Read Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) for Free Online

will no doubt be surprised to hear his doughtiest warrior speak so,” he intoned, but she could see the twinkle in his eye.
    Sekhmet lifted her lips, baring her fangs. He just laughed and levered himself up with his staff. Unlike her, he was no immortal. His mortality was evident in his motions as he stretched a little and began to walk. She paced alongside and he placed a hand on her withers, evidently grateful for the unspoken assistance. Here, in the higher plane, where time slipped by at a different rate, he was merely very old. Below in the human lands he would have been dust a century ago.
    “Your children?” he asked after a few moments. His muscles had loosened and he walked more easily. Sekhmet felt his weight taken from her.
    “Are safe with the Guardian. She grows apace with them, Vulcan tells me.”
    “Good. The young ones should be spared.” He sighed heavily.
    “They never are,” the big cat murmured in response to his unspoken memories of atrocities long past.
    “The Scholar will give us some answers.”
    Sekhmet snorted. If the creature could be coaxed from its mad lair. Peter would help with that. He was often the only voice the Scholar heard in that cobwebby brain of hers. She believed he was an angel. Even Peter had stopped trying to persuade her otherwise.
    Peter had come to the land above, which legends below named Fata Morgana, Atlantis, and dozens of other names, when he lay dying on a battlefield. The Scholar, known for her mad ways above and below alike, had come upon him, a broken human soldier. She had healed him and brought him here. He was by no means the only mortal here, although it had become very rare for humans to dwell in the higher plane in the last century.
    Sekhmet sighed. She only vaguely remembered her mother’s tales of the time before this plane had been created. When the creatures styled the Titans by the humans had burst through and fallen the long, long way to Earth. In the millennia since, these wars had erupted from time to time . It was like living on one of Vulcan’s mountains of fire , she thought irritably.
    The path twisted oddly, and then deposited them in the valley of twisted glass and stone that was the Scholar’s home. Sekhmet sat down and curled her tail around her paws. This place gave her the creeps. Peter patted her on the head absently, then started forward, leaning on his cane. She looked after him affectionately. Even at this time of life, in what would be his eighties, she guessed, he was a striking figure. He looked back at her, his brilliant blue eyes flashing, and raised a hand in salute.
    Once Peter was out of sight, Sekhmet rose and began to pace across the valley, her tail lashing. Vulcan felt the Scholar would hold the key to their success, she knew . Secret weapon, indeed , she snorted.
    The kittens would be ready soon to travel, and her last message from Vulcan had included that he intended to leave his charges with a babysitter when he came here to finish the organization of the effort. She snorted again. It was going to have to be someone formidable to keep track of that girl, who she read as a person of great spirit and will, and her kittens. Sekhmet’s last litter had been challenging. This was why she had waited a few centuries between kittens.
    A movement far up on the canyon wall caught her attention. With ears pricked forward, she slunk into a cluster of rocks, watching the area closely. She couldn’t quite make out the shape of the intruder, which would be because he was using magic, she guessed. She waited in stillness, even her tail quiet for once.
    She didn’t stare at one spot, merely knowing where he was going, and kept scanning for other threats. There were approaching spots in the sky, too high even for her to see what they were, but she thought she knew. Peter and the Scholar would be no match for one of Zeus’s thunderbolts.
    Calmly she slid through the rocks, keeping to cover as much as she could. No point in drawing