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Uncle? I recognized the being before me at once. Not from his appearance, but from his aura. I’d experienced the same unpleasant sensation when I had visited his kingdom that same morning.
Hades strode through the chamber, and it surrounded him like a cloud. Whether he was the source of the malevolent influence or simply reeked of it after an eternity spent among the departed, it was impossible to tell. His eyes flickered around the chamber. They were blue but not like sapphires. They burned like bale fire against the white sclera of his eyes.
Seeing Zeus and Hera, he inclined his head but most of the other assembled guests hardly rated a twinkle of recognition in the Lord of the Underworld’s eyes.
The Summer Queen, Titania, regarded him with interest. It reminded me of the look cats get when they meet a new person for the first time. He paid her no heed.
“Ares, my dear nephew. It is not often I get an invitation anywhere these days.”
Ares wrapped his arms around his uncle and gave him a hearty slap on the back. Hades didn’t flinch.
“Nonsense! It’s the least I could do,” Ares replied, “particularly after your gracious hosting of the first challenge. We find ourselves in your debt. It was as entertaining as it was savage.”
“Yes,” Hades mused, extricating himself from the embrace, “and yet you still find yourself asking favors.”
Ares raised his hands apologetically. “Only that I might fulfill my host rights. What is a little favor between family?”
Hades turned to study the room. “Yes, what indeed?”
“So are you able to do what I asked?” Ares asked. “My guests are dying to know who did it.”
Hades gave his nephew a withering look that could have stripped flesh from the bone. “Naturally.”
Ares clapped his hands together. “Excellent, excellent. Champions gather around, this is going to be a real treat.”
There was an awkward shifting throughout the chamber. I knew why. With the sickening pall of death oozing from the Lord of the Underworld, they didn’t want to be closer to Hades than they had to be. I didn’t blame them; I felt the same.
Ares glanced around the chamber.
“Now!” His voice was starting to possess some of the anger we’d witnessed in the arena. Patience wasn’t his strong suit.
Slowly, the champions shuffled toward our host, and I fell in behind them. Ares beckoned as they materialized from the veiled chambers throughout the ballroom. All twelve of the remaining champions fell into line forming a semicircle before Ares’ throne. I ended up standing between the CIA agent and the young woman Edna. I had no idea how she’d survived the barbarity of the morning’s challenge, but she was still here.
Hades stood beside his nephew, his eyes flitting around the circle. I looked up at him. The man was a giant, but unlike his brother Zeus who was thickset and looked like a Greco-Roman wrestler, Hades was lean, but exuded strength, albeit in a less raw, more refined sort of way.
“You do realize the one you seek may have already paid the price?” Hades asked. “I hope you didn’t waste my journey here.”
Ares nodded. “There’s always that chance, but I doubt it. I can almost smell the guilt from here. One of these champions violated my home and murdered another. They have no place here among their fellows.”
A tremor went up among us all as we realized what was happening. This wasn’t a celebration of our success; it was a tribunal presided over by Ares as judge, jury, and executioner. He was hunting for the morning’s killer. I knew it wasn’t me and yet I was still nervous.
Ares and Hades stood side by side, weighing our every move. It was impossible to remain calm. I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from shaking.
“Very well, I will help you this once, but don’t expect me to make this journey every time one of your guests gets themselves murdered. I have a job to do, and it doesn’t include helping you carry out your host rights,” Hades said, as he pushed up his sleeves.
“Yes, yes,” Ares replied. “The underworld will survive without you for a few moments. Please, Uncle, if you would be so kind.”
Hades let out a sigh and raised his hand, palm down toward the stone floor of the chamber. He closed his fist except for his index finger, and a green wisp appeared before him. He flicked his wrist and the wisp flattened into a disk and lowered itself to the floor. In its surface, I recognized the swirling maelstrom of the pit of souls. As the portal settled against the floor, the Lord of the Underworld took two quick steps toward the edge of the portal, crouched down beside it, and thrust in his hand.
