“Your men will come looking for you and negotiate to get you free.” From her position near the throne, Eos answered for her father. The Titaness was dressed in a peach-colored silken gown, fit for the princess. Her true form wasn’t much different from the one she’d had as a statue, if somewhat taller.
Okay, a lot taller, like twice the size of Nina. All of the Titans lived up to their names, giants compared to the smaller Olympians. Eos could probably squash Aphrodite and Nina like bugs…if they had any substance to squash.
Near Eos stood Aster, who she now knew as Astraios, dressed as the captain of the guard. From the scowls the Titan king was giving both Eos and Astraios, he probably knew about the pair’s relationship and wasn’t too happy about it.
Nina wondered how that could help Aphrodite and herself, but the only thing she could think of was that if Hyperion learned that his daughter and his captain of the guard had been sexually involved because of her screenplay, she might have even less time left to exist than she did now.
Oblivious to Nina’s thoughts, Eos continued on. “Once we get what we want, access to the worlds of the gods and the humans, we will give you the freedom to return to your bodies back on Olympus.”
Nina shuddered at the thought of the Titans free to visit either Earth or the realm of Olympus. While she was too young to have any direct experience with them, from everything she’d heard the forerunners to the gods were uncivilized barbarians who’d nearly destroyed the world before the Olympians had locked them up for everyone’s sake.
Of course, she had to admit that Dawn and Aster—that is, Eos and Astraios—had been very well behaved when they’d been in her home. If all Titans behaved the way those two did, she didn’t see why they couldn’t be free. After all, it had been so long ago when the Titans had ruled things and they had seemed to have learned from their mistakes. One couldn’t hold the past against someone forever, particularly when they’d shown good faith in their actions.
Not unlike certain hairy-legged gods…
Nina put her hand over her mouth to keep a gasp from escaping. Unfortunately since neither her hand nor mouth was solid the gasp happened anyway and everyone in the room turned to stare at her.
She tried to shrug nonchalantly. “I just thought of something.” At their continued stares, she said the first thing she could think of. “I was just wondering if I left the coffeemaker on back home.”
Eos frowned, Astraios scowled, and the rest of the Titans shook their heads and turned away, but Aphrodite leaned closer. “What is it, Nina? Have you thought of a way for us to escape?”
“No, not that,” she replied. It wasn’t escape she was thinking of. Her thoughts about the Titans had reminded her of Pan. Wasn’t it possible that if the Titans could turn over a new leaf that Pan could as well? Was she too quick to judge him based on the past when he’d given her no reason to doubt him since they’d been together?
“Aphrodite, do you think it’s possible for a man to change? I mean really change?”
The goddess smiled faintly. “I see you’re still thinking about Pan. Well, I want you to ask that question of yourself. Have you changed since coming to love Pan?”
“I don’t love him…” she started to say, but Aphrodite’s knowing smile shut her up. Nina sighed. How had she ever though she could ever hide love from the goddess who personified the subject? Talk about impossibilities.
But then there was the goddess’ question to deal with. Had she changed since loving Pan, since she’d moved into his home and all but given her heart to him?
Once she’d been a real party girl, up all night, having sex with any number of men, sleeping until noon. Now she woke at dawn and was content to lie with one man alone. No one else appealed to her the way he did. Nemesis the insatiable had become Nina the content. If that wasn’t a change then what could be?
Was it possible that Pan actually felt the same way, and not just because of the arrow’s spell? Could it be he wanted to be only with her because they’d spent so much time together, enough time for love to grow, enough love to push out desire for anyone else?
Could Pan really love her, as he said he did, enough to change how he tended to behave?
For the first time actual hope rose in her. If her spirit had held physical form she would have still felt like floating to the ceiling. Pan loved her and she loved him. Maybe there was a possibility for a happy ending for them after all.
Then she remembered her surroundings and her greater concern returned. She and Pan might have a happy ending if she could get out of her current situation. From the grim looks of the Titans surrounding them, that seemed dubious.
