The Gatekeeper's Daughter (8 page)

Therese clutched the steering wheel with both hands, her heart racing. With her right foot, she placed a slight pressure on the accelerator. The engine sped, but, otherwise, nothing happened. She looked at Hermes.

“Put her in drive first.” More eye rolling.

“Sorry.” She looked around the steering column and dashboard, only to have Hermes show her the gearshift on the console between them. She grabbed the end of it and tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge. She wrestled with it, breaking it off completely.
“Oh, no!”

“You’ve been in this car less than two minutes and you’ve already broken it?” Hermes took the broken gear shift. “Where’s Hephaestus when you need him?”

Warm blood rushed to Therese’s face. “Look, I didn’t ask you to do this.”

Than’s squeezed her shoulder. “I did.”

“Yeah, but why?”

“Because I don’t know how to drive either.”

She studied his reflection in the rearview mirror. He seemed serious. Hadn’t he done anything but escort the souls of the dead?

“Just so you know next time,” Hermes said, holding the knob in front of her face, “you have to push this button in before shifting.”

She turned to him sharply. “I’ll remember that next time I’m driving a Lamborghini.”

Hermes sighed. “That’s true of most cars, Therese.”

“Oh.”

Hermes manipulated the shiny steel nub from which the stick had broken. “There. She’s in drive. Now let’s get started.”

She eased on the accelerator again. When nothing happened, she pressed harder, gunning the engine.

“Parking brake?” Hermes asked with an impatient tone.

Therese lifted her foot as she looked around the dash. “Where is it?”

Hermes pointed to the knob. “Pull it. Keep your right foot on the brake. Then gently ease your foot onto the accelerator.”

Therese did as he said and finally got the car in motion. She sped up to twenty miles an hour, feeling jittery.

“Take her up to fifty,” Hermes said. “Looks like you’ve got the road all to yourself.”

She eased on the pedal, unable to believe she was actually driving. “So where are we anyway?”

“Derbyshire, not too far from Ashbourne, one of my favorite towns.
Hecate and I used to go fishing together there. So many good memories.”

She glanced at the speedometer. “I’m at fifty.
Now what?”

“Just get the hang of driving straight. Follow the road.”

The road turned downward and then up as they passed sheep and more wheat. This wasn’t so bad, she thought. Smiling for the first time since she’d climbed into the car, she let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Her hands hurt from clamping the wheel, so she loosened her grip. Not too bad, she thought again, feeling like an adult. Up ahead, she noticed a sign indicating a deer crossing. “Why is the sign on the left side of the road?”

“Huh?” Hermes looked at the sign.
“Oh, dear.”

Before Therese could ask what was wrong, a big farm truck came into view heading straight for them. Why was it in her lane?

“What’s going on? What should I do?” This was exactly what she was afraid of: killing someone. Her heart throbbed in her ears.

“Bloody hell!”
Hermes shrieked, turning the wheel to the left.

The truck whizzed by them as Therese caught her breath and pressed on the brake, bringing the car to a choppy stop. All three plunged forward and then back in their seats.

“Forgot we’re in England.” Hermes gave her a sheepish grin. “They drive on the left side here. My mistake.”

She looked at him with her mouth open. “That was close.”

Another car came up behind them, sounding the horn and making her jump in her seat. Luckily it went around them, but not without giving them a furious glance.

“Get us off the road, Therese. Maybe we’ll give
Than a turn.”

A little too slowly, she eased off into the tall grass on the side of the road. As she was about to climb out, Hermes grabbed her arm.

“You can god travel now, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.”

She and Than switched in a flash, Therese falling back in the seat more abruptly than she had planned, having forgotten to keep her eyes open again. How long would it take for her to get used to her new abilities?

The landscape changed again, to a palm and papaya tree-lined street, narrower than the one in Derbyshire, and, here, the sun was at high noon. A volcano loomed on the horizon past fields of high grass where caribou were feeding.

“Take her over to the right lane,” Hermes said. “We’re on one of the Philippine Islands, where people drive on the right.”

From the backseat, Therese watched
Than maneuver the vehicle like a pro. “You sure this is your first time?”

“Positive.”

“Why haven’t you driven before? My god, you can disintegrate and do whatever you want. You never wanted to take a drive someplace?”

“Why, when I can god travel?”

She sat back in her seat. “I guess.”

“And I have no problem driving my father’s chariot.”

“That’s true.”

“But you’re right. There’s a lot I haven’t done.”

“We can do it together.”

“Have you chosen a purpose then?” Hermes asked.

“Not yet. Too bad you can’t give me one of yours. You have a bajillion purposes.”

Hermes chuckled.
“Yeah. I used to have more before Thanatos and Hypnos were born. I used to do their jobs as well. Imagine that.”

“I can’t,” Than said.
“Don’t know how you did it.”

Than came upon a stop sign but pushed on the brake too hard and too fast, throwing Therese and Hermes forward and back.

“Sorry,” Than said.

“Take a right here,” Hermes said. “You know how to use the blinker?”

Than found it and made the turn. Then the car sped from thirty to seventy in a matter of seconds.

“Slow her down,” Hermes said.

“I can’t. Something’s gone wrong.”

Therese watched helplessly from the backseat as
Than pumped the brake. The car turned a sharp left, just missing a group of people walking along the side of the road.

“Than, what’s happening?” Therese cried.

Suddenly, gusty winds made the tall trees sway like hula dancers, and someone’s hat flew past them.

