Chapter 66: Chapter 66: The Morning After

It was both a shock and a blessing that morning arrived at all.

Praxis cracked his eyes to see the first rays of the sun beginning to illuminate their small cave, casting away the darkness and melting the snow that had gathered near the entrance. With the sun came warmth—a welcome reprieve from a night of shivering.

“Lysandra, wake up. Lysandra, we made it to the morning.”

Praxis gently rocked her but became concerned that she looked almost too pale. Her lips were still bluish in color and she showed no signs of responsiveness.

“Lysandra, you can’t die,” whispered Praxis, shaking her more vigorously. “Not now, not when we’ve finally done it.”

She didn’t respond to that, and her head hung lifelessly to the side. Praxis started to fear the worst. How could he go on without Lysandra in his life? How would he live with himself knowing that he couldn’t save her?

It was as the lump was growing in his throat that he heard the first sounds of life. A low, guttural groan erupted from her lips and her body shifted.

“Lysandra? Can you hear me?”

Slowly, she opened her eyes, testing them as if she was using them for the first time.

“Praxis?”

Upon hearing his name, he couldn’t help but squeeze her tight.

“Thank the gods you’re alive,” he whispered. “I was beginning to really worry.”

“I might not be alive for much longer if you don’t loosen your grip,” she replied.

He laughed and let go, allowing her to sit upright. Using her hands, she rubbed her arms in an effort to return heat to her body.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold before,” she said before stepping into the sunlight. “And I never want to be that cold again.”

“Well, there are no more trials for us to complete. So we don’t have to be cold like this ever again. We made it, Lysandra. We really made it.”

Those words made her smile. She beckoned him from the cave where they could enjoy the full weight of the sun’s attention.

“I don’t know about you but I think we’ve spent enough time on this mountain,” said Lysandra after a moment. “Should we head back to the village?”

“I’d love nothing more.”

*****

While Praxis and Lysandra were about to start descending the mountain, another creature was on his way up.

Orcus was having a terrible time getting up Mt. Oligyrtos. It was the kind of work he wasn’t made for, hating everything to do with strenuous exertion. He much preferred his life of leisure, where everything was taken care of for him by his father.

Even still, it wasn’t hatred of the mountain that drove him forward but instead hatred of Demetrios and his two precious Argives. With the promise of a house in his future, he would see to it that they failed the trials and forfeited their lives in the process.

That was why Orcus even bothered climbing toward the top. He suspected the two Argives would survive the forty-eight hours on the mountain, especially seeing as they got past the first two trials so easily. If that was the case, he was going to make sure they didn’t reappear in the village when they tried to come down.

Patting his belt, Orcus’ sling was still firmly secured. A few well-placed tosses would end any possibility of the Argives getting back to the village alive.

Although, there was the chance that he might save the woman for himself. He enjoyed watching her lean and tight body as she moved around. Maybe it was time to start thinking about having little Orcuses of his own.

Laughing to himself, Orcus managed to quietly slip past the guard posted near the pass to the summit. Chilon’s son, Evios, had fallen asleep sometime in the night, and he didn’t witness Orcus’ nimble feet stalk past him.

After he put some distance between himself and Evios, Orcus found a rocky hiding spot that had a perfect vantage point of the pass. It would allow him the stealth that he needed to take out the male Argive while allowing enough time to sling another rock before taking out the female (if he even took her out at all, that is).

Loving the plan, all he had to do was wait. As the sun started to rise against the mountain, he knew his prey would appear shortly.

That house was as good as his.

*****

Coming down the pass was a lot easier than going up. Praxis couldn’t help but enjoy himself as they moved, thankful that they’d proven themselves and saved their lives in the process (alongside the lives of Demetrios and Rastus). Lysandra was in a great mood as well, as evidenced by the way she sang as they walked.

“I didn’t realize you had such a great singing voice,” joked Praxis as they moved.

“There’s lots of things you don’t know about me yet,” she teased, elbowing him in the ribs. “I like to sing when I’m happy but life hasn’t given me many reasons to be happy lately.”

“But today you are definitely happy?”

Lysandra grinned. “Today has gotten off to the right start.”

“Then maybe once we get back to the village, we can really keep the good times rolling.”

Lysandra raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to fuck me?”

“Oh, definitely. Any problems with that?”

She started to giggle. “I suppose not. After all, it’s a shame that I’ve had your naked body against mine for the past two days without getting to do anything about it.”

“A shame? Horn of Hades, it’s been a catastrophe, Lysandra.”

She laughed even harder. “Well, here’s to hoping that Demetrios won’t mind giving us a little privacy when we get there.”

