Chapter 7 - The Ferryman

As the boat approached, the man in the black cloak became clearer, he was tall and skinny, bits of flesh hanging from his hands and face with a crooked nose, a long grey beard, holding a pole, he stares up at the hydra, now turned to stone and asks, "who did this?" "It was me" replied Atheas. The ferryman looks Atheas up and down with an angry look on his face and says, "who are you?" She replies, "I am Atheas, daughter of Lysander the spartan general, I believe my father came to see you not too long ago am I correct?", she asks. "Yes, you are correct that Lysander came to me", the ferryman replied. "Well, where is he now", asked Sirosa, with an angry tone to his voice. "I do not know I am but the ferryman, once passengers leave my ferry, I do not take note of their journey". "We wish to go to the underworld", says Atheas. "Do you have my payment?" asks the ferryman. Atheas hands him the drachma’s and he beckon’s them onto his ferry.

Nervously they all step onto the boat. As they take their seats, the boat begins to move slowly away from the shore of the Alcyonian lake and into its centre, a whirlpool opens up directly underneath them and begins to swallow the boat, Atheas, Sirosa and Odysseus start to panic and hold on for their lives, as the boat starts to sink under the water Sirosa feels his legs starting to heat up, "what’s happening, my legs are burning up" he shouts to the ferryman, "mine too" shouts Atheas, "and mine" replied Odysseus, "you will soon see" says the ferryman, and as their heads start to go under they all take a deep breath and close their eyes. You can look now says the ferryman, they open their eyes and what they see is unbelievable, fiery red mountains with lava spewing from the sides and tops, Atheas stands up and looks over the edge but gets frightened of what she sees, "where is the water? how are we floating?", she asks, "there is nothing under the boat", she shouts to Odysseus and Sirosa, they both quickly look over the side of the boat and see what Atheas sees and that is nothing. "how are we floating" they asked the ferryman, "this is the underworld, the heat is so hot from the lava and fiery rivers it keeps us afloat". As they keep looking around at the underworld, they realise there are people on the sides of the mountains, climbing and screaming. "Why aren’t you helping those people?" asks Sirosa to the ferryman, "they are not people anymore", the ferryman replied, "they are lost souls, never given a proper burial, so they must wander the depts of the underworld forever".

As they continue their journey farther into the underworld the screams get louder and louder, to the point where Atheas must cover her ears from the noise, after what seems to be a lifetime Odysseus taps Atheas on the shoulder to let her know the screaming had stopped, "we are here", he says to Atheas. "where are we", she asks, her ears still red from pressing her hands so hard against her head. "we have arrived at the depts of Tartarus", says the Ferryman. "Why have you brought us to Tartarus", asked Sirosa? "This is where I brought your father", replied the ferryman. "Now if you wish to leave the underworld you must first be judged". As they stepped of the rocky boat, they turned to thank the ferryman, but he was gone.

Looking out at the barren wasteland that is Tartarus, Atheas could not help but wonder if her father were still in this place and if so, would she find him. "Ok let us go" said Atheas, "we need to find my father, but I do not know where to start". "Well, if your father made it to the depts of Tartarus where we are now there is only one place he could go", said Sirosa. "The Three judges of Tartarus", said Odysseus, With a nervous quiver in his voice. "Who are the three judges?" asked Atheas. "The three judges of the underworld, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos, they decide who would go to the realm of hades and who would be banished to the depts of Tartarus forever, but as they are in the centre of Tartarus, we have got a long journey ahead of us" said Odysseus, "we should get moving if we are to find our father", so they begin their journey to the three judges.

As they journey through Tartarus Odysseus turns to the others and says, "you know, there is rumours that the great titans were imprisoned in Tartarus many years ago after the great titan war", "what? Really", asked Atheas. "so, there are titans down here with us?" she asked. "Yes, sister there are four titans in Tartarus to be exact, the first, is of course Kronos, the king of the titans and father to Zeus, Poseidon, and hades. He was banished to Tartarus after imprisoning all his children in his stomach, as he thought they would try to kill and overthrow him as king, his wife Rhea, getting tired of him killing their children, decided to trick kronos into eating a rock instead of their baby, and hid the baby for years until he was fully grown and we all now know him as Zeus, the king of the Gods, Zeus returned to kill Kronos when he was in his prime and thus started the great titan war, the titans lost and Kronos was imprisoned here by Zeus for all of time". "The second titan is Atlas, the titan God of endurance, Atlas who led the titans to the great war against the Olympians, was condemned to hold the earth on his shoulders for the rest of time once the titans were defeated by Zeus and his siblings". "The third is Hyperion, the titan god of light, as he fought against the Gods in the great titan war he was sentenced to Tartarus for eternity when caught by Zeus". "And the final titan trapped in Tartarus is Krios, the titan god and king of the giants, he was imprisoned to Tartarus after the great titan war".

As they continue their journey to the centre of Tartarus, Atheas cannot help but think of the titans that are down here with them. She turns to Odysseus and Sirosa and asks, "do you think the fallen god Hermes is in Tartarus or did he make it to the realm of hades". After a few hours of walking Atheas takes a moment to stop and look at her surroundings, as it seems they have not made any progress because of the vastness of Tartarus, she lifts her head and sees nothing but mountains of fire and lava, she looks to the heavens and she sees what looks to be a red sky, but she is wrong, they are so far down in Tartarus the smoke and fire spewing from the mountains are creating a thick layer of smoke as far as the eye can see and it is being lit up red by the fire spewing from the tops of the mountains. After another few hours of walking, Sirosa turns to the siblings and says, "if the fallen god Hermes is in Tartarus, maybe we can ask him about his coin and if it truly is the coin your father has, maybe we can find out a bit more and try and piece this all together".

As Sirosa and Atheas discuss the possibility of Hermes still being in Tartarus, Odysseus turns to them and interrupts them, "look there they are, the three judges", as they all stop to look, they cannot believe the sights they see, in the distance, three giant stone statues as tall as mountains, the three judges standing over a small stone platform, surrounded by an oasis of beautiful flowers, apple trees and waterholes. Their mouths start to water looking at the perfectly ripe apples in the distance and the pools of fresh drinking water, their pace begins to quicken, and they make their final dash for the three judges.