“To go?” Was she serious? “To the ends of the earth.”
“We haven’t much time. My father grows impatient. They still live, but only out of his respect for Chiron do they breathe.”Athena motioned for me to get to my feet. Carlos leapt up from the floor as she smiled and shook her head at him. “Where we go is no place for you.”
“She is my charge, goddess.”
Athena smiled, “You believe she is safer in your care than mine?”
“No, goddess, but I am her enforcer. I go where she goes.”
Athena disagreed, “Not this time. She will be safe with me.”
I desperately wanted to know what we would be up against, “Do Ate and Eris know that you protect me?”
“They have tried through the years to interfere in your life, but have not had success. Both are focused elsewhere at the moment.”
“Elsewhere?”
Her mouth formed a grimace when she spoke. “Cameron and Angelo are together. Ate and Eris are guiding the two.”
“Are they hurting Cameron?”
“No. They are merely influencing the two.”
“Influencing them? To do what?”
“To bring forth your demise, of course. Both have a thirst for power that has yet to be quenched. Their jealousy blinds them both, each resenting a sister who was beloved by all who knew her.”
Cameron wanted to bring my demise? He hardly knew me. I hated Angelo and hoped he'd choke on his own pride, but Cameron had been thrust into this with nothing. A question had bothered me for weeks; Athena may know the truth. “Why did Mom hide Cameron? Why did she leave him in South Dakota with a human guardian and never check on him again?”
Athena shook her head. “Angela never abandoned him, at least not the way you think.”
Chapter 19
(Camille Nash – Daniel’s Room, Lost City Resort, South Africa)
Athena motioned for the others to get off the floor and gestured for us to take a seat on the sofa. “When Angela found out she was pregnant, she sought help from the only Centaur she knew she could trust not to betray her to Zandra.”
“Gage’s dad?”
“No, she found your uncle Zethus in Thessaly. Zethus urged your mother to come out of hiding, but when Angela told him how she had conceived with a married Centaur, Zethus believed the Tak herd might be involved.”
“How would he have jumped to that conclusion? Didn’t everyone think the Tak line was already dead?”
“The Tak herd was the only family who was not subject to Zeus’s laws. They were the only herd who could lead their lives much like humans. Zethus came to this conclusion quickly because he had lived his entire life in Thessaly. Because Centaurs dispersed around the world, many had long since forgotten about the plight of the Tak Herd. Because Centaur history surrounded Zethus, he believed there was a chance the herd had survived.”
“Was she worried that Zethus would report her because she had conceived Cameron and me with a Centaur from the Tak herd?”
“I cannot say if she worried about this, but he never did. He did tell your mother of a curse he believed had been levied on the Chiron Centaurides. He never learned who Chiron's enemy was, or which god or goddess levied it, but Zethus told your mother that for as long as anyone could remember, all twins born of the Chiron Centauride would be good and evil. He believed if the two of you could be separated at birth until you were both adults, she could break the curse.”
“What?”
“Zethus had done a significant amount of research on his family and was convinced that every set of twins born of the Chiron Centauride ended up this way. In his research, he had found only one exception: a case where the twins were raised separately. Zethus urged your mother to seek a protector for one of the babies who could not be corrupted by the Centaur Council, the Heads of Herds, nor the Chairman. Zethus showed Angela Chiron’s arrow and said he would give it to the guardian she selected. The arrow ensured that Chiron would protect the child she was unable to protect herself.”
“So who was Roger? How did Mom know him?”
“Roger was a Lapith. He was a descendant of Lila and Rupert.”
“Wait, Lila and Rupert?” Katherine had told me the story in Cancun. Her words echoed in my mind, “My great-grandmother told me that Rupert and Lila had ten children. Five considered themselves Centaurs and five Lapiths.”
Athena affirmed, “Yes.”
“So Cameron’s guardian Roger and Katherine are related?”
