by Logan Keys
But the wildling does it.
She releases the arrow. It’s frozen in place—well, to her mind it is because she cannot see me here holding it—my hand is wrapped tightly around the arrow. She watches it with a look of surprise as it dances in the air, some playful motion on my part to break up the tensions, though neither Zeus nor Hades get the joke.
Still, she watches the arrow until I form into my static self, and smile.
I have been told that my smile is quite nice, but her dark eyes narrow on me, and I sense that if this woman had another arrow, it would be finding my cold, black heart about now. She would loose enough to end us all, it would seem.
“You,” she says like a curse before spitting on the ground.
I try not to seem as surprised as I am.
“You took my bother.”
“You saw me?” My head cocks. I remember the sister waiting in the crowd, and her cries had left their mark upon me, but up until now, I’d not realized this was her. She’d been more… clothed before.
“Yes. And I have dreamed of your face,” she whispers. “A nightmare. Because a dream would be me killing you just now. All of you.” Her teeth are gritted with anger and hatred. A thing I am most used to.
She faces Hades, shoulders back, body on full display without an ounce of fear or embarrassment. “I demand that Zeus face me as a mortal. I will battle him if I must. He was dishonorable, and I saw him use his god-powers to defeat my brother who was winning.”
Hades turns to Zeus who finally steps out from behind his hiding place. He’s, at times, an embarrassment. “Is this true?” Hades asks.
“I fought him as a human. This woman is mad with grief.” Zeus’ golden powers flow freely until Hades shuts them down.
“You will not use that here without permission.”
“I will end this if you won’t.” Zeus lifts a bolt of lightning within his palm and I find myself stepping between him and the woman.
“She is not an immortal. She is human. If her time is up, that is for me to decide. Then Hades will determine her judgement.”
But the woman charges forward, pushing me out of the way, onward like a bull towards Zeus—towards her end. I grab onto her arms and pull them behind her back. She struggles until I whisper the song of death to her.
She lives, because I do not finish, but she is stunned enough to stop her fight.
I keep the Amazonian in hand. More for herself than my brother. She would harm herself here, like pricking a finger on a needle, only, more like a million needles to touch us with her flesh in anger. Her hand would crack in half if she lifted it and struck Hades. The Underworld is an unforgiving place to mortals—even now she is paling—and her full figure won’t last.
I close my eyes, soaking up her name through her skin. Her date of life. Her close experiences near death… me. Gaea.
“Now is not the time,” Hades says, and I nod in agreement.
He seems perplexed, but Zeus has stopped his thunder to hear what my brother and I have to say.
“Here, she will starve of life, and she will be a shell in mere days. With less of a human, it would happen in hours, but she is a fierce woman. Are you not, Gaea?” I ask. “It matters not that I take her now or with her own end. What say you, Hades?”
The woman might think me cruel. She might think me only reading off her life as if it were nothing to me. And both things are true. To me, she is but another number on the list. A thing Hades taught me to understand well when I became the figment and holder of death. It is in my hands same as Zeus and his bolts. And Gaea’s body knows it even if her mind does not.
Hades frowns but asks me, “What do you see?”
“She is a Warrior Princess and sister to Alastor the Great. She has seen many battles and won them all. He was touched by Ares but what she does not know is that once, as a child, she also was touched by Artemis. Together, their conquest has reached far across the seas.”
I feel her stiffen, but if she is surprised she doesn’t admit so. “Where is my brother!” Gaea demands.
Hades ignores her. “You claim Zeus dishonored himself. I would like to know what proof of this claim you have.”
“My own eyes. He had a shield he used to defend himself against my brother’s blows. At once I saw it fly of its own accord to knock my brother down, and while he had fallen, Zeus jumped farther than any man could and landed, stabbing my brother through the heart. He used god-powers. He was not fighting as a mortal. He has no honor.”
