the place of officers bellowed and screeched, trying to organize them into something resembling battle order. As they began their march across the glade, Artemis pointed to the tree line not fifty feet from their flank.
“There.”
An enormous bull elk broke from the underbrush, lowered its antlers, and charged square into the ranks of the skeletal archers. Its rack speared four of them, and a toss of its head sent fragments of undead flying. The elk bellowed and turned to attack again, but the remaining archers now had arrows to their strings. A dozen bows thrummed as one, and the flaming arrows detonated deep within the chest of the mighty beast. It staggered, fell to its knees, and died.
Before it could even hit the ground, wolf packs broke from cover on all sides, striking deep into the archers’ formation as they struggled to draw new shafts. Fangs ripped rotting flesh, and jaws crushed exposed bones. But a monstrous crashing and splintering of trees heralded the arrival of a new threat.
“Cyclopes-too many of them,” Athena said, a cautionary hand upon her sister’s arm. “They are dangerous even to my Kratos. Your wolves cannot stand against them.”
“They don’t have to.”
Some ten of the great Cyclopes came forward, their mighty war clubs shattering whole trees. The largest of them took the lead, thundering toward the wolves-but before it had crossed even half the distance, it stiffened, its eye rolled up, and it pitched suddenly onto its face.
“Fur and antler are far from my subjects’ deadliest weapons,” Artemis said with dark satisfaction. “Vipers can bring down even the Cyclopes.”
“So I see.”
As the other great brutes hesitated, unsure of their path now that their leader lay dead, the sky filled with an eagle’s angry screech. Dropping like arrows from the heavens, the great golden raptors plunged toward Cyclopean eyes, slashing with extended talons. A few tosses of the beak ripped away gobbets of bloody flesh from the surrounding faces; then the birds took wing again.
“Now we drive them,” Artemis said. She pointed to the spot in the forest where a trio of huge bears lumbered forth. As the wolves kept away the legionnaires and other undead, the bears attacked the remaining Cyclopes with gore-caked claws.
Ares’s army began to dissolve as fear seized the creatures. Packs of wolves, charging bucks, the bears and eagles and snakes all combined to herd the monsters toward the Long Walls.
“Artemis, my sister,” said Athena, “you are as good as your word. My Athenians should now be able to-”
“Shhh.” Artemis tensed. With a gesture she summoned her bow; another gesture produced a golden shaft, nocked and ready to draw. “Hide.”
Athena frowned. “Hide from what?”
Within an instant, the heavens were ripped asunder and Ares stepped through, so huge the flames of his hair might set the clouds afire.
Athena reflected that her sister’s instincts were as accurate as her arrows and decided to take Artemis’s advice. A graceful swipe of her hand drew mist around her… and when the mist evaporated, she was nowhere to be seen.
Ares didn’t even notice. He scowled down upon the panicking mob his army had become. “What is wrong with you?”
The god’s voice shook the very earth. He reached down and, in one titanic hand, swept up bears and elk and wolves alike. “Animals? Mere animals drive you like cattle? Let me show you how to deal with animals!”
His fist closed and began to clench.
Artemis said, “Don’t.”
Ares flinched as if he’d been stung, but only for an instant. Then his natural belligerence flared once more. “ Who dares give orders to the God of War?”
Artemis stepped out of the tree cover, still only human size, her bow bent and her bowstring against her cheek as she sighted along her arrow. “Very gently, my brother. Very gently return my creatures to the ground.”
Ares snorted down from a dozen times her height. “Why should I?”
“My grip is not as sure as it once was,” Artemis said calmly. “I would hate to have to explain to our father how my fingers slipped when my arrow was aimed in the direction of your face.”
“ You wouldn’t dare. The Word of Zeus forbids-”
“Killing,” Artemis finished for him. “From this angle, an arrow in your eye would do little more than inconvenience you. I shouldn’t imagine you’ll be half blind for more than a decade or two.”
“ You would aid that treacherous bitch Athena against me?”
“I would,” Artemis said, without the faintest flicker of an eyelid, “defend my realm and its creatures. Set those down, and be on your way.”
“ You won’t attack me. You can’t. Not while I threaten only mortals.” His fist tightened until gore ran from between his fingers. “ I can crush every one of these woodland beasts, and you can’t give me so much as an itch.”
“You turn your hand against my creatures.” Artemis lowered the aim of her bow. “Witness how I turn my hand against yours.”
She released her arrow, which shot from her bow more swiftly than lightning-and before it could strike, another arrow appeared and was released. So many arrows flew so swiftly that the glade seemed filled with a golden haze that buzzed and snarled like a nest of angry hornets.
After that single instant, Artemis lowered her bow and looked up at Ares. “So?”
The God of War looked down upon his army. Every once-living creature of his in that glade lay dead; every undead creature was mutilated beyond recognition. The wolves and bears and elk stood untouched. For a long moment, the only sound was the mocking cry of a distant eagle.
At length, Ares said, “Perhaps I have been hasty.”
“Perhaps.”
“And if my legions and I leave your woodlands in peace?”
“Then my creatures and I have no reason to attack yours.”
“Done, then.”
“Yes,” said the Huntress of the Gods. “Done.”
Athena, lurking invisibly just within the tree line, shook her head with a disappointed sigh. She hated it when her family members forged a peace, even if Ares and Artemis would violate it at the merest provocation. Still, her mission to Artemis was far from a total loss. This forest skirmish should have taken enough pressure off the Long Wall that Kratos could move on into the city. Slaying monsters was all well and good-not to mention moderately entertaining-but it didn’t actually get him anywhere.
Athena took a deep breath, savoring the pine and earth scents. She closed her eyes and let herself go into a light trance, enabling her foresight to fill her mind with glimpses of the future. She gasped and her eyes flew open at what she foresaw. Coldness settled, and she realized that even had Artemis and the powerful Lord of the Ocean, Poseidon, joined her in opposing the God of War, they would have failed.
Ares had become too powerful-and increasingly insane. The very pillars of Olympus would be turned to rubble by his actions. And there was nothing she could do, because Zeus would never rescind his decree against one god killing another. She saw that while she and the rest of Olympus, including the Skyfather himself, were so bound, Ares would not obey.
Ambition and insanity made for a deadly mixture. If she could not kill Ares, Kratos must. But how? How could any mortal kill a god? Kratos had to reach the Oracle. It was the only way the answer would be revealed, for the Oracle’s power was such that she could give Kratos knowledge hidden even from the gods themselves. Athena hoped that this would be enough-it had to be.
This accomplished, she turned about and with a breath of will sent herself once more to Olympus, passing through her own chambers to step forth into the Hall of Eternity. It was necessary that Kratos receive another gift of power if he was to get to the Oracle.
Mere paces along the hall brought her to an archway hung with scented diaphanous veils. She pushed through into a sybarite’s delight of erotic architecture and seductive decoration. No matter the direction, mirrors of
