Page 53 of Crown of Serpents (Curse of Olympus #1)
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Medusa and Kleos crept through the dimly lit hallways of the palace, their footsteps barely a whisper against the cold marble floor. They stuck to the shadows of the thick pillars that lined the colonnade to the women’s chambers and turned left toward the kitchens.
She had expected servants to be bustling about the narrower hallways, but the servants’ quarter was eerily still. The hair on Medusa’s neck rose in apprehension. They descended the narrow stairs leading to the dungeons. Medusa pressed against the damp wall as they spotted a light flickering ahead. Two guards.
Medusa smirked. She had spent the past days in torment; the abandoned cottage, the signs of a struggle, had haunted her. She had dreaded telling Perseus about what had happened, but now only two guards stood between her and the family of the man she had grown to care for.
She nodded to Kleos, and they struck. Before the guards could call for help, Kleos had smashed the hilt of his sword against the taller man’s temple. The man slumped unconscious to the ground. Medusa pinned the other guard against the wall, fumbling for the chains on his wrist. He struggled against her, and Medusa hissed in his face, cursing Perseus’s order to use minimal violence.
She drew a bead of blood from the guard's neck. “One wrong move and I’ll slit your throat.” Medusa gagged the guard with a piece of her tunic and chained him to a cell.
Kleos shook his head at her.
“What? Perseus didn’t say I couldn’t threaten a painful death.”
They hurried deeper into the dungeon, the flickering torchlight revealing rows of haggard prisoners. Despite the commotion, most of the prisoners had not moved. They sat slumped against their cell walls, either asleep or too weak to wonder who had broken in. Kleos cursed, frantically searching for Danae and Dictys. Medusa followed silently, fighting the pang of guilt in her gut as they passed the cells. They had no time to free them all.
Finally, Kleos stopped short. “By the gods … what happened to you, Dictys?”
The old man’s body was battered and bruised, red, angry gashes covering his upper body. Kleos unlocked the cell and gently lifted him. Dictys groaned in pain, tears of anger welling in Medusa's eyes.
“Where is Danae?” Kleos urged, while supporting Dictys’s broken body.
Grief flashed in the old man’s eyes as he shook his head. “Polydectes …” He coughed, blood flecking his lips.
Medusa and Kleos exchanged a panicked glance. Medusa’s stomach dropped as images of Danae’s lifeless eyes while Polydectes forced himself inside flashed through her head.
Kleos hoisted Dictys over his shoulder, and they broke into a run.
“We have to find her,” Medusa said between gritted teeth, her heart hammering at the prospect of searching the entire palace without raising the alarm .
Kleos glanced at the unconscious man in his arms. “He won’t make it, I have to —”
His words died in his throat as they turned a corner. Serpents tore from Medusa’s head, her eyes widening in horror. Linus stood before them, flanked by a dozen armoured guards.
How had he made it back to Seriphos before them?
Medusa noticed that each of their uniforms included a small veil that shielded their eyes. Getting into the dungeon unseen had been too easy. The trap had been sprung. Polydectes knew.
“Well, well, well,” Linus’s voice dripped with malice. “If it isn’t my favourite drunkard and the bitch that I’ve been itching to get a rematch with … and it looks like Perseus isn’t around to save you this time. Now, where might he be lurking about?”
Medusa glared at him, flexing her muscles and trying to keep a level head while her blood roared in rage, beckoning to charge into battle and get revenge. She did not pounce, though. They were severely outnumbered, even if she had been able to petrify her opponents. Kleos could not defend himself and support Dictys in his arms. It would be up to her alone.
Linus clucked his tongue. “No need to answer. We know where Perseus is. Mikis spilt the beans after we found him spreading rumours in the market. Did you honestly think your crew could blend in with the other equinox guests and his majesty would not smell the traitors right under his nose?”
Medusa’s blood ran cold.
Her gaze flickered toward the stairwell behind the wall of guards. She had to get past them and warn Perseus that he was walking into a trap.
