Please let Psyche be in the boat.
Chapter 51 - Psyche
I’d forgotten. There’s a reason Hades doesn’t need a gatekeeper to keep trespassers out or shades in. His name is Cerberus, and he’s 90 kilograms of nasty, three-headed, slobbering, growling dog.
We hadn’t been on the path into Hades for long when I heard Cerberus’s snarl in the distance. But it wasn’t the snarl that scared me. It was the vicious, angry barks followed by terrified screams. Since I was still a little hesitant of killer animals after my morning sheep encounter, I half-hid behind Charon as we plodded ahead.
“We don’t have far to go now,” he assured me. “Just stay with me, and you’ll be fine.”
The stench of decaying feces and sulfuric dog-breath wafting through the craggy tunnel confirmed Charon’s warning that we were nearly to Cerberus.
When we rounded a corner, I was suddenly face-to-face with three sets of bone-crunching jaws. Saliva splattered against my cheek as one of the heads chopped in my face. My shrill screech echoed the ones I’d heard earlier and I staggered backward into Charon. The ferryman easily caught me and pushed me safely behind him.
Cerberus strained against his heavy chains, snarling and snapping, threatening to bite Charon’s head off. But Charon never flinched. He just stood his ground, inches from the snapping fangs, and glared back at the over-grown mutt.
“I don’t suppose you have a honey cake in that box of yours, do you?” Charon asked me, never looking away from Cerberus.
I barely heard him over the thundering of my own pulse. Facing Cerberus was bad enough, forgetting the only thing that would distract him was a monumental disaster. Sweat broke out across my upper lip as panic set it.
“No. Now what?”
“Check the box to be sure.”
“But I didn’t ask Aphrodite to give me a —”
Charon cut off my hysterics. “Check the box.”
I snapped the lid open, thrusting it forward so Charon could see it was empty. Like I told him it would be.
Only it wasn’t empty.
“Well, what do you know? There’s a honey cake in the box,” Charon said as he pulled the cake out and closed the lid before flinging the cake in the opposite direction of our path.
Cerberus leapt and spun in the air, throwing himself at the cake. I watched in horror as the heads snapped at each other, drawing self-inflicted blood, in their battle for shreds.
“Come on.” Charon grabbed my hand and we lunged forward. He was ridiculously fast for an old man. As I worked to make my feet catch up, my sandal hit something slick and I went down.
Charon’s hands latched under my arms and lifted me, but not before Cerberus noticed we were stopped. The beast turned mid-air as he jumped. When his paws struck ground, he was already sprinting toward us. Charon spun me out of the way, but Cerberus still managed to snatch a chunk of my dress in his fangs. The heat of his rancid breath burned through the cloth.
With every bit of strength I could manage, I pushed myself forward while Charon continued to pull. Seconds passed. We were deadlocked. Cerberus’s growls rumbled through the cave. His head snapped side to side as he tried to jerk me free from Charon’s protective grasp.
And then came a distinctive tear. The same ripping as when the soldier had shredded my dress, exposing my flesh. Only this time, the sound was the best thing I’d ever heard.
As a swatch of cloth separated from the dress, I tumbled just beyond the reach of his jaws. Savage barks split through the cavern, deafening in their intensity.
“Let’s go,” Charon screamed over the snarls. We raced down the path until we could no longer hear the hungry heads fighting one another for their chance to spill my blood.
It took longer than I cared to admit, but my breathing finally slowed enough that I could talk. “How’d you know that’d be in there? The honey cake, I mean.”
“Even Aphrodite has to abide by some rules.” Figures. Charon didn’t sound winded at all. “If she wants you to run an errand for her in Hades, she at least has to give you the tools to get inside.”
“But she didn’t tell me. I mean, if you hadn’t been here, I never would’ve known.”
“Just part of the test,” Charon said. “Be glad you have a tutor that lets you cheat.”
“Please tell me I’m not overhearing evidence of cheating going on,” a lovely, young voice piped up. “Especially if it’s cheating death. We tend to frown on those sorts of tricks.”
Her willowy body materialized on the torch-lit path. Charon immediately bowed to the woman, then took her delicate hand in his. Down here, this could only be Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.
“Of course not, your Highness,” Charon chuckled. “At least not the accusation of attempting to cheat death.”
Her eyes danced as a wry smile tugged at her lips. “In that case, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear a word.” She squeezed Charon’s shoulder tenderly. “It’s good to see you again, old friend.”
“You know how it is. I never get a day off to come visit,” Charon complained.
“And yet, here you are.” Persephone’s eyes turned to me. They were deep brown, like Ceres’s, only shockingly intense. She studied me, perhaps sizing me up, but I didn’t get the sense I was being judged.
“Perhaps I understand why,” she said, eyebrows raised, still watching me with those eyes. “Charon, aren’t you going to introduce me to your … friend?”
