Chapter 6
Left
1
The Underworld
Tartaros
“Should someone say something?” Iris asked.
“No,”
Clio stared at her.
And the change was growing more pronounced by the moment.
Iris turned to go and the rest of them followed.
The group was quiet as they picked their way back from where they came. Silence held them together. Their grief hung thick in the air, it’s sour taste clung to the roof of Clio’s mouth.
The chateau loomed in the distance and they could see Cory riding out to greet them, she had three mares with her. Confusion clouding her normally happy face could be seen even from the distance.
She caught up and dismounted. “Nos told us to use the horses to get back to the catacombs.” Her honey hair was wild from her ride and her cheeks flushed pink. “Where’s Calliope? Where’s Crow?”
Mel was the only one to answer, “Calliope is with us, Crow is...”
“Crow is gone,” Clio said sharply.
“Holy shit,” Cory said and blatantly stared at
The rest of the group looked to
“She looks exactly like Clio,” Cory pointed out.
Iris sighed. “She didn’t change when we came through. Why now?”
“She’s become what she hates most,” Clio said. They all turned to her. “This place twists hate like a fickle curl around a finger.”
“No,” Miranda began. “You’re wrong.
Apollo nodded grimly. He picked Miranda up, placed her on a horse, climbed behind her, and looked to Clio expectantly.
Ares’ brow furrowed deeply, he made a hissing sound against the pain. Clio got on behind him so she wouldn’t be leaning against his damaged ribcage or injured leg.
Iris, grateful for the chance to stretch out her wings and take to the sky, ran beside them until her outstretched wings caught the air and she took flight.
2
“Christ!”
Annie paced his jail cell like a caged cat and wondered where he went wrong. His plans to kill Eve after she discovered who he was couldn’t have gone worse. Being presumed dead suited him fine, and she would have fucked that up entirely.
They checked into a motel the night before and spent most of the day having sex and doing coke. They ordered a pizza, so he didn’t think anything of it when there was a knock at the door. Eve skedaddled to the bathroom while he answered it.
The cops, of course. They told him they got a call that he was banging some minor from the motel desk clerk and they thought they’d check it out. Annie tried to actually slam the door on them and they pushed it open. The only thing they found on him was some weed and coke. Thankfully, Eve was long gone out the window in the bathroom.
They hauled him in until somebody could post bail. Annie even tried to bribe his way out, but Eve had stolen his wallet, of course. Now Annie sat in some waste of a trailer town, trying to figure out who he was going to call to bail him out. With an added bribery charge, to boot.
It was a tiny precinct, only about five cops on the nightshift. The night before there was a drunk who had been causing a scene at the town’s little Indian casino, but he was the only one here tonight. They had turned the lights out on him at eleven and he could hear the desk jockey watching some infomercial about spray-on hair in the next room.
“Christ!” He hollered again.
“Keep it down in there!” The officer said.
The power went out with a winding-down noise that Annie had always thought was only in the movies.
“Now what?” The irritated cop complained and Annie could hear the chair scrape across the linoleum floor.
A flashlight bobbed about the dark. A stifled cry and the clatter of the flashlight on the linoleum made Annie’s eyes narrow. A shot rang out. Annie jumped back from the bars, and pressed himself to the far wall of his cell. A dull cracking noise reached his ears, followed by the sound of something heavy thumping to the floor.
It was quiet. The crickets had even stopped after the gunshot. Annie barely breathed, he didn’t know who was out there, but he didn’t want them to know there was anyone else in the precinct.
Something hit the floor and rolled towards the cells. Annie held his breath.
“Did you like her better than me?” Asked a voice he didn’t recognize, a monstrous, scabrous voice.
The thing that had been rolling came to a stop at the bars of his cell. Eve’s head, she looked surprised.
“Did you?” The voice asked again.
Annie looked and saw it was coming from the figure in the doorway. A slight girl stood there, he could almost make her out. “Bliss?”
“You were expecting Freddie Krueger?” She asked and slunk over to his cell.
“Baby, I’m s… so glad to see you’re, uh, feeling better.”
“Don’t ‘baby’ me, you bastard, I could smell you all over her when I picked her up outside that fucking casino. She told me what happened after we had a heart to heart talk.” Something wet and sloppy was tossed at him between the bars. He didn’t need to look at it to know it was Eve’s heart.
“G… good work, princess, now you want to let daddy out?”
“I should leave you in there!” She pouted and turned to leave.
“No! Bliss, don’t! Please, kitten, I’ve missed you.”
Bliss stopped and listened to him.
“Cross my heart, petunia,” he gave her his famous Annie Christ sneering smile.
“Well, are you sorry you were with that nasty ballerina?”
“Yes, I am. I am very sorry.” He wasn’t lying.
Bliss held up a bunch of keys. “Okay, but you have to stay with me, I have to have somebody to watch me during the day.”
His curious gaze lasted only a moment. “Anything, let’s get out of here, precious,” he said and snatched the keys through the bars.
A fangy grin broke across her tan face. “We are going to have so much fun!”