“I think he could be persuaded to do—”

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Before Praxis could finish the sentence, something became noticeable out of the corner of his eye. It occurred so quickly that he barely had time to turn his head before he saw something small and round coming right for him. Ducking out of the way, Praxis watched as a rock sliced through the air where his head had just been.

It was moving so fast that a direct hit would have knocked him out for sure, or perhaps even killed him.

Turning his head to where it came from, he saw a pair of foul-looking eyes glaring back at him.

“Hera’s fiery ass, I’m going to kill you, Orcus!”

Praxis launched himself at full speed as Orcus’ eyes went wide in a panic-induced fear. It only made Praxis angrier to know that Orcus waited until after the trials had been completed to launch his attack, the vicious creature never wanting them to survive in the first place.

Orcus’ hands fumbled with his sling as Praxis closed the distance, but because of the terrain between them, Praxis wasn’t able to reach him before the sling was loaded once again. This time, Orcus took aim at him and unleashed another decent-sized rock.

If only his aim had been true. Praxis felt the movement of air as the rock sailed within inches of his head. At this distance, Orcus shouldn’t have missed but Praxis suspected it was his trembling hands that did him in.

Finally, Praxis managed to reach the beady-eyed man. He smashed Orcus’ hand against the rock, releasing the sling to disarm him. In the process, Orcus resorted to the last weapon he had.

A small, wicked-looking dagger.

“I cannot permit you to live!” raged Orcus. “You will die on this mountain, Argive!”

With nothing to protect him from the dagger, Praxis used all his strength to hold off Orcus’ hand from bringing the blade against his flesh. But Orcus was stronger than he looked. His deformed body still managed to have more upper body strength than any other man his size. And Praxis was still weak from not eating for two days.

The blade inched ever closer to Praxis’ gut. No matter what he tried, he just didn’t have the strength to push it away.

Orcus’ mad eyes looked on with grim satisfaction as the tip of the blade began to penetrate his skin.

“You’re going to Hades, Argive!” growled Orcus.

“Hey, Orcus!”

The beady-eyed man looked to his right, finding that Lysandra was only standing a few feet away. She had a small rock in her hand.

“You first,” she quipped before throwing the rock.

Praxis watched it sail through the air until it hit Orcus directly in the mouth. At that moment, his concentration shattered and he dropped the dagger to attend to the bloody mess that became his face. It was all the time that Praxis needed. He rushed forward and grabbed Orcus by the collar and used what remained of his strength to toss him off the mountain.

“No, no, no!” yelled Orcus as fell, his cries never stopping until his body splattered against the valley floor far below.

Taking a deep breath, both Praxis and Lysandra looked over the edge, watching to make sure that he was really dead. When he didn’t move for several minutes, Lysandra turned toward him.

“Are you hurt? He didn’t get you, did he?”

Praxis shook his head. “No but it was close. If he managed to contain his fear, he might have had me but he didn’t get that chance. Thanks in large part to you.”

“Nasty way to go though,” replied Lysandra, looking over the edge. “I can’t imagine a fate like that.”

Praxis smirked as he looked over the edge. “It has been a long time coming for that one. You can say he fell from grace.”

Lysandra rolled her eyes and nudged him. “No more puns please.”

Chuckling to themselves, they pulled away from the ledge and came back to the path.

“This might make things more difficult for us,” noted Lysandra. “We’ve completed the trials but now we’ve killed Medios’ son. What are we going to do now?”

“It wasn’t a fight that we sought out though,” argued Praxis. “He did that on his own, and he suffered the consequences.”

“We know that but Medios doesn’t,” replied Lysandra. “I fear for our situation.”

Before Praxis could respond to that, he heard a noise from lower down the path. Looking downward, he saw Evios trying hard to get their attention by waving his hands and yelling.

“That doesn’t look good,” noted Lysandra.

“Maybe it’s the opposite,” replied Praxis. “I wonder how much Evios saw of that encounter.”

As it turned out, Evios was too far away to see anything.

“You did it!” yelled Evios. “You survived the third trial!”

“We almost didn’t survive,” replied Praxis. “Orcus tried to kill us. He must have slipped past you and he tried to ambush us. Here’s his sling and his dagger.”

Evios looked over the two items as his enthusiasm cooled. “I don’t know how he could have gotten past me but this won’t bode well with Medios. I take it you killed him then?”

Praxis nodded. “His remains are on the floor of the valley hundreds of feet below.”

Evios whistled. “Terrible way to go. I fear what happens when we get back and we break the news to Medios.”

Praxis and Lysandra looked at each other. “Nothing we can do about it now,” said Praxis. “But we ought to head back. If I’m going to have to defend myself again, I’d rather do it sooner than later.”

Lysandra swallowed heavily. “Do you really think we’re going to be in trouble?”

“I really don’t know, Lysandra. I really don’t know.”

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