Fates' Folly (33 page)

Peter, wearing his uniform of ordinary -khaki
pants and light blue oxford- smiled at me. It was a genuine smile
and his eyes smiled, too. As with the first time I met Peter, I got
the feeling that he knew things, things we thought we knew the
truth of but actually didn't, and things we hadn't thought of yet.
In my mind, Peter was much more dangerous than either of the gods
that stood tall and magnificent beside him.

Zeus, still chuckling, sat down, leaning
towards Peter. "What do you say Peter, miss the good ole days?"

Peter pulled on the cuffs of his shirt. "I
would rather look towards the future than live in the past. And,
speaking of the future, I am afraid I have other appointments
today."

Zeus gave Peter a pitiful shake of his head,
but Hades, sitting down on the other side of Zeus smiled. "Of
course, I sometimes forget you're not your own boss, Peter. Forgive
us for wasting time."

"I'm afraid I'm not the one to offer you
forgiveness, as you said, I'm not my own boss," Peter said.

Hades ignored Peter's comment. "Brother.
Peter. These are four of my Assassins- Caisus Black, Barbatus
Black, Sebastianus Black, and my newest underling, Mable."

Not for the first time I wondered what you
had to do to earn the last name of Black.

"Myra," Riley quietly corrected.

Hades ignored him. Looking at me, he said,
"This is my brother, God of the Sky and Thunder, Ruler of Olympus,
Zeus." I waited for some theme music to start playing but instead,
Hades introduced Peter. "And this is the owner of the keys to
heaven, St. Peter."

Peter leaned forward slightly. "If I may make
a correction, I am not the owner, merely the holder of the keys to
heaven."

Zeus laughed, "Yeah, but wouldn't you like
that promotion?"

Peter only said, "No. I would not."

"But you're like a glorified gofer or the
doorman, for shit sake, that's got to get-"

"Brother," Hades interrupted. “We are not
here to discuss celestial politics."

Zeus frowned at Hades, almost sneering before
he turned to Sebastian. "You're in some serious shit, son."

Sebastian bowed his head.

Hades leaned back in his chair, shaking his
head, as if disappointed. "When I assigned you to teach, Sebastian,
I thought I was helping you out. I knew of your brilliance and
brutal nature in your mortal life, both characteristics that led to
my offer of immortality as one of my Assassins. However, it has
only been a lack of fortitude that I have witnessed in your many
years of service to me. Plainly put, you are weak and
cowardly."

Hades leaned forward, both of his arms on
across the table. "I have been more than patient with your
defective character. I assigned you to a teaching position, hoping
it would better suit your disposition, and in return for my
patience and support, you reaped a Christian soul and went
rogue."

I looked over at Sebastian, his head still
bowed in submission. I looked up at Hades, who was staring at
Sebastian, waiting. It seemed like we were all waiting. I looked
over at Sebastian again and watched two tears, one and then the
other, fall from his eyes. Tears of remorse, I thought.

Suddenly, Hades shattered the silence with
laughter. Chills and dread walked up my spine at the sound. I dug
my fingernails into Barty's palm to keep myself from screaming for
the sound to stop.

"I expected gratitude from you, not betrayal.
I never thought you would attempt to challenge me. Honestly, I
still can't believe you had the balls."

Sebastian didn't reply.

Riley stood with his hands clasped behind his
back and gave a short bow. "I ask that Sebastian be able to explain
himself, to plead his case. There were extenuating circumstances
that led to his downfall. The events were tragic and, though
Sebastian has earned your judgment, we hope you will take the time
to hear him out and grant him, at least, a small measure of mercy,"
he said.

As Riley sat back down the room was quiet. I
was holding my breath. Hades had leaned forward again, resting both
his arms, elbows to fingers, on the table while he stared intently
at Sebastian. He tapped his finger on the table, one…two…three
times, before he spoke.

"I appreciate your loyalty, Riley, but
Sebastian has taken a soul that did not belong to us and attempted
to take another soul that, though it would have been ours, was not
yet fated to die."

