Dazzling Brightness

by Roberta Gellis

  “Bed,” Persephone muttered, freeing her lips for a moment. “Behind me, a bed.”

  She felt him stiffen, then let her slip down. The sliding movement rubbed her along the top of his shaft and she moaned, but he was free before she could try to lift herself against him again and she remembered the bed. Nonetheless, he held her so close that each movement inflamed them anew, and they very nearly did not manage to take the few steps so they could lie down. Then the bed groaned so terribly when their weight came upon it that Persephone’s mind was cleared of the fog of passion for an instant. She had a pang of regret for ever thinking of that bed. It would surely collapse, she thought, but just then Hades lodged himself and she knew it would not matter; she wrapped her legs around her husband and heaved.

  “Wait,” Hades gasped. “Wait. I am too eager—”

  “Listen to the bed.”

  Persephone giggled as she heaved again and the bed creaked desperately. She ignored it, twisting her shoulders so that her nipples rubbed back and forth against her husband’s chest.

  Hades’s choking chuckle mingled with the imminent sound of collapse, but the threat of being deposited on the floor cooled him enough so he could thrust. He hesitated as the warm, moist flesh sucked at him, but when Persephone’s legs relaxed temptingly on his hips, he drew and thrust again. He could not endure a repetition of the heightened sensation and held his place then, but lifted and twisted so he could take her nipple in his mouth.

  That was enough. As his tongue swiped across the engorged flesh, Persephone writhed frantically and then pressed her mouth against his shoulder to muffle her shrieks. The first convulsion of her climax triggered his. His body arched as he flung his head up and began to pump his hips violently for a few heartbeats, groaning and gasping, the movement intensifying Persephone’s orgasm into near agony.

  When Hades collapsed, the thrill subsided slowly, but they still lay together. Persephone embraced him with both arms and legs as if she feared he would disappear if she let him go. Hades lay motionless in her embrace, except for his lips, which clung to her throat in a lingering caress.

  Chapter 20

  Sated and exhausted, for he had spent a miserable, cold night crouched in the ditch, Hades was half asleep. The arm with which he had been embracing Persephone slipped away from her—and his elbow hit the frame of the narrow bed. The small pain reminded him that he was not safe in his own realm and he suddenly remembered the last thing Persephone had said. He lifted his head and levered himself up on one arm.

  “Spelled against scrying?” he asked. “Why?”

  There was now enough light seeping in through the cracked and uneven shutters that Persephone could just see he was staring down at her. But his echo of her words reminded her of her fear for him and how carefully she had worded her message so as not to betray her whereabouts.

  “How did you discover where I was? I did not tell you apurpose. Why did you come?”

  “You seemed glad enough to see me a moment ago,” he replied, a touch of reserve in his voice.

  Persephone laughed. “I cannot tell you how glad I am, but it is dangerous for you to be here, my love.”

  “Because Poseidon does not love me? Or because he loves you too well?”

  “Thank the Mother, he has not troubled me in that way.” Persephone’s answer was easy and without hesitation. “When I first came”—she shuddered slightly—“he looked at me the way a shark looks at a tasty tidbit, but I have been very careful to appear plain since then, and he lost interest. I have hardly exchanged twenty words with him.” She laughed softly, lifted herself on her elbow, and kissed Hades. “I thought I was the jealous one.”

  “You have nothing about which to be jealous,” Hades said. “I have spent the whole time you were away under Olympus with an army of miners. But you have not said why this house is spelled against scrying—and why there is a bed here.”

  Persephone’s mouth opened, but nothing came out because she was torn between amusement and irritation. Then she reached up and touched Hades’s face. “Love, did I not just give proof that I was very, very hungry? And do not be so silly. The bed came with the house. It was not worth moving it, or the table or the chairs or any other thing in the place. And the house is bespelled because it is very difficult to plan an escape when every word you say is passed along to your gaoler.”

  “Plan an escape?”

  “Did not my message say that the sacrifice would return of itself? Would I not have to escape in order to return?”

  He smiled. “I suppose so, but I did not think of it. I am afraid I did not think at all because at first I was so angry. I feared the message was not from you but was a ruse to make me more patient. And…I missed you.”

  Persephone shifted so she could put her arms around him again. Hades sighed with satisfaction and rested his head against hers. After a moment he chuckled.

  “Besides,” he continued briskly, “I decided when I got your message that if you had not yet convinced your mother to make her peace with Zeus and abide by the agreement to return to Olympus when you joined her that it was time for me to try my influence. I thought you were at Eleusis, of course. When I heard you were in Aegina…” His voice faltered.

  “Poseidon has done me no harm,” Persephone said quickly. “I do not think he was ever interested in me, except to keep me here, away from you, and that only because you desired me, not because he did. Hermes told him you were enamored of me, I think. So he did not want me to escape. Still, I am almost sure it was my mother who set the scryer on me—although it may have been Poseidon’s scryer and they may have shared the information. My mother certainly knew about my coming to this house—

  “Then her damned scryer may have seen me come in with you.”

