The Weight of the World (28 page)

Rather
than steal the golden fruit from Atlas,

Hercules
erected pillars at the pole

to
raise up the heavens and pay the Titan

for
fruit from his trees.

“
Astronomy
compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to
another.
”

-Plato

XXIII.

“
A
pair of bears, a giant ladle, and now a crab. Ursa Major, Ursa Minor,
Big Dipper... or God forbid that was the Little Dipper, and Cancer.
He's dropping constellations on us,” Minnie explained to the group.
Devon and Frank sat on Teddy's sofa. They had just recounted the
events of the last hour to The Pantheon.

As
usual, Senator Wexler was out of town at a speaking engagement and
Mrs. Wexler was with him to keep an eye on him. Frank had chosen
Teddy's place as their fortress instead of Dr. Davis' house because
of the large wooden doors and the extra space. The sturdy mansion was
isolated and easy to secure. Even better, it was big enough that they
could all spend the night if they needed to. Best of all, if it came
to blows, mortals wouldn't see the fight out here on the edge of
town.

“What
did I miss?” Astin asked as he and Diana came through the front
door.

“The
Titan we've been looking for is Atlas,” Nick explained, “He's
been running Discordia to turn us against each other.”

“A
few minutes after I saw the message,” Frank said, “a giant crab
appeared to try and take me out.”

“Giant
crab?” Diana asked. “Where is it now?”

“Frank
punched it into stars,” Devon replied. “I stayed in the car.”

“Atlas,”
Diana repeated. “And he knows who we are.”

Astin
hesitated. “Someone at Ryan's funeral, he said something to me.”

Diana
looked up at her brother.

“He
said something like, 'pity you couldn't save him'.”

“He
might have meant CPR, Astin,” Diana said.

“Or
he might have meant my powers.”

“Earlier
this summer,” June started, “This guy at the fair was showing me
his Kindle. He was reading about Hera. I hoped I was just being
paranoid.”

“Short
guy? Big ears?” Astin asked.

“Yes,”
she said. “Starting to bald.”

The
group exchanged worried glances. “So that's Atlas?” Devon asked.

“Maybe,”
grunted Frank.

“Well,
we're all here now. There's strength in unity,” Celene said.

“There's
strength in Frank's fists,” Evan added.

Valerie
and June helped Celene make tea for their companions. Minnie gathered
the Olympians with more physical powers and grilled them about their
tactics for fighting off any further attacks.

“We
can't stay holed up here forever,” Nick said.

“Right,
well, no offense, Nick, but you breathe under water and talk to
horses. Your best bet is sticking with someone who can deal damage,”
Evan countered.

“Evan
can melt metal with his hands. It might not be practical for direct
contact,” Devon explained, “But I'm sure having a ball of molten
metal thrown at you can't feel too nice.”

“I
can be invisible. It's good for something,” Peter added.

“I...
I
think
I'm setting off adrenaline,” Teddy shrugged. “Think.”

Penny
made eye contact with him and nodded, “Or something like it.”

“Well,
if we're in a fight we'll already have enough adrenaline. So Teddy,
we're going to put you in the non-combat category,” Minnie decided.
“Astin can do the blinding sunlight, but I think he's best reserved
for recovery. Frank is obvious. I can plan but I don't have much to
offer once the fighting has begun.”

“So
without Zach and Lewis we've got Frank and Evan. Great. We're hosed.”
Nick scowled, “Whoever makes it out alive can thank Zach for
leaving us stranded.”

“We're
in rough shape, it's true,” Minnie admitted. “I say we take turns
keeping watch. Has anyone gotten hold of Dr. Livingstone?”

“He
was driving out to his father's house to pick up his kids tonight,”
Celene explained as she handed a mug of herbal tea to Devon. “He
should be safe out of town. His kids will be safe. The rest of you
should call your parents, let them know you're sleeping over a
friend's house. There's no guarantee he'll attack tonight. Once we
make it through the night, we'll come up with a long-term plan in the
morning.”

“What
about Adam?” Devon asked. “If he's one of us, shouldn't he be
here? We've left him alone.”

Celene
hesitated. Devon had told Adam everything, right? What was the harm
in bringing him here to keep him safe?

“Okay,”
she said. “Call him. Tell him to get here as soon as he can. It's
not safe for anyone to be alone.”

Devon
sat up, watching her cell phone, waiting for Adam to return her call.
Frank's head lay in her lap. It had been over two hours since they
had settled down for the night. The rest of the house was silent.

The
shift change had come fifteen minutes ago. Teddy and Astin had woken
Peter and Nick to keep an eye out. Peter used his invisibility to
wait out on the lawn while Nick watched through the back door.

Peter
heard it before he saw it. There was a loud thud behind him, followed
by a softer impact yards away. He whirled around to see a male lion,
roughly the size of a Jeep, standing on Teddy's lawn. A serpent as
long as Peter was tall, lay coiled nearby. It raised its head and
slithered towards the front door.

