Pantheon (The Tamar Black Saga)

by Nicola Rhodes

  ‘Don’t say it,’ warned Tamar. ‘Whatever you were going to say, just don’t. You aren’t too big for a good hiding.’

  ‘I’m not?’ he asked in surprise. ‘I must say I always thought that was the one thing I …’

  ‘Let me try,’ said Hecate suddenly coming forward and grasping the chains.

  ‘More destiny?’ said Denny to Tamar out of the side of his mouth.

  ‘Could be,’ she said. ‘After all she is the only god ever to escape the chains.’

  ‘But that hasn’t happened yet,’ said Denny. ‘No what I meant was …’

  ‘It’s happened as far as we are concerned,’ she said. ‘You’re the one that told me that time isn’t necessarily linear.’

  ‘If she manages to do it, he’ll still have escaped them before she did,’ said Denny.

  ‘Ah, but not until it happens,’ said Tamar obscurely.

  Meanwhile, Hecate was not pulling ineffectually at the chains as another might have done, she was examining them carefully – microscopically carefully.

  ‘Iron of course,’ she muttered. ‘Some copper, only a trace – probably got in there accidentally. Gold ore, very flashy but soft … The weak link, in fact …’

  Ninety nine per cent of magic consists of knowing one extra fact. There is a whole universe of quantum dimensions out there that most of us know nothing about. Hecate did – she could see the magic in the way that a biologist can see the microbes. Most of the people who use magic, including Tamar and Denny, do not really know how it works, any more than most normal people really know how a computer or even a television works. They can make it work – but they could not invent one. But Hecate knew. Her natural gift was to see the nuts and bolts of the paranormal and render it no more than a series of equations to be solved.

  There was a bright flash of light and Hecate had done her very first ever magic spell. The chains had not merely broken; they had gone up in smoke.

  ‘That puts a slight crimp in the future,’ said Tamar.

  ‘If she could do that,’ said Denny. ‘Then why didn’t she just … I mean the future her, why didn’t – won’t …’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ said Tamar impatiently. ‘And the simple answer is, I don’t know. But I do know that this wasn’t supposed to happen. We’re changing things.’

  ‘I suppose it was inevitable,’ said Denny. ‘We were bound to change a few things that we shouldn’t. How could we not?’

  ‘But it’s a part of our own future that we just changed,’ said Tamar. ‘I don’t think that we’re going to get away with this whatever we do.’

  ‘We’ll discuss this later,’ said Denny. ‘Right now, we have bigger fish to fry – so to speak.’

  He was right about this. Prometheus was rising slowly and stiffly; a massive figure etched darkly against the skyline. It was all very… mythic. Especially the part where he reached out a twelve foot arm, snatched the soaring eagle out of the sky and ate it in revenge for all his suffering.

  Then he reached down and plucked Hecate off the ground, she stood on his palm, and they looked at each other.

  ‘Like King Kong and Fay Wray,’ said Denny with a laugh.

  ‘He’s not going to eat her, is he?’ said Tamar in a worried tone.

  Denny gave her a look of disbelief. ‘Don’t be so damned silly,’ he said eventually when he realised she was serious. ‘He wouldn’t dare,’ he added as it hit him that they were dealing with people who did not necessarily follow what he would consider the “normal” rules of behaviour. Tamar’s anxious query had not been quite as daft as it had sounded when you put it this context.

  In fact, there seemed to be something else going on.

  Denny spotted it first. ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘They’ve gone all soppy on each other. That’s all we need. I think I’d rather he had eaten her,’ he added.

  ‘It might come to that,’ said Tamar. ‘These people are not known for resolving their emotional conflicts amicably.’

  ‘Speaking of which,’ said Denny. ‘Is that a shrieking I hear from below?’

  Tamar listened. ‘It’s Aphrodite,’ she confirmed. ‘Do you think they’re fighting?’

  ‘I don’t want to get in the middle of it if they are,’ said Denny decisively.

  Tamar put her head in her hands. ‘I miss our proper friends,’ she said. ‘This lot just aren’t the same. It’s like babysitting a lot of Big Brother contestants.’

  ‘The tantrums,’ said Denny

  ‘The massive egos,’ said Tamar.

