Crossroads (38 page)

Olivia looked over and found Sam sitting numbly, with a glazed lethargic expression.

‘Sam?’ Theo leaned forward and shook him lightly.

Sam looked up slowly and frowned. ‘Who are you?’ he murmured absently, before turning back to the water and gazing at it in a kind of dreamy lassitude.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Theo asked Charon in concern, ‘why doesn’t he know who we are?’

Charon sighed, ‘I was afraid of this,’ he shook his head. ‘Don’t worry the effect will only be temporary.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Theo frowned. ‘What’s going on?’

‘We have now left the River Styx and we are travelling the River Lethe,’ Charon told them. ‘It is the river of forgetfulness.’

‘Are you sure he’s going to be okay?’ Olivia asked worriedly.

‘I’m sure,’ Charon assured them, ‘once we leave this river he should be fine.’

‘Why is it affecting him and not us?’ Theo asked.

‘I suspect that has something to do with Olivia.’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘Like I said Olivia,’ Charon shook his head, ‘there is something very strange about you, I’m not sure what it is. I knew it the moment I saw you back in the mortal world but since you have been down here my suspicions have only been confirmed.’

‘What, because I knew a short cut across the wall and because I took a lucky guess at which judge was which?’

‘It wasn’t a lucky guess Olivia and you know it, besides there have been other things.’

‘Such as?’

‘Your ability to summon Hellfire, your ability to read the ancient language as if born to it. There are creatures who have existed here in the Underworld for thousands of years and they can’t read our language, but you can. I think that whatever makes you so unique is protecting you against the effects of the river.’

‘But what about Theo?’

‘You two are more or less permanently attached to each other, you don’t even realize you are doing it. You naturally gravitate to each other, holding hands, touching, I would imagine the connection between you is passing your protection to him.’

‘Huh,’ she replied thoughtfully, ‘poor Sam. So do mortals usually freak out on the rivers?’

‘I don’t know what you mean by freak out,’ Charon frowned.

‘Do they usually act out of character, or display strange behavior?’ she clarified.

‘I don’t know really,’ he shrugged, ‘we don’t usually get mortals down here, but then Sam here is different anyway. You must have figured out by now that he’s not human.’

‘I did know that actually,’ Olivia nodded.

‘Sam’s not human?’ Theo replied in surprise.

‘Oh,’ Olivia murmured, ‘I forgot you didn’t know that.’

‘I just thought he was like us and that his ability to travel through time was a gift, like Olivia’s fire or my visions.’

‘No,’ Charon shook his head, ‘he’s definitely not human and it is what he truly is that makes him so susceptible to the effects of, not just the rivers, but the Underworld itself.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, that your friend here is making a huge personal sacrifice to help you here. His kind don’t belong down here, especially not for prolonged periods of time. The longer he remains here the sicker he will become.’

‘Damn it,’ Theo swore, ‘why didn’t he tell us.’

‘It is possible that he doesn’t know,’ Charon told them. ‘This is the first time he has been here and as I said, his kind don’t come down here.’

‘You keep saying his kind,’ Theo frowned, ‘what exactly do you mean? If Sam isn’t human, then what is he?’

‘I’m sorry Theo but it’s not my place to tell. If Sam wants you to know he’ll tell you himself,’ Charon shook his head. ‘All I can say is that he’s from higher places than you can imagine.’

‘Oh my God,’ Olivia breathed. ‘When you first saw him, you said his first loyalty will always be to heaven…he’s from heaven isn’t he?’

‘I can’t say,’ Charon shrugged, ‘so stop asking. If you want to know, ask him once he stops drooling.’

‘You’re an ass,’ Olivia replied dryly.

Charon’s mouth curved in amusement as he looked downstream. Suddenly the river forked to the right.

‘What’s that?’ Olivia asked.

‘That is the River Cocytus and it’s pretty potent, even you should feel its effects.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The closer we get to Tartarus the stronger the effects of the river.’ The boat began to turn and split off into the new waterway, ‘you might want to cover your ears.’

‘What? Why would…’ Olivia suddenly clapped her hands over her ears as an insanely high pitched shrieking filled the air around them. Theo did likewise.

Sam woke violently from his dreamlike state and covered his ears.

‘What the Hell is that?’ he shouted.

‘The Cocytus,’ Charon yelled calmly about the noise, seemingly unperturbed by the disturbing sound. ‘It’s the river of wailing.’

