Chapter 8 – Cuts Like a Knife
Katie had been surprised by Travis's admission. It wasn't like a guy, especially a guy like Travis Stoll, to admit they were afraid of anything. As they watched the Greek soldiers go about their duties to dock the ship Katie was hyper-aware of how close Travis stood to her. She took a deep, silent breath and nudged him toward the plank that connected the ship to the dock. "Let's go," she nodded to the soldiers waiting for them to disembark.
They stood on the dock a few minutes later, looking at the back of what appeared to be a college campus. "This can't be right," Katie remarked.
Travis reached for her hand, but stopped himself, letting it fall back to his side. "Maybe the king is trying to get us out of the way. Helen is his wife, after all. He doesn't want us in the middle of their domestic dispute?"
Katie glanced his way and half smirked. "Yeah, I guess that is always a possibility, but the king struck me as a little more trustworthy."
"Of course he did," Travis mumbled to himself. They walked up a long, winding pathway from the water toward the buildings. They were quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Travis wondered what the king had to gain by dropping them off in the middle of a college campus. They weren't even old enough for college yet, though he doubted the king had their educational interests at heart when he deposited them here.
"Travis, look," Katie grabbed him, her fingernails digging into the soft underside of his forearm. Her other hand was pointing to a sign that said "Troy University".
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," he said. When Katie didn't let go of his arm, he reached over with his free hand and gently pried her fingers loose. He looked at the angry red half-moons that had been marked into his skin, and then at Katie. She looked down at her hand, a strange look on her face before she looked back to him and dropped her arm to her side.
"Let's go find Connor," her voice held more confidence than she felt.
Travis followed Katie's lead. He wasn't sure how they were going to find Helen in this maze of campus buildings, but he figured Katie had some idea, the way she was marching through the walkways.
In truth, Katie had no idea how to find Helen. She was going into this blindly, but she felt that she needed to be strong. It was finally time to prove to the world that she wasn't just good at growing plants and flowers. She was Katie-freaking-Gardner and she was more than just a flower-growing daughter of Demeter. She led Travis along one walkway and then another, looking for something, anything that would give her a clue as to where Helen might be.
In the end it was Travis who solved the mystery. As Katie was about to walk by, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, jerking her to a stop. He nodded to the building in front of them. The telltale signs of ancient Greek architecture were there, and Travis just knew. He could feel it in his bones that his brother was inside. He tugged her toward the doors before dropping her arm and reaching into his pocket. He saw Katie out of the corner of his eye stooping to grab the dagger that was strapped to her ankle.
Travis pushed the door, and it squeaked open. He rolled his eyes. Could nothing ever go right? He paused in the doorway, Katie at his arm, but nothing came to attack them. Travis frowned and glanced cautiously left and right before moving forward. He could sense Katie behind him and when he looked to her she nodded before she sneaked off away from him. He walked slowly through the maze of hallways, his senses hyper-alert to the threat of danger.
Travis couldn't understand how the monster caught him off-guard. Maybe he'd been too worried about losing Katie. At the last second he heard the slither and Travis spun, bringing his sword up. He barely managed to block the downswing of the incoming sword. The snake woman grinned with a horrible half laugh, half hiss. Travis's arms shook with the effort it took to keep the dracaenae's blade from slicing him in half.
"Congratulationsssss for making it thisssss far, demigod." She pressed her advantage, forcing her blade several centimeters closer to Travis's neck.
Travis leaned back, the snake-woman forcing him to take a half step back. "Hey, thanks for that," he said. "Don't suppose you'll let me go find Helen without trying to kill me?" He saw a flash behind the dracaenae and grinned at her. "It's been fun," he quipped before using a burst of strength to force her away from him and right onto the tip of Katie's waiting blade.
"Thanks for the assist Kitty-Kat. We make a pretty BA fighting team." Travis wiped his forehead, his arm coming away with golden monster dust.
"Anytime, Stoll. Lets' go get your brother. My life just wouldn't be the same without the both of you to torment me."
Travis watched her walk away. After a moment he followed her down a set of stairs that echoed ominously. At the bottom, a heavy steel door was propped partially open. "That's never good," he muttered as Katie heaved it open and stepped through.
"Either Helen is incredibly stupid or incredibly cocky," Katie whispered when Travis stood beside her in the dark corridor. "One monster to protect the upstairs?"
Travis shrugged as they continued down the hallway, shoulder to shoulder. "She probably figures that we'll deal my father's caduceus for Connor's life."
Katie looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying to gauge if that was a serious threat. The last thing she needed was Travis trying to deal rationally with Helen, an irrational, power-hungry, pissed off, dead-for-three-thousand-years demigod. "You do realize that even if you brought it to her she's going to try and kill us all, right?"
Travis gave Katie a look. "Of course. You don't seriously think that little of me after all this, do you Katie?"
She ignored his question. "Let's get this show on the road, Travis." Katie stalked off down the darkened passageway.
They met two hulking Cyclopes at the entrance to the room Helen awaited them in. Of course the giants tried to kill them, because no demigod quest is complete without an attempted assassination by a Cyclops.
"Demigods are yummy!" the first one proclaimed as he reached out for Katie. She was able to dodge his grasp, but he did snag her backpack. As he started to lift her off the ground she wiggled loose of the straps holding it to her back and fell to the floor, rolling out of the way of the other giant's foot.
Travis let out a battle cry and charged straight for the one that had grabbed Katie's backpack. Just before he could stab the giant, he was swatted away by a huge hand. Travis went flying, thudding hard against the wall before falling to the ground in a heap.
