poignant melody. Despite my non-wizard status, I swayed in place as waves of magic washed over us. Beside me, Matt fell to his knees. I held myself upright by sheer will. Every bone inside me felt as if it were turning to liquid.
In a haze, I watched the ten heads swirl around in circles. Then, the depressed center head, the one Matt pushed, glowed with golden light. Rays spread over the circling heads, connecting them until they lit up, one-by-one. The Morgans’ aria pitched even higher. Matt passed out and fell forward on the ground.
I wanted to lean down to catch him, but couldn’t. Gravity seemed to have increased, making my whole body heavier. The sides of the casket rose up and pushed open the top of it. The stone kept rising until they reached past my head. It was the outline of a doorway—two vertical slabs with the lid of the casket balanced horizontally across the top. A trilithon, I realized. Golden light flashed inside the doorway. A portal opened.
I saw mist on the other side.
Then, the wind died down. The aria stopped.
I jerked forward, almost falling on my face as I suddenly became free once more.
I knelt down to Matt. The Morgans started sinking rapidly into the water. More rocks crashed around us. One sharp fragment fell straight down to split my skull. I jumped aside at the last moment, but it sank deep into my shoulder. The awning started to slip-slide down. I had to get out before Matt and I became little more than pancakes. With a cry, I tore the wretched piece out of my shoulder. Blood seeped down my chest. I hooked my hands under Matt’s armpits. My shoulder burning with pain, I heaved his shoulders off the ground. Somehow, I dragged him into the mist.
CHAPTER 10 – KRONOS’S FURY
CHAPTER 10
KRONOS’S FURY
I fell, plunging straight down between the banks of a narrow river. I sank deep into the water and swallowed several mouthfuls before I pushed myself back up to the top. Coughing, I glanced around the water’s surface. Matt was nowhere to be seen. I dove under the water again, but I could see nothing in the murkiness. I made several dives before my body forced me to take a rest.
Above me, the darkening sky showed a fading sun and emerging moon. A familiar outline of stars shone from a healthy blanket of blue sky. On the riverbanks, trees swayed under the direction of a quiet breeze. I moved toward the bank. Maybe Matt managed to make it to land.
“One cannot enter Elysium so easily, little one.”
I looked in the direction of the voice. Up on a long, slanted boulder, next to the riverbank, a tanned, bare-chested man sat wearing billowing, black Arabian-style trousers. From the middle of his wide forehead, a third eye winked at me. Two gold armlets decorated his beefy arms. Tattoos of heads, five on each arm, were elaborately inked down his upper limbs. A long tongue stuck out of the mouth of each tattooed face.
The giant of a man sat casually on the smooth boulder. Sharp cheekbones on his handsome face gave him an austere countenance. The regal way he held himself reminded me a little of Lelex, the mermaid king—which was not a good thing. He scrutinized me. “Who are you? I wait for the sword-bearer. How did you come to be here, little girl?”
I swam closer to the bank. “I am the sword-bearer.”
Rawana guffawed. “I do not believe it. You cannot be the great wizard-warrior the Father said the Lady would dare to send. You are so delicate. Scrawny.”
I stared back at him. “How are you still alive, King Rawana?”
“I am not, in a mortal sense,” he answered. “You have found a piece of my spirit, left to guard this place. I pay penance for my misdeeds.” Rawana stood up. My breath caught. Behind him, previously hidden by his big body, I spotted a black lion. His mane and body glistened with dark fur. Huge amber eyes watched me quietly, yet the lion remained frozen in place.
Matt.
I demanded, “What have you done to him?”
Rawana let out an outraged roar. Drawing a scythe from behind his back, he put his foot on the lion’s head. “Tread carefully, warrior.” He emphasized the last word with a sneer. “I am not one who suffers a slight.”
“That much I know,” I muttered.
He kidnapped Seetha in retaliation for an insult to his sister.
Sharp teeth flashed at me as Rawana smiled. “Your