‘What’s making all that noise?’ Olivia yelled.

‘They are,’ he replied nodded towards the water.

Olivia looked down and shuddered in revulsion. The River Styx had been much the same as a regular river, murky and mud-like. The Acheron’s waters had been clear and the Lethe had a strange pale cloudy quality to it but this river, the Cocytus, was an eerie unpleasant glowing kind of green and within the churning waters hundreds of bodies floated beneath the surface, arms outstretched imploringly and mouths hung open in a never-ending scream.

‘Who are they?’ Theo asked.

‘The damned,’ came the reply ‘They are tormented souls being punished eternally for their mortal sins.’

‘Is there no hope for them?’ Olivia asked so quietly her voice barely carried over the mournful wails.

‘No,’ Charon answered in sympathy, ‘not for them. They lock themselves in that torment because they are the ones who can’t see past their own sins and failures. It is a punishment of their own making. They are the ones who can’t change, because they don’t want to.’

‘It’s so sad,’ Olivia breathed.

‘Don’t waste your pity on them Olivia’ he told her, ‘there is nothing you can do.’

‘Perhaps it is not that they don’t want to, but they don’t know how to,’ she answered.

‘Maybe, but there is still nothing that can be done,’ he replied looking up and pointing. ‘Look ahead…’

They turned and saw the river once again forking to the right. Suddenly the air turned smoky and was filled with a nasty sulfur-like smell.

‘The Phlegethon,’ Charon murmured, ‘the river of fire.’

The screams and wails of torment faded away to be replaced by a strange sound. It was like a mixture of the crackle of an open fire and the roar of an opening furnace. They turned down the channel and the green glowing water was slowly replaced by a thick slow churning movement. Olivia looked down and gasped at the sight of the river, which could now barely be called a river at all. Instead of water it was hot molten lava which glowed a bright, white hot, mixture of red and orange with a cracked, perpetually moving, crust of black char.

‘Charon,’ Olivia swallowed thickly, ‘you do know your boat’s made of wood, right?’

‘Relax Olivia’ he replied, ‘the boat cannot be damaged.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ he chuckled, ‘stop worrying about the river and start worrying about what’s at the end of it.’

‘Tartarus.’

‘Exactly,’ he replied soberly. ‘I’ve never heard of any mortal surviving Tartarus.’

‘Thanks for the pep talk,’ she replied dryly.

‘Olivia’ he sighed, ‘I can’t go with you.’

‘It’s okay Charon,’ she frowned, ‘I didn’t expect you to.’

‘It’s not that I won’t, it’s that I can’t…’ he tried to explain.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Tartarus is at the very end of the river; I can’t move beyond its borders. My powers don’t extend beyond the rivers.’

‘It’s okay,’ she assured him.

‘It’s not okay,’ he frowned. ‘I’m worried about you, about all of you.’

‘Stop worrying,’ she told him bluntly, ‘like you just told me, some things you can’t change and this is one of them. Besides,’ she added with a smirk, ‘I’m different remember, the usual effects of the Underworld don’t apply to me.’

‘That’s not what I said and you know it,’ he replied blandly.

‘Well,’ she winked, ‘close enough.’

Charon sighed and rolled his eyes, ‘I now understand why Hades finds you so frustrating.’

She laughed in amusement. ‘Oh lighten up Charon, we’re the ones facing impending death.’

‘I will never understand mortals,’ he shook his head.

‘You don’t need to understand us; you just need to have a sense of humor.’

‘Isn’t that the truth,’ Sam muttered.

‘Er Charon?’ Theo spoke suddenly, his gaze fixed on something ahead of them. ‘When you said Tartarus was at the end of the river, please tell me you meant that the river ends on the banks of Tartarus.’

‘Not exactly,’ Charon admitted as Olivia turned to look.

The roaring was getting louder, almost like a waterfall. Steam rose up obscuring her view.

‘What do you mean not exactly?’ she yelled above the noise.

‘Tartarus is technically separate from Hades.’

‘As in a separate world?’ Theo asked.

‘Yes, technically.’

‘What does he mean yes, technically?’ Olivia looked back to Theo.

‘He means that the end of the river and Tartarus are separated by the Void.’

‘WHAT?’ she shouted, turning back to Charon, ‘AND YOU’RE JUST TELLING US THIS NOW?’

‘You’d better get ready,’ he warned.

