Pegasus and the Origins of Olympus (16 page)

Paelen shook his head. ‘It is sad that we cannot go back and stop them.’

Everyone fell silent.

‘Wait!’ Emily rose and wandered away from the group, muttering softly. ‘It will work! I can do it, I know I can. It will be dangerous. But I have the power …’

‘Do what?’ her father asked.

Emily’s eyes flashed with excitement. She dashed back to Joel’s side. ‘Joel, we can do it!’ she cried. ‘I know how to stop the weapon! Why didn’t I think of this before?’

Joel sat up. ‘Em, what are you talking about?’

Emily started to jump up and down. ‘I know how to save Pegasus and Paelen. We can save them all!’

‘How?’ her father demanded.

Emily ran to her father bursting with excitement. ‘Arious showed me what to do. I have the power to send us back in time. We will go to ancient Greece and destroy that weapon before it can do any harm!’

‘What?’ her father cried.

‘Yes!’ Emily turned to Joel. ‘The moment you are feeling better, I’ll send us back to Cape Sounio. We’ll destroy the weapon before it can be found. Then none of this will happen and everyone will live!’

Agent B shook his head. ‘Time-travel is not possible. If it were, the CRU would have discovered it by now.’

Emily faced the CRU agent. ‘No matter how big and powerful you think the CRU are, they could never be as powerful as the Xan. You can’t do it, Agent B. But I can. And I’ve got proof.’

‘What proof ?’ he demanded.

Emily looked at Stella. ‘Tell them about the pots in the museum, the ones with Joel and me on them. You said they were from the past.’

‘She’s right!’ Stella cried. She told the group about the two amphorae at the Acropolis Museum. ‘They were from thousands of years ago. They even had Mike on them.’

Everyone looked at the dog beside Emily, excitedly wagging his tail.

‘That proves we went back in time. We were there.’

Once again Agent B shook his head. ‘It still won’t work. Even if those pots prove you did go back in time, you obviously failed. The weapon still existed and Olympus was still destroyed. Us being trapped here proves that.’

‘I don’t know what happened,’ Emily said. ‘None of us do. But I’ve got to try – and you aren’t going to stop me.’

‘Agent B’s right, Em,’ her father said. ‘Time-travel is impossible.’

‘No it’s not! Dad, the pots prove it. Now we know what’s at stake, we’ll be extra-careful.’

‘OK,’ her father surrendered, ‘let’s say it
is
possible. But it’s too dangerous. We need you here, Em. You know this world. We don’t.’

Emily shook her head. ‘What about Diana? Dad, I know how you feel about her. I’ve seen you together.’

‘Emily,’ her father said quietly.

‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘After Mom died, you were lonely. We both were. I know she would have loved Diana and wouldn’t want you to be alone. Neither do I. But if I don’t try, Diana will die, just like Mom.’

‘This isn’t like fighting the CRU. Em, you’re talking about time-travel. What if something goes wrong and you can’t come back?’

‘I know it will be dangerous,’ Emily agreed. ‘Until I entered Arious, I would never have considered it. But I’ve changed. The memories aren’t all there yet, but they’re coming. I know what powers I have and how to use them. I can do this.’

Emily paused and reached for his hands. ‘Dad, it won’t be Emily Jacobs going back there. It will be me – the new and improved Emily. I promise I will always be your little girl, but like it or not, I am also a fully powered Xan!’

The next day they were ready to go and the team was set.

Agent B was furious when Emily said he was not welcome. He claimed the mission was doomed to fail without him. But Emily refused and made it clear that she neither liked nor trusted the CRU agent.

Throwing up his arms in fury, Agent B stormed off into the jungle.

As everyone prepared to leave, Emily approached her father. ‘I guess this is it.’

There was fear in his eyes, but she knew he wouldn’t try to stop her. He had opened up about his feelings for Diana and this was her only chance to survive.

‘Promise me,’ he said, ‘promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Just destroy that weapon and get right back here.’

‘We will,’ Emily promised.

She looked at her group of travellers. Joel was standing beside Paelen, who was seated on one of Brue’s shoulders. Stella was in her wheelchair beside Pegasus. Mike, as always, was at Emily’s side. ‘Are we ready?’

Joel approached. ‘It’s up to you now, Em. What do you want us to do?’

