Oliver looked from Hemera to Artemis and back. “So…did you come to help us?”
“No,” Hemera said. “That I will not do. I should not be interacting with you at all, but you are not permitted to be in this realm, and I feared you would not find your way out on your own. I have come to return you to the world you left.”
“We are grateful for the assistance,” Artemis said.
Oliver had a mountain of questions, but he had the feeling he wasn’t going to get many more answers. “I guess we’re lucky you ran into us,” he said.
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Hemera said. “I chose to appear when I sensed you in this place. I feared that if I did not, Oizys might. Or Nemesis.” She shook her head. “We are a strange family, my brother, and we are a closer family than we have any right to be. But we are not a happy family. There are others of us who would happily kill that body and send your spirit back into the ether. And…” she hesitated. “You must not trust Eris. You were always her favorite, but she is a creature of her element. She cannot help herself.”
“She didn’t strike me as all that dependable,” Oliver said.
“You truly have no idea.”
“What happens now?” Artemis asked. “Is there a portal of some kind nearby? A gate?”
“No,” Hemera said. “There are no portals that lead to this place. There is only this.” She raised a hand, palm outstretched. “Farewell.” Then a tiny ball of light appeared in her hand. It quickly grew brighter and before long it was like looking directly at the sun. Oliver winced and shut his eyes, raising a hand against the light. He heard the sound of rushing water, and then silence.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing on a concrete path near the top of a hill. Below him a city stretched out nearly as far as the eye could see, reaching what looked like a body of water in the distance. Not far away he could make out a rocky outcrop upon which sat the remains of several stone buildings. One of them he recognized from a postcard he’d received once.
He looked down to see Artemis standing next to him. “That’s the Acropolis,” he said. “We’re in Athens.”
“Yes,” Artemis said. She sighed and shook her head. “God damn it.”
Chapter 10
Oliver couldn’t recall ever having heard Artemis swear before. She didn’t say a word as they descended the stone path into the city proper. “Why are you upset?” he finally asked. “I thought you might be glad to be home.”
Artemis looked up at him, clearly surprised. “Home, Mr. Jones? I am not Greek.”
“Oh,” Oliver said. “This whole time I thought you were. Your name is Greek, isn’t it? And given that you know Hemera and Eris, it seemed like a done deal.”
“My name is not Artemis,” she said. She shook her head. “That is only the name I use. I chose it because I liked it, and the truth is I did spend a great deal of time here, long ago.” She looked around. “It was a very different world then. The last time I was in Greece was shortly before Augustus annexed it for the Romans.”
“Ah,” Oliver said. “That was a while ago, then.”
“Yes. As for Hemera, I had never met her before this day. She has no interest in human affairs. I have encountered Eris a few times. She’s much more of a troublemaker, as you might guess. I believe the last time was…” She thought about it. “I suppose it must have been when she had Louis the Pious deposed. That interfered with my plans. We argued. I won.”
“Louis the Pious?” Oliver asked.
“King of the Franks after Charlemagne,” Artemis said. “How many times have I told you to study history, Mr. Jones? Some of these things still matter today, although I admit that one does not.”
“Fine,” Oliver said. “Why did Eris want the king deposed?”
“She did not care whether he was deposed. She did, however, think it was terribly funny. I, on the other hand, needed him in place in order to keep Lothair from…” she trailed off. “As I said, it no longer matters. We have pressing matters to deal with.”
Oliver nodded. Ancient history wasn’t important right now. Or so he assumed, anyway. It was always hard to tell with Artemis. “So where are we going?”
“Back to San Francisco, of course. I should have asked Hemera to direct us there, but the truth is she may not even know where it is. Her pantheon…your pantheon, I suppose we can say, was always fond of the Greeks. This would be like a second home to her.”
“What’s the plan?” Oliver asked.
“We will deal with matters there and restore Mr. Jacobsen to health. It is not right that he suffer because of Armitage’s quarrel with me.”
“You think Armitage hasn’t killed him?” Oliver asked.
“Armitage is well aware that he may use Mr. Jacobsen as a bargaining chip. He is no fool. He will not be willing to lose that leverage.” Artemis stopped. They had reached the city streets and she took a moment to read the sign at a bus stop. “What are they using for money here these days? Euros?”
“I think so,” Oliver said. “Where are we going to get some?”
“The bank, of course,” Artemis replied. “You still have your wallet and phone, do you not?”
Oliver patted his suit pocket and was surprised to find his phone there. But then again, if his clothes had survived the trip to another world and back, why wouldn’t everything else he’d had with him? “Yeah.”
“You will need to call your bank and inform them you have taken an unplanned trip overseas, in order that you may use a teller machine. I suggest you do so now.”
“They’re going to find this surprising,” Oliver said.
“I think with your travel schedule, they will not find it that surprising at all.” Artemis had found her own phone, as well. “I will arrange for Seven to wire you appropriate funds. Also, we will need to find a store. I think we could do with fresh clothes.” She began to dial. “All will be well, Mr. Jones. You will see.”
