Fated (16 page)

Slipping the key into the lock, I turned it. It clicked and the manacles fell to the side. I briskly rubbed Ares’ arms, trying to stimulate his circulation. His forearms looked blue.

All of us were crowded around him, murmuring and trying desperately to rouse him. But to no avail. He stayed limp and still. I felt my pulse racing. He couldn’t die. I couldn’t let that happen.

"The potion," Ortrera reminded me. "Remember that you still have the potion. Hecate said you would need it once more."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course. The potion. Ortrera dug it out of my bag for me and handed it to me. I dipped the dropper into the silver bottle. Sure enough, there were only two drops left. Just as I started to drop them into his mouth, Ares’ dark eyes opened.

He stared at me in confusion.

"Why are you here, daughter?"

His arms curled around me and I collapsed onto his chest, sobbing in wild relief.

"I thought you were dead," I mumbled against his blood-stained clothing. "I thought they had killed you."

I felt him smile against my forehead.

"What little faith you have in me," he murmured.

I could hear so much of Marc Antony in his voice that it warmed my heart. It was a myth that Ares was bloodthirsty and cruel. He was actually funny and kind-hearted, but just as he was as Marc Antony, he was still a warrior through and through. He could be bloodthirsty if need be. He would do whatever it took.

I sat up and twisted the lid back onto the potion and tossed it back into my bag. Hecate had been wrong. I hadn’t needed it after all. Not that I was complaining.

Ares sat up, rubbing his bruised and battered body.

"The Moirae will wish they were dead when I am through with them," he muttered, scowling. He looked around at the faces surrounding him.

"Where’s your mother?" he asked, turning to me. "Where’s Aphrodite?"

I hesitated. He raised his eyebrow.

"Well?" he asked impatiently. "Where is she?"

"They have her," I answered quietly. "And I don’t know exactly where."

His roar almost brought down the palace.

"No," Ares insisted again. "I have no memory at all of living in the mortal world. Nothing. I don’t remember you as a mortal, I don’t remember being a mortal, I don’t remember being married to a mortal."

He paused and stared at me. "Does your mother know?"

I couldn’t help but grin. My father, the god of war, was intimidated by Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Talk about ironic. But to be fair, she did have a colorful temper.

I shook my head. "Of course Aphrodite knows. But she’s not mad," I assured him.

You could see the relief on his face as he gingerly stretched his limbs.

We were seated in a semi-circle in one of the Palace’s many lounges. The building was a wreck. We’d had to clear a place out even to sit. It literally looked as though a hurricane had hit this place.

Ares drummed his fingers on the surface of a stone end table, absently staring out the window. Below us, the ravaged, deserted city of Olympus stood proudly. Even in ruins, it was hauntingly beautiful as the white stone buildings rose from the horizon out of the rustling velvety tree tops. Ares’ face was impassive as he thought, but I knew him very well. He was planning a strategy.

Cadmus strode from the windows to reclaim his place at my side.

"What do you think, Ares?" he asked quietly. "Where have they taken Aphrodite?"

Ares shook his head in frustration. "I know not. And that vexes me."

He slammed his heavy fist onto the stone table, shattering it into a million pieces. They fell into a pile on the floor. Sadly, the pile of rubble fit in perfectly with our tattered surroundings.

I stepped to his side, resting my hands on his shoulders. "Calm yourself," I murmured.

"Such tantrums won’t help."

He scowled at me.

"Tis’ easy for you to say. You’re not the one who will answer to your mother. She expects a prompt rescue from me, I’m certain."

"Well, you
are
the god of war," I pointed out wryly, then smiled at his expression. "Calm yourself. We’ll find her. We just have to think of places to look."

"I know where," a tiny voice sounded out, clear as a little bell.

We all startled and looked around. A tiny child was hidden in a pile of rubble across the room. She was so dirty that she blended right in. We’d all walked right past her without noticing her presence. But I could see her little pixie face peering out at us now. She couldn’t be more than six or seven years old.

The Amazons jumped to attention, circling her warily. I gestured for them to stand down.

"Sister, it’s merely a child," I assured Ortrera, edging up to stare at the girl. Ortrera clucked.

"You don’t know that. The Moirae can shapeshift."

"True," I admitted. "But I don’t think that is the case here. I feel like she is an innocent."