“Distant cousins. Katherine and Roger shared the same great-grandmother. She told them both the same stories as children. If called upon, they were to protect the Lost Herd without question. It was a promise made to me by Lila when I agreed to give Rupert a human form.”
“But how did Zethus know about the promise Lila made to you?”
“He didn’t. Somehow, through the years, one of my arachnid lockets came into Zethus’ possession. He did not know that I appointed myself protector of the Lost Herd. Zethus only knew that my locket had protected his family from Zandra and surmised she should ask for my help. When your mother prayed to me for help, I sent Roger to your mother.”
“So she didn’t abandon Cameron?”
Athena’s complexion grew more radiant as she spoke. “No. Angela never abandoned Cameron. On the contrary, she placed him in the care of a Lapith who was bound by a lifelong promise to me. Chiron’s magic safeguarded him, as well. She intended to go to Cameron on your eighteenth birthday and tell him everything. Unfortunately, fate doesn’t deal the cards we plan. The cancer had spread through her body by then.”
My heart sank, “Wait, she didn’t have cancer when Cameron and I turned eighteen. She didn’t find out she had it until a few months before she died.”
Athena shook her head slowly, “No, Camille, you didn’t find out about her cancer until a few months before she died. She had hidden things from you her whole life. Her illness was just another secret she kept from you. When no treatment or prayer worked, and she accepted that the pasture called to her, she told you about the cancer.”
“Why didn’t she tell me about Cameron? Why did she keep so much from me? Did she think I wouldn’t be strong enough?”
Athena pondered this a moment, “I wish I had a better answer for you. She wanted to give you the choices she had never had in life. She was proud of who you had become, and I think her final dying wish was for you to live the life you wanted to live – whether that be as a Centauride or a human. She did not prepare you as well as she could have, but I believe it was because she didn’t want to sway you one way or the other. She knew I watched over you, just as she knew Chiron watched over Cameron.”
“So you were watching over me every day?”
Her warm smile grew, “Every day. I tried not to interfere with your choices. I knew how strongly Angela felt about you making your own life, but after her death I’m afraid I did interfere a little more than I should have.”
I thought back to those few months. I had been devastated after Mom died, only leaving the apartment when Daniel pried me off the sofa or when I had to work. “When?”
“It was the day you decided to call your father. You had almost talked yourself out of calling him, do you remember?”
I did. I had had his phone number for weeks, but did not have a clue what to say to him. “I remember.”
“It was I who whispered in your ear to go through your mother's things in her closet. I had placed the key in the locked wooden box you found there.”
My memory drifted back to that day. I had tried to dial William, but chickened out initially. An idea to clean out Mom’s closet came from out of the blue. Tucked in the far back corner of her closet, on a shelf, was a wooden box with the key inserted into the lock. I believed Mom had left it that way. When I opened it, the box held old movie ticket stubs, an airline ticket, a crumpled up photograph of my mom holding two babies, and a tourist shot glass from the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota.
I
returned the box to her closet and found the courage to phone Will. Things happened so quickly I had forgotten about the box. “You wanted me to find Cameron?”
“Well, yes, but even the best detective couldn’t have put that together from the few things you found in the wooden box. The wooden box had a false bottom that you did not discover. Inside it was your mother’s diary. Maybe one day you’ll return home and find the answers you seek in it.”
My heart swelled. I had read Mom’s diary from when she grew up at Zandra’s house. If she kept one after she fled to California, it would be something both Cameron and I could find answers in. “Where is Cameron now?”
“He is in less danger than Zandra and Drake. We can help Cameron best by going to your grandmother and husband.”
“You know where they are?”
A brilliant smile radiated back at me, “It is time my father knows the truth. It is time his vengeance be directed where it belongs. I’ll take you to them.”