Not even the underworld could ignore the human tears for a loved one. It was as if the walls themselves took what she gave, pressuring us to do something for the misdeed. Even in hell there must be balance.
“My brother’s blood cries from the ground, oh dark one,” she bites off and I shudder to my core. Hades’ gaze meets mine.
Gaea is doing what the old ones can. She’d spoken in the tongue of the gods that rarely mortals knew how to use. She went on, “My brother’s lifeblood will taint you, Zeus. It will corrupt your powers until they turn upon you from your misuse. Oh god of thunder, oh king of gods, oh leader up high on Mount Olympus, I claim your life in trade for my brother’s now, this moment. I demand that you forfeit all in repayment of what is owed!”
“Stop her,” Zeus says in a panic. “Stop her and shut her up. Or I will!”
Lightning shimmers in the darkness, ricocheting off the walls. In response, the souls of the lost begin to moan, a mourning call of the damned, so loudly that nothing else can be heard.
I tighten my grip until it’s too painful to go on so that Gaea chokes on the words that spill out of her mouth until she utters them no more. She doesn’t understand what she is doing, it is an ancient thing to speak the tongue of the gods, to demand that they hear you, and to force justice, but Hades and I, we are the witnesses now. There must be balance.
“Silence!” my brother shouts, and all becomes calm. The souls too cease their noise.
“Zeus,” a familiar, deep voice says from behind me. “This woman has made complaint, and you shall hear it.”
Ares strides forward and takes his bow from her bloodless hands. She drops it easily, no doubt I’ve been cutting off the circulation for minutes now to keep her from attacking my brother.
“I have heard it,” Zeus says with thundering rage. “But it is untrue!”
He cannot meet our gaze. The halls themselves know that he is lying.
“Has someone summoned me?” Artemis shimmers into the space just to the front of Gaea and me.
“I think it’s only fair if you were here as well sister,” Ares says, coming to stand beside her. “One of your patrons demands justice.”
Artemis turns to face us with a confused expression. When Gaea sees her, the Amazonian drops from her considerable height to her knees. “Goddess.” Her eyes are low.
I’ve let her go but shadow her kneeling form.
“Sure,” says Hades. “To her you’ll bow.”
Ares turns on Zeus. “Her brother was a patron. If what she says is true, you must repay what has been taken.”
“It’s a lie.”
“Why did you fight the human, anyway?” I ask.
“It matters not,” Artemis says gently helping Gaea to her feet. “I see no lies in this young one and we know that your Styx is behind all of this. What else is there but chaos wherever she goes? I will see that your justice is seen after,” she promises Gaea. “Can someone give her clothing please?”
“What, here?” I say and Artemis quirks a brow, then sighs, as if remembering anything from the underworld would only quicken Gaea’s death. “They would poison her.”
Artemis and I share a quick glance of understanding. As usual, we are on the same side of a debate once again. I give a subtle nod to reassure her. I will not end Gaea here and now, even if it should be asked of me.
“What happened?” Artemis asks, turning to Zeus.
He steps forward, his eyes turning soft when Artemis approaches. They are close
to one another, and their goldenness is almost too much to look straight upon. The original Zeus, her father, shines within Artemis, and while she is bright, her brother, Ares is dark.
They are powerful children of the original and terrible Zeus, but the Zeus of today still can outmatch either one, and so while she is viewing him with disdain, she is wise to not show it too much.
“I did not use my god-powers, Artemis,” Zeus says. He’s watching her carefully, as he always does.
Long since Zeus came into the power he holds now, he has wanted her. He loves Styx in a strange way, a sporting way, like a hunt, but he covets only one with all of his heart: Artemis.
Thankfully wedged between Artemis and Zeus’ lust is Ares.
