The Missing Gods

Chapter 20 - We Make It Up The Mountain

I heaved one leg in front of the other for what felt like the millionth time, my heart pounding and my limbs heaving as I huffed and puffed up the steep pathway in the mountain range. I was encouraged to see Annabeth huffing and puffing beside me, just as red faced as I felt, and knowing that it probably wasn't due to my diet that this walk was so difficult. I threw a quick look over my shoulder to see Ganymede striding along at a leisurely pace and looking angelic as ever with the ground far below as his backdrop. He caught my eye and laughed, probably noticing the annoyance on my face.

"Not much farther," Ganymede said in a sing-song voice. Annabeth huffed and kept stomping ahead as I slowed my pace to walk next to Ganymede.

"How come this is so easy for you? I feel like I can barely breathe up here," I said gruffly, knowing Annabeth was probably silently agreeing with me ahead by the way her head tilted toward us.

"This is not a natural place for demigods, Perseus," Ganymede replied. "Only those who were blessed by the gods to be immortalized in the stars are meant to walk the sky as you are now."

I looked down at my feet, which felt like bricks, and then down at Ganymede's, which looked like they were lightly tapping the path below us with every step. I wondered for a moment what it would be like to feel so light and free until I realized that I feel the same way in the ocean, able to control the currents and flow around me to where walking could almost feel like a dance.

"Are we the first up demigods up here?" I asked.

"There was a girl, a daughter of Atlas, who arrived shortly before you. I am not sure when as I do not keep up with the mortal concept of time anymore," Ganymede said, his eyes looking again as if he were hundreds of years old. Annabeth stopped and turned toward us.

"You met Zoe?" I said quietly, running over the memories in my head.

"She was quite a force," Ganymede said with a quiet laugh. "She would not allow a "boy" to guide her to her place in the stars, she said she could find her own way perfectly fine, and that is what she did."

"That sounds like her," I said, smiling slightly. "So if she's here, is there any way we could find her? Maybe she could help us." My heart started rising only to fall again as I watched Ganymede's face.

"She is at peace, Perseus. Her soul is represented by the stars that form the Huntress constellation."

"Then why aren't you in the stars?" I said angrily, wanting to put distance between us now. I then immediately wanted to backtrack everything I said when I said Ganymede's eyes flash with pain. "Oh," I said softly.

"You're not at peace," Annabeth said, stating a question that we both knew was true now.

"I do not want to continue this conversation," Ganymede said, taking long loping strides away from us up the path, his shoulders clenched with tension as he walked away.

We continued walking in silence for a while until Annabeth suggested we stop for some food and sleep. I quickly scarfed down some of the food we had packed as my stomach gurgled, mainly just granola bars and dried fruit. Ganymede popped some ambrosia in his mouth and relaxed against a rock, looking off into the distance at the miles we had climbed. Annabeth laid down to try and get some sleep, her head cushioned on her bag of food.

"Can you tell us what all you know about Aether?" Annabeth asked Ganymede, her eyes glittering in the light of the stars.

Ganymede shifted and looked at her, thinking about his answer before saying "Aether is the primeval god of the shining light of the blue sky. He is the substance of light, a layer of bright mist which lays between the dome of Heaven and the lower air which surrounds the Earth."

Annabeth blinked at this, no doubt filing this information away in her brain. I noticed how tired she looked then, after so many days of worry and lack of sleep. Then my thoughts turned to the worry lines I saw in my dad's face.

"I think Aether's not the only one we're up against," I said, trying to keep my voice steady and strong even though I felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion any minute now.

"I do believe you are correct, Perseus," Ganymede replied. "Arce and Aegipan are not the only gods of the sky that the gods have angered. There are many that wish revenge against the gods of Olympus."

Annabeth seemed to have fallen asleep, her blonde hair fanning out over her face. Ganymede relaxed further onto the rock, instructing me to go to sleep and that he would keep watch.

My dreams were filled with the same booming laughter, a cloud of blackness obscuring my vision, a void that I couldn't escape no matter how fast I tried to move my legs. I was calling out for my dad and reaching my hand in front of me blindly when Ganymede lightly shook me awake.

"It is time," is all he said. Annabeth was already standing in the distance, scoping out the palace and shooting furtive looks back at us. I rushed to get ready and we were next to her in no time, all three of us staring through a gap in the thick tree branches at the fifteen foot tall doors to the palace, shining with the soft glow of a star.

Our plan was simple: get into the palace, have Ganymede and I distract Aether while Annabeth put on her invisibility cap and scoped out the place to see if they were holding the gods there. We walked up to the front door with me in the front, holding the postcard out gingerly as if it were our invitation to brunch.