“The teeth?” Beckett called after me, but it was too late. I was swept up in the current. When I twisted into the whirlpool I caught on the outer row of three sets of teeth. The rushing water pinned me to them. The teeth were arranged in a large circle, row after row of jagged pillars, water billowing around them, each one waiting to catch my skin or cut me in two.
We were in the mouth of Charybdis, a monster of legend. We had been drawn down its fanged gullet. Who knew where the vast tunnel led? Perhaps a stomach filled with acid ready to digest any morsels of food that were swept their way. And right now we were looking like its next meal. Flames wouldn’t work in the rapids, but my sword alone might do what I needed it to.
Beckett swept past me shooting to the other side of the whirlpool before he caught himself on a tooth. “Now what?”
“Hold on!”
“Hold on? Is that all you’ve got?” Beckett rolled his eyes and called a ball of energy to his palm. “I’m going to blow this thing up if you don’t have a better plan.”
I summoned one of my swords to my hand and with the other I clung to the tooth as though it were a lifeline. In truth my plan was no better. The only way we weren’t going to end up as lunch was if we killed the beast. “My plan is to piss it off, then you try to blow it up…while I light it on fire.”
“Yes, let’s just anger the beast who looks at us like we’re crumbs on his dinner plate…Are you insane?” He slammed his fist down into the water as he railed at me.
“Maybe.” I let go and dove to toward the root of the tooth, then let the tide carry me toward the center of the whirlpool. I stabbed my sword as deeply as I could into what could only be described as its gums. Crimson blood mixed with the water creating a cloud I could barely see through. I felt a powerful tremor rippled through the water. The beast was up-heaving!
The direction of the torrent reversed, and I thrashed through the tide back past the rows of teeth. We were going to be free! Then suddenly I went weightless flying through the air along with the water spraying from it’s mouth. Its body thrashed about. I hurdled back up toward its teeth. Wham! My back smacked against one rock-like tooth and pain radiated outward. It shoot up my shoulders and down my legs. The world tilted.
I peered down it’s throat and knew it was just as the Charybdis had been drawn in Blackwing’s textbooks. A giant wormlike creature with unending rows of teeth. Another powerful gush of water propelled me upward. I flew past the teeth and back into open air inside a fine mist of vomited water. I was high, high above the maze, my arms wheeling in the air. Beckett yelling beside me. I saw the serpentine head of Charybdis now, which had risen from its wet nest near the corner of the maze. I had no choice but to let gravity draw me back towards its gnashing head, but I wasn’t going to be lunch for this thing.
I stabbed my sword into its gums, narrowly avoiding its teeth. I gripped the hilt tightly. I now found myself dangling hundreds of feet above the maze, engulfed in the hot breath of the groaning worm. In the distance I thought I spotted a flash of red amongst the green labyrinth, but I was heaved upward, tossed like a rag doll through the air. Beckett lost his grip and began to drop toward the distant hedges.
I forced my wings out of my back. I might not be able to fly over the maze, but I might be able to fly within its constraints. I flapped my wings, dive-bombing toward him. Before his head could smack into one of the walls I caught him around the ankle.
He glanced up at me. “Nothing like waiting until the last second.”
“Now would be a good time to fire!”
Charybdis swung its thick, worm-like body around. Antennaes of all shapes and sizes riddled its dark body. Rows of eyes followed each of my movements like a hawk. When it opened its mouth and lunged toward us I dodged its attempt to make us its snack.
“Sure, piss it off, he says, then we kill it, he says. Did you happen to mention it was a twenty-storey monster who wanted to eat us!” Beckett gathered a ball of light into his hand and fired it at the side of the monster.
It flailed roaring even louder. I swooped down and dropped Beckett on the ground just next to the hedges surrounding the pool. I was far enough away from the monster to be able to see his incredible size. “Keep hitting it.”
“What are you gonna do?” He fired off another energy ball and a chunk of the beast exploded outward, deep red blood pouring from the wound.
I summoned my other sword and forced the flames to run down my arms and across the blades. “I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to run these along a monster’s neck…Time to find out.”
I shot up into the air. When I got to just under its gigantic open mouth I landed on it holding one of the antennae for balance. I reared up and drove my blades straight down piercing its thick hide. When I pumped my wings they propelled me forward as I ran around the beast’s neck, all the while dragging my burning swords, forcing the flames to go well past the length of my swords so they would cut through like blow torches.
My feet slipped in the watery slime coating its reptilian skin, yet I didn’t give up. Instead I relied heavily on my wings to drive me forward. It thrashed wildly, nearly knocking me sideways. Violent waves sloshed up and its mouth opened in a deafening roar. Below, Beckett fought to keep his footing on the ledge next to the pool. The fierce tide swirled over it rising to his knees as he threw one burning blue energy ball after another.
When I reached my starting point connecting my cut straight around his neck I expected his head would slide right off. I flipped backward, landing beside Beckett. He pushed the soaking hair from his face. “Was that supposed to work?”
Rivets of crimson ran down from the incision. I tilted my head studying the monster. “As many energy balls as you can to the right side of his head, now!”
Beckett didn’t hesitate. He fired in rapid succession, one ball after another. I followed up with my own fireballs alongside Beckett. Explosions of brightest fire-reds and deep magical blues fanned out like fireworks. In sudden silence, Charybdis stilled, holding its body straight up in the air towing over us. Then its head shifted to the side sliding free over its body. Blood and slime clung to the two pieces as they began to tumble toward the river.
Beckett and I shared a single panicked look a moment before the body crashed into the river and caused a tidal wave that swept us up and carried us further into the ever-shifting maze.