Both Cyclopes had their attention on the wounded demigod. It gave Katie an opportunity to hide and figure out a battle plan. She waited until one of the Cyclopes had picked up Travis, reaching out to hang on, being lifted in the air with him. "We eat good tonight! This one mine, the other yours," the one holding Travis said.
"Where did the other one go?" the second Cyclopes asked, looking around him. He picked up one foot and then the other, checking the bottoms of his feet to see if he had stepped on the missing demigod.
Luckily, Cyclopes weren't smart as a general rule. They were more focused on Travis than on trying to find her and it gave her the opportunity to sneak up behind one. A moment later, the first Cyclopes let out a horrible scream before dissolving into dust. Travis fell to the ground, and Katie winced. He'd be lucky if he survived this, and it was her fault.
"Brother! What happened to you?" the other one looked frantically left and right.
"He didn't watch what he ate," Katie said, appearing at the Cyclops feet. She stabbed her dagger into his calf up to the hilt. The Cyclopes screamed and hopped on his good foot until he ran into the wall, falling backward. He hit his head on the concrete floor and it bounced. His head rolled to the side, his one eye dazed as Katie walked up and stuck in her dagger. It was the last thing he saw.
Katie ran over to her pack and dug out the nectar. She went to Travis and gently lifted his head into her lap, dribbling some of the amber liquid into his mouth. "Come on, Stoll, we're not done yet. I need you to wake up."
Travis's eyes fluttered open and finally focused on Katie's intense green eyes. He had a splitting headache. "Wha… wha happened?" he asked, and his words sounded funny, even to him.
She smiled and he thought he saw relief in her eyes. "Oh you know, it's not a demigod quest until someone is almost killed by a Cyclopes," she said shakily. "We have one more monster to face. Can you sit up?"
Travis forced himself to sit, and then lay back down, his head in her lap again. "Dizzy…"
"Come on, Travis, she's right through that door. Do you want me to save Connor all by myself?"
He did. His head was killing him and he couldn't see straight. But there was no way in Hades he was letting Katie walk into that bitch's lair by herself. "Gimme some ambrosia."
She handed him a small square and watched as he nibbled on it. Katie kept glancing at the door behind them, expecting something else to come out and attack them.
After Travis finished his ambrosia square he struggled to sit up again. A few minutes later he felt less dizzy and when he tried to stand up, he found he could without falling over. He retrieved his sword and nodded to Katie, who shouldered her backpack. They stood in front of the door that would lead them to Helen and more importantly, to Connor.
The door creaked as it opened, revealing the dark, stone chamber that both Katie and Travis had dreamed of. And there, in the corner, his orange camp shirt nothing but rags, was Connor Stoll. His face was black with dirt, his hair matted to his head and he looked like he had bruises, both fresh and old. But his blue eyes blazed with that unmistakable, mischievous light that belonged only to the Stoll brothers. Connor had never given up hope that Travis and Katie would rescue him.
"Connor!" Katie and Travis both ran to him. Katie reached through the bars and hugged him tightly before being pushed out of the way by Travis. Katie dug in her bag for anything that would open the door while Travis gave his brother a hug.
"Travis Stoll! How lovely of you to finally join your brother! And you have brought Miss Gardner as well! Fantastic!" Her voice bounced off the stone and reverberated.
Travis turned, putting himself in front of where Katie was still trying to find something to spring the lock. He drew his sword and pointed it at Helen. "The famous Helen of Troy, I guess?" he asked. He didn't need to ask. The face that launched a thousand ships was as beautiful as it had been three millennia ago. He only did it to draw the attention to himself and away from Katie.
Helen's eyes flashed fire before she put a benevolent smile on her face. "Did you bring the caduceus of Hermes, Travis?"
"You know, I thought about it. I really did, Helen. But I decided that you were probably going to kill me anyway. So why would I betray my father just to die?"
Helen tsked. "I thought you were smarter than that, Travis. Now I will have to kill you." She slowly drew a beautifully crafted, celestial bronze sword.
Travis lunged at her, and Helen blocked the swing. They engaged in a swift, furious battle. Travis was very good with the sword, but Helen was no slouch in that department either. Katie had two hairpins she had dug out of her old, ripped up jeans pocket in the lock of the cage. She worked them around, trying to spring the lock. Who knew she'd need to learn how to pick a lock?
"Katie, you need to position the pins differently," Connor said.
Katie followed his instructions and felt the lock give just as Helen let out a yell and swung her blade straight for Travis's head. Katie watched in slow motion as Travis stepped back, avoiding being sliced in half, but catching the tip of the sword at his temple and slicing down. He fell to the floor, blood coursing down the side of his face.
"NO!" Katie screamed. The dagger that had settled close on the floor next to her while she tried to pick the lock was suddenly flying through the air.
Helen whirled toward Katie's scream and the dagger caught her in the shoulder. She dropped her sword as she reached up to grasp the knife that was buried to the hilt. She pulled it out with a high-pitched screech and held it high, running full tilt at Katie.
Katie scrambled backward, her back hitting the bars of the cage. She pressed back against it as far as she could go, but it wasn't going to save her from the madwoman coming at her with her own dagger. Katie squeezed her eyes shut and held her arms up in front of her, prepared to feel the sharp sting of the blade slicing her skin.
The pain never came. After a few moments, Katie opened her eyes and looked up to find Helen dropping the dagger. It clanged on the stone floor. The beautiful woman looked at Katie in shock as she crumpled to her knees. Behind her, Travis placed his foot on her back and pulled his sword out. Blood covered his face and t-shirt but he grinned at her.
"I promised, Katie-Rose. I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
Chapter title song credit: – Cuts Like a Knife (Bryan Adams; Cuts Like a Knife album released 1983)