Keeper of Myths

by Jasmine Richards

  There were some nods and murmurs of acknowledgment. Some of the gods even looked sheepish.

  “You’re not listening to me.” Sam’s voice had thunder in it. “I’m not a prize to be claimed, and I’m not going anywhere.” He lifted his hands and flames appeared at his fingertips.

  Berchta raised an eyebrow. “It pleases me so to see your fighting spirit, Sam. A god should have fight.” She smoothed down the folds of her dress with slim, elegant hands. “But I have been a goddess for over a thousand years. You do not get to refuse a command from me.”

  She clicked her fingers, and a clawed hand made of thick green smoke crawled forth from the arch and plucked Sam from the ground. He was held there for a moment, suspended in the air, as if the claw wanted to show off its prize, and then he was dragged toward the arch.

  “Get off me!” Sam yelled. “Let me go!” He wriggled and bucked, but his arms were pinned to his sides.

  “Use your time away well, Sam,” Berchta called. “Train and improve. For when you are finally won by your pantheon, you will need to be strong enough to survive that which lies ahead of you. Go. You will be well looked after.”

  “No!” Buzz cried. His voice echoed around the ruins. “Leave him alone.” But it was too late. Sam had disappeared into the smoke.

  Berchta had gone very still, but now she turned slowly from the arch and looked up to where Buzz stood on the parapet of the ruins with Mary and Theo.

  All around the crumbling amphitheater, gods and goddesses were rising to their feet, their gazes also fixed on Buzz and his friends.

  “Nice work,” Theo hissed. “Anyone else you want to tell that we’re hiding up here?”

  “Theo, now is not the time for sarcasm.” Mary was already scrambling down from her perch. “We’ve gotta move.”

  Berchta’s eyes glowed icily once more as she pointed in their direction, and she bared her teeth. “Get them, get the intruders,” she snarled.

  The silver-winged god who Buzz had noticed earlier spread his glimmering wings and soared into the sky. With a smoky belch, the feathered dragon followed, and both gods raced toward them.

  “I really, really, really hope you’ve got a plan, Buzz,” Theo called out as he scuttled down the wall. “You have a plan, right?”

  “Yep,” Buzz replied. “Run!”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Just Ride

  “You’re kidding. That’s the plan?” Theo squawked.

  “Not all of it.” Buzz scrambled to find the next foothold on the wall. “We need to get to the World Tree. Ratatosk will help us.”

  Mary grinned at him in the moonlight. “Exactly what I was thinking.” She landed on the ground with a thud and sprinted for her bike. “And if we can get into the forest, it’ll be harder for them to track us from the air.”

  “Why, oh, why did I say hello to you guys?” Theo complained even as he straddled his bike. “I’m an idiot. I could have just put my key in the door and gone into my house, but oh no, I had to say hello, and now we’re being chased by a giant budgie man and some kind of dragon with feathers.”

  “They won’t be the only ones,” Mary said. “That badger will probably be after us, and badgers have excellent senses of smell and hearing. We won’t be able to hide from him for long in the forest.”

  “What do badgers eat?” Theo asked. His voice was tremulous.

  Mary wrinkled her nose. “Well, badgers are omnivorous and—”

  “I’m looking for an answer here, not big words,” Theo snapped.

  “They eat everything,” Mary snapped back. “And I imagine a giant badger eats large quantities of everything.”

  “Just ride, Theo!” Buzz pulled his bike upright. The front wheel still looked pretty bent. He hoped it would last until they reached the cover of the forest. Theo nodded, and soon his feet were a blur as he began to pedal after Mary.

  Buzz pushed off after them and was soon level with Mary, even as he heard the powerful flap of wings and a high screech from above his head. Looking up, he saw the feathered dragon speed downward, its powerful body a deep blue in the moon’s silvery light. It wove in deftly between their bikes, swooping and swirling elegantly through the sky.

  With another gleeful screech, the dragon flicked its tail out at Mary.

  “Watch out!” Buzz shouted. He skillfully angled his bike into a skid and it caught Mary’s wheel. She was thrown from her seat and went tumbling to the ground, the dragon’s tail missing her by centimeters.

