Pegasus and the Flame (2 page)

‘Well, it’s better than nothing,’ she sighed aloud as she shut off all the faucets.

While she worked, Emily had managed to forget about the storm for a few minutes. But with the water off, the sound of the rumbling thunder and police and fire sirens from the city took over as the only sounds in the apartment.

Just outside the bathroom window, Emily saw another burst of lightning and heard more thunder. The lightning was so bright it left her seeing flashes, even after she closed her eyes. There was no pause between the light and sound, which meant this latest strike was very close.

As the thunder rumbled angrily, Emily moved away from the window. This time she would follow her father’s advice and stay well clear of them. The storm was now directly overhead – and getting worse by the minute.

Paelen stared in shock at the destruction around him. He had never seen anything like it before. The palace lay in ruins, as did every other building around it.

He had tried to keep up with the defenders, but they had left him behind. Now in the far distance, he heard the constant booming of Jupiter’s thunderbolts and saw the flashes of lightning in the sky. The violent battle was raging, but far from this area of devastation.

Paelen’s heart lurched as he saw Mercury on the ground. The messenger was lying on his side, a spear sticking out of his chest. Blood matted his fair hair and his face was covered with bruises. Paelen bent down to see if he was still alive.

Mercury weakly opened his pale blue eyes. ‘Paelen,’ he gasped, ‘is it over? Have they extinguished the Flame?’

Paelen wondered if he should call for help. But there was no one left to call. From what he could see, everyone around him was either dead or dying. ‘I believe it is still lit. I saw the others heading towards the temple.’

‘We must stop the Nirads!’ Mercury reached for Paelen’s arm and tried to rise. ‘Help me up.’

Paelen helped Mercury get to his feet. As he stood, the messenger pulled the spear from his chest. His wound opened and the bleeding increased. His legs gave out and he crumpled weakly back to the ground.

‘The war is over for me. I am finished,’ Mercury gasped.

‘No, you are wrong,’ Paelen said fearfully as he knelt beside the messenger and cradled him in his lap. ‘Mercury, you must get up.’

The messenger shook his head. ‘It is too late—’

He started to cough. Blood pooled in the corners of his mouth. ‘Listen to me, Paelen,’ he panted. ‘You must join the fight. The Nirads must not extinguish the Flame.’

‘Me? Fight?’ Paelen repeated. He shook his head. ‘I cannot. Look at me, Mercury. I have no real powers of my own. I am not big and strong like Hercules and I cannot fight like Apollo. I do not know how to use weapons and I am not fast like you. All I am is a thief. My only skill is to stretch my body to escape prisons and squeeze into tight spaces. And you know how I hate doing that because it hurts too much. I am a coward – nothing more.’

Mercury reached for Paelen’s hand and drew him closer. ‘Listen to me, Paelen. I know you are still very young,’ he gasped. ‘And I know you are not as big as the rest of us or as strong. But you are clever and much braver than you think. It lies in you to make a difference.’

Again Paelen shook his head. ‘You are asking too much of me! I am not the person you think I am. I am nothing.’

Mercury squeezed Paelen’s hand as he struggled to speak. ‘You are special, Paelen. This may be the only chance you will ever have to prove it. I know you have never considered yourself a true Olympian. But you are one – and you carry it within you to be great. This is the time to join your people and defend your home. Show me, Paelen,’ Mercury coughed. ‘Show all of us what you can do.’

‘But I … I …’ Paelen stammered.

‘Please,’ Mercury begged. ‘Help us.’

The approaching battle cry of rampaging Nirads filled the air. It wouldn’t be long before they arrived.

‘A second wave of fighters is coming,’ Mercury continued weakly. ‘You must get away from here. Take my winged sandals. My helmet is lost, but you can still fly with the sandals. Take them and join the fight.’

‘Your sandals?’ Paelen cried. ‘I cannot! They only work for you!’

Another choking cough came from the fallen messenger. His eyes started to glaze over. ‘I am dying, Paelen,’ Mercury said softly. ‘I give them to you. You are their master now. They will obey your commands.’

With a final agonized cry, Mercury closed his eyes and became still.

Paelen couldn’t believe the messenger was dead. Somehow, the invading Nirads had the power to kill the most powerful Olympians. If Mercury could die, so could everyone else.

