Read Hero for Hire for Free Online Page A

with my sword in frustration. The veils dropped, falling to the floor in pieces like solidified grease on a pot of cold soup. It reliquefied as it hit the stone floor. A nauseating smell arose, like a garbage pile on a steamy summer's day, worsening to gag-level when I inadvertently stepped in a puddle.
    I strode up to the altar, imagining that here, if anywhere, there’d be sanctuary. Forever fleet and young, Artemis had little to do with men except in her role as goddess of the hunt. I’d meant to implore her aid in my primary quest but my new mandate had taken me far beyond that purely selfish pursuit. She might have helped me hunt a harpy but now I had men to hunt as well.
    “Oh, virgin inviolable...guide of arrows, huntress, Artemis....”
    The laughter came again, muffled as though by a hand. It came from the goddess herself, far above my head.
    “Come nearer, insignificant creature.” The voice was harsh with a hiss in it as of snakes.
    Torches flared into life and light. I leaned back to look upwards and yet more upwards.
    The head of the statue had been hacked off. In its place, joined to the marble neck, was block of roughly carved black wood. Three hideous faces, with mouths obscenely open and starting eyes, had been carved into the sides, blending one into another. By some sorcery, the head slowly revolved upon the neck, showing each grimacing horror in turn.
    I am not particularly religious but I know Blasphemy when I see it.
    Then all three pairs of eyes snapped open their lids and living eyes focused down on me. The malice I’d met outside was like a tossed bouquet of spring flowers in comparison. The intensity of their malevolence could have flayed the skin right off me. The chuckle came again, harsh but sweeter, like poison cloaked in honey.
    "Who are you?" I demanded, only my voice came out in treble squeak.
    "I am She Who Opens the Gate."
    "What gate?"
    "The Gate between your world and the dark on the other side. Look upon me. I judge all...and will judge you."
    For a long, long time I stared up into those red eyes, eyes both frigid and burning, that looked into me without pity or even justice. I felt she hated me and all human things with a hatred all the more implacable for its eternal coldness that no feeling or thought could ever touch. I thought I bore it for an hour, but it was hardly thirty beats of a thundering heart before I couldn't bear it another instant.
    I held up the flat of my sword like a shield between my gaze and that hideousness. But my curiosity came back, stronger in me than fear. I peered over the edge. The cruelty that had pinned me down was withdrawn for a moment. “I had high hopes of you, for you are reputed to be brave. I see now that you are a child afraid of a nightmare,” the harsh voice said with infinite contempt. “Die in one now.”
    I took a fighting position, crouching to minimize vulnerable areas, knees bent, feet planted firmly but lightly for balance and mobility.
    Nothing happened, except the foul smell grew stronger.
    After a moment more when nothing happened, I stood up and went to look for the entrance to the interior rooms. Her mocking laughter followed me.
    As I thought, the door was behind the statue for ease of access by the priestesses. I wondered where they were and was afraid I knew. No true daughter of the Moon would have permitted such a travesty to stand in her lady’s place while breath still moved her body.
    Just as I put my hand on the door, I heard a knocking. At first, I thought it came from the door before me but quickly realized someone was knocking on the entrance door to the temple. Thinking perhaps Phandros or Temas had followed me, I called out to them, warning them not to enter.
    The door opened and in walked The Dead.
    The King was first as the most recent to die. He held one hand, nails already blackening, to the makeshift bandage around his throat and moaned as he came on.
    Following him, two men in dusty armor, dried blood