  “Whoa! That was close. Thanks.” Mary gave a small groan as she picked herself up and climbed onto her bike once more. “I hate dragons. Why do we always end up with a dragon?”

  “Wish I knew,” Buzz yelled over his shoulder as he pushed off once again. “But we know from experience that they don’t give up.”

  “Well, neither do we.” Mary was right behind him. “I just hope this one doesn’t breathe fire.”

  Buzz clenched his jaw and pedaled harder. Nope. He didn’t fancy being turned into a dragon’s kebab today, either. They had far too much to do. He focused on catching up with Theo, who had now almost reached the edge of the Tangley Woods.

  Mary had just drawn up level beside him when a gust of fetid air washed over them. Looking up, Buzz saw the glint of razor-sharp talons flash in the night sky. The feathered dragon was close. Buzz could even see the scaly underside of the dragon’s belly and the dirty feathers of its wings crawling with insects as it continued to circle them.

  Mary glanced up and then gritted her teeth and overtook Buzz. “Come and get me if you dare, you scaly rooster,” she shouted up at the sky. “Or are those feathers just for show?”

  “Mary, what are you doing?” Buzz cried as the dragon focused its gaze on his friend. She was now at least three bike lengths ahead of him.

  “Your bike isn’t going to make it, Buzz,” she said. “I’m buying you some time. Go!”

  The feathered dragon wheeled in the sky and surged toward her with a piercing cry. It swiped out viciously with its talons.

  “Duck!” Buzz cried.

  Mary did, her braids with their green beads clinking as she dipped forward. The talons just missed the top of her scalp.

  The woods were just a few meters away now and Buzz could see Theo waving at them frantically from the trees. “Come on!” his friend was shouting. “You can do it.”

  Buzz pedaled faster, but his bike was not cooperating. He could feel the twisted front wheel buckling from the strain it was under. The safety of the trees was close, but not close enough.

  The steady beat of wings filled the air. The feathered dragon was still hovering in the night sky, as if working out the best way to attack. Making up its mind, the dragon shot down again. This time it came at Mary low and slow, and it blew thick smoke from its mouth.

  Buzz knew that in seconds it would be impossible to see, and so he did the only thing he could think of—he grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and hurled it at the dragon. It spun through the air, the phone’s blue light twinkling like a strange star, and struck the god sweetly on the side of its temple before bouncing off into the darkness.

  The dragon choked on its own smoke in surprise. Looking dazed, it tumbled to the ground and landed with a thump and a raspy-sounding wheeze.

  Theo was cheering from the trees. “Nice one, Buzz!”

  Mary turned and grinned. “Quite a throw you’ve got there. Shame you all don’t play baseball in this countr—” She broke off and her eyes went wide as she looked at something over Buzz’s shoulder.

  And then Buzz was airborne, an arm like a vise around his chest. His bike clattered to the ground as he was pulled farther up into the air. He looked up to see the silver-winged god. The wings were spread wide, magnificent and gleaming as they beat against the night sky.

  “Let go!” Buzz wriggled and bucked.

  “Most certainly,” the winged god replied. “Right after I deliver you to Berchta. Now, be quiet. I’ve got more prey to catch, and the more you sq
uirm, the more likely it is that I will drop you, and I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to bring you in alive.”

  The wind stung Buzz’s cheeks as the god swooped downward and headed for Mary.

  “Run!” Buzz shouted, but instead his friend stared straight at the winged god and glared. Like a daisy being picked from the earth, Mary was taken from her bike and swept upward.

  The god chuckled. “Why, that was far easier than I thought. I was watching as you gave Tiamat quite the runaround. Poor dear, stuck in her animal form for all these years. I’m surprised I caught you quite so easily.”

  “I let you catch me,” Mary revealed. “I wasn’t going to let you fly off with my friend, now, was I?”

  Buzz shook his head. “Mary, you should ha—”

  “What loyalty,” the winged god interrupted. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it since sweet old Fides.”