“I don’t know!” He continued to pump the brake and to wrench the steering wheel with both hands. “The Lamborghini’s moving on its own.
Let’s god travel out of here.”

“The car might hurt someone!” 

“She’s right,” Hermes added. “We can’t just abandon it. I sense another god at work.”

They took another sharp turn to the left toward the sea. As they
zoomed past little huts and a rickshaw toward a sandy beach, Therese was overwhelmed by a flashback of the evening her mom’s car flew into Huck Finn Pond. She recalled the way her father, trapped by the steering shaft, had writhed and her mother, paralyzed by the bullet shot in her neck, had closed her eyes and yielded to the water overtaking them. She had been able to do nothing to save them.

The Lamborghini lifted up off the road, flew ten feet in the air over the sandy beach, and then plunged into the sea.

“Ahh!” Therese cried as the cold water rushed into the car.

“We’re bound to the car!” Hermes said. “No god traveling out of this mess!”

Than reached back for Therese. “You okay?”

Before the car submerged, she felt herself being lifted at lightning speed up from the water, the Lamborghini falling away in a hazy mist. She rubbed her eyes and blinked, shivering in the cold wind. Sitting beside her was Poseidon.

Chapter Eleven: Poseidon’s Warning

Than and Hermes sat in the seat just behind her as Poseidon held the reins of his chariot, drawn by Riptide, Seaquake, and Crest—three white stallions who flew across the water’s surface at amazing speeds.

“Poseidon?” she asked. “What’s happening?”

Hermes and Than leaned forward in their seats, Hermes shouting, “What in the world is going on, Uncle?”

“I’ll explain when we get down to my palace.” His long, sun-bleached hair, longer than hers, whipped in the wind, and his sunburnt face was set hard and unyielding.

They zipped high in the air above a volcano, Therese’s stomach turning a flip-flop as she clutched on to the side of the chariot, her fingers cold, her knuckles white. Hair whipped in her face as she glanced back at Than, and her teeth chattered as she recalled the last time Poseidon had taken her for a ride. It had been as his prisoner to Mount Olympus. Maybe he never got over the fact that Artemis helped her win her meet earlier in the summer after Therese had turned down his offer. Maybe he’d been responsible for the earthquake that had damaged her school natatorium after all. The chariot flew in a chasm between two volcanoes and then out into the open sea. Therese glanced back again at Than to see his look of alarm, though his prayer to her was, “It’s going to be okay.”

In the next instant, the chariot submerged into the ocean depths. Therese was amazed to find she could breathe, and although she was cold, she wasn’t freezing. Her body, like those of the other three gods, glowed in the darkness, creating a halo of light in which she could see the marvels of the sea around her. She could see beyond their glow as well, further into the darkness all the way down to the ocean floor. Though she passed
by at nearly lightning speed, her goddess eyes could easily detect everything—the colorful fish, coral, and shells, in addition to two curious nymphs astride dolphins who followed them, one on each side of the chariot. One of the dolphins was Arion, the dolphin on whose back she had ridden last summer. She waved, and he gave her a nod.

“Hello, again,” he clicked.

She gasped, forgetting that she could now communicate with all beings, including dolphins.

“Hello!”

Up ahead, she could see Poseidon’s palace. Worried as she was for his motives for bringing them here, she was nevertheless delighted to see it again. Bright golden lights came from the bottom of the ocean, illuminating the amazing transparent structure, its clear crystal walls making her think of an aquarium. Through the walls, she could see many figures inside of it—merfolk with tails and other, more human-like, people sitting among the furniture, eating at tables on golden chairs, and lounging on beds clustered in curtains of seaweed growing up from the ocean floor. At the back of the palace, the walls were no longer transparent and were made of shiny mother-of-pearl.

The three white steeds slowed and came to a stop inside a crystal chamber on the bottom level of the magnificent structure where three merfolk immediately swam over to unbridle the horses and lead them away. The dolphin-riding nymphs stopped outside the chamber and swam off, out of sight. Now that they were no longer in motion, Therese and the others floated up from their seats, and she had to continually pull her sweater down to keep herself covered. Despite this struggle with her top, Therese felt like she was in her element, having loved the water all her life. She’d started swimming at an early age, and her parents used to joke that she must have been a dolphin in a previous life. They didn’t believe
in reincarnation—at least not her mother. Therese had never been able to get a straight answer from her father.

Poseidon led them from what must have been the chariot garage, and they followed, swimming in their own fashion. Therese and
Than swam breaststroke. Hermes, ahead of them, swam like a dog, paddling his arms and cycling his feet. Therese had the urge to laugh, and couldn’t help it when she thought, “I don’t want to make waves.” The pun was corny, but she was nervous and excited and couldn’t stop from giggling.

They entered a lounge with four couches facing one another in a square. Therese couldn’t see how they would be able to sit on them, since all four gods floated on top near the crystal ceiling. But that problem was soon remedied when long tentacles reached out to them and handed them each a heavy boulder, save Poseidon, who was given his trident by a merman, and this kept him from floating. Therese followed the arms of the tentacles with her eyes to see the octopus on the floor between dancing rows of seaweed. She took the boulder he offered her and immediately sank to the floor with the others. She manipulated herself over to the couch next to
Than and sat beside him. The couch was surprisingly comfortable and spongy, reminding her of a Temperpedic bed.

“You have our attention,” Hermes said to Poseidon. His voice was clear underwater, as though he were speaking into Therese’s ear through an earbud. “So tell us. What’s the meaning of this?”