Read Underworlds #1: The Battle Begins for Free Online Page B

strained at their leashes while Hades summoned more hooded shapes to him, his face grim.
    We had no choice.
    Shadows fell over us like lead helmets as we entered the darkness behind Hades’ throne.

T HE AIR BEYOND H ADES’ ARENA WAS AS THICK AS smoke. It stunk like burning trash. We groped our way forward in near darkness.
    But no matter how deep into the gloom we walked, we could still hear each grain of black sand falling into the bottom of the hourglass.
    “How long do we have?” asked Jon.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “All I know is that I don’t trust Hades. We need to hurry before he changes his mind.”
    Finally, the smoke cleared a little, allowing us a view of black earth as far as the eye could see, dotted by burned tree stumps and black-water marshes. The smell didn’t let up.
    Sydney pointed ahead. “Look.”
    A strange, ragged-looking tower stood on a rise in the distance. It was made of dull brown metal streaked with green.
    “That’s bronze,” said Sydney, “like my gong.”
    Just in front of the bronze tower was a huge mound of dirt. It rose to a point at the top.
    “I guess that’s the big mud thing Hades told us about,” said Jon. “It looks like a volcano.”
    I tightened my grip on the lyre and felt my stomach flip-flop. “If Cerberus was three , we have to expect fifty and a hundred of something soon. Everyone ready?”
    Step by step we crossed the plain, weaving around the soggy marshes, across the black ground, to the base of the dirt mound. It stood tall and silent and dark. We made our way completely around it, until the bronze tower loomed in front of us.
    “That was surprisingly easy,” Syd whispered.
    “Why are you whispering?” asked Jon.
    “Because I’m scared —” She stopped.
    We heard a sound. Like a shhh followed by a thud .
    We turned around. A man stood next to the big mud hill, wearing a suit of gleaming black armor. But it wasn’t regular armor. It was rounded and knobby, like the shell of a giant insect. The man must have been eight feet tall, and his helmet was a great black bulb, with a narrow slit for an eyehole. On the center of his helmet was the letter M , blazing in red.
    In his hands, he held an ax the size of me.
    “And that’s what I’m scared of,” Sydney said, echoing what we all felt.
    My fingers already ached from clutching the lyre, but I tightened my grip even more. “I saw that armor,” I said. “When Dana disappeared.”
    Shhh … thud . A second man appeared.
    “I think I know where this is heading,” Jon muttered, backing up.
    Shhh … thud . Shhh … thud . Another and another appeared, sliding down from a hole at the top of the mud house. Before we knew it, the ground was covered with black-armored, ax-wielding warriors. When they stopped, I did a quick scan. “Fifty. There are fifty of them.”
    “And the lunch ladies score again,” said Jon.
    “At least there aren’t a hundred,” Sydney added, then she gasped. “Wait … M … M … big warriors … oh, no, no, no!” She flipped the pages of Dana’s book. “I bet those are the Myrmidons!”
    Jon backed up. “The friendly Myrmidons?” he asked hopefully.
    “They’re known as great warriors,” she said. “Huge. Fearless. They must be guarding the bronze tower from people like us.”
    We watched, stunned, as the Myrmidons assembled into a wall of black armor in front of their mud house. Fifty strong, they stood at attention about twenty feet from us. Then they all stepped forward at once.
    THUD . The ground shook.
    “Owen,” said Sydney, “play something helpful. And loud!” She and Jon clapped their hands over their ears.
    I slammed the lyre like an air guitar. Brannng! Notes twanged and echoed between the mud house and the bronze tower.
    THUD! The Myrmidons advanced again like a single iron machine.
    “They don’t hear it!” cried Jon. “Their helmets are too thick. Or their brains are. Let’s get into that tower!”
    We turned and ran for the tower