I let him, reminded of Lukas' warning not to aggravate him too much. He was immensely strong, and he smelled divinely, even more enticing than Lukas.
When he put me down again, Paul was next to me, and all the better for I nearly swooned.
I, Melissa Kenwick, rational woman of a modern age, nearly swooned. I tried not to show the humiliation and anger I felt, keeping my face bemused.
Now our unwanted visitor addressed us in a ringing voice: 'Congratulations on your wedding, may you live long and in prosperity, Paul and Melissa. I owe you great thanks for taking in and caring for my precious son when he was taken from me.
And now he has seen you safely married, he can come home with me, to his own people, where he belongs. My dear boy, let me look at you!'
This last was spoken directly to Lukas, who was standing right beside me now, in defiance, supported by the independent attitude of all his friends. He could tell they would act on his behalf whenever he needed the help, and they were a formidable set.
I truly thought I saw from a corner of my eye how George quietly mingled with his guests, directing the mundanes to a safer place, and forming a line of impressive mage-power between them and the god Hermes.
Paul's mother and father were there as well, and a little to the side stood my dad, flanked by my sisters. My sisters! Their children were at a safe distance, minded by the older children, excepting Bertha and Lucy, who were watching in fascination how everyone seemed tense and ready for battle.
Lukas stood rock solid as his father, the thought of whom had him reduced to a quivering wreck only this morning, gave him a critical once-over.
Hermes stared at his curly head, and said: 'Hmm, this will not do, it will not do at all,' and with that he reached out for Lukas' head, touched his horn stumps with both hands, and within a second Lukas had a full set of curved horns again.
The silver caps fell to the ground without a sound, and Paul casually picked them up and pocketed them.
Lukas was not so remiss about it, as he felt the weight on his head again, he felt at the horns and said angrily: 'How dare you, have you any idea how much pain it cost me to have those removed?'
Coaxingly, Hermes spoke at his son: 'But you'll need them back home, people will talk if you have no horns. Where did your Gift go, I have seen you with a clear, very strong Gift! We need you at home, son, we need your Gift badly.'
'All lies, father, as ever. Gift or no Gift, I'm not coming home with you, never. I've found a new life here, with people who really love me, for myself, not for whatever Gift you might have forced on me,' Lukas was trembling with rage now, a very weird thing to behold, for I had never seen him angry before.
Combined with the horns, the snarling expression made for a ferocious image, and I felt some real admiration for my goat-man, conquering his fear to stand up to his father.
I could feel the call to worship emanating from Hermes, clearly he expected to be able to spell Lukas into obedience, apparently used to treating his subjects and children with condescension. Lukas showed no sign of falling under the glamour anymore, he kept staring his defiance at his father, and slowly I saw him light up slightly through my dad's shield.
He was using magic, but how? I watched him with sight and saw Paul offering him a link to his power-supply.
I think Paul knew what Lukas was going to do, for he grabbed his shoulders just in time, as with a grimace of pain Lukas took hold of one horn first, and broke it off below his curls, then the other. He was clearly in agony, without Paul's help he would surely have fallen, but as it was he was hornless again within five minutes.
Paul held him until he could stand again, and undoubtedly remembering the first time he had been through this procedure, very gently parted his curls to check if the stumps weren't bleeding. When he was done, he roughed Lukas'
hair and said in a clear voice: 'Nice job, Lukas. Better than the first time.'
By now Lukas could stand alone again, his glow faded, and he defied his father once more.
But Hermes was a god and used to get his way, so he said: 'You do indeed have a valuable Gift, my boy, our people will be so happy to see you back. '
And to Paul: 'You have taught him well, he seems to have more loyalty now than in all his previous fifty years in my realm. That is good, he'll be able to make an advantageous marriage finally.'
Lukas spoke coldly and very clearly now: 'I am not coming with you father.'
Still Hermes didn't give up, and he advanced on me once more: 'My dear girl, can't you convince him to come with me?
You can come too, and you can live together in my palace by the sea. Now I felt his power trying to overwhelm me again, and it was really, really strong.
He seemed to look at me with intense longing, and the remembrance of those heated nights with him stirred a passion in me, a passion to be once again taken on flights, to be admired by a god, and a stunningly handsome god at that.
Poor Lukas wasn't even part of what was promised to me by the hungry gaze of this man, for in his lust he was clearly very human, he wanted me for himself.
But as soon as I felt a slight touch on my mind from two sources, and the incredible love behind both those touches, the passion turned into that dirty feeling again, and I didn't even have to struggle to free myself from his compulsion.
Realizing that flattery wasn't going to do the trick, Hermes now changed tactics.
His voice became less honeyed as he said: 'You are still my son and you have a duty to me and your people. You will come with me of your own free will, or I will drag you home with me, in iron chains if needed.
And if I need to do that, you will not live in a palace, married to a luscious maid, but chained in a chamber until your Gift is needed.'