  Persephone laughed. “I hope the scryer and my mother are both still asleep. This is much earlier than I have ever left the palace before. But if you were seen, it is all to the good. My mother knows that I have often come to this house to meet a man. She thinks I have taken a lover.”

  Hades jerked away from her. “A lover?” he echoed.

  “Hades!” Persephone exclaimed, quite exasperated. “The man was Cyros, the carpenter, and he made—oh, you cannot see it. He made the special litter that is standing against the wall. It was far better that Demeter think I had a lover than that she suspect me of planning to escape Aegina.”

  “For what did you need a litter in an escape?”

  “Hades! Use your brain instead of your ballocks for a moment. How was I to get my mother aboard a ship? By sweet reason?”

  “Your mother? Why bring Demeter on an escape?”

  “I could not escape without her. First because if I do not go to her every morning, she comes looking for me. If she could not find me—and the scryer could not find me—she might try this house first. Hmmm… I wonder if— No, let me finish one thought at a time. But if she could not find me here, I am sure she would tell Poseidon I was gone. It takes two days to cross from Aegina to Eleusis and I am afraid he could fetch me back.”

  “But would he not do the same if you were both missing?”

  “I hope he will not immediately realize we are missing,” she began, and explained about going to the local shrine with Demeter and staying late. “Because my mother blessed his people’s fields last spring and stayed in the countryside for as much as a week at a time, I hoped he would think we were both at the same work, especially since nothing would be gone from our apartments.”

  Hades nodded slowly. “That is possible—unless Demeter always told Poseidon in advance what she planned to do.”

  “I doubt it,” Persephone said, “since she has been encouraging the worship of the Mother in secret.”

  “So Poseidon, too, wishes to be a god.” Hades shrugged. “I have burdens enough without trying to usurp the Mother’s place.”

  “I think my mother is worshipped in Eleusis, but— She swallowed. “Poseidon casts his Gifted into the sea and his creatures eat them.”<
br />
  He pulled her close and kissed her hair. “I am sorry, love, but there is nothing I can do. You know that I have spread the word as widely as I can that all Gifted are to be sacrificed to the King of the Dead by being driven into the caves. I have even managed to punish those natives who maim or kill their “witches” before they give them to us. But for those on an island—I cannot reach them.”

  “It is not your fault, beloved,” Persephone whispered. “I should not have told you. Now you will worry yourself sick over it.”

  “Perhaps when I am safe in my own realm,” Hades said with a wry chuckle. “For now, I have my own skin to worry about, and yours…and Demeter’s too, I suppose.” He sighed. “You are probably right about the necessity of bringing her.”

  “Yes, and not only because of the escape itself, but what good would it do for me to be free when my mother could just start the whole business over from the beginning? And she would, just for spite, even though she knows she cannot make me hers again. You do not know how tenacious she is. In fact, you had the right idea when you said it was time for you to use your influence. I am sure that is the only way we will ever bring her to reason. Think how much more effective you can be when she is in your power rather than in a safe haven.”

  “How can she be in my power no matter where she is?” Hades asked testily. “What could I do to your mother?”

  Persephone laughed delightedly. “Frown at her! Hades, you have no idea how—how severe you can look. Mother needs to be loved, to be appreciated. That is what I gave her and what she craves—and from what she hinted to me, that was what she got at Eleusis. I wonder…” She shook herself. “Let us win free of this place first. Then I can think about making her content so she will not trouble us.”

  Hades released a long sigh. “I can scarcely believe what I hear, that you are so eager to come back to Plutos, so cold and dark, after these moons on this bright island.”

  She kissed him long and tenderly, but when she pulled free her voice was light with laughter. “How could you doubt it? I am my mother’s daughter after all. Am I not the dazzling brightness of Plutos? Where else would I be so cozened, so adored?”

  “Alas,” he murmured, “anywhere. The Mother shines through you, Persephone. You have become a dazzling brightness for all.”

  “But there is nowhere else I wish to be than with you, Hades. And as for the Mother shining through—oh, Hades, we need not fear! I can feed the priestesses of Olympus and Plutos both. When we went to the shrine, She gave me so much. It was a promise that I could help my mother and bless my own crops also.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. That is what I planned to offer my mother, that I would come each spring to help her quicken the seed and bless the fields. You would not mind, would you, Hades?”

  “I would mind. I mind when you are gone for an hour to the temple or I go alone into the mines, but I would not interfere.” He smiled. “Perhaps if I am sufficiently ingratiating, Demeter will allow me to accompany you.”

  “She might,” Persephone said, also smiling. “If we can bring her to agree, she might wish to be generous.” Then she sat up and said eagerly, “I must say, your coming is to me the final proof that we are favored by the Mother. I hoped to go tomorrow, and I had come into town to try to work out how to get down to the docks to buy passage without giving away my whole plan. Now you can do that.”

  “Tomorrow? Are you so far along in your plan?”

  “Now that the litter is finished and you are here, all I need do is get my mother into this house. If you open the window you will be able to see the litter and we can plan better together,” she said.

  “The server?”

  “The no-see-no-hear spell covers all openings or it would be of little use.”

  “A costly spell,” Hades remarked, getting out of bed.

