Diana arrived. Shouting her battle cry, she attacked the Nirads tying to kill Pegasus. Stabbing at them with her brother’s spear, her grief transformed to rage as she used all her strength against them.
One Nirad shoved past her and made for the stallion’s head. But when its four hands made contact with the golden bridle, it howled in agony. Diana turned on the attacker and lunged forward with her brother’s spear. Unlike all the other attempts to stop the Nirads, this time the spear worked and she managed to kill her first invader. With Diana’s help, Pegasus got back on his feet. But that was one small victory in a losing battle.
‘Paelen!’
Jupiter was surrounded by Nirad fighters but he was pointing at the temple. ‘Quickly,’ he shouted. ‘Stop them!’
Paelen turned to the temple and saw other Nirads cutting through the defenders and advancing further up the marble steps.
‘Stop them, Paelen!’ Jupiter ordered again. ‘They must not extinguish the Flame!’
Paelen knew the moment the Flame of Olympus went out, the war would be over and Olympus would fall. But if Jupiter himself couldn’t stop the invaders, what could a thief possibly do?
In the time it took for him to decide whether or not to join the fight the battle was lost.
Nirad warriors tore down the entrance gates to the temple and tossed them down the steps. They poured into the temple, howling in rage. Moments later, there was the sickening sound of the plinth that held the Flame being knocked over. Guttural roars of triumph filled the air as the invaders went to work extinguishing the Flame.
Soon more and more Nirads abandoned the battleground and rushed up the steps to join in the destruction. The survivors of Olympus could do little more than watch in terror as their world ended.
Paelen saw Jupiter run over to Pegasus. Catching hold of the wounded stallion, Jupiter pointed in the air and shouted something. Pegasus snorted and nodded his head.
Moments later, the few survivors parted to give Pegasus room to spread his wings. With a shriek, the stallion launched himself into the air.
Paelen’s heart leaped with excitement. This was his moment! Finally, an opportunity to seize the bridle and control the fleeing stallion.
‘Go after Pegasus!’ Paelen ordered his sandals. ‘Get me to the stallion!’
3
Emily made her way back to her bedroom having finished collecting water. Without electricity, there would be no TV, no radio and no lights. With nothing more to do, she got into bed.
Emily knew she wouldn’t sleep. Even if the storm hadn’t been so noisy, she was on edge. She just wished she weren’t alone. Her mother would have known what to do. But her mother was dead and nothing Emily could do would ever change that. She was alone. She started to regret not asking her Aunt Maureen to come over.
Outside the window there was another blinding flash of lightning and terrible explosion of thunder. Emily felt the whole building shake. But as she listened, she heard more than thunder. Directly above her head was the sound of something very big, very heavy hitting the roof.
Living in the top-floor apartment, the only thing above them was the flat roof. Emily’s family paid extra to have access to it, and her mother had planted a large flower and vegetable garden. But no one had been up there since her mother got sick and died. Emily worried that maybe a piece of the Empire’s antenna might have just hit her building. Or maybe lightning had struck her mother’s garden shed and knocked it over.
She considered calling her father to ask him what to do. Would lightning start a fire? Was her building about to burn down? The rain outside was coming down in heavy sheets, but would it put out a fire if it had started? As more and more questions and fears built up within her, Emily’s heart practically stopped.
There were more sounds from above.
It was almost as though someone or something was kicking the roof.
Raising the flashlight, Emily sucked in her breath when the beam of light revealed a huge crack in the ceiling plaster. The overhead light was swinging on its cord. Small chips of paint and plaster were starting to fall.
Emily reached for her cell. But even before she used the speed dial, she closed it again. What was she going to tell her father? That something big had hit the roof and cracked her bedroom ceiling? Maybe he’d tell her to get out of the building. But that would mean going out in the dark hallway and finding her way to the stairwell. Then she’d have to walk down twenty flights of stairs, just to arrive on the street where it was pouring with rain.
‘No, Em,’ she told herself. ‘There’s nothing up there. It’s just the garden shed fallen over and the door banging in the wind.’
Long before Emily could convince herself it was nothing serious, the thumping from above started again.
‘This is crazy!’ she said. Even as she spoke, she was climbing out of bed. ‘You’re not going up there …’