Chapter 13 Persephone
Persephone
“What do you mean I can't see Hades?”
“It has been deemed that he would be able to give you an unfair advantage,” Athena said, her voice serene as she stood before me in my old room.
“I deserve an advantage!” I snapped. “This is bullshit.” Power burst from the goddess and my knee buckled instantly, forcing me into a bow.
“Do not forget who you are addressing, Persephone.”
“I'm sorry,” I stammered, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Standing up to Zeus as you did wasn't just brave, it was stupid. Under any other circumstance he would have killed you where you stood. Do not think you can treat all gods in that way.” Her voice held a steely edge and I tried to lift my head to look at her.
“I am still learning your customs,” I said. Plus Zeus was an asshole who deserved what I had said to him. Athena regarded me a moment, then gave a tiny nod. My body relaxed, and I stood up again. “Can I see Hecate and my brother?”
“No. Hecate knows as much about the inhabitants of this realm as Hades does.” I barely kept the scowl from my face. At least I had Skop, I thought, glancing down at the silent dog. “Rest well in preparation for tomorrow,” Athena said.
“I don't suppose you can tell me anything? About what to expect?” I ventured.
“No. I can't. Goodnight, Persephone.”
The goddess of wisdom vanished before I could say anything else and I sighed as I slumped onto my bed. It felt small now, compared to Hades' bed.
A flash of anger and regret pulsed through me as I remembered his words from earlier, about having something to look forward to all day. And now we were being denied each other’s company.
“They're all assholes,” I said, kicking out at thin air.
“Dionysus is alright,” said Skop.
“You would say that, you work for him.”
“Doesn't mean I have to like him. I just do.”
“So he's not cruel or spiteful or egotistical?” I challenged. Skop snorted.
“He's all of those things. You can't have almost limitless power and endless life, and not think you're better than everyone else. Or become a bit fucked up along the way.”
“So why do you like him then?”
“Because the good outweighs the bad. Plus, your definition of bad is a little different to mine.” He wagged his tail.
“I don't doubt it,” I said wryly and stood up, my feet pacing automatically.
Nerves were making my skin fizz, and the thought of waiting until tomorrow for the Trial with no Hades to distract me was making me even more anxious. “Do you know anything about Eurynomos?” I asked Skop.
“Only what Hecate told you, that he's the demon of rotting corpses.”
“Shit. I hoped I had mis-remembered that,” I said, pushing my hands through my hair. “Maybe I should practice that thing I did in the Empusa lair where I blocked out the bad smell.”
“Good idea. Rotting-corpse smell could be quite distracting.” My stomach lurched, a combination of revulsion at the visual my brain conjured up, and my building nerves.
“You know what would be even more useful than practicing smell-blocking?” Skop said, and I looked at the little dog, raising my eyebrows in question.
“What?”
“Eating another seed and getting more magic.”
I paused my pacing.
I knew he was right. There were two Trials left, and they were only going to get harder. Was the risk of more power corrupting me greater than the risk of dying?
Survival instinct took over, the urge to make myself stronger filling me.
You're not just risking dying, my internal voice reminded me. If you survive but lose, you have to watch Hades marry Minthe.
I had to win.
I stepped to my dresser, where the box of seeds stood. It magically appeared in whatever place I was staying, along with Faesforos and the old purse I had arrived in Olympus with. Flipping open the lid of the box, I took a slow breath.
Just a little more power. Enough to beat Eurynomos, and take on the last Trial.
And possibly find the river Lethe, like the stranger in the Atlas garden had said. I shoved the thought down. I had to concentrate on the Trials.
I picked up a shiny, moist seed. What would more magic feel like? Just more strength? Or would there be new powers?
I put the seed in my mouth and swallowed.
Unlike the previous times I had eaten a seed, I did feel something right away but it was not what I had hoped for. It was massive fatigue.
Within a few minutes I felt the need to lay down, my eyelids leaden, and almost as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out, my sleep completely dreamless.
I woke with a start the next morning when Skop picked up my hand in his wet mouth and shook it.
“What happened?” I shouted, sitting up quickly.
“You slept like the freaking dead and I had to stay up all night to check you were breathing,” he answered me, my hand still in his mouth. I tugged it back gently.
“Well, thanks,” I mumbled, blinking.
“How do you feel?”
“Good,” I said, swinging my legs out of bed. And it was true. My mind felt clearer and my nerves, though still present, weren't as overwhelming as before. Maybe being knocked out like that was exactly what I had needed. I'd had no chance to freak myself out. “How long until the Trial?”
“An hour.”
“OK. I'm going for a shower,” I said, and made my way to my washroom.
Whilst I washed up and got ready, I did what I had meant to do the night before, practicing blocking out the smell of the soap by thinking about the smell of plants instead.
Lavender definitely worked the best, which made sense as it was such a potent smell. I whipped out my vines a few times, checking the color and testing how they felt. Other than a keener sense of alertness, everything felt the same.
Dressed in my fighting gear, Faesforos strapped to my thigh, Poseidon's pearl in my pocket and my hair tightly braided out of my face, I felt more ready than I ever had before a Trial. I could kill demons. I was a goddess, dammit.
And I had one hell of a god to fight for.
When it wasn't Hecate who came to get me I felt a pang of nerves though.
