Chapter 55
Going Deaf Temporarily
Ever had a friend that you thought was states away stomp out of the woods to deliver a dire warning? Neither had I. I know they say there's a first for everything, but I was caught too off guard to even answer.
John didn't keep eye contact. Agitated and jumpy, he couldn't hold still. He kept shooting looks at the forest he'd come from.
"I know it's sudden," he said, "and honestly, I don't know how you're here, or why you're here, or what all this is. All I know is you have to—"
He didn't get the chance to finish. Wind scoured the clearing, a distant bird trilled a high-pitched call, and out of nowhere the night spat whistling shapes.
There were three of them, each hitting with a soft thud— one in our camp, one in the monster camp, and another halfway between the two. This was too freaky to worry about wasting batteries; I pulled my flashlight around, clicking it on and aiming the beam.
They were arrows. The fletching was strange, silver and glittery. Somehow it shone brighter in the moonlight than under my flashlight beam. A tiny pouch was fashioned to the shaft of each. I couldn't place what they were, only that they looked a lot like the inflated buffalo bladders I'd seen in a Native American museum as a kid.
"Too late," John moaned.
The little bladder bags popped open, and the world screamed.
Ears are pretty great. They do important stuff, like helping you keep your balance and letting you listen to the White Stripes. I liked my ears. Unfortunately, it would be a while before my ears liked me, not after the situation I'd gotten them into.
They were ripped to shreds. Noise, raw and white-hot, tore through my senses and raked my brain. Vertigo loaded my world onto a carousel and spun with the strength of a cyclops. Somehow, through the pain, a deep part of me recognized the sounds— an elk bugle, a bald eagle's screech, a bear's growl and a dozen other, more obscure animal calls. It was the sound of nature, raw and distilled and cranked up to a million times normal volume.
After ten seconds the pouches deflated, running out of air, and the noise stopped. Definitely a relief, but one I barely noticed. I was dizzy. The ringing in my ears was louder than freeway traffic.
John's mouth was moving. He'd known what was coming and covered his ears. I doubt that saved him, but it definitely helped. Too bad he didn't share the warning. Angelo and I could only stare without getting a single thing he was saying.
The camps were coming alive. Tents unzipped on the demigod side. Monsters jerked onto their feet on their side. John gestured at them. He hurled his hands toward the ground over and over again in a message I recognized — Get down! — but that they didn't notice, far off and deaf as they were.
The first one hit was a Dracaena. One second she was stumbling around, trying to rub away the drowsiness of the abrupt wake-up call. The next an arrow sprouted from her throat. The dust hit the ground before the lone arrow could fall.
At that point all panic broke loose, if it hadn't already. More arrows flew, all at the monsters for some reason, all of them deadly accurate. The four remaining Dracaena were vaporized on sight. Both of Kelli's Empousai followers took arrows to the ribs, disintegrating with twin wails nobody would ever hear.
Another arrow would've struck Kelli herself, but she was on a different level. The slight flash of silver was enough for her to snag it midair, effortlessly snapping it with one hand. It still left her hissing and spitting mad.
Her hair combusted, lighting the clearing like a bonfire. Her fangs and claws stretched to their maximum length. I got the feeling she knew who was attacking us. She'd also seen her subordinates reduced to ashes. The result was a livid Empousai, true form on full display, slapping away any arrows aimed at her or the murdering mortal who was using her like a shield.
By now my world had stabilized enough to feel confident walking without losing my balance. I rushed to the other demigods, hearing fading back in.
"—that?" Bianca was saying when I got close. Luckily she noticed me coming, two demigods in tow, and repeated herself for us to hear the whole thing. "What was that?"
John saved me from looking dumb and saying 'screaming bladders'.
"Shrieker arrows," he said. "Three of them."
"Oh, of course. I know what those are." Then Bianca noticed who was talking, and dropped the sarcasm. "Wait, John?! But if you're here… Oh Hades."
"What does him being here mean?" I asked.
Bianca looked at me like I'd asked why we couldn't tour the Empire State Building. "Think about it, Percy. What mission was he on again?"
"Tracking the…" I trailed off. "Oh."