Zeus pointed at Riley. "The circumstances
don't matter- we cannot have underlings fucking around earth-side."
He pointed to Peter. "Peter here might look harmless, but his boss
can dish out some serious shit. You can't just screw with
Christianity and expect to get away with it."

"I assure you, as long as I leave here with
Joshua Collins' soul, my Boss has no wish to punish the soul
reaper, Sebastian Black."

"Assassin," Hades said.

Peter smiled blandly. "My apologies, I was
referring to his occupation not his title. No offense was
meant."

Zeus looked at Peter and then gave a slow
head shake, as if he decided he would never understand him. Peter
continued to smile.

Zeus shook his head again. "Well, he may not
feel the need to issue punishment, but we do. We can't have
everyone thinking we've gone soft."

Hades stood. "I find myself, once again,
making note of your loyalty Riley, but sentencing must be made and,
as my dear brother pointed out, it needs to be severe."

Hades produced a long black poker out of thin
air. "Brother," he said, tilting the end of the poker toward Zeus.
Zeus grabbed the poker just under the handle, wrapping his hand
around the iron, and sliding it down to the end.

I couldn’t see any difference. As if Zeus
heard my thoughts he winked at me. "Give it a minute," he said
cheerily.

I concentrated on the piece of iron, my eyes
stinging from the effort. Hades flicked the poker in the air like
it was a giant sparkler and as I watched, the black blur became
orange, red, and then white, leaving hot trails hanging above us in
the air. Hades stopped twirling and blew on the tip of the rod.

As if it had become a writhing snake, the
point melted, twisted and coiled until it formed a flat circle with
three points, making it look like a crown at the top. Hades pointed
the still white-hot rod at Sebastian.

"Sebastianus Black, stand and hear my
judgment." Sebastian stood. I started to stand too, but Barty
pulled me back down.

Hades said, "You will release the soul you
have stolen, and then you will continue in my service for eternity
as my messenger for the damned." Sebastian's shirt disappeared, and
before I could close my eyes or look away, Hades placed the glowing
crown in the center of Sebastian's chest.

When Hades finally pulled the iron away, the
sound of my scream was still echoing in my ears. But Sebastian had
made no sound, not even a sniff in response to the horrible smell
his burned flesh had made. He sat down and once again bowed his
head.

Riley's head was bowed. Barty was staring at
my hand, which he still held, and I was staring at Sebastian's
chest, at the blistered, red and black burn, not able to do
anything else.

Peter stood up. "I will require a more
private setting. The small gold and jeweled antechamber I waited in
earlier will suffice."

Hades nodded. Peter motioned and Sebastian
followed.

A few seconds after Peter and Sebastian left
the room, Zeus and Hades moved to the end of the table, calling
Riley over to join them.

I couldn't hear their conversation and, at
that moment, I really didn't care. I felt so deflated. The whole
thing was kind of anticlimactic, and a little surreal. Looking back
at it, even Riley's speech seemed empty of any emotion, I guess
because it had no effect. Damn.

I turned to Barty. "What does it mean that
Sebastian will be a messenger for the damned?"

"Tartarus is a pit of utter darkness where
daemons are born, and the damned forever repent for their sins in
the hope that Hades or his judges will show them mercy. Sebastian
now wears Hades mark. He will be the messenger between the
inhabitants of Tartarus and Hades' court."

"I know this is very bad, but honestly, I
don't completely understand why."

Barty sighed. "Think of the phrase, don't
shoot the messenger."

I shrugged, still not understanding.

Barty said, "When I first became immortal, I
served Hades primarily at court-"

"Like court of law, in judging souls or court
like king, queen and throne?"

"King, queen and throne. I-"

"Wow, that must have been interesting."

"And a discussion we can have another
day."

"Sorry. Sugar rush, trauma of seeing someone
being branded."

Barty rolled his eyes. "Hades found that on
average it took about a month of torture to render a messenger
unable to perform his duties, and almost eleven months for the
messenger to fully regenerate and heal. So Hades, being the
practical god that he is, appointed twelve immortals to the post,
so when one was found incapable, another could take his place."

