Destroyer of Light by Rachel Alexander

Author:Rachel Alexander [Alexander, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2016-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

15.

Thera was as beautiful as he remembered it. But much had changed in the intervening years. The cliffs were far sheerer than when he’d last seen them. The dropped all the way to the ocean, and part of the island looked like it had collapsed into the sea.

Less than a millennium ago, he’d heard stories of villages obliterated by great waves and molten earth. There had been a glut of new shades that day. In the following year Aidoneus and his court had heard fanciful yarns about a kingdom sinking to its new home below the waves. He’d later learned that the old, fierce empire on Crete, ruled for generations by priestess queens and consort kings, had choked on noxious fumes and been washed away. Minos had wept.

Today, the sky was sapphire blue fading into gold in the west. The setting sun was reflected perfectly in the shallow seas below. There was no special way to get to Thera— it was simply a matter of knowing which road led out where. Every island, every mountain, every valley, and every spring— every place in the sunlit world had a door to the Other Side. All roads led to Chthonia.

It was fortunate that they had chosen this island, he thought. If the journey to the world above caused too many ripples in the ether, their quarry might be alerted to their arrival. They couldn’t afford the month-long chase Sisyphus had given them last time. No one could.

The hosts of Hades had been forced to take the long way in order not to disturb any of the boundaries between worlds, turning a journey of minutes into a full day of walking. Thera was far enough away from Ephyra, but close enough to Hellas that it would allow a short journey.

Aidoneus squinted, and the wind pulled a few more curls of his hair out of place. “I’ve never understood why the sun is always so bright on this island.”

“It is the longest day of the year, my lord. Daylight is different above, especially by the sea. She was a sweet girl, but Hemera was always a bit… theatrical,” Nyx mused with a smile. The shadow of Erebus curled about her, undisturbed by the light or the breeze.

He looked to the west, the last of Hemera’s daylight fading on the horizon. Soon the Tribe of the Oneiroi would be able to rise from beneath the surface and help claim their missing kinsman. Their campaign to rescue him and punish his captor should have been foremost in his mind, but an entirely different matter preoccupied Aidoneus. “I doubt it seems so bright to her.”

“Persephone blossomed fully in the light,” Hecate said, her crimson himation wrapped around her and blowing back in the wind. Tomorrow she would change her robes to black as her final days as the Crone approached. Stringy wisps of her white hair wafted out from inside the hood.

“And then she returned to the light.”

“Your bargain with the Olympians will hold,” Nyx said. “They wouldn’t risk losing us.

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