Olympian Challenger

by Astrid Arditi

  I watch him walk across the plain, abandoned by the Furies, toward Dexter first. Gently, he lifts the lifeless body into his arms and together they sink into the ground.

  “Will they send their bodies back home?” Sara asks.

  Ariadne pats her back. “There’s no going home for them. They will move on to their afterlife, in Erebus.”

  “What’s it like?” Joan gapes at me. “Hope, do you know?”

  I think of Kieron’s meadow. “What I’ve seen of it is beautiful. But I don’t know where they will live.” I have a feeling Erebus is bigger than Mount Olympus.

  “Minos will judge their souls and decide where to send them. Most will move onto the Elysian Fields— paradise for you. Some will be sent to Tartarus, where they can try to expiate their crimes,” Ariadne explains.

  Kieron resurfaces on the plain, near Josh’s body. When they sink down, I pity Josh, who I’m sure will face a cruel punishment.

  I want to ask more questions about the afterlife, but Hades stops me. His cruel grin and calculating eyes are trained on me, enclosing my heart in ice.

  “Josh Matlin has passed away, but I have one challenger left. I will take it upon myself to train Hope Diaz from now on.”

  Zeus and Poseidon chuckle at their brother’s pitiful attempt to save face. Hades’s darkness thickens. My heart falters.

  “You will report to me starting tomorrow, Hope.”

  A gasp compels me to turn around. Kieron has returned and heard his father’s decree. He glares at the man who fathered him with so much hatred, I understand why he doubts his own goodness. Then again, everyone hates Hades.

  “You’re still my sponsor,” I mouth to him.

  His eyes lose some of their intensity and a tentative smile blossoms on his full lips. My breath catches—he is so beautiful.

  The party at Athena’s palace begins at dusk. Before entering the palace, I take a moment to watch the sun set lazily over the sea, igniting the sky with a fiery glow. The Nereids dance on the surf, their hair flowing in the breeze, echoing the naiads who splash themselves merrily in the Castalian fountain in the center of the town.

  Nightfall is enchanting on Mount Olympus. The clouds that hover at the bottom of the mountain are tinged pink, and all sorts of creatures and animals come out of hiding. A herd of centaurs gallops on the shore while rare birds’ songs are carried in the breeze. A slender deer creeps across Artemis’s garden on the opposite side of the road.

  “Are you coming in?” Amy calls from the arched entrance.

  I drag my eyes away from the enchanting landscape and climb the front steps toward my impatient roommate. Her arms and neck still bear the signs of our trek through the woods, but she won’t let me heal her.

  “I’m starving,” she says as she steps in first.

  My hunger vanishes when confronted with the appeal of thousands of books. Every single wall in the palace is a library, with shelves reaching as high as the ceiling. Their spines aren’t musty like the ones in the arena’s library. These books are beloved and well tended, organized like an army. It feels like I just stepped into my own version of Heaven. What I would give for an eternity inside this place!

  “The books aren’t going anywhere,” Amy grumbles as she tows me toward a buffet.

  She heaps her plate so high, she doesn’t notice as grapes tumble down the food mountain. I snatch a piece of warm bread while I look for Gabriel and Kieron. Besides Amy, they are the only two people I care to see.

  The first familiar face I encounter is Hades. I startle—he’s never come to any party. His stare is pinned on me, unwavering as I amble across the large reception hall to get away from his attention. The certainty that Hades has come to spy on me increases, as my hope of seeing Kieron diminishes. I understand enough about their relationship to know that he won’t risk talking to me with his father here.

  I find Gabriel hidden in the shade of a pillar carved in the shape of a woman, which I’ve learned is called a caryatid. He peers at Cupid outside, in the atrium. The handsome god gazes at my friend unabashedly. It is the first time I notice Cupid’s peculiar eyes. They are a brilliant gold, just like his short curls, contrasting strikingly with his warm brown skin.

  “Please talk to him,” I beg as I reach him. “This game of yours is becoming painful.”

  “Me? Talk to him?” Gabriel brings his right palm self-consciously to the thin cut on his cheek.

