BATTLE OF THE DEITIES

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 

Daniel 3:17 

~~~

Orion bent on one knee and placed his hand over the hilt of the sword at his waist.

“You summoned me, Your Majesty.“

“Rise,” Leonidas said.

Orion rose to face the king, his eyes straying to the bright red phoenix perched on his brother’s shoulder. The beady-eyed creature leveled a knowing gaze at him.

“Are your duties becoming too overwhelming, Orion?” the king questioned, picking up an ostrich’s tongue from the platter of delicacies before him.

“No, my lord.”

“Then why do you fail in every responsibility I hand over to you?”

Orion clenched his jaw. Fail? As usual, Leonidas was oblivious to his achievements.

“What is it, brother? You have something to say?”

Orion held his tongue, not at all eager to be a victim of the phoenix’s flaming breath.

“She is only a Daraelite slave. All I asked was that you groom her to be my concubine. A simple task, and yet you failed.”

Leonidas thrust out his goblet, spilling red wine on Orion’s chainmail.

The Aurelian prince ground his teeth. He should have known this was about Thalia. The girl was a thorn in his side.

Thalia had been civilized under the training of the palace steward. In fact, she emerged several times better when tested with the other princesses. However, her barbarian nature surfaced when, instead of being offered an administrative position by the king, she was conscripted to be his concubine.

“I apologize, my lord,” Orion said half-heartedly. “I will try…”

“Try?” Leonidas chuckled dryly. “I’ve had enough of you trying. Bring her here.” The last words were not directed at him.

He had been so caught up in the conversation that he didn’t notice the two guards and the slave girl enter.

Leonidas waved his hand casually, signaling for Orion to step out of the way. The prince obeyed without question.

As Orion met the slave’s gaze, his throat went dry. He remembered the words she had spoken to him when they last met.

You hate your brother, do you not? After all, he killed your father, but you should not seek revenge, dear prince. Vengeance belongs to Adonai. 

He swallowed, refusing to show uneasiness before a slave. The truth about his father’s mysterious death was known to none but himself and his brother. How Thalia knew was beyond him.

“Greetings, Your Majesty,” she said, bowing gracefully. It appeared she had learned a few things after all.

“I hear you refuse all your training,” Leonidas said.

Thalia kept her gaze on the ground.

“I have told you, my lord. I will not defile myself with these customs. Adonai forbids that I be joined to a man given to pagan gods.”

Orion had to admit, he was impressed by her boldness. Her people, the Daraelites, were a strange lot. Their sole God, Adonai, had no temple, and they lived in tents as though they would travel the next second.

Adonai was the unseen God of the Daraelites. Thalia often spoke of Him, so much so that she angered every priest sent to train her for religious duties. No amount of teaching could convince the young girl that Zeus ruled the heavens.

The Darealites claimed to have journeyed from the distant land of Israel, traveling this far west to escape Assyrian subjugation.

“Pagan gods?” Leonidas mused. “You call our gods pagan, and yet they have sustained us for centuries. Your god has left you to be captured by enemies. I do not see why you pride yourself so much in him.”

Thalia said nothing, but it wasn’t out of defeat. She looked up at the king with fearless eyes, ignoring the squawking phoenix. The bird looked like it wanted nothing more than to peck out the slave’s eyes.

“Even Flareon is angry.” The king chuckled. “Your rebellion is beginning to bore me, Thalia. Forget this god and serve me. If you please me enough, you just might become the king’s favorite. “

Orion hoped she would speak with a little more sense this time. His brother was given to terrible mood swings.

“I would rather die than displease Adonai.”

Leonidas’ countenance darkened.

“Then die you shall.”

His voice was dangerously calm. Orion knew he meant the words.

Thalia gave no visible response. It was as though she had expected this, and accepted it.

“Orion!” He was startled at the sound of his name. “Here is a chance to redeem yourself. Bring me her head!”

Orion turned to face Thalia, unsheathing his sword. His throat constricted as their eyes met. Hers were calm, like the still waters of Lake Sylvaris. He hesitated.

“Stop!”

Orion froze at the sound of the voice, goosebumps erupting all over his skin. The voice was a husky masculine one, but he knew better.

The prince turned to face the Oracle; mouthpiece of the gods. The woman was clad in an elegant crimson dress, her dark hair falling in great curls across her back. There was a dark, almost tangible aura about her, giving the illusion that she was cloaked in shadows–if it could be called an illusion. From the shadows, whispering voices emanated, murmuring in a strange tongue that only the Oracle could comprehend.

“Her life is not yours to take, prince.”

Orion stepped back and sheathed his sword, slightly relieved.

“I have come with a message from the gods:

The ones on high require her soul

For their names has she run afoul 

Thrice shall he strike

At whose breath, life pries

Twice to whet

Once to death”

The room fell silent. Orion’s stomach sank. This slave girl had brought the worst punishment on her own head—the wrath of the gods themselves.

