Will had fallen asleep after they'd started riding, and Jason had had to wrap his arms around Will's waist to make sure he didn't fall from Tempest's saddle while they rode. The boy had said to follow the Phlegethon "until they couldn't anymore". Jason didn't know the geography of southern Hades all that well, but whatever it meant, he hoped he could figure it out—or that Will woke up before they reached it.
He shouldn't have worried; Will woke up when the first rays of sunlight came up. By this point, he was leaning back, pressed against Jason's chest in a way that might have been pleasant, hadn't they been about the same size. As it was, Jason had to be careful not being hit in the chin by Will's head. Feeling him stir was a blessing.
"Sorry I fell asleep," Will mumbled.
"It's all right. You had a rough night." He pulled Tempest to a stop. "We should rest for a bit."
"I don't need—"
"No, but Tempest does." Jason jumped off his horse, then held out a hand to help Will—which the boy took with a small smile.
"And you?"
"I'll be fine." Truth be told, Jason was tired himself, but Will didn't look comfortable enough on a horse that Jason would leave him in total control for both of them, and he couldn't afford to stop and sleep. Time was of the essence. Besides, between assassination attempts on his person and foolish quests given by his father, it wasn't the first time Jason was forced to go a whole day without any sleep.
Will sat down on the ground, and rummaged through his backpack, pulling a water skin and two apples from it. "Want some?"
Jason blushed as he realized he hadn't taken any provisions himself. "Thanks." He hadn't expected to be gone so long, but he had seen King Nico vanish. Why did he think he would be close to the castle? If the ghosts were any indication, that had been no parlor trick. He glanced at Will. "Do you really think the King's a—necromancer?"
Will looked up at him. "I don't know. Nobody even remembers what that is. But if I go by my grandma's stories…then no. Nico's not a bloodthirsty madman, that's for sure."
Jason could agree with that assessment. "So you really didn't know about any of it?"
"It's been thirteen years. Obviously there's a lot I don't know about Nico."
"He knew, though. He wasn't surprised when it happened. He immediately knew he had to run away."
"What would you have done in his place?"
Jason glanced at Will again, meeting his angered glare. "I—don't know. It's hard to imagine."
"Exactly. Don't judge him."
"I'm not." Sighing, he sat down next to Will. "What was he like? When you knew him?"
"He was…funny, and excitable. He was my best friend, and he didn't care who I was. He could've—we were old enough to understand that he was a prince and I was a nobody. But he didn't mind. Neither did his sister."
"I've heard about her. Bianca, is that it? She died when—"
"Yes. When they closed the palace's gates."
"Do you think it's all connected?"
"I don't know." Will sighed. "I—I don't remember anything about that day."
"Anything? Your best friend's sister died, and it was the last time you saw him! How can you not remember?"
"I don't know!" Will repeated. "Maybe it is connected. How would I even know? We have no idea what Nico can do. It's not like there's an obvious link between summoning ghosts and vanishing like he did."
Jason hummed distractedly, but he was remembering a legend he'd read about the kingdom of Hades. How a nymph who lived at the source of one of its rivers was rumored to have the gift of oblivion. What was the river called? He couldn't remember.
"—anyway," Will kept rambling with Jason barely listening, "when we get there, you'll have to stay back. Nico will freak out enough that we found him. Nobody's supposed to know about that place. So it's better if you let me talk to him alone first. Especially since you—"
"Since I what?"
"Well, he was arguing with you when it all—happened."
Jason blinked repeatedly. "You think this is my fault?"
"I'm not saying that, I—"
Jason sighed. "No. You're probably right."
"What was going on, anyway?"
"I—misspoke to him. And he was insulted. Rightfully so."
Will chuckled. "You accidentally insulted Nico? But you're so—polite."
"I was trying for honesty, for once. I'm not very good at it. Force of habit."
"What did you tell him?"
"That I was here to marry him, like many others, but I wasn't personally interested in him. Romantically." Will's wince was eloquent enough. "All I meant was that—I couldn't be interested in him because I barely knew him. I didn't want to promise him love if I wasn't sure I could love him."
"Why not just say that?"
Jason looked away, biting his lip were a small scar marked it. "Force of habit, as I said."
"So—do you think you could? Love him?"
Jason remained silent. There had been a moment, before he'd made a fool of himself, where he'd seen something in Nico that echoed within him. And when Nico had danced with Will, so close to him, so intimate in a way that transcended words or etiquette, Jason had felt a hint of jealousy, but he'd chalked it up to seeing a commoner succeed where he'd failed. "I don't know." Will considered him silently, a hint of a smirk on his lips. "We should get back on the road," Jason said, before the boy could say something.