  I swat his hand away and apply my fingers to the scab. They glow bright, healing his wound and absorbing the scar.

  “Now you look perfect. Please go before I scream.”

  Gabriel takes a tentative step toward Cupid. Aphrodite’s son bridges the distance between them.

  I beam as he introduces himself to Gabriel, as if my friend didn’t know full well who he was.

  As a first official introduction, this one is perfect. Cupid makes Gabriel laugh with a funny anecdote about his mother’s closet and then they strike up a conversation about Athena’s palace. Gabriel loves architecture, so when Cupid asks him if he would like a tour of the place in his melodious voice, there is no sign left of Gabriel’s timidity as he agrees eagerly.

  Hope swells in my chest as I watch them go. If only Cupid could show Gabriel the wonder that he is, maybe my sweet friend will finally learn to love himself.

  “Meet me outside,” Kieron’s voice sighs in my ear.

  I crane my neck to see him, but the only thing behind me is the caryatid.

  “Come out through the atrium so my father doesn’t see you leave,” the voice murmurs again.

  I look again, but Kieron isn’t anywhere in the reception hall. Acknowledging the real possibility that I’m going crazy, I step out into the atrium anyway in search of an exit. An archway opens on the left side of the courtyard, leading to a corridor and beyond that, to another arch that opens onto a garden.

  I speed-walk toward the exit, hoping I didn’t hallucinate Kieron’s commands. When I emerge into the garden, a cool hand wraps around my wrist.

  “You heard me.” Kieron spins me toward him.

  I stumble and crash against his chest. I notice his subtle scent, a smoky perfume that would only smell good on him, and blush furiously. When he lifts my chin so I can look into his laughing eyes, the heat creeps all the way to my forehead.

  “I didn’t know if it would work,” he says, keeping me close to him.

  “How did you do it? How did I hear you?”

  “Shadow whispering. I’d never tried it before. Apparently the communication goes both ways.”

  I cringe. “So you can hear my thoughts now?”

  “I still can only hear dark thoughts. You’re safe from my inquisitiveness.” He chuckles at my obvious relief. “Let’s get away from here so my father doesn’t catch us.”

  He takes my hand and leads me toward a patch of grass protected by elm trees. We both flop down onto the dewy grass, my hand still resting in his.

  “Are you afraid of what your father might do to you if he catches us?”

  “Not for me. I don’t want him to make your life harder because we’re friends.”

  My smile turns crestfallen. I’m only a friend to him—obviously.

  Kieron stares at me with concern. “What’s wrong? Are you scared? I’d understand if you don’t want to see me anymore…”

  “Of course not! And Hades isn’t my sponsor, no matter what he says.”

  “But you have to pretend he is. My father isn’t a man to be trifled with, Hope.”

  “I don’t fear him.”

  “But you should. You’re lucky Josh died so he needs you to win. Otherwise, he would have stopped at nothing to get rid of you in the competition.”

  “Gods aren’t allowed to interfere.”

  “But they could…You need to make my father believe he has influence over you.”

  I scowl. More lying and deceiving. One more step toward becoming the old hag in the Fury’s mirror.

  “My father’s a sore loser. Josh did me
a great service by passing away today. My father can’t hold me to our bargain anymore.”

  I lean on my hand, closer to him. “What was it?”

  He winces. “If Josh had won, my father would have forced a wife on me.”

  “And you took that risk? For me? Why would he even do that?”

  “Marriages on Mount Olympus are primarily alliances of strength. My father would have chosen a very advantageous match for him.”

  “Sounds archaic.”

  “I’ve been single for millennia. You heard Doris. Everyone on Olympus wants to see me wed.”

  “To one of her beautiful daughters,” I mutter. “Doesn’t sound too bad.”

  Kieron’s spine straightens. “I’d rather be shackled to a mountain like Prometheus was than be married to someone I don’t love. That kind of marriage only brings sorrow.”

  “You could learn to love whoever your father chooses,” I argue, although the very thought of Kieron in love with anyone hurts.