He lay Mercury down gently on the ground and wrestled with himself as he thought of the messenger’s final words. Part of him still wanted to steal the bridle from Pegasus and flee. But another part of him wondered if Mercury was right. Was there more to him than he realized? Did he really have the courage to join the fight? A thief was all he’d ever been. It was all he knew how to do. He did not have the powers of the other Olympians. If they were being defeated by the Nirads, what chance did he have?

Paelen finally decided fleeing was the only option. Why should he sacrifice his own life if the war was already lost? If Pegasus hadn’t already fallen in battle, this was the time to make his move to capture the stallion.

‘I am sorry, Mercury,’ he said sadly. ‘But you were wrong. I am not the person you thought.’

Reaching down, he carefully removed the messenger’s winged sandals and put them on his feet, hoping at least that Mercury had been right about them working for him.

Paelen heard roaring and grunting behind him. His eyes flew wide in terror as countless Nirad warriors approached. He’d never seen a Nirad up close before. They were massive. Their skin was grey marble and looked as hard as stone. Each of their four arms waved a weapon in the air and their eyes blazed with murderous hatred. These creatures had no intention of negotiating. No plans for taking prisoners. All Paelen could see in their bead-black eyes was the desire to kill. Seeing the invaders up close, he understood what everyone was up against. They didn’t stand a chance. Olympus was doomed.

He quickly looked back down at the sandals.

‘Fly, for Jupiter’s sake, fly!’ he shouted.

The tiny wings started flapping. He was lifted into the air just as the first Nirad warriors arrived. Panic-stricken, Paelen yelled, ‘Sandals, go! I do not care where. Just go!’

Mercury’s sandals obeyed, and Paelen was carried away from the rampaging Nirads. He heard their angry roars at losing their prey.

With the immediate danger now well behind him, Paelen looked ahead. ‘Stop!’ he ordered.

The sandals obeyed his command and he hovered in mid-air. He looked in stunned disbelief at the devastation beneath him. He was sick to see that there wasn’t one building left untouched, nor one statue unbroken. The Nirads were destroying everything.

‘Go,’ he finally said. ‘Take me to the Temple of the Flame. I need to find Pegasus.’

As the sandals carried him towards the temple, the sounds of Jupiter’s thunderbolts grew more intense and bright flashes lit the area. The battle was still raging, but it had now reached the base of the Temple of the Flame.

Paelen saw more fallen Olympians. Yet amongst the dead and dying, he saw no dead or wounded Nirads. Not one. It was as though the invaders couldn’t be killed, even by the most powerful amongst them.

He glanced forward and saw smoke rising in the distance. The Flame at the temple was still lit. But as he approached the heart of the battle, Paelen saw Apollo and Diana crouching back to back. They were surrounded by Nirads. Diana was using her bow, but every arrow she fired glanced off the grey invaders without causing any damage at all. Apollo was using his spear, but was having as little luck as his sister.

A Nirad warrior lunged forward and knocked Apollo’s legs out from under him. More followed as Diana fought bravely to save her twin brother. But she was driven away quickly. As Paelen passed silently overhead, he heard her anguished cries filling the air as Apollo was killed by the invaders.

Pegasus. He had to find Pegasus
.

The sandals drew him away from the horrible scene. Closer to the Temple of the Flame, he saw Jupiter fighting at its base. Roaring in rage, the leader of Olympus was shooting lightning bolts and thunder at the Nirads, to no effect. The invaders were steadily advancing up the tall marble steps.

Paelen finally saw Pegasus. The stallion was rearing on his hind legs and kicking out at the invaders. He was covered in blood from countless stab wounds as the Nirads used their vicious weapons to bring down the powerful stallion. A Nirad pounced and stabbed his spear deep into the flanks of the rearing stallion. Pegasus shrieked in pain and dropped back down to all fours, viciously kicking the Nirad with his golden hoof. But even as the wounded warrior crawled away, others moved in for the kill. They caught hold of the stallion’s wings and were trying to tear them off.

Pegasus continued to fight but was quickly overpowered. As more and more Nirads attacked, the stallion was knocked to the ground. As he fell, the spear in his side broke and was driven deeper into his flanks.