Athena held out her palm to me. I gave a look toward Carlos, Jessica and Daniel. Daniel nodded his head, encouraging me to go with her. When our hands clasped, a bright flash of light engulfed me. It was as if I could feel my body being boiled down to the atoms it was composed of – as if my form were gone, and I was nothing more than a dust mote in the sunlight. I saw nothing but the blinding light surrounded me. I could have been in this state for three seconds, three minutes or three hours – time had no meaning. Space lost meaning, too. I wasn’t scared; for the first time in months – I feared nothing. Could I be feeling her immortality?
A rush of excruciating pain zapped through my body, as if every atom were regenerated and on fire. Then, my feet touched rocky earth, the light dissipated, and I was aware that I no longer held Athena’s hand. I recognized the towering metal bars from Quinton’s memory that stood tall around us. My eyes scanned in all directions. A cerulean blue sky wrapped itself around the mountain. The valleys below were lush and green, teeming with the sounds of animals screaming up to the heavens. Inside the metal bars was a rocky flat surface about the size of two basketball courts. Large boulders protruded from the earth, and piles of gravel were sprinkled haphazardly around the area. No plants grew, but one lonely tree stood inside the cage.
There, on the ground ten feet away, lay Drake. I could see the slight rise and fall of his chest. He was in his warrior form, and I could just make out Zandra crouched on the ground behind him. Without giving a thought to my surroundings, I ran to them – skidding on the ground, creating a small cloud of dust in my wake.
My hands took Drake’s face, lifting it off the ground. His eyes were unfocused as I looked into the crystal blue. “I’m here. Drake, I’m right here.”
His voice was weak, but a pained smile formed at his lips, “I’ll be waiting in the pasture, wife.”
“Like hell you will! Don’t you dare leave me!” The distance in his eyes remained unchanged as I felt his neck go limp in my arms. “Drake! Dammit, Drake!! Wake up! Look at me!!”
I shook him, my eyes fixed on his. His body felt cool. He was always so warm, as if strength emanated from him inside out. He was fading in front of me. I begged, “Drake, don’t go. Please don’t go.”
Zandra’s voice answered my pleas, “Your warrior sacrificed himself for me.” I cradled Drake’s head in my arms as I took in his body for the first time. Seared flesh still smoked on his body, a gaping hole belched blood as I felt bile rise from my stomach at the sight. Zandra added, “Zeus aimed in on me, but Drake dove in front of the lightning strike.”
A thundering voice echoed all around us. “Stand aside, young Chiron. I have unfinished business with the old nag.”
Chapter 20
(Camille Nash – Mountain top somewhere in the world)
I gently rested Drake’s head on the ground, pushed myself up to a standing position, and turned toward the voice. Hovering in the air, a stone’s throw away from us was Zeus. He wore a full beard; his forehead was wrinkled from the glare he held for Zandra. His body was draped in a long billowy white toga while a crimson cape lay over his shoulders dancing in the breeze and he was enormous. Unlike Athena who materialized out of nowhere in a helmet carrying a sword and a shield, Zeus wore only the clothes and sandals on his feet.
He continued glaring at Zandra, paying me no attention at all. I stood tall in front of the father of the gods and held my ground, “No. I’ll not stand aside.”
My words must have been unexpected because he balked, “You request the same fate given to the warrior at your feet?” The hair on my arms drew to attention.
“My fate is tied to his already. If now is the time for us to leave for the pasture, we will go together.”
Zandra stepped around Drake and shouted at Zeus, “How dare you be duped and blame my kind!”
His roaring voice boomed, “I will strike you down where you stand!”
After everything we had been through, I didn’t want to see one more death, not even Zandra’s. I bowed my head to the figure still hovering in the sky and declared, “You could. It would be another innocent death on your hands.” My eyes fluttered around our prison high atop a mountain. Death surrounded me. Tiny fragments of splintered trees had become eerie piles of mulch. The bodies of the enforcers, who had sacrificed themselves just like Quinton’s memory showed, still lay on the ground. Zandra was disheveled, her snowy white hair in awkward tangles matted around her face.
Drake lay still, blood pouring out of his flesh. “Stay with me Drake. Hold on,” I begged.
