Joshua and the Arrow Realm (23 page)

No!
Cronag was dead and gone. He'd been no Ancient Immortal like his sister. She'd kept his spirit alive for centuries in the bodies of others.

“How?” I whispered.

“Hekate's ancient magic.”

I wanted to turn away, not see the ugly insides of the Child Collector who'd murdered my mother, but the face of Leandro froze me with this awful truth.

“What about Ash?”

“I sent her to get you under the guise of rescuing Apollo. All part of the plan for Artemis—excuse me, Hekate—to get your powers and rule Nostos.”

“You're a liar and a traitor!” I stumbled back, pain shooting through my tired legs. “I don't believe you! You changed after I saw you in the dungeon.”

He came to a halt, falling behind the others, and thrust a knife in my face. “When I'm the queen's head advisor that tongue will get you killed.”

He shoved me back and continued his trot as I struggled to keep up.

“You gave me the bow you made for your son.” I tugged on my rope to force him to look at me. He turned, his eyes crinkling as if with a long lost memory. His nostrils widened then he faced front again, pulling my rope so hard I staggered to the left, barely missing a hoof to my head. “You'll never know your father.”

His words cut deep. How could he know this? Not so long ago it was true, but now I had hope he was alive and someday we'd meet. No one could take away that hope, not even my fallen hero.

I walked faster to keep up. “Where are you taking me?”

“The Great Bog. Once the queen proves your powers and acquires them with her magic, you are no longer needed.” He picked up speed, catching up behind his men and the queen. “Keep up, boy. If the queen finds no use for your body, you'll need to run when we dump you in the Wild Lands, like you dumped me. I doubt you'll fare as well as I did.” He laughed, sending a chill through me.

We passed under the arches of the castle and words cut clear into the stone over them.
Leave these doors in honor of Queen Artemis. Return with plenty and we shall live forever. May your hand be steady and your arrow find its mark! Hunt on!

The hunt
was
on as we cantered into the forest and I was the delivered prey. Leandro picked up speed and I ran to keep up, terrified of being dragged by his black stallion.

We stopped at a clearing in the woods. Artemis shouted out orders, and her men split into two ranks encircling a great bog before us, then she ordered Leandro to bring me to the edge of the water.

He untied me and pushed me to Artemis, handing her my lightning orb. She grasped it as she sat on her horse, watching me with triumph on her face. The rotten vegetation smell of the bubbling water made me gag. Moss and vines hung from trees, fading in and out of the curling mist that rose from the brackish water. Movement caught my eye. Did my blurry, tired vision deceive me? No. The water rippled. A tusk poked up from the sludge. And another. Deadly hydriads. A swarm of them. They'd nearly killed me in the Lost Realm. Leandro had saved me then. Not now.

Twigs fell in the water, swirling into shapes. FRIENDS … ARE … HERE … FOR … YOU.

“No one is here for me,” I whispered to myself.

The water swirled again. ONE … FOR … THE … MANY.

“I'm the one,” I said to myself.

“It's time to prove you're the one, Oracle,” Artemis said, answering my whisper, her black sunglasses twin pits to hell.

Leandro dismounted and pushed me into the bog, the water just above my knees. The tusks paused in their movement before racing toward me. Adrenaline rushed through me, and I pushed through the water toward a boulder, scrambling up on it. The monstrous fish bashed
against my rock, eager to lance me and suck the water from my body.

“Go on. Fight back, Oracle! Become the beast you want to be!” Artemis threw up an arm.

No. I wouldn't do it. Not for her! Not this way.

Leandro raised his bow and nocked an arrow to it. The other soldiers followed. An army stood against me. The arrows flew. I slid off the rock and grabbed the fallen weapons, fleeing into the bog. The hydriads came fast. Their snouts banged into me and I stabbed them with the arrows. Blood swirled around me. I dragged myself up on another rock.

My hand shook over the water. A part of me wanted to make the water rise with my new power.
Drown them all! No
! I wouldn't kill many to save only me—the one.
The Oracle.

Artemis's laughter rang out. “Why don't you fight back with your powers, boy? Or are you helpless without this?” She held up the lightning orb. In the sun's blue haze, it shone like a crystal ball with a terrifying future to tell. “I can kill with it too.”

