I forced myself to open my eyes in the murky realm we pushed through. Lore’s body swum ahead, and I focused on his tail and not the gunk flowing around me. The moon tainted everything under the water a sickly color. I pretended we were swimming in sticky soda fizz rather than stinky ick.
Tails flipped past as fish wriggled around me. My lungs burned. I dared a peek behind me. Charlie pushed through the water, his eyes bulging.
The need for air threatened to launch me into full panic. We should be there by now! A yellow light swelled before us. Out of the corner of my eye, something else grew bigger. White chompers gnashed together. A mutant rat! Claws ripped through the water driving the rat toward dinner. Me!
I swam faster. Could the orb work as a weapon under water? No time to find out! The water crushed me. My boots clung to me like mud. My chest screamed for air. Lore’s body disappeared into the light. The dog dragged me and Charlie out of the water with his teeth. I cracked my ankle on stone. Pain ripped through me as I scrambled up the steps when a snout exploded through the water. Teeth sliced the air. I screamed, jerking my leg away. Charlie lugged me up the steps, scraping me with every inch. Lore stood and yanked down an iron grate anchored in the ceiling. It bashed into the rat’s head before locking into fitted holes in the ground. The beast squealed and swam away.
Shuddering, I sprawled across the steps. The light I’d been swimming toward hadn’t come from any torches but from the rock of this watery dungeon entrance. It glowed yellow with sparkly gold flecks.
Charlie panted next to me, hair plastered in black fingers down his forehead. We both reeked like garbage sitting under a blazing summer sun.
“Your scream was not helpful,” Lore said to me.
“You didn’t tell us giant rats would be in the moat! We have to go back that way?”
“What other monsters can we expect to make friends with, fur ball?” Charlie choked out, as he spit scum from his mouth.
Lore pulled his lips back in a fierce grin. “No time for that.” He thumped us each with a paw, and we followed him up the fluorescent steps. I grew dizzy, and my ankle ached as we wound up a twisty set of stairs and out into a hallway. Flickering torches lined the walls. Lore made a sign to stop. We pressed ourselves up against cold, cracked stone. A cobweb brushed my face. I ripped it away, shivering in my damp clothes.
Foul smells of rotten meat and mold overpowered my own stench. My every sense was on alert waiting for guards to come pounding toward us. Ahead, thick bars covered doorways to cells.
Lore stepped out in the middle of the corridor and padded silently ahead as Charlie and I sneaked behind. I peered into each empty cell we passed, hoping to see my friend Apollo, grating my teeth with each pling of water seeping from the ceiling. Something rustled. A chain clinked. Then a moan had me running toward the closest cell. There in the shadows huddled a lump in a bed of straw.
I clenched the bars. “Sam? I mean … King Apollo?” I whispered, calling him for the first time by his new name as king.
The lump lifted his head. It was him! His pale face and white hair glowed in the torchlight, eyes wide with surprise. He staggered up, chains rattling from an iron ankle cuff hooked into the wall. His royal purple and gold clothes were torn and streaked with dirt. I hardly recognized him through his filth. He stood as tall as me now, and his once skinny figure was now muscled. Time moved faster here than on Earth.
“Joshua!”
“Leandro sent for me and Charlie to get you out.”
He strained at his chains and peered at us. “Charlie?”
“C’est moi! This pooch got us in to rescue you,” Charlie whispered, poking his nose through the grates. “Hey! Boy, did you get big.”
“Leandro’s hound got you here?” Apollo said.
I nodded eagerly.
“Back,” Lore commanded. He muttered a string of words, and the thick iron latch creaked with the spell and slid across the bars. Charlie and I ran in. Lore spoke another rush of words, and the iron cuff fell off Apollo. He gripped my arms, darting his eyes from me to Charlie. “My Earth friends!”
“Let’s get out of here,” I said and quickly explained our plan as Lore paced the dungeon hallway on guard.
As we turned to leave the cell and head back through the rat-infested waters, Lore slid the latch back across the cell with his paw. It locked with a boom.
I rushed to the bars. “What are you doing?”
He smiled, dagger teeth etched in torchlight. Foam frothed at the corners of his mouth as he shook with laughter, sending spit flying across my face. “Whatever my queen says, Reekers.”
“We never should’ve trusted this mutt!” Charlie shook the bars of our cell.
“I trust no one. Why should you?” Lore laughed louder.
He was right. I’d trusted Ash, and she’d trusted this beast. Now we were rat-food—or worse. Time to fix that.
I tugged the lightning orb out of my pocket and hid it in my hand as I moved behind Charlie. Sneaking a peek at the crystal, clouds rolled and lightning flashed inside. The orb glowed blue. Electric shocks raced through my hand. Ancient Olympian power throbbed through my fingertips.
I stepped out fast from behind Charlie and flung the orb between the cell bars at Lore. In a blink, he caught the orb between his teeth and lowered it on the floor. The blue faded, and it returned to clear crystal.
My big weapon was gone.
Lore threw his head back and laughed again. I took the opportunity to try to steal back the orb through the cell grates, but he snapped his teeth. Dank breath burst hot across my face as I snatched my fingers away before they got diced. Charlie and I looked at each other in desperation. Apollo sighed and slumped his shoulders.
I tried remembering the spell Lore used to open the cell to no use.
“Forget it, ignorant Reekers,” Lore said, padding back and forth in the corridor. “It doesn’t work for those inside the cell.” He let loose a great bellow. His howl rose in pitch, alerting our presence to the keepers of the dungeon. Its sound, echoing around the rock walls, sealed us in.
A cool draft struck me. The torches crackled and spit smoke. Feet slammed down on stone, and the clash of metal whacked the air. Charlie and I backed up to the wall in the shadows, but Apollo stood staring pitifully at the floor.
“Mon Dieu, we’re done for,” Charlie whispered.
“Not yet!” We couldn’t fail now that we’d found Apollo. There must be a way out. I cursed myself for not keeping the orb to blow a hole in the rock of our prison. Heavy boots stomped our way, urging me to slide my hands along the damp walls seeking escape, but doom had arrived.
Four guards lined the front of our cell, each with a sword in one hand and a vape snake spear in the other. Chain mail pulled across their chests and they banged their vapes on the floor, the deadly serpent heads hissing at us, ready to strike. Venom goo dripped from their fangs and sizzled on the flagstones. With a collective thrust, the men pointed their swords our way and pierced us with stony stares. A figure pushed through the sentries and bent to pat Lore’s head. “Good dog for guarding my belt. Now let’s see what you’ve caught.”
I gasped, recognizing the voice. The man drew his sword out, pulled the hood back from his cloak, and turned to face us with a scowl on his face. It was my old friend Leandro. His scowl melted to worry.
He looked as shocked to see me as I was to see him.