‘We all need to be connected.’ Emily put one arm around Pegasus’s neck and held Joel’s hand with the other. Mike was lying on Emily’s feet, panting softly. Soon everyone in the group was touching one another so that they were standing in one big circle.

‘OK. Here we go.’

Emily took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Delving into the knowledge she had acquired from Arious, she focused her powers and commanded them to take them deep into the past; back to Earth, to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounio.

As her powers surged, Emily felt the strangest sensations – almost like she was melting. She opened her eyes and could see everyone with her.

The world around them blurred. It became as though they were standing in the middle of a powerful waterfall. It didn’t feel like they were moving at all. Instead, everything outside their circle was moving. Emily could no longer discern any clear shapes behind her friends. Loud whooshing sounds started to rise as they moved faster through time and space.

Suddenly something slammed violently into Emily’s back. She was knocked forward and broke her physical connection with Joel and Pegasus. In that instant, the calm journey changed. It took all of her concentration just to keep everyone together. She could feel their terror and hear their screams as they somersaulted through time.

The journey ended as abruptly as it started. They came to a sudden stop on a very hard, smooth marble surface.

Emily was the first to open her eyes.

Pegasus was on the ground beside her, unconscious. His wings were open as though he’d been trying to fly. Emily crawled to him and stroked his neck and could feel his steady breathing.

Mike was awake and growled at a group of men staring at them. They were shirtless and wearing loin cloths. Their chests were bathed in sweat and covered with a film of marble dust. Crude cutting tools were in their hands as they stared and muttered quietly to themselves.

Several pillars rose high above them, looking fresh and new, while others were still in the process of being built. The entire area looked under construction. Overhead, the sun was shining brightly and Emily could taste sea-salt on her lips and hear the sea crashing around her from the bottom of the cliffs that surrounded them on three sides.

They were at Cape Sounio, that much was clear.

But the timing was all wrong. They were supposed to arrive long after the temple had been built and turned to ruins. Not during its construction. Emily shook her head, trying to figure out how she had got it so wrong.

Pegasus started to stir. He neighed softly and sat up.

‘Take it easy, Pegs,’ Emily whispered as she stroked him. ‘Nice and slow. We’re here. We’re at Cape Sounio.’

Emily looked at Joel, who was waking. As she crawled over to him, her eyes landed on an unwelcome sight.

Agent B was sitting up and rubbing his head. He looked around in wonder. ‘My God, it worked!’ The CRU agent jumped to his feet and ran off the edge of the temple floor and down to the rocky ground. He approached the cliff edge and raised his hands in the air triumphantly. ‘We’re back on Earth!’

‘What’s he doing here?’ Joel demanded as he wobbled unsteadily to his feet.

Emily shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’ The others were just starting to stir. ‘Check on Paelen and Stella.’

Emily stormed over to the CRU agent. ‘How did you get here?’

Agent B grinned. ‘The same way you did, I suspect. Considering you were the one who brought us here.’

‘I didn’t bring
you
!’

‘True,’ Agent B agreed. ‘I hitched a ride at the last minute.’

‘It was you!’ Emily accused. ‘You were the one who hit me in the back just as we were leaving. You broke my concentration. We could have all been killed!’

‘It was a risk worth taking,’ the agent defended. ‘Though you did recover quite well.’

‘Recover well?’ Emily raged. ‘Are you insane? Look around you. We’re here at the wrong time. We were supposed to arrive after the temple was built, not before. Why did you do it? Do you really want this to fail?’

The agent shook his head. ‘Just the opposite. I desperately need this mission to succeed, but it won’t if I’m not here. I have experience and training in war situations.’

‘What war? We’ve arrived here after the war. All I have to do is destroy the weapon and it’s over. We didn’t need you for that!’

‘You can’t be sure what you might encounter,’ Agent B said. ‘You need me, you just won’t admit it. Why won’t you accept my help?’

Emily shook her head. ‘How can you expect me to trust you after everything you’ve done?’

‘Desperation is a powerful motivator,’ Agent B said, brushing marble dust off his black jeans. ‘If we destroy that weapon, it will be like hitting a reset button. I will be back in London, working at the CRU. You will be back on Olympus and none of this will have ever happened. We need never meet again.’

‘That will happen anyway, with or without your help.’

