Uninvited (Etudes in C# Book 3)
Page 30
“Is that all? Is there no one else that would like to stun me with a bid for this satyr?” Hades asked, a note of surprise in his voice.
What am I supposed to do now? What’s the key?
The sphere grew hot in my hands. As the power mounted, the ball vibrated. Any minute now, I thought it might levitate out of my grip entirely. I tightened my fists around it, shoving more of my frustration inside.
Come on!
“No? None of you? As Discord’s former servant, this satyr is privy to many secrets. Just think what sins you can unleash from his lips while he’s in the throes of agony.”
“Come on, Cat,” Mal whispered. “If you’re going to do something, now is the time.”
“I know,” I ground out.
Come on! I screamed at the ball. Open! Unlock! Go web! Please!
The whirring stopped and the white radiance fused to form a glowing layer of power between me and the object inside the box. Energy flashed in my mind. Surely someone nearby saw something. I opened my eyes and whipped my head from side to side. No one had seen or felt anything. Odd, that.
“Very well then. Going once,” Hades bellowed.
The puzzle box dissolved, melting away from the contents. Through the cool, silver mist, I saw a flash of gold. Though the ball was gone, I still felt something solid—and very heavy—in my palms. The smoke cleared, and I gasped.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Sick of You”
The Golden Apple gleamed in the ambient torchlight. Other than the Greek symbols etched into its surface, it could have been plucked from the most perfect tree in creation. The Golden Apple of Discord. And I held it in my hands.
“Oh shit,” I said again.
Dark whispers came from that damn orb and filled my head with pictures. It was like channel surfing through a flip-book of every magazine ever published, every website. Slurs and epithets, vile chants, and sinister promises made the soundtrack.
Too much, I thought. It’s too much.
But still, the information came. Like downloading the history contained in the Apple, the black, thorny power wormed its way into my veins and coursed through me, slithering in my guts and tugging at my gag reflex.
Then it was done. The rush of data stopped. All specifications had been imported, but I still held Eris’s thumb drive. So to speak. I knew her sins, her stories. Looking around the room, I was able to pull up her schemes as easily as clicking on a file.
Yama: Marius ordered to kidnap the water-buffalo companion. Yama blamed Yami. War ensued. Water buffalo later fed to Kraken.
With every face came a name and a plot, most of them carried out by Marius at the behest of Eris herself. The Trojan War. Multiple thefts, at least a dozen murders. Insults and fights that tore families and friends apart. A million little slights between mortals and monsters.
“Going twice!” Hades called.
This was it. I could not only win Marius but I could prove his innocence. I just had to get Hades to understand…
“I have something,” I shouted.
I kept my stare locked on Hades’s face. In my periphery, though, I saw all eyes turn their focus to me. No pressure, right?
Taking a step forward, I held the apple up for all to see. “I offer the Golden Apple of Discord.”
Murmurs filled the cavern with curiosity. Hades steepled his slender fingers and narrowed his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was a purr of amusement. “Do you? And just how does a mortal come by such a relic?”
“I have my methods,” I said.
The djinn snarled as I passed him. Clearly his memory of Belize was just as good as mine. “She is a minion of Eris. She and this satyr have conspired together before. I say we take her hide, as well.”
I snorted with laughter. “I don’t work for Eris.”
“She is mine,” Loki called from the gallery. “And I’ll have words with any that wish to try to change that fact.”
Hades didn’t bother to face Loki. “Does she do this on your behalf, Aesir?”
He shook his head. “I’ve no interest in the prisoner. But I like my employees to be happy. If having a satyr for a pet amuses her, so be it.”
The djinn moved back with a growl as others continued to chatter about this strange change in events. More whispers and suppositions. Verities and balderdash.
Believe what you want, I thought.
“All of you are so focused on the satyr,” I said, “but why?”
This snagged a few ears. As I turned in a circle to take in the room, I caught Loki and Heph smiling. They must have picked up where I was going with all of this. Marius, though, was still puzzling through it. In his cell, he watched me, brow creased with confusion.
