Rob was still asleep when Rachel awoke and had not cooled down at all. I was not concerned. I explained that it was perfectly normal, so she calmed down a little. She was still worried, but not enough to stop her eating or talking more about herself when asked.
She spoke about university, her friends, her hopes for the future. She kept asking me questions about my personal life, but every time I managed to change the subject. I was frustrating her, but it couldn’t be helped. For the time being refusing to answer her questions was a lot better than answering them. While I happily talked about films I had seen, music I liked, just like any normal person, I refused to discuss my family, my childhood or anything that Rachel seemed really interested in.
We spent the day eating, dozing, tending the fire, looking after the patient and getting to know each other better. The more I found out about her, the more I liked her and the more I liked her, the more annoyed I got with myself. She was a human and would not be in the underworld for very long. I was stupid to like her even a little and I was beginning to like her way more than that.
The following day played out pretty much the same as the previous one and Rachel began to get very concerned about Rob. He had not eaten or drunk anything since the potion I gave him and he had been sweating constantly ever since. He was probably getting severely dehydrated, but I refused to try to get him to swallow any water.
“It may cool him down and that might stop the venom being entirely burned up. Lack of water will make him weak for a while, but it won’t kill him. Cooling him down too soon will.” Rachel didn’t argue.
The next morning Rob’s fever finally broke, though he didn’t wake up. He was no longer sweating and felt cool to the touch. Too cool. I stoked up the fire and Rachel put one of her blankets over him when he started to shiver.
The day was long and tedious with Rachel checking on him what felt like every five minutes, looking for any sign that would indicate he was waking up. As the sun was setting and we were facing the prospect of spending yet another night stuck between the wood and the swamp, Rob opened his eyes.
“Help him sit up, then give him water.” Once he was upright, Rob grabbed the cup from Rachel’s hand and started to gulp it down.
“Slowly,” I called out. “If he drinks too fast he will be sick.” Rachel pulled the cup away from Rob before he had chance to consume too much and put it to his lips, tipping it gently so that only a little tricked into his mouth.
“Thank you,” he said once the cup was empty. “How long have I been asleep?”
Rachel told him and he groaned. “I feel like shit,” he said. “And I am starving. What have we got to eat?”
Rachel looked at me, wondering what I was cooking over the fire. “Broth.” Rob groaned again. He did, however, eat it all and was even polite to me, thanking me for my efforts.
“You are extremely weak right now.”
“No shit Sherlock,” Rob muttered under his breath.
I ignored the comment. “But you might be well enough to continue the journey in the morning as long as you have another cup of broth before you go to sleep and one more for breakfast.” The broth contained a special potion that would restore his strength so I wasn’t saying this just to get him to do as he was told.
Rob did not look enthusiastic, but didn’t argue. He and Rachel both went to bed early, leaving me alone by the fire. I wasn’t certain that Rob would be fit enough to travel in the morning and could not help hoping that he wouldn’t be. I had greatly enjoyed my time alone with Rachel and, though I shouldn’t, I wanted to spend more time with her.
Once I was sure that neither of them would be leaving their tents I went to see Pestilence to let him know that Rob had recovered. Despite the late hour, Pestilence was in the pool when I arrived.
“You don’t look too good,” uncle Len said when he saw me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just something that is preying on my mind.”
“Care to talk about it?” he asked as he climbed out of the pool.
“Not really.” As the youngest of my father’s siblings he is the most likely to understand what’s bothering me, but I was not in the mood to talk to anyone about my issue. My feelings for Rachel were my problem and I needed to deal with it alone, at least for now.
“Rob’s woken up and depending on how he feels in the morning we may arrive here sometime tomorrow.”
“I’ll be ready,” Len said. “Are you going back into the forest?”
“No. Rachel has managed to persuade me not to. For some reason I can’t fathom she seems to think that going through the swamp is a better alternative.”
“And how exactly did she manage to persuade you?” Len asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“I should be going,” I said, not wishing to answer. It was simple; she asked, I didn’t have the heart to say no, but there was no way I was going to admit that to my uncle. “Just in case one of them wakes up and decides to do something stupid again.”
Len grinned.
“One more thing before I go. They are not aware that I have been visiting you to give you progress updates, so when we arrive, can you act as though you haven’t seen me in a while?”
He assured me that he would, then I disappeared.
There was no sign of life when I arrived back at the campsite, so I went to my tent and tried to get to sleep.
Pestilence
I was the first one up the following morning, but Rob soon followed.
“How are you feeling?” I asked as he emerged from his tent.
“Weak,” he replied. “But I think I am well enough to continue the journey.”
I wasn’t convinced. “I know you are desperate to get to your girlfriend as soon as you can, but you will be no good to her if you are half-dead when you get there. You should consider resting for another day.”
“I appreciate the concern,” Rob said, “but I’ll be fine.”
I shook my head. “It’s your life. If you want to risk it that’s up to you.”
“What’s for breakfast?” he asked as I pulled a frying pan from my backpack.
