Then she kissed him hard, crumbled into dust, and simply blew away.
It took me a moment to find my voice. “Hephaestus,” I said finally, because I could think of nothing else. A streak of clay dust lay in my palm.
Remi, white-faced, looked at me, totally bewildered. “What?”
“In the Bible, it’s Eve. The first human woman. In Greek mythology, it’s Pandora. Hephaestus made her, on Zeus’s order, out of earth and water. She was so perfect the Olympian gods gave her many gifts, among them a box. Jar. She was expressly told never to open it.”
Remi nodded slowly. He still looked stunned. “Told never to eat the apple.”
“Pandora opened the jar.”
“Eve ate the apple.”
I looked into the jug. Then I stoppered it with the cork, thumped it tight with the heel of my hand. “We will have to go after all the evils she let loose, which of course was her plan. In our copious spare time when we’re not killing demons.”
“All the evils I let loose.”
“But hope remains.” I patted the stopper. “In the tale, Pandora closed the jar before hope could escape. I just did the same.”
He stared at the jug, then lifted his eyes to mine. And hope wasn’t just in the jar. It lived in Remi, too.
I poured whiskey, tequila, admonished his burgeoning refusal with a scowl, and when he raised his glass I tapped mine against it. “Hope is all we need.” I paused with the glass halfway to my lips. “Well, that and John Denver.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Readers well-versed in mythology, folklore, religions, and various cultures will notice I have cherry-picked specific details in service to the story I want to tell, while I have altered others. Those with questions may seek out the original texts, tales, and resources.
The dog who takes out Cerberus was inspired by a pit bull who became dear to many of us. He literally threw himself into a friend’s life by running down the middle of the street heading for a collision with her VW bug. (The car would have lost.) She took him home to work up Found Dog posters and make some shelter calls.
Two hours later, as a man tried to break into the home, the pittie ran him off in defense of five female college students. When his owner never came forward, my friend adopted the dog. So began a two-and-a-half-year journey with Peter Pittie of Instagram and Facebook fame, as his exploits entertained us all. His loss to cancer still saddens all of his vast human family.
I have a love/hate relationship with computers (mostly a severe hate relationship), and thus I must thank Brian Gross for backing me up on what little techspeak is included. And while I have over 40 years of serious dog experience behind me, I nonetheless called on fellow Cardigan Welsh Corgi breeder Dr. Barbara Merickel, a veterinarian, to, well, vet my canine first aid.
While I have never been a bullrider, I had horses and knew cowboys back in the day, and used to attend a lot of rodeos. (And cowboy bars.) I took great pleasure in merging the legend of the Minotaur with Remi’s modern-day bullriding.
The lava cave and tubes are real, and just outside of Flagstaff, though not where I placed them in the book. Check out Lava River Cave on Google to see amazing photos. There is an ice cave in Sunset Crater National Monument, but it is closed.
As for the bull, I did not make up the sound effects. Just Google “angry bull sounds.”
Next in the pipeline is Sword-Bearer, Volume 8 in the Sword-Dancer saga, followed by the further adventures of Gabe and Remi in Volume 3 in the Blood & Bone series.
I may be reached via my website at www.jennifer-roberson.net; my e-mail at [email protected], as well as Facebook, where I am extremely active, and Twitter.
Life and Limb, Vol 1 of the Blood & Bone series, is available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook formats.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Roberson is the author of the Sword-Dancer Saga and the Chronicles of the Cheysuli, and collaborated with Melanie Rawn and Kate Elliott on the historical fantasy The Golden Key, a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. She has also published three historical novels, and several in other genres.
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