When he withdrew it, a gasp squeezed its way past my lips. The Lord of the Underworld raised a shade from the rift. He held it by the nape of the neck, and I recognized the Lycan that had been unceremoniously dumped on the arena’s floor.
His body was gone, but his shade bore the same shape as his physical form he’d once had. Just as Helena had when she had tried to kill me.
Now I knew what Ares had planned. He’d had Hades locate the one witness to the murder that had taken place and brought him back to testify against his killer.
A cold shiver ran down my back. Not because I was guilty. Hell, I knew I hadn’t had the opportunity to do anything. I’d been unconscious, but someone in this room was about to pay the price for violating Ares’ laws.
That was when a disturbing thought settled into my mind. What if the shade chose me? I hadn’t done it, but that wasn’t to say he couldn’t lie. What if none of us had done it and the departed champion just felt like giving one of us a final screw you? What stopped the shade from simply choosing one of us out of spite?
Beside me, the other champions shifted uncomfortably. They didn’t look any more self-assured than I felt. I supposed they were having the same morose thoughts. What would happen if they were named?
“Spirit of Ulfang,” Hades called, “you have the rare privilege not granted to most beings. You will be the instrument of your own justice. My nephew would have you point to your killer. Tell us, who violated their guest rights and took your life?”
The spirit opened its eyes. They were cold and gray, not anywhere near as vibrant and lifelike as Helena had been. After a moment, they came into focus and searched the champions.
I met his eyes and didn’t waver. He moved on to Tadashii and the Japanese champion stared down the spirit resolutely. It seemed he too had little to fear. I wasn’t surprised. Such a move would have been out of character for the champion of Hachiman.
I wanted to believe I was safe, but I had my doubts. The underworld had done its level best to kick my teeth in this morning and I had an unsettled feeling in my gut that I just couldn’t shake. The spirit raised its hand in a slow sweeping motion from left to right. My heart skipped a beat as the finger hovered over me briefly before continuing. Around the circle it went until it rested on a champion.
The room erupted as the specter’s ethereal form pointed at Cora, champion of Eris, the mistress of discord.
“You’d have me believe this charade,” Eris shouted as she burst from a shelter at the edge of the ballroom. “You’ve always hated me, Hades, and this proves it. How many souls have I sent to your kingdom? Now you would take one of mine. You can’t have her.”
Ares held up his hand. “Silence!”
I looked at Cora in disbelief. Only moments ago, we’d been dancing through the hall together. She had been the first person to show me a shred of kindness. Was I to believe that underneath it all she was a cold-blooded killer? Had she been simply trying to get me to lower my defenses so she could do the same to me?
I looked at her, but her eyes were wide and full of fear. Either she was the greatest actor I’d ever met, or she was as surprised as the rest of us.
“Tell them, child,” Hades said. “You will soon be in my kingdom. Your mistress can do nothing for you there. Speak the truth in this moment, or forever pay the price of your treachery.”
Cora looked up at Ares and Hades. The pair towered over her. A tear formed at the corner of her eye, rolled down her smooth cheek, and fell from her chin.
“I don’t know what happened,” Cora whispered, but in the silence of the throne room her words were easily overheard. “One moment I was eating, the next I was standing over his body, blood all over my hands. I didn’t do this, I swear.”
“Nonsense,” Ares bellowed. “The creature bore the greatest chance of winning the trial, so you seduced and murdered him.”
“No,” Eris shouted, moving toward her champion. “I would never allow it. This charade is a lie.”
Cora wept but said nothing.
Something didn’t add up. I didn’t want to believe she was capable of such an act, but more importantly I wondered why she would risk breaking Ares’ laws. She was no stranger to the Areopagus. Why would she risk her life to eliminate a single competitor? It only barely increased her chances of winning and massively increased her chances of being caught. It made no sense.
Hades released the Lycan’s shade and cast him back through the portal. With a flick of his wrist, the portal vanished from sight, and the Lord of the Underworld looked at his nephew for a response.