Athena returned instead, her white toga pristine. I hadn't realized how much confidence the fierce goddess of ghosts instilled in me until she wasn't there, and I missed her.
“You are different,” Athena said, tilting her head at me as soon as she appeared in my room. I bowed low as I answered her. I didn't want to piss her off again.
“I ate another seed.”
“That was probably wise.”
“Coming from you, I'll take that reassuringly,” I muttered as I straightened and she gave me a small smile.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded.
She flashed us to a cavern that glowed the same dim red that the Empusa's lair had, but it was much bigger. I turned slowly, looking around. It was completely empty, just bare rock everywhere.
“Good luck,” Athena said quietly, then vanished with a flash. The commentator's voice rang out immediately, and I felt a shot of adrenaline rush through me, my stomach lurching. This was it.
“Good day, Olympus! As you can see, Persephone is ready to start her next Trial, in the lair of Eurynomos!” I moved my hand to my side, nearer to my dagger.
This didn't look like a lair. Where were the corpses and stuff?
“But let us not forget, good citizens, this is the penultimate Trial. We need some drama!”
My jaw clenched. Was me fighting a horrendous demon not enough for these fucking people?
“Persephone will be offered a choice. A test of her moral character.” I froze as the new voice boomed around me.
It was Zeus speaking.
“There is no catch or hidden agenda, and it is a rare opportunity indeed.” His seductive voice bounced off the bare cave walls and adrenaline surged through me. Get on with it!
Purple light began to crackle above me and I stared up at the ceiling of the cavern as something began to melt through it, entering the space.
Not something. Someone.
A woman's form began to take shape, emerging from the rock, facing down towards the ground as though she were laying on her front.
She was wearing a red dress which hung from her suspended body, and she looked to be bound by ropes. Her hair also hung down, obscuring her face from view.
But I knew who it was without seeing her face.
“Get me the fuck out of here!” screeched Minthe.
“Persephone,” Zeus's voice boomed. “We would like you to meet Eurynomos, demon of rotting flesh.” The walls rippled with red light, and shadows began forming on the flat walls where there shouldn't be any.
I gripped my dagger instinctively, my vines itching at my palms. A whimper drew my attention back to Minthe, held against the ceiling by ropes forming a sort of net.
Blackened fingers were snaking between the ropes from the rock, drawing closer to her.
“He is usually only able to take the flesh from the dead, but we've made an exception for today,” Zeus said, and Minthe screamed as a finger touched her bare shoulder. Her pale skin darkened instantly, as though she had been burned.
“Stop!” I yelled. “This is my Trial, not hers!”
“So true, flower goddess. You need two more seeds to win. You may have both, right now, if you let Eurynomos have Minthe.”
“What?” My head spun at his words. I could win right now? No more tests and Trials and fear, just Hades.
But...
I looked up at the woman strapped to the ceiling, a flash of memory causing me to think of Ixion strapped to the burning wheel in Tartarus.
My stomach lurched as another finger touched Minthe's leg, and she made a strangled sound.
“This isn't fair!” she screamed. “I've taken my Trials! I've proven myself!”
She was right.
“If you choose to save her and succeed you will win one token, and therefore will need to win the last Trial to marry Hades,” boomed Zeus. “If you choose to save her and fail, you lose the Trials. What is it to be, Persephone?”
There was no question in my mind. Maybe the fucked up gods and citizens of Olympus would kill for what they wanted, but I wasn't one of them. I couldn't live my life waking every day knowing I chose to let someone die.
“Let her live,” I said loudly.
“I was hoping you would say that,” Zeus said, and I could hear the delight in his words. The cavern began to rumble and shake around me, and I yelped as a huge part of the rock floor began to crack and split, causing me to stumble.
“I was hoping you would say that too,” hissed a high-pitched voice inside my head. “It's so rare that I get living company, it is truly a treat.”
“Eurynomos?” I called out loud, as more of the floor cracked around me.
“Indeed. Now, if you want to save her you must cut her free.”
I looked up at Minthe strapped to the ceiling. How was I going to get up there?
With a lurch, the part of the floor I was standing on shot up, and I dropped to my knees as I stumbled. The floor was falling away in huge pieces, leaving pillars of stone at different heights, barely large enough for me to stand on.
The one I was on was one of the lowest, but some almost reached the ceiling. As I stared around I realized what I had to do.
I had to jump from pillar to pillar, until I was high enough to cut Minthe's ropes.
Heights. Why was it fucking heights!
They said I wouldn't have to face them again.
I peered over the edge of my pillar, pulse racing and heart hammering so hard I felt sick.
But the dark chasm I expected to see wasn't there. What I saw was much, much worse.
Bodies. Corpses in every stage of decomposition were rising from the dark, filling the space between the pillars.
Many were skeletons like the one I had fought at the start of the Trials, limbs and jaws clacking as they climbed over each other. But some still had flesh clinging to their bones, jaws and shoulders and ribs showing through their sallow, blue-tinged skin.
I felt myself heave as their rotten smell rose with them, and called the lavender scent to wrap around me fast.
“Don't fall off the pillars, flower goddess,” taunted Eurynomos. “They'll rip you apart, and then I'll eat your flesh.”
Shit, shit, shit. Terror surged inside me as I looked between the writhing mass of undead below me, and Minthe, shrieking above me. How the fuck was I going to survive this?