"Why were you trying honesty with Nico?"
Will's question took Jason by surprise; they had barely spoken all morning. "What do you mean?"
"You told me you were trying for honesty, and you weren't used to it. But why were you?"
Jason sighed. "I've been engaged before. Twice. I had to break it off because we couldn't be honest to each other."
"Isn't that what marriage is like for you highborn? Intrigues and backstabbing?"
"It is. But I don't want that."
"So you went after a king. Yes, I can see how that would get you out of political intrigue."
Jason chuckled. "I didn't have a choice in coming here. But I did promise myself I wouldn't be engaged to someone I don't love. Not anymore. Even my father can't force me to propose—or to accept a proposal I don't want." He paused. "Why do you care so much about my love life?"
Will shrugged. "I just want to understand what you want from Nico."
"I'm still trying to figure it out myself," Jason said.
Will laughed, but a sound alerted Jason, and he tensed up immediately. Under him, Tempest grew restless as well, and Will seemed to understand that something was wrong.
It took a moment for Jason's brain to catch up with his instinct and piece together what exactly that was: two crows, flying above them, in a disorderly pattern, unlike any bird Jason had ever seen before. Moments later, one of them plummeted, crashing to the ground a few paces away from Jason. Frowning, he nudged Tempest, who walked up to the bird. The other crow landed nearby as well, strangely unbothered by the humans' presence—or unwilling to let its companion alone.
Jason dismounted then, under Will's disbelieving stare. "What're you doing? It's just a crow."
"How many crows have you seen crashing like that, out in the open?" Jason knelt beside the bird, who didn't even so much as flinch away. "What's wrong with you?" he asked, slowly reaching out. He tried to look for signs of a wound, or an arrow shaft sticking out, but he found nothing.
"Its wing's broken," Will said. He'd dismounted too, and was standing behind Jason, studying the crow.
"But why would it fly with a broken wing?"
Will shrugged. "Maybe it broke while it was flying?"
Jason frowned. "That would require blunt force—what could do that to a flying bird?"
The other raven cawed excitedly, and Tempest echoed its nervousness, trampling in place. Jason turned his attention away from the wounded bird, and saw them: ghosts, advancing on them. There were only two of them, and in daylight, they were far less noticeable than they had been at night. They were walking towards them, or at least, they looked like they were walking; but they covered ground much faster than a human could even run.
Will's voice echoed Jason's thoughts. "Do you think they—"
Jason stood up, walking to Tempest to calm him—as if he could somehow calm himself that way. "I wouldn't bet against it."
The healthy crow took off as the ghost neared them, and Jason and Will got the confirmation they needed: one of the ghost leaped off the ground, reaching out for the bird with a vicious smile. The crow was prepared however, and narrowly dodged, as the ghost fell back down to the earth. So they were still limited, Jason noted, unsheathing his sword.
Moments later, both ghosts were on them. The wounded crow cawed—in terror, Jason guessed—and limped away, while Will stood in place, frozen. Jason stepped in front of him, sword ready.
The first ghost—the one who hadn't jumped—connected with Jason with enough force to knock him back a few steps. Jason's training kicked in, and he managed to keep his balance; when he looked back up at the ghost, he noticed that it had flinched away, dark green gas seeping from where Jason's sword had cut it.
"What?" he taunted. "You don't like Imperial gold?" That, or the enchantments crafted into the blade. Jupiter may not always treat his bastard son well, but when he sent him to woo a king, he gave him the proper attire to impress.
Jason slashed at the ghost, feeling a rush of satisfaction as he tore through whatever it was made of. The ghost hissed, and, the sword still embedded in it, pulled away, dragging Jason with it. he recovered his weapon, but the momentum carried him in range of another blow, cutting off his breath.
Okay. Maybe telling the ghost that the blade was the only thing he couldn't touch was a bad idea.
Jason landed on his knees, and rolled to the side to avoid a kick. He'd barely recovered when the other ghost was on him. Jason slashed wide and took a few steps back, focusing on keeping both at bay and forcing them to stay in front of him.
One of the ghosts struck at him, and Jason parried, but once again, the force of the blow was enough to send him backwards. The ghost hissed in pain, but it wasn't enough. Jason had to evade them if he wanted to get close enough to strike.
He feinted at the ghost on his right, keeping his attention on both of them. Sure enough, the other ghost moved in on him; Jason rolled on the ground, got back on his feet behind the ghosts, and struck. He'd stabbed at the rough position of the heart, out of habit: but when his blade connected, the ghost reared back, violently enough that Jason lost his grip on the sword and fell backwards. Still, moments later, the creature vanished, and his sword clattered to the ground, out of reach.