~~~

“Swear allegiance to Zeus and the gods of Olympus now, and you just might be spared,” Orion muttered as he led Thalia towards the guards waiting at the iron-grated doors.

Once she stepped through those ‘Doors of Death’, she would be subjected to whatever judgment the gods deemed fit. Orion refused to acknowledge the rapid constriction of his lungs as he neared those doors. He was not going to offend the deities by doubting their judgment.

“Adonai, whom I serve, is able to rescue me from the hands of your gods. But if He does not, let it be known that still, I will not denounce Him,” she replied calmly.

Orion wanted to shake sense into her. What sort of unshakable will was this? Or was it plain madness?

Silently, he handed her over to the guards.

“Adonai will carry out his vengeance today, dear prince. You can rest easy.”

She smiled as she said the words.

Orion was restless as he made his way up the stands to the podium reserved for the king. He stood next to his brother, staring down at the hot sand that was about to be soaked in the blood of an innocent woman.

Innocent? Orion shook his head in a bid to get rid of the thought. She was not innocent, not before the gods.

“Is something the matter, brother?” Leonidas asked, his tone mocking. The prince’s uneasiness must have been evident in his expression.

Orion denied the king’s observation.

“She is quite beautiful, isn’t she? What a waste.” Leonidas said with a devious smirk. Orion wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but he kept his cool. Was that all the king could think of?

“Look!”

Orion’s thoughts were cut off at the loud cry. From his position, he could see what had drawn the mob’s attention. A great pit had suddenly appeared in the ground of the arena below.

His eyes widened as a creature rose from the bottomless depths, straight from Tartarus, the Underworld, home to the most terrifying of monsters. It had the face of a lion, but as it opened its mouth to roar, a hood like that of a cobra flared, flames spewing from the monster’s mouth. Its powerful dragon tail swished forcefully, creating deep grooves in the scorched sand.

“The Chimera!” Orion exclaimed, incredulously, turning to his brother.

Leonidas laughed amidst the mixed terror and awed exclaims of the spectators. The people of Aurelia had not expected one of Echidna’s spawns to show up in the arena.

“This is the fate that awaits the ones who are foolish enough to anger the ones on high.”

Orion barely held himself from uttering something foul before the Oracle. When did she arrive? He spared a wary glance at her rigid figure sitting a pace from where he stood.

“Oh, they are definitely angry. The gods never ask for help from the ‘Mother of Monsters’.”

Orion’s panic skyrocketed as the Oracle’s prophecy came to him.

Thrice shall he strike

At whose breath, life pries

The breath of the Chimera was fire, enough to pry away the life of its prey. Thrice shall he strike… Oh Olympus, no!

The gods were supposed to be just. Thalia was only a girl; a naive girl who had been brainwashed. But then, he had always known the gods did whatever pleased them. After all, they had done nothing when his brother murdered their father in his sleep.

Orion clenched his fists. This was wrong, so wrong…

Adonai will carry out his vengeance today, dear prince. You can rest easy.

He unclenched his fists. Was this Adonai really capable?

Orion ground his teeth as the slave girl was pushed through the ‘Doors of Death’, spears digging into her back. He wanted to yell at the wretched guards to be gentle, but he was spared the trouble as the Chimera chose that moment to belch fire in their direction.

