by Tom Keller
Hephaestus, also known as Vulcan, the Greek and Roman God of Fire, made the original necklace with the help of the Cyclopes. If I could find its replacement, I've got skilled Cyclopes that can make another out of what's left. Problem is, not just any Dragon's eye will work. The jewel Apollo used was one of the eyes of Python, the original Dragon that lived at Delphi, and so far, the mate to the one in Diantha's necklace hasn't been found.
Hell, I don’t even know if it still exists. There's not much about it in the old stories, although I have chased down a few leads. One rumor has it finding its way into the hands of King Sisyphus. He's the guy that tried to cheat death and got sentenced by Zeus to roll a boulder up a hill forever in Tartarus. I can’t go back to Tartarus to ask him myself, not that he'd tell me the truth. He was kind of an asshole, after all. The bastard even consulted with Diantha once when she was the Oracle to find a way to kill his brother without getting caught. The only thing I know for sure is if he did have it, he didn't take it with him.
I've had Alf, my scholarly Imp, doing some research. He seems to think that the jewel may have been the source of some of his wisdom and power, and maybe even some of his attitude. But other than a reference to it having been seen in possession of Sisyphus' wife, Merope, who was also a daughter of Atlas, there's not much more to go on. For what it's worth, it's said that she was turned into a star along with her sisters by Zeus. If you look up into the night sky in autumn or winter, you can still see her up there in the Pleiades constellation. Not that you needed a Greek mythology or astronomy lesson, but what the hell?
Anyway, there's more. It's possible that it wound up in the Necklace of Harmonia, which was also made by Hephaestus. It was said to keep the wearer young and beautiful, but at a great cost. It had been cursed and brought bad luck to the wearer. Fortunately, Alf believed it was only the necklace that was cursed, not the stone, as it was also used to bring the wearer long life and beauty, just like Diantha's jewel had done. But even if that was true, nothing has been heard of that artifact since about 350 B.C. So once again, leads are a tad slim. Interestingly, though, it was said to have been at the temple of Athena in Delphi prior to being stolen. Although that would have been a long time after Diantha was the Oracle, she was still in the area. Which is significant as he seems to think that the jewel is linked to its sibling. Which means it could have found its way to the New World just like Diantha had, which was what I was banking on. I'd go on, but things suddenly got interesting. Someone was coming up the walkway, and she was armed. Charlie was up and moving as I pulled my sword. At the same time, Charon stood and put out his hands.
"Meg! No!" he yelled as a woman-sized fireball shot through the door.
I threw up a shield of magic just before she hit me, her contact pushing me back a few feet at the same time as I blocked the sword she swung at me. The power behind it surprised me, and sparks flew from the blades as they met. The fireball slowly resolved into a Fae female, eyes still blazing as she reared back to strike again.
"Charlie! Hold!" I said, just as the big dog's jaws sought to clamp onto her sword arm. He twisted in midair and landed beside her, growling, but still at the ready.
I blocked several more strikes before Charon's words registered. She glanced over at him, then back to me, her eyes raging as she stared into mine. There was something familiar about her magic, but I didn’t have time to think about it as I waited for her next move. Suddenly, her stance relaxed a bit and her sword dropped a few inches.
"What is going on?" she asked, still glaring.
"He's from Hades," Charon replied before I could answer.
"I know who he is, Cherry," she said, never taking her eyes off of me. "I had heard that a new High Fae had come. But I was not aware that you called that place your domain. Not that it matters. I don't care if you are Hades reborn, you're not sending him back to that place."
"I have no intention of sending him back to Tartarus," I said, taking a moment to look her over. Now that the aura of magic had withdrawn a bit, I saw a 40 something female with reddish-blonde hair standing before me. Her skin was dark, more from years in the desert rather than lineage, and muscles hid underneath her small frame. I knew she was Fae, but there was still something odd about her, and it wasn't just the gold tank top with the name of the same local bar as Charon had been wearing on it. It wasn't even the incredible power behind the sword. Then Charlie spoke up.
