Hellenic Immortal (28 page)

“I was afraid you might feel that way,” she admitted.

“Look, it’s . . . I mean I didn’t even know the Mysteries were still active until . . .”

“I understand. But
you
need to understand something. The prophecies foretold of this day. You have to be there, and you will be. That’s why Hippos and his men have orders to keep you in here until our flight. If you try and leave, they will do you harm.”

“And who gave them those orders?”

“I did.” Still very much naked as she rolled onto her back, uncovered from the waist up and almost daring me to be angry with her while looking so appealing.

“I’m a prisoner?” I clarified.

“You are,” she agreed, “but you have a chance to be an extremely satisfied prisoner. We have until morning.”

“You’re serious.”

“If you’re angry, you’re welcome to take it out on me in whatever way you deem appropriate.”

I considered all the ways I could try and escape, but none of them seemed all that viable, especially since at minimum I’d have to get my pants on first. And sex now, for near-certain death later, was a trade-off I was not entirely unfamiliar with.

So I got into the bed.

*
 
*
 
*

From The Tragedy of Silenus. Text corrected and translated by Ariadne

THE FESTIVAL OF ELEUSIS HAS ENDED. SILENUS STANDS WITH THE HIEROPHANT.

SILENUS:

GRANT ME AUDIENCE, GREAT HIEROPHANT. AND QUICKLY.

MY LORD APPROACHES.

HIEROPHANT:

YOU HAVE IT, SILENUS THE WANDERER. DO YOU QUESTION OUR CEREMONY?

SILENUS:

I DO NOT; IT WAS RARE AND BOLD. TWO GODS ANSWERED YOUR CALL.

NO OTHER EVENT CAN BOAST SUCH A THING.

HIEROPHANT:

YOU LOOK FEARFUL. HOW CAN I UNBURDEN YOU?

SILENUS:

THE TWO GODS THAT GRACED YOUR FESTIVAL WERE GODS DIVIDED.

HIEROPHANT:

THIS IS SO.

SILENUS:

CAN I ASK YOU WHY?

HIEROPHANT:

THE GODS COME AND GO OF THEIR OWN INITIATIVE. IT IS NOT MY PLACE TO ASK.

ONE LEAVES AND A SECOND ARRIVES AND IT IS SO BECAUSE IT IS SO.

I HAVE NO COMMAND OVER EITHER.

SILENUS:

TRULY I UNDERSTAND THIS, FOR WHILE I CARRY THE WORDS OF DIONYSOS
 

HIS SCHEDULE IS HIS ALONE.

HIEROPHANT:

THEN WHY DO YOU QUESTION SUCH A THING?

SILENUS:

WHEN I FIRST CAME TO ELEUSIS MANY YEARS PAST IT WAS SAID

THE GODDESS HERSELF CAME AND STAYED FOR THE WHOLE OF THE FESTIVE MONTH.

AND I CAME MYSELF AND SAW IT WAS TRUE, AND I MET HER AND ASKED FOR HER BLESSING.

HIEROPHANT:

AND DID SHE GIVE IT TO YOU?

SILENUS:

SHE DID, AND I WAS GREATLY ENRICHED. THIS IS NOT MY COMPLAINT.

I NOW FIND SHE DEPARTS BEFORE THE FINAL NIGHT AND MORE
 

BEFORE MY LORD ARRIVES. THUS, IS THE CEREMONY SPLIT.

HIEROPHANT:

IT WAS EVER SO. THE MYSTERIES CELEBRATE ALL LIFE CULTIVATED,

AS TENDED BY DEMETER’S LOVING HAND.

YOURS IS A LORD OF ANOTHER DOMAIN.

HE HAS NO PLACE IN OUR FESTIVAL SAVE FOR THE CONCLUDING BACCHANAL.

SILENUS:

NO, HIEROPHANT, IT WAS NOT ALWAYS SO.

HIEROPHANT:

THEN YOU ARE TRULY OLDER THAN MY EYES CONTEND.

SILENUS:

INDEED I AM.

‘ERE DIONYSOS DID APPEAR, DEMETER SAW THE RITUAL’S END. THIS IS TRUTH.

HIEROPHANT:

IT MUST HAVE BEEN A VERY DIFFERENT CEREMONY.

SILENUS:

INDEED FOR DEMETER, WHILE RADIANT, IS NOT AS BOISTEROUS BY HALF AS MY LORD.

HIEROPHANT:

I AGREE.

SILENUS:

SINCE NO MATTER WHEN MY DIONYSOS ARRIVES

DEMETER HASTILY EXITS, I ASK WHAT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS:

WHY DOES SHE AVOID HIM?

