by Mary Evans
He stared intently into the dark green eyes of his rescuer.
‘Why now?’ he asked after a long pause.
‘Because you need me,’ she replied.
‘I needed you for two thousand years beneath Stonehenge,’ said Thanatos.
‘You wanted me then,’ she said with neither emotion nor apology. ‘You need me now.’
To anyone but the Daemon of Death, his saviour would have been a truly terrifying vision. Her face and torso had the allure of a beautiful woman, her long black hair cascading down the curves of her tawny skin. But then there were the spiky black wings protruding from each shoulder blade, the clawed feet tucked beneath her feathered legs and the blood-stained talons where her hands should have been. The expression painted on her beautiful face was like staring straight into the heart of fear. A single flash of her lurid green eyes warned you that this creature could inflict unimaginable pain. And that she would enjoy every second.
The only sound in the cave came from Thanatos’s long bony fingers drumming on the arm of his throne.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked at last.
‘In hiding,’ she replied. ‘Zeus killed your father and imprisoned you. I did not wish to share either fate.’
‘I was cheated . . .’
‘You were weak,’ she hissed, stepping closer. ‘If it weren’t for your brother . . .’
‘If it weren’t for my brother, Zeus never would have defeated me!’ shouted Thanatos, leaping from his throne. ‘Hypnos stole my Chaos Stones. He betrayed me . . .’
‘You betrayed yourself!’ she said firmly. ‘Your failure cost everything.’
‘But I . . .’
‘SILENCE!’ screeched the creature, unfurling her wings in fury.
Thanatos drew an angry breath, but said no more. He knew better than to argue.
‘For two thousand years I have lived in the shadows,’ she continued. ‘I have watched. I have waited. And now it is time.’
‘Time for what?’ said Thanatos.
‘To claim your father’s legacy!’ she shrieked. ‘Now you are free, it is time for you to earn what he laid down his life for. It is time for you to rule the world!’
Thanatos limped back to his throne. ‘Don’t you think I’ve been trying?’ he said. ‘Don’t you think that’s how I ended up here?’
‘At the hands of a mortal child!’ she cackled derisively. ‘What would your father say? You should be ashamed to call yourself—’
‘He has the Earth Stone,’ said Thanatos.
‘I know,’ spat his tormentor. ‘Why do you think I’m here? If the Gods reunite the Chaos Stones, all hope is lost. We have to get to them first. Where is your brother?’
‘I have no idea and care even less,’ growled Thanatos.
‘We need to find him. Hypnos should be here with us.’
‘Never!’ shouted Thanatos. ‘He’s a traitor, a loose cannon and a fool.’
‘He won his freedom and you lost yours.’ She laughed. ‘You tell me who’s the fool!’
Thanatos glowered on his throne.
‘You leave Hypnos to me,’ said the visitor more calmly, folding her wings back down her spine. ‘The Gods will find him. I’ll be there in the shadows when they do. But what are you going to do about the Earth Stone?’
‘I can’t touch the boy,’ said Thanatos. ‘So I need to get inside his mind. I need him to give me that stone of his own free will . . .’
‘You are a disgrace to your father’s name!’ she spat. ‘Do you think the mighty Erebus would have wasted time with the child’s mind?! No – he’d reach inside his body and rip out his beating heart for his Chaos Stones!’
‘And what use is this?’ roared Thanatos. ‘The prophecy is clear! I can’t kill him!’
The Goddess of the Night tossed her head back with a joyful howl, letting ragged tendrils of black hair slither down her body, unfurling her jet black wings to their sharp tips before wrapping them around her body like a shroud.
‘But I can!’ she cried with a laugh like blood dripping.
She turned to leave the Cave of Sleep and Death, her talons scratching on the stony floor.
‘Without your stones you are weak,’ she said, spreading her wings to take flight. ‘Stay here. I will fetch your brother. I’ll be back before dawn.’
‘I’m afraid the days of you telling me what to do are long gone,’ said Thanatos, rising to his full height. ‘I will do as I please. Your plan will fail. Mine will not. And as for my brother – Nyx, I’m warning you . . .’
Nyx swivelled at the cave’s entrance and stared hard at the Daemon of Death.
‘I don’t respond well to threats,’ she warned. ‘And Thanatos?’
‘What?’ snapped Thanatos, rubbing his bruised body.
