Pandora Gets Vain (Pandora (Hardback)) (12 page)
Before the eye had flickered out, Homer caught sight of Iole, well hidden behind a bone pile. Even with the invisible wall between them, Homer had instinctively covered himself, Alcie, and Dido with his massive cloak during the explosion. Even though it had actually happened at the other end of the chamber, the force was such that a steaming golden mist traveled the entire length of the room in seconds. Instantly they were covered.
“Prunes! I guess the wall’s gone,” Alcie said, clinging to Homer.
“I guess.”
Homer’s cloak not only provided excellent protection, it also gave Alcie a chance to throw her arms once again around the youth, feeling strangely comfortable and yet uncomfortable at the same time. She silently berated herself for getting all squishy inside while her best friends were probably on their way down to the underworld.
For one moment, the explosion lit up the room as bright as day. Then Pandy felt the hot wind rush past her as the chamber was thrown into darkness. But she hadn’t turned her head in time nor dived behind the bone pile quickly enough.
Flying drops of gold pelted her exposed arms and legs. Many of the pieces were, by that time, cooled enough not to do any severe damage, just glance off her skin, searing it a little.
But a piece the size of a large olive pit penetrated her left leg from behind, lodging just below the bend in her knee. Another piece, like a lemon seed, hit her right shoulder in the soft, fleshy part just under the bone. And finally, a small chunk of gold sliced through her delicate cheek, barely missing her left eye. It wedged itself just underneath her skin, like a tiny teardrop—just as luminous, and an equal symbol of pain.
6:01 p.m.
Pandy was first aware of lying on the ground feeling crunchy bits under her body; then the foul odor and the sound of several people running, stumbling, and yelling. Someone tripped over her and went crashing into a bone pile.
“This is just so wrong!”
There was the sound of someone disentangling from a mass of bones. Finally she could hear someone shouting close by. She felt a dull pain from the small wound in her stomach and a fire shot through her right shoulder.
“Ouch! Stop!”
She fully came to, realizing it was just too dark to see anything.
“What? What do I have? It’s just your arm, right? I wasn’t doing anything. Figs, I was just shaking you a little,” said Alcie.
“I know, but there’s something . . . ow! Something’s under the skin!” Pandy said, lightly touching the hard lump in her shoulder, blood trickling from the new wound.
“Why did you do that, Pandy?” Iole asked. “You could have been killed.”
“It’s not like I meant to,” Pandy said. “I . . . it got out of control. Where are you? I can barely see anything.”
“I’m right here,” came Iole’s voice on Pandy’s right. Pandy thought she was sitting or crouching close to the floor.
“I’m here,” Homer’s voice hung above her.
“Alcie?” asked Pandy, swinging her arm into something solid yet soft.
“Ow . . . prunes!” Alcie said. “That was my left leg.”
“Which one?” asked Iole.
“Okaaaay . . .”
“We need some light,” Homer spoke up.
“Yeah,” Alcie said. “Pandy, set something on fire.”
“As if!” said Pandy, with a tone in her voice that put an end to the subject.
“Fine,” Alcie replied, “something’s still smoldering by that far wall. I’ll see what I can find.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Homer.
“No. You should stay here. If Pandy’s really hurt, you’re the only one who can carry her out,” said Alcie, wondering what, exactly, had made her say such a selfless thing.
As Alcie moved through the darkness toward the glowing embers, Pandy tried to sit up.
“Ow! I got hit behind my knee, too. Oh, great Poseidon . . . my stomach!” she said, rubbing her sore leg, sore shoulder, and her tummy. Her scraped hip was also beginning to throb.
Dido padded over and licked her face.
“Hello, ghost dog—ow!” Her hand flew to her left cheek and she felt the open wound just below her eye. She pressed her skin slightly, feeling the lump of gold embedded in her face.
“Gods . . . this one could have taken out my eye.”
“Great Zeus!” said Iole. “You’ve got as many holes as the sieve of the Danaides!”
“I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much,” Pandy said, then, “So you guys saw everything, right? Hey! What was that thing keeping you guys over by the entryway?”
“It was a barrier . . . a force of some kind,” said Iole. “We could see everything but there was no way to get to you.”
“I tried to smash it,” said Homer.
“I climbed over and I was trying to get around behind that eye—which, by the way, Homer says is basically a symbol of protection and healing . . .”
“Yeah, right!” Pandy snorted.
“. . . but then I was attacked by this . . .” Iole suddenly froze.
“This what, Iole?” asked Pandy.
“It was a-a . . . thing,” she stammered. “A man . . . but not . . .”
Iole bolted straight up.
“Hey, I saw something too,” Pandy said, “but I was too high up . . .”
“Oh no—Alcie!” Iole cried. “Oh Gods . . . where’s Alcie? Alcie?”
Iole started off in the direction Alcie had gone. Homer tried to hold her back but it was too late.
“I’ll go after her,” he said.
“Not without me,” Pandy replied. “Just help me stand, okay?”
But as she took her first step on her wounded leg, she stumbled slightly. Without a word, Homer scooped Pandy up and carried her like a lamb, with Dido following at his heels.
The two raced off after Iole, trying to keep the little fires in sight. Iole quickly got lost in a dead end of bone piles, which gave Homer and Pandy enough time to catch up.