HIEROPHANT:

I DO NOT KNOW THAT SHE DOES.

DOES DIONYSOS SEND YOU TO ASK THIS QUESTION?

SILENUS:

IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING

FOR IT WAS I THAT TOLD HIM TO SEEK HER OUT HERE.

MANY YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE

AND MANY ARE THE TIMES I HAVE GREETED HIM WITH,

“MY LORD, YOU HAVE ONLY JUST MISSED HER.”

I FEAR SHOULD I RESPOND IN THIS WAY ONCE MORE MY SUFFERING WILL BE GREAT.

AND JUSTLY SO.

HIEROPHANT:

BUT I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER.

COULD YOUR LORD PERHAPS ASK HER HIMSELF?

SILENUS:

YOU HAVE MISSED MY POINT.

HIEROPHANT:

BUT THERE IS DIONYSOS NOW!

(DIONYSOS ENTERS)

DIONYSOS:

SILENUS, I WOULD SPEAK TO YOU.

HIEROPHANT:

GREETINGS, MIGHTY DIONYSOS.

DIONYSOS:

AND GREETINGS TO YOU, NOBLE HIEROPHANT.

PLEASE DO NOT STAND BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY HERALD.

THAT MAY BE THE MOST PERILOUS LOCATION FOR YOUR FEET

IN THE WHOLE OF THE REALM.

HIEROPHANT:

THEN I MUST TAKE YOUR LEAVE.

(HIEROPHANT EXITS)

SILENUS:

MY LORD, THE GODDESS WAS HERE.

HAD YOU ONLY ARRIVED SOONER.

DIONYSOS:

HAD I ONLY ARRIVED SOONER SHE WOULD HAVE LEFT SOONER.

NO, THIS IS NOT HAPPENSTANCE.

IT IS NOT FATE. IT IS NOT THE WHIMSY OF GODS

FOR WE ARE THE ONLY GODS IN CONTENTION AND I AM NOT FEELING WHIMSICAL,

ALTHOUGH PERHAPS DEMETER IS.

SILENUS:

FORGIVE MY CAUSTIC TONE

BUT IS IT POSSIBLE DEMETER DOES NOT LIKE YOU?

DIONYSOS:

YOU SPEAK AS IF WE WERE CHILDREN.

SILENUS:

CHILDREN MIMIC ADULTS IN PLAY. AND SOMETIMES THE OPPOSITE HOLDS.

IT IS NO LESS TRUE WITH GODS, I’D WAGER.

DIONYSOS:

TRULY, SILENUS, YOUR WISDOM IS AS HARD TO PREDICT AS A STORM.

BUT THIS IS NOT SUCH A SIMPLE DYNAMIC.

I HAVE ENDURED MANY LIFETIMES, AND ALL AROUND ME HAS CHANGED.

ALL BUT HER.

BUT NEVER IN ALL OF THESE YEARS HAVE I SOUGHT HER OUT.

I DID NOT NEED TO, FOR SHE WAS FOLLOWING ME.

SILENUS:

AND YOU DID NOT LET HER CATCH YOU?

DIONYSOS:

SHE DID NOT WISH TO CATCH ME. ONLY TO WATCH.

MANY WERE THE DAYS I WOULD TURN ABOUT

AND MY EYES WOULD SETTLE ON HER VISAGE.

ALWAYS FROM AFAR.

I CAN NEVER CLOSE THE DISTANCE ‘ERE SHE DISAPPEARS AGAIN.

SILENUS:

SO, IT IS SHE THAT HAS SOUGHT YOU OUT.

DIONYSOS:

BUT ONLY AS A SAILOR LOOKING ON A DISTANT SHORE.

TO YOUR POINT: IF SHE DOES NOT CARE FOR ME,

DOES NOT WISH ME TO SPEAK TO HER OR SEEK HER OUT,

WHY DOES SHE FOLLOW ME?

YOU WILL FIND ME THIS ANSWER.

SILENUS:

HOW?

IN ALL YOUR DAYS YOU HAVE NOT FOUND THIS ANSWER.

DIONYSOS:

BUT YOU ARE NOT I. YOU WILL FIND HER, AND ASK THESE QUESTIONS.

AND YOU WILL RETURN TO ME WITH HER ANSWER.

SILENUS:

IF I CANNOT FIND HER? OR IF SHE IS FOUND BUT UNSWAYED?

DIONYSOS:

THEN DO NOT RETURN TO ME AT ALL.

