The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1)

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The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1) Page 12

by S. M. Schmitz


  “We’re not exactly sure what Loviatar did to them,” she explained. “But they’re trapped inside a glass prison just like Odin was. And we couldn’t break through the walls. Mjölnir didn’t work; fire didn’t work. These walls are seemingly invincible, but if we don’t get your gods out of there soon, whatever disease Loviatar afflicted them with will kill them.”

  Ukko’s eyes clouded, and Anita sat beside him, holding his hand and speaking gentle words of encouragement. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, that deadly anger was gone. Cameron had seen it from him before, and he had to admit – to Selena anyway – that he was awfully impressed at how quickly Ukko regained control of his temper.

  “I’m assuming Thor was with you,” Ukko said. “Didn’t he explain why gods are imprisoned within glass buildings?”

  “Um, no actually,” Cameron responded. “We didn’t think to ask. We were kinda horrified about the dying gods and our own helplessness.”

  “It can be penetrated,” Ukko promised. “It’s most likely enchanted, just like Odin’s prison was. Thor may know how Odin was freed, but since he wasn’t let out by the Norse, perhaps Odin never mentioned it. And the enchantments might be different anyway.”

  “So what’s the deal with the glass prisons?” Cameron asked. “Only glass can be cursed?”

  Ukko shook his head. “No, but glass allows captors to see inside without ever having to open the prison. A god who’s stuck in a glass prison won’t die – not from disease or starvation or anything else. They can be forced into one after being weakened, either from injuries like in a battle, or disease, like Loviatar must have done to my gods.”

  “Oh, my God,” Selena breathed.

  Their fate was even worse than they’d thought. Both he and Selena had assumed the suffering gods would soon die, but instead, they would remain helpless in their pain and agony forever unless they were freed from that Hell.

  Cameron nodded but had to ask her. “Which god? Loviatar or the ones stuck inside the glass prison?”

  “Cameron,” she sighed, “not now.”

  “Ok, but if we invoke Loviatar when you really meant some other Finnish god, it’s totally your fault.”

  Ukko blinked at him then turned to Selena. “Summon Loviatar and get her to tell you how to break the enchantment. Then you’ll be able to open the prison and heal the gods she most likely threw in there for refusing to accept her as my replacement.”

  Cameron scowled at him because he hated being ignored.

  “What if she won’t tell us?” Selena asked, obviously ignoring him, too.

  But Cameron knew better than to scowl at her.

  “You’ll have to make her,” Ukko insisted. “Not you but Cameron and Thor can handle it.”

  “Still not cool with torture, Ukko,” Cameron interrupted. “I don’t think Thor would be either.”

  “My gods are in there suffering!” Ukko exclaimed. “You have to do something!”

  “Selena and I can summon her,” Cameron offered. “And you can do whatever you want to her.”

  Ukko shook his head again. “I’ve already told you. I’m never leaving Findias again.”

  “Well, I don’t want to bring her here!” Cameron exclaimed. “What if she somehow got away from us? We’d have an evil goddess roaming among the spirits who are supposed to be in a perfectly safe and peaceful world.”

  “That’s true,” Anita interjected. “They can’t summon her to Findias. This has to be handled on Earth. And it’s not like Cameron and Selena won’t bring you back.”

  Cameron waved a hand at Anita and said, “Listen to your girlfriend. She’s a lot smarter than you.”

  “Wife,” Ukko corrected. “And…”

  “Wait,” Cameron and Selena both said at the same time. “Wife?”

  Ukko just shrugged at them, but a smile threatened to ruin his attempt at nonchalance.

  Anita smiled and shrugged at them, too. “Uscias married us.”

  Cameron gaped at the couple sitting across from him, but Selena regained her ability to speak first. “I’m not sure if I’m more shocked that you’re married or that you didn’t invite us to your wedding.”

  “There was no wedding,” Anita clarified. “Just Uscias, Ukko, and me. When Ukko asked me to marry him, I thought we’d wait until you both returned and we would have a big celebration, but he pointed out that you two always seem to be in some sort of trouble and we might be waiting centuries.”