‘Ready to what?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘To jump.’

‘TO WHAT?’ her voice went up another octave.

‘Still got that sense of humor?’ Charon asked sourly.

Theo pulled her to her feet and helped her into the backpack, making sure the straps were tight.

‘Oh no’ she shook her head, ‘I did not agree to this,’ she sat back down and crossed her arms. ‘Killing a demon…fine, finding a lost crossroad…check, facing off a God…no problem, JUMPING THE VOID? Not a chance in Hell.’

‘It’s, not a chance in Hades actually, and you don’t have a choice Olivia.’ Charon glanced over the side as they neared the end, ‘there’s only one way into Tartarus and you only get one chance.’

‘It’s okay Livy,’ Theo pulled her to her feet.

‘Are you mad,’ she glanced over the edge, ‘it’s not okay. What about this, can you possibly think is okay?’

She started to tremble in his grip and her voice rose in panic.

Suddenly Charon raised the pole above his head and plunged it down into the river hard. There was a loud grinding as it anchored on the bottom, slowing their approach, until the boat finally ground to a halt hanging over the edge, the bow still sat in the lava and the stern suspended out into the blackness of the Void. Two waterfalls of lava cascaded thunderously down either side of them, split by Charon’s boat, tumbling down into the Void far below until they disappeared from view. Olivia glared over the edge into the blackness and stumbled, a wave of dizziness washing over her.

‘Are you okay Olivia?’ Sam frowned.

‘I may have a slight problem with heights,’ she swallowed.

‘Livy you can do this.’ Theo cupped her chin, ‘don’t look down, look across…’

She glanced across the Void and saw what he was talking about. There was a rocky outcropping not far away, slightly below them. It looked utterly terrifying but it was do-able. They could make it.

‘What about you?’ she turned back to Charon.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ he smiled, ‘it’s the end of the river. I’ll simply return to the beginning.’

The pole scrapped alarmingly along the molten riverbed and the boat suddenly slipped a bit further, starting to tilt into the Void.

‘You need to go now!’ Charon shouted as he tried to hold his grip on the pole.

‘I’ll go first,’ Theo told them. ‘Sam?’

Sam looked at him, ‘don’t worry I’ll make sure she gets to you.’

He nodded, ‘Olivia, do you want me to take the backpack?’

‘No,’ she shook her head trying to suck in a deep calming breath to ease her racing heart, ‘I’ve got it, it’s my responsibility.’

‘Okay,’ he kissed her roughly, ‘you can do this alright?’

She nodded, watching as he turned and leapt across the Void. Her heart stopped for a moment as he hung suspended in the air falling through the blackness. Then he hit the rock and rolled to absorb the impact.

‘Olivia!’ he climbed to his feet and held out his arms to her, ‘you next.’

‘You’d better catch me or I’ll never speak to you again’ she shouted over, as she stepped up onto the edge. With a quick prayer to every God, Goddess and Deity she could think of in the space of two seconds, she braced herself and leapt.

For those dizzying seconds while she felt herself flying through the air, time seemed to stop and all she could hear was her heart thundering in her ear, and then suddenly Theo’s arms wrapped around her and they both tumbled to the ground in a tangle of bodies.

‘You two should get a room,’ a calm voice spoke next to them and when they both looked up Sam was smiling at them in amusement.

‘Did you just translocate across the Void?’ she asked accusingly.

‘Yes.’

‘So you just let me jump when you could have translocated us over here.’

‘It’s always good to face your fears Olivia.’

‘You should start running now Sam,’ she warned dangerously, ‘because I’m about to kill you.’

He stepped back laughing lightly, ‘I’m joking’ he sighed, his face becoming more serious. ‘The truth is I don’t know if I could have taken all three of us. I don’t feel right…’ he shook his head, ‘I didn’t want to risk it.’

‘Fine’ she sulked, slightly mollified, ‘I forgive you then.’ She held out her hand so he could help her up off the floor.

She stood up and brushed the pieces of rock and dust off her jeans as Sam leaned in to help Theo up. She looked up at the boat overhanging the edge and for a second she saw Charon and then the boat shimmered and disappeared completely.

‘Do you think he got back okay?’ she murmured.

‘I hope so,’ Theo stepped close and looked up at the waterfall of lava.

‘We should get moving’ Sam told them, looking over his shoulder nervously. ‘Cronus rules here, we will have to be very careful.’