  “Who was Fides?” Mary asked. Despite everything, she sounded curious. Buzz knew that every opportunity was a learning opportunity when it came to Mary.

  “She was the Roman goddess of loyalty,” the god explained. “She was so loyal, she refused to leave Rome even as the empire crumbled. Now she is dust.” The god wrinkled his nose. “Loyalty is a fool’s game, and clearly your other friend agrees. He’s run into the forest without you.”

  Buzz peered into the gloom. The god was right. Theo was no longer there on the fringes of Tangley Woods. He’s gone to get help, Buzz thought. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he’s done.

  The winged god clucked his tongue. “Oh well, two is better than none, and I don’t know how I would have carried another person anyway.” He tutted again. “What are they feeding mortal children nowadays? You’re both so hefty.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of supreme deity?” Mary asked. “Surely two little mortals can’t be that heavy.”

  “Judge me if you will.” The god flapped his wings and banked to his left as he turned away from the Tangley Woods and headed back toward the ruins. “But it has cost me dearly to leave the Forsaken Territories and come through the Ash Arch.” He shrugged, jerking Buzz and Mary upward. “Luckily, once I give you to Berchta, she is bound to look on me favorably. It will help me win the contest.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Mary scoffed. “From what I heard, you need to gather new believers to win the contest. Giving us to her isn’t going to help you do that.”

  “You heard an awful lot, didn’t you?” The god observed. “What were you doing there?”

  “We were lost,” Buzz said quickly, knowing that they could not reveal their relationship to Sam. “We didn’t mean to see what we saw.”

  “Tell the truth, Buzz,” Mary said.

  Buzz glared at her. “I am telling the truth.”

  “No, you’re not,” Mary replied. “But I’m going to and you’re not gonna stop me.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Deal

  Buzz’s chest felt tight. Why is she doing this? Then Mary winked at him, and he felt a little of his tension leave. She had a plan.

  Mary tilted her head back and looked up at the god. “The truth is, a few months ago, I discovered that I am the host for the goddess Hel. Her life force sleeps inside of me.”

  “You mean Hel, Norse queen of the underworld, Hel?”

  “That’s the one,” Mary said.

  The god let out a low whistle. “Gracious, she has been missing for centuries. Thought she’d gone the same way as Fides.”

  “No, she’s right here with me. So when I heard about the Pantheon, I guess I wanted to learn more about the gods. I convinced Buzz to come with me.”

  The winged god went quiet for a moment. “I never really agreed with the whole host-god thing. It’s why I chose to go to the Forsaken Territories when I lost all my believers. The whole idea of sharing the same space like that seems very strange to me.”

  “It is,” Mary confessed, and Buzz was surprised at how sad she sounded. “Sometimes, I don’t know where Hel begins and I end. I have to keep reminding myself that this is my life to live and no one else’s. I’m the one who gets to make the decisions.”

  “Do you have any of her powers?” the god asked.

  “No, not really,” Mary replied. “I can tell what people’s greatest fears are, but that’s about it.”

  Buzz glanced over at his friend, finally understanding what Mary was doing. She was getting the winged god to see them as more than just prey. And the more he talked, the more likely it was that they could distract him and escape. Buzz gave her a silent round of applause. She’s doing a really good job of sounding sorry for herself, he thought. I never knew she was such a good actor.

  “What a useful skill,” the god mused. “A bit like the power I used to have to identify a person’s deepest desire. All gone now, of course, along with most of my other powers.” The god sounded glum.

  “I bet you’re still great with your bow and arrow,” Buzz said. Ha! Mary’s not the only one who can charm a god.

  “Bow and arrow,” the god repeated. “What in all the realms are you talking about?”

  “You’re Cupid, right?” Buzz looked up at the god. “You were talking about Rome, and you’ve got the wings and everything. . . .” He trailed off.

  “How dare you,” the winged god squawked. “I am not a Roman god, and certainly not that potbellied teenager Cupid.” He thrust his shoulders back and spread his wings as wide as they could go. “I’m Zelus, one of the four protectors of Zeus, father of the Greek gods.”

  “Zelus,” Mary repeated the name. “Nope. I’m really sorry, but I’ve never heard of you.”