  He found himself rather reluctant to rise and had to remind himself that when they were free of Aegina they would have their entire lives to play abed—and in a better smelling one than this. The thought made him laugh as he pushed back the shutters and light poured in. It was the final proof that his wife had not used it to be unfaithful. If she had, she would have aired it and had fresh, clean bedding. Apparently her thoughts had followed his—except, he hoped, for the last—and she was out of bed too.

  There was enough light, the sun having risen, to begin collecting his clothes. Persephone, he saw, as he straightened holding the linen tunic he wore under a fitted, sleeveless leather garment, was looking around bemusedly. Her surprise, as she identified her garments, strewn as widely as his, made him chuckle. It reminded him distinctly of the first time they had come together, which made him again regret getting out of bed, but by then Persephone had pulled on her under-tunic and was straightening her outer garment.

  “Well, it was,” she said, continuing to dress.

  “What was what?” Hades asked as he drew on the leather garment, having forgotten his last remark.

  “A costly spell, but all spells are costly here because Poseidon kills the truly Gifted and only grants license—at a high fee—to the weakest magicians.” She smiled. “You know you will be taking me back with no more than I had when you first abducted me. I cannot take the clothing—oh, dear, Arachne will murder me—and I have broken up nearly all my jewelry to pay for that.” She gestured toward the litter, standing against the wall.

  “It is rather large. Will that not make your escape a trifle conspicuous?”

  “I hope no one will think I am escaping,” she reminded him, and then went on to tell him about the long pretense of a sick father. “I had thought of getting my mother here by pretending a shrine to the Goddess had been built but would not awaken and beg her to come to invoke Her. She is truly devoted to the Goddess, and is greatly beloved, I believe, despite her faults—as I am beloved despite mine.”

  “You have none,” Hades said.

  “Oh, I wish there were some way I could set those words into stone so I could point them out to you every time you bemoan my shortcomings.”

  Large black eyes gazed at her with soulful innocence. “I am so glad you noticed I was very careful not to say it where you might ask me to do that—or have witnesses.”

  Persephone looked up from tying her belt, her lips parted in surprise, and then laughed. “Monster! When we are safe, I will make you suffer for that. First things first, however. When I was talking before about the need to bring my mother with me, I mentioned that if I did not visit her and the scryer could not find me in the town, she might seek me here. I will wait here until the afternoon. If she does not come, I will go back to the palace and leave a message for her, that I am staying the night in the bespelled house. She will think I am with my lover—and I will be, of course.” She went and put her arms around his neck. “That might bring her. If it does not, I will go back to the palace again in the morning and use the tale of the shrine.”

  “Good enough,” Hades said, “but I do not see how we can get her into the litter or make her stay there. If she sees me, she is likely to scream the town down—and there is that curse to blast all fertility…”

  “She will not see you if you are behind the door. If she does, you will have to silence her.” She dropped her arms and stepped back.

  Hades looked troubled. “How can I silence her without violence? And how can I use violence against your mother?”

  “Mother or not,” Persephone said, her voice hard, “how did you think I planned to deal with her? Ask her sweetly: Mother dear will you not drink this sleeping potion so I can abduct you?” Then she shivered slightly and added, “But do not stick your sword in her.”

  Hades laughed. “That produces too profound and too prolonged a silence. But I might have to strike her—ah—rather hard.”

  Persephone sighed. “That will not endear you to her, but it cannot be helped, and perhaps by the time she wakes she will not be sore and will not remember.”

  “You meant what you said about a sleepin
g potion?”

  “Oh, yes. And I have soft cloth to bind her and gag her—I did not forget that curse. She cannot say the spell if she is muted. When we have got that draught down her throat and she is bound and gagged, we can put her in here.” She showed him the hidden section below the litter. “I had intended to pretend I was a daughter taking my sick father home to Eleusis. Now that you are here, it will be much easier. I can be the sick old man, you his servant. That way, there will be no women seen leaving the island.”

  “Do you have the sleeping draught?”

  “Yes, and I have tried it on a pig about my mother’s weight, so I know how much to give her.” She closed the panel of the litter and straightened up. “What I do not have is any food in the house. I left too early to break my fast, and now”—she glanced sidelong at him— “with all that exercise, I am starving.”

  Hades laughed aloud. “I also. I went straight from the ship to the palace. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, before we came to shore, I had the feeling that you were frightened, threatened by something. I nearly jumped overboard—only I knew I could not swim faster than the ship could sail. I tried to send you the will to be strong, to tell you I was coming. I intended to come through the wall of the palace, but by the time we docked and I reached the place, I could not feel you at all. So I spent the night in the ditch in order to be close if you needed me.” He pulled her against him. “And then you were there. Those other two women were afraid, but not you. You reached out to give a poor beggar alms and to warn him.” He paused, pressing his mouth to her hair. “I do not know whether I can bear to leave you again, even to get food.”

  She hugged him back, began to laugh, stopped suddenly, and pulled away so she could see his face. “Hades, were you also thinking about me, perhaps midmorning, yesterday?”

  “I thought about you all the time, but we first sighted the island at midmorning. I ‘called’ you. I knew it would do no good. I am not one with the power of calling, but—”