“Closer.”
I took one more step.
He rose from his seat and circled the table, standing in front of me.
“May I?”
Without waiting for an answer, he lifted my hand and held it lightly within his own.
Instantly, my hand began glowing, just as if someone was holding a flashlight to my palm.
Every vein in my hand was illuminated perfectly and the light quickly spread up my arm and throughout my entire body until I emitted a soft glow from head to foot.
He smiled, still holding my hand.
“You have a pure heart,” he said as he closed his eyes.
“There is no subterfuge or malevolence here.
You are brave and true.”
He reopened his eyes and dropped my hand.
“You are free to go.”
“Where should I go?” I asked tremulously.
“Anywhere in the Underworld that you wish,” he answered. “You have no restrictions.”
He looked past me dismissively.
“Next?”
I stepped to the side as Cadmus walked forward.
He was handsome as he stood quietly in front of Rhadamanthus, waiting to be judged.
I realized once again that there was nothing that he wouldn’t do for me. He was literally traveling to the depths of the underworld just to accompany me- to help me save our daughter. My heart overflowed with warmth, just as Rhadamanthus spoke.
“You are a worthy mate for your wife,” he rasped.
“Your heart is strong and brave.
You do not shirk from that which you are meant to do.
You may enter.”
The second that he released Cadmus, my husband strode to my side.
“See?” he asked quietly. “Everything is fine.
We will be on our way soon.”
We watched quietly as everyone else was judged.
I was not surprised at all to find that every member of my family and each Amazon warrior were judged with the same traits… brave, strong and true.
Finally, it was almost finished and only Hecate remained to be judged.
“Hecate?”
Rhadamanthus held out his hand and Hecate lightly placed hers within it, standing proudly in front of him. She had been judged by him thousands of times before so this process was routine to her.
I watched as her body lit up and every vein was exposed, the warm glow reflecting from the angles of her lovely face.
Rhadamanthus grew still as he examined her and with his free hand traced a vein from her wrist to her heart.
“This is very strange, Hecate,” he muttered.
“Very strange.
I’m sorry.”
Her eyes snapped open.
“Sorry for what?” she asked curiously.
He dropped her hand quickly as if he no longer wanted to touch her and moved back behind the table, rejoining the other two.
“You have deceit and betrayal in your heart,” he announced.
“Your soul is not pure.”
He snapped his fingers and low wails emitted from the corners of the room.
Quickly, from each dark corner, shadowy figures emerged and grabbed Hecate, wrapping dark arms around her and dragging her away. A shroud of cold air fell on us all.
“This is not right!” she shrieked. “Rhadamanthus!”
He turned his head away and Hecate focused instead on me.
“Harmonia!
This isn’t what it seems.
I need to explain…”
But they dragged her through the back wall.
The second they were gone, the wailing stopped and the sudden chill lifted.
We were left staring in horror at each other.
A weight seemed to descend from my stomach into my feet.
My visions had actually been true.
There had actually been a traitor among us.
And it had been Hecate all along.
Chapter Four
The silence in the room was deafening.
It took a minute before I felt strong enough to speak. Even still, my legs were shaking and I felt instantly numb from the magnitude of the betrayal. This couldn’t be right.
“Rhadamanthus,” I began hesitantly.
“What did Hecate do?
Who did she betray?”
He leveled his icy gaze at me and I almost didn’t want to hear the answer.
“She betrayed us all.
You must fix what she has done.
Go quickly.
You will soon reach the river Leche.
You must drink from it before you continue.”
“Leche?” Aphrodite piped up.
“The river of forgetfulness?”
Rhadamanthus nodded.
“Yes. When mortals drink from it, it erases their memories.
It reacts differently in the gods.
It might take some of your memories, none of them or all of them.
It is dependent on you—on how strong your mind is.
But regardless, you cannot continue until you have drank from it.”
He shrugged as he panned his gaze across each of us.
“I do hope your minds are strong,” he added.
“I was not forthcoming when I asked why you were here.
I already knew.
We’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Listen to me now.
We generally do not offer instructions or suggestions.
A person’s afterlife is a private affair.
However, you are not dead and this is a unique situation.
You will need to attain, by any means necessary, Hades’ helm of darkness.
Without it, you will fail.”
