The Gatekeeper's Daughter (20 page)

“What’s this about?” Than asked.

“Ares has Therese. Everything’s in chaos. If you come now, you can keep Therese from the Amazonian Pit.”

“Ares has Therese?” He grabbed the golden girdle from his sideboard and followed Hermes.

Together they god traveled directly to Poseidon’s palace, where Poseidon was on one side of the large foyer with Therese, a sleeping bear, eight merfolk, and a school of happy sharks. Ares was on the other side red-faced and yelling, his voice so much louder underwater than on land.

“Enough trifling!”
Ares growled. “Hand her over!”

“Enough indeed!” Than tossed Hippolyta’s girdle through the water to Ares, who caught it like a
Frisbee. “This should lay your fears to rest!” Then he mumbled, “Along with my dreams.”

Than prayed to Therese and made eye contact with her, “Are you okay?”

“I’m running out of time,” she prayed back.

Ares inspected the belt with a smile.
“Yes, Thanatos. I haven’t seen this for centuries. Where did you find it?”

“Does it matter?”
Than spat. “You have it now and should have no more reason to whine and moan about my future marriage.”

“You agree to allow me to fit it to her?”

“Yes. I’d rather have her in chastity than not at all. Though it seems perfect bliss is a faraway dream.”

“I learned that lesson years ago,” said Ares. “The day Aphrodite was given to Hephaestus.”

Than pounded his fist into his hand. “One day, I’ll find a way to make you remove that girdle from Therese, and then our love and happiness will finally be complete.”

“Good luck with that,” Ares mocked.

“I’m a patient god.” Than moved close to the god of war. “I will find your weakness, and I will exploit it until you have no choice. That’s a promise.”

“We shall see,” Ares scoffed. “Meanwhile, let’s get this over with. Poseidon?”

Poseidon moved away from Therese, but to Than’s surprise, Therese did not look happy.

“Are you pleased with yourselves for having so happily determined my fate?” she snapped. “Well, I am not a child. I’m a god, like you, and I determine my own destiny, and I will not allow anyone to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body!”

Before Than, or anyone, could reply, Therese was surrounded by a school of sharks, and with them and the sleeping bear, she god traveled from the palace. Ares looked about to follow, but Dione appeared in her full glory, large and beautiful with silver eyes and hair shimmering in the glow of her skin. She occupied most of the foyer, pressing against all present. In her sing-song voice, she said, “That’s my girl! My own descendant! I couldn’t be more proud! God of war, just try to interfere, just try to get past me, and I will suck you down into the darkest, deepest abyss beneath the sea!” She turned to Poseidon. “Will you fight me?”

“This is not my fight,” Poseidon replied.

Dione then turned back to Ares. “If you want Aphrodite to continue to have anything to do with you, give me back that golden girdle!”

Than turned to Ares and was amused by the sight of the war god’s mouth hanging so wide open that a minnow could find a comfortable home inside.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Betrayal

In the dark of night, Therese and her entourage of sharks arrived with the bear on the surface of the Aegean Sea beneath a blanket of stars. Therese combed the sky for the Big Dipper, and once she recognized its shape, was able to trace the Ursa Major constellation down to Big Bear’s paws.

“Therese, talk to me,” Than prayed.

“Let me finish this quest.”

“Are you angry with me?” he asked.

She hadn’t liked the way he’d assumed she would wear the girdle, but she knew he was trying to protect her. “We’ll talk when I’m done.”

“Okay.” She could hear the hurt in his voice. “Be safe.”

Oh, Than. She didn’t want him to feel hurt. She couldn’t wait to return to his arms. “I love you. I’ll come to your rooms when I’m done.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

She knew what she was about to do shouldn’t be possible, but she closed her eyes and believed. Balanced on the backs of two sharks so as to avoid being detected by Zeus in the sky, she reached her hand up until she felt the palpable fur of a foreleg. Then, as she heaved the Big Bear down from the sky she hefted her old bear up in one counter-clockwise motion.

“Good-bye, old bear! I hope you enjoy your view of the world!”

“Thank you!” the old bear said.

Big Bear, larger and more powerful than the old bear, fell on Therese, plunging them both into the water. The sharks, unsure how to serve Therese, scattered but circled nervously around them. Therese bid them farewell as, gripping the bear, she god traveled back to the woods
behind her home in Colorado, where the sun was just now beginning to set.

She hadn’t yet removed her helm when Callisto asked, “What’s happening to me?”