Linus’s gaze shifted to Kleos. “Oh, and Polydectes knows about your esteemed guest from Joppa. The king is eager to welcome Princess Andromeda to Seriphos, which is why he sent a party to escort her to the palace.”
Hatred blazed in Kleos's eyes. Despite their differences, Medusa almost reached out to Kleos to steady him. At this moment, they were united by their shared urge to rip Linus to bloody ribbons and the knowledge that the people they both cared for were currently in mortal peril. Kleos needed to get to the ship just as badly as she had to reach the throne room .
“I’ll hold them off,” she said, her voice steady. “Run for the ship when you can.”
Without waiting for a response, she charged. Linus retreated as his guards advanced, drawing their broadswords. Coward.
Medusa moved with deadly grace, disarming the first guard and using his momentum to slay another. She was outnumbered, but her fury made her a whirlwind of death. Two more guards fell, their armour clattering against the dungeon walls.
However, Kleos struggled under Dictys's weight, the old man's reopened wounds bleeding onto his shoulder. His back was pressed against the wall as he desperately swung his sword to keep the three guards circling him at bay.
Medusa leapt toward them. She ducked beneath a sword that barely missed her head and sliced with her weapon through the back of the knees of Kleos’s assailants, watching the guards collapse before her. Medusa now stood between Kleos and the remaining six soldiers, closing in on them.
Behind her, Dictys rasped, “Leave me, Kleos … I’m deadweight.“
Kleos ignored the plea.
The soldiers now coordinated their attacks, hammering on Medusa’s defences simultaneously. She had to jump back to avoid being gutted by the man to her left and collided with Kleos. Whirling the broadsword that lay too heavy in her hand, Medusa parried their attacks with increasing strain. “Go, Kleos!” she ordered, pushing him back. “I’ll protect Dictys! Save her!”
Finally, Kleos listened and let go of the old man who slumped against the wall. With an abrupt movement, he bolted toward the stairs, tackling two guards to the ground. He ran full speed toward Linus, but rather than engaging him in a duel, he deflected his blade and shoved past.
Medusa stood alone, Dictys slumped against the wall behind her. Six guards remained, their eyes hungry. Time was running out for Perseus. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. Ninety seconds, she told herself, was the allotted time she could spend disposing of these guards.
A roar escaped her throat, and she became a storm of bronze and bloody mist. Medusa gutted the soldier, who had lunged for her from the right and kicked him toward the other guards, toppling them over. She evaded another blade targeted for her heart, sidestepping the guard and slitting his throat in one motion. Ten seconds gone.
She rolled to avoid a wild swing, the attacker's sword shattering against the stone. She stabbed him in the back, then dispatched another as panic filled his eyes.
Twenty seconds. The last two fell in quick succession. A slow smile spread across Medusa’s face as she turned toward Linus, who stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs, his sneer replaced with horror.
“Not so brave now, are we?” she taunted.
“Fuck you, bitch.”
She should have savoured this moment, drawing out Linus’s death for how he had tormented her, but there was no time for that. He raised his sword but stumbled backwards, fear making him clumsy. Medusa seized the opening and thrust her blade home. Crimson blood seeped through Linus’s tunic, and he toppled over, cowering at her feet and clutching his side.
“Have a good trip to Tartarus. May you bleed out slowly,” she spat, pinning him beneath her foot and wiping her stained blade clean on Linus’s cloak.
She rushed to help Dictys, but the old man shook his head, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Blood pooled around him.
No. No. No.
She had promised Perseus that she would rescue his family. Yet, she could do nothing as Dictys grew ashen, his colour draining alongside his waning life force. Medusa took his icy hand in hers as if she might tether him to this world.
He rasped with the last of his strength, “Tell Perseus … tell him I’m sorry — I’m sorry I couldn’t protect her.”
A shuddering breath escaped his mouth, his eyelids fluttering shut. His hand went limp inside hers.
“I will,” Medusa whispered into the silent dungeon, wiping a lonely tear from her eye.
She had no time to linger and grieve the man she had not known. Medusa ascended the stairwell less than seventy seconds later.