Sweat ran down my neck, making my back itch and the disgusting lotion that Cain had made us slick over our skin looked like congealed fat and smelt revolting. It was thick and sticky and uncomfortable too but it was that or sizzle like a rasher of bacon when we crossed the bridge so we'd applied it with care.
I wiped my face with my hand and rubbed my wet palm on my trousers with a grimace. Kneeling down, I checked my boot laces were tightly done up - again - and tried not to notice my heart beating in my throat as I awaited Cain's signal.
I saw him move out, the lone figure looking far too fragile and vulnerable against the vast fiery backdrop and the massive trolls that were guarding the river and the bridge. Vulnerable wasn't a word that could ever be applied to Cain, though, and one after another I saw the trolls drop to the floor, their lumbering bodies crashing to the ground with a billow of yellow dust.
As predicted the fall of their comrades attracted the attention of the trolls further down the river in both directions and they came thundering towards Cain with surprising speed, despite their bulk. Their wide mouths were open with fury, stumpy broken teeth bared like ancient gravestones as they howled with rage. I waited until they passed me and then ran out behind them. The air spell was too simple, it simply plucked the oxygen from their lungs and down they went, toppling like great, ugly ninepins and rolling down the river bank where the molten flow slipped over their bodies like they'd never been. I felt a moment's guilt at having swatted them like flies, until I turned and saw six more thundering down the path towards me.
“Come on!” Cain's voice was urgent, and I saw Inés running in his wake with a dozen more trolls in pursuit from the other direction. Shit.
We ran flat out for the bridge and felt my feet slide from under me as I put a foot on the shiny surface. For the second time that day I fell hard on my arse and wailed in pain as searing heat burned me through Cain's lotion and the fireproof spells Inés had cast on our clothes and boots. The spells may have stopped the damage but that didn't mean it didn't fucking hurt. Cain ignored my pain, grabbed my arms and yanked me to my feet, towing me in his wake as we ran, the three of us slipping as though it was ice beneath our feet as our boots sizzled on the scorching surface.
“Keep going!” Cain screamed as we started to descend, and he turned to attack the front runners who were crossing the bridge with no apparent difficulty as their thick, hippo grey hides seemed impervious to heat. Inés and I kept moving, confident that he could catch us up. I turned briefly to see three trolls fall one after the other as those behind crashed on top of the bodies and jammed up the bridge so nothing could pass.
Moments later and Cain was behind us. “Down there,” he yelled, gesturing ahead to a passage that led between high jagged rocks, the tops lost in the thick coiling smoke that hung low in the sky. The path was narrow and twisting and full of snarling creatures with wild eyes and matted hair, their skin was burned and blistered, running with open sores and they lashed out at us as we passed, snatching at our packs and anything they could grab hold of.
One lunged for Cain, his scrawny body no match for my brother but the madness in his expression as he leapt was not to be underestimated. Cain dodged and his attacker stumbled, too slow to avoid the fatal kick to the head that sent him crashing into the wall. I pushed away the thought that Corvus was like this now, a snarling, unthinking creature that would likely attack us on sight. No matter how many times Cain had warned me, I still held out some stubborn, irrational shred of hope that he was wrong, that Corvus would have survived. I turned at the sound of agonised screaming to see three of the poor wretches burning like torches as they'd assumed Inés was an easy target. She hit each of them with a second, stronger spell that left nothing but ashes and put them out of their misery - at least until the next morning when they'd be reborn to this hellish place all over again. I wondered how many of them deserved their punishment and how many, like Corvus, had just got in the way of a vengeful god.
We pushed on as two pterodactyls fell on the body that Cain had provided them with and I looked away in revolt as their sharp beaks tore at the flesh and snapped at each other. Turning a corner I ran straight into Cain as he leapt backwards just in time to avoid a jet of flame that stabbed upwards like a white hot spear from a crack in the ground. Unbalanced by me, Cain missed his footing and went down, landing on top of me and knocking the air from my lungs as I hit the floor with his massive weight slamming down on me.
“Merde!” Inés screamed, and I could hear the panic in her voice. “Get up, get up, get up!” Cain lurched to his feet, but I couldn't catch my breath and the twin panic of not being able to breath and whatever it was that Inés was freaking out over had me frozen in place.