  “Well, of course you haven’t,” Zelus huffed. “That’s why I’m a forgotten god.” The wind ruffled his feathers as if trying to soothe him. “I have a brother and two sisters: Kratos, god of strength; Bia, goddess of force; and Nike, goddess of victory. We are Zeus’s constant companions and enforcers of—”

  “Oh, Nike, yes, I’ve definitely heard of her,” Buzz chipped in.

  Zelus sighed deeply, the beat of his wings becoming slower. “Of course you have. Someone names some sneakers after you and you’re worshiped all over the world, even if those silly mortals don’t really understand who you are.” His voice was raw with pain. “They say your name and wish desperately to wear clothes with those letters on it. They give offerings of coinage and wait in lines just so they can be first to have the same adornments as everyone else. It’s just not fair.” Zelus had now come to a complete stop, flapping his wings dejectedly as he hovered in midair.

  “What are you a god of, then?” Buzz asked. He was curious, but more than that they had to keep on distracting the forgotten Greek god.

  “I’m the god of enthusiasm,” Zelus said, not very enthusiastically. “And on a bad day, envy.”

  “Ouch,” Mary said. “And no one knows who you are?”

  A nerve jumped in Zelus’s cheek. “That’s why I came to the Pantheon. I’d normally avoid it like the plague, or rather, the goddess of the plague, Lovathar.” He shuddered. “Did you see her there in her cloak of maggots? I really hope I haven’t caught anything. Plague takes ages to shake off.” The spring breeze ruffled his long, silver hair. “And seriously, you really can’t trust anyone at gatherings like that. Some of the behavior from the others! Especially the tricksters. It’s scandalous.” He shook his head disapprovingly. “But things are getting desperate.” His voice was becoming more and more bitter. “Nike sends a bit of power my way. I’m family after all. But I’m barely surviving in the Forsaken Territories. I don’t have one single mortal worshiping me.”

  “Well, we could help with that,” Mary said.

  “We could?” Buzz questioned.

  “Of course,” Mary replied. “We’re mortals, and think how grateful we’d be if you were to let us go. We’d give you thanks every day, and when we tell others in Crowmarsh of your kindness, they’ll thank you as well. It would be a good start for you in the contest.”r />
  “A good start, yes,” Zelus murmured. “And Berchta wouldn’t need to know I’d let you go. I could just say I couldn’t find you.”

  “Exactly!” Buzz said. “And remember, Tiamat didn’t see you take us. She was still knocked out.”

  Zelus looked extremely tempted. “It’s still a risk. If I do this, I’m really going to need a bit of worship.”

  “Sure,” Mary said. “We could definitely give that a go. But you’d need to release us first.”

  “Hang on.” Buzz looked down for a second and really wished that he’d used a different phrase. “What would worshiping you actually involve?” Mary did not look impressed, but Buzz wasn’t about to make a promise to a god without understanding the terms of the deal. That was how his mother had ended up owing El Tunchi his mystery payment.

  “Not much,” Zelus said eagerly. “Just a few offerings once in a while, and the general exaltation of my virtues.”

  “Exalut-what?” Buzz asked.

  “We just need to talk about Zelus enthusiastically,” Mary explained. “But we can only do that if you let us go.”

  Zelus bit his lip. “All right, mortals, you have a deal. Where shall I drop you?”

  Buzz flinched.

  “Sorry, not literally drop,” Zelus reassured. “I need your worship, after all.”

  “Take us to the World Tree, please,” Buzz requested. “We need to find my friend Ratatosk, and the tree can be tricky to find sometimes.”

  Zelus snorted. “You’re a mortal, of course the tree is difficult for you to find. We gods see the world a bit differently. Hold on.”

  Zelus folded his wings back and dived downward. The force of the descent pushed Buzz’s cheeks back, along with the scream in his throat. The ground was coming up at them. Fast. He could even see frost on the blades of grass in the moonlight. Just centimeters from the ground Zelus went from vertical to horizontal and sped onward. They were so close to the ground, Buzz’s nose was almost touching the earth.