“I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE NORTHERN CLIMES,” THE GOD SAID TO SILENUS. “WHERE THE WOMEN ARE BEAUTEOUS AND PLENTIFUL.” BUT WHEN SILENUS LAUGHED AND ASKED WHY THE GOD DID NOT TAKE SILENUS WITH HIM TO SUCH A WONDROUS PLACE, THE GOD SHOOK HIS HEAD. “YOUR KIND HAS NEVER SEEN COLD SUCH AS THEY HAVE THERE. YOU THAT LIVE IN THE HEARTH OF THE WORLD SHOULD NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE IT.”

From the archives of Silenus the Elder. Text corrected and translated by Ariadne

We were standing twenty yards north of the road that had formerly been known as Route 20, but was now more properly recognized as merely another treeless flat space in an expanse of growing snowdrifts. I was leaning up against a tree and trying to accustom myself to the harsh surroundings and to the pair of boots I’d been handed an hour earlier. The boots didn’t fit. I give them credit for trying, but my feet are about a half-size smaller, and there wasn’t anything anybody could do about it now, given how far away we were from the nearest shoe store.

   
Ariadne had probably been the one to assess my foot size. Of the four of them, she was the only one who’d met me prior to Athens. For the parka, the snow pants, the gloves, the hat, and the ski goggles, she’d been pretty much dead-on, just not the feet.

I do enough hiking outdoors to know that it’s never a good idea to put on a brand-new pair of boots right before going on a long walk. One has to break them in first, or risk major blisters. Granted, most of my hiking days pre-date the advent of footwear, but when it came to rocky or snowy terrain, I was never one to shy away from innovation. And I always made sure the damn things fit.

One might think I’d have other things to complain about. I was, after all, still a captive and heading to certain doom, if the last thing I heard from Cassandra Jones was in any way accurate. Worse, I hadn’t found time to have sex with Ariadne since we had left Athens.

“
We go northwest from here
,” Hippos shouted, in Greek. He was holding a small GPS device, which I presumed worked in a similar fashion to the one in Mike’s car.

Since we’d arrived in the States, Hippos had spoken English almost exclusively. Part of it was probably force of habit—he had been to the U.S. on more than one occasion—and part of it was to help Staphus and Dyanos, neither of whom were fluent and thus needed all the exposure they could get. The two of them were mainly there to guard me, so far as I could tell.

The heading we were electing to follow took us on a path diagonal to the storm, which was blowing in from the northwest and carried with it a high velocity mixture of snowflakes and ice pellets. Something I picked up on long ago was that the bigger the flakes, the shorter the storm. These were tiny flakes, so we were in for a long day.

With Hippos leading the way, Ariadne following close behind, and me flanked in front and back by my two satyr guards, we started marching uphill through the trees. We were making our own path rather than following one that had been established by the park, which made it slow-going and rife with various, and somewhat literal, pitfalls. That’s the problem with any forest floor; tree roots and water erosion combine to make for a consistently uneven walking surface.

“
Do you know how far we have to go
?” I asked Dyanos—who was behind me—in Greek. He was wearing a parka with the hood up and pulled tightly against his face. The parka was nearly as ill fitting as my shoes, not quite covering his wrists. He actually looked sort of funny, and if I knew him a bit better, I’d have said so.

“
Half a day’s march
,” he shouted, because you have to shout to be heard in a blizzard.

“Half a day under what conditions?” I asked. “Was snow factored in?”

He didn’t bother to respond.

Self-evidently, the prophet had made no predictions regarding the weather, as the storm was a surprise to everyone concerned. I give them credit for the winter gear—it was September, in the North Cascades—but their plan clearly did not have enough time built into it. We were going to be hard-pressed to reach the ceremony before all the fun began. And that was fine with me.

Another indication that this plan wasn’t working out was sitting in a snow bank on the road behind us. We were met at the airport—on the tarmac, as we never entered the terminal—by an Econoline van. It was the kind of vehicle you take if you’re following the Grateful Dead, and less than ideal in adverse weather conditions as opposed to, say, an SUV. With Hippos driving, we’d barreled along Interstate 5 in our van and directly into the teeth of the storm, which turned from rain to sleet to snow as we went. By the time we reached the turnoff for Route 20, we were the only vehicle on the road. And that is almost never a good sign.

But a far more ominously bad sign came when we reached the entrance to the park proper, just past Marblemount. It was there that we discovered the rest of Route 20 was closed.

The large signs posted on both sides of the roadway indicated that every season, usually sometime in November, the highway passage through the center of the North Cascades National Park is closed down. The normal seasonal weather here was bad enough to make the roadway entirely impassible for six months out of the year. Incidentally, this is how you know you’ve put a road in a bad place.