I glanced at Cain and saw his eyebrows lift in surprise. This was pretty much the equivalent of Cain shouting, Fuck me, would you look at that, so I decided breathing wasn't so important and tried to shift myself but my limbs didn't seem to understand the urgency. My movements were sluggish and Cain obviously decided we didn't have time to wait for them to catch up as he hauled me to my feet and threw me over his shoulder. I was momentarily grateful, despite the indignity of it, until I realised I had a front row seat of just what was chasing us.
The air seemed to return to my lungs in a rush as screaming suddenly seemed a priority. “Fuck!”
“I know!” Cain shouted as he turned a corner and dropped me to the ground, reaching for one of the potion vials at his waist. Inés and I tried to cover him with a volley of fire spells as the giantess marched forward. She towered over us, her eyes full of hatred and a clear desire to see us suffer. The dress that clung to her massive frame was ragged and seemed to be dripping blood, our blazing spells extinguishing against the sticky, sodden material with a pathetic hiss as she left a bloody trail in her wake. She laughed at our efforts and cracked the whip in her hand - except it wasn't a whip. The massive, red snake lashed out, faster than we could track and instinctively I scrambled back but Cain stood firm and lanced the vial in her face. The tiny bottle exploded on contact and she screamed, scratching at her eyes as her skin began to bubble and froth, but I didn't give a shit about her as I saw my brother crumple to the floor.
The snake had bitten him on the leg. Two perfect, round holes were visible in the fabric of his army style trousers, and I watched in horror as he grabbed for his knife with hands that trembled and slashed at the material.
I swallowed, refusing to give into the panic that was clawing at my throat. I would not be losing my brother here. “What can I do?” I demanded.
“Antidote,” Inés yelled. “Where is it?”
“Pack,” Cain muttered, his face white with pain as he drew the blade over his thigh. Blood dripped freely from the deep wound he'd cut as well as a thick green substance that burned his skin as it made contact. I wiped it away as fast as I could while Inés ransacked his pack, cursing under her breath.
“Hurry!” I screamed as Cain's eyes rolled up in his head and his body began to jerk. Inés turned, wielding the biggest needle I had ever seen in my life and slammed in into his chest. Cain arced beneath the force of it, his body rigid, face contorted with agony before all the tension went out of him, and he collapsed.
I stared at Inés, grabbing her arm, too terrified to form words and she patted my hand slumping back against the rocks and shivering. “He's OK,” she managed, and I felt like my heart might have started beating again.
We just sat there, filthy, trembling and terrified with the body of the giantess dissolving and decomposing with soft hisses and bubbles behind us, and Cain out cold on the floor. To my right I saw shadows creeping in our direction and anger sent the flames rushing to my finger tips as I sent a volley of fire spells towards them. I heard desperate screaming and then everything went quiet again.
I figured we'd been in Tartarus maybe a couple of hours by now. That was all. I was at the edge of my sanity and shaking with fear, and it had only been a couple of hours. The idea sank in, and I blinked away tears.
Cain groaned as he regained consciousness, rubbing at his chest as he hauled himself upright. Inés had stirred herself and was getting a small vial of green powder from her own pack that I recognised was for healing scars. Cain raised an eyebrow at her.
“You're having a laugh aren't you?” He leaned back against the wall with a grimace. “Think it's a bit late in the day for beauty treatments.”
Inés rolled her eyes at me. “Alors, it will also close the wound and stop you bleeding out. Does that satisfy your macho ego?”
Cain snorted and then winced, clutching at his chest again. “Whatever.”
I watched as Inés sprinkled the powder over the wound and it closed over. There was a faint pink line but no scar from the cut, though the two holes from the snake bite remained to add to his collection.
“New map,” he demanded, waving his hand at me. I nodded and got to work. Not that there was much to draw, I'd have to stop and keep checking now to keep us on track.
Inés handed us out a small bottle each before we got moving again. It tasted foul but it was like no energy drink I'd ever had before, and I felt instantly more alert. I figured it was just as well as we moved on, further into the dark, forbidding depths of Tartarus.
***
“Close up!” Cain yelled to Inés as the creatures started to move forward again. I glanced up, movement above us catching my eye.
“Cain!”
He turned to me and looked up as I gestured but too late as the creature jumped him from above. There was nothing I could do, my hands fully occupied by the dozens of condemned souls who had decided we looked like lunch or at least an entertaining break from monotony.