"She is of the Erinyes," he said, twisting his head.
"Oh, Charon… or is it Cherry? " I said as his words hit me. I glanced back at him. "You've been holding out on me. Just a servitora, eh?"
He grinned, sheepishly.
"Where are your wings?" I asked, now staring at the female Fae I wouldn’t have believed still existed until a moment ago.
"If I thought showing you my wings and tits would have helped, I would have done so," she replied, sarcastically. Then she pointed to the doorway. "But then I couldn’t have fit through that… and you've already done enough damage to my house. I'd prefer not to destroy it any more than you already have… and for the record, I'm a bartender, not a servitora. Not that that matters to you." She stood straighter, then put her hands on her hips. "But if you're not sending him back, then what do you want?"
"What I want is to know what one of the Furies is doing here… alive? Charon I can understand. He was trapped in Tartarus. But you? None of your kind were known to survive The Fall. What have you been doing all these years?"
The Furies, known also as the Erinyes, were Greek deities of vengeance. Known as the Infernal Goddesses, they sought vengeance upon man. Hunting down criminals and driving them insane, then dragging their Souls to Hades for punishment. Tisiphone was known to have guarded the tower that led to Tartarus, and this one, Megaera, with a name that meant jealous rage, was said to punish those that broke their oaths. There was even a little-known story that my ancestor, Demeter, might have pretended to be a Fury at times. Of course, mythology doesn’t always get it right, as evidenced by the fact that some historians describe the Furies as being old crones with snakes in their hair, something Meg here definitely was not. At least not in her present form.
"There was no reason to stay," she replied. "Oaths meant nothing to Zeus. Nor were we equals in his eyes. In the end we were but dogs doing his bidding." She turned to look at Charlie. "No offence intended."
He didn't reply, although I did hear a muttered growl.
"One tires of being a monster," she continued. "With my sisters' dead and Hades gone, there was no reason to linger. While the Gods still battled, I fled. I found it better to stay hidden among the humans. Life was hard but at least it was my own to live."
"But why hide here?" I asked. "There are plenty of Fae in Vegas. Why not make yourself known?"
Vegas was the hub of Fae activity in the country and integration into human society by most of the Fae was handled by Meredith Milagre, the Nereid Queen. Her family owned the Neptune Hotel and Casino and she was the second most powerful Fae in Vegas. In theory, that should have been my responsibility but she’d been handling it since before I came around, and it was just more efficient to let her continue to do so.
"For what?" she asked, curling her lips. "The Fae today are no better than those that came before. What would you have me do? Take vengeance on oath breakers again? In case you haven't noticed, keeping oaths and promises is not exactly high on anyone's list these days. No thank you! I'd prefer to remain in obscurity. But I suppose that is impossible, now that you are here."
"Hey," I replied, scratching my jaw. "I'm not here to rain on your parade. If this is what you want, who am I to take it away from you." I swept my hands around the room. "If this is the way you want to live, so be it. Nice trailer and all. Not exactly my idea of paradise, even if you are on the river."
"Yet you would take Charon away from me," she said. "I have only just been reunited with him. My life changes again, nonetheless. The old worlds are dead. Why can you not just leave us alone?"
She didn’t reply, she just crossed her arms and glanced at Charon, who had gotten up from the table and was walking toward her.
"You guys are killing me," I said, throwing my hands up. "How many times do I have to say this? Things… are… different… now. Tell you what, how about I give him weekends and holidays off… vacation time too? Will that make it any easier?"
"I do not understand?" she said, looking dumbfounded. "One cannot just enter and leave Hades whenever they please."
"For those Souls sent there to rest, or for punishment, that may be true," I continued. "But for anyone else… Okay, okay, here's the reality of it. Hades is a mess, it's gonna take forever to clean up the back log, so a little time off is not gonna make a lot of difference. Now, I know that the old Hades didn’t do things that way, but… guess what? My world, my rules. The important thing is to get things going again. As for you? You can do as you please. You're welcome to join Charon anytime you wish. If you get bored, you can visit the Keres. They seem to have the same mind set about the old days as you do."