  ‘The drama,’ said Denny.

  ‘The short lived fame ending in ultimate disaster?’ said Tamar.

  ‘Well, that’s the idea anyway,’ he said grinning.

  There was another shriek and this time it contained the unmistakeable sound of a cry for help.

  They scrambled down the shaft, leaving Prometheus and Hecate, for the time being, gazing at each other in the sickliest manner imaginable.

  Aphrodite was being terrorized by two of the most unusual creatures they had ever seen. One was definitely a large boar of some kind but massively oversized, and the other … well there was no telling what the hell it was, apart from hideously ugly. But they did not look like creatures at all, apart from the stamping and snorting and generally threatening behaviour.

  But metal statues, even of hideous beasts of unknown etymology, were normally found sitting on plinths behaving themselves, not indulging in the above offensive behaviour.

  ‘Call them off Hephaestus,’ ordered Tamar.

  ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘They were a gift to Hades, they only obey him now.’

  ‘Bugger!’ said Tamar. ‘Well, you made them, how do I get rid of them?’

  ‘What the hell are they?’ asked Denny – who thought he had seen everything.

  ‘Automotones,’ she told him. ‘Hephaestus made a lot of them. What are these ones though?’ she asked. ‘I don’t remember a boar or a … a … What the hell is that one supposed to be anyway?’

  ‘It was supposed to be a horse,’ he said slightly huffily. ‘Came out a bit … I was young when I did them,’ he added defensively.

  Tamar laughed and clapped her hands in delighted mirth. ‘Rejects,’ she said. ‘Damaged stock. And you gave them to Hades. That’s priceless.’

  ‘Well, they work all right, they just look a bit … Even Hades agreed that it didn’t really matter what they looked like down here where no one would ever see them.’

  ‘I don’t think Aphrodite’s amused,’ said Denny. ‘Perhaps we should do something, before she gets hurt.’

  ‘Oh, right, right,’ said Hephaestus. ‘Only there’s not a lot to be done. They can’t be killed or hurt or anything. They aren’t alive you see. You might as well punch a rock. Hurts you far more than it hurts the rock.’

  The putative “horse” chose that moment to take a large bite out of Aphrodite’s dress, causing her to scream in terror as it then spat this out and began snapping at her heels. She was backed into a corner. No more choices.

  Denny grabbed it round the neck and flung it over in a wrestling type move. Of course, it was unhurt; it merely rolled over until it was upright again, however, it did give Aphrodite the chance to escape. But what to do with it now?

  Denny kicked it down the passage, but it did not go very far before it turned and headed back, and there was still the other one to deal with too.

  Aphrodite was staring at Denny with a mixture of awe and longing, as he squared up to the metal monster.

  Tamar, however, was less than impressed with his tactics so far. ‘What’s that in your hand,’ she called to him, ‘a butter knife? Are you a god slayer, or aren’t you? It shouldn’t be too hard to deal with a couple of oversized money boxes! Especially with a blade that can cut through any metal in the world. Come on, it’s not like they’re made of the same stuff as the chains.’ she hinted encouragingly.

  ‘Ah!’ thought Denny. ‘Right then!’ he said.

  She was right; the Athame sh
eared through the metal hide of the creature as if it were cutting paper. The head bounced off and landed at his feet to general cheering, which was cut short, when it was noted that it had not exactly slowed the creature down.

  ‘Get its legs,’ called Hephaestus.

  ‘Yes, thank you, Socrates. I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Denny sarcastically. ‘Any time you want to join in,’ he added to Tamar.

  ‘But you were doing so well,’ she said. ‘Oh, all right then.’ Tamar rolled up her sleeves and prepared a quick fireball and aimed it at the boar. It scorched the creature but no permanent damage was done. She had been too hasty. ‘Oh, well,’ she thought, ‘up a few degrees then.’ The next one melted it into a puddle.

  ‘Now, why couldn’t you have done that in the first place?’ asked Denny as he sheathed the Athame. The “horse” was now scrabbling uselessly on the floor of the cave without its legs.

  ‘What, and deprive you of the chance to show off to your new girlfriend?’ said Tamar sarcastically.

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ he asked, suddenly angry.