“So, you think our men will bargain with you?” Aphrodite said scornfully. She floated in the air next to Nina, taking as disdainful a stance as being insubstantial allowed. “They won’t, you know. They’ll come in here with an army, heavily armed, and destroy you all.”
Astraios sat on his big seat in the throne room, his stance as disrespectful as the goddess’. “You think so?” The big dark man flexed his muscles with an audible crack. “I’d love to see them try. It’s been a long time since I’ve slain a god.”
Nina shrank back in fear. The Olympian-Titan war had been before her time, but she’d heard the legends and knew what tough fighters the Titans were. If Pan went against them he could get hurt—or even killed!
“You don’t really think our men will come and fight, do you?” she whispered to Aphrodite. “Pan isn’t really a warrior.”
A grimace covered Aphrodite’s face and she spoke quietly so the Titans couldn’t hear. “Neither is Hephaestus. I imagine they’ll do something, but I doubt they’ll come in here swinging swords around.” She shook her head. “Of course, they will have to figure out what happened to us in the first place. They may not even notice we’re gone for a while.”
Aphrodite tried to lean against the wall, only to sink partway through it. Irritation showed in her face as she recovered her stance, ignoring the snickering of the watching Titans. She continued her whispered conversation with Nina.
“Knowing my husband, I’d bet he was breaking out another keg of beer for Pan, not planning a rescue.”
Chapter Twelve
Pan watched Hep pull one of his kegs of special brew from the storeroom. As soon as the other god had made his announcement that they needed to “visit the Titans” he’d whisked them both back to his and Aphrodite’s home. Expecting that the big god would notify the other Olympians of the Titan’s treachery, Hep surprised Pan by instead spending the next half hour collecting an odd array of items, without stopping to explain anything.
Hep picked up a pair of laptops similar to Nina’s as well as the keg and other items and headed towards his workshop. Pan followed him there.
“So why do you think the Titans have them?” he asked, hoping to break Hep’s single-minded concentration and get some answers.
The big god paused in the middle of dragging his biggest hammer over to the pile he’d collected. “Three things. For one thing, it has been quiet in Titanous for some time now. Too quiet. Obviously they’ve been planning something. For another, only a Titan could pull that trick of using a god’s magic against them. Someone stole Appie’s power and used it to turn our women to stone and steal their spirits. Not even one of the gods could do that…but a sneaky Titan could.”
Horror filled Pan. The Titans could steal a god’s power? “I didn’t know they could do that.”
Hep pulled a net down from the wall and began bundling all his acquisitions except for the hammer in it. “It isn’t widely known. Probably cause a panic in Olympus if it was. Of course not all Titans can do it…just special ones.”
“Ones like those we had in our garden?” Pan thought for a moment. “Who were they, Hep?”
The big god paused in the middle of his packing. “That’s the third thing that makes me think it was the Titans, who the statues were. You said one was named Aster? Was he a big muscular man, with dark skin an
d tightly curled black hair?”
Pan nodded. “That’s him.”
“Okay, that sounds like Astraios, Titan of the stars. Last I heard he was captain of the guard for Hyperion, the ruler of Titanous. Then the other’s name was Dawn? I bet she was pale little thing with red hair and blue eyes.”
At Pan’s second nod, he grimaced. “That would be Eos, daughter of Hyperion and Titan of the dawn. It also explains why they were able to do what they did. She’s one of the few Titans who can steal a god’s power and that’s why they were able to take Appie and Nina.”
Pan looked around the workshop and saw a display of short swords on one table. Seizing one he swung it over his head. “This will do, I think.” The uncommon weight of it caused him to trip and he had to catch himself before falling to the floor.
Hep looked on in thunderous disapproval. “And what do you think you’re going to do with that?”
“I’m going to fight, of course.” Regaining his balance, Pan turned the sword’s tip towards the floor and held the pommel against his chest. “The Titans took my woman and I’m going to get her back.”
