The Sixth Life of Medusa

47. They're Not Doves

Akrivi's training room served as their rendezvous point for the past three weeks. The space was much smaller than Medusa's annexe, and instead of holding training dummies, it was a study-lab with parchments, scrolls and odd objects she couldn't identify scattered about.

There was also a large board to the left covered with tiny lines of writing and runes. Lots of runes. From the glances she stole, she vaguely understood it had to do with a formula for portal carts or caps? Not so sure. Making sense of his atrocious handwriting was nearly impossible.

"I have a feeling it's today," Akrivi said excitedly as he palmed a pouch off a shelf and tied it to his belt. During the time they explored the nest, he had grown increasingly invested in locating the end of the map, an unwanted development Medusa had suspected might arise. She refused to worry, though; he had his plans, and she had hers.

"You said the same thing yesterday." She picked her way around the mess on the floor as she approached him. "I thought we'd be done by now."

Tomorrow was the first day of the Month of the Lizard and the start of trials. She couldn't tell how well the dogs had improved, so she was running on hope. Would the dogs not coming last at the trials impress Demeter?

"We reached the fourth spot in our last run." He tapped the spot on the map spread across the cluttered table. "Past that point, our search area should be significantly shorter."

Medusa said nothing as she stared at the map. Other worries ate at her mind, like the fact that a month had already passed and Clotho was yet to show up. Something was happening to her disguise. Yesterday her voice had cracked, shifting to the tone of her ten-year-old body before turning back; there was that one time three days ago that her hand flickered before her face.

She recalled Clotho had said she'd come around to renew the disguise in a month, but it was already a month and some days since her time at her aunt's place.

Anxious, she tried again.

Clotho?

Silence.

"Don't look so glum. Trust me." Akrivi patted her shoulder before dipping his arm into the pouch. The tiny bag was one of his many odd inventions. From it, she had seen him pull out an entire javelin. The show-off.

After discovering she was a deity's child, Akrivi made no secret of his plan to flee Drys Valon. His backer intended to throw him into the Fate of Heroes to test their luck, something Akrivi wasn't particularly ecstatic about. Medusa suspected he had gotten it into his head that a way of escape may be at the end of the map she provided.

"This should serve us for two more runs." Akrivi retrieved two white stones from the pouch and tossed one her way.

Medusa caught it smartly. The stone was warm to the touch, etched with runes and flared with the faintest pulses of aether. It wasn't an aether stone, so how did he make it function as it did? Theos tongue? Could he speak it?

Akrivi began parroting the safety instructions he gave before each trip. "Keep your body loose. Eyes shut. Don't let go of the stone, and absolutely do not breathe." He fell silent until she met his gaze. "Understood?"

"Yes."

"Good." He blew a breath, faced ahead and rolled his shoulders. "Ready?"

No. Even though she had done this several times, she had never been ready. "Ready," she said.

"I'll be waiting." He shut his eyes, closed his palm over the stone and winked out of sight.

Repeating his action, Medusa poured a stream of aether into the stone and waited for that jarring sensation. It came all at once. Her insides twisted painfully as the prick of a thousand needles raced across her skin and gathered at her midsection before a forceful jerk pulled her forward.