“What is he? Oh, sure, he’s flesh and blood that you can rip and tear at. He’s done all these things to piss you all off. You’re not alone. Believe me, Marius is one of the most unsettling, annoying, and altogether irritating beings I’ve ever met. And I worked for Eris!”
This elicited a rolling wave of polite laughter from the audience. Good.
I bounced the apple in my hand. “Our friend the djinn over there just said I was her minion. While it’s true I worked for her once upon a time, I was still just that—a minion. A tool to be used when she had need of me. And that’s all the satyr is, too. Just a tool.”
“You’ve got that right,” Mal called.
I rolled my eyes. I continued my circuit of the cavern, making my way toward Marius. “He’s lied, cheated, swindled, stolen, and otherwise fucked over nearly every being in this room in one way or another. But you’ve all forgotten that for all his clever wit and skill, he’s still just an employee.”
When I reached Marius I stared at him through the green light. All I wanted to do was reassure him, but I had to play this to the hilt if this gambit was going to work. I sneered at him. “A charming puppet on a long set of strings.”
His expression darkened, jaw working with anger and frustration.
I’ve got this, I said to him in my mind. I don’t know if he heard it, but he continued to glare at me.
I moved to Hades with slow, confident steps. “These are pretty little presents, I suppose. But why settle for them? Why bother with a satyr, slightly used,” I added sharply, “when you could have his boss?”
Stretching out my arm, I offered Hades the Apple.
The Lord of the Dead held his hands close to his chest, fingers dancing in anticipation. “Oh my, mage, you do make a cunning offer,” he said breathily. He reached for the Apple, then retreated a moment, almost as if afraid to touch it. I realized, though, that his hesitation wasn’t fear but a sort of ecstasy, prolonging the exquisite suspension of the moment.
Before Hades could accept it, however, Zeus bellowed from behind me, “How are we to know that this is the truth? She has been seen in the satyr’s company. Perhaps she is trying to trick us to save her lover.”
I snorted and laughed. “I’m not.”
“It might be a false apple,” he added.
“It’s not.”
“You’ve seen the real apple, Lord of Olympus,” Loki chimed in. “Would you recognize it?”
“Shut up, Aesir,” Zeus spat. “Know your place.”
Loki gave a respectful bow of his head, but I saw the mischief gleaming in his arctic eyes. Zeus would pay for that one later. Somehow. Possibly through me, even.
Zeus approached me. “I would see the Apple, mage. Hand it over.”
I glanced to Hades. “By your leave.”
He waved his fingers dismissively. “If my cousin insists.”
To ensure this had the best chance of working, I mentally rifled through Eris’s files and found a selection of misdeeds associated with Zeus. As the king reached for the Apple, I sent a bit of will through the relic loaded with the details of one of her many schemes. As we both touched the Apple, the current flowed between us, a complete circuit. All evidence of Eris’s treachery against Olymp
us shot into Zeus in one electrifying jolt.
Zeus’s broad face scrunched with the impact, eyes squeezing shut. His muscles strained as the thorny magic, the trace of Eris’s essence, stabbed into him. He released the Apple and shook like a giant dog.
“That…that bitch,” he sputtered. Zeus looked from the Apple in my hand to Marius. “Nothing but a tool,” he whispered. “This satyr is worthless to me. I retract my offer, Hades.”
The slimy grin slid from Hades’s face as Zeus took his woman and the lion pelt off the floor.
“Mage!” Santa Claus barked at me. “Let me see this.”
The jolly old tinkerer set upon me, and before I could stop him, he’d grabbed hold of the Apple. With the same jumpstart from my own power, Saint Nick was given a dose of reality, Discord-style.
Soon, they all wanted a bite off the Apple. The djinn, Yama, Odin—though, I had nothing for Odin. Eris hadn’t put Marius to work where the Asgardian was concerned. Apparently Marius’s slight against Odin really was as Loki had said—just a joke among friends.