I grinned. “For you, broth.” He groaned. “For me and Rachel, bacon. If the smell of it frying doesn’t get her out of bed, nothing will.”
“You’re getting to know her well already I see,” Rob commented. I remained silent, not wanting to admit to him exactly how much I had managed to find out about her while he had been burning up with fever. “If I eat all of the broth, any chance I can have some of the bacon?”
“No.” I wasn’t being nasty, it really was for his own good. “But if you are a good boy and eat it all up, we can pack up straight after breakfast. If we make good time, we will reach Pestilence today.”
The first of my predictions came true a short while later when Rachel emerged from her tent, commenting on the smell of the bacon. When her back was turned Rob and I exchanged knowing smiles.
Despite already being told ‘no’, Rob again asked for bacon, but even Rachel refused him, trusting my advice. As soon as breakfast was finished the tents were packed up and we began the next leg of our journey.
“Follow me,” I said when we reached the edge of the swamp. “And only tread where I tread. I wouldn’t advise stopping for a rest, but if you really need to, call out and I will try to find somewhere solid where we can stop for a short while.”
I have been through the swamp a number of times and easily found the path. I kept looking behind me to make sure the other two were following and was pleased to see that they were carefully obeying my instructions. They were both constantly looking around them into the murky water, trying to spot what was making the occasional noises. This slowed down progress, but I didn’t complain.
When lunchtime arrived nobody suggested taking a break. The smell of the swamp was enough to put anyone off food. Rachel looked as though she was going to vomit at any moment, so making her eat would not have been a good idea.
When I turned around to ask if she was a
lright, she had stopped walking. I looked down at her feet and noticed a snake slithering across the path in front of her. I grinned. “You can step over it you know.”
“I’d rather not risk upsetting it,” she said. “I’m sure it is very nice and friendly, but so was the green one and look what happened there. I am perfectly happy to let the wildlife have right of way.”
I chuckled as I turned back around. She really was entertaining sometimes.
There was still much of the day left when our feet hit the solid ground of the meadow on the far side of the swamp, so we continued walking for a while longer before breaking for a meal, making sure we were far enough away for the smell to no longer bother us.
Then I gave Rob and Rachel some information they would welcome. “If we do not rest for too long, we should reach Pestilence’s house before nightfall.” I glanced at Rob, who looked exhausted. Food seemed to revive him though and we were soon back on our feet.
As I had promised, the sun was just beginning to set as we reached a wall. It was tall, but in the distance we could just make out the roof of a large house. We followed the wall around for a short while before reaching a large iron gate. It wasn’t locked and opened easily when I pushed it.
“Follow the path down to the house,” I said. Once Rob was through I closed the gate behind him.
“Are we expected?” Rachel asked.
“Of course.” She didn’t ask how Pestilence knew when we would be arriving and I didn’t volunteer the information. How would I be able to explain my night time visits without revealing what I am?
As the house came into view Rachel expressed surprise at how modern it looked. Unlike the residence that my grandparents live in, this one is definitely from the 21st century. Huge darkened windows dominate the building, which looks like it is made entirely from some sort of silver metal. As we approached, the side of the building came into view and the large swimming pool became visible, along with the hot tub next to it.
“Wow,” Rachel said.
“Impressive, isn’t it?”
Rob grunted. “Tasteless and over the top,” he murmured. Even I knew that he didn’t mean it and was dying to see inside.
“It’s so modern,” Rachel said. “I was expecting something more...” The right word wouldn’t come to her.
“Subtle?” Rob suggested. Rachel threw him a dark look. I ignored him.
“Pestilence gets bored and remodels it every few years. The swimming pool has doubled in size since the last time I was here.” Well, the last time I had stayed here anyway; the visits over the previous few nights didn’t count.
“When was that?” Rachel asked.
I shrugged. “A couple of months, I guess.”
As we made our way toward the building the front door opened and Len walked out. I could just imagine what Rachel was thinking when she saw what appeared to be a young man with wavy blond hair.
“Kris,” he exclaimed. “It’s good to see you. Nobody told me you were showing our visitors around the realm.” I did my best to stifle a groan. Talk about overacting.
“It’s good to see you too Len.” I embraced him warmly as though I hadn’t seen him in a while. He gave me a quizzical look and I realised why; he was curious as to why I had not called him uncle. I knew that there was something I had forgotten to mention to him.
“I am keeping my identity secret as long as I can,” I said directly into his mind so that Rachel and Rob could not hear.
Len didn’t ask why. Instead he just shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention to Rachel.
“And who is this lovely young thing?” he asked as he brushed his hair away from his face.
“Where’s the beach,” Rob muttered. Somehow I managed to keep the smirk off my face. With his pale blue eyes, slim and fit figure, tanned skin and the faintest trace of light stubble I can understand why Rob thought Len looked like a surfer. The fact that he was dressed in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt just made it worse.
“I’m Rachel,” she said, holding out her hand for Len to shake. Instead he grasped her finger tips and kissed the back of her hand. I rolled my eyes.