I knelt in front of her.

"Are you?" I asked her. "Are you an innocent?"

The little girl nodded, her plump pink lips trembling. I could tell that under the dirt smudges, she was a flawlessly beautiful child. Her skin was like porcelain, her hair was long and blonde and her eyes were cornflower blue. She looked like a perfect china doll, but for the dirt and bedraggled clothes.

"I know where they took her," she repeated. "Can you help me get back home?"

I held out my hand to her and she climbed from the wreckage of the furniture that she was hiding in. She stood uncertainly, watching the Amazons in fear.

"They won’t hurt you," I assured her. "They are mighty warriors, but they are here to help."

"You’re Harmonia, aren’t you?" the child asked, her lip shaking.

I nodded. "How did you know?"

She pointed at my wrist. "Your mark. They were talking about it, too."

"The Moirae?" I asked with my eyebrows raised. I subconsciously found myself gripping my wrist and I forced myself to release it.

She nodded.

"What is your name, child?" I asked, all while trying to calm my racing heart.

It was astounding that this was all about me. I could hardly fathom the fact that it had never been about my Daedal. In fact, Daedals weren’t even real things
...
They were just a ruse made up by the Fates. It was so hard to comprehend that the entire past two thousand years had been wasted. I shook the troublesome thoughts from my head and waited for the girl’s name.

"Raquel," she answered nervously. "I live on Calypso’s island."

"Why are you here?" I asked curiously. "You’re quite a ways from home."

She nodded again, her blue eyes filling with tears. A single tear dripped down her dirty cheek.

"I miss it."

"Of course you do," I soothed, pulling her into my arms. "Anyone would. I miss my mother. Do you know where she is?"

The girl nodded. "That is why I am here. I’m supposed to tell you. Will you take me back with you?"

"Take you back? Do you mean to say that my mother and the Moirae are on Calypso’s Island?"

The girl nodded and my gaze flew to Cadmus’ over her head.

Ogygia, the island of Calypso, was an island that the Fates had long used as a ‘holding place’ of sorts. They marooned unknowing travelers there, and no one could leave until the Fates allowed it. People became sucked into the beauty of the island and time faded away. It was a beautiful paradise. The catch, however, was that it was a virtual ‘no magic zone.’ Magical abilities were rendered useless on Ogygia soil. Gods were as mortals, with no special gifts.

"Why would they do this?" I asked the others. "It will level the playing field and even they will be rendered impotent. Why would they do that to themselves?"

"There is something that has been bothering me ever since you explained this whole mess,"

Ares said. "The Moirae held me, the Keres held your mother. They wanted you to think that they are enemies... that the Keres broke away from them years ago. But what if that was not the case?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

"Meaning
...
What if they did break apart but they reunited for this cause. In which case, they would be wary of each other- distrustful."

"Which is why they would want to meet on a level playing field." I finished for him. "They want to level
each other
impotent. That’s brilliant, Ares."

He shrugged. "I’m good at many things."

I rolled my eyes. Modesty wasn’t one of those things. I mentioned as much and he grinned.

Stretching out one of his long arm, he yanked me to him and crushed me against his side.

"I’ve missed you, you know," he told me. "You’ve got sass. You get that from your mother."

Ortrera rolled her eyes. She had never been much for familial bantering. She was pretty much a no-nonsense sort of person. But she was certainly effective that way.

"Focus, people." Ortrera asked. "We must prepare before we walk into their trap. Because you know they will have a plan."

"In order to form a strategy, we need to figure out what they have to gain," Cadmus interjected. "Why would the Keres and the Moirae reunite with so much bad blood between them?"

I pondered that.

"Because they feel like together they are invincible?" I wondered. "Separate, they are weaker, which would leave room for us to regain Zeus’ throne. But together, they feel they are stronger than we are. Do you think that could be it?"

Ares nodded slowly. "That is all I can come up with as well. There is nothing else I can think of." He turned and surveyed the vast damage to Olympus through the open windows.

"Olympus must be set right," he mused. "This is a tragedy."

Everyone nodded in agreement. We had all disagreed with Zeus on more than one occasion, but he had certainly never run the Spiritlands into the ground as the Moirae and Keres had.

