Helix

Red Mist

24 AD

Helix's face flashed with incredulity. "What?"

Before Ares could answer his eyes snapped to the left.

"Well, done Helix." Sal purred as she and Ynyr stepped from the trees.

Half turning, the young man looked between them uncertainly. His first thought was how terribly misplaced he was in this company. A god. A seer. A witch. His second was how uneasy Ynyr looked. In his gaze was warning and... fear?

"Hello love." Ares tone was mocking. "I must say you still surprise me with your ingenuity. Binding a human prince to you, in order to find me is certainly, creative."

"I do what works." To Helix her expression appeared angry, or perhaps indignant.  "You know what I want, Ares. Give me back what is mine! Let us put the past behind us?"

Ares laughed, the sound cruel. "Did you bring your witch monster to fight me again? Or is that what the prince is for?"

Her eyes flicked to Helix briefly. "He is of no more use to me. Perhaps you would take him in exchange for what I want? Helix is an excellent fighter. But of course, you know that, since he killed your blessed Tacfarin." Sal smirked. "Killed your blessed, while marked for death by your father no less."

"What?" The word escaped Helix's mouth unintentionally. They were bargaining with him! And father? A vague memory of his childhood tutor flitted past. Zeus, brother of Hades and Poseidon. Father of Ares.

Ares full attention fixed again on Helix. "Still you fail to realize you cannot bargain with what you do not possess, Dacuma." The god's inhuman amber eyes glittered as they studied the young man before him. "Bound in contract by the Seer of Future, marked for death by Zeus, blessed by Poseidon, and now he stands before me, killer of my blessed. It seems you defy destiny's hold prince."

Sal's expression soured further, her voice rising shrilly. "Stop playing with the mortal fodder and answer me!"

Her voice came from far away as something in Ares' eyes held Helix's focus. He wanted to look away, to speak, to blink. Instead, his gaze remained locked with the gods. Internally fear spiked at the sensation. Swallowing, Helix forced his mind to remain coherent under such scrutiny.

"Will you work with me, prince? Will you fight with me against Dacuma? A favor she owes you. A favor she cannot refuse if it is within her power to perform. Force her to relinquish her power, and I will give you all you could want. Immortality, the strength of hundreds, power like the gods. The power to remove your mark and fight my father."

Helix heard Sal shouting. "Kill him Ynyr! Kill him now!" Her own hand raised toward Ares, a bright blue light snaking over it.

He saw the commanders face twist in pain and apology, as his eyes went solid black. She had the commander forced under her power. Helix acted. "Dacuma Salvius, my favor is death to all of your power." In his whole life, both before and after that moment, Helix never saw or felt the like of what happened next.

Sal's scream of furry cracked the sky as she fell to her knees, the spell holding the fighting armies motionless fractured into bloody chaos and Ares smiled a triumphant grin before shifting into his falcon form and taking flight. Ynyr, who had begun walking toward Helix stood motionless, the color all drained from his face as he stared at Helix, his black eyes, now normal except for their fear-filled wideness.

As for Helix, his body spasmed as he fell to the ground in both intense pain and confusion. Color shifted spectrum, his vision sharpening before a sudden haze of red mist, smelling strongly of copper, engulfed him. A thunderous cracking filled his ears and he howled in pain.

As the red mist settled into the clear morning air, Helix climbed to his feet forcing air into his lungs. He glanced around, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the strange feeling in his mind. He looked for the commander, wanting answers. Instead of a soldier, a Roman soldier charged him with a sword! Quickly retreating Helix cursed at the man. "I am on your fucking side!"

An unexpected snarl made Helix glance behind him, one eye on the swordsman before him. He blinked. A sudden indescribable terror settling into his gut. Behind him was a mass of midnight black fur.

The soldier did not give him time to think as his blade swept out in an attack. In a single smooth motion, Helix ducked and tackled the man, his veins burning with sensation. He tasted copper and sweet warmth on his tongue and found his jaws around the man's sword arm.

"Don't eat me!" The man screamed, the acrid smell of ammonia filling the already death coated air.

Helix pulled his head back and ran. Men from both sides leaped away as he fled. Pausing at the tree-line he cast a backward glance looking for Ynyr, or even Sal in hopes that one of them could explain. Neither of them was anywhere to be seen. High overhead a shrill whistle and the flap of wings caught his attention.

Releasing a snarling howl to the sky in demand and protest Helix followed the bird's flight deeper into the foreign forest.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Authors Note: The moment you've been waiting for has arrived! I don't expect a slow down in action for a little while.

This chapter is shorter then any of my others but, I just could not see it making sense to add more to this segment. I also had to add music to this chapter because I had so much fun listening to it while I wrote this piece.

Please let me know your thoughts and vote if you like it! Also, I love, love, love comments!