“Delighted to meet you,” he said as he released her. “I am Pestilence, but my friends call me Len.”
Rachel obviously found this statement hard to believe and glanced at me, raising a questioning eyebrow. I nodded, confirming that the man standing in front of her really was Pestilence.
“Not quite what you imagined, am I?” Len said, grinning.
“I’m Rob, in case anyone is interested,” Rob said rudely.
Len turned to him and I noticed that Rachel was holding her breath. She must have been worried about how Len would react to Rob’s rudeness. I, on the other hand, knew that my uncle didn’t care about Rob’s manners; he was too eager to start his test.
“Of course I am interested,” Len said enthusiastically. “After all, you are the reason we are all here. You have provided me hours of entertainment thinking up the puzzles you will need to solve.”
“What?” Rob asked.
“It’s been a long journey Len,” I said before Rob could continue. “Can we at least bathe and eat first?” Rachel gave me a grateful smile.
“Of course,” he replied. “Follow me.”
He led us through his house, allowing the visitors to take in how minimalist it was without pointing anything out to them. He wasn’t proud of his house; it served a purpose, nothing more.
“I wonder how he keeps everything so clean and dust free,” I heard Rachel whisper to Rob. I contemplated letting them know just how good my hearing was, then decided against it. Being able to overhear their conversations without them knowing, while not being very nice, might prove to be useful at some point. “I would love to meet his housekeeper,” Rachel continued.
“He is the son of a god,” Rob said. “The Lord of the underworld, to be more precise. Dust is probably too scared to even cross the threshold.” I had to quickly look away so they wouldn’t see me grinning. I was learning that Rob had a good sense of humour. It was a pity he usually kept it so well hidden.
We were led to the back of the house and Rob and Rachel were assigned adjoining rooms.
“Fresh clothes are in the wardrobes,” Len said. “Take as long as you like settling in. Dinner will be a while yet.” He turned to me. “You are in your usual room.” I nodded and departed back the way I had come. Len followed me.
“A word, if you don’t mind,” he said as soon as we were alone. He escorted me into his library and indicated I should take a seat.
“Why don’t you want them to know who you are?” he asked.
“It has been a long time since I have been treated as someone normal instead of a demi-god and I want to enjoy it for as long as I can.”
“I can understand that,” Len said with feeling. “I promise I will do nothing to make them even suspect your true parentage. Believe it or not, that is actually the reason I pretended that I was surprised to see you. There was a look on your face that I have seen before, only last time you were keeping something secret from your mother. I knew you were up to something and decided to do a little improvised acting until I could find out exactly what.”
“Thanks.” I have a lot of respect for my uncle and care for him a great deal. I started to stand, but Len waved me back into my seat.
“Stay a moment longer.” I sank back down into the chair again, suppressing a sigh. I was looking forward to having a shower and changing into clean clothes.
“Rachel’s pretty,” Len said casually.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” I grinned at my uncle as I spoke. He knew I was lying.
“You can thank me later,” he continued.
“For what?”
“You’ll see,” he said, winking at me before leaving the room.
Too tired to even try to work out what that had been about, I went to my room. Dropping my bag on the ground, I stripped off and headed straight to the bathroom. After a quick shower I returned to
the bedroom and selected clean clothes from my wardrobe. My dirty clothes, as expected, had disappeared.
Len was out by the pool, drinking beer and watching the sunset. He purposely built his house so that he gets the best view from the deck each evening. Without looking up he passed a bottle to me, which I gratefully accepted and collapsed into a chair. The journey, along with the extra travelling I had been doing at night, had taken more out of me than I had realised.
Rob soon joined us and we made small talk while finishing our drinks. Len wanted to know about Rob’s life on Earth and the young man was happy to oblige him.
“Does Rachel usually spend this long bathing?” Len asked when he realised how late it was getting.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Rob replied.
“I’ll go and get her,” I said.
“I’ll come with you,” Rob said. Somehow I managed to hide my disappointment. “You will be too polite to her,” he explained.
I knocked on her bedroom door and called out loudly. “You may want to get out of there sometime.”
“Looks like I was right about you,” Rob said quietly before shouting through the closed door. “Get out now Rachel. I want to solve Pestilence’s stupid puzzles and get back on the road as soon as possible.”
I heard sounds of movement inside the room and assumed that Rachel was doing as ‘requested’. “Now we just have to wait another hour for her to get dressed,” Rob said as we headed back to the pool area.
“Please tell me you are kidding.”
Rob shook his head. “I wish I were. What is it with women? Why do they always take so long to get ready?”
“Because they like to go to a lot of effort to make themselves attractive to men,” Len said as we approached, having heard the comment. “It’s a pity we men never go to so much trouble.” Rob and I looked down at ourselves. We were both dressed casually, but were still neat and tidy.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” Len replied, but refused to explain further. I love him dearly, but he can be really annoying at times.
I did see the moment Rachel walked out of the house.
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