The Goddess of the Night smiled coldly. ‘That’s “Mother” to you.’
11. Inferno
Hades’s casino was fashioned like a vast rocky cave, lit by blazing multi-coloured torches. Over the entrance, the casino’s name, scorched brightly into the Asphodel gloom in huge burning letters, greeted the stream of immortal gamblers trying their luck:
INFERNO
WHERE SINNERS ARE WINNERS!
After a slow voyage on the Ship of Death – made considerably longer by Charon, the immortal boatman’s views on the Zodiac Council’s new congestion charge along the River Styx – Elliot, Virgo and Hermes leapt from the wooden boat and hurried through the casino’s enormous gambling floor, past whirring fruit machines and excited dice throwers, around spinning roulette wheels and tense card games.
‘I CAN’T TALK! I’M PLAYING POKER!’ yelled a fairy on a mobile phone at a nearby table. ‘NO, I’M BLUFFING! THESE CARDS ARE RUBBISH!’
‘Elementals . . .’ scoffed Virgo. ‘Gambling is for the sub-optimal.’
‘Babe – you must be a right laugh on a night out,’ said Hermes.
Elliot let out a big yawn. He had spent another sleepless night considering the latest bombshell that Thanatos was on the loose. The Gods hadn’t been at all happy with him leaving Home Farm, but Hades had insisted that Elliot needed to come with Hermes. Besides, Elliot wanted to know the score.
His mind flashed back to the Cave of Sleep and Death.
I can give you your mother back, Thanatos had promised.
Elliot’s hand went to his father’s watch in his pocket, the watch that contained the Earth Stone he’d nearly given the Daemon of Death. Thanatos had told him that he could heal Josie if Elliot gave him the four Chaos Stones.
Elliot pushed the thought away. Thanatos was free. Surely he’d be coming straight for him?
But if Thanatos is free, his dark voice said, he can help Mum.
At the back of the casino was a huge black door, covered with small sculptures of men and women. In bronze letters across the middle were the words:
Abandon All Money, Ye Who Enter Here
Staff Only
The door was guarded by a burly security centaur in a tuxedo.
‘Mate. Let us in,’ panted Hermes.
‘Nah. Mate,’ came the centaur’s reply. ‘This area is restricted.’
‘Seriously. Mate – I have to see my Uncle Hades,’ Hermes grunted, trying to squeeze past the half-man-half-horse mountain in his way. ‘So do us a solid and shift, yeah?’
‘Mr Hades ain’t seeing no one today,’ said the guard, holding Hermes’s head at arm’s length. ‘And that includes you. Mate.’
‘I hear you. Friend,’ said Hermes, through gritted teeth, ‘but we need some face time. It’s urgent.’
‘Sure,’ said the guard, ‘you’ve spent your life savings. I see it all the time. Not my problem. Maybe you should phone a . . . friend.’
‘Not being funny or nothing, but we don’t have time for this,’ said Hermes.
With lightning speed he grabbed Elliot and Virgo, lifted them off the ground, flew over the centaur’s head, kicked the door open and slammed it quickly shut behind them all.
‘Ouch,’ mo
aned Virgo as she pulled herself off the floor. ‘That was uncomfortable.’
‘That was epic,’ said Elliot admiringly, just as Hermes threw his hands above his head.
‘Uncle Hades! Don’t shoot! Seriously!’ he yelled.
Elliot spun round, instinctively raising his hands too. A bulky man in a black suit was sitting in a red velvet chair, a pistol aimed in their direction.
Virgo pulled her What’s What out for guidance.
‘HOIMES!’ Hades bellowed in delight, replacing the gun in the drawer with a sigh. ‘Geez, Louise, I haven’t been that scared since I saw my last lawyer’s bill. How ya bin? It’s bin for ever, get over here!’
Relieved, Elliot watched the two Gods hug.
‘And who are these skinny drinks o’water?’ asked Hades, winking at Elliot and Virgo.
‘I am Virgo, Constellation of the Zodiac Council . . . well, sort of . . . and Guardian of the Stationery Cupboard. Almost,’ said Virgo clumsily.
‘Geez,’ laughed Hades. ‘That ain’t gonna make your business cards easy. And you are?’
‘Elliot Hooper,’ grinned Elliot, shaking Hades’s hand. He could tell he was going to like the God of the Underworld.