This did frighten Lukas, he had defied his father so far, but could he defy these horrible threats? I did see all the mages present ready themselves for a confrontation, and this prompted me to ready myself as well, reaching out for the ley-line at last.
Paul had one hand in his belt, I guess he had taken the gun with him despite his trust in the seal. Lukas waited until he had control over his voice again and said: 'I am not coming with you father, and you cannot take me.'
At this remark, Hermes laughed scathingly, and spoke icily: 'And who is going to stop me from taking you, son, your puny human friends? Do you think their magic can stop a god?'
At this moment, my father stepped forward, all alone, and he cleared his throat loudly.
Hermes turned around to see who was making the noise, and my father spoke: 'I beg your pardon, Sir Hermes, I was the one who broke the seal on your portal, which you couldn't break yourself.
I decided to give you a chance to see your boy once more, and I was supported in this by Paul, who thought it necessary that Lukas face his fear of you lest it destroy his joy in life.
I have seen enough now, you're not the father the boy needs or deserves, and I think it is time for you to leave.
Mind you, I would not have released you if I didn't have the power to reverse my decision to open the portal for you. So I entreat you, let the boy be, or we will stop you.'
The god clearly couldn't believe his ears. I supposed he had never been spoken to this way, his people always obeyed him, and now we had not only spoiled his son but defied him ourselves.
His angelic face became livid with anger, his beautiful features distorted.
His booming voice cried out in anger: 'You shall all taste my wrath, for I will summon the hound of Hell to devour you all, women, children, all of you.'
I could see him summoning his energy, and he lighted up as a bolt of lightning fires up the sky.
He did not reach for the node or even a ley-line, I guessed he must have had an incredible amount of power himself.
He made a rather theatrical gesture at the ground between himself and the line of mages, and they all lighted up with their own gathering of power.
Some dry part of my mind commented that Hermes' way
of using magic was as unsubtle and overacted as the dreams he sent me, and I am sure it was me commenting this time, not the elves.
The gesture completed, an enormous boom followed, and where he directed
his power, a two headed dog indeed appeared in the grass.
In one moment, all the mages released their accumulated power, back to their reserves.
The next, we all heard two squeals of delight, as Bertha and Lucy threw themselves on the cutest puppy they had ever seen.
Sure, it had two heads, but this creature was not going to devour us all, unless it was going to lick us all to death. The two girls scratched the floppy ears, one pair for each girl, and in delight the sweet creature fell over on its back and let them tickle its stomach in total surrender, making scratching movements with one little hind leg as they stroked that funny spot on its chest.
It was such a touching sight, the two little tongues licking everywhere, Lucy, the severely traumatised girl, in ecstasy over the hound of Hell, that it took a while before anyone thought of checking on our mutual enemy.
Chapter 50
Lukas was with him first, he knelt beside the still shape lying in the grass, checking his vitals.
I knelt beside him, and Paul on his other side. It was very clear that Hermes was in a very bad state, barely holding on to life.
Lukas looked at Paul in an agony of indecision, and asked: 'Can a god die?
Must I now save my own father, so he can threaten me again and again?'
My dad was standing very close, and answered Lukas' questions: 'Yes to your first question, young Lukas, your father can die here.
And as for the other question, you will answer that yourself: can you let your father die, despite what he has done to you?'
With tears in his eyes, Lukas admitted: 'I cannot. What is he suffering from?'
My father told him: 'He has the worst case of reaction sickness ever recorded in the history of magic.
He used magic on a world not his own. A god has near unlimited power, because he can use the life-force of his worshipers to do magic.
In your world, Hermes has an incredible number of worshipers, so he is used to having all the power he could ever need.
Here, he had only the power in his own body, which was still a lot. Had he used it to throw fireballs at us, or another direct magical attack, we would have been hard-pressed, some of us might even have been wounded or killed in the battle.
But he went for theatricals instead, calling the hound of Hell to this world.
Have you any idea how hard that is?
It used up all his personal power, and then most of his life-force as well, leaving him as close to death as a god can come. And of course, his creation had too little power to be dangerous, it turned out a harmless version of nightmare he set out to create.
What you need to do is give him back enough power to live, but not enough to start throwing fireballs again. An experienced mage should do this, Melissa might give him too much and make him dangerous again.
And remember, sharing power creates a strong bond, so the person feeding him power should be able to withstand the seductive intimacy of the sharing of power, and that will not be easy since he is a god, and a very attractive young man to look at.'
That ruled me out twice, I was not going to risk bringing him back to full power again, if I could even get hold of so much power, and I would certainly not risk falling in love with him, or having him fall in love with me.
Lukas said: 'George, we need George. And will one of you anchor us?' This at us. Paul offered: 'We both will, he is so powerful, his mind will be so vast, we will need all the support we can get. Melissa found you in the maelstrom, she's better at seeing things, and I have more experience and more power.'
By now, George had arrived, and the four of us sat close together around the still shape in the grass. Paul and I sat on one side of Lukas, George on the other, and as we anchored Lukas firmly into the now, George tapped into the ley-line and connected to his mind.