“We can ask the one who does know,” Artemis says slyly glancing in my direction and I have remained neutral thus far, but if anyone can get me to stand firmly on a side, it is the golden-haired beauty. I regret coming from the shadows now. “Thanatos. You were there to collect Alastor the Great. Did you sense him killed by a human or…”
The room waits, Gaea too turns to face me, hope sitting veiled within her gaze. That I should bring truth and light to the situation of darkness and death… I speak without doubt. “He was struck down by an immortal.”
Thanatos
The finality of my statement brings the room to chaos. Everyone gasps and Zeus looks away, but Gaea turns rabid. “You snake! Curse you! Curse you, Zeus! You stole my brother from me!”
I contain her once again, and though I know I am bruising her arms, she fights me all the more. How she has energy at all in the underworld is a miracle.
Zeus feels the power in her curse and he rages. Storming over, thunder in his palms, lightning in his eyes, any mortal would cower—anyone else, but not this Gaea. She shouts at him, “Go ahead and do it! Dead is better than living a lie for the gods to hide their deviousness. Strike me down. Complete your curse and make your evil full circle!”
Ares throws his head back and laughs. “She is a human of humans! Bring her back so that I can thrust her into battle for me like I have her brother. A wondrous creature she is, indeed! We must make haste so that she can use this hatred for my campaigns.”
Artemis moves before Gaea and she touches her face, calming her instantly. “No. It will not end like this.” She turns to Hades. “You must revive the brother. Death should not have come. It was not his time.”
“That cannot happen,” Hades says. “He has been judged. He is in his eternity.” My brother glances at Gaea. “In paradise.”
Gaea’s body relaxes in my arms. Zeus smiles. “Agreed,” he says, and I am wary of his sudden agreement. “A trade. Justice is what we all want, right? There must be balance. I admit it now that I might have accidentally used a shield with power, unwittingly. I am sorry for the loss of such a great warrior. And there must be repayment to this woman. A life for a life. So now the brother returns but she remains here.”
Hades frowns and I shake my head at him. How would that create the balance? But Gaea is too eager to save her sibling. “Fine. My life for his.”
Zeus strides over to Hades. “Seal it.”
“Are you certain?” Hades asks as equally confused as I am.
“I am.” Gaea stands firm.
“But you will never leave,” Hades warns.
“So be it.”
Zeus presses, “It is settled. Hades, seal it!”
“Yes.” Hades’ decree rings through the hall. He has no choice now but to agree. “Her brother is free to go. But Gaea, you will be forced to live out your days in the underworld until your passing which will be short lived.”
I sense already her brother being given back life with merely a thought. He has gone back to the human world by Hades’ decree.
“And painful,” I say angrily letting her go. I come in front of her and glare into her face before rounding on my brother and Zeus. I lift my hand to swipe her life so that they see what they’ve brought this day. “There is no need to make her suffer. I will take her now.”
But Hades puts a hand up to stop me. “She will expire soon enough. There is no need.”
“It is her choice,” I say. Gently, I stare deeply into her eyes, coming closer. “Would you wait for pain and suffering?” My voice is the lulling rhythm I use on all those near death. “Or can I take you now, Warrior Princess?”
Her words are barely audible. “I want to feel it.”
Hades waves a hand and Gaea disappears before I can claim her. I stare at the empty space with fury. Gaea is in the cells below now; her body will wilt even faster surrounded so closely by the walls of hell. I don’t want to feel as I do, but pity, anger, and hatred fill me as I turn to glare at a smiling Zeus. “Pleased with yourself,” I bite out. “You have championed her pain to hide your mistake. A family ruined, and it’s not even been an entire day.”
Ares snarls at the loss of his warrior. Even if he has the brother now again, he ever is looking for a reason to hate Zeus. Ares spins on his feet to leave, as disgusted as I am with the display. It irks the warrior that anyone should play with his blessed ones as often as they do. The brave draws the eyes of the gods so often that they live short lives and are often the fatal reward of bets.
“Not so fast,” Zeus says to Ares’ back. “We are about justice today, are we not? That is what you and Artemis did employ.”
