The Haunting of Guaritori Diolo, Part 32
Mixed Results
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I should have been faster than the sea serpent, but I was less at home in the water, and my head was still throbbing. Anyway, running wasn’t an option, as that would leave Iskios alone to face both the sea serpent and the Telchines, a battle he seemed sure to lose.
The best I could do was turn the water outside my air bubble into stone, but I didn’t get far with that before the sea serpent reached my still-forming barrier, which it crushed with a single blow. I slowed it down by bombarding it with the lumen naturae, which it had to close its eyes against. That bought me a few seconds, time enough to glance at the rest of the battle.
Damnameneus still thrashed as he tried to overcome the soul of Zeus. That might be a losing battle, but it was taking the Telchine too long to lose it. Iskios had switched tactics against the other two Telchines, striking them with heat rather than alternating light and darkness. As with the earlier electrical attacks, he was frying a lot of sea life without damaging his intended targets much. But at least he was keeping them on the defensive.
That left the sea serpent, who thrust toward me, eyes closed and jaws wide. Taking a chance, I focused all my light down his throat. Unlike Iskios, I couldn’t generate heat—but I could will the light to spread into the sea serpent’s tissues, just as I had tried to do before through its eyes.
As the power of the stone radiated into the serpent, it started to twist again as the grim magic that had brought it into being receded, and the soul of Hermes began to awaken and renew the fight.
The serpent’s mouth snapped shut with a resounding thud, and I could do little more for Hermes. Instead, I turned my attention to the convulsing Damnameneus. If Zeus managed to win, he would shift the balance decisively in our favor.
I’d already seen that the lumen naturae could weaken Telchine magic, so I focused all my attention on Damnameneus, bathing him in as much light as the Philosopher’s Stone could generate. Iskios kept his brothers occupied enough that they couldn’t intervene. Damnameneus closed his eyes, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. If I could force light out through the sea serpent’s esophagus into the surrounding tissue, why couldn’t I force it right through the Telchine’s skin?
I drew as much as I could on the Philosopher’s Stone, and Damnameneus’s defensive magic wavered, but I still hadn’t managed to pierce his scaly hide. I knew drawing on the residue of Hermetic magic within me was risky, but I did it anyway. I added every drop of magic I could scrape together as I tried to push the light into Damnameneus. Straining that hard pulled me inexorably toward a killer migraine—or worse. But I had no choice now.
The lumen naturae had been intended for more subtle and peaceable things. But at last, I managed to erode the outer layers of skin enough to push further in, attacking the darkness that floated just beneath the surface. The Telchine screamed, and I screamed with him as the pain of drawing on the Hermetic magic became unendurable. I wasn’t leaving the stone enough power to increase my endurance. I’d gambled everything on one throw of the dice, and I nearly passed out as a consequence.
Damnameneus’s eyes flew open, and I saw Zeus looking out at me. I stopped pushing light into his body and let go of the Hermetic magic. The stone immediately began pouring healing energy into me, but it did so much more slowly than usual. It was nearly as exhausted as I was—and I was about as worn down as I’d ever been.
Zeus looked confused, though he nodded to me in acknowledgement of my efforts. Then he swam toward the other two Telchines, moving much more swiftly than he could have done in his own body.
Lycus and Scelmis, their whole minds focused on keeping Iskios from boiling them alive, didn’t even see Zeus-possessed Damnameneus coming until he was upon them. He grabbed one arm on each of them and did what Iskios hadn’t thought to try—a direct, skin-to-skin flow of electricity, an approach that delivered far more force than trying to fling thunderbolts from a distance.
The two Telchines convulsed like death row inmates in the electric chair, then fell limp. They didn’t die, but their injuries were great enough to keep them down for a while.
Aside from the usual headache that followed using Hermetic magic too much or too fast, the world around me started spinning as a sudden dizziness came close to overcoming me. Perhaps Zeus could help, but I couldn’t pull myself together enough to ask him.
At the moment, Zeus’s focus seemed to be on Iskios. He stared at him as if not quite knowing what to make of him.
Zeus had missed a lot. I knew I needed to say something, but it took me a while just to get my mouth open.
“I am Iskios, reborn as a son of Guaritori and Medea and now very much on your side.”
Zeus looked at me for confirmation. The most I could do was nod. This would have been a good opportunity to tell Zeus I was in trouble. My head was both pounding and spinning. The Philosopher’s Stone either didn’t know what was wrong or didn’t have the power to fix me right away.
“I saw you fighting the other Telchines,” Zeus said to Iskios. “It is good to know that you have joined us. I should hear how that came about. But first, I would like to know how it is that Hermes is now a sea serpent.”
I’d forgotten about Hermes, but he had evidently won his battle, too, for he floated nearby, eyeing us with interest but no hostility. Or was that Hermes? My vision had started to blur.
“The Telchines created this creature to house my soul,” said Hermes. The body hadn’t been designed for human speech, and his words were more like gurgles, but even I could understand them. “I was able to overcome the magic through which they tried to compel my obedience, but it is still fighting me. We should return me to my own body as soon as possible.”
Zeus nodded. “I am in much the same predicament. But there is one great advantage to being in this body. The sickle of Cronus was forged and infused with magic by the Telchines. That is why it can do damage to us that cannot be readily healed. But in the body of Damnameneus, I should be able to counteract that magic and allow my body to heal. Once that is done, I can return to it.
“But before we make the trip back to Olympus, I must thank Garth and Iskios. It seems that the Telchines would have won if they had not been here to help.”
Zeus offered his hand, and I attempted to shake it. But my arm dropped as the dizziness intensified, and my vision blurred so much that I might as well have been surrounded by impenetrable fog.
I’d inflicted more injury on myself than I had first realized—and the situation was getting worse, not better.
“The stone…the stone needs time to recharge,” I muttered. Zeus’s eyes widened in alarm as he noticed just how much was wrong with me.
I blacked out momentarily. When I regained consciousness, Iskios was holding me up, and Hermes was peering at me with his sea serpent eyes.
“I can keep his soul from fleeing,” Hermes gurgled. “But he pushed himself hard enough to bring him near death this time, and we don’t know how fast the Philosopher’s Stone will recharge.”
“I can hold onto the two Telchines,” said Zeus. “Iskios, carry your father. Hermes, do what it takes to keep him alive.”
“If I’d had any real control over my facial muscles, I would have smiled. Zeus’s tone, even though distorted by coming from Telchine vocal cords, was firm and commanding. He would find a way to help me.
I was in and out of consciousness after that. I was only vaguely aware that we had left the ocean and were flying rapidly upward. I guessed it was a good thing the Telchines had given Hermes wings. But whenever I managed to get my eyes open, my vision remained blurry.
Why hadn’t the stone recharged by now? I couldn’t even feel it at the moment. It probably wasn’t a good idea to try too hard.
But something told me I should remain awake. I wasn’t sure why, but I did what I could to pull away from the unconsciousness that kept beckoning to me insistently. My eyes kept closing, though.
I heard rushing water—odd, considering we were high in the air, far from any body of water.
“What’s happening?” asked Iskios.
“We’re too far away for the other Olympians to realize I’m not Damnameneus,” replied Zeus. “From a distance, it looks as if you, Hermes—whom they don’t recognize—and I have taken Garth prisoner.”
I forced my eyes open and tried to see through them despite the blurriness. As far as I could tell, what appeared to be a massive tidal wave flying through the sky straight at us.
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