Jerry smiled at Cruz and McKenna. “Your field of expertise, not mine. Airborne assault.”
McKenna scratched his head. “I suppose, even without ‘chutes we could use the sphinx and the dragons. But, well, how many of these gods are there?”
“Many, and they’re enormous, and immortal,” Jerry said quietly.
Cruz tensed his massive forearm. “Yeah. Look, I’m not washing the idea out, but what advantage does it give us to attack them? If we take the fight to them, and let it be on their home ground, we’re worse off, Doc.”
Jerry smiled. “I want to get some allies. Or at least one. A big one.”
Liz chuckled. “Besides, we’ve already got a lot of allies. Expert parachutists, too. Spiders.”
Cruz shrugged. “Liz, I suppose the spiders can bite a few of these gods . . . but they’re supposed to be immortals. Gonna take more than spider bites.”
Liz smiled. “Even immortals got taken captive, didn’t they? Arachne. Show him just how strong spider silk is.”
Arachne smiled sweetly. “I just have. Try to free your legs.”
Cruz hadn’t even noticed the silken strands going round his legs. Try as he might he couldn’t pull them apart.
“Let me try,” said Bes.
He snapped the web like a rotten carrot. “Strong.”
Cruz took a deep breath and said to McKenna: “Remind me not to wrestle with that guy, Mac.”
Liz shrugged and Arachne looked totally taken aback. “Oh well. So much for that idea,” she said, looking regretful.
“But it is very strong,” said Bes with a chuckle.
“So is he,” said Medea.
“That’s the point. If Bes can break free, then indeed, the Olympians can,” said Jerry.
Liz looked at the three-foot-six hell-raiser. “You’ve just acquired a job in destructive testing of materials, Bes.”
The dwarf looked suspicious. “What does that mean?”
She smiled at him. “It means you get to try and break things, Bes dear.”
He grinned broadly back at her. “Oh, good. Fun.”
Jerry grinned. Bes was infectious. Even Pan was looking a little less down in the mouth. “Test them quickly,” said Jerry. “I want to go and break some unbreakable chains, and I reckon you’re the Bes’t breaker around. I think it’s time we went to free Prometheus.”
“Who is this Prometheus guy, anyway?” asked McKenna.
“A Titan. He’s called ‘the friend of mankind.’ He took the side of man against Olympus. I’m hoping he’s still inclined that way, even though it got him in trouble. How do you feel about visiting Colchis again, Medea?”
Cruz had more of a grasp of the geography than anyone else there. “Doc. That’s about a thousand miles away.”
Jerry took a deep breath. “Yes. It’s going to take some time. And I want us to split up. Some of us have to stay here and prepare some kind of glider. Something we can pack ourselves, a Titan, and about a million spiders into, to tow behind Throttler. Or am I asking the impossible?”
There was a silence. “Build a plane? I don’t think so,” said Mac, shaking his head.
Liz narrowed her eyes. “What about a hot-air balloon?”
Mac nodded. “Yeah, could do. But what can we use for material?”
“Talk to your spider girlfriend about silk,” said Liz.
Arachne looked startled. Whether it was at the idea of her providing silk, or of the girlfriend comment, was uncertain.
Medea sighed. “My father Aeëtes will not be glad to see me back. In fact, he will do his best to kill you. He is a magician of note. He draws his powers from Helios. My own, as high priestess of Hecate, are small by comparison.”
Lamont snorted. “Back down to magic. Pan, you don’t feel like endowing me with some powers over your secondary sprites, do you?”
Pan looked up. “No. You are already in the service of another. But I will place my blessing on one of you.”
Liz shook her head. “Better be you, Doc. I don’t understand this stuff.”
Lamont snorted again. “You can say that again.”
“Anyway the magic of Pan-Priapus sits ill with a female votary,” said Goat-features.
Jerry hastily changed the subject. “Where is Throttler, by the way?”
“She said she was just nipping out for a quick riddling,” said Bes cheerfully. The dwarf was striking up quite a warm relationship with the sphinx.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156