Right. John and Lucas had been trailing a group. A group that had been patrolling the country, moving further West as if searching for something. A group full of semi-immortals that had hundreds to thousands of years experience at hunting down beasts, monsters, and people like us that crossed them. The Hunters of Artemis.
"Hold on one second," Kai said. His brown hair was mussed up from sleeping and springing into action, and one of his shoes wasn't tied. "You all seem to know what's happening, which is great for you, but half our expedition is getting slaughtered and we're probably next. A nice simple, straight answer would be fantastic."
"It's the Hunters," Bianca said simply. She had her own bow out now, staring into the woods, but there was nothing to aim at. For all the arrows we hadn't seen a glimpse of the archers.
Kai paled. "You mean… the Hunters? We're about to be murdered by a goddess?"
"Don't be such a coward," Nera scoffed. "I for one think fighting a goddess sounds exciting. How many nightmares must you accumulate over a thousand years…"
The moon goddess isn't here," John said. "Lucas and I never saw her, not once. They split into two groups to cover more ground. Maybe she met up with the others, the ones Lucas is following. Don't underestimate these Hunters though! The lieutenant is here, and seven others. Even alone they're plenty dangerous."
A bellow shook the area. The last cyclops had been having a terrible day. First his brothers got vaporized by traps in the Labyrinth, then he got woken up via an assault on his ears, and now he had three arrows sticking out of his limbs like porcupine quills. He'd had enough. With a roar, he surged toward the woods, ripping a sapling out of the ground and swinging it in front of him like a shield, smacking away the barrage of arrows that tried to stop his advance.
The plan wasn't bad. He reached the tree line, and when he swung the sapling against one tall pine a voice yelped in pain— the first hit the Hunters had taken. A girl around eleven tumbled from the branches, dressed in a silver parka and warm-looking fur pants, a quiver over her shoulder. Her bow landed in front of her. The cyclops chuckled happily, ready to dish out some payback for his pain.
Unfortunately, that was as far as he got. Two howling wolves leaped from the shadows, sinking their teeth into his arms and immobilizing him. The cyclops roared. With time I was sure he could shake the animals off, but that was time he didn't have. As soon as his hands were busy a bronze-skinned girl appeared in front of him, three arrows notched at once. She released and all three struck the cyclops as a cluster, straight in his big milky eye. He vaporized instantly.
Before she could relish the victory, the girl's eyes widened. She bent at the waist, twisting out of the way as an arrow whistled where her chest had been. In a flash she'd gathered the younger Hunter and disappeared back into the dark.
Bianca tsked, lowering her bow. "Missed."
Apparently the Hunters didn't enjoy it when they were shot at, instead of the other way around. For the first time arrows flew our way rather than at the monsters.
They weren't too hard to deal with. The shots weren't as accurate as the first assault. Lulu pulled a huge rectangular shield from… somewhere, putting herself in the way of the most dangerous arrows. Others embedded in the dirt at our feet. We fell back, retreating slowly downhill.
The campsite we'd picked only had forest on two sides. Uphill was toward the old mine and the Labyrinth, carved out of a cliff rock face. Downhill was toward a lower point in the middle of a crown of mountains. Some type of basin. A faint, beat-up fire road ran to the mine in the direction of downhill, and the creek, rushing with enough snow melt to outdo some rivers, snaked alongside it in rapid-filled curves. It was the road that we were backing down, and each step brought us closer to the rough rushing water.
As we got further the arrows didn't get any more accurate, but I did notice something strange about them. Most were hitting behind us, but none were landing in front. That didn't make sense if they were only missing.
"It's like they aren't trying to hit us," Angelo said. His eyes were wide in a way that said all this was too much for him, but that didn't stop him from noticing the same thing I had. "This isn't right. They shouldn't be missing like this."
"They're herding us," Victoria said grimly.
"But where?" Kai asked. "They have us in the palm of their hand. What more could they want?"
If they really were trying to move us around, that meant one of two things: they had a trap ready to spring and were driving us into it, or there was somewhere they didn't want us to reach. A trap was possible, but they already had the advantage. I didn't see the point of using an ambush to push us into another ambush. So I was leaning toward the second one. Except, what could they be trying to keep us away from out here?
Then it hit me. "The Labyrinth!"
