Part 27 (1/2)
”He minds when the wind wind touches you,” Kallas said darkly. He checked his efforts with businesslike precision. ”All in? Secure?” touches you,” Kallas said darkly. He checked his efforts with businesslike precision. ”All in? Secure?”
London tested the feel of the ropes around her thighs and at her waist, and nodded. She had no doubt the captain's handiwork was excellent, but that didn't stop her pulse from beating like crows at a dark window.
”Ready?” asked Athena.
London's mouth dried, so she could only nod again. Then she tugged on the rope, three times, as Bennett had done.
A jolt, and then her feet lifted from the deck of the caique. She was drawn upward, pulled, presumably, by Bennett. Such a strange sensation, as though slowly, slowly flying. More and more distance separated her from the boat, and Athena and Kallas began to shrink beneath her as she rose.
Bennett was a strong man, and she wasn't precisely corpulent, but London wouldn't allow him to bear her weight alone. As soon as she drew up close to the cliff, she searched for foot- and handholds, trying to pull and push herself upward. Even with the support of the harness, it was tough work, straining her every muscle. Thank heavens she had been laboring on the boat these past days, developing her strength, else she would have merely dangled on the end of the rope like a puppet.
She chanced a look down, then cursed herself. Even though she knew falling was not a possibility, her head spun with the height. Still, she found a gratification in her elevation, the harsh wind and sun raking her, as though completely exposed before the eye of G.o.d. When she banged her knees into the rock, or sc.r.a.ped her face and hands, she allowed herself some prime swearing, but kept her resolve for as long as she was able. Better this, to scrabble up the side of a cliff, with the sea below and the sky stretched overhead, than be shut away in a plush prison, safe from danger, entirely numb.
Her fingers felt like tender, uncooked sausages and her legs shook by the time she neared the top of the cliff. If Bennett hadn't been there, pulling her up, she wouldn't have made it. Or, at the least, it would have taken her a day to make the climb.
When Bennett's dark head appeared over the edge of the cliff, smiling, of course, liquid joy poured through her. Filled with new energy, London pushed herself hard to scale the rest of the way. After everything she'd seen and done today, she burned with the need to touch him.
She clambered over the cliff's edge just as he gave one final pull on the rope. She stumbled forward, knocking him back. They sprawled together, gasping, her lying on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. Beneath her, she felt the heat and solidity of his body, the body she knew so intimately, and she pressed her face into the crook of his neck, inhaling him. She could hardly move. Not merely because her limbs were exhausted, but because he felt exactly right, touching her.
She brought herself up just enough to kiss him, eating him up like a savage woman. He kissed her back with the same hunger, slipping the harness off of her, then pulled away slightly.
”There's someone I want you to meet,” he said, when she frowned in confusion. He sat up, taking her with him. That's when she saw it. And forgot how to breathe.
”London Harcourt, Oracle's Daughter,” Bennett said in cla.s.sical Greek, ”allow me to introduce you to the Colossus of Rhodes.”
A giant, buried to his shoulders in the rock, nodded regally.
”Um, charmed,” said London.
What London had learned about the Colossus of Rhodes came from piles of dusty tomes, scholarly and ancient accounts about one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It had been constructed in the fourth century B.C., a bronze monument to the sun G.o.d Helios to celebrate victory after a long and painful battle. London had seen many different renderings of the ma.s.sive statue, some depicting the G.o.d astride the Rhodian harbor, others showing a more cla.s.sical pose. London had always been impressed by the spectacle, wondering what such a gigantic statue might be like in person. Awe-inspiring, she imagined. Spectacular, in the truest sense of the word.
Nothing, neither her books nor her imagination, truly prepared her for standing in front of what was very much not not a statue, yet not truly alive, an enormous creature somewhere between metal and flesh. It only had one eye, but the eye it did possess was easily two feet across, gleaming like fire in the afternoon light. a statue, yet not truly alive, an enormous creature somewhere between metal and flesh. It only had one eye, but the eye it did possess was easily two feet across, gleaming like fire in the afternoon light.
And looking right at her.
”Am I the Oracle's Daughter?” she whispered in English to Bennett, standing beside her. She held his hand tightly, and felt some grounding from the familiar and wonderful texture of his skin against hers.
Lowly, Bennett said, ”He insisted he would only speak with me, the Solver of Secrets, if the Oracle's Daughter was here, as well. It's been your language skills that have brought us to this point, communicating the words of the ancients to us now. I remembered that Kallas called you Lady Oracle, and it made sense.”