The remaining ghost noticed as well, and pounced at Jason, just like it had pounced at the bird before. It landed on top oh him, reaching for Jason's face, who gripped the ghost's wrists to push him away—in vain. The ghost's arms went from rock solid to cloudy and immaterial between Jason's fingers, but when his fist connected with Jason's face, it was very solid once more.
Dazed, Jason went limp, but the ghost froze as well, before reaching out to Jason's face again. He didn't punch him: he only laid a hand over the right side of Jason's face. Immediately, pain flooded in from Jason's eye, like the ghost was burning through his skull. Jason howled, but it didn't stop: the pain shot inwards, then down his throat, spreading through his body in unbearable agony.
Then—nothing. The pain vanished, as did the ghost's weight over Jason.
He must have blacked out, because Jason woke up, feeling like he'd just been through torture—a sensation Jason was intimately familiar with. Will was kneeling beside him, a worried look on his face and a bloodied cloth in his hands.
"What happened?" Jason managed to mutter.
Will started, and held him down when he tried to sit up. "Don't move. You've lost a lot of blood."
"What? They just punched me, how could I—" Will's look was serious enough to quiet Jason's protests. "What happened?" he repeated, darkly.
"That ghost was on you, and I—I just took your sword. It was right there." Will's speech was jerky, unsure. "I just—"
"You killed the ghost?"
"I guess? Can you even kill a ghost?"
Jason chuckled, the lack of pain in his ribs reassuring him about his own condition. "Then what?"
"I don't know. You were screaming, and your eye was bleeding out—it was terrifying. I tried to do something about the bleeding"—he held out the bloodied cloth—"but then it just…stopped."
Jason frowned. "I don't understand. What was that?"
"Well, what's wrong with your eye?"
Something in Will's tone made Jason glance at him. "What do you mean?"
"Your eye—it's half black. Well, more than half, now. I guess I missed that last night."
Jason stared at him. "What?"
"You mean you didn't know?"
"I'm pretty sure I'd know if one of my eye wasn't the same color as the other, yes."
Will looked around him. "Well, just—here." He held out the sword, the flat of its blade right in front of Jason's face, and Jason caught his reflection in it.
Jason stared at himself, dumbfounded at what he was seeing. His right eye was black—part of it, anyway. More than half, as Will had said. "I've never seen that before."
"You were already like that last night," Will insisted.
Silence stretched between them, as Jason tried to figure out what it was—what it meant. Eventually, he gave up. "Let's just get back on the road," he said, sitting up—ignoring Will's attempt at holding him down. "We've already wasted enough time."
"You really shouldn't—"
"What? Do you know what's wrong with me?" Will jumped at Jason's sudden outburst, and he regretted it immediately. "Sorry. But we should focus on one problem at a time." Besides, whatever had happened to him, it had happened at the coronation. Jason was willing to bet Nico was connected. He shook his head, as if that could dismiss the thought. "If ghosts are attacking us, who knows how they're doing in the capital? We need to hurry."
Will's eyes widened, and he didn't argue anymore when Jason climbed on Tempest's back.
Late in the afternoon, they reached the end of the road: the Phlegethon disappeared underground, and ahead of them, laid the desolate, arid landscape of Tartarus Valley.
"Where do we go now?" Jason asked. Will hadn't provided any more directions.
"Straight ahead."
"In the valley? Are you trying to get us killed? Why would King Nico—or anyone—go there?"
"He's gone there."
"That's not good enough. I'm not going in a desert infamous for toxic everything, as night is almost falling, just because you're cryptically certain of it!"
Will remained silent for a moment, but eventually, he sighed. "The necropolis. That's where he'll be."
"What would he do there?"
"Kings and queens of Hades are all given a mausoleum there. That includes Nico's mother. Even when we were kids, he went there when he wanted to be alone."
"I thought Queen Persephone had died three years ago, with her husband."
Will chuckled. "She wasn't Nico's mother. King Pluto had two wives. Nico's mother, Queen Maria, died when he was very young."
Two wives? The way Will said it didn't sound like it was a second marriage. Would his father really have forgotten to mention him this detail about Hades marriage customs when he'd sent him to marry the new King of Hades?
Who was he kidding. Of course his father wouldn't have forgotten. He'd just kept the information to himself.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. Where is it?"
"It's on the edge of the desert; we're pretty close. As I said, Nico went there on his own, and he was only a kid then."
Jason abstained from asking if Nico couldn't have gone the same way he had now—by vanishing there. "Okay. Just show me the way."