  ‘N-nothing,’ she backed down confusedly. ‘It was just a joke.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t funny,’ snapped Denny, still angry.’

  ‘I-I know,’ she said with a frown. ‘I don’t know what made me say it.’

  ‘Maybe bickering is catching,’ said Denny with a sudden grin.

  They both looked at Aphrodite.

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ she said. ‘I didn’t do anything.’

  Tamar didn’t believe her. ‘Trust me,’ she said. ‘Denny’s the last person you want to put in a bad mood. He might seem pretty sweet and nice, but when he loses his temper, everybody suffers.’

  ‘But I didn’t.’ Aphrodite insisted. ‘Why would I?’

  ‘Arguing with me?’ said Tamar. ‘That’d suit you down to the ground wouldn’t it? But it won’t do you any good.’

  ‘Him?’ said Hephaestus incredulously looking at Denny. He turned to Aphrodite. ‘Him? Really? But he isn’t any handsomer than I am.’

  ‘Hey!’ said Tamar indignantly. But no one took any notice of her. Denny was snorting with laughter, and the other two were getting into a heated argument.

  ‘Looks aren’t everything,’ said Aphrodite. ‘You were always far more worried about your ugly face than I was. Anyway, he’s not ugly.’

  ‘But I am?’

  ‘I never thought you were all that ugly, it was you that made such an issue of it, until I just couldn’t stand it anymore. Huh! And people say that I’m vain.’

  ‘You’re calling me vain?’ Hephaestus roared indignantly.

  ‘All I’m saying is, you worry too much about the way you look, when it really isn’t as bad as you think it is. Take him,’ she pointed rudely at Denny. ‘Maybe he isn’t Adonis, but at least he doesn’t moan about it all the time. It’s such a refreshing change. Why can’t you just accept who you are?’

  ‘My mother threw me off Olympus for being too ugly to be a god,’ said Hephaestus in a subdued voice. ‘That sort of thing can affect a person. A face even my own mother reviled.’

  ‘Hera?’ said Aphrodite in a scornful tone. ‘What does she know? She’s horrible to everyone. Get over it. It could be worse. You could look like Proteus.’

  ‘By Zeus,’ said Hephaestus, who seemed struck by this idea. ‘That’s the truth. I never thought of that.’

  There was a silence. Then Aphrodite, falling back on the old standby of, “when in an awkward situation, throw a cliché at it” said. ‘Well, no one’s perfect, anyway.’

  ‘You are,’ said Hephaestus. Causing Tamar to poke her fingers down her throat and make gagging noises.

  ‘Grow up,’ said Denny. ‘If it stops them from arguing all time …’

  ‘That’s so sweet,’ said Aphrodite.

  ‘But you’d still rather have him, wouldn’t you?’ he said.

  ‘Okay,’ said Denny deciding to take hand here before the whole thing fell apart again. ‘You might as well tell him,’ he said to Aphrodite taking her arm and gripping it so hard that she winced. ‘She was just trying to make you jealous. Women do that you know,’ he added confidentially. Then he gave Aphrodite a hard look that said: “Go along or it’ll be the worse for you.”

  This was patently ludicrous, as Tamar was on the verge of pointing out, but incredibly, Hephaestus seemed to be falling for it. Perhaps because he wanted to.

  ‘Well,’ said Tamar later as they talked over the campfire. ‘I still can’t believe it worked. I mean, the look on your face alone would have given the game away to an infant. You’ve always been a terrible liar. Still, I suppose it’s better that they aren’t fighting any more. If we’re going to have to stop for a row every five minutes, we’ll never get anything done.’

  ‘It seems a shame really,’ said Denny. ‘I mean, they’ve only just sorted everything out, and they’ll be dead soon. If that was us …’

  ‘Well, it’s not,’ said Tamar shortly. ‘Don’t get too involved. We have a job to do. Besides, they’ve had an eternity to sort it out. It’s their own fault if they didn’t. We wouldn’t have been so stupid in the first place.

  ‘And Hecate and Prometheus?’

  ‘Well, we have to split that up anyway,’ she said. ‘It only happened because of the proximity of Aphrodite anyway,’ she added. ‘She tends to have that effect. Even on gods apparently.’

