Underworlds #3: Revenge of the Scorpion King (2 page)

A
N INSTANT LATER
, I
SHOT UP OUT OF THE WATER,
gasping for air. There was a splash next to me.

“I’ll get the others,” a voice growled.

“What — who —” I sputtered.

“Shhh! The serpent will hear you!”

Before I could see who was talking, there was another splash and I was alone.

I sucked in mouthfuls of air over and over. I shook my head and blinked my eyes. I saw … what
did
I see? I was surrounded by a cluster of tall reeds somewhere downriver from the serpent.

Splash!
Jon, Dana, and Sydney exploded up next to me, gasping and gurgling.

Jon coughed. “What is going on —”

“Shhh!” the voice growled again. “The serpent will give up if he doesn’t hear us.”

Standing there was a creature with the head of a lion. Water was dripping from his mane as he held up a paw.

Dana raised her silver glove warily. “Who exactly are you?”

“Just the guy who saved your lives,” the lion-headed creature whispered. “Hush.”

The roars of the serpent gradually faded. A long minute later, we heard the distant
boom
of the gate. The lion-headed creature relaxed. “They’re back in the city. We’re safe.”

His voice wasn’t as deep as the warriors we’d seen before, and his mane was short, not fully grown. I guessed maybe he was a boy.

“You know, you’re pretty lucky you ran into me,” he said. “Most strangers aren’t dealt with kindly. And by that, I mean kkkkk!” He ran his finger under his furry chin. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Panu, chief guard of the Eighth Gate of the Babylonian Underworld.”

We stared at him for what seemed like an hour before Sydney finally spoke. “Okay. Panu. Well, thanks. For saving us, I mean.”

“Wait. According to legend, aren’t there only seven gates in the Babylonian Underworld?” asked Dana, tapping her book.

Her notes were
good
.

The lion-boy snorted. “It’s an unofficial position. But I
will
be a guard one day. And as a future guard of our city, may I ask what you are doing here?”

We went quiet again.

“How do we know you won’t turn us in?” I asked. “I mean, we know it’s pretty much a crime to mess around in an Underworld when we … haven’t been invited.”

Panu wrinkled his snout into what I guessed was a smile. “Only when you want to leave. There are rules against leaving.”

I didn’t like how that sounded, either, but once again it was Sydney who broke the ice. “We’re here because of Loki,” she said.

Panu narrowed his large lion eyes. “The silver man? I saw him enter the city.”

“He’s evil,” I said.

“There’s plenty of evil here, believe me,” said Panu.

“Loki is a Norse god,” Dana put in. “And he’s here to recruit the Babylonian monsters for his war against a bigger god. He plans to use our world as a stepping-stone.”

“He’ll destroy it to smithereens,” said Jon.

Panu frowned. “I knew I didn’t like the look of him. He’ll want the fire monsters. They’re famous in the Underworlds. You’ve already met Fire Serpent.”

“Who nearly charbroiled us,” said Syd. “Good thing he can’t see.”

“Stone blind,” said Panu. “But his nose is as sensitive as it is ugly. He lives in the tower with the others.” He paused for a minute. “If you want Loki, I can get you into the city. Come with me.” He waded through the reeds and up the riverbank toward the dunes.

“This seems almost too easy,” I said.

“We have to trust him, a little,” whispered Sydney.

“I think he’s cool,” said Jon. “That hair is awesome.”

Dana and I exchanged looks.

“Let’s go with him, but be on our guard,” she said, nodding.

With that, we followed Panu up the bank and across the dunes.

The tower that rose up from the city seemed more and more enormous as we got closer. Bonfires inside the walls cast wobbly golden light up the sides of the tower, and for the first time we saw gardens of vines and flowers hanging from the top all the way to the ground. Then it struck me.

“Guys, we’re looking at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!” I said. “One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World!”

Jon stared at the tower. “If only this were on a test. It’s the one answer I’d get right.”

Panu beamed as we wove between the dunes. “The hanging gardens are famous. The seven gates to the Underworld are also pretty well-known. Plus there are seven monsters, one for each of the seven levels of the Great Tower.”

“Seven must be a special number in mythology,” Jon said. “Owen’s lyre has seven strings, too.”

I carefully removed the lyre from its holster and checked it over. It was dry, and the strings were as tight as when I’d first held it.

Panu looked at the lyre closely. “Have you ever heard of the lost chord? It’s a Babylonian legend about a bunch of notes that contain really powerful magic.”

“Not really,” I said. “I’m just learning how to use this.”

Panu nodded. “The chord is lost, but the legend says that ‘Only what is lost can be found.’ Strange, right?”

I didn’t know anything about the lost chord. All I knew was that Orpheus’s lyre was magical … and incredibly handy. If you played it properly, you could make people and things do whatever you wanted. But its magic had a dark side, too. Whenever I plucked the strings, I got wobbly and my head felt like it was going to blow up. Not the best side effect.

“This way,” said Panu, leading us quickly along the outside of the wall, past two of the gates. “Stay close. The guards have night vision. They have to, since it’s always night here.”

Jon frowned and mumbled, “Eagle-eyed lion-heads.”

