The Haunting of Guaritori Diolco, Part 33

A Case of Mistaken Identity

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Hermes twisted his serpent body and flung magic toward the oncoming tidal wave—enough to slow it, but not enough to stop it. Zeus’s thunder bolts proved more effective, but by the time he managed to fling one, the wave was too big and too close to be dissipated completely. Iskios did what he could to shield us, but even so, the wave nearly ripped us out of the sky and smashed us to the ground. Only Zeus’s air magic kept us from colliding with the foothills of Olympus.

“I’m Zeus!” he yelled, obviously trying to use magic to amplify his voice. But coming out of Damnameneus’s vocal cords, he sounded much more aquatic and much less authoritative than normal.

Another wave flew toward us, but this one was highly concentrated death magic. Damnameneus/Zeus and Hermes would survive it, though they’d be injured. Iskios might survive it—but I was definitely not going to.

Zeus shot another thunderbolt, though it would have less impact on death magic than on water. Hermes did what he could to counter the death magic, again twisting his serpent body in the process. But he was no match for Hades with that kind of energy.

My whole body was so tense I could barely move a muscle, and the Philosopher’s Stone wasn’t going to rescue me this time. But Iskios, probably having made the same calculation I did about the effects of the death magic, threw all the power he had into shielding me.

I still felt the magic when it struck, and I nearly passed out—but I was still alive. Iskios, who had so recently been thirsting for my blood, had saved me.

The others fared worse than I did. The magic around Zeus flickered as he tried and failed to shrug off the effect of so much death magic. Hermes’s eyes looked dull, as if he were half dead. But fortunately, he still had enough energy in him to get beneath the falling Iskios and catch him before he plummeted to his death. Whatever small part of his mortal heritage his new body included must have taken a real beating.

“Retreat!” yelled Zeus. At that same moment, I realized that I didn’t have the power to sustain myself in the air now that Iskios wasn’t holding me up. Zeus, his hands full with the other two Telchines, grabbed me with wind in time to prevent me from being smashed against the rocks below. Once he’d done that, he towed me along after him as we moved out of the firing range of Olympus. Hermes somehow kept the unconscious Iskios balanced on his back and followed as best he could.

Once we were a safe distance away, Zeus gently landed me as his own feet touched ground. Hermes, his wings flailing rather than flapping, managed to land, Iskios still balanced precariously on his back.

I managed to avoid falling, but just barely. If the Olympians decided to follow and finish us off, I was done for.

Zeus must have decided they wouldn’t follow us. Instead of watching the sky, he focused on Iskios.

“How is he?” gurgled Hermes.

“I think he will live,” said Zeus. “I could use your help healing him, though. That is not a specialty of mine, and my Telchine host doesn’t have much in the way of healing power, either.”

Zeus didn’t even ask me. True, at this point, I didn’t have any healing power to offer. Still, it hurt not to be able to do anything for Iskios. After all, he’d basically sacrificed himself to save me.

“I wish I could help,” I said, though my voice was so faint and hoarse, I wasn’t at all sure that either Hermes or Zeus could hear me. I couldn’t even move any closer to me. The best I could do was slide down onto a nearby rock.

“The Philosopher’s Stone should have accumulated at least a little power by now,” gurgled Hermes. “I wonder if there is anyone who could figure out what is wrong with it.”

“Since it’s power is at least partly divine—in the monotheistic sense—we need a holy man,” said Zeus. Despite the distortions of the Telchine voice, his tiredness came through loud and clear. If he got too tired, Damnameneus might make an attempt to regain control of the body. We’d be sunk if that happened.

“Uh, Mateo has enough faith to produce some divine power to blend with his magic,” I said slowly. “He’s still back in Alexandria, though. Is it safe to bring him here?”

Zeus looked at me, his borrowed Telchine face sagging. “To be honest, probably not. But a better question is, is it safe not to bring him? We’re all running short of power, Iskios is basically in a coma, and we can’t get close enough to the other Olympians to identify ourselves. You’re about only one among us that they won’t try to kill on sight. That means that getting you back to something like your normal self is essential.”