Zeus slowly lowered his body to the ground, turning his head to the side as if studying me. “I know of your lineage, young Chiron. You have come to ask that I spare your herd.”
“No.” My words were cautious and calculated, “I have come to collect my husband and grandmother.”
Zeus sounded annoyed, “You do not ask for my clemency?”
“I do not.” My back arched. Drake didn’t have much longer; he couldn’t wait for me to placate Zeus. “My Chairman has already given clemency to the Lost Herd. All Centaurs are uniting. Your decree was the result of a human who was tricked by a Centauride –but that was the greatest deception of all.”
His words roared over the mountain top, “I was not deceived.”
Athena took her place a few yards in front of me, her voice absent of any defiance. Instead it was quiet and respectful, “No, father, this Centauride speaks the truth.”
“Athena?! What are you doing here?” Zeus looked confused, “You’ve brought her to me as a sacrifice?”
In the same steady voice she used before, “No. Camille is the rightful leader of all Centaurs. She is pure of heart and pure of blood. I brought her here to meet you.”
“In her veins flows the blood of Rupert. My decree was clear. Her blood carries his poison in it.”
Athena looked directly at her father, her shield raised, “She has much to say. I urge you to listen.”
Zeus flicked his wrist as Athena tumbled end over end into the enormous bars on our left. Her shield clanged hard against the metal. She righted herself with her spear drawn forward. Zeus warned, “Stay put, daughter. This does not concern you.”
Zeus raised one finger in Athena’s direction. She struggled against an invisible force holding her in place. Zeus turned his attention back to us. I slid Zandra behind my back as I stole a glance at Drake still bleeding profusely. “Drake, a few more minutes. I need you to hold on a few more minutes, okay?” He still didn’t respond. Was I wasting the last few minutes of his life arguing over something that had happened more than a millennia ago?
“Young Chiron, move aside. I’ll not ask again.”
Athena still struggled against an invisible force tethering her in place. Zeus’s glare fell on me. I braced as I expected his other wrist to throw me out of his way, the same as he had done with Athena. A loud CRACK boomed over the mountain top.
An ancient looking Centaur Warrior appeared in front of me. He was handsome in a grandfatherly way. His
white hair was long and flowing, the horse portion of his body was white as the new fallen snow, and his skin bore the same immortal radiance as Athena. “Do not treat my daughter as you have your own, old friend.”
Zeus’s voice was still loud, but the arrogance was gone, “Chiron? Chiron, you stand against me?”
“Of course not.”
“Stand aside. The old woman has challenged my authority. The pasture calls her.”
“Both Centaurides are my daughters. You won’t extend them the same courtesy you have extended to me?”
Zeus’s eyes grew angry, “Placing them in the heavens?”
“No, your grace. The courtesy I refer to is that you listened to me when I had theories. Young Camille has information you will find interesting. Neither seeks immortality, merely a life free of persecution for actions they had nothing to do with.” Chiron turned away from Zeus, motioning for me to move forward.
“Stand fast!” Zeus was past annoyed and now glancing between Athena and Chiron, he told them, “I never would have expected the two of you to stand against me.”
Chiron blocked Zandra and me with his body. Another goddess appeared in front of Chiron. She was more beautiful and dazzling than any woman I had ever laid my eyes on. It was as if love beamed from her skin. She resembled Bianca, hair the color of honeysuckle, eyes the color of the sky, a seduction in her stance. “None of us stand against you. We ask that you listen before a hasty decision is made.”
Zeus’s bewildered voice responded, “Aphrodite? Why are you here?”
“The Centaur are a noble race, born of a god and a majestic beast. The Centaur have an impressive capacity to love, and a horrific capacity to hate. They are a curious race, and I am a steward of your universe.”
“Stand aside, Aphrodite. I will deal with your curiosity later.” Zeus flicked his wrist in an effort to fling Aphrodite out of the way. When he did, Athena sprung forward with her shield raised.
Centaur Redemption (Touched Series) Page 19