ROOOOO!

A loud bellow echoed inside the city. Panu paused and looked up at the tower.

“Is that one of the monsters?” Sydney asked.

Panu shook his head. “No, that’s Kingu. He was a famous warrior who used to command the fire monsters. But he led them against Marduk, the great god of the Babylonian empire. So Marduk cursed him and his monsters to the Underworld and turned him into … something else.” He was quiet for a moment. “He is cursed to remain in the Underworld, a prisoner of the monsters he used to rule.”

Looking into the eyes of a lion was a strange feeling, but I saw how expressive they could be. Panu felt sorry for this Kingu guy, even though he had battled the gods.

“Loki wants those monsters,” said Sydney, getting back to business. “He’ll use his runes to get to them.”

“Runes?” said Panu.

“Stones with magic symbols carved on them,” Dana explained. “They’re very old and powerful.”

Panu frowned. “I don’t like the sound of runes. But you have magic, too. The lyre. And this?” He pointed to the silver glove on Dana’s hand.

“A little,” Dana said, shrugging. She held her gloved hand close to her side, trying not to show how much it hurt. But I knew that the glove caused her as much pain as the lyre did me. The glove was super-useful, but part of me couldn’t wait until she was free of it.

“Here we are.” Panu paused at a section of the wall marked with decorative stones. He twisted one, pushed another, tapped a third, and a block in the wall moved aside smoothly to reveal a passage.

“Not bad, huh?” Panu ducked into the passage, and we followed him inside the city. The air instantly became stifling and hot and close, as if we had entered a sealed oven.

Zigging and zagging through the city streets to avoid patrols of armed guards, we soon found ourselves in a wide, moonlit courtyard. Flaming torches shone on the statue of a horrible beast with a winged head and a long beak.

“That’s Marduk, the god who cursed Kingu,” Panu said with a scowl. “A constant reminder of the failed war. Kingu says he’s going to get his revenge the moment he’s free.”

Everything in this place was beautiful — the sand, the stone, the tower. But I was getting the feeling that the night wasn’t the only dark thing here. There was a lot of anger and cruelty. Curses and revenge. And now Loki was in the mix.

The perfect ingredients for one colossal mess.

Careful to keep hidden from the guards on the city wall, we crept around the edge of the courtyard. The hot night was heavy with the sickly sweet smell of the vines and blossoms hanging from the tower.

Until the smell was covered by something else.

“Ugh, what is that stink?” whispered Panu, waving the air in front of his nose.

Sydney shuddered. “It’s Fenrir!”

“Loki’s wolf!” Jon gasped. “Hide!”

“I
NSIDE THE STATUE
!” P
ANU DIRECTED US.

“Inside —?” Dana said.

“It’s hollow!” Panu swung open a compartment on the back of the statue, tugged us inside, and pulled the door closed.

Through the flaring nostrils of the statue’s beak we saw Fenrir pad warily into the courtyard.

Fenrir was three times the size of any normal wolf and had wiry red fur, a head as big as a garbage can, and breath that smelled like one. Each fang was at least a foot long, his yellow eyes burned with a sickly fever, and he breathed stinky flames. He was not your standard wolf.

Just behind Fenrir strode Loki himself, and I felt my heart sink. Looking as if he owned the place, his expression cold and cruel, Loki seemed more evil than ever. The torchlight reflected off his powerful armor, which shone as brightly as the moon overhead.

I thumbed the lyre’s lowest string gently, to mask the presence of Dana’s stolen glove. It barely made a sound, but I knew it worked when Loki ignored the statue and turned to the shadows behind him.

“My dear Kingu, lord of the legendary fire monsters,” he said icily, “join me on my journey to Asgard, the throne of the Norse gods. The trek will begin soon, and you will prove very useful.”

The sound of Loki’s voice made my skin crawl, and I felt Dana tense beside me. We all knew that Loki’s “journey to Asgard” was code for his war against Odin.

A low voice emerged from the shadows across the courtyard. “I tell you again, Loki, my curse prevents me from leaving the Underworld. I am a prisoner.”

A figure moved in the shadows, and a sharp scent stung through the openings of the statue.

“That’s the smell of venom,” whispered Panu. “Now prepare yourselves….”

Kingu, ruler of the fire monsters, entered the courtyard. The torch flames instantly dimmed. But even in the darkness, there was no mistaking what he was.

A giant insect.

Kingu’s body, over ten feet tall, was formed of overlapping black plates that shifted as he moved. His legs — eight of them — looked like jackhammers, hinged with massive talons on the ends. He had industrial-size pincers for arms. His head was enormous, knobby, and angled, and his jaws looked like mechanical claws. Each large eye was yellow and deep, like fire blazing at the end of a long tunnel.

Jon gasped. “He’s a … bug!”

“Scorpion,” whispered Panu. “The Great God cursed him into the shape of a deadly desert scorpion. Kingu is now the Scorpion King. He lives as a prisoner in the Underworld.”

It was the long, thick tail arching up behind him that freaked me out the most. It split into two points, with a claw-tipped, venom-filled stinger on the end of each one. The stingers twitched and moved back and forth, as if they could see everything going on. Creepy.