The smell of gasoline hit him immediately as soon as he got past the desk. A hearse idled out front and she handed him a box of matches.
“I’ll let you do it, daddy,” her eyes glittered with mischief as she hopped in the car.
3
The Underworld
The Dock
“Clio, time to go, luv.”
Clio awoke with a start, apparently unaware she had been dozing. “Calliope?”
“Tragedy’s got her,” Ares said and winced when she held onto him to get down.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“Gettin’ there, could use a li’l help though,” he pulled her closer to use her shoulder to help him down. With gritted teeth, he swung the other leg over the mare and dismounted clumsily.
Using her as a crutch, he straightened out. His gaze drifted to her throat and he seemed lost in the purples of her bruise. His forefinger traced the markings on her throat.
“You color easy,” he said.
Clio shivered at the touch and stared at the dusty road.
Pulling herself together, she put his arm around her neck, and helped him down the embankment to where they left the boat. The Lethe had risen and the boat had drifted. Iris managed to push it back into position without getting wet, and Apollo pulled it up onto the shore.
Miranda went first and then Alice, Cory, and Mel. Clio helped Ares down, and with Apollo, took care not to let him fall in. Clio piled in with Apollo and Iris pushed them off. The rainbow goddess had decided to meet them at the door to the catacombs.
“I think I might know a shortcut back to Pere Lachaise,” she said and flew on ahead.
Clio’s heart filled with hope, she wanted to get back to
“Apollo?” She said and held up her red palm.
“He’ll be okay, Clio, I promise. He’s a tough son of a bitch. You know he fathered Alexander the Great,” Apollo said with a smirk.
“I’m right here, y’know.”
Apollo chuckled at him and Ares fixed him a stormy glance.
They arrived at the dock to find Iris waiting for them, she helped pull the boat in and fasten the moorings. The girls got out to help Apollo lift Ares from the rowboat, and Clio noticed the alarming amount of blood Ares’ was leaving behind. His paling complexion and cooler temperature worried her.
Apollo said, “On three, okay?”
“Don’ believe him, he’ll do it on one,” Ares warned.
“One, two, three,” they pulled his dead weight from the boat and dropped him on the dock.
Ares looked up at Clio, a look on his face that she wasn’t familiar with. “Give me a minute, will you, luv?”
Her brow furrowed in concern, “Of course.”
They sat on the dock in silence, the only noise coming from a hushed conversation between Cory and Mel from the path.
“Terpsichore, don’t you walk away from me,” Mel suddenly demanded and held Cory by her wrist.
Clio looked up from where she sat beside the War God. Cory was stomping her feet on the wood. Mel had apparently told her how they had found Calliope. Cory looked as though she was desperately denying what had happened to her sister, she was shaking her head back and forth vehemently.
A hand covered her own and she turned to find Ares studying her profile. “She doesn’t understand,” he said.
A shadow fell over her and she looked up to find Cory standing above her. “This was all your fault! You screwed her, Clee, you royally screwed her!”
Clio stood and faced the furious dancer. “Back off, Cory.”
“Did you think you could replace her? Did you?”
“This had nothing to do with that, things fell apart.”
“‘Things fell apart’? That’s what you think? Clio, you sent her to hell for twenty years! Do you think a couple of apologies is going to make that okay?” She was screaming in Clio’s face now.
“Back up, Cory,” Clio warned. Miranda tried to move between them and Clio protectively tucked her behind her legs.
“No! Everyone is done taking your orders! You ‘back up’, Clio!” Cory shoved the little historian.
Clio blocked her by placing her palm on Cory’s chest, only infuriating her more. Cory pushed Clio again, this time sending her back into Miranda. The dock’s edge was suddenly upon them.
Clio watched with horror as Miranda fought to maintain her balance. Time seemed to stop as she fell in with a great splash.
“Miranda!” Clio tried to jump in after her and Apollo grabbed her arm.
“Are you mad? You can’t jump into the Lethe to save her!”
She slapped at his hands, “We have to do something! She can’t swim if she’s forgotten how!”
Apollo lifted the struggling Clio and handed her to Mel who held the panicking mother tight. Covering his hands with Ares’ leather coat, Apollo grabbed for an oar in the boat.
Miranda was screaming and splashing next to the dock. Her hair covered her eyes and she flailed in the water, the velvet dress trying to drag her down.
Apollo lay on the dock and held the oar out by her wildly flapping hands, hoping they would connect with the wood. Miranda grabbed hold and he hauled her in, careful not to touch her.
Clio ran to her daughter and wrapped her arms around the sleeping bag, kissing the crying girl’s face. Miranda choked up some of the cursed river and wailed louder.
Apollo let out a sigh of relief because a screaming child was a live child. Recovering from the close call, Apollo took a seat on the worn dock and took his brother’s cigarette.
Miranda didn’t say a word. Her sniffling silence was disconcerting.
“She’ll be okay,
“Right,” Ares agreed.
Clio went to the Sun God, the God of Light and Medicine, “You saved my daughter, Apollo, I will never forget that,” she said and kissed his cheek.
