“We have to hurry,” Lynn said.
Peter pulled out an adrenaline auto injector and stabbed it into Knight’s arm. Then he handed Knight two huge white pills. “Dry swallow. Sorry I don’t have water.”
Knight took the pills and ground them in his teeth, then swallowed the ground gritty remains. They were prescription-strength painkillers — he recognized the bitter taste.
The adrenaline started flowing through him.
Peter crawled behind him and slipped his arms into Knight’s armpits. He started to haul Knight up, and Asya came over to help from his front. In a few awkward seconds, Knight was on his feet. He actually felt better on his feet, since his ribs weren’t resting against anything and pushing painfully on his innards.
“Now what?” Knight asked.
“Now we run,” Lynn said. “That thing is coming back. And fast!”
Asya had one side of him and Peter the other, as they started to run. It was only now that Knight paid attention to the thunderous footfalls vibrating through the ground. Whatever belonged to the huge feet wasn’t walking now.
It was stomping.
FIFTY-TWO
Alexander stopped them in the shadows of the next room. They waited from the edge of the darkened doorway, watching the lit lab, where they could see but not be seen.
“Shouldn’t we go?” King hissed.
“We need to make sure our assumptions about time are correct. I remember what I did back then. We have about twenty minutes after he finds the body before he goes on a full-on tantrum, destroying everything in sight. If it doesn’t go down that way, we might need to reconsider our next steps.”
They waited in silence.
After a few minutes, the younger version of Alexander — the Hercules of myth — stepped drunkenly out of the far doorway and staggered down the steps into the lab. He was whistling a tune of some sort, when he saw the body on the ground near the bars. The tune died slowly on his lips, as if his lungs had just run out of air to continue blowing.
He stood in place for a full thirty seconds. Then he walked slowly toward the body on the ground. He looked up at the Forgotten wraiths, clustered around the bars, watching him, and reaching through the bars for the body’s ankle, which was just a few inches too far away.
King noticed that as the shaken man walked to the cell and the body, he suddenly exhibited none of the drunken stagger he had just a moment ago. The sight of the body had sobered him in an instant.
Young Alexander knelt down next to the body, but did not touch it.
From the shadows, the older Alexander held his hand out to the others in the dark, as if to say: Wait. Here it comes. We’re either right or very, very wrong.
The younger man, still dressed in the clothes he had worn to the marketplace, reached out a hand slowly, and touched the body’s neck, feeling for a pulse. The hand stayed in place for an interminably long moment, then simply dropped to the man’s side. A low moaning escaped the man’s lips, but the sound went on and on, without a new breath. It grew in intensity until it was more like a siren then a moan.
He lowered his head, and the sound grew raspy like a growl.
In the shadows, the elder Alexander waved the other two down the hall as the younger Alexander threw his head back and howled in anguish. The sound was heartbreaking.
King turned and led the way down the long room where he had fought and died several times, and into the narrow tunnel beyond. As the last of the ambient light receded, Acca placed her hand on his shoulder. She couldn’t see. He slowed his pace in the dark as the younger Hercules’s screams echoed through the caverns.
Soon they came to the edge of the arena. King was about to tell Acca about the hellhound, but Alexander beat him to it. King saw that most of the bodies he had piled were gone now. The three of them circled around the perimeter of the massive cavern, but the huge dog didn’t notice. It was busy devouring and crunching the bones of a Forgotten.
When they reached the far tunnel that led to the forest, Alexander had them wait. He ran back into the center of the arena and quickly climbed onto Cerberus’s back. The animal was startled and began twisting its head, trying to snap at him. He quickly pulled the pin securing the chain around the hound’s central head. Then he leapt off of the beast and ran for the tunnel. The huge animal gave chase for just a second, but then thought better of it and turned back to its easy meal.
Alexander led them through the night forest and around the lake, until both Acca and King were so tired they could barely stand.
“We need to stop soon,” King said.
“It won’t be safe to stop anywhere near here. We need to get at least another town over. Tomorrow we can make for Antium, where I have another lab.”
“I am so very tired, my love. I do not think I can go another step tonight.” Acca sounded half asleep already.
Alexander reached into a small pouch on his belt and produced a tiny tin, in which King knew he kept the last of his herbs. By the light of the full moon, King watched the man pull out a small leaf and crush it between his fingers, before sprinkling the crumbs into his mouth, his head tilted back. He sighed heavily, and then swept Acca up into his meaty arms.
“I hope you can manage on your own, Jack. I don’t think I could carry you both.”
“I’ll make it,” King said, his body already easing the pain in his lungs. Then he started off through the forest again, taking the lead. Alexander’s speed slowed with the weight of his wife, but they still put a lot of distance between themselves and the lake, before the moon went down in the sky and only stars lit the way.
Acca had long since fallen asleep in Alexander’s arms as they walked. He had shifted her into one meaty arm, so he could allow the other to rest for a time. Then he would shift her to the other arm, and vigorously shake the first, as if it had gone to sleep on him. King knew the extra strength the herb had provided the man would be fading from his system soon. Even though Acca was slim, her sleeping dead-weight must have been exhausting to carry. King would have offered to carry her for a time, but he was barely able to keep going himself. If not for his body’s ability to heal, he would have collapsed long ago. They walked on under the stars in silence.
For a few minutes, King felt like it was old times for the two of them, but then he reminded himself that their mission was nearly complete, and soon he would be going home. He blinked and saw Sara’s face. It came clear to him for the first time in a long time. Perhaps knowing he would see her again allowed whatever mental defenses he had created to collapse. Whatever the cause, the brief mental glimpse brought a smile to his face.
“What’s next? We get to your place in Antium, and then what? How do we get you home? How do I get back? All you’ve ever told me was that you had access to the technology — but not until the time was right.”
“That’s the tricky part, Jack.”
“Saving Acca wasn’t tricky?”
“What comes next involves untested technology I created in this time, but never found a power source for. We have to examine the machine I made when I was younger, alter it and incorporate the things I learned from the Norway technology. We couldn’t get to the tech early, because I couldn’t be sure my younger self wouldn’t stop in for a visit. That’s not going to happen now. I spend a few days tearing up the area around the lake, and then months in a depression, rarely leaving that villa. It will be safe for us in Antium, now.”