“Time is of the essence,” Loki said.

“Is it?” Kingu clacked his pincers, and two lion-headed soldiers walked in, carrying an ornate box between them. “The moon rises, falls, rises, falls. It is eternal night in my Underworld. I am cursed to remain here, staring at the heavens and seeing only darkness.”

“I seek my revenge on Odin,” said Loki. “He wounded me once, long ago. It was the last time he will do so. Your beasts — and you — can aid me.”

Kingu nodded at the soldiers. They opened the box, then withdrew. “I also seek revenge against a great god. When I am free, all gods shall bow in fear.”

With a strange pinging sound, a motorized bird rose from the box. It flapped its metal wings and circled the courtyard swiftly.

Zap!

One of Kingu’s tail stingers shuddered, and the motorized bird fell to the ground like a stone. Loki’s eyes darkened when a second bird flew up out of the box. “Help me now, Kingu, and I will help you….”

Zap!
The second bird fell.

Loki’s expression was frozen as he watched a third bird take flight. I tried to see Kingu’s stingers moving, but they were too fast.

“You may not have heard of the Twilight of the Gods, Kingu,” Loki said. “It is the final battle and the defeat of Odin. It has been predicted.”

“Warring against gods is dangerous,” Kingu said. “I am proof of that, cursed to an eternity of darkness.”

Zap!
The third bird fell.

“Yes,” said Loki, clenching and unclenching his one gloved fist. “But soon I will have a weapon to conquer all weapons.”

Dana caught her breath. “The Crystal Rune,” she whispered. “He’d better not hurt my parents….”

“The final battle begins with the fabled Fires of Midgard,” Loki went on, petting Fenrir’s wiry fur.

“Midgard,” said Kingu. “Is that not your name for the middle world, the world of humans?”

They were talking about our world. My blood went to ice all over again.

“In order for me to reach Odin’s great hall, all of Midgard must burn to ash,” said Loki frostily.

“Burn!” Sydney whispered in my ear. “That’s why he wants the fire monsters. It all makes sense….”

“The fire monsters of Babylon’s Underworld are renowned among all beasts,” Loki continued, looking sharply at Kingu. “Immortal. Angry. Destructive. I need all of them. And you, of course.”

Kingu eyed a fourth bird as it circled the courtyard and settled on the end of the statue’s beak. Jon pulled back.

“I understand,” Kingu said. “But I am bound to the Great Tower. At the top are the Tablets of Destiny. Return the Tablets to me, and I shall give you control of the beasts forever. In doing so, you shall lift my curse, and I shall be free.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at Kingu. “And that is all? Surely someone with your power could climb the tower and easily retrieve the Tablets for yourself.”

“Not so easily,” said Kingu slowly. “The curse is as twisted as this shape you see me in. It includes two riddles. The first is that the monsters have been turned viciously against me. They will do everything to prevent your climb to the top.”

Loki’s lips twitched. “I have my powers, too.”

Kingu nodded. “You must subdue each beast to pass from one level to the next.”

“How clever,” said Loki coldly, touching the rune stone on his armored breastplate. “I must battle the monsters to earn the right to lead them. And the second riddle?”

Zap!
The statue reverberated like a gong as Kingu’s stinger destroyed the fourth mechanical bird. He turned to Loki. “The second riddle can only be solved at the summit. It is not to be puzzled out here.”

Loki’s eyes flared, then darkened as he touched the stone on his breastplate again. He glanced at Fenrir, whose eyes flared as his had. When he turned back to Kingu, Loki wore a broad smile.

“My dear Kingu, I came to your Underworld for the fire monsters. Now I see my real duty is to free you from your curse! I will subdue the beasts, climb the tower, retrieve the Tablets of Destiny — and free you.”

“Then come this way,” Kingu said, turning his great scorpion head toward the tower. The two gods and Fenrir left the courtyard together. When we were sure they were gone, we tumbled out of the statue.

“Loki has no intention of helping Kingu!” said Sydney. “I know that creepy look. Those dark eyes. And touching his rune like that? He’s probably already hatching some evil plan to use his runes to control the monsters, steal the Tablets, and betray Kingu.”

Panu frowned. “You had better hope he doesn’t, for everyone’s sake. What did he call what he’d do to your world?”

“The Fires of Midgard,” said Dana.

I looked up at the tower. It seemed a mile high, and every inch of it guarded by monsters.

“I know we’re tired and scared,” I said, “but we’ve got to get to the top of that tower.”

“But you heard Kingu,” said Sydney. “The beasts will do everything to stop us. Plus Loki has his runes, and all we have is a glove and a lyre.”

“We can’t let Loki get those Tablets,” I said.

Panu frowned. “Is there really no other way to stop him?”

Fenrir howled twice in the distance.

“There isn’t,” said Dana, staring up at the colossal, dark tower. “Though I think we all wish there was.”

Panu breathed a long sigh. “Then, come on. I’ll take you to the tower. With a couple of clever shortcuts, we may even get there first!”

Jon sighed. “Lucky us.”