Without waiting for me to respond, Zeus looked off to one side, raised his hand, and offered an invitation in the most commanding voice he could manage. A portal swirling in front of me, and Mateo stepped through without hesitation, though one look at Zeus made him seem as if he wanted to run back through the portal.

“It’s all right,” I said as loudly as I could. “That’s Zeus.”

Mateo looked at me with concern in his eyes. “What happened to you? You look terrible.”

“Come closer, and I’ll explain,” I said.

The portal was still open, and Thoth in his repaired golem body, stepped through it. He stared at Zeus with outright suspicion.

“You should not be able to enter this plane—and yes, I’m Zeus, despite appearances.”

“The old rule about us not being able to visit each other’s planes seems to be suspended if we are in…alternate bodies,” said Thoth. “Not that I need to tell any of you anything about alternate bodies.” He nodded in the direction of sea serpent Hermes. “Luckily, your invitation came at a point when Pharaoh wasn’t around, or he would certainly have ordered me not to come. Something in the tone of the invitation told me that you might need my help.”

Zeus looked skeptical, perhaps afraid that God might take exception to Thoth’s presence on the Olympian plane. Hermes, less skeptical, gurgled a welcome.

It took just a short time for us to bring the two new arrivals up to speed. By that time, Zeus needed to devote most of his energy to restraining Damnameneus, so Thoth helped Hermes with Iskios, and Mateo examined me.

After a while, his eyes narrowed. “From the amount of damage you do to yourself, one would think you were suicidal.”

I hoped he was joking, but his serious tone made it hard to tell. “I don’t get myself into these things on purpose. Can you tell why the stone isn’t recharging itself?”

“From what you’ve said, I think it has something to do with your attempt to force Hermetic magic to reinforce the stone’s power. You’ve never done that before, have you?”

“I’ve used them at the same time.”

“That’s different,” said Mateo. “The two powers certainly aren’t inimical to each other. But they do operate on…different frequencies, I suppose you could say. I would theorize that trying to directly blend them may have confused the stone in some way.”

“How would you cure a condition like that?” asked Thoth. His eyes had lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning, I supposed at the thought of learning something new.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” said Mateo. “The best I can do is pray.”

Thoth looked over at Hermes, who nodded. The former Egyptian god moved to a closer position so that he could watch what Mateo was doing.

The curandero blushed slightly at Thoth’s intense observation. “Surely, you’ve seen someone pray before.”

Thoth nodded. “I have, indeed—at times too numerous to count. But those were mostly prayers to me and the other members of my pantheon. As we now know, it was a mistake on our part to have ever allowed such practices. In any case, the kind of power you intend to invoke is something I have not seen much of in the last two thousand years. Perhaps learning about it will help me with my own process of redemption.”

“The power of God is all around you all the time—” began Mateo.

“Pray now, theologize later,” gurgled Hermes. Mateo nodded and knelt next to me.

He prayed silently, which seemed to annoy Thoth. But as Mateo continued, I could feel the stone warm within me. Thoth must have felt something, too, because his stare became more and more focused on Mateo and me, to the point that I could almost feel his eyes boring into my flesh.

After an uneasy twenty minutes or so, I began to feel better. The stone once again started pouring healing into me. After that, it took only five minutes for me to feel completely normal.

“Now, let’s see what I can do for Iskios,” I said. Hermes, how is he doing?

“He is stable,” said Hermes. “But I’m too worn out to do much more for him right now.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I said.

“Cautiously,” said Mateo, grabbing my hand for a moment to make sure I was listening. “And use Hermetic magic or the Philosopher’s Stone. Don’t try to mingle their power again.”

I smiled at him. “It’s not as if I’ve developed amnesia in the last five minutes. Anyway, the situation isn’t as desperate as the one that provoked my collapse.”

Iskios looked so pale that he almost seemed corpselike, but he was breathing, and his heart was beating. Gently, I started trickling healing power into him. Mateo stood nearby, praying. Thoth looked on as if Iskios’s situation was unique.

I was so focused on Iskios, Thoth was so focused on me, and everyone else was sufficiently tired or preoccupied, that none of us noticed until it was too late the Olympians sneaking up on us.

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