Pandora Gets Vain (Pandora (Hardback)) by Carolyn Hennesy Page A

her heart gave a little leap in her chest.
    Her nose caught a small whiff of smoke. Something burning! Something on fire! She had no time to rejoice, though, and started concentrating even harder.
    The point of the pole, so close now, began to glow a dull red, then brightened into an incandescent orange. Pandy forced her chin into her neck as she struggled to keep the point in sight below her. Suddenly the point flared into flame and Pandy felt the heat on her belly through her silver girdle; not painful in the least, more like the gentle caress of fine silk blowing in a breeze.
    The fiery pole was now piercing the folds of her toga and pressing against her belly button. And still she was being lowered.
    She allowed herself a small, fierce smile and focused with every ounce of strength in her mind.
    Then the razor point pricked her stomach. Pandy closed her eyes and gave a yelp. Then she felt a vibration in her belly as the pole began to shake violently. Her eyes flew open and she watched in astonishment as a streak of white-hot fire split the entire shaft neatly down the middle. Her hearing returned just in time to hear the pole crash into piles of bone at either end of the chamber, sending hunks of ancient wood flying in every direction.
    “Great Aphrodite, blessed Apollo, wise and wonderful Athena,” she thought. “It worked!”

     
    Iole had scurried between the piles of skeletons, always keeping the eye in sight as she tried to get behind it. Approaching the wall of black mortar and bones, she crawled along its foundation for several meters. The chanting voice was close by, droning incessantly. Nearing the base of a pile of skeletons, there was suddenly a bright flash from the eye. A warm wind blew past her and she was pelted with chunks, shards, and splinters of wood. Immediately she turned her face away and threw her hands up to protect the back of her head.
    Two bony hands grabbed her wrists and Iole was yanked onto her feet, her face inches away from two bulging eyes, a row of hideous yellow teeth, and tufts of matted black hair.
    The only thing missing . . . was half of the flesh.

     
    The chanting had stopped. When the dust settled there was nothing but silence in the great chamber. The eye was still there, glowing a dull white, the invisible barrier was still in place, and Pandy was still hovering high in the air. The only motion in the room was the slow spread of blood across the front of Pandy’s toga.
    Pandy looked all over the chamber. A sudden movement caught her eye. Two figures, one surely that of a man and the other, a tiny figure, were struggling by the back wall of bones. Pandy quickly looked to her friends, but before she could count the shapes behind the barrier, she felt herself moving through the air—over another pole.
    And the chanting resumed.
    Something deep within her, she could not say exactly what, gave a tiny snort, which traveled up her throat, around her brain, and shot out of her mouth.
    This was ridiculous.
    “I can do it again, you know!”
    Quickly calculating the closest pole, she focused her mind again. From somewhere far below, she heard a shrill voice commanding something to “let go!” but deliberately ignored whatever it might be. Concentrating, she waited for the silence that would come when her powers were strongest.
    And there it was. Pure quiet.
    Five meters away, the top of the pole began to smoke, then glow, then flame. The pole quivered slightly, but this time, instead of a streak of fire splitting it down the center, the whole thing just exploded.
    A chunk of wood shot through the great, hovering eye, causing a ripple in the light.
    Her hearing returned, but there was stillness below. After a long, long pause, the light pulsed again and Pandy was moving once more.
    “Okay, now I’m mad!” she shouted.
    She destroyed five more poles before she realized she was floating much faster than before and the chanting was continuing throughout every blast.
    “Bring it