  “I’ll admit I don’t know much about love, but I don’t think it works like that. My parents’ marriage proves as much.”

  “So you’d rather choose a lifetime of solitude?”

  “I told you I wasn’t always a recluse. I used to seek the company of women—”

  “Like Erato?”

  “Among others. I never felt lonelier than in their embrace, though. And I caused them heartbreak, something I can never take back.”

  I wish I could make him feel better. His guilt is real, but whatever he’s done, it’s in the past. “What made you change?”

  “Nothing in particular. I got sick of myself after a while. Melting into the shadows and stepping away from Olympus’s social life came quite easily to me. It was a relief.”

  Kieron fiddles with the grass, his gaze downcast. I shift nearer to him so our knees touch.

  I forget to breathe so my question comes out as whisper. “What made you come out of hiding?”

  “The competition. I don’t think you realize how much is at stake here.”

  And here I hoped he’d say I was the reason for his return to the world. But Kieron’s right. There’s much more at stake than my budding feelings for him—my mother’s salvation for one. I have to stay focused.

  “Will you still help me train?” I ask him.

  “Obviously. You have to go to my father in the mornings but in the evenings, you have me. You need to win, Hope.”

  I lean my head against his shoulder as the weight of responsibilities grows too heavy to bear alone. With Kieron by my side, I may stand a chance.

  Chapter 31

  Hades waits for me in Erebus’s antechamber this morning. I struggle not to scowl upon seeing him, remembering Kieron’s warnings from yesterday. I need to pretend I accept him as my sponsor, at least until the end of the competition.

  “Where were you yesterday? I didn’t see you leave,” he barks his question as a way of greeting.

  “I went home to rest,” I lie. “I wanted to be alert for our session this morning.”

  In truth I remained with Kieron outside Athena’s palace until well after midnight. We barely talked, just lay there on the grass, perfectly comfortable in each other’s silence. I have known him for just a couple of weeks, but somehow, on Mount Olympus, Kieron has come to feel like home to me—soothing and familiar.

  “Good. Follow me.”

  Instead of heading to his palace, he leads me away from his gothic temple, ornate with skulls and black diamonds, toward a river that stretches over a vast expanse of scorched earth. For a second I worry that this is the River Lethe and Hades has decided to get rid of me.

  “This river is Acheron—Sorrow,” Hades explains as if we were on a sightseeing tour. “Beyond this plain lies the tribunal of Minos.”

  Hades strides ahead with supernatural speed, forcing me to jog after him. Josh’s helmet, which appeared in my closet this morning, jostles on my head, threatening to fall off. I’d gladly lose the reminder of Hades, but I fear he’ll get offended if I do.

  At the end of the plain, I discover three gigantic thrones carved in onyx. Only the left one is occupied, by a bearded man who looks to be about a hundred years old.

  “This is Minos. He settles disputes when I’m away.”

  The city south of the tribunal makes it hard for me to concentrate. It sprawls for thousands of miles, making New York seem like a tiny village. I suspected Erebus was big, but it considerably surpasses Mount Olympus in size.

  To the east, another river runs alongside the tribunal. “The River Styx,” Hades continues, inflated by his own sense of importance. “And this is Charon.” He points to a cloaked man steering a barge across the river.

  The boat stops before the tribunal, releasing its cargo of dozens of shriveled men onto the bank. Minos calls them forth.

  “Welcome to the afterlife,” the judge says with a surprisingly steady voice.

  Hades keeps going south, expecting me to follow him. I word my question carefully before voicing it. I don’t want to incriminate the Pythia by revealing too much.

  “I heard rumors that communication between our two worlds was broken. Yet these are humans, aren’t they?”

  Hades huffs, but he doesn’t question me about the identity of my source. “Erebus will never be closed to the dead. This is where they move on when their earthly lives end.”

  I store the information, unsure if it could prove useful someday. We’re now facing the sprawling city.

  “This is the Lower World.”

  The name is apt for the dingy shacks collapsing under a low, gray sky. If miserable souls inhabit this part of Erebus, they are nowhere to be seen.

