The Gatekeeper's House (26 page)

“
Poseidon has taken Athena
prisoner,” Therese added.

“
What?” Demeter
gasped.

“
And Hypnos has been chained
to Mount Ida. Zeus has commanded the vultures to eat out his
liver,” Than said. “He’s already gone through the agony
once.”

Demeter covered her mouth and sat down
at one of her kitchen chairs. “What horrible news you
bring.”

Therese observed the fear and worry in
the older goddess’s face. Demeter’s depression over her daughter’s
absence was unhealthy, and Demeter’s wisdom and power were crucial
to the pantheon.

“
Persephone needs her
mother,” Therese said gently. “She refuses to condemn her daughter
to Tartarus without the hope of redemption, but she fears that
without your help, the rest of us have no hope in standing up
against Zeus and Poseidon.”

Demeter covered her face. “I can’t go
to the Underworld. Everyone there hates me, and it’s so gloomy and
disgusting. Just the idea repulses me and gives me goose bumps. I
can’t stand the idea of my precious daughter dwelling there for a
single day, let alone six months.”

“
But she needs you,” Than
urged.

Therese gave Demeter the same speech
she had given the others in the Underworld about the beauty,
pleasure, and joy she discovered while living there the past two
years. Demeter listened with wide, surprised eyes.

“
For example, as the goddess
of the harvest, you know the importance of bats,” Therese
said.

Demeter nodded. “Of course. They eat
many of the insects that threaten to destroy my crops.”

“
The Underworld has the
largest bat colony in the world,” Therese said. “In fact, there are
many colonies throughout the kingdom. “

“
You expect to woo me with
bats?”

Therese racked her mind until another
argument came to her. “Have you ever seen the jewel encrusted
walls? Emeralds, diamonds, rubies? I’ve never been big on precious
stones and jewelry—that’s my friend Jen’s department—but I have to
admit that the way they sparkle in the light of the Phlegethon is
absolutely breathtaking.”

“
Grandmother, you really
ought to give the Underworld a chance,” Than added.

“
Diamonds and rubies are my
favorite stones,” Demeter said. “But I detest spiders and snakes.
You’ll be sure to keep them away from me, won’t you?”

Therese laughed, inwardly bewildered by
the fact that a powerful goddess and her best friend Jen could have
so much in common. Jen hated spiders and snakes, too.

Finally Demeter consented to visit her
daughter in the Underworld, so Therese gave her the helm, and Than
disintegrated and flew with his grandmother away from Mount Kronos
and down into the nearest chasm to deliver her to the
others.

Another Than remained behind with
Therese in the heavily warded cabin until he could return with the
helm. While they waited, Therese snuggled against him, feeling high
from her success in convincing Demeter to help.

“
Have I told you how
incredible you are?” Than asked as he leaned in for a
kiss.

“
Yes, in fact, you have,”
she replied before kissing him back.

He moved her hair from her shoulders
and cupped his hands around her neck. She closed her eyes with
pleasure and wished they could hide there in Demeter’s cabin all
day.

Than must have been sharing her
thoughts, for, in between kisses, he said, “The birds don’t come
until five, when Helios begins his descent. We have hours to wait
before then.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist
and pressed herself as close to him as she could manage. “Whatever
shall we do?”

He kissed her passionately for many
minutes, and just when she thought he would whisk her up and sweep
her off to bed, he pounded a fist on Demeter’s table, causing it to
crack.

“
Than?”

“
What am I doing?” he asked.
“My brother is chained to the highest rock on Mount Ida frightened
out of his mind, and I’m making love to your face.”

Therese frowned and bit her lip.
“You’re right. We shouldn’t be doing this. Return with the helm and
take me to his side so we can comfort him while we
wait.”

As they neared the peak, Hip came into
view. Guilt and shame flooded through Therese when she saw him
lying there in the hot sun shivering. Before they landed, she
noticed the two nymphs from the cave—Ida and her sister,
Andrasteia, and they were complaining about the loss of their goat,
wondering how they would get on without her.

Therese had an idea.
Let’s pop back over to the Underworld and get
their goat. It will distract them from us and the birds.

Than turned around and dipped into the
nearest chasm, and they raced through the corridors to his rooms in
search of the goat. Therese showed herself to the animal, which
bleated with pleasure, since the arrow still made the goat love the
goddess. With one arm, Therese held the goat against her, so it was
protected by the helm, and with the other, Therese held onto Than’s
waist and lay against his back as he returned them to Mount
Ida.

The nymphs were pleased when their goat
ambled up the peak as though it had been lost.

“
There you are!” Ida called,
full of glee. “Oh, you sweet, sweet mother of milk!”

“
We missed you!” the sister
sang.

While the two nymphs
embraced the goat and doted over it, Than sidled up to Hip and
prayed in such a way that Therese could hear.
Therese and I are here beside you. Don’t let on you know.
We’ve come to protect you.

***

Hip took great comfort in his brother’s
presence, but he wasn’t too pleased with his plan. He would have
preferred rescue to being used as a diversion.

Take me away from
here
, Hip pleaded when they’d been sitting
there awhile and the hour for the birds grew near.

Sit tight,
Than prayed.

Easy for you to
say.

I’d switch with you if I
could.

Hip knew this to be true. His brother
had always been better than Hip at suffering and accepting his
lot.

And I’d let
you
. Hip gave Than a nervous
smile.

Than took his brother’s hand
and squeezed it.
I won’t let you
down.

I have faith in you,
bro’.

One of the nymphs looked up from
playing with her goat and asked, “Is that Death with you,
Hypnos?”