Orion watched, wide-eyed as the monster blowtorched the three humans. The mob fell silent, watching with bated breath. The prince’s heart thundered in his chest. He could hear the screams of the guards. A frown creased his forehead. None of the screams was feminine. Was she dead already? What about the words of the Oracle?

Raising its head into the air, the Chimera ceased its attack and let out a triumphant roar. Orion leaned forward in sync with every other spectator. Was it over?

Two bodies lay on the ground. They were the two guards, obviously dead. Two remained standing before the Chimera. Orion’s eyes widened. Two people?

One was Thalia. She looked unruffled, as though she had not just been engulfed in fire. But there was one more person, if he could be called a person.

He was so tall that he stood eye to eye with the Chimera, his aura that of blinding light. A flaming sword glowed in his hands as he stood before Thalia, shielding her.

“Orion?” Leonidas’ voice startled the prince, but Orion kept his eyes on the scene below. “Didn’t I order one woman released into the arena? Why do I see two people standing? And the appearance of the second is like…a heavenly being!” his stunned brother exclaimed.

“Impossible!” the Oracle shrieked in bewilderment.

Orion could offer no explanation, stunned himself at the unfolding scene. The Chimera stumbled backward, wailing as though the protector’s aura burned.

“Adonai be praised!” Thalia’s voice rang clear in the pin-drop silence. Her face was raised to the clouds, a smile plastered across her lips.

At Thalia’s cry of praise, her protector struck the monster. The Chimera roared in pain as blood, thick and black, soaked the sand.

“No!” came the cry of the Oracle.

The second stroke sliced across its forelimbs. It let out another roar, raising itself so that its belly was revealed for a split second. That split second was all Thalia’s protector needed.

He stabbed the sword into the monster’s belly.

The shriek that followed almost rendered Orion’s ears useless. He felt a sudden blast of heat cloak him, and he turned to find both King and Oracle covered in flames. Their screams were barely heard beneath the roar of the Chimera.

Orion stumbled away from the stifling heat, too terrified to offer a remedy.

The monster’s shriek deadened within seconds, and so did the wails of Orion’s companions. Before his very eyes, they hit the ground, lifeless bodies burned beyond recognition.

Breathing heavily, the prince turned to the scene below. The Chimera had dissolved into a pile of black dust.

Thalia was looking up, straight at him, he realized.

Her words replayed in his head once more.

Adonai will carry out his vengeance today, dear prince. You can rest easy.

He gasped in realization. The Oracle’s prophecy had been fulfilled as well, though not according to expectation.

Thalia’s strange protector had vanished, leaving her standing alone next to a pile of ashes and two dead men.

“Stone her! She is a witch!”

Cries of consent rose through the crowd. He had to take control. Afterall, now that his brother was dead, he was the heir to the throne.

“Keep your hands to yourself!” His voice boomed above the rising noise. “Do you wish to anger her God? Do you wish to end up like the Chimera?”

No one moved. Orion descended toward the arena amidst the silence. The walk there ended in mere seconds.

“Prince Orion.”

Thalia bowed as he approached, keeping her gaze to the ground. The action unnerved him. How could she remain so submissive after what just happened?

“Do not do that, please,” he reprimanded uneasily. She smiled as she obeyed. She had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment.

He looked her over. Not a hair on her head was singed. She didn’t even smell of smoke.

“Your God saved you after all,” he said, tentatively.

“Adonai is faithful to his followers. He is the only true God. All other deities are dust next to his mightiness,” she proclaimed with boldness.

This time, he sincerely believed it. Adonai had proven himself by shaming the gods of Olympus. He lowered his head to her in respect.

“Please teach me how to serve Adonai.”

~~~

The kingdom of Aurelia denounced all their Greek gods by order of their new ruler, King Orion.

The Daraelites were released from slavery and allowed to live whatever lives they chose.

As for Thalia, she chose to remain in the palace at the king’s request. She became his royal advisor and, as the years passed, a whole lot more.