‘So what’s the deal with Thanatos, Uncle H?’ asked Hermes. ‘How do you know he’s out?’
‘Cos I know people, who know people, who used to be people,’ said Hades. ‘Nothing happens in the Underworld I don’t know about. Used to be my ’hood. Don’t know where he is. Don’t know what he’s doin’. But no doubt about it. He’s free. So you need to watch ya back. And ya front. And all the stuff in between.’
‘You’re not wrong,’ said Hermes, looking over at Elliot.
Elliot returned his anxious gaze. ‘If Thanatos is out, we need to find the rest of the Chaos Stones,’ he said.
Yes, you do, said his dark voice. For Mum.
‘To stop him, and save the world from his Daemon army,’ Elliot added firmly.
‘Too right, mate,’ sighed Hermes. ‘But the only way to find the Chaos Stones is to get our mitts on Hypnos. He’s the only geezer who knows where he hid them. And he’s harder to find than flattering Lycra. Boom, bosh, back to square one.’
‘Well, that’s where you come in, short stuff!’ said Hades.
‘Me?’ said Elliot.
‘Yoos,’ said Hades. ‘I got some good noos for ya. It’s a long story, so take a load awf.’
Hermes dropped into a chair, but immediately sprang up again as a desperate banging started beneath him.
‘Shut! Up!’ he yelled from three feet in the air.
‘You gotta be kiddin’ me,’ sighed Hades, guiding Hermes to another chair before rolling away the rug to reveal a trapdoor in the floor.
‘Scuse me,’ said Hades to his guests as he lifted the hatch. ‘Hey, Benny!’ he shouted down the hole, ‘you don’t like your new digs, maybe next time you’ll keep your hands outta my till, you thievin’ joik.’
He slammed the trapdoor back down on the dirty fingers that had clutched the edge and listened to the falling wail, until it hit the ground with a whimper.
‘Sorry ’bout that,’ said Hades, running a hand over his receding slicked black hair. ‘Staff training . . . So here’s da ting . . .’
Without warning, the door to his office blasted open again and an ageing showgirl, decked out in a sequined leotard with pink and yellow feathers, hurtled towards Hermes armed with a silver stiletto.
‘You leave him alone, you . . . Oh, Hoimes, it’s you! What you doing here, dollface?’
‘Persephone! Babe!’ said Hermes, accepting her kiss on his cheek. ‘Look at you! Boom!’
‘Aw – you old charmer, you . . . Nice to meet you, kids, I’m Mrs Hades,’ Persephone said to Elliot and Virgo as she adjusted her tail-feathers. ‘I heard y’all from my cabaret show. That’s one crowd ain’t never gonna know what happened to Lola at the Copacabana. But what you gonna do . . .?’
‘Sweet cakes, why don’t you go fix us a drink and let us get back to business, eh?’ said Hades to his wife.
‘Don’t you tawk to me like that, you big lug,’ said Persephone indignantly. ‘I’m your business partner! You’re only awn a six-month contract and don’t you eva forget it!’
‘She’s been saying that for three thousand years,’ whispered Hades to Elliot. ‘That dame can’t get enough o’ me. But we got other fish to fry here. Come with me, shortie. I got someone really wants to see you.’
Elliot looked quizzically at Hermes, but the Messenger God was as clueless as he.
Hades turned to the huge bookcase behind him, which contained volumes of leather-bound novels.
‘Now, where is it?’ he asked as he ran his fingers along the middle shelf. ‘Ah, got ya.’
He pulled out a copy of The Great Escape, which automatically turned sideways and opened up to reveal a small keyboard. Hades used his right middle finger to play the first few notes of the funeral march, which split the bookcase lengthways down the middle, creating a door that led to a dark tunnel.
Hades ushered everyone through the gap and grabbed a torch and a set of keys from the wall. They walked downhill through a long, dingy corridor until they reached a small door.
‘This is where we keep guests who gamble on credit, but struggle to pay their bill,’ he said, unlocking the door. ‘I call it the “Money Soon Suite”. In here.’
Elliot, Virgo and the immortals ducked through the narrow doorway into a gloomy cell. Elliot’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark, damp cave into which they stepped. But when they did, he saw that huddled in the corner was a young woman with white-blonde hair, filthy and shivering in a torn dress. She ran to Elliot and fell to her knees.
