CHAPTER 24: THE TREE
They strolled in through the doors of the main block and Professor Kwin was there awaiting them.
“Thank goodness you’re alive” she said “come out here, through the back” she led them through to what Athena recognised as the first aid room. There were about eight beds and at the end of the room were her other three friends and Ericarni! How did he get in here? Oh well, that didn’t matter. He looked relieved to see the other two there, alive and well. Emma threw her arms around them.
“How did you get out?” she quizzed
“With difficulty” laughed Robbie
“You’re bleeding!”
“Yeah, it was Cerberus. If it wasn’t for Athena’s quick thinking, I could be dead right now” he smiled at Athena, even Tom didn’t make a sarcastic remark this time, he was just glad to see his friends.
“What day is it?” Athena asked
“Saturday” Kwin replied blankly
“We’ve been in hell for four days with no food or water!”
“Well yes, but time is different down there. If you’ll excuse me, I need to pop off for a bit, meanwhile you can discuss what you found out.” Then Kwin swanned off out the room, locking the door behind her.
“So, what did you find out?” Ericarni eagerly asked, everybody looked at Athena expectantly.
“Well” she began “he said something about how the ancient Greeks hated him and never spoke his name”
“I knew of that, what else?”
“He has no place in Olympus because he’s not like the other Gods; he didn’t inherit all of the immortality like them, he didn’t say why, but he can be killed, with the right weapon!”
“Which is?”
“He wouldn’t say, but he did tell me why the Gods hated him”
“Oh well, we can find that out for ourselves soon enough. You can’t have got off that lightly, what did you have to do?”
“We haven’t done it yet, we’ve got three days to find something he wants”
“Yes?”
“He wants the Secret Sword”
Ericarni’s face dropped.
“Oh no, this can’t be good”
“What, why?”
“There is only one way to possibly find the Secret Sword in this circumstance”
“Which is?” asked Liam
“To get to the Portal Key”
“What’s the Portal Key?” questioned Tom
“It’s a key that can be used to make portals, it contains very powerful magic, no one’s quite sure to which extent its magic stops, nobody is brave enough to find out” Emma recited
“Precisely” Ericarni agreed “only three days?”
“Yeah” confirmed Robbie
“Is it that bad?” Athena piped up
“The last time the Portal Key was hidden, it was hidden in the Puzzle Room” stated Ericarni
“What’s the Puzzle Room?”