“What is it, Iole?” Pandy asked. “What did you see?”
Iole was breathing hard, the fear making it difficult for her to talk.
“It was a—”
But she cut herself off with a sharp breath, her eyes staring at the far wall.
Homer and Pandy followed her gaze.
Two large figures were silhouetted over the faded murals, lit by the glow of several small fires. Huge shadows of a girl and some type of creature grappling with each other, the girl’s mouth seemingly covered by a bony claw. The creature was darting forward whenever it had the opportunity, aiming straight for the girl’s neck.
“He’s trying to bite her!” said Iole.
“Homer, put me down!” cried Pandy.
Without another word, the group ran at a tear toward the far wall, not caring what they crashed into or lurched over, guided only by fear.
They curved around a particularly large bone pile, and as they came into a small clearing, there was Alcie: one decaying arm encircling her waist, the other bony hand clutching her throat.
“Come no closer!”
The hand squeezed a little tighter at Alcie’s throat; she struggled for air.
“Wait!” said Homer, throwing his arms out to stop Pandy and Iole from rushing forward.
No one moved for several seconds. Pandy stared at Alcie, who stared right back, eyes wide and hands trembling.
Pandy looked at Homer, about to ask what they should do next since she didn’t have the faintest idea.
“
Come no closer!
” the corpse said again.
“What’s it saying, Homer?” asked Pandy.
Suddenly, two of the corpse’s fingers simply snapped off. Alcie thought her throat had been pierced, but when she realized that she could breathe a little easier, her eyes went wider as she looked from Pandy to Iole to Homer.
The corpse tried wiggling the missing fingers before it let out a terrible cry. Sagging for a moment, it then clutched Alcie even tighter.
“
Just a drop,
” it said. “
I need only a little . . . and I will
have it!
”
“No,” said Homer quietly.
The left shinbone suddenly snapped in two; the corpse and Alcie stumbled back for a split-second before recovering their balance.
“Homer, please,” Pandy cried, “just tell me what it’s saying.”
The corpse opened its mouth and tilted its head toward Alcie’s throat, all the while keeping its eyes focused on Homer.
Homer, with the speed of a striking serpent, snatched up a large piece of wood still aflame. He moved toward the corpse, threatening it with the fire.
The corpse moved back quickly, neatly separating itself from its right foot, which stayed exactly where it was. The remaining flesh on the back of its leg dropped off the bone and plopped onto the floor. The corpse was now at an odd angle and had to readjust its hold on Alcie.
Two fingers on its right hand fell to the floor and its left eyebrow slid an inch down its face.
“By the mercy of Osiris,” the corpse said, a hint of pleading in its voice, “I beg you . . . I need her living blood.”
“Uh-uh,” said Homer, shaking his head.
“Uh-uh?” said Iole. “You’re saying uh-uh?”
Two of its exposed ribs dropped to the ground.
Homer, who had been as taut as a festival drum, let his shoulders drop. He handed the flaming brand to Pandy and walked straight up to the corpse.
The corpse tried to move, but the right thighbone fell out of its socket, and the whole upper body swung out as if it were on a hinge and several pieces of dried skin just fluttered into the air like paper.
Homer grabbed Alcie and pulled her easily out of the corpse’s hold. Then, just before the corpse’s entire frame went crashing to the ground, Homer deftly grabbed the skull and set it on the nearest bone pile.
For several minutes, they stood mute and staring at the skull; its two grayish eyes now clouding over with a thin opaque film.
“I think it’s dead,” said Iole softly.
“No, look,” Alcie said.
A single red tear was slowly coursing over the bones and dried flesh of its left cheek.
Homer began to speak rapidly and low. The skull made no sound; it only stared reproachfully at the big youth, as if everything that had happened to it was somehow Homer’s fault. Then slowly it opened its mouth.
Homer lifted the skull to his ear, ignoring the left eyebrow that finally slipped onto the floor, and everyone heard a faint rattling sound.
“What’s that?” Pandy asked Alcie.
“Apricots, I don’t know.”
Iole remembered the piece of splintered wood that flew into the corpse’s mouth. Now it was trapped inside the skull and it reminded her of a toy she’d played with as a child. Now, watching this afflicted thing try to speak, it was no longer amusing.
Homer and the skull began talking heatedly, with Homer every so often looking off to his left and furrowing his brow. Pandy knew it would be foolish to interrupt. She leaned against a bone pile while Alcie and Iole plopped on the ground. Dido wouldn’t leave Pandy’s side, refusing even to sit down.
Finally, Homer set the skull back on the bone pile.
“Come on,” he said, moving quickly past the girls, “and bring your water-skins.”
“Wait!” said Alcie. “We have to find them first!”
“Well, hurry,” Homer said. “He doesn’t have much time.”
Several minutes later the girls met on the spot where Pandy had first landed, each carrying their water-skins.
“Homer?” called Pandy.
“Over here,” came the reply. His huge arm waved a large burning torch, leading them toward the place where the golden pole had once stood.
Picking their way through the rubble, the girls met Homer, peering down into a well-defined pile of ashes.
“What are we looking for?” asked Pandy.
“Jewels,” Homer replied. “A ruby and a sapphire. They should have landed right on top of his bones.”
“They did . . . at least I think they did,” Pandy said, remembering the dripping gold ring. “I watched them fall.”