Therese showed herself, wet and coughing up sea water. When she could, she said, “My name is Therese. I’m the goddess of animal companions. Artemis asked me to reunite the two of you.”

“Did it not occur to you to ask me what I wanted?” The bear stood up on her hind legs and stretched a foot taller than Therese.

Therese laced her hands together at her chest, feeling like the biggest hypocrite in the world. She had just yelled at a palace full of gods for making a decision on her behalf, and here she was doing the same thing to Callisto. Tears of frustration stung her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ll take you back.”

Callisto came down on all fours. “No, I don’t want to go back. I’m just angry at Artemis for not trusting me. I did nothing to deserve the punishment I served for so many centuries. It’s hard to get over it.”

Therese reached out with her hand, hesitant at first, but then continued when Callisto did not recoil or attack, and stroked the fur on the bear’s back. Realizing this was not a gesture Therese would make if the bear were in her true form, she felt awkward and not sure at all how best to behave. “What do you want to do?”

“It’s crazy, but I still love Artemis,” she said. “Her prayers to me all these years have made life bearable. Where is she?”

“I am here,” Artemis said from a shimmering cypress. She leapt from the tree and threw her arms around the bear’s neck. Her voice cracked from the tears caught in her throat. “I never thought this day would come! I can’t believe you’re in my arms! Is this really happening?”

“I wish I could hold you properly,” Callisto said. “A bear’s body is so clumsy.”

“I have a way to change you back.” Artemis made the golden apple appear in her hand. “Eat this, and then we can be as we once were.”

Trembling with disbelief over this betrayal, Therese fitted an arrow to her bow.
“Stop! You promised that apple to me! I need it to save my sister!”

Artemis turned to face Therese. “I’m sorry, but this is the only way we can be together.”

“But you promised!”

“Didn’t Than break an oath to all of the gods of Mount Olympus so that he could be with you? And he swore on the River Styx.”

“Artemis, please!” Therese cried.

“You don’t need this apple to save your unborn sister,” Artemis said. “I can save her, and then both of us can be happy.”

“But what will Hera do when I don’t return her apple?”

“What she always does. Listen, Therese, you can never get on Hera’s good side. Even if you were to return the apple to her, she might not save your sister. You didn’t require her to swear on the River Styx.”

Therese considered this for a moment. “Would it be possible to share the apple?”

“No. Once the apple is defiled by a single bite, it’s drained of all its power.” Artemis turned back to Callisto. “Now eat, Callisto, before anything happens to this apple.”

Therese raised her bow again. “Wait! I can pierce her heart with an arrow of hate before she swallows. If you don’t want that, I need you to promise on the River Styx to save my sister’s life!” It was a bluff. She had no more arrows of hate from Cupid.

A moment of clarity helped Therese to see the similarity between this situation and the one in which
Than was forced to swear never to turn her into a god. She realized in that moment that she would never succeed in freeing Than of his annual visit by the maenads.

“I swear on the River Styx,” Artemis said.

Therese lowered her bow, and Artemis fed the golden apple to the bear. Within seconds of her first bite, Callisto transformed into a beautiful nymph, strong and tall like Artemis with black hair and black eyes and bronze skin that gleamed in the starlight. She was breathtaking.

The two goddesses embraced. Therese said her goodbyes and then god traveled to
Than’s chambers to return Hades’s helm and to tell Than about her next quest. She had to face Ladon and the Hesperides again. It was the only way to save Pete.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Therese’s Return

Than took Therese in his arms and held her. “Let me go with you this time. I can help.”

“That would be so awesome!” She circled her arms around his neck.

He noticed streaks of red when she rested her arms on his shoulders. “Look at your skin.”

“I got a little scraped when Poseidon dragged me along the ocean floor.”

“He what?”
Than couldn’t imagine Poseidon being cruel for no apparent reason.

“He thought I was your father sneaking into his domain.”

“Are you okay?” He scanned her all over. “Your jeans are ripped. Are your legs okay?” He opened the holes in the back of her jeans to inspect her legs. “Looks like you’re healing quickly enough.”

“Yeah.
It stung pretty badly while it was happening, but I’m fine.” She wrapped her arms around him once more. “I wish we could stay.”

He kissed her. It wasn’t nearly as long as he’d wished. “Then let’s stay.” He ran his hands through her hair. “It’s curlier than usual. I like it.”

“Sea water and no blow dryer.” She immediately looked self-conscious as she combed through her red curls with her fingers.