“She will never be the same,” he said hoarsely, “she’ll never remember.”
“I know.” Clio found she couldn’t look at Cory, who was snuffling somewhere on Mel’s shoulder. Clio didn’t know what to say, no matter how sorry Cory was, it would never bring Miranda back. Cory had stolen her daughter from her.
“Where does this empty into?” Ares asked, indicating the Lethe.
Apollo pointed to a dark spot on the horizon. “The Stygian Marsh,” he said.
“The Stygian Marsh,” Ares repeated. He seemed to briefly chew on the information and then let it drop.
They caught up to Iris and found her on the dusty trail. “The way out is never the same way in, but I found a door that should take us right to the sewers beneath Pere Lachaise.”
“What are we waiting for?” Mel said and Iris nodded.
Iris plucked a feather from her wings and traced a door distinguishable only to her. Again, the blue glow obscured the other side.
Clio went to Iris and asked, “No rats, right? Not the same way we came in?”
Iris looked at Miranda and Ares and understood, “No, I don’t believe so.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Clio said.
Apollo went first and then Iris. Mel and Cory followed, behind them went
“You’re next, tough guy,” Clio told Ares.
“I go last,” he ground out, still in a great deal of pain.
“Yeah, well, you’re in no shape for chivalry, you have to go first. I have to make sure you don’t fall back through to this side. It’s already been decided.”
“Clio, I’m not goin’ through next, you are.” Ares looked adamant.
“No arguing, Ares, you’re critically wounded, now be a good soldier and do as you’re told. If you don’t make it through and the doorway closes, we can’t come back for you through the same door, it might be hours before we can get to you. You know this is our only option.” Stubbornly, she pushed him towards the door.
“You worried about me, muse?”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes. I don’t know how much more I can bend before I break today, Ares. I’ve lost too much. Now let’s go.” So far, so good, she had him at the door. “No worries, pet,” she said as she faced him, put both hands on his shoulders, and pushed him through.
Too late, Ares saw Hades standing behind Clio. The war god struggled to keep himself from falling back. “Clio, behind you!” He cried as he fell into the blue door.
4
Apollo caught him on the other side.
Ares thrashed to be let up. “We have to go back!”
Everyone looked at him with confusion when the glowing door winked out. Clio was still there. “Hades has Clio, we have to get her back!”
Apollo gave Iris a questioning glance, she shook her head desperately, “There’s no way, this isn’t an entrance, there’s no way in from here, we have to go back to the beginning,” she said.
“That’ll take hours,” Ares snarled. “We don’t have hours, she doesn’t have hours!”
“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him,” Mel said.
“Well, we did and now we have to go back!”
“Ares, settle down and let me think,” Apollo said. “Iris, how long will it take us to get back to Pere Lachaise?”
“A half hour? Forty-five minutes? I don’t know with the little girl, Apollo.”
“Don’t worry about Miranda, I’ll carry her,” he said as he swept down and plucked the silent child from the sleeping bag and settled her on his hip. She clung to him fiercely. “Lead the way.”
They made it in less than twenty-three minutes, everyone breathing heavily. Ares’ complexion was waxy and pale and his eyes had dark half-moons beneath them. The rats followed his bloody trail all the way to the cemetery.
They came out in a different crypt and Iris guided them back to the first one. Just as she pushed the gargoyle back and placed her palm on the glass, Ares felt a tap on his shoulder.
“You’re done, Ares.”
Ares whipped around and found Zeus standing there. “I don’t have time for you right now, old man.”
“It’s over,” Zeus said and put his hand on his belligerent first-born’s shoulder.
Ares pulled away from his father’s offending hand. “It bloody well isn’t over! This isn’t about your bleeding requisition anymore, Zeus! This is only about Clio now, so sod off!”
Zeus scoured Ares’ stricken face. The heat and emotion pouring out of the war god seemed to pique his interest. His gaze flicked to the sky, a great storm was brewing, no doubt a direct result of the storm brewing behind Ares’ icy eyes. He was definitely Zeus’ son.
“Where is your Keeper of Histories, Apollo?” Zeus asked, turning to the silent sentinel beside him.
Apollo’s blue eyes met Zeus’ – he didn’t know what to say, apparently thunderstruck by all that had happened. “Hades has her. He feels he has been unjustly wronged by her somehow,” Apollo finally said.
Zeus raised his eyebrows in concern for his muse. “Ares, I can’t help you this time, you’re on your own. My brother has his prerogatives in his own domain, I cannot get involved in this.”
Ares sneered at the white-haired man, “When have you ever been able to help me, father? When has it ever been anything but politics with you? Well, it’s my prerogative to get her the hell out of your brother’s domain! Anyone comes after me,” he looked pointedly at Apollo, “I’ll stop you, you get me?” He yanked a feather from Iris’ wing and went through the crypt.
“Should we go after him?” Apollo asked.
“No, let him go. This is getting intriguing.” Zeus said. “Besides, someone has to get Clio back and it can’t look like I sent anyone. He’s exiled, he’s not my responsibility.”
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