Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [186]
She hauled Larry into an alcove, barely containing a terrified shriek as a boulder the size of a small car slammed down less than ten feet behind them. The hammer-blow booms of rock against rock grew louder with each strike. But even they couldn’t drown out the rising rumble from beneath the earth – the impending eruption she had caused.
Too late to worry if she had done the right thing. All she could do now was wait for the last pieces of the meteorite to drop, then hope there was a way to escape.
She helped Larry lean against the alcove’s wall, then looked outside. Huge boulders plunged past the ledge towards the molten lake below. Only a few parts of the shattered sky stone now remained aloft.
The largest was above the circle of statues, a thirty-foot-long dagger.
Its glow flickered to nothing . . .
The giant shard fell.
It stabbed deeply into the heart of the ledge – which broke apart as if split by a hammer and chisel. Over half of it sheared away and plummeted towards the lava, taking one of the surviving mercenaries with it and leaving Eddie, Stikes and the last of his men on a ragged stump jutting out over the shaft. The remaining Olympians fell, the figure of Poseidon breaking apart and sending the metal trident clanging towards the nearby edge. Sections of the temple’s lower tiers collapsed, their own lesser gods flung to destruction.
With most of the natural bowl now gone, hot, fume-laden air from the magma chamber swept on to what was left of the ledge. Eddie coughed, cupping a hand over his mouth and nose. If he didn’t move quickly, he would be either suffocated or roasted. Eyes stinging, he peered over the broken remnants of the statue. Stikes and the mercenary, the latter closer, were still between him and the temple.
The temple—
The newly fallen tiers had created a ramp of sorts, unstable and treacherous yet high enough to reach the remaining stairs. And that wasn’t all – a rising column of steamy vapour was being pulled towards it, swirling into a vortex that disappeared into the shadows of a higher level.
Air was being drawn from the volcanic shaft through a second lava tube, newly opened by the tremors. There was another way out!
All they had to do was reach it.
He looked back at the two soldiers in his way. Both had been knocked down by the meteorite’s impact—
Eddie hurdled the wreckage of Poseidon and snatched up the metal trident, then ran as hard as he could. The ground shuddered with every step, almost throwing him off balance as he readied the ancient bronze weapon.
The mercenary sat up, astounded simply to be alive as he took in the devastation all around him. He breathed a sigh of relief—
Three metal prongs burst out of his chest.
Eddie slammed a foot against the dying man’s back to tear the trident free with a trio of bloody spurts. ‘Nina!’ he yelled, jabbing a hand at the ramp. ‘Climb up, over there!’ He hefted the trident and charged again. If he killed Stikes, that would only leave Sophia to worry about.
Stikes saw him coming. He twisted and raised the Jericho—
The trident slashed through his sleeve, one of its points gouging a deep rent in the muscle of his forearm. He screamed – but still managed to pull the trigger.
The bullet caught Eddie’s right biceps, tearing out a chunk of flesh the width of a finger. The pain made him recoil reflexively, throwing off his aim as he thrust the weapon down at the other man. The trident skimmed the side of Stikes’s body, ripping clothing but not skin, and hit the stone floor – and the entire three-pointed head broke off.
Stikes fired again, but Eddie jumped sideways and the bullet seared past him. He swung the trident’s shaft, catching Stikes a blow to the hand that fractured one of his fingers and sent the Jericho whirling towards the temple.
Nina had seen the new exit and started to run for the makeshift ramp, Larry behind her, when she heard the gunshots. ‘Eddie!’ she cried, turning