“Shhh,” he murmured. “I’m still here for you.” He stroked my face, and lulled me back to sleep.
Thanks to Titus, I slept long and deeply. When I finally woke it was after ten and he was gone. I thought for a moment he abandoned me, then I heard him talking softly outside the tent.
“I can hardly bear to let her go,” he said. After a pause, he asked, “What did Zeus say? Will he free her from the contract?”
I stopped moving so I could hear every word now.
“Then I guess we have no choice. I’ve told her everything I know. I’ve warned her of all the perils I could think of. I’ll wait for her here. The journey to the palace should only take a few hours. With any luck, she will be back by nightfall.” He listened awhile, then said, “Goodness, I hope you’re wrong. The longer she’s gone the hungrier she’s going to get.”
Realizing I might be facing hours without food and water, I dug through the pack and counted how many rations were left. If I ate two meals, it would leave Titus enough for three full days without me. Hopefully, if I didn’t come back by then, he would start climbing down before he ran out. We left some supplies at our base camp, and I was sure he could make that journey in a day, so he was supplied for at least a week. I was also pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to resist water for a week if Persephone kept me that long.
I found what ice we had left and warmed it. The pot was heating slower now than when we started. The battery cell was running low. We had a second battery, but we left it on the other side of the spine.
Because I feared thirst more than hunger, I drank as much as I could. If it was hot and I couldn’t drink, it wouldn’t take long for me to get dehydrated and weak.
All too soon I found myself climbing with Titus toward the cave. Aphrodite’s box was in the satchel slung over my shoulders. Titus had added my GPS watch to the satchel, too, so he would see my signal when I reappeared. The bag also contained food for Cerberus and an Olympian coin. Another coin was already under my tongue, so I wouldn’t have to dig for it when I reached the river Styx. Outwardly, it seemed that all possible preparations had been made. Titus had wisely kept my tennis shoes in his pack, so I didn’t have to wear heavy snow boots on the journey into Hades. All along he and Eros believed this was my destination, and they had planned for it while hoping they were wrong. I wore a long-sleeved undershirt beneath my T-shirt and my own comfortable jeans. Once Titus took my coat at the portal, I would look like I was heading off to school, ponytail and all.
School seemed like another lifetime now. I wondered how many units behind in Calculus I had fallen. This journey had probably doused all hopes I had of graduating in the spring. Failing my senior year of high school might have seemed monumental two months ago. Now it was the least of my concerns. Trying not to be made an immortal slave to some monstrous darkling was foremost in my mind.
Just as we reached the mouth of the cave, the wind whipped behind us. I ducked my face to keep from being sprayed with snow, but Titus smiled into the wind. “He came to see you off,” Titus murmured. “He won’t touch you. You’re to pretend you don’t know he’s here.”
Tears filled my eyes. “The next time you see Eros,” I said, “tell him that no matter what happens, I will always love him.”
Titus hugged me. “Be brave. You saved my life yesterday. You can save yourself today.” He helped me out of my coat and moved me toward the open portal, which I still could not see. “The portal is guarded by two sentries. They are enormous, disfigured, monsters of men. Just walk past them as if they are not there. Your guide is waiting beyond them and… Oh, Merciful Heaven.” He clutched my shoulders and wouldn’t let me go.
“Titus?”
He laid his forehead on my shoulder and whispered. “It’s Thomas. He’s your guide.”
I swallowed the terror that threatened to make me scream. “I’ll be all right.”
“No,” he said. “I can’t hand you off to that killer.” But an unseen hand tugged on Titus’s shoulder. He looked up, and beheld the face I couldn’t. Looking sick, Titus stepped away from me, knelt on one knee and kissed my hand. “Go safely,” he said. “I will be here when you return.”
I ruffled his hair. “Try not to freeze to death.” Then I turned, took a steadying breath and walked into Hades.
Chapter 27
The moment I passed through the wall of the cave, I felt warm air hit my face. I ignored the towering figures on either side of the portal and approached my guide. “You’re Thomas?”
“I am.” He was not a formidable person. I matched his height, and though his chest and arms were muscled, he was slightly built. His brown hair was short enough that it merely lay back. He had a nice chin, a narrow nose and beautiful brown eyes. The color was warm and flecked with gold, although the light had gone out of them. He inspired none of the fear I felt when I looked into Theron’s eyes. The eyes before me betrayed a soul given to deep sorrow. From under his arm, he unfurled a cloak very much like the one I’d worn in Eros’s kingdom. “You’re to wear this for protection. Your clothes will stand out here.”
Thomas wore a black waist-to-knee robe similar to the ones in Eros’s kingdom. Over his right shoulder he wore a scarlet sash, which was belted at the waist with a gold cord. Around his left bicep, he wore a thick gold band which bore a crest. Unlike the gold arm cuff Eros gave me, the band on Thomas was smaller than his bicep, and would not come off without being cut.
Without argument I donned the cloak and followed close behind him as he descended a staircase that led into the Underworld. The steps were driven into the walls of the hollow mountain, so that as we descended, we traveled the circumference of the circular chamber twice. Torches on the walls lit our way. We were in the belly of a huge volcano. The hot air stank of sulfur.