"The Keres were looked down upon more than even we were," she pointed out.
"Yeah… so I've heard," I agreed. "But not anymore. Queen Kyras rules from Nyx' palace. There's even an introduction ceremony planned for her daughter. The first of such an event in many ages, or so I'm told. You can come as my guest if you like. Both of you, that is. I hear it's gonna be quite the party. Many of the other Fae will be attending."
"The Keres? This I would see for myself," she said, raising her eyebrows.
"It's settled then," I replied, pulling out my phone. "Let me make a few calls. Let's get that door repaired and then you can see for yourself.
Chapter 2
"Your thoughts?" I asked the Greek General. We were in Charon's ship, cruising up and down the river, watching the horde of Souls that had gathered on the bank of the Acheron, across from the entrance to Hades.
"Charon is correct, my Lord," General Epaminondas replied. "If we could establish a beachhead, then my men could hold them. But as they are, there are just too many of them. They are stacked like cordwood, thousands deep, if not more. Can you not use magic to push them back?"
"I wish I could," I replied. "But I tried that already. God or not, there're just too many. My magic isn’t much use here. I can’t gain full control of them until they actually enter my domain."
"Then that is a problem," he replied. "But order me to try, and my men and I will do what we can."
"No, General," I said. "I'm not going to waste my time with an impossible task. There's got to be another way.
The problem here was that it had been a long time since Charon had plied his trade here, collecting coins from the dead to earn passage across the river to the entrance of Hades. Souls had been pouring in for years as believers died and made their way to the banks of the Styx and Acheron. When Hades closed the gates, they didn't get the message. Instead, they just kept coming. With nowhere to go, they piled up here.
Something else had happened as well. It was said that those that had been unburied or could not pay the Ferryman were doomed to wander for a hundred years. But they'd been wandering a lot longer than that. Something had changed in some of them. Charon called it madness, but it seemed worse than that. Many had become Zombie like, more like ghostly Shades, although more dangerous. Shades were Souls that were ghost-like but had somehow become partially corporeal. I had encountered their kind in Hades before, as well as other parts of the Underworld. They weren't supposed to be able to enter those realms, but that's what you get when they've been neglected for so long. These, fortunately, hadn’t made it inside, but they were still a pain in the ass to deal with. I'd had a few hunting parties out to try and limit their numbers, but there were still far too many to make the trek across the Marshes from the other side safely. While that wasn't a problem for me, even the fact that my Hoplites were already dead didn’t make it any easier.
You can't die twice… at least not down here. Well, that's not exactly true. But that rule only applies to the Lilin, and even then, it's complicated. But then what do you expect when dealing with the creature that Vampires are modeled after. Especially when you consider the symbiont that lives inside them. For everyone else, if the bodies that contained their Souls were destroyed, they'd have to face the journey again. This time with a long line of wandering Souls ahead of them to get through before they could get back to the gates. Which, now that I think about it, might just be a solution to the problem.
"Charon, take us back," I yelled, then turned to Epaminondas. "Gather your forces when we land, General. I think I've got a way to clear some of that beach for you."
***
Remember that part where I said Hades was a mess? Well, that was true, for the most part. But I'd been busy, and there were some areas that were better than others. Hades palace, for one. With the help of a Satyr named Saphyr, a descendant of Pan, the place was already fixed up and livable. Then there was Persephone's palace, it too was being refurbished. Which was a good thing since Diantha had made it her base of operations while she stayed in the Underworld.
During one of my battles with the Dark Fae, she had opened a portal between Tartarus and the human world, allowing many to escape that hellish place. Most were not the kind you wanted to see in your own backyard. Monsters and bad guys for the most part, but a few had been a real boon. Not everyone that had found themselves lost in that place was evil. Charon being the prime example. Saphyr too. Although I'd actually found him in Tartarus when he'd been unable to reach the portal in time. I'd also been able to rescue more than a few others from there before it had shut me out. Most importantly had been the Cyclopes. If you remember your history, Vulcan and the Cyclopes had designed and built most of the weapons and artifacts used by the old Gods.