Hep raised an eyebrow and leaned heavily against the workbench behind him. “You’re going to take on the Titans alone, at least thirty or forty of them, all of them twice as big as you, armed with a sword you don’t know how to use? I can assure you that they will have no such handicap.”
“I won’t be alone…you’ll be there.” Pan hesitated. “Won’t you?” he asked plaintively. “After all, they took Appie as well…”
Pan’s voice trailed off as he considered a horrible possibility. Hep and his wife didn’t have the happiest of marriages, and maybe Hep wasn’t all that eager to rescue her. “You do want Aphrodite back, don’t you?”
Hep was in the middle of picking up what looked like a portable generator. At Pan’s words, he straightened and a look of cold fury took over his features. Pan tried not to shrink from the bigger man as he hefted the apparatus in his direction. It almost looked like he intended to throw it at Pan.
Instead he took a couple of deep breaths, then placed the generator on top of the net and turned away. When he again faced Pan his expression was once again held the calm control it usually had.
“Yes, I want my wife back. Believe it or not I happen to love Appie. She holds my heart and has for a long time. I keep it quiet…it doesn’t always do for a man to shout out how he feels about a woman.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t mind telling you because I happen to know that you feel the same way about Nina.”
In a move quicker than Pan would have expected, Hep took the sword from him and gave it a few practice swings. It whistled through the air with a near deafening shriek and Pan cringed at the unnatural sound. Hep grinned as he handed the weapon back to Pan.
“It’s a banshee sword. Makes a sound designed to intimidate the enemy,” he explained. “Take it with you it if it makes you feel better, Pan, but don’t expect to use it. If it comes to fighting the battle will be lost anyway.” The big god gathered the net up and slung it over his back, only staggering a little under its tremendous weight.
Hep turned to Pan. “Just remember that there is more than one way to fight a war and the best way isn’t always the most obvious.”
He grinned faintly. “Are you ready to deal with some Titans?”
Palms sweating, Pan clutched the pommel of his sword and held it at what he hoped was the right position. Three thousand years of existence and he’d never learned to use a sword…but there was always a first time. No one would steal his nymph and get away with it. “I’m ready, Hep.”
“Good.” He hefted his big hammer in his free hand, the one he used to make Zeus’ thunderbolts, and lifted it high over his head. “Then let’s go. As they say in the comic books, it’s clobbering time!”
Pan didn’t know the coordinates so he let Hep control the transport. The air shimmered around them and they disappeared from the workroom…
…only to reappear in a narrow hallway. Pan straightened then caught his breath as he looked around, gasping at the sight. Above his head was nothing but stars and between his feet—far below—he saw, floating in the midst of great open space, the realms of Earth and Olympus. It was as if the floor and ceiling were made of clear glass. Pan felt like he was floating in space. Only the narrowly spaced columns and the walls between had the look of solidity and even those were semitransparent.
A strong sense of vertigo overcame him and he pressed against the seemingly solid surface of the nearest wall until the worst of it passed. A chuckle from Hep caught his attention.
“It’s pretty overwhelming at first but you’ll get used to it. Just try not to look down…or up,” the big god said with a wry smile. “The Olympians created Titanous as a prison, but they decided to make it as intimidating as they could. Hyperion and his family asked to be where there was light, and Zeus decided to give it to them.” He indicated the lack of solid ceiling or floor. “This was the result. I helped build it, but I wasn’t happy about it. I said it was a mistake to antagonize them.”
Some of Pan’s instinctual reaction to having the floor pulled out from under him faded away. “Zeus designed this deliberately, and then stuck the Titans here?” He shook his head. “No wonder they aren’t happy with us.”
“Oh, it gets worse than this,” Hep replied cryptically. “But you’ll no doubt see that for yourself. Right now we need to find out what’s happened to our ladies. Since the Titans don’t have a dungeon to stick them into, most likely they are in the throne room.” He thought for a moment then nodded down the long hallway to the left. “That should be this way.”