At the bottom of the staircase we met flat ground. The hard, barren earth formed a narrow shore for the river Styx. It was a river inasmuch as it was a body of moving water, but the water was thick and murky, the shores steep and covered with black slime. As we drew near, I realized there were bodies in the water. They looked like lifeless corpses floating down the river until they butted into one another. Then the bodies suddenly sprang to life and attacked each other. All of them had ghostly pale skin that was wrinkled and peeling. Sentries in black robes walked along the banks with whips in their hands. If some desperate soul climbed too far toward the shore, the sentries whipped him until he fell into the water.
As we stood at the dock, the people in the water called out to us. They wailed and pleaded with us. Some tried to grab our legs. Coming across the water was the boatman Charon. The bodies did not move for him, and his skiff plowed over them and pushed them under the filthy water.
I stayed very close to Thomas and pretended not to notice the scene. He seemed to be observing me as much as I was trying not to observe my surroundings. When Charon landed at the dock, Thomas said, “You’ll need to pay a toll to cross.” From his pocket, Thomas took a coin and offered it to the boatman. They exchanged it hand to hand, but I refused to be fooled. Titus had been specific about how I was to pay the toll. I moved the coin from under my tongue and slid it forward on my lips.
Charon plucked the coin from my lips without touching my skin. Then he allowed us aboard. While we crossed the river, I sat in the middle of the boat so no one in the water could grab me, and I kept my eyes on the coming shore. At the dock Thomas rose and offered me his hand. Since he already knew what I was, I allowed him to help me ashore, and this pleased him.
Immediately past the bank of the river Styx was a stone gateway announcing the entrance to the kingdom of Hades. There, just inside the gate, was the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who wore a metal collar with a monstrous chain staked into the middle of the roadway. When Titus said “dog,” he failed to mention that Cerberus was not only vicious and three-headed, but as big as an elephant. A single tooth in the hound’s mouth was as long as my forearm.
At the sight of the dog Thomas grumbled, “Worthless mutt.” Just outside the gate was a pile of raw meat, which he divided into thirds. One third he offered to me. “Throw it hard, or the first head will eat everything, and the other two will try to take dinner out of our hides.”
We timed our throws together, and I threw the meat as hard as I could. It went all the way beyond the third head where Thomas’s throws landed. The dog moved to face the meat, the heads already fighting, and we slipped by its tail. As soon as we passed, Thomas threw me a glance. I wasn’t sure if it was approval or just plain curiosity, but a slight smile tugged at his lips.
From there we started downhill again, this time on a long dirt road. Though the path descended, it was always the high ground. On both sides were steep slopes that led into various pits and valleys. As we moved farther toward the city, the air became so foul, I had trouble breathing. It wasn’t sulfur. It was something else, but I didn’t recognize it. The pits beside the road were full of people receiving assorted brutal punishments. In one pit the captives were on their knees and chained by the wrists between two poles. They cried for mercy, while punishers in black robes walked among them with hot irons. Seeing my attention caught by the scene, Thomas murmured, “Traitors. They’re branded.”
A guardsman pressed the iron into a man’s chest. The stench of burning flesh made me gag. I turned to Thomas, whose handsome face was a welcome sight among so much brutality. “How many times?”
“As many as they can bear. Then they’re dumped into the Pool of Blood.” He pointed. The pool lay between several pits. It was just as filthy as the river Styx. “There’s ambrosia in the water. When their wounds heal, they’re taken back to the poles.”
“What’s the punishment for murder?” I asked.
His eyes grew colder. “Depends on the murder.” We continued on, and Thomas showed me the kingdom in all its gore. “Those are the abusers. Some of them killed their wives. They are flogged and beaten just as they beat those who loved them.” He directed my attention to another pit where the captives were brawling. Every person punched and kicked at every other person. “Cowards. They must fight for every morsel of food and drop of water they receive.” He eyed a trio of black-robed guards at the edge of the pit. “That’s guardsmen entertainment. Throw a steak into the cowards and watch them beat each other for it.”
As we drew closer to the city, the stench became even more foul, and the pits more deplorable. The last pit held metal platforms, each with a large stake jutting up through it. The platforms were surrounded by dry sticks and wood. Some were being prepared, while others were burning. Standing on each burning platform was a suffering immortal. The flames licked their skin, and the metal seared their feet as they screamed in agony. Two guardsmen carried a body from one of the platforms.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“No, but he wishes he was,” Thomas replied flatly. “He’ll be healed in the Pool of Blood and burned again.”
“What did he do?”
Thomas let out a hard snort. “Probably nothing. The fire is reserved for those who displease the Queen. He may have dropped a piece of bread or served her breakfast cold.”
“They’re all men.” I’d never heard a man scream like that. “She is never displeased with her maids?”
The road turned and descended toward the city. “When the maids displease her, she just sets the guards loose on them. Most of the maids would prefer the fire.”
No wonder there were tears in Titus’s eyes when he told me they might enslave me. He had seen all this cruelty and depravation. He understood fully the cost if I failed at this task.