Three hours later, flush with Euros, Oliver found himself on the balcony of a hotel suite with a view of the Acropolis and surrounding areas. He’d purchased a new outfit and now wore khaki pants and a polo shirt, along with walking shoes. It was much more comfortable than the suit he’d had on earlier. He’d had a shower and felt refreshed, although he was still very tired. It had been a long day, and to be honest, he had no idea if he was tired from the change in time zones, or if the magical traveling he’d done earlier had simply wiped out his energy.
Daniel Vega was en route from San Francisco with the jet and would reach them by morning. Seven had arranged that, as well as the hotel, and offered to book himself on the first flight from London so he could join them. Artemis had demurred, instead ordering him back to the Vault to search for an ancient grimoire she’d told him was the key to defeating Armitage. Oliver had listened to them speak on the phone for a while and then gone to the balcony to collect his thoughts. He’d known Artemis long enough that he could tell she was lying. Even if there was a grimoire tucked away in the Vault somewhere, it would be of no help to them. She’d wanted Seven kept busy and out of the way.
When he’d waited long enough to be sure the call was over, Oliver went back into the suite. Artemis had made herself a cup of tea and taken a seat near the balcony door. “The hotel has provided an assortment of teas for us to enjoy, Mr. Jones. None of them are what I would call quality, but they will suffice. Perhaps you would enjoy a cup.”
“Seven can’t help us, can he?”
“Of course he…” Artemis looked at him and stopped when she saw the knowing look on his face. She sighed and shook her head. “No, Mr. Jones, you have sensed my deception. He would try, but this is simply not the type of battle he is capable of fighting. Seven is a creature of technology, not magic. It would be like…well, you can think of your own clever analogy.”
“You talk like he’s a robot.”
“He is not,” she said. “Nor is he entirely human. However, that is a tale best suited to another time.”
Oliver took a seat and watched her for a moment. “I can hardly believe it,” he said. “You’re actually being honest with me.”
Artemis looked through the balcony door at the city and was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, “Perhaps I am simply too tired to deceive you anymore.”
“It’s been a long day.”
“That is not what I meant. I meant that…I have been doing this for a long time, and lately I have come to question myself in ways I have not before. With Sally, and now again I must reflect on Armitage. It makes me think, Mr. Jones, but most of all it just makes me tired.”
“Tell me about Armitage,” Oliver said.
Artemis kept her eyes on her tea. “You already know he worked for me. It was in much the same capacity as you and Mr. Jacobsen do now. His was just a different skill set.” She paused for a moment. “I forget the year I met him. It would have been the late 1700’s. I was in England at the time.”
Oliver nodded. “And he’s a magician?”
“Magician, scientist, mystic…he was all of those things. He was once my greatest ally. Magic is largely gone from the world now. It was not so then. I needed someone of his caliber on my side, and he was unparalleled.”
“And then things went wrong, and you locked him up,” Oliver said. “I’ve figured that much out. Why?”
Artemis sat her cup down on the table. “Because he did not want to die.”
Oliver blinked. “Nobody wants to die. Is that a crime now?”
“It was rather more complicated than that,” Artemis said. “Do you recall the stone he took from me? The one I retrieved from Vault 3?”
“Yeah. It was a sapphire or something.”
“Close enough. That stone is a tool. It is imbued with powerful magic. With it…” Artemis winced. “I was so blind. I should have noticed he had stopped aging much earlier.” She sighed. “Using the stone, Armitage found a way to remove the life force from humans. Their souls, if you will. He was able to add that life force to his own. It kept him young, healthy, and each soul he took made him stronger. As long as he kept finding victims, he would have been essentially immortal.”
Oliver wasn’t sure what to say. “I wasn’t entirely sure souls were real.”
“They are,” Artemis said. “I have no scientific explanation for them that would satisfy either of us, but they are. I know that from experience. Armitage feared death, so he found a way to ensure he would never die. But the real tragedy was in his victims.”
“Oh?”
“The process does not kill, Mr. Jones. The creatures it leaves behind are…abominations. He created dozens of them and left them to wander the city. The threat they posed was something I had never seen before. Here was an enemy entirely unknown, even to me. We hunted them together for a year before I realized he was the one creating them.”
“That’s pretty intense.”
“I suppose that is one word for it. When I discovered the truth of the matter…”
“You fought?”
“Do not interrupt, Mr. Jones. No. There would have been little point in fighting him. At that point he had become so powerful I was unsure of what it would take to stop him permanently. So instead I tricked him into walking through the door that led to the Nether Lands, and then I shut it behind him. There is no way to open the portal from the other side. He was trapped there.”
“Jesus.”
“It was not the worst fate I could have thought of, but it was the safest. There he would remain until he burned through the souls he’d taken, and then he would die. Perhaps it would have taken a thousand years. Perhaps more. But nothing lives forever.” She rubbed one of her eyes. “Except perhaps me.”
Oliver thought about it. “Is that why you’re so mad at Sally? Because you feel like she betrayed you?”