Charon cleared his throat. “Of course. Queen Persephone, this is Princess Psyche, Eros’s fiancée. Psyche, Queen Persephone.”
Persephone’s face instantly brightened. “I didn’t know Eros was engaged!” She flung her arms around me and squeezed, welcoming and sisterly. “I’m so glad you came down to meet me. I’m long overdue to return, but I didn’t know I’d missed such important news.”
Charon frowned. “That’s true. You are overdue.” Persephone was only supposed to spend fall and winter in Hades. Come spring and summer, she returned to Earth to visit with her mother. “Is everything all right?”
“Oh yes!” she gushed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think Eros had been down here spreading some of his magic. Hades has been such an amazing husband lately, I haven’t wanted to leave. And mother agreed spring could still come as long as I’m happy.” She shrugged her shoulders. “So, here I am.”
I looked around the dimly-lit pathway and jagged, rock-lined walls, wondering how she could possibly want to stay here when spring was exploding in the gardens outside. But then I thought of the nights I’d spent in Eros’s company, cocooned in darkness and bursting with emotions I couldn’t name. It wouldn’t have mattered where we were, as long as we were together.
As if picking the image of Eros out of my brain, Persephone asked, “So, Psyche, where is that financé of yours? Is he too scared to come down into Hades himself?”
“Actually, Charon exaggerates. We’re not really engaged. Aphrodite tried to arrange our marriage but — you know what? It’s a long story. Let’s just leave it at I love him.”
Persephone tilted her head and a spray of honey-colored hair tumbled onto her lean shoulders. “I seriously need a messenger to bring me news from Olympus so I’d have a clue what’s going on.”
When she snapped her fingers, three tripods appeared and the cave illuminated under added torch light. Not that light helped any. Now I could see the stalactites hanging like fangs over my head and the filmy, grey ooze slowly creeping down the walls.
Persephone, however, seemed totally unaffected by her nightmarish reality. “Come, sit. I have all the time in the world.”
So I told her, in as condensed a version as possible. But there was really no way to sugar-coat what I’d done or why I was there. As I reached the end of the story, I rubbed my hand nervously over the top of the little wooden box.
“And so Aphrodite sent me here as my final test. I’m supposed to bring back some of your beauty for her.”
Persephone snorted. “For her? W
hat does Aphrodite need with more beauty?”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I hate to ask, but I have no choice.”
“So let me get this straight,” Persephone said, “if I say ‘no’ then it’s my fault you don’t get to see Eros?” She flung her hands into the air and let them fall back to her sides with a thump. “That woman is unbelievable.”
“I think I have an idea.” Charon rubbed his chin with his crooked fingers. “Aphrodite never said Psyche had to get face beauty.” Persephone and I looked between Charon and each other. “The Queen could give Aphrodite beauty from her big toe, and Psyche would still have completed the task.”
This time, Charon was on the receiving end of one of Persephone’s jubilant hugs. “Charon, you’re a genius. I love it!”
“It won’t hurt her, will it?” I asked. “I mean, her face isn’t suddenly going to look like your big toe or anything, right?”
Charon and Persephone burst out laughing. “I wish,” Persephone giggled. “I’d give her my whole foot to see that.”
“No,” Charon explained, “when she opens the box to receive Persephone’s beauty, it will simply go to her toes. Nothing to worry about.”
“But what if she thinks I tricked her?”
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” Persephone said, already unlacing her sandal. “The real test is whether you make it out of here alive after having convinced me to part with some of my beauty. What type of beauty you bring back won’t be that important.”
She freed her foot from the sandal and held out her hand. “Here, give me the box.”
Placing it in her hands, I crouched forward on my stool to see how she went about extracting beauty from an appendage.
“Oh Psyche, you can’t watch this part,” Persephone said. “The essence of divine beauty would probably kill you. Once I give you this box back, whatever you do, don’t open it.”
I shook my head fervently from side to side to show how clearly I understood. No way was I going to open that box. Death by beauty was not what I needed. Talk about ironic.
Persephone opened the box as I backed away. “Wait,” she called. “You forgot your other honey cake.” She removed the cake from the box and held it out to me.
“Oh yeah.”
“I’m not sure how far away you need to be,” Charon said. “You’d better start back down the path. I’ll catch up.”
“What about Cerberus?”
“I didn’t tell you to go all the way back by yourself, did I? Now get.”
I nodded reluctantly. Bile rose in my throat as I thought about having to brush my fingers against the oozing slime to feel my way back out of the cave. “Okay,” I croaked.
I started to leave, but then turned back. “Queen Persephone?” Her dark eyes met mine. “Thank you. For everything. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
Persephone just nodded and smiled kindly. She didn’t need to answer. I knew she understood.