I was sweating profusely now. It was probably ninety degrees at the bottom of the kingdom. The air was filled with smoke so foul breathing was painful. As the fumes rose, they took on a red glow. The whole city looked bathed in blood, which was ironic since everyone here had clear blood except me.
Enormous sentinels in black robes and gruesome masks guarded the gates to the city. When Titus called them demons, it was an apt description. The streets were crowded, and here it seemed that at least a portion of the people of Hades lived free of torture.
“Are these people innocent?” I asked.
“If the King and Queen feel they have fully paid for their crimes, they may be granted a work assignment in the city. The guardsmen and the court have to be fed. Someone has to work. A few are children of Hades. Both of their parents are workers, and they were born here.”
I walked closer to him in the crowd. As we passed an intersection of narrow streets, a dirty, nearly starving child caught hold of my cloak. Startled, I stepped into Thomas and touched his arm, which was cold despite the heat.
When he saw the child clinging to my cloak, Thomas lifted his foot and kicked it square in the face. It fell away hissing and transformed into a narrow-faced man about our age. “That’s a child of Hades. Only they can transform like that. If you see a snake, make sure you step on its head.”
He steered me through the streets until I lost all sense of direction. No sooner had I reached this point of confusion than Thomas turned me into a narrow alley where the buildings on either side rose and joined above us. The light from the street was blotted out. He took me by the arm and he pulled me through the darkness.
I instinctively resisted, but it was a futile struggle. Even if Thomas had laid a trap for me, leaving him was far more dangerous. The passageway grew narrower. Only a small window of red light illuminated the exit far ahead.
Just before he reached the opening, he stopped. “We’ve arrived.” He cordially offered me his arm, and though I was leery, I took it. We stepped through the smoke onto a cobblestone road. Before us rose an enormous castle at least double the size of Eros’s palace. It was medieval in design with tall spires atop several round turrets. Stone gargoyles and roaring lions adorned the upper decks. A wide moat surrounded the palace, which we crossed on a stone bridge. The moat flowed with molten lava. The lava gave off such severe heat that my skin stung just crossing the bridge.
The open gates allowed us entry into an enormous foyer with stairways that led to the upper levels and a grand entrance into what was probably the great hall, but Thomas steered me to a side staircase and took me to an empty upper hallway.
“Where are we going?”
He didn’t answer, so I stopped, still holding his arm, and stopped him, too.
“I’m supposed to see Persephone,” I persisted.
“You will.” He led me to a tall wooden door much like the upper room to which Theron had taken me to see Aphrodite. Perhaps Persephone wanted to see me privately.
I entered the room and found that it was indeed an enormous bedchamber, but it was empty. Thomas followed me into the room and locked the door behind us.
I faced him. “I’m here to see Persephone. I demand you take me to her.”
“I will take you to Persephone, but not looking like that.” He unclasped the cloak and pulled it from my shoulders. “You’re filthy, and you stink.”
We’d just walked miles through pits that reeked of burning flesh, and he thought I stank? “It took me a week to get here. I camped four nights in the snow. I didn’t exactly have luxury accommodations.”
“I’ll draw you a bath.” He moved across the room to another door and motioned me to follow. “If there’s one thing we have plenty of here in the Underworld, it’s hot water.”
The bathroom was bigger than my bedroom back home. At the center of the room a circular tub was sunken into the stone floor. Thomas merely opened a valve over the tub and steaming water rushed out. He went to a cupboard and returned with two bottles and a bar of soap. He set one bottle on the edge of the tub. “For your hair.” The other bottle he uncorked and poured into the water as the tub filled. It was Underworld bubble bath, and fortunately, it smelled like pomegranates, not burning flesh.
“I’ll gather some fresh clothing.” He left the door open a crack on his way out.
I was dirty, and a hot bath sounded wonderful. I felt guilty as I slipped into the steaming water. Back in the mortal world, Titus was shivering in the tent trying to keep from freezing.
No sooner had I dropped under the bubbles when Thomas returned.
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “A little privacy here.”
He ignored me and filled a bucket with hot water and soap. He dropped my clothes into the bucket. On the back of the bathroom door he hung a gown. It was like the gowns of Eros’s kingdom, but it was red. The bodice was embroidered with gold leaves, and from the neckline hung a delicate chain of gold leaves. A golden belt hung at the waist. Unlike the gowns in Eros’s kingdom, the red one had a slit that reached high up the skirt on the right side.
“I’m not wearing that,” I told Thomas.
“You will if you want to meet the Queen,” he replied as he left the room again.
Irritated, I scrubbed a week’s worth of sweat and grime from my body. I ducked my head under the water to wet my hair, and when I came up, Thomas was standing at the foot of the tub. Startled, I sucked bubbles up my nose and started sputtering.
He held several sandals in his hands. “I need to size your feet.”
I lifted one foot above the bubbles, and he held a sandal up to it. The sandal was way too small, so he set it aside and held up another. With the third he seemed satisfied and slipped it onto my wet foot. He frowned and ran his finger over the forest of hair that had grown since the last time I had a razor. “This will give you away.” He looked up. “Show me your underarm.”
Careful to keep myself covered, I raised my arm.
“That will definitely give you away.”
“I don’t suppose you have a razor?”