”Are you sure I'm not some variety of virgin sacrifice?”
Bennett's glance at her was both droll and reproving. Of course he wouldn't bring her up to the Colossus if the giant meant to eat her like a kipper. And, as for virgin, those days were quite, quite behind her. She had the blushes and bite marks to prove it.
”What does he want?” she whispered.
”Only one way to find out.” He took a step forward. Addressing the Colossus in cla.s.sical Greek, he said, ”I've brought to you the Oracle's Daughter, as you requested.” Bennett tugged on London's hand so she also stepped forward, though with a bit more reluctance.
The giant stared at her, its gaze as weighty as time. Despite everything she had done over the past weeks, all she had seen, to be in the presence of a magical being, particularly one so enormous as the Colossus, left her more than a little lost.
”How do you do?” she said, also in cla.s.sical Greek, then winced at her gaucheness. This wasn't a blasted tea salon! She pictured herself lifting a teacup the size of a birdbath up to the mouth of the giant, and fought down a hysterical giggle.
”Are you truly the Oracle's Daughter?” the Colossus thundered in the Samalian-Thracian dialect.
London barely managed to keep herself from covering her ears from the tremendous boom of the giant's voice. Such a gesture would read as disrespectful, and she most a.s.suredly did not not want to offend this huge creature. want to offend this huge creature.
And she could not not let him see any signs of fear or hesitation. ”I am she,” she answered in the same dialect. let him see any signs of fear or hesitation. ”I am she,” she answered in the same dialect.
The Colossus inclined his head in approval, appearing to London as if a mountain were tipping onto its side.
”The Oracle's Daughter and Solver of Secrets seek the terrible waterborne gift, the fire that burns upon water,” the Colossus said in cla.s.sical Greek, its voice resounding throughout the soft tissues of London's body.
”For the protection of the gift, not for our own use,” Bennett answered, his own voice remarkably level for a man addressing a giant.
The Colossus's gaze moved over them both, so penetrating she felt as though her every secret had been laid bare. She prayed the giant did not see the time she stole a penny from her governess to buy a piece of boiled sweets.
After moments of this examination, the Colossus rumbled, ”I read your hearts as I had desired, and find them true.”
London allowed herself an exhalation of relief. Bolstering her courage, she asked, ”What must we do to find this gift?”
”I see far,” the Colossus intoned. ”I see the spans of generations as though they were mayflies, decades and centuries no more than glints upon the surface of the rocks. I see the millennia fall away. I see my destruction. The monument honoring me fell, torn asunder by my brother Poseidon's earth shakings.” The Colossus's mouth twisted bitterly. ”Jealousy. Yet I expect no better from him, the waterlogged fool.”
London exchanged glances with Bennett. It seemed even G.o.ds had difficulties with their families.
”For hundreds of years, my monument lay in pieces,” continued the giant. ”Until, piece by piece, it was taken away upon the backs of nine hundred camels and melted down, lost to time. Everything gone, except my Eye, the Eye which held the terrible gift.”
”And if we find the Eye, we will have control over the waterborne fire,” said Bennett.
”It has been used before for such a purpose.”
Even though speaking with a partially buried giant was not precisely ordinary, London's pulse sped up even further at the mention of the Source. It was precisely what the Blades sought to protect from the Heirs. ”Where is the Eye?” she asked.
The Colossus's sigh would have tipped London onto her backside had Bennett not been holding her. ”I cannot show you where it is,” the giant said, mournful. ”I have but one Eye to see it.”
London's heart sank. Even this incarnation of the sun G.o.d could not help them in their quest.
”We shall be your eyes,” said Bennett. ”We will find what you have lost. But without more information, our sight is just as hindered as yours. Tell us the first steps of our journey.”
The Colossus's scowl was a terrible thing, yet Bennett didn't seem to mind it overmuch. Oh, dear. Sometimes bravado wasn't the best tactic to employ. Perhaps that was why the Blades included women in their ranks.
”If we find your Eye,” London said quickly, ”then we can restore it to you. Will that not make it secure and keep it from the hands of wicked men?”
This appeared to mollify the Colossus. ”You speak as a sage, Oracle's Daughter. I shall tell you what I can, but, in turn, you must swear solemnly to return my Eye to me.”
”That was the plan all along,” muttered Bennett in English.