Born In The Palace

Chapter 11: Olympus

"Where are they?" Rib asked Eros. "Did you see them leave? Are they playing tricks on me? Because if you are, now is not the time!" He raised his voice near the end and walked to the whale shaped rock to look behind it. He came out with furrowed brows, confused once again when he didn't find his men there. 

"They're gone," Eros said. "They disappeared in front of my own eyes. The satyr and those humans. Gone."

"I don't understand." Rib shook his head. "Why are they gone and we're not? Could it be..." He widened his eyes and stared at the Helm piece he'd dropped in the sand. "Could this have caused their disappearance? Putting them together?" 

"No," Eros mused, picking up the piece of black metal. "This couldn't have caused their disappearance. But it could be the reason that the rest of you were untouched."

"Are you saying that the Helm of Darkness prevented us from being taken?" I asked. 

"Just a theory of mine." The God frowned and turned the metal in his hand, inspecting it. Then he tossed it back on the sand. "The Helm was forged by cyclopses from a special iron in the Underworld, the same one used to make the gates themselves. I think holding these pieces might have saved the three of you and rooted you in this world."

"And you?" Rib asked. "How are you still here then? You didn't hold that special metal."

"I'm not a mortal like you." Eros shrugged. "It isn't that easy to drag me into another world against my will."

Rib frowned in confusion. Lena and I knew who Eros truly was, but I'd kept that truth from the bandits, thinking that the God will reveal himself to them when he wanted to.

"I refuse to believe this," Rib suddenly stated. "I refuse to believe that they too disappeared. It makes no sense! It simply doesn't." He shook his head. "Not at all." Then he turned on his heel and marched to his camel, climbed on top of it and said, "I'm going back to the city to look for the boys."

"You can't be serious?" Lena said. "You truly think that they somehow teleported into the city in the split second we turned away from them? Does that makes more sense to you than their disappearance?" 

Rib didn't answer, and it was clear to everyone that the man was in denial. "You can either come with me or stay here. I'm going to the city," was all he said before turning his camel and riding away.

"We might as well follow him. If the bandits suddenly disappeared, it's only fair to think that other people could have suffered the same fate," I said, picking up Rib's Helm piece from the ground and heading toward my camel. 

Lena and Eros agreed, and we all followed Rib.

Once we entered the first road to the city, the absolute silence around us had my heart pick up its pace. I could no longer hear the swinging of doors as people entered and left their homes or shops. I could no longer hear the endless bickering between neighbours. There was no more chatter and humming as people went about their business. No more joyful laughter from children. 

There was no one in sight.

"It has already happened," Eros said as we rode deeper into the empty city, passing by all the empty streets and buildings that were crowded with people this very morning. "Everyone was taken."

"They must have all gone to the palace," Rib argued. "That's why the city is empty. They're all there."

"Rib, I don't think--" Without listening to me, he headed in the direction of Kingdom Pesok's palace, and we followed him once again. 

More empty streets greeted us as we silently rode to our destination on our camels. It was eerie how quiet it became here. 

A bark of a dog startled all of us out of our own thoughts.