Dungeon of Torment

19. Drama in the Pyramid

The funeral pyre for Oceanus was piled high, with a mourning crowd of hundreds below - necks craned up to view the body of the mighty Titan. Kronos threw on the first flaming torch, igniting the spectacle. Titan women began to wail, beating on their chest and pulling on their hair in anguish. At Kronos' side should have stood Ianthe, Oceanus' wife (and Poseidon's mother), but humans were banned from attendance. Their presence was considered distasteful to titan feelings.

Oceanus was now the second Titan to be killed by humans, and this time they'd lost one of their most feared fighters – murdered in their treasured capital, where they should have felt safest. The mourning wasn't just grief over his loss - but mourning the potential close of an era. Titans had crossed the stars in search of home. But now, a generation on, they were as unwelcome and unsafe as before. Worse, they'd considered themselves victorious and now the sands had shifted beneath their feet.

                        "The outer territories are flooding the city with weapons. We're no longer fighting against peasants with spears." Titans and humans were fighting street by street. "They have one of Brontes' creations leading them - a woman."

The woman's name was Mei-Li He, like Nailah, she'd been part of the original cyclopes rebellion - though the two had never met or been contact. The resistance had planted her as a useful spy in sector VIII of the Undercity and Brontes had crafted her new legs. Able to run with killer striking speed and to leap high over barricade walls, the humans had named her the 'Avenging Dragon'.

"Titan casualties?"

"Half a dozen."

The humans had learnt how to fight titans. They knew now how specific their powers were and how to avoid the crushing assault of them.

"There is a faction at caught, they want Prince Hyperion released from Tartarus." To some, it seemed that fortunes had abandoned the Titans when they'd locked away their sun prince.

"Our mother always called him 'Bringer of the dawn'," Coeus commented when he heard of the faction. Was Hyperion their only hope?

                   Kronos made an announcement without consulting Rhea or the Pantheon. He was retreating to Elis, the Titan stronghold. With a human population of barely a hundred, Kronos declared that Elis was the new capital of the world. The message was clear. They were surrendering Azuros, their city of dreams, and were instead going to hide behind fortified walls. The humans had won this fight.

                  Rhea stood seething, standing by the rail of the ship. Sunshine reflected in the shimmering sails of the Mona fleet, they shone like ripples of liquid gold above Rhea's beautiful head. Her attention was on Kronos' flag ship, in which travelled the now heavily pregnant Nailah. Rhea had watched that morning as Kronos had pushed Nailah's chair up the gangplank himself. Rage bubbled furiously in Rhea's stomach. How could he fuss over a crippled human?

She was his queen but Kronos' neglect of her was becoming more and more obvious to every observer. Nyx could see it. That gleeful imp of darkness. Rhea's nostrils flared. Her pride and broken heart demanded vengeance.

                     Nailah gasped as she felt her unborn child move around. She placed a reassuring hand on her belly. Did the child know, how close they were to Hyperion? The shadow of Tartarus fell over them, creeping up the deck.