Fred Saberhagen Book of the Gods 01 The Face of Apollo

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remaining torch, knock-ing it from its high sconce but it still burned fitfully as it lay on the Cave floor.
And then in a soft rush through the thickened darkness there came the sudden charge of a squad of
fanatical humans. There were half a dozen of them. Once they were seen they abandoned secrecy and
came on howling, swinging, and thrusting with a va-riety of weapons.
They came on so boldly that they might have been expecting to encounter an Apollo already drastically
weakened and worn down by a poisoned wound or they might have been drugged themselves or
hypnotized into a fanatical certainty of victory. In any case, they were fatally mistaken.
A vicious struggle surged in near-darkness around the broken cage while the girl, still weak and helpless,
cowered. One or two of Hades's folk went howling in retreat. The last man standing was too slow, and
Apollo seized him by the neck and wiped away his screaming, bubbling face against a rough outcropping
of rock.
Then with his two strong hands the Lord of Light undertook a further splintering of the wrecked cage,
the object this time being to gain another weapon, for use when the arrows should all be gone. The action
also served as a symbolic wrecking, a weak-ening of Hades's magic, all his powers in this chamber.
Darkness or not, Apollo meant to have this Cave and all its prophecies all to himself one day. And then,
with flint and steel taken from one of the dead soldiers, he set fire to the wreckage, so that for a little
while an artificial light flared up.
The cord vines came loose when the logs that they had been holding together were broken. This small
cage was more strongly made, much more elaborately carved and decorated, than those up on the
surface. Apollo poured extra strength into the human fingers and lingered lovingly over the job. He knew
with an inner certainty that it was important to ruin the ritual property of Hades.
When the latest skirmish was concluded, Katy, crawling, stum-bling, out of the wreckage of the cage,
collapsed in Jeremy's arms. Some of the paint that covered her naked body came off on his hands and
clothing.
He could see well enough, even with the last torch almost gone, to know that the two of them were
alone. But at any mo-ment Hades's troops or even the Lord of the Underworld himself could reappear.
She was shivering in the dry coolness of the Cave.
He had restored some of Katy's own garments to her back-pack when he picked it up from the sale
table, and she was soon lightly clothed again but still chilled. Jeremy pulled off his own tunic and put it on
her as a coat. In his undershirt he bustled about, ransacking the packs of fallen enemies for extra clothing.
One of their bodies also yielded a pair of boots small enough to be a reasonable fit for Kate. Meanwhile
the Intruder seemed to watch but gave no clue to his reaction.
Maybe, thought Jeremy, it was important in terms of magic, of the commerce of the gods among
themselves, that the sacrifice intended for the God of Darkness be denied him, reclaimed for light and life.
What to do now?
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Jeremy realized that it would be foolish for him and Katy to simply turn their backs on their nearest
enemies and make their way back to the main entrance. For one thing, the enemies were almost certainly
still there and now in greater numbers than be-fore. The Lord Apollo, wounded arm or not, could
probably fight his way through them. But neither he nor Jeremy would be able to protect Katherine in the
process.
Besides, the Sun God had some further vital business of his own yet to be accomplished in the Cave.
Jeremy was sure; the god had not launched this raid simply to turn back before encoun-tering his chief
opponent.
When he had Katherine clothed as warmly and practically as he could, Jeremy cradled her gently in his
arms. "Listen to me, Katy."
"Jonathan? Jeremy?" Her voice was small and wondering.
"Yes, it's me call me by whichever name you like. Listen. We can't get out the way we came in. We're
going to have to go on. There's a branch of the Cave that goes up from here, up inside the Mountain..."
He paused, consulting his engrafted memory. "All the way to the top, I think." Then he winced as the
wound in his arm delivered what seemed a gratuitous jolt of pain.
"Just get me out of here somehow. Just don't leave me."
"Leave you?Leaveyou?" He shook his head in wonderment that she could imagine such a thing.
If Apollo wanted to leave her, he and Jeremy were going to have the showdown that had been so long [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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