Paelen watched in horror as Pegasus was swamped with Nirad warriors. There was no way the stallion would survive the attack.

Diana arrived. Shouting her battle cry, she attacked the Nirads tying to kill Pegasus. Stabbing at them with her brother’s spear, her grief transformed to rage as she used all her strength against them.

One Nirad shoved past her and made for the stallion’s head. But when its four hands made contact with the golden bridle, it howled in agony. Diana turned on the attacker and lunged forward with her brother’s spear. Unlike all the other attempts to stop the Nirads, this time the spear worked and she managed to kill her first invader. With Diana’s help, Pegasus got back on his feet. But that was one small victory in a losing battle.

‘Paelen!’

Jupiter was surrounded by Nirad fighters but he was pointing at the temple. ‘Quickly,’ he shouted. ‘Stop them!’

Paelen turned to the temple and saw other Nirads cutting through the defenders and advancing further up the marble steps.

‘Stop them, Paelen!’ Jupiter ordered again. ‘They must not extinguish the Flame!’

Paelen knew the moment the Flame of Olympus went out, the war would be over and Olympus would fall. But if Jupiter himself couldn’t stop the invaders, what could a thief possibly do?

In the time it took for him to decide whether or not to join the fight the battle was lost.

Nirad warriors tore down the entrance gates to the temple and tossed them down the steps. They poured into the temple, howling in rage. Moments later, there was the sickening sound of the plinth that held the Flame being knocked over. Guttural roars of triumph filled the air as the invaders went to work extinguishing the Flame.

Soon more and more Nirads abandoned the battleground and rushed up the steps to join in the destruction. The survivors of Olympus could do little more than watch in terror as their world ended.

Paelen saw Jupiter run over to Pegasus. Catching hold of the wounded stallion, Jupiter pointed in the air and shouted something. Pegasus snorted and nodded his head.

Moments later, the few survivors parted to give Pegasus room to spread his wings. With a shriek, the stallion launched himself into the air.

Paelen’s heart leaped with excitement. This was his moment! Finally, an opportunity to seize the bridle and control the fleeing stallion.

‘Go after Pegasus!’ Paelen ordered his sandals. ‘Get me to the stallion!’

Emily made her way back to her bedroom having finished collecting water. Without electricity, there would be no TV, no radio and no lights. With nothing more to do, she got into bed.

Emily knew she wouldn’t sleep. Even if the storm hadn’t been so noisy, she was on edge. She just wished she weren’t alone. Her mother would have known what to do. But her mother was dead and nothing Emily could do would ever change that. She was alone. She started to regret not asking her Aunt Maureen to come over.

Outside the window there was another blinding flash of lightning and terrible explosion of thunder. Emily felt the whole building shake. But as she listened, she heard more than thunder. Directly above her head was the sound of something very big, very heavy hitting the roof.

Living in the top-floor apartment, the only thing above them was the flat roof. Emily’s family paid extra to have access to it, and her mother had planted a large flower and vegetable garden. But no one had been up there since her mother got sick and died. Emily worried that maybe a piece of the Empire’s antenna might have just hit her building. Or maybe lightning had struck her mother’s garden shed and knocked it over.

She considered calling her father to ask him what to do. Would lightning start a fire? Was her building about to burn down? The rain outside was coming down in heavy sheets, but would it put out a fire if it had started? As more and more questions and fears built up within her, Emily’s heart practically stopped.

There were more sounds from above.

It was almost as though someone or something was kicking the roof.

Raising the flashlight, Emily sucked in her breath when the beam of light revealed a huge crack in the ceiling plaster. The overhead light was swinging on its cord. Small chips of paint and plaster were starting to fall.

Emily reached for her cell. But even before she used the speed dial, she closed it again. What was she going to tell her father? That something big had hit the roof and cracked her bedroom ceiling? Maybe he’d tell her to get out of the building. But that would mean going out in the dark hallway and finding her way to the stairwell. Then she’d have to walk down twenty flights of stairs, just to arrive on the street where it was pouring with rain.

‘No, Em,’ she told herself. ‘There’s nothing up there. It’s just the garden shed fallen over and the door banging in the wind.’

Long before Emily could convince herself it was nothing serious, the thumping from above started again.