Chapter 25 Persephone
Persephone
Blue light flashed all around us, and suddenly Cerberus was shrinking. Minthe yelped at the same time I cried out, then the chariot was right next to me, and Morpheus was yanking me onto it.
“Well done!” he yelled, as I fell on my butt on the wood.
“What's happening? Did I win?” Light was flashing around me like a strobe, totally disorientating me. I blinked down at my hand, the green gem huge and glowing. Had I done it? Had I really won?
But we were moving.
“Morpheus, where are we—” I cut off as I turned, confusion turning fast to fear. “Where's Hecate?” Morpheus was facing ahead, and as the flashing lights lessened, I realized that we were speeding out of the orange glowing cavern.
I sprang to my feet, dropping the gem and gripping the chariot edge. “Morpheus!” I yelled, wind rushing over me as we burst back out over the rocky landscape, the glowing rivers snaking across the Underworld below us. “Morpheus, what's going on?” Black vines pushed out of my palms.
“You'll see in a moment,” he yelled back, without turning to me.
“See what? Where's Hecate?”
“This was her idea! But she'll be punished worse than I will, so we agreed I'd take you alone.”
“Take me where?”
“The river Lethe.”
This was wrong. Every tense muscle in my body was screaming at me as I reached out desperately in my mind for Hades or Hecate, but nobody responded.
I'd spent so much of my time here trying to work out how to get my memories back, but not like this. I'd just got the gem from Cerberus, I'd just won the damned Hades Trials, I should be celebrating with Hades, not flying to the one place I wasn't supposed to go!
“Morpheus, I want to go back. I want to see Hades.” I tried to keep my voice level, but it came out strained.
“You've come too far, Persephone. You must see this through.”
“Why are you doing this? I want to talk to Hecate.”
“I told you, she’s holding back the others, this was her idea.”
“I don't believe you.” And I didn't. Hecate would not spring something like this on me. She loved Hades, and if Hades said I wasn't to get my memories back, then Hecate would support him.
We were swooping low through a gully, flying over the purple river, and a glimpse of sunshine yellow caught my eye in the distance. The river Lethe.
“You can't make me do this,” I said.
“I don't want to make you do anything. I'm trying to help you.” I thought about using my vines, but if he crashed the chariot we would both die, and I had no idea how to control it if I managed to disable him.
It would be safer to get away once we were on the ground.
I reached out desperately with my mind again for Hades or Hecate, but there was nothing.
As soon as the chariot touched down on the rocks on the bank of the yellow river, I launched my vines at Morpheus, but he spun to me, the air in front of him shimmering and bending and an image coming into view.
My vines fell to the floor as I recognized my brother's face, a sleepy expression across it.
“Sam?” I realized I was looking at the Judgment Hall, but the crowds were gone, only my brother and Skop remaining. Skop was in naked gnome form, and he looked equally as out of it. “What's happening?” I demanded. Hedone stepped into the image, a sad look on her face.
“This is a portal, like the flame dishes. One of my godly gifts,” said Morpheus. “Hedone's gift is bewitching those around her with her irresistible charm. Men like your brother and Skop are particularly susceptible.” Anger surged through me, and my vines whipped up again.
“I thought you were my friends!”
“I'm sorry, Persy, but our cause is bigger than any of us individually. It has to be this way,” said Hedone, through the portal. She looked genuinely sad and I blinked at her.
“What cause? Why are you doing this?”
“The gods need to be taught a lesson. They need to know that they can't treat mortals like toys, wipe their memories, force them into action for their own entertainment.” Hedone's voice became hard as she spoke.
“What's that got to do with me? And where's Hecate?” Hedone pointed and the portal swung, showing Hecate's prostrate body on the marble.
“Hecate!” I yelled, and the portal swung back.
“She is only unconscious,” said Morpheus. “At this stage we have no reason to kill her.” Fury was bubbling through me now, the remnants of Fonax's Underworld power surging through my veins.