  Cameron scowled at the Finnish thunder god again and snapped, “That’s not… entirely accurate. As soon as we figure out who the real Guardian of Tara is, we’re coming home.”

  “The what?” Ukko asked.

  Cameron ignored him, mostly just to pay him back for doing the same thing a few moments before. “Speaking of, any chance you’ve seen Lugh around?”

  “No, but if he’s supposed to be some guardian, then that role is yours now,” Ukko pointed out. “Even though I have no clue what that role is. But if it belonged to Lugh then it’s your responsibility now.”

  “We don’t think it was ever Lugh’s responsibility,” Selena corrected. “We just think he might know something about where the Stone of Fal originally came from.”

  Anita tilted her head at the young gods and tapped her fingers on the table. “It’s not one of the Tuatha Dé’s?”

  “Apparently not,” Cameron said. “They found it in Falias and claimed it, just like the island cities themselves. But it’s kinda suspicious that four magical island cities were just floating around empty, don’t you think?”

  “We’re floating?” Ukko asked.

  “Don’t be a smartass,” Cameron retorted. “That’s my job.”

  “We can’t come home until Huitzilopochtli is dead,” Selena said.

  “According to Nemain, that should only take a few more days,” Cameron interrupted.

  Selena snickered. “Loviatar is throwing a wrench into her plans. We may need a full week. But I’m not sure what to do about the Stone of Fal. I don’t think it’s ours, which means we have no right to claim it. But since it was taken by an alliance you were a part of, Ukko, perhaps you know where the Slavs hid it. Thor doesn’t know, which means the Norse don’t have it.”

  “I’m not Slavic,” Ukko reminded her.

  “No, but you were part of the alliance in the first battle and you did know more about the Sword and Cauldron than you originally let on,” Selena argued.

  “I knew who originally took those Treasures,” Ukko insisted. “The Slavs originally took the Stone, but that doesn’t mean they still have it or even know anything about it.”

  “We know the Slavs took it,” Selena said impatiently. “The Norse took the Sword and Spear, but Badb was able to get Lugh’s Spear back, then the Slavs were sent after the Cauldron and Stone. Perun still had the Cauldron and was able to give it to Huitzilopochtli, so chances are, they still have the Stone, right?”

  Ukko raised a dismissive shoulder. “That Stone is ridiculously heavy unlike your Cauldron. I doubt the Slavs have been carrying it around for five hundred years. Wherever they put it, they probably just left it there hoping no one would find it.”

  “How do you hide a huge singing stone?” Cameron asked. “Did they bury it?”

  “Oh, no,” Selena moaned. “They probably did bury it. And Perun is dead so how will we ever find it?”

  “I realize this Stone is important to you,” Ukko interrupted. “But have you forgotten most of my pantheon is trapped in a glass prison writhing in pain?”

  “Speaking of,” Anita interrupted. “Ukko, you should go with them. This wasn’t their problem to begin with. Didn’t you often tell them the Sword and the Battle of the Gods had nothing to do with you?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “Then you’re going,” Anita said. “Loviatar is causing all of these problems because of your absence. It’s only right that you clean up her mess then come home. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “But Anita,” Ukko trie
d again, and again, she stopped him, this time with a look that Cameron knew well. That was her, “Stop screwing around and behave yourself” look.

  He’d gotten that look from her more than once.

  Ukko sighed and admitted defeat. “All right. I’ll go.”

  “You’ve got a few minutes,” Cameron said. “We need to talk to Uscias first. Want to make sure Lugh got my letter.”

  “If he told you he’d bring it, I’m sure he did,” Anita assured him.

  Cameron and Selena exchanged nervous glances but neither corrected the Irish psychic. After all, she had to live on the wise man’s island for eternity, and that seemed like an awfully long time to Cameron.

  “Meet us by the red palace in fifteen minutes,” Cameron told Ukko. “We’ll grab Badb and Nemain again to go after Loviatar.”

  “Fine,” Ukko mumbled. He cast a sly glance in Anita’s direction with an even slyer smile. “I hope you’re planning on making this up to me when I get back.”

