Dallas' POV
THAT WAS WHEN all hell broke loose. The basilisks apparently thought they could attack now that their master was dead. All three of them went straight for the closest target, Mana.
Thysía let out a battle cry and ran at the Brigadier. The Brigadier just grimly drew his sword and stood waiting.
I took the opportunity to yank my chain out of Agrius' unsuspecting hands.
The bear man turned to me and growled. He took a swipe at me and I dodged underneath it, slamming my fist into his stomach.
He stumbled backwards but instantly regained footing and took another swing at me. It was too low for me to dodge, so I moved backwards, barely missing his bear claws.
I shuffled backwards as fast as I could, but Agrius advanced faster, and soon he was on all fours looming over me as I was pinned against the railing.
And then he froze. He looked down and I followed his gaze. Then he disintegrated into a cloud of yellow monster dust, leaving the Brigadier standing with a dirty sword where Agrius had been.
I gasped at him. "You..?"
He nodded slightly and gave me a long sad look, before turning and sprinting away towards his horses. I looked over to see that Chrysós had struck down one of them and was fighting the other.
The chestnut stallion stopped as he saw the Brigadier, which gave the green eyed boy enough time to mount his remaining horse and kick it into a gallop.
They disappeared through the trees.
I swallowed slowly, eyes trained on the place I last saw him.
"Damn, he got away!" Thysía yelled.
He saved my life. But why? He wasn't on my side. He worked for Atlas. He had captured me. But he'd been nice to me the the night before, and then he saved my life?
"Dallas!" I turned to see Mana running towards me.
I realised that the three basilisks had been taken care of. The fight was over.
"Are you okay?" He reached my side, "Oh my god, you're not. Damn, Thysía get the ambrosia!"
I looked down and touched the monster dust with my finger.
He saved my life.
•••
Mana pampered me for the next hour, making sure I was okay. But my mind was elsewhere.
And Thysía. The poor guy had had to kill someone. He didn't look the same. He'd buried Devon and had been sitting next to a tree for the last forty five minutes, staring into space.
I turned and looked at Mana for the first time today. Like, really looked at him.
He was inspecting the chariot. The had leaned over and was getting something out. He looked so deep in thought that bomb could go off and he wouldn't notice.
There would be no snarky comments from him today.
Both guys looked shaken.
I got onto my unsteady feet and stumbled towards Mana. I grabbed the chariot for support, and saw what he had picked up from inside of it.
"Hey, that's my sword!" I said, reaching out. He let it slip between his fingers as I took it, still staring at the bottom of the chariot. He didn't even look at me.
"Hey, you okay?"
Mana looked up at me with pain in his eyes. "That guy... He knew. He knew who my mom was."
"Don't make yourself in the shadow of your parents." I said, leaning forwards, "Be yourself - you don't need a goddess to follow."
He smiled faintly. Then he looked back at the chariot. "Stand back."
I stepped away from the chariot warily as Mana knelt in front of it. He disappeared from view so I had to hobble around the chariot to see what he was doing. He had his hands on the side of it and his head was bowed.
"Mom." He muttered so quietly I barely heard him, "Please, taking this chariot as an offering. Please, one day, tell me who you are."
"Mana-" I was cut off as the chariot suddenly lifted off the ground.
I blinked as it unsteadily rose and tilted, as if it was only being lifted by one side. It kept going for a few metres, and then disappeared with a soft pop.
"Mana-"
"I need to know."
I didn't push it.
•••
We left soon after that. Apparently the snakes had spit acid onto one of our duffel bags, melting most of our money and a few of our ropes. We only had enough money to take a two and a half hour train trip to some tiny town in Kansas called Colby.
On the train (how no one noticed three armed kids and a flying horse I have no idea) Thysía removed Chrysós's splint and filled me in on what happened in Michigan City. Mana chimed in every now and again to say things that he missed. I was appalled to hear that Chrysós almost died.
I wondered what Thysía had done to get so disowned by his father. I wondered where his mother was, if she had been cast out of Artemis' temple and stayed to raise him. I wondered how his father was going to fare, with a broken nose and being locked out of his own home.
I didn't comment afterwards. I turned out to the window and watched the scenery passing, only one thing on my mind.
He saved my life.
I wondered if anyone has seen him kill Agrius. I looked back at the two boys. Neither of them looked like they wanted to say something, so I guessed not.
Should I tell them? I mean, what if one of them tries to kill him and I haven't told them?
I open my mouth to tell them about the Brigadier, but the train screeches to a stop so fast everyone went flying into the wall closest to the front.
I smashed into the seat with a groan.
"What the hell..." I muttered, sitting up.
"Guys, you need to see this." I looked up to see Thysía had opened the window and was leaning out.
I stumbled to my feet and followed Mana to look out. I wished I hadn't.
There, on the track in front of the train, blocking us from the town I could just see, was Atlas' friend who had been hunting us all the way from Pennsylvania.
"God, I'm so done with this stupid Nemean Lion."