“This was not justice. This was pure abuse of power,” Ares says.
“She agreed to the terms. They were enough for the girl, and so now you too shall face your ‘justice.’”
I begin to realize the reason for him to capitulate so easily. He’d wanted to use his own confession with faux punishment to jettison some sort of power play, but how and what?
“Did the girl not steal your bow somehow?” Zeus asks knowing it is a grievous offense that she had. “After all, a human not only got a weapon that could kill an immortal but she almost performed that act itself. There should be punishment. Don’t you agree, Hades?”
Hades remains silent as we share a look. Things are unfolding, and now it becomes clear when Zeus says, “Your bow was entrusted to you by the original Zeus in case the wars came beyond the human world and entered here. But it was lost today to a human girl who would have used it to end me. I demand justice as well. And since this matter is not of the underworld, I will determine your punishment myself.”
“Punished?” Ares snarls. “Because your whore dared you to fight a human? Alastor almost did us a favor by killing you in human form, but you were too much of a coward to accept the loss! You are weak, Zeus. Nothing like your predecessor and my father. If he would only show his face, he would smite you down from your high place so fast your head would spin. Because of your weakness, an innocent has to die for your pride and hubris!”
“She is not a whore!” The hall shakes with Zeus’ rage. “I fear nothing, and you have gone too far this time, Ares. You may rule war, but I rule you, and it’s about time you bowed to me as is proper.” Zeus flicks a wrist and knocks Ares from his feet. With a lifted hand, the bow floats to him. “Your bow. Your powers. Since humans are what you pride more than your own, human you will be until you expire.”
Ares shouts, “You can’t do that!
Hades shakes his head, eyes closing. He’d known this would turn ugly.
“No!” Artemis rushes towards her brother stopping at his side in horror. Ares, the immortal, is no more. He turns to her with a pleading look, his skin pale now, sweat forming from the underworld’s power already crushing his soul. He is… human.
“Stop please!” Artemis begs.
When Zeus merely stares at her and crosses his arms, her wings unfurl, great golden things of strength and power. The gold light shines from her, though pretty it is, it is equally deadly. Rainbows of color shimmer across her skin until she turns to silver and gold, like a statue. She’s at her highest form when she raises her hand to Zeus. The power she unleashes paints the hall in dancing light, and I have to look away.
Hades shouts for them to stop but I only hear it as a whisper above the noise that is Artemis’ wrath.
A bolt of lightning strikes through the light, blue compared to the gold, the height of it from the top of the hall, to place a burning hole into the floor. Artemis stumbles back, one wing sheared off. She screams in fury when she realizes it. Another lightning bolt strikes, and the other is cut from her back.
She’s been stripped of her glorious wings.
The underworld itself feels about to collapse. Hades steps between them. “Enough!” he bellows.
The light dims, and the hall is once again bleak and quiet. Ares is still covering his face, no doubt his human eyes will be blind for a time from the bright power. He touches around himself, trying to find his sister. She grabs his hands, her back bleeding down her white dress.
“Take your bother and go before more harm befalls him,” Hades says to Artemis who grabs her brother’s hand.
“How can she take him when she has no wings?” I ask.
She touches the hole in her back and hisses with pain.
Pain?
I gasp. “Have you made her human? You go too far, Zeus.”
Zeus shrugs. “I should have. But no, she has some powers. Limited. She will feel only human pain and need. I thought it fitting since the cold virgin queen has never felt anything at all.”
Artemis glares at Hades. “Stop him. This is your land. Do something.”
Hades will not rise against Zeus. Neither will I. It would mean a full out war between the lands, and Hades has children, who Zeus would target most. It is not a war worth fighting for over one Warrior Princess, no matter how I feel about the evil committed this day.
Artemis stumbles to her feet, wings clipped, face drenched in tears—tears she would not have ever shed before.
“Hades,” I say. “Get them out of here.”
Hades, Artemis, and Ares all disappear.