Still hefting his burden, Hep led the way down the corridor. Pan followed in his footsteps, trying to follow the god’s advice not to look either up or down. As carefully as he stepped his hooves made a soft clip-clopping noise on the hard surface of the crystal clear floor.
Pan and Hep heard whispered voices approaching and hid behind a set of columns, just before the sources of the voices came into sight.
Once again Pan nearly gasped aloud, covering his mouth with his hand at the last moment. They were hidden by the columns but could still see the gigantic figures striding down the hallway from the direction they were heading. Two of the Titans passed, heavily armored and bristling with weapons.
But it wasn’t their armor or weapons that surprised him. Each of the Titans was at least twice as tall as he was. Their heads barely cleared the ceiling and as Pan watched, they had to duck to pass through a doorway.
He looked back to see Hep nodding, his lips tight and expression grim. “That’s what I was talking about. Not only was this place designed to have no visible ceilings or floors—they designed it for a normal-sized person. The Titans have to spend half their time ducking to avoid braining themselves.”
Pan couldn’t help his sigh. Not only were Nina’s captors upset, they had a right to be that way. Imagine spending three thousand years in a glass box with a low ceiling. If the vertigo didn’t get to you, the claustrophobia would.
Still, they shouldn’t have stolen his woman from him. He wouldn’t forgive them for that, no matter what their grievances, particularly if any harm had come to her. If she wasn’t all right, he’d make them pay, one way or another.
Still wielding his sword, Pan silently followed Hep as they continued down the hallway.
Chapter Thirteen
Most of the Titans had gone, leaving Nina and Aphrodite to float around the throne room uncontrolled. If there was one good thing about not having a physical body, Nina decided, it was that it was really hard for anyone to physically restrain you. No locked doors or chains would hold them. The best the Titans could do was to leave someone to watch over them as the rest went about their business.
Astraios had gotten that unlucky job, sitting on one of the many benches in the throne room and glowering at them as they tried to sit as far from him as they could get. It wasn’t that hard a job for him since there wasn’t very mu
ch she and Aphrodite could actually do as spirits. They couldn’t manipulate anything solid and even moving around the room was difficult. Moving through the air was like swimming in heavy water. After a short time neither Nina nor Aphrodite had the strength to do more than hover in one place.
It took a bit of practice to sit on a bench when gravity wasn’t helping, but Aphrodite seemed to pick up the knack right away. She perched and returned Astraios’ glower, her arms folded over her chest.
Nina tried to mimic her, but her forearms slid right through each other. With a sigh she left them to dangle at her side and tried to focus on something else. Her sister Echo, who’d taken the human name of Chloe, had been in almost this same situation just about half a year before.
The entirety of Chloe’s left arm had been gone by the time Aphrodite had managed to reverse the spell and give her back her solidity so that she could go home to live as a human with Alex, the man she loved.
It dawned on Nina just how frightened Chloe must have been when her body had begun to evaporate. At least Nina’s had gone all at once and there hadn’t been the slow disintegration that Chloe had suffered.
Nina eyed the goddess carefully. She hadn’t said anything, but Nina knew that she could turn a spirit solid…she’d done it with Chloe. Whispering, so their Titan guard wouldn’t hear them, Nina spoke. “Aphrodite, can you reverse what Eos did to us and make us solid again?”
The goddess winced then sighed. “I could if I had any of my power left but that vixen Titaness stole it all. It will be days before I regenerate enough to make anyone solid.”
Nina’s heart sank. The goddess didn’t have any power? Then there would be no way they could get free unless they could find another power source. Too bad she couldn’t transfer some of hers to Aphrodite. She didn’t have much, but…
Wait a minute. A thrill went through Nina’s nearly invisible body. She did still have her power. She could feel it deep inside, like a tiny battery waiting to be tapped, small but ever ready. Perhaps the goddess couldn’t turn them solid, but maybe she could.
Divine Interventions: Nemesis of the Garden Page 15