  “Ew!” Cameron exclaimed. “Selena, lobotomy.”

  “Not if I get it first,” Selena muttered.

  “He’s been a bad influence on you,” Anita told Selena.

  “Why do people keep telling her that?” Cameron protested.

  Selena crossed her arms and shot back, “He’s been endlessly loving and patient and has sacrificed more for me than any other god or man.”

  “Selena…” Cameron whispered. He glanced awkwardly at Anita and reached a hesitant hand toward Selena’s arm. “She was just messing with me. It’s Anita. You know she’d never mistreat either of us.”

  Selena looked away from the surprised demigoddess but wouldn’t unfold her arms. She kept her jaw clenched tightly and Cameron’s stomach turned. What the hell was going on with the only goddess he’d ever loved?

  “Sorry,” he told Anita who forced a smile in his direction. She mumbled something back like, “It’s ok,” but Cameron was still far more concerned about Selena’s outbursts than Anita’s hurt feelings. It’s not that he didn’t care about Anita’s feelings – he liked her and considered her a good friend, but he’d known Selena through three lifetimes and she was always a gentle, compassionate goddess. Something was obviously wrong with her, and whatever it was scared him a hell of a lot more than all of the gods who had him on their hit list now.

  “Just… give us a few minutes,” he told Ukko again. He led Selena outside and as soon as the door closed behind them, he put his arms around her and murmured, “What’s the matter, love?”

  “Nothing,” she lied. But she held onto him tightly as if everything in the world had suddenly gone wrong after all.

  “Selena, we’ve been going non-stop for months now. And then there was the Battle and you getting killed… you need a break. Just stay at the palace for a few days and let us take care of Loviatar.”

  “How?” Selena cried. “How will you heal the gods and goddesses inside her prison? As soon as they’re let out, whatever is keeping them trapped in that Hell will catch up to them, and they’ll die if I’m not there to heal them.”

  “Then I’ll summon you as soon as we get in,” Cameron promised. “In the meantime, you can go back to our room and get some rest.”

  Selena shook her head stubbornly even though Cameron could feel her exhaustion. “If you’re going, then I’m going, too.”

  “Selena…” Cameron begged, but Uscias’s cheerful voice interrupted him.

  “Back again?” he called out to them.

  Cameron looked over his shoulder at the wise man of Findias and nodded. “We needed Ukko. And while we’re here, we figured we’d see if Lugh got my letter.”

  Uscias’s features shifted just slightly, and he forced a smile back into place. “I delivered it as promised, but Lugh gave me no response to return to you.”

  Cameron sensed Selena’s fatigue shifting toward anger again so he quickly spoke before she could call Uscias on his lie. “Thanks,” Cameron hurriedly said. “If he changes his mind, let us know, ok?”

  Uscias’s expression shifted again, this time to something like relief, and he nodded and smiled a far more genuine smile at the young couple. “Of course. I’ll let Badb know, and she can contact you if you’re still on Earth.”

  “Badb?” Cameron groaned. “Why not Macha?”

  “Aren’t you ready yet?” Ukko sighed.

  Cameron shook his head and gestured toward Uscias. “Not until he promises to send Macha instead of Badb.”

  Doesn’t matter, Selena told him bitterly. Neither one is ever coming for us with the message that Lugh wants to talk to us.

  Cameron glanced at Ukko whose pale blue eyes darted uncertainly between them. As a psychic with fewer misgivings than Badb or Anita about eavesdropping on people’s thoughts and conversations, he’d most likely picked up on Selena’s comment and their suspicion that Lugh would never send for them because he’d never received their message at all.

  “Fine, send Badb if he comes looking for us,” Cameron pretended to concede. “We have an evil goddess to deal with right now, or I’d stay until you backed down. And we both know I’m way more stubborn and will eventually win this battle anyway.”

  “Until next time then, Sun God,” Uscias laughed.

  But even Ukko, who normally didn’t miss the chance to point out how stubborn and annoying Cameron could be, didn’t join Uscias in his teasing. He kept his eyes fixed on the young god until the frozen Finnish forest surrounded them then exhaled slowly, sending thin white clouds in front of his face.