"If he was practical, why didn't he just
refrain from torturing the messengers?"

Barty sighed. "You're showing your poor
breeding. Hades didn't torture them, well not literally. You have
to assume that was his plan, but they were tortured by the damned.
This is the fate Hades has sentenced Sebastian to- being ripped
apart, burned, beaten etc…until he can no longer function. Then he
will be thrown into a cell while he heals, only to experience it
all again and again, for eternity."

My stomach tightened painfully, and I closed
my eyes, willing myself not to vomit. "We have to do something!
Doesn't Hades have some kind of obligation to Sebastian? Don't his
Assassins have some kind of protection, insurance plan,
something?"

Barty laughed. "An eternity of service to the
God of the Underworld does not come with health benefits. Actually,
the only one of Hades' Assassins that has any kind of protection is
you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you are his Champion. Once the Champion
is chosen, he is considered off limits from the gods, and if the
gods forget, the Champion is protected by his own sponsor's body
guard, but only until the Olympian Trials have been won. After
that, you're fair game like the rest of us."

"Why?"

"It safe guards against unfair retribution if
a challenger must engage a god or goddess for one of the Trials,
not to mention any accidents to the competitors before the
competition begins."

Too bad Sebastian hadn't been chosen
Champion.

Zeus’ boisterous laugh echoed through the
room.

"How angry would Zeus be if he knew what
Hades was really up to?"

"We've already discussed this, he'll be
pissed that he wasn't included, and then he'll try and reinstate
the plan himself. Chances are Zeus already knows Hades hasn't told
the truth, he is the God of Lies after all."

"What about Peter, how much would Hades not
want Peter to know that he brought Amelia, owner of a Christian
soul, back to life? He shouldn't be able to do that, right? Not to
mention the four elderly, non-Greek-believing men whose souls Hades
now has possession of. How would Zeus react if I told all this to
Peter in front of him?"

"I know what you're thinking, but it won't
work. They all know something of what really happened. You think
Peter doesn't know of the souls he is responsible for? You think
Zeus hasn't already figured out that Hades has been lying through
his teeth and is lucky as hell that we found Sebastian before any
more damage was done? They all know what's happened, they just
don't want to acknowledge it. It's like a mother seeing her
daughter sneak a cookie from the cookie jar- she allows it because
she doesn't want to have to go through the trouble of punishing the
kid."

"Well, my mama would have thrown an empty
bottle of Jack at me and been done with it, if I stole a cookie. Of
course, we never had any cookie jars. Come to think of it, my mama
probably would have been passed out, so the point is moot," I said,
trying to get up my nerve to do something very stupid.

"What the hell are you blabbering about?"
Barty asked.

I stood up. "I'm gonna throw the bottle of
Jack and see what happens."

I got up, walked around a frowning Barty
and plopped into the chair Sebastian had vacated. Neither Hades nor
Zeus seemed to notice me, but Riley glanced my way and gave a small
head shake.

I pretended I didn't see Riley's warning and
rolled my chair over next to him. "Hey, Riley, I wanted to let you
know how much I appreciate you getting Bartholomew to train me for
the Olympian Trials," I said, as a way of inserting myself into
their conversation. I admit it was a bit weak, but it worked, sort
of.

Riley gave me the, what the hell are you
doing look and I swear Hades growled, but Zeus smiled. "You're
Hades' Champion? Why wasn't I aware of this? Hades has never had a
female champion him in the Trials before."

Zeus folded his big arms across his chest.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think Hades planned for you to
become immortal. Did you, brother? Did you play The Fates into
turning her immortal in the middle of this Sebastian soul stealing
mess? Did you think Hermes' Trials would be tests of intellect, so
you found a ringer?" Zeus asked, throwing out one question after
another, his face becoming redder with each question, making his
raised eyebrows appear white against his now almost purple
face.

Riley put his hand on my chair. I think he
actually planned to push me away, silly man. But I was not going to
be thwarted by a rolling office chair, even if it did swivel rather
nicely. I locked my feet around the table leg, and unless Riley
decided to make a show of it, I was staying.