While Vulcan was long gone, I did have one of his descendants, Walter Ferrer, working for me in Hades. Between him and the Cyclopes, as well as a few others, weapons production was once again flowing in the Underworld. Not that I was planning a coup, but the Dwarf war was heating up, and of course, I was backing the underdog. The Dwarves had also crafted weapons for the Gods, but with the enemy holding their stronghold, and in doing so, controlling most of their armories, my side needed all the help they could get.
Not that it would matter if the Feds found out what I was doing. They still had a hair up their ass over the evil Dwarf King arming Goblins. I couldn’t blame them; humans and Fae magic are a dangerous combination. I'd seen a few prime examples of that in my battles with dark Sorcerers and Mages in the past. Not that anything down here was destined for the human world, but I was still keeping it quiet to avoid complications. Even Jay didn’t know all of what was going on down here, and he was my son, and a Prince of Hades as well.
There were no restrictions about human weapons being brought into Hades. Especially since I controlled their import. So it wasn't surprising that I was bringing down quite a few on my own. It's amazing what one can buy on the open market. Something else the EAB, that's the External Affairs Bureau that regulated magic in the human world, might be concerned with. If I'd bothered to tell them, of course. When magic fails, you have to get creative.
Which is why I had recruited the middle-aged bearded man standing next to me. At 5' 10", wearing a blue t-shirt and coveralls with a red rag hanging out of one back pocket, Jim Aguirre might have looked a little heavier than he had back in his artilleryman days before the Gulf War, but he still knew his stuff. Walter had brought him to my attention when we were discussing weapons and tactics that might be helpful to the Dwarves.
"What do you think, Jim?" I asked, speaking to the new arrival. We were at the front of the cave that served as the entrance to Hades. Standing on one of the banks of sand on each side of the river that flowed into it. When magic is insufficient, there's nothing like human weapons to give you an edge
. I'd got my hands on a few M109 Howitzers and support vehicles through a Fae contact in Chile that were up for sale. Don’t be so surprised. It's good to the King, even in a place like the Underworld. Of course, having an unlimited supply of precious metals that are easily converted to whatever form of currency your seller wants doesn't hurt either.
"That's not going to work," he said in reply to my query to use artillery to clear a beachhead the Hoplites could exploit. "Oh, sure, I can get her pointed at the spot, but 100 yards is just too close. That's way too much in the oh shit range of the main gun. Safe range for that is about 800 yards, and that's only in combat." He moved up to the base of the river and lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes before slicing the air with his right arm. "Tell you what, why don’t you let me bring the CAT up instead? I can use the Mk19 to lay a string of 40 mm grenades down a straight line that your Greeks can take advantage of. They've got a 5-meter kill radius. The wound radius is a lot larger, but that shouldn’t be a factor in this case. Should cover just what you need."
The CAT, short for Carrier, Ammunition, Tracked, was the M992, the M109's support vehicle. It was a similar tracked vehicle, but had no turret, instead, supplying support in the form of ammunition storage and auxiliary power to its big brother. It also carried the Mk19 grenade launcher, or as a secondary weapon, a fifty caliber Browning M2 machine gun, near the hatch for additional fire support. Since both vehicles were only a little wider than 10 feet, Jim would be able to bring it close enough to the mouth of the cavern to acquire a target.
"I defer to your judgement," I replied with a nod.
"Okay, then," he said, turning around to walk back to the actual entrance to Hades. "I'll make it happen."
About a half hour later, the sound of the big 420 horsepower diesel on the CAT filled the cave as Jim maneuvered the tracked vehicle into position. I tried to suppress a laugh as the Hoplites on Charon's boat pressed their hands to their ears to deaden the noise as the sound reverberated through the cavern. Maybe I should have handed out earplugs.