Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,40

Office and spotted Kase and Diana standing where Gawain had landed, Kase’s mouth open in shock. “You asked me why I’m not full of rage at the thought of your father being Avalon’s prisoner. That’s what happens when I let it go for just an instant. Tommy is in Atlantis, and when I find those who have kept him, that rage is going to be aimed directly at them.”

Kase continued to watch me as I walked over to the broken West Wing. If Gawain and his allies hadn’t feared me before, they clearly hadn’t been paying attention.

Chapter Nine

MORDRED

City of Solomon, Realm of Shadow Falls

Mordred had paced up and down inside the realm gate temple for the better part of an hour. He’d wanted to go to Washington with Nate and everyone else; he’d wanted to confront his brother and see him brought down a few dozen pegs. Unfortunately, as he’d been told more times than he cared to remember, he was a king now and had to do king-like things. He’d assumed being king meant he could have other people do those things. He’d been wrong.

“We’re trying to work,” Leonardo said to Mordred.

“I know,” Mordred said with a smile as he made another lap of the temple. “I’m working too.”

“At pissing me off,” Leonardo said with a sigh.

“See, we all have jobs,” Mordred told him.

“Can you do something with him?” Leonardo asked Hel.

“Mordred,” Hel said. “Leonardo thinks you’re being a pain in the ass.”

“Leonardo is correct,” Mordred said. “But I’m thinking.”

“About what?” Hel asked, stepping in front of Mordred to stop him from completing another lap of the temple.

“We need to go to Olympus to persuade them to join our fight; they’ve been sitting on the fence for too long. We need their help,” Mordred said. “And we know that Arthur is in Atlantis, but no one knows how to get to Atlantis because it was destroyed.”

“Correct,” Leonardo shouted.

“I thought you were working,” Mordred replied and caught the smile on the face of Antonio as Leonardo turned back to the realm gate, muttering.

“Anyway,” Mordred continued as Loki and Irkalla entered the temple. “There’s no point in my trying to get the Olympians on our side if I can’t give them an enemy to fight. So how do we find a way into Atlantis?”

“Hopefully Gawain gives us that information,” Loki said.

“Yes, because Gawain is well known for being forthcoming,” Hel replied.

“Nanshe,” Irkalla said. “She’s in Olympus. I think she might be able to help.”

Mordred grimaced. “The last time I saw her, I remember trying to kill her,” he said. “You know, old evil me, not me me.”

“Yeah, we got it,” Irkalla said. “Nanshe’s not exactly a grudge holder, but she is unbelievably smart.”

“Can’t we use Yggdrasil?” Mordred asked. “No one has mentioned it.”

“It’s still repairing itself from when we kicked Avalon out of Helheim,” Hel said. “We can’t get it to fix on a location. It might decide to dump us anywhere in a hundred thousand different realms.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Mordred said.

“Done,” Leonardo declared, standing back and clapping his hands together. “This will take you to Olympus.”

“Why’d it take so long?” Loki asked.

“Because Olympus shut off all external entrances to their gate,” Antonio said. “We had to work around their security. A bit like what the dwarves did in Nidavellir. It should be fine now.”

“How happy are they going to be that we broke their security?” Hel asked.

“Not very,” Irkalla said.

“You sound a lot more cheerful about that than you should,” Mordred pointed out.

“We done yet?” Medusa asked as she entered the realm gate temple. Like everyone else, she wore black leather armor with runes inscribed across it. Medusa’s snakes slithered over her shoulders.

“They excited?” Mordred asked, pointing to them.

“They don’t like realm gates,” Medusa said.

“Is this it?” Loki asked.

“Small team—we’re in and out,” Mordred said. “No matter what everyone else says, I don’t need a bunch of guards to go everywhere with me.”

“Good luck,” Antonio said and operated the realm gate. Everyone stepped through a moment later.

“Well, this is nice,” Mordred said as they entered the realm gate temple in Olympus. It was, in Mordred’s mind, exactly how a realm gate in a place where Zeus lived would look. The temple had marble columns that stretched from floor to ceiling, fifty feet above. The ceiling had a mural on it depicting the fall of the Titans by Zeus and his allies. All the Olympians were semiclothed and looked like they spent more time in the gym than Mordred