Sam didn’t hesitate to follow after Ice Brand’s new friends when they escaped to the nearby hills to the left of the canyon wall. Although getting away from the spartoi was easier said than done.
“They’re gaining on us,” Ice Brand announced in a softly spoken voice that was quite unlike the tone he used when he was on air with his icicles.
The Hades-exclusive spartoi—these bone-black machines of death that were like the underworld versions of a terminator—were living up to their name. They hounded the escapees’ shadows despite every attempt to shrug them off. Neither an ice wall, shadowy hands, nor Bulwark could keep them at bay for long. They didn’t tire either, something that couldn’t be said for Sam’s group. More than once, one of the cloaked figures would stumble, with either Sam or their leader having to help them back to their feet.
“We’ll lose them in the hills!” the leader of the ragtag group of cloaked figures yelled.