The gods and creatures of myth surrounded me, each one touching the Apple and coming away wiser. And each of them rescinded his offer to Hades. As you can imagine, the Lord of the Dead wasn’t too pleased with this.
“Wait,” he said. “What are you doing?”
They didn’t care. The audience began to disperse. Creatures made their ways up the stairs or just disappeared with flashes of fire or bursts of smoke. The stone golems simply melted into the floor and rumbled off.
“Where are you going? This isn’t over!” Hades fumed.
“Give it up, cousin,” Zeus said. “He’s of no interest. He was not the culprit of the greater crimes, nor is he of any use in hurting Eris.”
They were packing up and leaving. Even Odin, with his genuine beef against Marius, had lost the will to stick around. Yama sneered silently at Hades. As he led his shadowy beast away, the hellhound’s ears drooped with disappointment. Soon, only a handful of us stood in the Temple. In fact, I think the only reason most of the stragglers remained was to see how things would shake out.
“What am I supposed to do with him now?” Hades grumbled.
“You can still get an apple,” I said. “My offer stands.”
Astraios clicked forward hurriedly. “Turn him over to us, sire. Free him from death so that we may lift him!”
“Lift him?” I asked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“You wouldn’t understand, mortal,” the goat sneered.
“Oh, now you’re just being rude.”
He paid me no regard—what with me being nothing but a puny mortal woman, I suppose—but instead bowed lower to Hades.
“Please, I beseech thee,” Astraios moaned.
Hades glared darkly from beneath hooded eyes. “Why should I turn him over to either of you? Why should I not just keep him and the secrets he holds in my demesne for all eternity?”
I gave the Apple another bounce. “If it’s secrets you want…” I said tauntingly.
“We have waited for so long,” the Sileni sniveled, his nose inches from the stone floor. His fellow goats crowded behind him and prostrated themselves before Hades. “Please, we beg of you.”
Hades expression held only daggers for me. “It would upset a certain mage I know if I gave him to you, Astraios. I would relish her torment, indeed.”
So that’s how he wanted to play? “You know, that’s cool, Hades,” I said. “If you don’t want this old thing, I’m sure my boss will have a use or two for it.” I walked away, past Marius and toward Loki’s open palm.
“Cat, my dear,” Loki said unctuously. “For me? You shouldn’t have.”
I held the Apple over Loki’s hand and eyed Hades over my shoulder. “Going once.”
Hades’s lips curled as if his blood itself curdled—assuming he had blood, of course. Either way, he looked like he’d just swallowed something particularly foul.
“Going twice,” I sang.
Hades shot out of his smoky throne. “Fine. Fine!” he roared.
The brand on my wrist flared with Loki’s approval. I turned around to face Hades properly.
“Yes?”
“I will,” he said darkly, “accept your most generous offer, mage. The Apple of Discord in exchange for the life of this despicable satyr. He is yours.”
The green light fell from around Marius, and as it did, he became victim to the laws of gravity. Marius fell, utterly graceless, to the floor. Bracing himself on hands and quite-human knees, Marius coughed and retched. His hair fell between me and his face, but he was there.
“Now,” Hades spat, “give me the Apple.”
I took my time crossing the room, drawing a long breath and tapping in to a dram of power. When I plopped the Apple into his outstretched hand, Hades shuddered. He cupped it, caressing it with an obscene avarice. Soon, though, confusion rippled over his ugly features.
“What is this? I see nothing. What trickery is this? What have you done, mage?” he raged.
Weathering his wrath, I looked him in the eye. “Nothing.”
“Why can I not see Eris’s schemes written here as the others did?”
“Maybe you just don’t know how to look. Keep trying. I’m sure you’ll get it eventually.”
Hades let out a visceral yell and lashed out with his hand. Sickly green light crackled from his fingertips—not at me but toward Marius. From out of nowhere, Malcolm dove in and shoved his brother from the magic’s path.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Wheels”
Malcolm’s scream was a wail of agony. I reached into my pocket and drew one of my Loki-issued mistletoe darts. Lightning-fast, I sent it flying at the Lord of the Dead. For good measure, I added a chaser of my own electrified power. As the Sileni surrounded Marius and Mal, Loki launched himself across the room and blocked me with his body.
