Anita snorted and Selena looked up at her. “I know you well enough to know you actually believe that, my dear, but you’re the only one who believes that. Now let’s take Badb’s advice and get out of here. I want to find out what this evil goddess’s story is before she and her twelve children confront us.”
Doug blew a quick breath through his lips and turned toward the lake again. “Aw, what the hell. I survived three decades of espionage work for the New Pantheon. I’m in.”
“Doug,” Anita breathed, but he held up a hand and stopped her.
“Might as well, Ms. Granger. I let the New Pantheon become my entire life and never married or had kids. And now I’m fifty-eight-years old and have nothing but a nice retirement account to show for it. If I had to do it again, I would have slowed down, thought about what the last couple of decades of my life were going to look like. It’s actually kind of nice to feel needed again. Or at least wanted.”
Anita smiled at her old friend and put a hand on his thick, round arm. “We need you. Believe me, Doug. We need all the help we can get. Haven’t you noticed?”
Doug laughed and shook his head. “I don’t know about that. You found this place on your own, and your Irish demigoddess figured out how to get Thor to break down and negotiate with us for this sword of yours. I’m just here in case you need a little extra muscle.”
Jasper laughed, too, and clapped the older man on the back. “Trust me. After fighting a few of these gods, I know we need all the extra muscle we can get.”
Anita rode back to the motel with Doug, and Cameron was unusually quiet on the car ride. With his bantering partner silent, Jasper didn’t seem to know what to say either. Badb kept glancing at Selena as she drove them back to their suites, but she chose not to speak. The silence in the car seemed oppressive and heavy, and as soon as Badb parked, Selena pushed her door open and hurried into the cool November air. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes when she felt Cameron’s hand slip around her arm in that always protective, always concerned way of his.
“We’re going to walk into Asgard,” Selena whispered. “In three days, we’re really just going to walk right into their home.”
“Yes,” Cameron whispered back.
“They won’t leave it unguarded.”
“Of course not. Thor never said it would be unguarded, only that many of them would be in Russia.”
“Let’s go upstairs,” Badb suggested. “We need to talk privately.”
Selena followed the war goddess but her legs felt as heavy as the air inside the car and they didn’t want to climb the stairs or bring her inside the room where she and Cameron were staying. Anita and Doug quickly caught up to them and followed them into the room, but Selena collapsed onto the bed and pulled a pillow over her face. “Heimdallr,” she mumbled into it.
Cameron pulled the pillow away. “I have no idea what you just said. Sounded like hamburger. It’s kind of early for lunch, but…”
Selena sighed and grabbed the pillow out of his hands. “Heimdallr,” she repeated.
“Oh. Him.”
Badb sat on the edge of the bed and shrugged. “As far as I know he’s still alive. And I’m sure he’s guarding the new entrance into Asgard. Whether he can really hear grass growing or not? Come on, Selena. I’ve met the god. He’s got a powerful gift of intuition, but that’s it.”
“Intuition… like how you all know when someone is approaching or when you’re in the presence of another god or demigod?” Selena asked.
“Pretty much,” Badb answered. “Don’t forget: we got into Asgard once. Gods’ powers are often exaggerated by myths and legends.”
Selena propped herself up on her elbows and scowled at Badb. “Oh, you mean like Odin’s powers were exaggerated by myths and legends? You couldn’t even kill him!”
Badb just waved her off. “He’s different. I never said all gods’ stories are exaggerations.”
“Look,” Jasper interjected, “we get it. We’re going to have to confront some of the Norse and just hope Thor isn’t leading us into a trap. None if it matters if we can’t get past that Ech…o woman and her water horses.”
“Echthge,” Selena corrected.
“Why is she evil?” Cameron asked. “I mean, Quetzalcoatl was one scary bastard and Ninurta… I’d bring him back to life just so I could kill him again but evil? What’s this woman’s story?”