“Kill her? I can't believe this! You were supposed to be my friends! Hecate's friends!” The betrayal stung to my core, and was making my eyes fill with tears, but I couldn't let them fall. I couldn't look weak. They had my real friends, and my brother.
“It wasn't supposed to play out like this,” Morpheus said.
“It was supposed to be simple, but so many things have gone wrong.” There was a bitter edge to his voice.
“Hedone implanted the memory of what you did in the humans so that they could scare you into getting your power back, but she lost control of one and he showed up with the phoenix at the ball. So, we changed tactics. But Hades got to you in Tartarus before Cronos could when we sent you there before.”
I felt like ice was trickling down my spine, my head pounding with anger and shock.
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
“That is why we are here, at the river Lethe. Cronos and Hedone believe that you will be more cooperative if you know the truth. You will understand then why we must do what we are doing, the magnitude of our task.” His eyes were wide, and his skin was swirling with light as his words increased in volume.
“Drink. Drink from the river. Restore your memories.”
“No,” I said. For weeks I had yearned for my lost past, but not like this. If my memories were linked with Cronos and these maniacs, then Hades was right, I wanted nothing to do with them.
Morpheus sighed.
“Hedone, my sweet,” he said. Hedone moved, a long dagger appearing in her hand from the folds of her dress. Her eyes were filled with apology as she handed it to Sam. Horror filled me as my brother gazed at the blade.
“Sam, my love, place the tip of the dagger on your chest for me? You'd make me so very happy,” she beamed at him, her voice like honey. Sam smiled stupidly at her as he lifted the blade to his chest. “Now when I say push, you must push. It won't hurt, it will feel like bliss.” Sam's smile widened.
“No!” I screamed, as I stepped towards the portal, flinging my vine towards the dagger. But the image just shimmered as my vine passed harmlessly through it.
My heart hammered so hard against my ribs I thought it might burst free, and I felt sick as the hot tears finally spilled down my cheeks. I looked at Morpheus, hopeless dread gripping my body. I couldn't get to Sam to save him.
“Drink, Persephone,” he said. “Now.”
I knelt slowly next to the river, my mind racing. Would Hedone really kill Sam? She didn't look like she'd wanted to, but her voice when she had spoken to him had been as smooth as silk, laced with seduction. Not a hesitation or wobble.
I couldn't take the risk.
I reached down, cupping my hands and dipping them into the glowing sunshine-yellow liquid.
A rush of memories blasted through me, memories of mom holding me as I cried, memories of Sam helping me pick up books in the corridors at school.
Memories of Professor Hetz and the botanical gardens, and of my apartment.
I took a shuddering breath as I lifted my hands out of the river, water dripping slowly from the bowl my palms had formed.
“I don't want to do this,” I tried one more time, as I looked up at Morpheus. He shook his head slowly at me.
“This is out of our hands, Persephone. It is bigger than you or I. Drink.”
Gooseflesh covered my skin as I closed my eyes and lifted my cupped hands to my face, and drank.
“Persephone, how can you possibly be a better queen to Hades if you don't even know the Underworld properly?”
I blinked at the voice, spinning around on the spot fast. I was in a dining room that looked a lot like the breakfast room in Hades' palace. I froze as I saw myself, sitting at a table with a man whose face I could not see.
It was not Hades, that much I was sure of. I was wearing a black corseted dress, and my hair was as white as it was now, but I looked younger.
“I've made friends with the hounds now! And I've seen most of Virgo. Just not the really nasty bits,” the me who was sitting at the table told the man.
“If you truly want to help Hades, it's the worst parts of his world that you need to understand the most,” the man said. His voice was familiar, and I stepped closer cautiously.
“That does make sense,” younger me said slowly. “You know, I have asked him to take me to Tartarus. But he always says no.”
“You're a Queen, Persephone. You have your own mind. And in my experience, it's always better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” The arrogant mischief in his voice finally clicked into place, and I let out a breath as I rounded the table.
Zeus.
He didn't look much like he did now, but his purple eyes were unmistakable.