She flung the orb.

I slammed face down on the rock, and the orb exploded beside me in the water, killing a slew of hydriads.
Missed!
The orb sailed back to her hand. Rage funneled dark inside me. I stood, battling my body's want to become what she desired. I willed the animal inside me down.

“You think you can force me to show powers?” I shouted across the water. “I didn't before, why would I now?”

She held up the orb. “You'll have no choice where we're headed. The Black Heart Tree has the power to
hypnotize far stronger than Hypnos. That idiot escaped, and his people will suffer because of it. Now you shall suffer by the hand of your own friend.” She handed the orb back to Leandro who held it high.

“Reveal your powers and I will eliminate you without pain,” Artemis said.

I shook my head and shivered in my wet clothes. “N-never.”

“You've proven resourceful with your mortal skills. Let's see how you are now. Move the water and release your beast!” Artemis said, slapping the reins at her horse.

My heart jumped at every splash in the misty, bubbling bog, expecting death from all sides. A giant roar cut across the water. Through the rising fog, a yellow mass of teeth and muscle and mane launched at me. A cretan.

If there was ever a time to reveal my Nostos powers, now was it—but there was one hope left. I clutched a tree vine and started climbing. My arms screamed with the effort. Up I went, inch by inch, aiming for the first tree branch to grab. The soldiers stopped shooting their arrows and began chanting. “Oracle. Oracle.”

Leandro pulled his hand back to throw the orb, but Artemis stopped him and the chants died down. “Fight beast with beast, boy. End this battle of wills. Show your powers. I must know for sure.”

She'd own me if I did. Evil would live and good would die. Earth kids would keep getting kidnapped. The Wild Childs would never get home. All in the WC would remain enslaved. And I'd be dead. Myth said another one hundred years would pass before an Oracle came again. This was my role. Here. Now.

I. Am. The. Oracle.

The time to make a decision was now. I hung on for dear life, my chest threatening to splice in two as my legs gripped the fraying rope.
Pling.
A thread shot off the vine.
Pling-pling
. More popped. The vine grew thinner and the cretan roared below, shaking the vine between its teeth. My hands slipped. Farther I slid down, my legs hugging the vine as I prayed it didn't break. My enemies watched and waited.

Artemis couldn't have my powers if I didn't command them. But I was losing the battle of the vine and would soon be cretan chow. The beast flung its mane, moaning with hunger. Despite its need to eat me, my heart went out to it.

“Let me live and I'll take her down. I'll fight to save you and all the animals,” I pleaded with it.

My hands grew numb. Down I slid. The cretan's tongue panted faster as it pawed at my life line.

“You. Killed. Brotherrrr,” it groaned in a piercing wail that rose in pitch.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered. “He tried to kill my friend.”

“Sad. Mad. Hungrrrry.”

“It's Artemis's fault! We're her victims.”

The lion shook its mane and let go of my vine. “No victim.”

The shaggy beast jumped around and raced toward Artemis. Before it reached her, it stood on its hind legs and roared an agonizing cry of loss and suffering.

Arrows flew. They took the beast down. The great, sad lion-bull stumbled and fell with a watery
whoomph
in the bog. The mist rolled over the massive cretan, shrouding it from view.

I clung to my vine, heartbeats away from death.

M
y hands bled from the rough vine. If I let go, I'd fall into the bog with the swarm of hydriads waiting to feed unless I commanded the water in time. Death by hydriad or Artemis. Not good choices.

“You won't give in?” She spread her hands out. Leandro cocked his head at me with a questioning look, as if why not?

I shook my head and closed my eyes, hanging on with my final spare energy and waited for death by witch or tusk. Minutes ticked by like fingernails tapping a table. The air grew cold. My hands slipped again, I adjusted my legs that cracked as they squeezed the rope.

“Perhaps they'll change your mind,” she said.

I opened my eyes to see dozens of kids packed in wagons making their way to the bog. Their wide eyes and hands grasping prison bars, revealing their fear at what new terror awaited them. My arms shook, unable to hold
on much longer.

“Last chance to show your powers or all my slaves die.”

