Pantheon (The Tamar Black Saga)

by Nicola Rhodes

  The minor deities themselves would, no doubt, be extremely pissed off to discover they had been tricked and betrayed, but Tamar shrugged it off. She had said “whatever it takes” and she had meant it.

  There was only one last thing to sort out now, and they could go home.

  ‘We promised not to kill you,’ Denny told Aphrodite and Hephaestus. ‘But we never said that we were going to leave you as gods. And he held up a hand in which the Athame gleamed in the sunlight.

  Aphrodite took it surprisingly well. ‘Our time is over,’ she said. ‘As it was foretold. A few more years on this Earth is a just reward for our part in this. We might have died like the others had we not joined with you, and accepted our fate.’

  ‘You speak for yourself,’ blustered Hephaestus. ‘I don’t want to be a mortal.’

  ‘You prefer death?’ asked Aphrodite.

  ‘It all comes to the same thing, doesn’t it?’ he snorted. ‘I notice that Hecate isn’t here facing this choice. Playing favourites?’ he sneered.

  ‘It’s not her fate,’ Denny shrugged. ‘But it is yours.’

  ‘We shall simply have to achieve immortality the human way,’ said Aphrodite.’

  ‘Steal the Ambrosia?’ said Hephaestus hopefully.

  ‘Through our children,’ Aphrodite corrected him gently, ‘and our children’s children.’

  ‘Oh,’ Hephaestus huffed disdainfully. ‘Descendants.’

  She smiled conspiratorially at Denny. And he moved forward, the Athame in his upheld hand.

  ‘You look different through mortal eyes,’ Aphrodite told Denny after it was over and Denny grinned to himself.

  ‘I bet,’ he said. ‘Less … attractive?’ he calculated.

  ‘No,’ she said, to his surprise. ‘Just different.’

  There was a silence. Aphrodite licked her lips a little nervously and then took a deep breath. ‘Oh what the Hades,’ she said, and grabbed his face and kissed him hard on the mouth.

  He was too stunned to think of pulling back, but he really did not need to, as an outraged Hephaestus grabbed her by the hair and towed her away muttering oaths under his breath.

  ‘I wish those two luck,’ said Tamar from behind him – she sounded amused. ‘They’re going to need it.’

  Denny spun round in agitation. ‘I didn’t mean …’ he began babbling. ‘She just …’

  And Tamar grabbed his face and … Well it’s obvious really.

  ‘Let’s go home,’ she said on finally pulling away from him.

  ‘Yeah let’s,’ he said. And they closed their eyes and clicked their heels together – just for the fun of it.

  There’s no place like home …

  ~ Chapter Nineteen ~

  Hecate placed her hands on the corpse of Jack Stiles (a sight which his spirit found extremely disturbing to watch) and as she gave back to him the gift that had been taken, suddenly …

  Denny pulled at the cork and with a flash and a bang Tamar appeared in the room. They took in each other for a moment before suddenly …

  The world blew away.

  ~ Epilogue ~

  ‘And you were there and you were there and … Well no, ok you weren’t there,’ Denny finished, looking at Iffie who, along with the others, had been listening open-mouthed to their tale.

  ‘What do you mean, I was there?’ said Stiles in perplexity. ‘I mean I can see how Hecaté was there but …’

  ‘I don’t quite see how I could have been there either,’ said Cindy. ‘But with you two, I’d believe just about anything.’

  ‘Ain’t that the truth,’ said Stiles with a laugh.

  ‘He was joking,’ said Tamar giving Denny a look that promised trouble later on. ‘He’s just been dying to say that – that’s all.’

  Denny ran his thin fingers through his long untidy hair until it stuck up like a bottle brush. ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ he agreed. ‘I couldn’t help myself.’

  ‘So,’ said Tamar jumping up and rubbing her hands together. ‘What are we going to do about mainframe?’

  * * *

  ‘He knows,’ said Clive nervously to his colleague. ‘And whatever he knows, she knows too. You can count on that.’

  ‘Knows what?’ asked the colleague indifferently.

  ‘About us,’ snapped Clive. ‘About the origin of mainframe. Its true purpose.’ He sighed. ‘I suppose it was always inevitable. If only he hadn’t died. That was not supposed to happen. Chaos at work again. It’s always trying to break through.’

  Now his colleague looked alarmed. ‘B-but it can’t break through,’ he stammered. ‘We’ve always managed to hold it back.’

  ‘Until now,’ said Clive gloomily. ‘If she gets involved who knows what will happen. I really …’

  ‘Pfft,’ said the colleague. ‘What can she do?

  ‘It’s that kind of overconfident bravado that keeps getting us into trouble,’ said Clive sternly. ‘It’s time we learned our lesson. I really wouldn’t underestimate her.’

  ‘I wouldn’t turn my back on her for too long either,’ he added sotto voce.

  ‘But why would she …? I mean if she … Well everyone suffers that’s all. Surely she can’t be so …’

  ‘We can’t take the chance,’ interrupted Clive. ‘You don’t know her like I do. She’s a human – well, she is now – they can’t help themselves. They just have to interfere, even if it makes things worse. That’s free will for you.’

  ‘So what shall we do?’