Hades cried out with frustration, his fingers spreading and sending gouts of green fire to the ceiling. My dart had scored a hit in the god’s wrist. Green leaves of the mistletoe spread out from the shaft of the dart and curled around Hades’s arm. As the vines reached higher, seeking his shoulder, tiny white berries began to burst into being.
“Aesir!” Hades roared. “Stand aside and let me flay that mortal of her pretty skin.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave,” Loki said, voice cool and mechanical.
Hades narrowed his eyes at Loki. Some of the mistletoe withered, blackening until there was nothing but a charred mass disintegrating from the god’s arm. “I will not be made a fool by you, or worse, a petty mortal bearing your mark.”
I’m sure that Loki and Hades were revving up a pretty awesome bout of verbal posturing, but I didn’t give a shit. At that moment, another set of screams erupted from the furry scrum of the Sileni. This time, it was Marius’s voice echoing in the cavern.
“No!” I called, dashing away from Loki’s protection.
The goats had formed a ring around Mal and Marius. When I tried to break through, they tightened their ranks, some actually shoving at me to hold me back. What I saw within their circle, though, made me stop dead in my tracks.
Astraios stood, his furry hands outstretched, palms to the floor. Sigils and linework—like those carved on Pan’s lovely pipe box—glowed in the stone. On his hands and knees at the center of some larger symbol was Marius. Once again, he’d been robbed of his glamour. Goat’s legs and horns exposed, his body still bore the wounds that had more or less killed him. As I watched, the gash in his throat healed and the slashes on his chest vanished. His hair fell, partially obscuring his face. But what I could see of his expression was pained: eyes clenched tight, mouth pulled in a grimace. He panted, fighting back something greater as if being burned from the inside.
Beside him, Mal writhed on the floor. Hades’s spell wrapped around him with smoky tendrils, and his skin looked ghastly gray. Black power illuminated the veins in his neck as he curled in on himself and cried for mercy.
“I have waited too long,” Astraios whispered with fanatical zeal. “I will lift the Scion of Pan to his rightful place!”
As if punched with an intense, magical uppercut, Marius shot upward and levitated just a few feet off the floor. Back arched, he let out another roar of pain.
“No,” he called out. “I do not want this!”
“No?” Astraios asked. “I offer you true immortality! Power beyond measure!”
“Not worth it,” Marius spat, each word an effort. “Murderers!”
His black hair tossed in the gale of swirling power, and his eyes opened. They were made entirely of emerald light. As I watched, his body began to change. The fur on his legs darkened to match the ebony of his hair. His skin healed of all scars, muscles tightened until he had more tone to his already-fine shoulders, arms, and chest. His horns grew longer, spreading out from his head to resemble those worn by the Sileni.
I stopped struggling against those other goats who protected the rite. I stared at Marius, jaw slack and eyes wide. Even in this dark, terrifying moment, I couldn’t help but be in awe of him. He was heartbreakingly beautiful.
“Why do you fight against the mantle you were born to take?” Astraios asked. “This is your birthright! The divine blood of Pan calls to itself within your veins!”
“You wish to grant me this power?” Marius’s words came easier now, but they were laced with anger. “To lift me to godhood?”
Astraios shuddered with obscene pleasure. “Yes,” he hissed.
“Marius, no!” I shouted. Again, I tried to burst through the scrum, but two of the goats held me back. Even my new-and-improved strength wasn’t enough to get through.
I could only watch as Marius stretched out a hand to Malcolm. Wisps of silver-and-emerald power traveled from his fingertips to his brother’s broken body. Immediately, Mal’s screams stopped. His breaths were shuddering moans, but there was relief.
Marius’s face still showed strain. Even as he used the power of Pan, he denied it.