  “Why is Uscias lying about delivering a note to one of your own gods?” he asked.

  “That,” Cameron answered slowly, “is exactly what we’ve been trying to figure out for days.”

  Cameron and Selena led Ukko back to the clearing where the glass prison trapped a dozen of his gods beneath a glass floor. They couldn’t hear any sounds from within, but by the way the gods moved, Cameron imagined them moaning from the agony of whatever Loviatar had stricken them with. Selena turned away so she wouldn’t have to look at them anymore. Cameron couldn’t blame her. He didn’t want to look at them anymore either.

  Ukko curled his fingers into tight fists then flexed them again. Over and over his fingers curled and uncurled as his pale blue eyes bore into the side of the prison.

  Cameron swallowed and cleared his throat. “Do you, um, recognize any of them? I mean… like this?”

  Ukko nodded. “I still recognize them all.”

  “I’ll get the others then summon Loviatar,” Cameron promised him. “We’ve got London with us now. What’s her deal anyway? Not sure I trust her… beyond the fact that she’s Greek.”

  “You didn’t trust me either,” Ukko reminded him.

  “Of course not,” Cameron said. “You spent three years chasing Selena, you tried to abduct Jasper, and your minions tried to kill me in a motel parking lot.”

  Ukko finally looked away from the glass prison and blinked at him, lifting his chin in the air in that defiant way of his when he couldn’t possibly understand that he was being accused of something villainous. “We never tried to kill you. We were simply trying to restrain you both. Why would I ever want you dead? Even as a demigod, you proved yourself to be quite powerful.”

  Cameron held up his hand and starting ticking off fingers. “You chased us through the French Quarter then tried to strike us with lightning…”

  “If I were trying to strike you with lightning, I wouldn’t have missed,” Ukko interrupted.

  “You sent your god with the weird name after us in the parking lot of the motel,” Cameron continued as if Ukko hadn’t spoken.

  “Nyyrikki wouldn’t have hurt her,” Ukko insisted. “They were ordered to bring her in, that’s all.”

  “Dude,” Cameron said, “kidnapping people is not ok! How many times do we have to go over this?”

  “How long are you three going to stand in this forest arguing about the past?” Badb asked.

  Cameron waved a hand in her direction
. “Now look what you’ve done. You’ve made the old crow show up.”

  “I thought when Nemain kicked your ass at the eating contest, part of her victory included no more teasing her sister?” Thor pointed out.

  “I’ll totally send you back to Falias,” Cameron threatened.

  “You’re finally starting to grow on me,” Nemain told Thor.

  “I’m totally sending you back to Murias,” Cameron told Nemain.

  “Would you just summon Loviatar so we can deal with her already?” Badb groaned.

  “Did you really ditch us to shack up with someone in the Otherworld?” London asked Ukko.

  Cameron arched an eyebrow at the brash goddess. “You’d better be able to run a hell of a lot faster than the speed of light.”

  Ukko shot her the same defensive look he’d just given Cameron. “Jasper is an exceptional replacement.”

  “I think we still need to work on your English,” Cameron told him.

  “Jasper sent me to help them!” London complained, waving her hands at the group of gods who just shrugged back at her.

  “You probably did something to piss him off, and this is your punishment,” Thor told her.

  “It couldn’t have been that bad,” she muttered.

  “Loviatar,” Selena sighed.

  “Now she’s that bad,” Badb said. “But something tells me we can’t just beat her until she reveals the trick to opening the prison.”

  “We’re not going to get it open by standing around arguing either,” London complained.

  “So do I summon her or not?” Cameron asked.

  A chorus of yeses and nos answered him, and he grunted at all of them except Selena. “Can we ditch them here? I could use a nap.”

  “And a po-boy?” she teased.

  “Somebody might have ruined those for me,” he mumbled.

  “You have an incredibly fragile ego,” Nemain said.

  “I’m a man,” he snapped. “Of course I have an incredibly fragile ego.”

 

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