Ares stood before his throne shaking with rage. His cheeks burned scarlet as he stared at Cora.
“Ares, no,” Eris called from the floor.
The mistress of discord pleaded with her brother as Ares descended from his throne. He covered the two steps it took to reach Cora so swiftly I had barely registered the motion. Before I could move a muscle, Ares’ short sword cleared its scabbard and he brought it up through the errant champion.
The force of the blow sent her broken body flying back onto the dance floor, landing at Eris’ feet.
My jaw dropped open, and I couldn’t move. My feet were rooted to the floor.
On either side of where Cora had stood, Alexa and Alexandros, champions of Zeus and Hera, stood unmoving. I could almost measure the pulse in their neck visibly. Though their exterior might have been cold and stony, the pair of them had just watched their compatriot die in the blink of an eye.
Ares raised his blood-soaked sword and pointed it at Eris. “Be gone, or you will share her fate.”
Eris looked down upon the broken body of her champion, blood pooling beneath her on the dance floor, and let out a shriek of pure rage. It was guttural, primal, and savage, but Ares didn’t even flinch.
He simply pointed his stained weapon at the door and said, “Now!”
Eris stormed from the chamber as a contingent of staff strode in and threw a white sheet over the fallen champion. The staff busied themselves cleaning the mess their master had made as Ares surveyed his guests. The message was clear: anyone who broke his laws would perish at his hand.
Ares passed his sword to a servant who returned a moment later with a new weapon.
Ares took it, slid it into the scabbard, and turned to face the crowd. “I apologize for the unpleasantness, but I assured you all of your safety while you’re in my home and I will not be mocked. Any other who lifts a hand to one of my guests, patron or champion alike, outside of the field of the challenge will meet their death. Deceit and treachery won’t help you here. Now, let us return to the festivities. Music, please!”
He clapped his hands and the sidhe musicians struck up a lively tune.
The door Eris had left through burst open, and a series of staff strode in bearing platters laden with food. The champions drifted apart in disbelief, and I stood and watched as the servants lifted Cora and carried her out of the chamber. Her master had used and discarded her like chattel. She was only here because she had been told to be, and now she was dead.
I considered my conversation with Zeus and Hera. Both of them had wanted me to act as their agent but I had just seen the proof of how the Olympians rewarded the mortals who acted on their behalf. No one had intervened to save the poor champion of Eris. While she had violated Ares law, it was far from a fair trial. She had seemed completely out of it, and she had paid the ultimate price for her mistress’s agenda.
Running my hands through my hair, I retreated to the corner of the room. The suddenness of it all was a little too much for me.
I had no true friends here, no support, no one to speak for me. Knight was happy to work with me as long as I served his purposes, but he didn’t care for me any more than Eris had for Cora. The other champions would kill me given the chance, and their patrons all had an agenda of their own. The inhumanity made me sick, but it was nothing compared to the loneliness I felt at that moment.
As I walked across the room, something clapped me on the back. I turned as the Section 9 agent, Clark Smith, put his arm around my shoulders.
“There, there, she was a pretty one, I’ll give you that, but devious just like the rest of them. Just think, you could have been next.”
“Leave me alone,” I replied, brushing his arm away.
“You were fond of her then,” Clark said with a snicker. “I’d heard you and agent Stiel were a thing, but I guess when you’re a billionaire, your attention span gets pretty short, huh?”
“Don’t pretend you know me. There is a difference between having empathy for another human being and wanting to get in their pants. It might be alien to you, but I can mourn the departed without betraying Lara’s trust. It’s called being human.”
“Lara, is it? You two must be very close. I don’t blame you. We had a lot of fun together at the Farm. Those memories will last me a lifetime.”
He was baiting me, and whether it was true or not, it didn’t matter. I might have wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but if I so much as laid a hand on him in front of Ares, I’d be the next to fall. Clark was just trying to get my goat and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
I made a shooing motion with one hand, turned my back on him, and walked away.