“Perhaps,” Artemis said. “I think…I think perhaps I held myself responsible for the damage she caused, because I was responsible for her. In that same way I was responsible for Armitage. I made him what he was. He was strong when I met him, but with what I taught him and with access to my archives, he became stronger. And my faith in him had consequences, just as it did with Sally.”
“You couldn’t have known Armitage would escape.”
“It would have been difficult to predict, certainly,” Artemis admitted. “I regret I did not think the situation through, but time was a factor. If he suspected I knew what he was doing…” She sighed. “But I was speaking of what he did before I caught him. The abominations. Those poor people.” She met Oliver’s eyes with her own. “They were husks. Cruel, ravenous, no longer possessing the spark that had made them human. They could not be killed by conventional means. I had to burn them to keep them from getting up again. I burned them until only ashes remained. It is one of my greatest regrets.”
Oliver nodded. “Not your biggest, though, right? At least there’s that.” He’d been trying to sound comforting, but realized as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he hadn’t been at all.
“No,” Artemis said. She frowned. “Not the biggest. My biggest regret is that I cannot remember my mother’s face.” Artemis’s features softened a bit and for the first time in Oliver’s memory she truly appeared to still be a child. “I remember her hands. Her callouses. Her skin was rough but her touch was so…so gentle. I remember her hands as if I had felt them touching my own just yesterday. But I cannot remember her face.”
Oliver was beginning to wonder if there was something in Artemis’s cup besides tea. She’d never talked about her past like this before. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” Artemis said.
Oliver hesitated. “So you’re human, then?” She glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “Don’t give me that look. None of us knows anything about you, other than that you don’t age and you don’t die.”
“Of course I am human, Mr. Jones. What else would I be?”
“Some primordial god living in a human body?”
She smiled just a bit. “No, Mr. Jones. I fear I am nothing like you.”
Oliver stood up and went to look out the window. The sun would be going down soon. Before long they’d be back on their way to California. He felt like he shouldn’t press her, but for as long as he’d known Artemis she’d never been candid with him. He didn’t know if he’d have this opportunity again. “Can I ask you something? And I want the truth, not one of your mysterious non-answers.”
Artemis nodded. “You may ask.”
“How old are you?”
She turned to stare at him. “Of all the things you could possibly ask me, Mr. Jones, you choose that? What does it matter how old I am?”
Oliver went back to sit down. “I feel like we’re starting over, you and me,” he said, “but this time without the lies. Relationships that are worth anything should start at the beginning. That’s why.”
Artemis considered that. “I am not sure I agree with your hypothesis,” she said, “but that is not truly important if it will make you feel better. Unfortunately, the answer is that I do not know.”
Oliver resisted the urge to turn his head and spit on the floor. “Really? Everything I just said and you’re just going to give me that crap?”
“It was an honest answer, Mr. Jones. I do not know how old I am.”
“How can you possibly not know that?”
“Because we did not have calendars when I was born.”
Oliver paused. “You couldn’t tell time?”
“No. We did not have any meaningful concept of years or dates.”
“What did you have, then?”
“Mammoths, Mr. Jones. We had mammoths.”
There was silence. Oliver didn’t know a great deal about mammoths, but he was certain of a few things. “Mammoths existed for millions of years. That doesn’t narrow it down at all.”
“No, but they went extinct within a few thousand years of my birth. For the most part, anyway. I have come to understand that some small populations survived longer in re
mote locations, but I never had an opportunity to see that for myself. If you wish me to estimate it, I would guess I am roughly seventeen thousand years old. However, that is only a guess. If it was sixteen or eighteen thousand, I would not be surprised. I wandered alone for a great while after my family was killed. I was not aware of the concept of years at that time, but it is certain that a great many passed.”
“Oh,” Oliver said.
“Yes, Mr. Jones. Oh.” She took a sip of her tea. “I remember when we found them. The mammoths, that is. My tribe had been searching for a new herd for months; their numbers were thinning even then. When we finally spotted them my parents were so…so happy. I thought they might burst from joy. They took my brother and myself into their arms and hugged us tighter than they ever had before.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Oliver said.
“I did. He was perhaps three years older. I am not certain of that.”
Oliver nodded. “It sounds like that was a pretty good day, then.”
“You have no idea,” Artemis said. “Neither did I understand for a long time. Truthfully, I never will. My parents were happy, Mr. Jones, because it meant they would not have to watch their children starve to death. We had found more food then we could ever possibly eat. I will never have a family of my own, but from a conceptual standpoint I can understand their elation.”
“I can’t imagine,” Oliver said. “It must have been like being pardoned from a death sentence.”
“It was.” Artemis nodded. “Although as things turned out, it also meant our doom. Another tribe discovered the mammoths, and us with them, some months later. There would have been more than enough food to share, but they did not wish to share. Their numbers were three times ours. We were slaughtered.”
“But you got away?”
“No, Mr. Jones.” Artemis shook her head. “I did not get away. I died.”
Oliver’s mouth dropped open. “You died?”
“Indeed. I still remember the sound of hearing my skull crack. It was a mercifully quick death.” She looked away. “My parents did not have such an easy time of it.”
Interesting People (Interesting Times #3) Page 10