Page 39 of The Ferryman’s Rest Inn & Grogshop

Stheno went back and hugged him, speaking softly. He crushed her in his arms. I didn’t want to think about how horrible his life was, trapped in a dark cave for eternity.

I blinked the wetness from my eyes and moved out into the tunnel, with Bracken and Coco following. Eventually, an ear-splitting roar shook the tunnel as Stheno stepped out and pointed the way.

The path was narrow and twisting, like before. After the first few turns, where I heard Coco and Bracken grunting in pain trying to squeeze through, I realized why. Mio was kept in his cave by making all the tunnels around him too small for him to fit through. It was cruel.

Coco muttered something to Bracken about it being torture, being squeezed into smaller and smaller passages and he wheezed in agreement, trying to squeeze through another turn.

Stheno quietly led the way. I knew it had to have hurt, but she’d walked away. After what felt like at least an hour of this, Bracken and Coco began to discuss medieval history as they slowly shoved themselves through gaps in the rock that were not made for people as tall or broad-shouldered as they were. I hadn’t been paying attention at first, but my guess was that their conversation had begun with a discussion of torture methods.

Stheno and I had moved far into the lead, as we had an easier time getting through the gaps that were cutting and bruising the other two. “I’m really sorry we had to leave him,” I told her.

She shrugged as though it didn’t matter, but a few of her snakes turned to look at me, their heads drooping.

“Mio told me something interesting,” she said.

“Oh?”

She went around another corner. “Apparently no one has seen the big man’s woman. I mean, ever.” She paused to look at me. “You understand, right?”

We were speaking in code so the gods wouldn’t notice us. “Spring flowers?” I guessed, assuming she was talking about Hades and Persephone.

Stheno nodded and kept going. “That’s the one.”

Well, shit. “Do they think he did something to her?”

Stheno’s snakes looked all around, like they were keeping watch. “Most think she either ran away or he killed her. He’d ordered preparations for her arrival. There was a big commotion to get ready, but since then, no one’s seen her. And he’s been in a foul mood.”

There was a loud roar in the tunnel that shook the walls and made us both jump. Stheno’s face went pale. She placed a finger over her lips. We were no longer discussing that bit of gossip. I turned and looked down the tunnel for Coco and Bracken, afraid they’d been trapped in a cave-in. When I saw their silhouettes moving behind us, I breathed a sigh of relief.

After what seemed like forever, we made it through an especially tight curve that made me worry the other two wouldn’t be able to follow. Stheno and I ended up in what felt like a large open space. The air was different. I couldn’t explain how I knew, but after days in these dark tunnels, I could feel the difference. Bracken’s lights stuck close to him, so Stheno and I were unable to see.

When I heard deep breathing, I almost wet myself. We’d just walked into a sleeping something’s cave.

A deep growl reverberated off the rock walls. Shitshitshitshit.

“Bracken! Light!” I called through the passage.

A moment later, a light zipped around the corner and hung high in the air.

Holy shit! I longed for two seconds ago when I couldn’t see it.

A huge sort-of lion came slowly to his massive paws. He shook his mane and snapped his long, sharp teeth at us. The thing was, though, he wasn’t just a lion, though that would have been bad enough. When he moved, I saw the neck and head of a long-horned goat growing out of his back. Instead of a tail, he had a thick, wicked-looking snake. Fuck me.

“Chimera,” Stheno murmured. She pushed me to the side so we could move out of paw-swatting range.

“We didn’t mean to disturb your rest,” she said, all soothing tones. “Please excuse us.” We moved along the edge of the cave, trying to make our way toward the far side, which looked as though it had a narrow slit in the rock like the one we’d just come through.

The Chimera shook his head, his mane flying out like a fan. The goat head tossed his horns angrily and bleated, the sound stabbing my brain. Ow ow ow.

I heard gasps and grunts at the passage. If Stheno and I had trouble, I didn’t know how Coco and Bracken would be able to make it through.

The lion head roared, shooting flames across the cave at us. I hit the ground, taking Stheno with me. “What the shit? He breathes fire too?”

Stheno flipped up her eye patch, but the Chimera had apparently recognized her. His gaze slid to the side, keeping us in his peripheral vision.

“What the hell do we do now?” I yanked my axe from its sheath. “We both need to get close to fight it. It can shoot flames from way over there.”

Stheno screamed, causing the goat head to turn and get caught in her high beam. “One down,” she said. “Good thing goats are stupid.”