“You’re a coward. Always running,” he called after me.
I looked back over my shoulder and raised a hand. I conjured a ball of flames above it, watching as the swirling inferno reflected in Clark’s eyes before I clenched my fist, extinguishing the blaze.
“Not a coward,” I called back. “I just know better than to play with my food.”
He might have been an agent of the CIA, but I was a wizard. And in the scissors, paper, rock of the new world, magic beats asshole every time. Fear crept across his face, and I left him standing there in the middle of the floor.
I made my way through the room, brushing aside the thin veiled walls separating its many chambers. I wanted to find somewhere quiet. I needed to get my head right. I was all over the place. I had Clark trying to push my buttons, while the real threat, champions like the Reoánaighsidhe, were hunting for me. To add to the confusion, the Olympians seemed to be vying for my allegiance should I survive, and the fresh death of Cora weighed heavily on me.
I didn’t know why it was affecting me so much. I’d hardly known the woman but seeing her die like that only feet from me and being utterly helpless to do anything about it brought back a familiar pain. Perhaps it was because we had something in common. She had traded her allegiance to Eris for a prolonged life, probably before she realized what that life would entail. I’d come into life with a world of obligations that were not of my making and yet I had to live with them.
I just wanted to be free. Free to be with Lara and watch the light dance in her eyes as she studied an old relic. There was a wonder there that I just found adorable. She loved what I loved, and I loved her. How that love had ended with me being here was still something I was struggling to come to grips with.
I knew how I had gotten here, but if I’d really known the price I would pay for Knight’s favor, would I have chosen differently? Hell, Zeus would have given him the Oracle to get out of this. What did that say about my chances? There were a dozen powerful deities in this very room and all of them had the power to cure my curse. Hera had hinted as much. Maybe I’d simply been looking in the wrong place, but then again, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if I hadn’t been. Likely as I was to be murdered horribly, if I did survive, I had the potential to gain some powerful friends and I’d be closer to curing my curse than I ever had been.
I’d learned things in the temple of the Brujas de Sangre, from the Diviner, and from the Oracle herself. I was making real progress, provided I could survive long enough to put things together.
I considered leaving the ballroom and making my way back to my chamber. A good night’s rest would probably set me in good stead for the trial tomorrow. But somehow, I doubted I would be able to sleep.
A hand brushed aside the gauzy silk veil separating me from the dance floor and I drew my power around me. It never hurt to be prepared. I looked up to find the Valkyrie lingering at the curtain.
“Easy, Seth,” she said in a voice that was deeper than I had expected. “I mean you no harm and would be a fool to try anything given what we just witnessed.”
I unclenched my fists and let my power dissipate. She was right; only a fool would try anything here, but unlike most of the guests who had shed their battle attire for the ball, the Valkyrie still stood in her Norse battle leathers. She’d left her spear behind, but she carried a small hand axe on her belt. Beside her, I felt almost naked in my tux. Sartorial masterpiece that it might be, it would do precious little if the Valkyrie decided she wanted a piece of me after all.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She sat down at the table. “Want? Nothing, actually. I saw you and thought you could use some company. So could I.”
She raised a hand and a server hastened over with a tray laden with wine goblets. She lifted one, took a long gulp, and set it on the table before taking another and setting it down.
“Not exactly my beverage of choice,” she whispered, “but there is no accounting for taste. Greeks and their wines.”
Lifting the goblet to her lips she drained it too, before slamming the bronze goblet on the table.
“Wine though it may be, it’s not half bad,” she conceded. “Grab a seat. Surely your feet could use the rest.”
It was hard to argue. I was still tired from the morning’s excitement. I dropped heavily into the seat opposite her and reached for the second goblet, but she slapped my hand away.
“That’s mine too.”
I looked at her and couldn’t quite tell if she was kidding or not. I thought it best to play it safe, so I beckoned to the server. The Valkyrie burst out laughing.