Bianca cast me an annoyed look, although it could've just been that none of her blindly-shot arrows were connecting. "What about it now, Percy?"
"Can't you see? They're pushing us away from it!"
I got a few funny looks, but luckily Victoria picked up on what I was saying.
"They don't want us to get away," she said. "That's it! As long as we're in the woods we're playing their game. But down there? They'd be crazy to follow."
"And the longer they drag this out, the better it is for them," I said. "Splitting us up and tracking us down in dark, unfamiliar woods? They'd literally be hunting us. It's exactly what they'd want."
"What do you propose we do about it?" Nera asked. She didn't sound combative, just curious.
I grinned. "Let's fight back."
Before, I hadn't liked our chances. Even a cyclops had barely reached one Hunter before being mowed down. We couldn't afford to toss away demigod lives chasing invisible, hidden enemies.
Things were different now. We didn't need to root out every Hunter— fighting our way uphill would be more than enough.
"Bianca," I said. "What do you think about ripping open a massive chasm in the earth?"
She lowered her bow. "I'll need time. They'll shoot me."
That's what I love about my friends. I can say things like 'Hey, cause a natural disaster!' and they don't give boring answers like 'No.'
"They won't hit you," I promised. "They'll be busy."
Bianca accepted that. She knelt, placing both palms on the ground. Tremors began to rumble through the soil.
I didn't watch any longer than that. I had a promise to keep.
The Hunters clearly knew how spring a trap. From disorienting us with the shrieker arrows to staying out of sight, to manipulating our movements, they'd covered almost everything. There was just one combination they overlooked: an overfull stream stuffed with water and one son of the Sea God. I didn't even need to move my hands, a thought was enough to raise the creek out of its banks and send it hurtling through the woods.
Tree limbs snapped. Hunters cried out in surprise. Water squeezed through the gaps in the trees, smashing archers from their perches and knocking wolves on their tails.
It was minutes before the Hunters recovered. More than enough time for Bianca to spring a second surprise on their heads.
With a groan like someone held a microphone up to a snoring cyclops, The ground tore apart from itself. A gap thirty feet across opened between the Hunters' position and us, running parallel with the fire road. One unlucky wolf fell in before it could scramble away, plummeting all the way to a farm upstate.
"Run for it!" I yelled.
We took off as one, making a break for the mine.
The camps had been downhill to start with, and we'd only retreated further since the Hunters sprung their ambush. We were at least a thousand feet from the Labyrinth. That wasn't too far, but Angelo and Kai were in heavy armor, and Lulu was lugging a shield that looked like it weighed at least twenty pounds. Not to mention the time time. Already the Hunters were recovering— wet, bruised, and highly annoyed.
Bringing up the rear, Angelo gasped, "I really need more cardio."
"Talk less," Lulu growled, outpacing him despite her heavy shield. "That way you survive. Plenty of time to practice then."
"Look out!"
Victoria was the one who shouted the warning. Comfortably keeping ahead of the rest of us, she had plenty of time to watch the Hunters line up their bows and let fly. Only instead of a rain of deadly projectiles, quad-pronged arrows sailed over the chasm. Silvery metal chords trailed the arrows. When they struck the ground they wrapped around rocks and tree limbs, drawing taught. The Hunters sprinted across the chords with superhuman dexterity as if it were the most natural thing in the world. A real-life highwire show.
One that crossed particularly close to us came forward wielding dual hunting knives. Before she could close in a new blur intercepted her.
Smack!
The hunter dropped like a silver sack of rocks. Kelli stood over her, fangs glinting and eyes promising murder.
"I don't enjoy killing girls," she said, "but for this ilk I make an exception. And I take my time."
I guess that was why she used a closed fist, rather than slicing with her claws. But we didn't have the time to be doing anything the slow way.
"Kelli!" I said. "We need to get to the Labyrinth!"
She shot me an irritated look. "Why?"
I stumbled to a temporary stop. "What do you mean why? To get away!"
"Get away? Not interested." Kelli faced the chasm where a half-dozen Hunters were streaming across. "I'm going to slaughter them, draw out every ounce of blood, and fashion it into a shrine to their pet goddess. She'll love that. Maybe it'll teach them not to look at Empousai with such disgust."