  We stay on the outskirts of the shantytown, plodding for the longest time until we reach a desert. I try to question Hades about my upcoming quest on the way, but he refuses to answer me, too busy showing off depressing landmarks.

  While the shantytown was damp and miserable, here a cruel sun shines mercilessly over the arid land. We walk past an abrupt hill, where a half-naked man with bulging muscles pushes a large rock to the top just to see it fall off the cliff.

  “Sisyphus. Doomed to expiate his crime for all eternity,” Hades explains as I watch the man retrieve his rock and resume his pointless task.

  Further away, a man is waist deep in a pool of murky water. A branch sagging with luscious exotic fruits lowers toward him, but just as he tries to pick one up, the branch lifts again, away from his grasp.

  “Tantalus. Forever hungry and thirsty.”

  I turn to Hades. “What kinds of crime deserves such inhumane punishments?”

  “This is Tartarus. Humanity has no pull here. And these men deserve their punishments, believe me.”

  I resolve to look them up later at the library. I hope they committed terrible crimes to justify their tortures.

  A large number of women are hunched over a barrel, spilling water inside that escapes through the many holes punctured in the wood. I don’t even want to ask who they are anymore. My shoulders sag from the cruelty that surrounds me. When I see Josh trapped in a pen, flocked by Furies holding mirrors to his face, I reach my limit.

  “I don’t care if you’re my sponsor, Josh doesn’t deserve this!”

  Hades remains still, but the air cools off around us. “I do not care what you think. And Josh’s punishment won’t last forever. He will move on to the Lower World once he makes up for disappointing me.”

  “How generous.” I scowl.

  “Remember who I am.” My skin breaks into goose bumps. “I have the power to crush you.”

  He strolls away from Josh and his anguished expression, toward a green pasture that opens up on the horizon. The contrast in temperature and setting is so abrupt between the desert and this idyllic place that it leaves me voiceless.

  Hades waves with a flourish. “The Elysian Fields.”

  I remember Ariadne explaining that this is our version of paradise—and she was right. The Elysian Fields are a flat Mount Olymp
us. It is impossible to comprehend that the cloudless blue sky and bright sunshine are just an illusion. Every sensation is heightened here—I can feel the warm caress of the sun on my skin as if I could grasp it, the lily scent is overpowering, and colors have never seemed brighter.

  A river coils between cottages that remind me of Kieron’s home. They are dispersed across the green immensity and although they look rather small, I can easily assume they are as large and lavish inside as the one I’ve already visited. A deer drinks from the river, impervious to the salmon somersaulting in the water around it. On the lowest branch of the oak next to me, a dove and a raven nestle amorously.

  Hades breaks the enchantment. “I am the master of everything you’ve seen today.”

  I refuse to flatter his ego. It is impressive, but the magic of the Elysian Fields cannot make up for the cruelty of Tartarus.

  “Are the rest of the contenders here? In the Elysian Fields?”

  Hades scowls at my absence of admiration. I would laugh at him, but we are in his lair and I’m afraid of what he’d do to me in retaliation.

  “Save for the two last boys, all those who died are here.”

  I gasp. “Is Dexter in Tartarus as well?”

  “In the Lower World. He has to expiate some of his crimes before moving onto here. Josh can keep him company for the next decade or so.”

  I do my best to hide the hatred burning inside of me. How can I despise the father so much when I’m falling so hard for his son? If not for Kieron’s powers that derive from his father’s darkness, I’d never believe they are related. My feelings for his son, a magnificent tree who grew tall and straight despite being rooted to a swamp, increase in tandem with my disgust for Hades. I’ll never let Kieron doubt his own goodness again.

  “Would you like to see your departed friends?” Hades asks, surprising me.

  “Yes, please.”

  We amble toward a cluster of cottages. “Be careful not to fall in the river,” Hades warns me.

  “Which one is it? Torment? Anguish?”

  Hades cocks a thin eyebrow, probably surprised by my lack of restraint around him. I can’t help it. He brings out the annoying teenage rebel in me. “Oblivion.”