"You know," I pondered. "Ahmose tried to alert me, I think. I think he disagreed with their actions and he told me to listen to what Annen had told me. Annen had already planted doubts in my head about my role as a Keeper. But I think he was doing that to lead me here. It was a ruse. He was pretending to hate the Moirae, when of course he was truly working with them. They wanted me here so that we could have this out once and for all."

"What does that have to do with Ahmose?" Ortrera asked.

"He died because he tried to warn me. At least, in his own way, he did. He told me to seek out Annen- it was like he was trying to tell me that they were together. But he couldn’t tell me in actual words because the Moirae had rendered him silent."

"He’s fortunate that they didn’t cut out
his
tongue," Ortrera remarked wryly.

"Not so much," I replied. "They tortured him and burned him alive instead. I don’t want that to be for nothing. We need to think of a plan."

"I’m way ahead of you," Ares muttered.

He turned back over a table and picked up several small broken pieces of furniture. Using them as battle pieces, he and Cadmus plotted our entry onto the island. I watched them murmur back and forth for a moment before turning to my half-sister.

"Ortrera, our father isn’t considering one important factor. We will have no powers on Ogygia. Plus, without the Fates secluded in the Spiritlands like they used to be, there will be no one to draw us safely back off the island. We will be sucked into the enchantment. We will eventually forget our purpose there and wander around care-free."

She nodded. "I know. I’ve been considering that. Perhaps we should stop at the witches one last time on the way."

"Maybe. Perhaps this is the third time they will assist us," I suggested.

I noticed her warriors restlessly eyeing one another behind Ortrera. They didn’t speak, but their body language said it all.

"You don’t wish to go to the island, do you?" I asked them.

The one in front shook her head. "Something doesn’t feel right about it. I know not what."

"I know," I agreed. "Being led into a trap set by the Fates is terrifying. But we have no choice."

Ares and Cadmus were wrapping up their strategy discussion and as I gazed at their backs, I felt a rush of warmth. Standing the way they were right now, if Cadmus’ hair was just a bit longer and straighter, they could easily be mistaken for Antony and Hasani. The knowledge that we never really die had never seemed more real or relevant than right now and that actually bolstered my courage. We had survived so many other lives in order to stand here now. No matter what we faced, we would do it together. And I had faith that we would persevere.

Walking to Cadmus’ side, I snaked my arm around his waist and leaned up to brush a kiss on his cheek.

"Are we ready?" I asked softly. He leaned down to press his soft lips to mine. Leaning back, he brushed my hair from my face, his hand cool.

"We are," he answered. "But you won’t be going."

"What?" I asked in amazement. "Of course I am going. You need me to be there."

"Why?" Ares turned to me. "Explain why we would need you since everyone will be rendered the same once we arrive. Your bloodstone will be useless. Neither of us will have our powers. I see no point in endangering you. Clearly it’s a trap. I don’t wish for you to fall into it, too."

Raquel spoke up hesitantly.

"I forgot to tell you that part."

We all turned to her. She looked as if she wished she could melt into the floor.

"Lachesis wanted me to tell you that if you did not come, Aphrodite would suffer the same fate as Ahmose. They cannot kill her without Zeus’ sword, but they will torture her and burn her
...
over and over."

I gulped.

"Is that reason enough for you?" I asked Ares.

My shoulders slumped. To even hear the threat of someone torturing my mother
...
it was chilling. Her faces all swirled together in my mind
...
Jade, Aphrodite
...
even Cleopatra’s kohl-lined eyes as they crinkled when she laughed. Aphrodite loved to laugh. All of those images swirled around in my heart and I almost crumpled to the floor in my instant panic.

We had to save her.

"Let us go," I murmured. "We need to reach her. Now."

Ares shook his large head. "No. We will stay the night here in the city and travel to the island in the morning. We’ll stop on the way to visit with Hecate." He looked at me drolly.

"I’m not an idiot, daughter. Of course I considered the lack of magic on the island."

I smiled sheepishly at him before I turned to Raquel.

"Come with me, child. I will show you where I used to play here in the palace when I was your age. Did you know that I grew up here? I know every nook and cranny of this building."

I froze.

"I know every nook and cranny of this building," I repeated softly. "Ahmose knew that. I think he left something here for me," I exclaimed with excitement. "I don’t know how I know it, I just do."

"Where should we look?" Ortrera asked.