Her soldiers raised their arrows. The hydriads circled, waiting for my decision.

“Why?” I said the one word my energy could muster.

“I've been waiting centuries to lead Nostos!”

“Hekate!” I called her out.

She smiled and flung her fingers at me. Blue sparks rippled along the tips. “Yes, I've come back. My ashes still had life and blew here. Lucky me to take up residence in the Black Heart Tree. Poor scaredy-cat Queen Artemis should be glad. I lured her weak spirit to the tree. It was so easy to snake my spirit inside her body, and in her body we can rule Nostos. She no longer has to be afraid of the woods … or use her heart to lead.” She glanced at Leandro, but he stared at me without expression.

“How could you make Leandro into your nasty brother?”

“It's as Artemis wished—and I. Two wishes granted for the price of one. I planted my memories of Cronag in Leandro's body, but my brother's live spirit will never return, thanks to you.” She smiled grimly.

“You can't replace family!”

“Why not? It's perfect. Artemis can love Leandro like a brother again and I have my brother back.”

“He's not your brother. He's my friend!”

“Enough! So what will it be, Oracle? Sacrifice yourself and none die. Don't and they all die. Then I'll round up the Wild Childs for execution.”

One for the many.

One choice to make now.

My hands let go.

I fell into the bog of thrashing monsters and swept the churning water and beasts up with my last dregs of power to fling a tidal wave at the enemy. The giant wave crashed over Artemis and her men, dashing them aside like dolls. Screams shredded the air as soldiers rode a river cast through the forest. Some escaped death and clung to branches—Artemis was one of them.

Trembling with exhaustion, I collapsed in the water. Tusks raced toward me in a blur, but instead of being pierced to death, a nudge tossed me in the air. I landed on the back of an agrius beast and clamped a hand to its fur with a renewed surge of energy.

“Agri,” I cried out as he charged out of the bog, stomping on hydriads. We reached the edge and he plunged into the woods. Faces poked out overhead. Wild Childs!

Ash appeared and threw me my bow and quiver I'd left behind in Artemis's chambers. They meant nothing to Leandro now. I was glad he'd left them there. I caught them by surprise.

“I followed you after I found you gone and snuck in the castle's passageways. I found them on the queen's room's floor. I knew you'd go there to get your orb. And I know how to sneak in!”

She grinned at me. She brought her Wild Child family here to risk everything for the hope of something better. They were betting on me.

Across the bog, Artemis stood with her remaining men. Gray clouds boiled above and the air turned glacial.

Wild beasts came from the woods. Cretans. Agrius beasts. Cadmean beasts. I clung to Agri and begged him to flee but he snorted. “Friends.”

With all of the Wild Lands behind me, I faced Artemis and death across the bog, and Leandro with the bow he'd
carved for his son. Could I save him from Hekate's evil spell before we killed each other? Could I convince her to release Leandro from his spell? There'd be one chance to steal the orb from him.

Through the hoard of warriors, Apollo, Ash, Charlie, and Oak flashed between the tree branches. My heart swelled with the power of friendship. I was no longer alone—I never really had been.

“Free-dom. Re-lease us,” the animals grunted.

Artemis adjusted her sunglasses and swung up on a nearby horse, pushing her men through the dangerous waters. Swords slashed the hydriads. The water churned with red foam. The kids cheered us on from their wagon cages on the bog shore. Agri stomped at the bog's edge as the other wild beasts raced toward the enemy.

“We've got you covered,
mon ami
!” Charlie yelled down from his tree, shooting arrows as I did. His hair flopped about wildly as his crazed eyes darted about.

Through the misty bog, Leandro headed right for me on his horse.

“Leandro!” Oak's desperate call rang out to stop him, but Leandro didn't hesitate and plunged through the water, dodging arrows and wild animals from all sides.

The decimated army pushed us into the woods. The Wild Childs scrambled back through the trees. Agri turned and fled into the woods with me clinging to him. “Keep. Oracle. Safe,” he grunted.

I hung on, peering back at Leandro who still kept coming, his fierce gaze fixed on me. Blue light flew from Artemis's fingertips as she zapped animals with Hekate's ancient evil power. We soon left the madness behind.