"There's too many," I said. "We can't fight them all."
"Watch me."
I was ready to cut losses. If Kelli wanted to stick around and die fighting, she was welcome to. Not all of us had immortal souls to waste. As I went to leave her, though, she spotted something. Much closer to the mine, Mark was jogging. He clearly had the same idea we did, and if anything was going to beat us there.
Kelli cursed under her breath. "My ride is ditching me!"
When I took off running again, she was hot on my heels. Apparently she didn't see facing off against the hunters alone as suicide, because she wasn't willing to lose her ride through the Labyrinth.
The good news? We were close to the mine now. The bad news? Fair warning, it was pretty bad. We weren't going to make it.
The Hunters were closing in fast— too fast. They bounded unnaturally quickly over the ground, like girls possessed by deer. Their wolves had taken the long way around Bianca's chasm but they were almost onto us. In the sky birds of prey — huge brown eagles — flapped out of the woods. They divebombed over and over, pecking out hairs and scraping our ears with their talons.
A Hunter caught up with Angelo, lunging with twin knives. I saw her coming and doubled back to land a kick to her chest. She tumbled away, but the delay only let the others come closer.
That was when I realized Angelo had stopped running.
"Keep going!" I yelled.
But he only shook his head. "It's too late."
"We can still make it!"
"Not all of us. I'm only slowing you down. If they're going to catch me, I might as well make myself useful."
He drew his sword. I tried not to scream at him.
There were eight Hunters in total and a whole pack of wolves. I couldn't fight them off with my sword— even with my friends that was too many for us. Most of the water from the creek had been absorbed into the ground. I could cause an earthquake, but I was worried about collapsing the Labyrinth entrance. It would shift somewhere nearby and stay open but we didn't have the time to search for it. While I was paralyzed by options Angelo met the first of the Hunters in a chain of blows. He held out at first, only for two of her friends to join the fight. One landed a strike on his hilt, and Angelo's sword tumbled from his hands.
I stepped forward to help — impossible odds were still better than abandoning a friend — when somebody blurred past me.
It took me a second to recognize the blur as Po. I'd thought the Hunters were fast, but he was on a different level. I'd never seen him move like this. Before anyone could react he was on top of the hunters, snagging Angelo's sword from the ground and fending them off with a series of wicked strikes even I would struggle to match.
Still, he needed help or he'd be overwhelmed… or so I thought.
One girl seemed to be moving at the center of the hunters— the bronze-skinned one who vaporized our cyclops. Up close I spotted a silver circlet braided into her hair. She was tall, beautiful, and very much eyeing us like fleeing beasts for the chopping block. John had said this group had the lieutenant. I was pretty sure that was who I was looking at.
And, as I watched, the calm look in her eyes was shattered by surprise. She twisted sideways to escape what looked like nothing… and then suddenly Nera was there, pulling the same trick she had in the Labyrinth.
The lieutenant was good, very good. Who knew how many lifetimes she'd had to hone her skills, and it let her avoid Nera's grasping fingers. Unfortunately for her, Nera had two hands. A tap to her collarbone was all it took to make her crumple.
"Please!" she shrieked almost as loud as the sonic arrows from earlier. "Don't leave! You can't abandon me!"
Nera danced away from the other Hunters, and they didn't give chase. Protecting the lieutenant had become their priority. As she sprinted past she snagged Angelo's collar, dragging him along.
"Fall in, hero," she said brightly. "You can sacrifice yourself another day!"
We reached the mine easily without enemies hounding our heels. Funny how that worked.
"Finally," Mark said. "Now that the whole gang is here, can we leave?"
Bianca muttered something unflattering under her breath, but she touched the boarded-over entrance and the path cleared.
I ended up at the back of the line. When the others had ducked inside the warning sense Andi had beaten into my head blared to life. I spun in time to catch an arrow on the edge of my metal hand.
The lieutenant was back up to one knee. She was breathing hard, and it looked as if she'd been crying. Her bow was raised in front of her. Our eyes met.
I stepped back, letting the Labyrinth entrance slide back into place, her burbling glare the last I saw of the outside world. And then I turned and ran, following my friends into – and I couldn't believe I was thinking this – the relative safety of the Labyrinth.
(-)