Badb squirmed on the edge of the bed and glanced at each god and demigod watching her, waiting to hear why this Irish daughter of Nuada had been exiled from the Tuatha Dé and what she could have possibly done to earn their fear and hatred. Badb scooted closer to Selena and held her hand even though she was still looking at Cameron.
“Centuries ago, Echthge was a trouble maker, the Loki of the Irish. But she lived by our rules and followed our customs and respected that we were ruled by a king… as long as that king was her father. After Nuada’s death, she attempted to overthrow Lugh, our rightful king who had avenged Nuada’s murder, and armies were raised on both sides, recruiting human warriors to decide the fate of Ireland’s divine ruler. She was responsible for the slaughter of thousands of men, even after her army was defeated. She dragged our allies to the sea and drowned them. For many years after, the area in which she abducted our soldiers and hauled them off to their deaths was known as Sliabh na Echthge.”
“And the legend that she murdered and ate her own children?” Selena asked, sitting up straighter as she braced herself for even worse news about the woman the group would soon be facing before attempting to invade Asgard.
“She never had children,” Badb answered. “She was far too selfish to care for a child. But if she had, I wouldn’t put it past her to have killed them. I think the legend emerged because of the deaths to our human allies.”
“And they were drowned,” Cameron repeated. “Even then… she was using water horses, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” Badb responded. “They emerged from the sea and rode into the mountains where the warriors were hiding and dragged them to their deaths.”
“Holy shit,” Jasper mumbled.
“Yeah,” Cameron agreed. “And we somehow have to kill the goddess who is commanding them now. What did Thor mean by conjuring her?”
Badb gave him one of her signature looks that seemed to beg him to explain how anyone so intelligent could be so stupid. So Cameron returned the look with one of his own, this one telling her she was an annoying old crow.
Badb grunted at him and let go of Selena’s hand. “You’re going to conjure her, Cameron. The same way you pulled Ukko here simply by wanting him here. The same way you sent me to some god-forsaken frozen island where even the reindeer were begging me to help them escape.”
“First of all,” Cameron said, putting a hand up to stop her. “Which god? Me? Because I only sent you there. I didn’t create the damn island.”
Badb gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at him. “Get to your point.”
“And secondly,” Cameron continued, ignoring the annoyed war goddess, “why do I have to conjure her? You’re here. You do it. Let her get all pissed off at you first.”
Badb crossed her arms defiantly and tossed those long, golden waves of hair over her shoulder. “I can’t,” she spit out. “For the same reason none of us knew she was alive. She’s more powerful than me. Or any one of the Tuatha Dé… except you.”
“Great,” Cameron mumbled, falling back against the headboard and sending the wooden plank into the wall with a sharp thunk. “I’m officially over being a god now. Can I give this Spear back?”
“No,” Badb told him, letting her eyes rest on Selena. “And we both know you wouldn’t anyway.”
“Well, so far, I’m not convinced this is keeping her any safer,” Cameron argued. “I’ve lost count of how many gods want us dead or how many want to kidnap her and enslave her, which may be worse.”
“Definitely worse,” Selena agreed.
Cameron picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “
Only if I can’t get you back.”
“I swear to God, if you two keep it up…” Jasper started then sighed and rolled his eyes. “Cameron. I swear to you, if you keep it up, I’m taking my chances with Athena again.”
“So we have three days,” Anita said before Cameron could respond. “I’d recommend we get some sight-seeing in, but I don’t think it’s possible to be any less interested in the Dr. Pepper Museum.”
Selena laughed and took the small pile of brochures the Irish psychic was holding out of her hands. Cameron pulled them out of her hands and set them on the nightstand. “Badb, you stay here with the others. Selena and I have something to take care of in Findias.”
“What…?” Selena breathed, but Jasper snorted and leaned back in his chair.
“Dude, we all know what you’re whisking her off to the Otherworld to take care of. We’re not deaf.”
Cameron shook his head at Badb and warned, “I’m smiting him when I get back.”
Badb lifted a hand as if to say, “Go for it,” so Jasper grunted at her, too.