“I suppose you're right,” younger me said, voice filled with juvenile excitement. “If you think it means I can help Hades rule better, I should do it. He'll understand. I'll take Cerberus with me, just in case.”
The image before me swirled and with a jolt, I was standing at the cave mouth before Tartarus, the flaming river burning beside me.
Younger me was cocking her head at the inky blackness, and beside her was Cerberus, ten feet tall and swirling fiery spirals dancing over his fur.
All three heads looked at younger me, then the closest nudged at her shoulder before turning, trying to walk away from the cave. Cerberus didn't want me to go in.
“Don't be silly. I'm Queen of the Underworld, everyone in there has to do as I say,” younger me said to the dog. Cerberus whined, but turned back to the cave. His tail drooped.
The scene before me whirled again, and I was in Tartarus. Ixion turned on his flaming wheel above us, and I stared as younger-me stood before a swirling mass of light and shadow. Cerberus was growling, deep and fearsome, but a voice drowned him out.
“I promise you, my Queen, I have been falsely judged. Zeus, Lord of the Gods himself, made sure that Hades was tricked and I was sent here for eternity. I am a god of light, and being trapped here in the dark is a torment too awful to endure.”
Nausea rolled through me. I recognized the voice. It was the stranger from the Atlas garden.
“Why should I believe you?” asked younger me, and the mass of light pulsed brightly.
“Because I speak the truth. I swear it.”
“Hmmm. You know, I can find out myself.” Slowly, younger-me lifted her hands, and vines snaked out of them. “I can taste your power, find out exactly what sort of god you are,” she said, confidently.
“No,” I whispered. The vines turned black as they reached the mass, and a wave of power rippled through the deep red cavern. Younger-me gasped, dropping to her knees, and Cerberus howled, long and loud. The mass pulsed brighter, and the voice spoke again.
“You can take my power, but you can't contain it!” The words were spoken as a delighted realization, and a moan escaped younger-me's lips.
Then a burst of bright blue illuminated the whole cavern, and a column of pure, blazing power smashed into the mass, tearing the vines from it.
Hades, smoky and blue and enormous, scooped up younger me, and the scene flashed once again.
“It's too much,” younger me cried in Hades’ arms. We were in a tiny rock room, barely any light around us.
“Let it out. It's safe down here, we're deep under the ground,” Hades said, his face a mask of pain.
“I can't. I can't. If I let go, his power will be free.”
“No, you only took a little. Let it go now, before it kills you.”
At his words, younger-me's body began to glow a deep blood red and with an agonized cry, waves of power burst from her skin.
They smashed into the rock, and I saw the fear cross Hades’ face as the walls began to crumble. He tightened his grip and flashed again, and then we were hovering in the sky above the ocean, islands dotting the blue.
I was looking at the realms of Olympus. He flashed again, and we were lower, looking over a series of small domes that were floating on the surface. They looked like the domes of Aquarius, but above the surface of the water instead of below.
Bile rose in my throat as rock burst from the waves, less than a mile from one of the domes. It grew and grew, and a whimper escaped me as I realized what it was. Red and black bubbled at the rock’s peak, then a deafening boom echoed through the air.
It was a volcano.
Hades’ face was white as he hovered in the sky, waves of red energy still pulsing from the body of my younger self, clutched in his arms.
Lava spewed from the volcano, and I felt weak as I watched it rain over the nearest three domes. Tears flooded from my eyes as the screams began, and as desperately as I wanted to turn away, I couldn't.
People fell as they ran through the streets, the fiery liquid chasing them down before they stood a chance of escaping. Buildings crashed to the ground as the lava melted them, crushing fleeing people.
A new scream pierced my ears, and I tore my eyes from the domes to see my younger self shrieking in Hades’ grip. The waves of red power had stopped and her gaze, my gaze, was transfixed on the fiery death and destruction below.
“Let me help, we have to help!” she was screaming, and I choked on a sob.
This is what I had done. I'd caused a volcano, and the death of hundreds of innocent people.