When I get back to the fork where Thane, Greer, the golden maiden, and I split up, I pause to listen for another whistle burst. I hear nothing except the echoing sound of booted feet running on stone. I back myself up against the nearest wall and wait until I see Thane emerge from his hallway.
“Was that you?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
The golden maiden arrives, looking just as expectant.
Thane and I simultaneously say, “Greer.”
“You stay with Ursula,” I tell the golden maiden. I toss her the keys. “She needs to be ready.”
Thane and I take off running down the hall my sister chose.
Behind us, I hear metal clanking against stone—a whistle dragging on the floor—and Sillus calling out, “Wait, huntress, wait.”
I don’t stop.
“Hush, little one,” I hear the golden maiden say as I race out of earshot.
Greer’s hallway is dark, with no torches or lights or magical whatevers to illuminate it, but there is a low beam of light spraying across the floor at the far end of the hall—her flashlight on the ground. I break into a sprint.
Thane beats me to her.
He skids to the ground on his knees right next to her head, reaches under her shoulders, and cradles her in his lap. I kneel at her side.
“Greer,” he says, gently shaking her. “Greer, wake up.”
She doesn’t move.
A scratching clank announces Sillus’s arrival. “Oh, no, huntress.”
I ignore him, scanning my gaze over Greer, looking for an injury or a wound. She doesn’t look hurt, and there are no signs of—
“Gretchen?”
I twist around at the sound of my name, searching for the source. There are doors on either side of the hall, so I grab Greer’s flashlight off the ground and peer inside.
“Down here,” the voice says. “The door is hidden.”
“Here, huntress,” Sillus cries out. “Look here.”
I spin back, the flashlight beam swinging back and forth as I follow the direction of his excited gesture. Then I see it, just a couple of feet off the ground, in the middle of the wall that ends the hallway: fingers reaching out and wagging at me from a narrow opening. Non-monster fingers.
“It’s me,” the voice says. “Sthenno.”
“Sthenno,” I whisper, relief washing through me. I drop to my knees in front of the opening. “What happened?”
“I’ll explain that later,” she says, “once we’re out of here. Apollo will have raised the alarm. The soldiers won’t be long now.”
I scan my gaze over the wall around the opening, tracing the beam of light over every stone, every joint of mortar. There is no sign of a door at all, let alone a way to open one. It’s like she’s sealed in.
“How?” I ask. “There’s no door.”
“One of the stones is a false front.” She gestures to the left of the door. “Somewhere over there. It pushes in to release the catch.”
With the flashlight in one hand, I start running my other hand over the wall. I push on every stone, waiting for one that gives way. Push after push, and nothing.
Finally, I get to the smallest stone—only about four inches square—and when I press on its surface, it sinks back into the wall.
“Got it,” I exclaim.
The words are no sooner out of my mouth than I hear a metal-on-metal sound and the entire wall around the opening—maybe four feet across and six feet high—pops out from the rest. Thane gets to his feet, Greer hanging limp in his arms, and moves them out of the way. I try to get a handhold on the stone edge to pull the door the rest of the way open.
“Stand back,” Sthenno says.
Sillus scrambles to my side.
I find a rough spot where I can get a grip. “I’ve almost—”
The door moves suddenly, swinging open like a tetherball on a string. It knocks me a few feet to the left, but I manage to keep my balance.
Sthenno appears in the doorway, dirty and bedraggled but otherwise intact. That was an impressive display of strength.
“We must hurry,” she says, stepping into the hall. “They know you’re here, and they’re coming.”
We run down the hall, the light from Greer’s flashlight guiding our way. Sillus’s whistle drags on the ground, but I don’t yell at him to pick it up. We’ll be gone before it matters.
The golden maiden is waiting for us at the fork, a serious look on her face.
Gesturing at us to be quiet, she hurries to meet us. She whispers, “There are soldiers guarding the closet door.”
“Ursula?”
“They know someone is inside,” she says, “but the door is locked. They have sent someone to retrieve a key.”
Hugging the wall, I move to the end of the hall and peer around the corner. There are only a few of them, but they are bigger than and just as armed as their friends who took a dip in the moat earlier. It’s only a matter of time before they open the door. Ursula is so weak, she’s virtually helpless. We have to get the soldiers away and us back home.
“Maybe,” I say, thinking out loud, “if we—”
“As soon as they are gone,” the golden maiden says, “get to the closet and get home.”
Then, before I can ask her what she means, she’s stepping out of the hallway and calling out to the gathered soldiers.
“Great Zeus,” one of them says when he sees her. “It’s a golden maiden.”
“There hasn’t been one on Olympus for centuries,” another says.
A third grins. “Not since Hephaestus threatened to melt them all down for their insubordination.”
“Those are the lies he spread,” she mutters quietly. The golden maiden places herself between the soldiers and the staircase that leads back up to the shining halls of Olympus. “What was his offered bounty again?”
“A sword that never misses its mark,” one shouts.
“And, as I recall,” she says, with a teasing tone, “a helm of immortality.”
In a glint of gold, she’s racing across the hallway and disappearing up the stairs.
The soldiers chase after her, abandoning their posts for the promise of reward. She’s fast. I’m sure she can outrun them. I hope she can.
We don’t have time to wait around to find out.
The golden maiden has bought us a few precious minutes, a narrow window of opportunity. I rush to the closet door and unlock it. Ursula steps out, looking far more like herself. Guess I come by my fast healing honestly.
She looks at her sister. “Are we too late?”
Sthenno shakes her head. “But we must hurry.”
“I’m not sure I have the strength.”
Sthenno steps up to her and places a palm on either side of her face. “I shall give you the strength.”
“What about her powers?” Thane asks. “Are they still tethered?”
Sthenno studies him appraisingly. I can’t guess her judgment.
“No,” Sthenno says. “Once free from the cell, her powers are released.”
“Hurry,” Ursula says. “Everyone gather close. Make sure you are touching one of us.”
I start to pocket the dungeon keys, but something stops me.
“Give me a sec,” I call out over my shoulder as I head down the hall toward the maze of cells.
“Gretchen,” Sthenno shouts, “we haven’t the time.”
I don’t stop to argue. They won’t leave without me, and this will only take a moment.
Back in the vast, smoke-filled room, I hurry to the cell of the man who talked to me earlier. He looks up as I toss the keys into his cell.
“Everyone deserves a trial,” I say.
I don’t wait for a response before sprinting back to the group.
Sthenno scowls at me, but we’ll have that discussion later.
Sillus jumps onto my back as I wrap a hand around Sthenno’s forearm. I can feel power—strength—surging through her beneath the fabric of her jacket. Thane steps to my side, Greer still cradled in his arms. He turns to press his shoulder against Ursula’s.