“We’ll be back in three days. And Doug, keep this idiot alive,” Cameron sighed, gesturing toward Jasper. “He’s annoying as hell, but occasionally comes in handy.”
“Aw, I love you, too, man,” Jasper cooed.
“Sun god,” Cameron reminded him. “Fire. I’ll use it.”
Selena smiled at Jasper, but the short-lived joviality she’d enjoyed from their familiar bickering vanished when she looked up and saw the tips of the red castle caressing the clouds in the distance. She gasped and let her eyes travel up to the warm blue sky, so reminiscent of the bright blue hydrangeas that used to grow in her Aunt Tara’s front yard in Villa Rica. Selena swallowed a painful knot in her throat and Cameron tugged gently on her hand.
“Let’s find Uscias. He’ll help us. It may just take him a while… can you imagine how many spirits must live here?”
Selena shook her head slowly and watched the ruby red castle warily. Part of her was exhilarated by the prospect of finding her mother’s spirit, but most of her was terrified, the irrational conviction of a child that she’d allowed her mother to die overwhelming her. She could still feel Ninurta’s breath against her ear as he leaned closer to her and whispered, “Your mother is dead. Because you didn’t save her.”
Selena slowed down until her feet dragged the ground, forcing Cameron to stop as well. He put his arms around her and immediately whispered back to that voice in her head, “She loves you, and she’ll be overjoyed to be reunited with her child, to see who you’ve become.”
Selena wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly as she tried to banish the other voice, the one that insistently whispered she’d failed, she’d been failing her entire life, and her mother would only know anger and disappointment over her failure. She remembered the photographs of her so much better than the woman herself, and she could easily pull up those still images of the blonde woman with pale blue eyes that laughed at the toddler on her hip.
Her Aunt Tara had told her so many times as she grew into a teenager and then a young woman that she looked just like her mother. Selena squeezed her eyes closed and imagined that picture, her favorite of so many, and thought she looked nothing like the beautiful, strong woman in that photograph whose daughter had the power to save her and remove the curse that had taken her away far too soon.
What could she possibly have in common with that woman who had battled bravely with a kind of heroism no god in this world or any other could match?
Cameron ran his fingers through her hair and murmured quietly in her ear, chasing away the demons that lied to her more convincingly now than ever before. “Let me find Uscias. Please. Look at you, Selena. How could any mother not be waiting to hold you in her arms again?”
Selena lifted her eyes toward the spiraling towers of the red palace and inhaled slowly, summoning an invisible courage to face her greatest fear, her greatest failure. After all, as Cameron had told her, it could take ages before Uscias found the spirit they were after, roaming among the seemingly endless sea of the dead.
“Ok,” she whispered. “Let’s find him.”
Cameron stepped back onto the marble path that would lead him to the red palace but a loud, thunderous voice carried above them before they could enter the City of the Dead. Selena spun around to see the round, shining face of the wise man who guarded Findias.
“You’ve come already,” he said, opening his arms as he walked toward Selena and Cameron.
Selena shrank against Cameron’s side and glanced up at him. Why would Uscias be expecting them? Unless the Sword had somehow managed to return itself to this magical island city, she couldn’t imagine why its guardian would have the look of a man who had been anticipating the arrival of long lost friends.
One of his large hands rested on Cameron’s shoulder and the other touched Selena’s back then swept her into a gentle, fatherly hug. “Our hope and our future,” he purred as he stepped back from them. “Halfway there.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve got a few days to kill…” Cameron bit his lip and looked around him then flashed that mischievous grin at Uscias. “No pun intended.”
Uscias waved him off. “You’re not here for the Sword or the Tuatha Dé, whether you’re one of them or not quite yet.”
“Well… we don’t have much else we can offer Murna. Cameron ended her curse, isn’t that enough?”
Uscias’s deep, buoyant laugh floated above their heads and he shook his head at the young couple. He tugged on a sleeve on his long, green robe and pointed toward his palace. “Come dine with me. Fionn hasn’t left his mother’s side since she came to Findias so I hardly think you’ll have to worry about any awkward encounters with the former Caoranach.”