‘Please – help me!’ she cried. ‘He’s holding me here against my will! I haven’t done anything wrong!’
Hermes looked aghast. ‘Mate!’ he gasped. ‘Seriously?’
‘Is this a joke?’ Virgo whispered to Elliot. ‘Because the professional challenges facing Waiter Waiter were more entertaining . . .’
‘Knock it awf,’ Hades said to the prisoner with a yawn. ‘I’m not fallin’ for that load o’ baloney again. Drop the act before I smack you round the kissa.’
‘Wh-wh-what do you mean?’ said the woman. ‘Please, sir, just let me go home to my children. They’ll be starving . . .’
‘Uncle H, you do not talk to babes like that,’ said Hermes. ‘You are in serious danger of a proper bosh-not . . .’
‘She ain’t no lady, bro,’ said Hades. ‘And she ain’t an old guy trying to buy a new kidney, an injured soldier saving orphans, an aid worker trying to raise money to buy pencils for starving children or any of the other bull my dealers have swallowed while this joik runs up a debt the size of Mount Olympus.’
‘I . . . I don’t understand,’ said the woman, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘I’m begging you – just let me go home to my babies. They’re all alone.’
‘Sure they are, sweetheart,’ said Hades. ‘You nearly got away with it too. If it wasn’t for CCTV.’
‘Closed Circuit TV?’ said Hermes.
‘Cyclops Catching Tricksy Varmits,’ said Hades. ‘Caught this joker dissembling out the back . . .’
‘Dissembling?’ said Virgo. ‘But apart from Zeus and Hermes, the only immortals who can dissemble are . . .’
‘Daemons,’ said Elliot as the realization hit him. ‘So this must be . . .’
‘Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying,’ said the woman innocently as a pair of wings sprang out of the side of her head. ‘Hi, honey. Heeeeeeeeeere’s Hypnos!’
And with a cackle, the woman’s face melted into the wild features of the Daemon of Sleep. Elliot’s breath caught in his chest at the sight of the daemon who had tried to kill him three times already. He hoped this wouldn’t be the fourth.
‘Voilà,’ said Hades, folding his arms. ‘I believe you’ve been looking for this piece of woik?’
‘Yeah, we have!’ said Hermes, slapping his uncle on the back. ‘Bos
h boom bonanza!’
‘Well, isn’t this super!’ squealed Hypnos. ‘I must say the entertainment here is tremendous. Even you, Persephone, darling . . .’
‘Whatcha doing here, freakazoid?’ asked Persephone.
‘Going on the biggest losing streak since Prometheus lent the mortals a match,’ said Hades. ‘He owes me over fifty large.’
‘So what? You’re loaded,’ said Hermes to the Daemon.
‘Not since I bet it all on a coin toss with that Texan oil baron,’ sulked Hypnos. ‘I’m utterly broke. But if you just let me back on the roulette wheel, my luck’s about to change, I can feel it . . .’
‘There’s as much chance of that as Persephone winning Immortal Idol,’ said Hades.
‘You shut your mouth!’ said Persephone. ‘When I sing “Can’t Smile Without You”, the whole room cries.’
‘’Cos their tickets are non-refundable, doll,’ said Hades, cracking his fist. ‘So I’m tawking to this joik, telling him he can pay me what he owes me, or he can meet my friend Knuckles . . .’
‘It’s not fair,’ huffed Hypnos. ‘It’s so much harder when everyone stays awake. If I just had my beautiful trumpet . . .’
‘And he tells me he’s got something you want,’ Hades continued. ‘But he ain’t saying nothing until he can tawk to the kid.’
‘And here you are!’ said Hypnos, clapping his hands like a deranged toy monkey. ‘Have you still got my baby?’
‘You mean this?’ said Elliot, producing Hypnos’s sleep trumpet from his satchel. Hypnos had dropped it at Buckingham Palace when the Queen kicked his butt.
Hypnos shrieked with glee. ‘My trumpet!’ he squealed, swiping for it. ‘I want it back!’
‘Not likely, mate,’ said Hermes, whipping it from Elliot’s hand.
‘I guessed you might say that,’ giggled Hypnos. ‘So d’ya fancy a swapsie?’
‘You’re in a highly sub-optimal position to trade,’ said Virgo. ‘Statistically, you are most likely to leave here in an ambulance.’