  ‘We’ll just have to distract her that’s all.’ said Clive. ‘And remember, this is just between you and me. If we get the others involved, they’ll have committees and endless meetings and by the time they have come up with some stupid idea that probably won’t do anything more than annoy her in the long run, it’ll be too late to do anything anyway.’

  ‘All right,’ said the colleague. ‘Distract her how?’

  ‘Ah well,’ said Clive with a sly grin. ‘I did have a rather good idea about that actually. Just fetch me that bottle over there will you?’

  He held the bottle up to the light and turned it over in his hands a few times. ‘There’s nothing quite like an old enemy returned to keep your mind occupied for a while you know.’

  The colleague looked at the bottle in awe. ‘You mean that’s …? But if you put him back in the world …’ He trailed off as his mouth went dry at the horror of it.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Clive. ‘I wouldn’t normally do it of course. But we have to look after ourselves now.’

  ‘And,’ he added as if he had just thought of it, ‘if he kills her then so much the better. But I suppose that would be too much to hope for,’ he ended regretfully.

  ‘Now, where shall we put him? Nowhere too obvious of course. I mean she’s bound to work it out in the end, but it would be helpful if she blamed that sidekick and his messing around in our files, at least at first.’

  How about a nice desert island somewhere?’ said the colleague.

  ‘Perfect.’ said Clive. ‘I can see you are getting the hang of this already.

  And he hurled the bottle back into the world and watched with a satisfaction that was awful to behold as the lonely castaway discovered it.

  ‘Let the games begin,’ he said.

  INTRODUCING …

  Iphigenia Black – Dragon’s Teeth

  Time heals all wounds…

  “Not if a thousand years were to pass, would I ever forgive you”

  It’s been twenty-five years since Tamar and Denny left for the end of time. Now living alone, Iffie is visited by a sinister figure from her past – the enigmatic Isabelle Wilde – who recalls to her the terrible events of those far off days that led up to her self imposed isolation of the present.

  But perhaps by finally facing the past Iffie can put it behind her and learn not only to forgive those who trespassed against her, but also to forgive herself for letting it happen.

  Also by Nicola Rhodes

  SCI ‘ON The Shadow Worlds

  The
first book in the SCI ‘ON Trilogy

  Whenever a decision is taken that is of significance to the world, the world divides and two alternate futures are created. In the beginning, there was only one world. That world we name SCI ‘ON. All other worlds that sprang from it, we name the shadow worlds. Some believe SCI ‘ON is the only real world and that all others are mere reflections, hence the name. Others believe that all the alternate worlds are equally real and important – however they may have come into being.

  Whatever the case, one thing is certain. If SCI ‘ON itself – the cradle of creation– were to be destroyed, all other worlds would cease to exist. For SCI‘ON is the mainspring and without it, the shadow worlds would have no point of origin.

  Johnny Hammond is not your ordinary computer nerd. He has the makings of a hero. When a mysterious man shows him the way To SCI ‘ON, Johnny becomes obsessed. And only he can find a way to get there through the myriad shadow worlds that stand in his way. But someone doesn’t want him to get there.

  From earliest childhood, Ryan and Kai have been best friends. The fact that they come from separate universes is not allowed to stand in their way.

  As they grow up, they realise that this ability to travel between the worlds is no mere coincidence, as their ultimate destiny unfolds.

  SCI’ON II - Legacies

  Even his own mother, from the moment he was born, was afraid of Talvas, for she knew whence he had come and wondered what his power would be.

  Talvas Firebrand, later known as Talvas de Bellême and “The Destroyer of Worlds” was the son of Toros the fire god. His story and that of the other Undying begins on SCI ‘ON back at the beginning.

  Watching him from his citadel beyond time is Johnny Hammond, the only man in all creation capable of defeating Talvas and stopping the slaughter of millions.

  What will happen when these adversaries finally meet again in a new cycle of time?

  About the Author

  Nicola Rhodes often can’t remember where she lives so she lives inside her own head most of the time, where even if you do get lost, it’s still okay.

  She has met many interesting people inside her own head and eventually decided to introduce the rest of the world to them, in the hopes that they would stop bothering her and let her sleep.

  She has been doing this for ten years now but they still won’t leave her alone.

  She is married to the long suffering Mike who lives in Derby because he is not crazy (well not much anyway) and they have three girls between them.

  She wrote this book for fun and does not care if you take away a moral lesson from it or not.

  www.makerofmagic.co.uk

  Table Of Contents

  In the same series

  ~ Chapter One ~

  ~ Chapter Two ~

  ~ Chapter Three ~

  ~ Chapter Four ~

  ~ Chapter Five ~

  ~ Chapter Six ~

  ~ Chapter Seven ~

  ~ Chapter Eight ~

  ~ Chapter Nine ~

  ~ Chapter Ten ~

  ~ Chapter Eleven ~

  ~ Chapter Twelve ~

  ~ Chapter Thirteen ~

  ~ Chapter Fourteen ~

  ~ Chapter Fifteen ~

  ~ Chapter Sixteen ~

  ~ Chapter Seventeen ~

  ~ Chapter Eighteen ~

  ~ Chapter Nineteen ~

  ~ Epilogue ~

  INTRODUCING …

  Also by Nicola Rhodes

  About the Author