Gorgon

PROLOGUE

Ducetius kneeled to grab a handful of coins. He rose slowly, his eyes fixed on the magnificent golden discs. Below him, the red marble street was so polished he could see his grin reflected in its burnished hues.

He blinked away the sting of perspiration and wiped an arm quickly over his brow. Ignoring the stifling heat he glanced about, still grinning. It was true — the hidden city of stone with its streets of red marble, majestic houses, elaborate statues, and black rivers of oil, some of it afire, existed. And there was the treasure, so much of it, piles and piles of precious stones, metals, and mountains of gold coin.

The single long street was abandoned, silent — but it was like the silence that grew from the holding of breath rather than that of solitude. Ducetius felt he was being watched. The statues were so lifelike and their details exquisite, but their visages were nightmarish. It was if the sculptor had captured a terror that had befallen the models in life.

He drew the sack from his shoulder and bent to scoop up more coins. It had all been worth it. He had followed the clues, paid bribes, cheated men, and stolen maps and scraps of information wherever he could, and at last he had found it — Hades. An underground city filled with riches beyond reason.

He threw his head back and whooped, the sound bouncing away into the enormous cavern’s depths. Ducetius listened to his voice grow softer the further it traveled in the stygian darkness. He grabbed at more coins, then froze. A noise.

He spun and let his eyes travel over the street — there was nothing save the blank stares of the statues who stood mutely weeping, screaming, or tearing at their own faces. He bent again to his task, but hurried now, feeling the desire to be out in the sunlight again. The sack was heavy and beginning to drag. He wished his son was here to help, rather than waiting for him at the surface.

Another soft sound. A footstep? He whirled.

His mouth gaped and his eyes went wide as a white-hot shock ran through his entire body. The thing loomed over him, taller than anything he had ever witnessed.

In the ancient scrolls there had been a warning about the Cursed Ones who walked the pits of Hell. In his haste and lust for wealth, he had chosen to ignore them. He had been selective in what he believed, impatient, foolish. Now he could see, too late, that the warnings were true.

He didn’t want to look but felt compelled to. His eyes traveled up the body until he came to its head. Ropey outgrowths coiled over each other in constant movement, parting to reveal a ghastly white face and the red-slitted eyes of a snake. A shocking pain like a thousand daggers started in his head.

Before he knew what was happening he found himself running, climbing, scrambling toward the light. Thick paste-like vomit spewed from his gut. Still he moved upwards, but was slowing now with every step. His body felt numb.

Ducetius squeezed through the tiny opening in the cave wall, into daylight. He was only barely conscious of the sun’s warmth on his torso, and his vision was misting as if behind a layer of gauze. He was finally out of the creature’s lair but he knew he was not free.

The coins fell from his fingers that stiffened to stone. He lifted his head on a creaking neck and tried to stand, but managed only to get to one knee before the joint seized. His son’s voice sounded distant yet he should have been only a few dozen feet from where Ducetius had exited the hidden cave.

A shadow fell across his face and his son’s voice came again. He could just make out the boy’s features as the ashen veil closed around him. He would have wept, but there were no words, no tears, no moisture at all left inside him. He lifted an arm to reach out to that familiar, beautiful face, but his hand fell from his wrist like crumbling chalk.

His son’s voice rang out again, this time in a long, tormented scream, but for Ducetius the sound receded as if into the dark cave he had just climbed from. The sunshine disappeared too, and Ducetius became another stone monument to the gods.