“I’m only teasing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll need a few more but you could clearly use the drink,” she said as she slid the drink across the table to me.
Lifting it to my lips I had to agree. It really was excellent wine, smooth and well-aged. In the halls of Ares, who knew how old this vintage might be. The nectar of the gods, indeed.
I looked at my companion. “You would drink with me tonight, Valkyrie, and kill me tomorrow?”
She set her goblet down and met my gaze. “Call me Estrid, and yes, if that was why I was here.”
“What do you mean? That’s why we’re all here. Everyone enters, only one leaves, everybody else dies,” I replied. “Did you miss the memo?”
Estrid beckoned for another refill and as the server began to pour, she looked at me and shrugged. “Perhaps. Or perhaps not everyone here is playing Ares’ little game. Can’t you see the conversations and whispered voices all around you? Ares might have invited them here, but they brought themselves, and for many purposes. Alliances are being made, renewed, and re-forged. Others are being forsaken. Look at Eris. In times gone by, she rode into battle at Ares’ side. What would possess her to turn against him like this? He will not soon forgive this betrayal.”
I sat my empty goblet on the table and the server seized the opportunity to refill it. “It’s hard to say, and you would know far better than I. Before I woke up this morning, I had never met a god. Now, they are everywhere. My perception of how things are is evolving rapidly. To top it off, here I am drinking with a Valkyrie. I don’t like being ignorant, but you ask questions I have no answers to.”
She nodded, “Perhaps not yet, but for a child, you’ve done very well. You navigated the maze, faced many champions, and prevailed. Not a simple feat. I give you a better chance than most.”
What was she telling me? That I’d survive the trial? I wanted to believe her. The Valkyrie were choosers of the slain, after all. Did she know when I would die? Was she messing with me? It was hard to say. Perhaps she was trying to lull me into a false sense of security.
Estrid laughed out loud. “Relax, Seth, I can almost see the wheels turning in there. You are boxing with shadows. It must be difficult living with that much doubt and fear.”
I let out a sigh. “Occupational hazard I’m afraid, Estrid. A healthy sense of skepticism has kept me alive.”
“And I would keep it if I were you. It might save your life tomorrow,” she replied, her fingers beating a slow rhythm on the table.
“If you’re not here for the trial, what are you here for?” I asked, playing her game.
She looked around the room, her eyes flitting between the shapes that lay beyond the gauzy curtain.
“You’re a smart lad,” Estrid replied. “You tell me.”
The trial was a gathering of great champions. If the Valkyrie wasn’t intent on winning it, perhaps she was here at Odin’s direction. It made sense. Odin hadn’t bothered to attend, so clearly he wasn’t interested in the outcome, or at least not the prize. Perhaps she was here to do a job. Perhaps she’d been sent to choose the slain spirits that would return to his hall.
“You’re here for a champion,” I replied, looking her in the eye.
She smiled. “Very good. You’re learning quickly.”
“But how does that work? Surely if someone dies here in the realm of the Olympians, they go to the underworld and Hades’ domain, do they not?”
She nodded and raised the goblet to her lips, taking another sip. “Or they would, if they didn’t have a guide to take them elsewhere.”
“You’re stealing a soul from Hades? Bold.”
She shrugged. “Souls get waylaid all the time. The underworld is a big place, and he is a bored steward. I doubt he’ll even notice. But that same warrior can make all the difference when the time comes.”
I drained the rest of my goblet in a gulp. The Valkyrie were recruiting for something, and they were willing to brave Ares’ trial to do it. Who was she here for? Was it me? Or was it someone else? What would it be like to fight in the legendary ranks of the Einherjar? It was a strange thought.
A server appeared with a tray laden with food. He brought it over and offered it to us.
Estrid slapped the table, “Set it down, boy. We have much feasting to do.”
The server acquiesced and placed the platter on the table between us.
Estrid looked at me and gestured at the platter. “Eat, Seth. Enjoy; this will be our last night together.”