There was a collective gasp from my group.
We were to somehow take Hades’ helm of darkness from him?
That was unheard of.
It would be impossible.
Each of the three rulers, Poseidon, Zeus and Hades, had special tools at their disposal.
Poseidon had his trident, Zeus had his lightning bolt, which he had converted into the form of a sword, and Hades had his helm of darkness.
It was a helmet enchanted with power.
The holder of the helm would be granted invisibility, but more importantly, the one wearing it would be immune to the powers of the Underworld.
And the Underworld was teeming with strange magic.
Hades kept the helm continually by his side.
There was no way that we would be able to steal it- especially without our own powers.
I shook my head slowly from side to side, so astonished that I couldn’t think of what to say.
My father, on the other hand, had no such trouble.
“What do you mean, we must take Hades’ helm?” he thundered, the veins bulging in his forehead.
“To what end?
For what purpose?”
“We cannot share anymore than we already have,” Rhadamanthus replied calmly.
His two colleagues remained silent, their cold stares frozen on our faces.
“We have already risked a great deal. Procure the helm.”
With his final word, the walls around us began shaking and the panel of judges faded away.
Within a few seconds, the room was gone. We were standing out in the open once again on the Plains of Judgment with the wind whipping around us. The ground beneath us was undisturbed.
No one would ever know that the stone building had ever been here at all.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” I muttered.
“Did you have any idea?” I looked to my mother.
Her eyes were round as she shook her head.
“I’m still processing it myself,” she admitted.
“I can’t believe it either.
Hecate betrayed us?
I can’t imagine how. She annoys me at times, as you know. But I never would have thought her a traitor. I can’t imagine why she would do such a thing.”
“It’s likely that we’ll find out soon enough,” Ares replied gruffly, as he reached out a meaty hand and rubbed Aphrodite’s shoulder.
“Don’t trouble yourself with it now.
One thing that I have learned in my life is that there are very few people who you can truly trust.”
“Well, that’s depressing,” I replied grumpily, kicking at a dirt clod in front of me.
In doing so, I realized that I was still barefoot.
I was suddenly thankful that I had rolled up a pair of knee-high buckskin boots and tossed them into my bag. My abilities were impotent here, so I couldn’t just conjure up something.
I dug through my knapsack and found the soft boots, pulling them on.
Ares shrugged.
“It’s the truth, daughter.
You will never be disappointed in someone if you don’t allow it.
Don’t place your trust in them in the first place and they cannot let you down.”
I stopped in my tracks and gazed at him, shaking my head.
“I’m glad I’m not the god of war, if that is how you view the world.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “As the god of war, that is how I
must
think.
It must be nice to be the goddess of peace and contentment—is everything rainbows and butterflies for you?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You know it is not.
I have jumped in a pit of fire, lost my soul mate and family in every life for thousands of years and have recently died and come back to life.
To top it all off, my daughter has been stolen from me. My life hasn’t been a picnic.”
He sobered.
“Harmonia, we will get Raquel back. I swear it on the river Styx.”
He had just uttered the most holy of oaths for an Olympian.
I nodded.
I knew he meant it.
“Thank you, father,” I murmured, turning my attention once again to the horizon.
“Where do we begin?”
“I think we should begin exactly where Rhadamanthus said,” Cadmus suggested. “The river Leche.”
“But where is it?” I asked.
“I don’t see it.”The only thing in front of us was miles and miles of rolling hillside.
Ortrera stepped to my side, her long hair snapping around her shoulders in the strong wind.
“Rhadamanthus said we would soon come to it,” she reminded me.
“I think we should just begin walking.
Perhaps it will appear just as the Room of Judgment did.”
“That’s a good thought, daughter,” Ares nodded.
“Let us walk.”
He strode quickly away from us down the hill without looking back.
His shoulders were as broad as a doorway and he walked with purpose.
My mother looked to me.
“Well, that’s that, then,” she smiled. “Let’s go, sweetling.”
The hill was steeper than it looked and it took quite a lot of work to remain balanced as we climbed down through the thick grasses.
I was once again thankful for my boots.
The weeds and grass were scratchy and thick.
Ortrera and her warriors had boots similar to mine, so they were protected as well, but I could see red welt forming on my mother’s legs.
To her credit, she didn’t complain.