Peter
was terrified. How did he alert the people inside without drawing an
attack on himself? He backed away until he was inching out onto the
driveway and reached into his pocket. Peter didn't have to see the
buttons on his phone to know that Penny was the first number on speed
dial. He watched, eyes wide, as the lion sniffed the air and turned
to face him. It could smell him, but it couldn't see him.

From
inside the house came the faint sound of a default ringtone. A light
turned on. The lion turned its attention back to the house. The snake
was already slithering around the back of the house.

The
lion approached the front door and dragged a paw down the hard wood.
Peter turned and ran up the drive, yanking his phone out of his
pocket. “There's a lion at the front door,” he told Penny as he
high-tailed it away from the monsters. “A giant lion and a snake
going around the back.”

Penny
closed her phone. “Peter took off,” she told everyone. Devon was
sitting up in her sleeping bag next to Penny and Frank was already on
his feet. “Get Nick inside, there's a snake out there.”

“What
is that at the door?” Evan asked. Another loud scrape tore at the
wood.

“A
lion,” Penny explained. “A very big lion.”

The
scratching stopped. It was quiet for a moment.

“Where
did it go?” someone asked.

Heavy
paws padded louder and louder as they approached the house. There was
a thud and a crack of splitting wood and the lion burst paws-first
through the door. Its wide shoulders got stuck in the door frame and
its head thrashed wildly about.

June
screamed.

Minnie
ran to the back door and yanked Nick inside. She slammed the door and
locked it just as the serpent crashed into the safety-glass panel.

“What
the heck is that?” Nick asked.

“I'm
going to guess Serpens and Leo,” Minnie said.

“Leo?”

“The
lion Hercules defeated. His flesh is impervious to arrows. And he's
in the front door.”

Serpens
vanished from the back door and reappeared in the high window over
the kitchen sink. His body was coiled up the large shrub planted
under the window. The monster pulled its head back and snapped
forward, striking the glass with its nose. This window was not
reinforced and it cracked. Another blow sent shards of glass
scattering across the kitchen floor and the snake entered the house.

“It's
inside!” Nick shouted. He looked around, hoping to spot the knife
block, but grabbed a marble pepper mill instead. He swung the stone
mill, striking the head of the snake and causing it to recoil for a
minute. Minnie grabbed Nick's wrist and yanked him out of the kitchen
and back to the living room.

Leo,
the lion, was struggling to break through the doorway. The structure
of the doorframe could not hold out. The echoes of splitting wood
rang through the house as it forced its way in. Frank was there to
meet it.

Frank
and Leo tumbled across the floor in a grapple. Frank's large hands
struggled to hold the beast's mouth open so that it could not bite
down on him. Massive paws with razor claws swiped at him and tore
open a row of deep wounds in his shoulder.

Frank
shouted from the pain but held on tight. Evan grabbed the nearest
metal object, a metal bowl for holding keys on the end table by the
door, and ran at the lion. The bowl became a puddle of metal in his
hand and then was a puddle of metal burning the lion's face. Leo
roared and swung a paw at Evan. It caught him in the chest and sent
him sprawling to the floor.

“Frank!”
Devon screamed as she watched the lion, wounded and angry, gnashing
its teeth at the war god. Frank couldn't hold off its jaws and its
paws. Another swipe sliced open his side along his ribs. Blood poured
out across the tile as Frank struggled to remain conscious.

The
others watched in horror, unable to think of anything to do. Nick,
Minnie and Astin were the only ones active, at the back of the room
fighting off Serpens with broken chairs and table lamps.

Frank's
head fell back and hit the floor. The lion reared up, ready for the
death strike. A voice from the doorway said its name, however, and
the lion froze.

“Sit,”
said Adam as he strolled through the door. “Good boy. He's no
Hercules, is he?”

He
stroked the lion's mane and made a disappointed clicking with his
tongue as he examined the burn on its face.

“Serpens,”
he called. “Steady.”

“You
son of a bitch!” Devon shouted. She moved to charge at him, fists
clenched, but Astin and Nick caught her around the shoulders and held
her back.

The
fighting stopped. Adam took his time measuring the faces in the room.
“Cut off the head and watch the body squirm,” he said with a
smile. “You're really nothing without Zeus, are you? Just a bunch
of panicked monkeys with a few magic tricks. Hades had the right
idea, running away... as usual.”

“Adam,
is it?” Minnie asked. She had not met him yet, but his voice rang
familiar in her mind. “What should we really call you?”

“I
really expected better of you, Athena,” he said. “It's been in
the news, the quake in Morocco. The peak of the tallest mountain of
the Atlas range cracked and fell off, meaning that it's no longer the
tallest. I would think that, given your history, you would pay more
attention to what happens back at home.”

“Morocco
isn't Greece,” Nick said.

Adam
laughed. “It was, once upon a time. Don't they teach you anything
in school?”

“Atlas,”
Minnie said. “You were charged to hold up the sky.”