He grabbed her wrists and returned her hands behind his neck. “You look beautiful. Now where were we?”

“Can I use your magic phone again?”

He lifted his brow.

“Carol and Richard and Mrs. Holt are probably worried about me and Pete. What am I gonna say?”

“Let’s see. It’s seven o’clock at night there. Can you say you and Pete went somewhere together?”

“Well, his truck is still at home. How did we get there?”

He couldn’t resist saying, “God travel?”

“Yeah, right.” She paced the room. “Wait. I’ll say I asked his friend Eric to come pick me up to look for Pete and when we found him with some other friends, we all went to hang out.” She started dialing. “I’ll say we needed to talk, to get things cleared up between us.”

“You don’t have to tell me the details.” He didn’t like the images she was conjuring.

When she hung up, she had a smile on her face.

“So?” he asked.

“They both said they wish we would have called and to come home immediately.”

“I don’t understand.
Then why the smile?”

“Carol said Lynn is moving around a lot, like a healthy baby.”

The corners of his mouth stretched of their own accord. “Artemis has already made good on her promise.” He took her hands in his and kissed her.

“I made a difference. I can’t believe it.” She spun around on one foot to rest in his arms again.

“So how are you going to get Pete home immediately?”

“I told them we’d already bought movie tickets and convinced them to let us come home by midnight.”

“So you bought yourself more time.”

“Would you give this back to your father for me, and tell him thank you?” She took the helm from the sideboard where she had laid it when she had first arrived and handed it over to
Than.

“Don’t you need it?”

“No. I’m tired of hiding from Ares. Plus, we’re going to god travel, and this won’t protect me anyway.”

Than felt blood rush to his face. “What do you mean you’re tired of hiding from Ares? You do realize he will capture you again, don’t you? And this time, you won’t escape.”

“But…”

“Listen. I know you’re a god now, too. You’ve reminded me many times. And I know you’re powerful and determined. I know you can take care of yourself. But Ares isn’t someone to be taken lightly. Of all the gods, he’s the cruelest and the most exacting. Even my father has more mercy than Ares.”

“Than, calm down.”

“Calm down?” How could he possibly calm down? It was like she was looking to get caught again. “Do you want to go back to the Amazonian Pit?”

“Of course not. But I have an idea.”

He crossed his arms at his chest. “Well? What is it?”

“I want to offer him a truce.”

“Oh.” His shoulders sagged and his throat constricted. “Then I guess that means you’ve decided to wear the girdle.”

“No. I’ll never wear that thing.”

“I’m confused. What do you have to offer?”

“Well, since I’ve already pissed off Hera by failing to return the apple from Artemis, I may as well steal as many apples from her garden as I can.”

He pressed his palms through the air. “Hold on. This does not sound good.”

She put her hands on his hips and playfully shook him. “How many kids do you want to have?”

He jerked back his head. Hip once told him that the conversational style of females was very different from that of males, but this was the first time Therese had changed topics so quickly and radically. “Um, I’m not following you.”

She laughed. “How many kids do you want to have? Take Ares out of the equation.”

He tapped his chin with three fingers. “I suppose if Ares couldn’t threaten to separate us for all eternity…, I would want two or three. And by the way, I had to promise Dione we would name a daughter after her.”

“Okay. I like that name. So let’s say two.”

“Why are we talking about this right now? Isn’t Pete’s life hanging in the balance? I mean, I’m happy for us to stay here all night and dream of the future kids we’ll never get to have, but I don’t understand why you’ve had a change of heart.”

“I haven’t.” Her smile was contagious.

Maybe his father had been right the time he said gods and men would never understand goddesses and women.

“Oh, Baby, listen.” Her smile was even brighter, which made him happy and confused at once. “Ares is hung up about us having kids because he doesn’t want the balance of power skewed against him. Right?”

“Right.
So?”

“So, in addition to taking a golden apple from Hera’s garden to transform Pete, I’m going to take two more and offer them to Ares.”

“Hera won’t like that.”

“Who would you rather have against us, Hera or Ares?”

“Good point, but how will that keep Ares from being against us?”

“I’ll tell Ares that for each child I bear, he should use an apple to create his own immortal ally, to keep the power among the gods balanced.”

“And if we have more than two children?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Her faced turned a little red.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.
It’s just that…well…. Goddesses don’t get pregnant every time they have sex, right? Otherwise Ares and Aphrodite would have a ton of kids.”