  ‘I don’t see how that would work anyway,’ said Denny. I mean he’s … huge and she’s just a normal human size so … well the logistics of it are a bit …’

  ‘She can be any size she likes. The gods are descended from the Titans. It’s all very incestuous. But it’s not our problem anyway.’

  ‘Has he said anything about the prophecy to you?’ asked Denny, who did not want to follow this line of discussion any further. ‘He doesn’t talk to me. I think you are the one he was expecting. I’m just the sidekick.’

  ‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘He’s not very communicative at the best of times I think. But it was nice of him to carry us all down the cliff like that.’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose so, but it kind of made me feel like a gnome or something.’

  ‘Four gods,’ she mused. ‘Well, three gods and a Titan. It’s not going to be enough is it?’

  ‘No, it is not.’ It was not Denny who made this negative statement.

  Tamar jumped to her feet. ‘It’s still two against one, right here,’ she threatened.

  ‘You might try hearing me out before you gut me,’ said Artemis sitting down by the fire placidly. She gave Denny a curt nod. ‘You were not expecting me,’ she said.

  Since this was not a question, Denny did not answer it. ‘What do you want?’ he said.

  ‘I was debating whether I should come myself,’ she continued as if he had not spoken. ‘It is plain to me that you do not intend to spare any of us. You cannot afford to – or so I have heard.’ She laughed at their stunned faces. ‘Prometheus is not the only prophet among us,’ she said. ‘My own twin brother is Apollo. The time of the gods has come. I know there is nothing I can do to prevent this destiny, but for you, it will be a formidable challenge. You may lose your own lives in its execution. That, at least, is not clear as yet, but by that time, it will be too late for us. You are here to begin the final days, the great war of the gods, in which we shall all be destroyed. If not by you, then by one another.’

  She leaned in toward Denny. ‘Make me mortal,’ she said. ‘Do not kill me outright, I beg you. Show me the same mercy that you showed to Nemesis. And, with my power, you will have a greater chance of defeating Zeus and maybe ensuring your own survival. Promise me you will show him no mercy and that is all I will ask. I’ll even make it easy for you. I won’t fight.’ And she threw down her bow.

  ‘You want to be mortal?’ asked Denny incredulously.

  ‘I do not want to be mortal,’ she said. ‘But considering the alternative …’

  Tamar beckoned Denny to one side.

  ‘There�
��s something hinky here,’ she said. ‘She’s up to something. It has to be. What will happen if you use the Athame on her? And how the hell does she know about that anyway?’

  ‘I don’t know about the second one,’ said Denny. ‘But as to the first – the same as always happens, surely? Her power will go into the blade and be my power from then on – just like Askphrit’s and Nemesis’s power did.’

  ‘All I know is, gods do not willingly give up their power like that,’ said Tamar.

  ‘She’s right about her power, though,’ he said. ‘She has a lot more power than Nemesis did. It could tip the balance in our favour quite a bit, if I take it.’

  ‘But you said yourself that even the power of Zeus himself wouldn’t be enough to defeat them all. So in the end, what difference does it make? We’re here to make them kill each other – she even said so. We need to ask ourselves, what’s in it for her?’

  ‘Apart from not dying in a horrible war between the gods, I can’t think of a thing,’ said Denny.

  ‘And that’s another thing,’ said Tamar. ‘Who says we’re going to start a war, even we don’t know that for sure, not yet.’*

  *[Tamar didn’t believe in prophecies despite seeing a few come true in her time. She believed in making your own luck and if it happened to fit into a pre-ordained destiny – well, that was just a coincidence. *

  *Not that she believed in coincidence either.]

  ‘It’s a bloody good idea, though,’ he said. ‘Even if we do die, it’s not going to matter, ’cause as soon as they’re all dead, everything goes back to normal, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Whatever,’ said Tamar. ‘And maybe that’s just what she wants us to think. I’m telling, you, you can’t trust gods. She took a hell of a risk coming here. How did she know that you or I wouldn’t just kill her right away – no questions asked? And then she gives us this cock and bull story, but then again, it could all be the truth, and she just doesn’t want us to believe her. If we think she’s lying and do the opposite of what she says, then maybe that’s what she really wants us to do …’

  ‘Black is white,’ he said. ‘But then again maybe it really is black.’