“
It is,” Ida said. “Isn’t he
a little early?”

“
I like to be prepared,”
Than answered. “If you’re going to criticize, why don’t you take
over? Come close and I’ll show you what to do.”

Ida stepped back with a look of
repulsion. “No, thanks.”

“
Then let me do my job
without a word from you,” Than warned.

Way to go, bro’.
Hip prayed.
Looks like you
grew a pair.

Than made a face at him and said out
loud, “No. I took yours.”

“
What?” Andrasteia
asked.

Just then the goat took off between the
nymph’s legs and ran down the mountainside.

“
Hold on, there, she-goat!”
Ida said, scrambling to her feet.

Andrasteia, who’d been already
standing, was fast on the goat’s heels.

“
Catch her, Andy!” Ida
called as she hastened after her sister.

How lucky for
us
, Hip prayed.

Not luck. That was
Therese’s doing.

I figured as much. Thanks,
sis.

I got you’re back,
Hip,
came her reply.

Then the first bird arrived and landed
on Hip’s thigh. Zeus’s eagle.

Dear god, help me,
Hip prayed to all who would listen. His entire
body shivered as he anticipated the horrific pain from
yesterday.

***

As the birds came to the peak of Mount
Ida to serve Lord Zeus, Therese shot them, one by one, with her
arrows. They settled on top of Hip, but they didn’t peck or scrape
at him with their beaks.

Hip had broken out in a sweat and was
trembling.

Are you sure this will
work?
he asked her for the twentieth
time.

Yes. Have faith in
me.

Just then, the two nymphs returned to
the peak of the mountain, out of breath and red-faced, carrying the
goat between them.

“
Why are they just sitting
there?” Andrasteia asked her sister of the birds. “Why aren’t they
eating him?”

Ida shrugged. “Maybe they’re still full
from yesterday.”

Andrasteia laughed.

Therese sent a message to the goat,
asking her to kick the cruel nymph. The goat complied.

“
Ow!” Andrasteia cried,
dropping her half of the goat.

It tried to wriggle free from the other
nymph.

Bite her,
Therese suggested.

Again, the goat obeyed.

“
What is wrong with you, you
old ninny?” Ida shouted as the goat scrambled free from her
grasp.

Startled by the loud activity, two of
the seven birds on top of Hip flew away.

“
Now look what you’ve done!”
Andrasteia shouted at her goat.

Therese let an arrow fly into each of
the nymph’s hearts, and soon they were coddling the she-goat again
and no longer paying any heed to the quiet birds perched on the god
of sleep.

Chapter Twenty-Three:
Athena and Earth Shaker

While Than sat on the hard ground
comforting his brother on the peak of Mount Ida, astounded by the
abilities of his future bride, he was also on a scouting mission in
the deep Aegean Sea. He swam alone, since he was death, and since
no one would suspect him. Of all the gods, he was everywhere all
the time, collecting souls from both land and sea. In fact, a few
miles away, he was just now escorting a drowned man from the
cracked helm of a ship up into the heavens and then down into the
nearest chasm leading to the gates of the Underworld.

He pulled through the water with his
arms and kicked his legs, speeding through the sea as fast as any
dolphin. The sea creatures fled from his path, for like most
humans, they sensed death, and they feared him. As he neared
Poseidon’s castle, however, an army of sharks blocked his path.
Than stopped and hung motionless in the water, using his keen godly
senses to observe his surroundings. The sharks maintained their
position. None broke rank but glared at Than with their slit eyes
and bared teeth. Thanatos reached out to Athena but could not make
contact with her.

He swam along the line of the sharks,
back and forth, distracting them as he disintegrated and dispatched
several miles on the other side of their line. He was met by a wall
of jellyfish, and they stung his flesh as he swatted them and
floundered past them toward Poseidon’s castle.

Although his skin stung and he was
paralyzed for a few minutes, once he was free of their nest he soon
recovered from the jellyfish and swam on, more cautiously, toward
the palace, which he now saw gleaming about a mile away. Afraid of
being trapped like his brother, he moved slowly, looking in all
directions as he went. He used his eyes and ears, but especially
his ears, since they were sharper at detecting sounds underwater
than his eyes were at detecting objects.

When he was still five hundred feet
out, he felt a series of strange vibrations to his left. Then he
picked up on a rushing sound of movement. The sound was steady,
neither growing louder nor softer. Than moved closer toward the
sound and stopped short, shocked by what he saw.

Athena floated in a transparent tube
that was attached to the ocean floor by a long iron chain. All
along the chain, at least a thousand feet in length, swarmed sea
serpents, enormous in size. They were about fifty feet long and ten
feet wide. They slithered in circles around the chain, and where
they reached the clear tube containing Athena, they coiled around
the base, but no higher, so that the goddess of wisdom floated in
full view. Than wondered why Poseidon would hold her out here five
hundred feet from his palace for all to see. Why wasn’t she safely
hidden? It seemed to Than that Poseidon wanted to lure his enemies
into some unforeseen trap, something even more threatening than the
enormous serpents entwined around the chain.

Than reported everything he saw to his
father through prayer as he hung there, motionless, in the sea,
observing Athena. He willed the goddess to look at him, but her
face was turned away. He told his father he was moving closer so
that he might be seen by her, but Hades commanded him to go no
further than he was.

Poor Athena. How many days had she been
suspended there, alone, with no contact with the outside world?
Than was tempted to disobey his father, out of compassion for the
goddess, but he remained where he was because his feelings of
loyalty won out over his feelings of compassion. He smiled to
himself though, as it dawned on him that Therese would have likely
disobeyed Hades to show herself to Athena.