I saw the creature hanging from Cain's neck, filthy fingernails scoring his skin while it bared rotten, yellow teeth, snapping millimeters from my brother's skin. A moment later there was a sharp crack, audible even in the madness around us and the creature fell to the floor in a heap.
“Fall back!”
We didn't need telling twice as Cain reached for a vial and we threw ourselves away from him as he lobbed it into the oncoming hoard. There was an explosion, and I covered my head, trying to convince myself that it was rubble falling around us despite the fact that it was warm and wet and sticky.
“Come on.” Cain tugged at my arm, pulling me forwards, and I followed him blindly, aware of Inés close beside us. We turned a corner and for a brief moment we appeared to be alone. “Map,” Cain said, his voice hoarse from shouting orders above the din of this vile place. I was about to do as he asked when a crack slithered in front of us, parting the ground and as one we scrambled out of the way just in time to avoid the blast of flame that leapt through the gap and licked the skies above us.
With shaking hands I got out paper and pen and the crystal once more. We were all exhausted. We'd had to fight every inch of the way so far and our weapon supplies were being fast depleted, not to mention our energy. Inés passed us another bottle of the tonic she'd made.
“Last one,” she warned and we nodded at her.
I downed the contents, making sure I'd got every drop, before picking up the crystal. I gasped as it hit the paper and met Cain's eyes.
“OK, then,” he said. “You both know what to do?”
We nodded, and he turned his attention to me.
“Jéhenne,” he said, his voice hard though I knew he was just concerned for our safety. “Don't be distracted. There is no time for sentiment here. We tackle him, we get him under control, we move out.” He watched me, waiting for my reaction.
“I know.” I kept my face and voice as impassive as I could but inside I was a wreck. Terror, hope and a desperate longing fought with survival and good sense as I held myself in place and tried not to give in to the urgent desire to run down the path and throw myself at the man who was just around the next corner.
“If you want him back, you have to do as we planned, Jéhenne. No deviation from the plan, no sympathy, no tearful reunion or you'll get us all killed.” His voice was harsh now, and I blinked hard as my eyes prickled.
“I said I got it, didn't I?” I replied, my fists clenched, furious now that he still doubted me.
His eyes held mine for a moment before he turned away. “Come on then, let's go get him.”
We turned the corner and my breath caught in my throat.
He was huddled against the rock. It was a dead end, and he was pressed into the corner, almost out of sight. He was in the same state as all the others we'd seen. His skin was black and filthy, blistered from the heat and with open, weeping sores. The thick blond hair that I had loved to tangle my fingers in was matted and dark with dirt and his body had lost the heavy muscle that had made him such an imposing figure. He was little more than skin and bone, so far removed from the man I had loved that it was impossible to believe it was truly him but when his blue eyes looked up and found mine I knew without a doubt - I'd found him.
For a fraction of a second time seemed to stop and we stared at each other while my heart thudded in my throat, blood rushing in my ears. And then he moved.
He scrambled to his feet, body low as he waited for our attack, snarling at us with lips drawn back over his teeth but his eyes were wide with fear and a fierce determination to stay alive. For just a moment, despite everything, despite Cain's lectures, despite everything I knew I had to do ... I wanted to cry and drop to my knees, to beg him to remember me. Instead I reacted the moment that Cain yelled, “Now!” And we hit him with the spells we'd prepared.
He dropped like a stone and Cain rushed over to him, binding his hands. It was easy to control him for now. Dis Pater had stripped him of his powers when he entered Tartarus. Here he was just a man, starving and crazed and with no powers to match ours. The moment we crossed the threshold back to our world though, his powers would return to him. We had to get everything right or a lot of people would die.
I ran to him and pulled his head into my lap, cradling it gently and stroking his face as tears rolled down my face. I didn't care what Cain said, he was busy securing him, and I needed this moment. I'd dreamed of this moment, and the reality of it was breaking my heart.
“Come on, Nina,” Cain said, not unkindly. I wiped my eyes and nodded, touching Corvus with the spell that would awaken him. He wouldn't be able to speak or resist us. He'd be docile enough for us to control him as we made our way back to the gates of Tartarus.
Cain wrestled him to his feet and Corvus watched us with wide, fearful eyes as he realised he was helpless and couldn't run or fight us.
“Right then,” Cain said to him. “Time to get you home.”