‘You can’t be sure of that,’ the CRU agent argued. ‘Not with Pegasus distracting you.’

Emily gazed back at the temple. Pegasus was struggling to gain his feet on the smooth marble surface. She raised her hand and used her powers to lift him up. The stallion turned to her and nickered softly.

‘See what I mean,’ Agent B said. ‘He’s a distraction.’

Emily faced the agent and her expression darkened. ‘Pegasus will never be a distraction. But you are! You make one move against us and I swear it will be the last thing you ever do. Let’s just get this over and done with.’

‘Agreed,’ Agent B said.

They walked back to the temple together. Stella was attempting to speak with some of the locals.

‘What’s he doing here?’ Joel demanded.

Emily explained and Joel was ready to kill Agent B. ‘I guess there’s nothing we can do about it now. But you try one more trick like that …’ Joel warned.

‘I know,’ Agent B said, ‘you’ll kill me. Emily has already made that threat perfectly clear.’

Pegasus neighed softly.

Some of the construction workers were approaching him cautiously. Emily moved to the stallion’s side and, when they set their eyes on her, they bowed their heads respectfully and smiled.

‘I hardly believe this.’ Stella returned with more of the men. ‘They are very familiar with Zeus and all the gods. They have been visited by them. They truly believe in the gods and have accepted their presence on Earth. Our appearance here does not frighten them at all. They look at winged Pegasus as if they have known him always. Brue does not bother them!’

‘Of course they accept us,’ Agent B said. ‘These people knew the Olympians were real. It’s us in the modern age who stopped believing.’

‘But what did they say?’ Emily asked impatiently. ‘Has Jupiter been here recently? Did they bury the weapon?’

‘It is not good news,’ Stella said. ‘Zeus has never been here. These people hoped that if they built the temple to Poseidon, he would come and protect them from the Titans and their sea monsters.’

‘The war is still on?’ Joel cried.

Stella nodded. ‘Their language is different to mine. Very ancient. But from what I can understand, a large village not far from here was destroyed by the Shadow Titans a few days ago. Everyone is scared. They fear the Olympians have abandoned them.’

‘So the weapon is not here?’

‘I do not think so.’

‘That’s not good enough,’ Emily said. ‘We have to be certain. Show me where you found the box.’

Stella directed Joel to where her parents pulled the golden box out of the rock. They were followed by the large group of construction workers.

‘It was there,’ she pointed.

‘Everyone, stand back,’ Emily warned.

Emily used her powers to crack open the ground where the golden box was found. She lifted huge chunks of solid rock and broke them up in the air until they were only dust.

‘It’s not here!’ Emily repaired and replaced the rocks back in the ground. She shot an accusing eye at Agent B. ‘We’re too early! If it hadn’t been for you, we would have arrived at the right time and I could have destroyed that weapon by now.’

‘How was I supposed to know I would throw you off ?’ Agent B defended.

Emily was stopped from saying more by a horrendous roar. It was coming from the sea.

Pegasus tried to rear and opened his wings.

The construction workers were the first to react. They threw down their tools and ran away from the temple. Mike started to growl and bark as he charged the edge of the cliff.

‘Mike, come back!’ Emily ordered. But the dog refused to obey. She used her powers to lift him from the cliff edge just as a huge tentacle crested the top and slammed down where Mike had been standing.

‘What the … ?’ Joel gasped.

‘It is a sea serpent,’ Paelen cried. ‘Everybody run!’ He started to kick at Brue’s thick neck. ‘Brue, you must move! It will devour us all!’

More of the huge sea-monster appeared as it crawled over the cliff edge and its hideousness was revealed. It had many heads, each with a mouth full of sharp teeth that snapped and snarled at them. Its slimy, grey body looked like a giant squid with at least eight long tentacles that flipped and flew in the air, reaching for them.

‘It’s the Hydra,’ Joel shouted as he pushed Stella’s wheelchair.

‘That’s not the Hydra,’ Stella corrected. ‘It’s a sea-serpent!’

‘It doesn’t matter what it’s called,’ Agent B yelled. ‘We’ll be just as dead!’

As they ran, more sea-monsters crested the far side of the cliff, blocking their escape.

‘We’re surrounded,’ Joel yelled.

Faced on three sides by the huge, ferocious monsters, the group huddled together. Joel caught hold of a long pole from the construction site.