I went along with Lukas, to help him with his task, and where necessary show him the way back, and I could see him use the power George fed him to to fill up the empty satchels where his father's personal power had been.
They seemed like so many bottomless pits, and when George had drained the ley-line he called it quits and took us with him into the now.
He said: 'This should be enough to keep him alive, but you still need to repair the damage that was done when his life-force was drained to be used as magical power.
So now Lukas went in again, this time with George taking power carefully from the node and feeding it to him, and Lukas activated his talent.
I couldn't go with him this time, but I could see the body before me reviving, gaining colour, little spasms activating his muscles from his extremities to his hands and feet, then to his arms and legs, and finally to his torso.
Then I felt Lukas break the connection, and he toppled over into our arms.
Paul and I held him close to us, incredibly proud of him, having defied his father through awful threats, then have the compassion to heal him.
George was none the worse for wear, and he proceeded to try and wake up Hermes with one of those bottles of herbs that Frances had brought. She had also brought a whole pot of the special tea, and we all enjoyed a cup.
The smell of the bottle did indeed revive the still shape, he did not have the strength to sit up, but he was awake and aware, though something seemed to
bother him. Well, I could imagine that quite easily, I guessed he had planned this day a lot differently.
George was sitting next to Hermes, and the stricken god looked first at him in wonderment and quite a bit of need, then at Lukas, still out cold in our arms.
Hermes was very weak, but he tried to speak. Nothing understandable came out of his mouth. George stroked his short hair, so different from Lukas'
rough curls, and his angelic face.
I could still remember what it looked like in the throes of rage, but the memory didn't frighten me. It made me pity him, to have so much power, and so little love.
Under George's gentle ministrations, the god on his lawn accepted he was too weak to speak yet, and he surrendered to the loving touch of the handsome mage. Meanwhile, Lukas started to stir as well, and he revived a lot quicker.
Soon, he sat up against us, and drank his own cup of restorative tea, which brought him to his usual state of exhilaration after a successful healing. He wanted to be kissed by both of us, and we eagerly did.
After that he told Paul: 'You promised to dance with me tonight, will there still be a party?' Paul kissed him again and stroked his rough hair, and replied: 'If anyone deserves a party today, it's you Lukas. I'm so proud of you, you faced your fears today, and you did it with pride.'
Lukas laughed delightedly and laid down on our laps again, this time facing his father, who had been watching our interaction silently, looking up at George whenever he stopped stroking him.
I could see no anger or fear in him, he looked just totally exhausted, and still bothered by that other something, which I suddenly realized was not humiliation, but ordinary pain.
I asked him: 'Do you have a headache?' and got an almost desperate look of incomprehension. Lukas now repeated my question in Greek, and Hermes very slowly nodded in reply, his face showing his pain clearly now, as if he finally understood that the unknown unpleasant sensation he experienced was pain.
George helped him to sit up a little, and held a cup of cooled restorative tea to his lips. After a few sips of that magical stuff he started to look a little better, and he closed his eyes in relief for a few moments.
When he opened his eyes again, there were tears in them, and from that moment on I felt kind of sorry for him, a god brought so low by his own folly
and hubris. Frances now came to ask: 'Shall we continue the party? The guest have been calmed down and are ready for some good food and a little dancing.'
George looked at us, and we said: 'Yes, please,' simultaneously. Lukas looked positively relieved and eager to share in the revel. He observed: 'You should join your guests, I'll keep and eye on my dad, will you stay too, George?'
George said: 'If you want me to, Lukas, I will. They can party without me, Frances has everything in hand.'
Hermes looked up at George when he heard his voice, still unable to speak, and George resumed his caresses as he said: 'Shall we move our guest to a somewhat more comfortable place, where he can sleep a little?' They carried the motionless man to an easy long-chair on the edge of the lawn, beneath a large tree, a lovely spot, where they could sit in relative quiet and still see the party going on.
When my father offered to stay with them as well, I decided it was time we mingled with the guests, turn this weird occasion back into the party it was meant to be.
We led the first dance of course, Paul and me, but neither of us felt very comfortable partying with Lukas watching over his father after hearing him threaten our friend with everything Lukas feared, and worse.
During our dance, we discussed what was to be done, and after the dance, when the floor was filled with couples, even Paul's parents were dancing, and Marcus led one of my sisters very elegantly, we put our plan into action. I circulated amongst our guests, talking to my mum first, as Paul fetched Lukas for their promised dance.
Of course George and my dad wouldn't mind watching Hermes, who would probably be asleep by now, after such an ordeal. After an hour I would return to Hermes with Lukas, and Paul would entertain our guests.
Lukas would not be left without one of us, it was understandable he wanted to stay with his father and patient, but not with us partying as if he didn't exist.
As I was talking to my mum I saw Paul step on to the dance-floor with Lukas. I said: 'Mum, could we just watch them for a while?'
She looked at me and replied: 'Sure love, if it is not painful to you?
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