle, slaughtered her! Fire raced up her fingers into her head, until the volcano seemed a pale comparison. She'd been left alone, surrounded by dead sisters, and a hole cut through her shoulder. Had he ever felt such misery?

"Andromeda..."

"Mmm?" Perseus said.

"Andromeda, she came and rescued me from death, after Bellero... after the incident. Used her magic, healed my wounds. But she never told me why."

Perseus raised a brow, and tugged on Pegasus's reigns when he stopped, so the winged horse stopped beside him.

"Why she saved you? Surely she told you we had need of a skilled warrior, and one who can understand Andromeda's mission."

Otrera shook her head. "I understand why she saved me, but not why she was there. Maybe the better question is how. How did she know to be there?"

Perseus nodded, and resumed walking them toward the black mountain. Orange mixed into the blurring air, far in the distance, but even from so far, the Amazon could feel the heat pouring outward.

"She was looking for recruits. She still is. She—"

"Her powers, Perseus. How did she come to be a sorceress? She can see things from miles away, she can heal wounds, levitate things, call on storms, and she somehow even managed to steal from the Fates. She can even use that mask! That mask is... she can harness it. How can she do all these things?"

Well, it was bound to come out sooner or later. So much for serving her leader with faith.

Perseus didn't seem bothered though. He shrugged, adjusted the pack on his back, and started walking toward the volcano again, pulling Pegasus along by the reigns.

"I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you. Andromeda doesn't like to talk about it, but it's not a secret. She's the daughter of the king of Aethiopia, so she was privileged, and had access to knowledge; talked with various scholars who came and went through the kingdom. She's never told me the details, but met some people, found some ancient texts, did a lot of reading, and... does it matter?"

Andromeda was royalty? She said she hated Aethiopia, but Otrera had no idea the sorceress was royalty there.

"Of course it matters!" She jogged up to the idiot man and walked next to him. "I'm dedicating the last shred of life I have left to this woman. I have nothing, and no one. My tribe is gone, my life is cursed, and the only way I can ever force Ares to look my way once, just once in my miserable life, is her help. And I... I didn't know what I was agreeing to, when I said I'd accept the gift of being a Fate's Child."

Perseus shrugged yet again. "I love her. She loves me. Wherever she goes, I'll follow."

Otrera almost vomited in her mouth. Such blind devotion; it reminded her of Proetus. The things idiot men would do for love.

"And that mask," she said, "how did she get that mask? It..." It talks. Something's inside.

"The Fates aren't immutable. She drew their eyes, distracted them, and sneaked into their realm on Pegasus's wings with her magic."

"Distracted them?"

"Yes. A war draws their attention like nothing else."

"She caused a war?" Oh, great, more bloodshed. She was an Amazon, not a murderer. She wanted wars with meaning, value, for conquest and belief. Not to spill blood for blood's sake.

Perseus frowned. "The city states argue over everything, Amazon Queen. All she did was place a tiny seed of desire in their midst. And they slaughtered each other over it, as they did the decade before, and the decade before."

"... she caused the last war between Athens and Sparta?"

"She did, with only a rumor and a drop of magic." As if that made it all good and well, Perseus nodded to himself, smiled his perfect smile, and walked toward the mountain.

Otrera was not so convinced. The Athens Sparta war was a grand tale of jealousy and hatred. It wasn't a good war, it was a slaughter. Another one to Andromeda's name. The more she learned of the sorceress, the more her gut sank.

Soon, the three of them were walking past rivers of lava. She'd never seen lava, only heard it described. The descriptions did not do it justice. Like flowing, thick honey, but glowing red like the eyes of a god. Against the black of the earth, it looked like the mountain was bleeding. And it was hot! So hot, she couldn't even approach it. The heat came off it in waves, blinded her, and forced her to raise her shield to keep it from hitting her face. Even Perseus did the same.

But there was a cave. Against a harsh slope of the black mountain, a mouth of rock opened up and welcomed them into more darkness. And thank the gods it did. Whatever strange rock the cave was made of, it blocked the heat of the lava enough that its depths welcomed them with warm air, instead of scorching heat.

Perseus lit a torch, and carried on. The cave was tall, wide, its insides polished and its depths carved into huge rooms. This used to be someone's home, someone very tall.

"... a giant's home?" she said.

"Yes. That Chimera fellow is in for quite the surprise."

They stopped in what much have been some sort of war room. The walls were decorated with carvings of creatures, of places, of land and sea and gods and teeth. But it was the skeletons that drew her attention. The skeletons of giants, bones thick, bodies tall, each of them standing against the walls, defiant against the ages and weight alike. How did they not crumble, or at least collapse?

Perseus grinned at the colossal dead, and then the same to her. "You are in for a surprise as well, dear Amazon."