“You shouldn’t call her that,” Selena scolded. “Those must be terribly painful memories for her.”
“Perhaps,” Uscias shrugged. “What she can remember anyway.”
Selena stopped walking for the second time and looked up at the old, wise man. “When we were here, she remembered everything…”
“True. But those are not memories Murna wants to hold onto. And here, the demons of our pasts cannot follow us.” Uscias winked at her then motioned for them to keep walking and follow him to his palace. Cameron scowled at his back then his features softened and he shrugged.
“Let’s see how the gods over here eat. I’m putting my money on Dagda’s magic chef though.”
“Usicas isn’t a god,” Selena reminded him.
“Close enough. Dude must be ten thousand years old. What do you think that makes him?”
Uscias laughed again and looked over his shoulder. “It makes me very old, Sun God. Very old, indeed.”
“Older than Badb,” Cameron agreed.
Uscias shook his head but his eyes continued to laugh. “Not quite that old. I was chosen by the Tuatha Dé to guide Findias. I may not age, but I’m not an immortal like you gods.”
“I wasn’t immortal until like… last week,” Cameron pointed out.
Uscias paused by the side of his red palace and touched the wall, opening that mysterious hidden doorway for Cameron and Selena. He stepped aside and waved them in. Cameron smiled at Selena and joked, “Maybe he’ll let me meet Cú Chulainn this time.”
Uscias snorted and followed them inside as the magical doorway closed behind him. “He’s around. Good luck finding him though.”
“About that…” Cameron started but Uscias pointed into a great hall much like the Dagda’s and gestured toward a long table filled with mounds of food that rivaled anything Selena had eaten in the Dagda’s palace.
“A feast fit for our new gods,” Uscias announced proudly.
“I’m not a goddess yet,” Selena reminded him.
Uscias shrugged and pulled a chair away from the table for her. “Close enough, Healing Goddess. The Cauldron will be in your hands soon enough.”
Selena focused on the platter of rolls in front of her as she sat down, t
rying not to show him just how worried she was they would never find the Cauldron and she would never take her place on the pantheon of the Tuatha Dé with Cameron. Some nagging suspicion deep in her soul kept hissing, That’s the way it is. That’s the way it always is. He won’t be yours forever this time either.
Cameron sat beside her and looked at her, puzzled and worried as if his own soul had taunted him with the same threat. Uscias forced a smile in their direction and pulled his own chair away from the table. “Seems as if I’m forgetting something,” he said.
“Can’t be anything edible,” Cameron quipped. “Pretty sure you cleaned out the entire state of Vermont for this meal.”
Selena opened her mouth to joke along with him but Uscias raised a hand and excitedly exclaimed, “Aha!”
“Um… you forgot to invite Vermont?” Cameron asked.
“Close!” Uscias answered. “Guests! We need guests!”
“Guests,” Selena repeated. “Will any do or should we go to Vermont and bring back the whole state?”
Uscias’s eyes sparkled as he shook his head. “No, my dear. Only one will do.”
He stood up again and pulled another chair away from the table, and looked toward the open door. Selena and Cameron watched the empty space for a few seconds before Cameron turned his attention back to the wise man and asked, “Is this an invisible guest? Because I’ll be honest. I don’t know how to make small talk with invisible people I can’t see or hear.”
Uscias lifted a finger and smiled at him then pointed toward the doorway. “Look again.”
Selena looked at the doorway as she heard footsteps approaching the great hall. A woman’s figure emerged, appearing so small and fragile in the enormous cavernous space of the open frame, her blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail and her pale blue eyes brimming with tears as she stared back at the young woman at the table.
Selena slowly rose to her feet but her head spun and the room spun with it. She was afraid to look away from the apparition in front of her, afraid she would disappear for the second time in her life and neither her heart nor her soul would ever heal again.
“Selena,” the woman whispered.
Treasures of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 3) Page 11