Slowly, I paced down the path that led back to Cerberus. If I moved slowly enough, I didn’t have to touch the walls after all. I just shuffled my feet and leaned back, hoping if I hit a wall, my toes would stop me before my face collided.
As I moved, I squeezed the little cake tight in my fist, not caring if it crumbled, so long as I didn’t lose it. How much further should I continue without him? What if I ran into Cerberus alone? We both needed to use the same cake for our escape. I was still trying to figure out my next move when Charon ran up beside me.
The torches rushed to life along the path as he returned, chasing away the inky blackness. I didn’t think I’d ever be so grateful for the smell of burnt olive oil and the sting of smoke in my eyes.
“That was fast.”
“Here you are, my dear,” he said, holding the wooden box out to me.
I reached my hand out slowly to take the box, but then pulled back. “Are you sure I can touch it? Persephone said it could kill me.”
He thrust the box toward me as if to say take it. “The only danger is if you let the beauty out of the box. So don’t.”
“Got it,” I confirmed and grabbed the box.
“Better hold it with two hands just to be safe,” Charon noted.
I held up my other hand to show that it was coated in mushed honey cake. “Mind holding this then?” I asked with a grimace.
Charon snorted. “What’d the cake ever do to you?”
“Let’s just say I was keeping a tight grip on it to make sure it didn’t get away.” Charon raised his eyebrows without comment and peeled the sticky, crushed cake from my hand. “I didn’t figure Cerberus would notice if it was a little mashed up.”
“I’ve seen worse come through here. As long as it’s quasi-edible, it’ll do the trick.”
After wiping my sticky fingers on my dress, I gripped the box in both hands. For good measure, I also tucked it into my chest and clutched it there. When we got back to Cerberus, Charon launched the cake remnants and the hound greedily bounded after it.
“Let’s go,” Charon called to me and we both scurried past Cerberus’s lair. I gripped the box tighter as I ran, even though it made me hunch over slightly and run a little slower.
We were barely past Cerberus when Charon started to slow. “Let’s keep going,” I begged. “I just want to get out of here.”
“Of course. Why would you want to stay with me when you have Eros waiting for you?”
“No, it’s not that.” I stopped and turned to face Charon. “That’s not what I meant at all. You’ve been wonderful and I couldn’t have done this without you.” I uncurled one hand from the box to touch his shoulder. “Besides, I don’t know whether Eros is waiting for me or not.”
Charon looked away like he didn’t believe me.
“Really,” I said. “I just want to get this box back to Aphrodite. I feel like I’ve got death in my hands and I don’t want to touch it anymore.”
When Charon looked back, he was smiling. “I suppose I’ll see you again eventually anyway.” He reached out and stroked my cheek with his knobby fingers. “I’ve had fun though and I thank you for my day off.”
“Fun probably isn’t the word I would’ve picked, but I’m glad you came with me,” I answered. “And I’m serious. I couldn’t have made it without you.”
He gave me a light pat on the back. “All right, enough with the sap. Let’s get out of here.”
We both trotted back to Charon’s boat and he steadied it while I climbed inside, still clutching the box to my chest. Charon pushed us out into the river before climbing aboard himself. As soon as he was standing, he plunged his staff down to the river bottom and we were moving away from Hades.
I couldn’t help but sigh with relief as the shore was lost in the blackness of the cave. Persephone had been wonderful, but nothing else about Hades gave me any reason to look forward to the day I’d have to return.
As we glided through the darkness, I tried not to peer into the murky water. I didn’t want to see the hapless shades drifting like submerged clouds below the surface. But when I let my focus drift, something caught my attention and I had to look.
A pair of shades took shape. One was a woman who held her baby up to the surface. Her paper-thin lips pled the same silent word over and over until I was sure I could read what she was saying. Please. Please, she begged, and the infant’s body broke through the surface.
“Charon!” I screamed. “Stop. We have to save them.” Working more on impulse than reason, I set the box down on the floor of the boat and reached out to the shades. I scooped the baby up into one arm and grabbed the mother around her wrist with my other hand. They were like holding solid air. They had shape, but no weight. When I pulled the mother up, she easily came over the edge of the boat without so much as making it tip.
By then, Charon had stopped paddling and turned on us. “What are you doing? Put them back. Now.”
Chapter 52 - Psyche
Charon loomed over us in the small boat. The shade mother t
ook her weightless child out of my arms and cradled him while cowering on the floor. “Please,” she cried as she stroked her baby’s withered head. “At least let my son pass on.”
“Charon,” I pleaded. “We had a deal. You promised to help some of the shades in the river. Why not let these be the first?”
He just stood there, motionless. In the darkness I couldn’t read his expressions to gauge what he was thinking.
“Please. For me?” I asked. Seconds ticked by without an answer.
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