The Gatekeeper's Secret: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Five (The Gatekeeper's Saga) (11 page)

As they neared the house, Therese could sense Jen and her brothers in the barn, but what drew her attention was the presence of Mr. Stern—Vicki’s dad—visiting with Mrs. Holt at the kitchen table. She indicated to Apollo that she wanted to listen in on the conversation, so the two of them entered the house in invisibility mode to eavesdrop.

Mrs. Holt blew cigarette smoke from one corner of her mouth, away from Mr. Stern. Her gray hair had grown out from its usual bowl cut, and every few seconds, she brushed it out of her eyes with the same shaky hand holding the cigarette.

Mr. Stern looked less thin in his flannel shirt and fleece vest—robust, even. His brown hair was cut short and neatly combed to one side. His face was shaved, and his brown eyes, which had been perpetually shadowed with dark circles, gleamed brightly across the table from Mrs. Holt.

Mr. Stern said, “Maybe he’s just restless. Maybe he needs to go out on his own for a while.”

They were talking about Pete.

“I think it’s more than that, John,” Mrs. Holt said. “I’ve tried to get him to go with me to see a doctor, but he refuses. I’m worried he’s losing his mind. That boy has been through a lot.”

“It’s tough for a kid to lose a parent.”

Therese closed her eyes as the guilt and shame flooded through her. He was thinking of Vicki.

“That’s not it,” Mrs. Holt said. “Though I’m sure that was hard on all of ‘
em. You see, he feels guilty, because he’s the one who reported his father to the police. I didn’t even know what was going on under my own roof. Makes me feel like hell. And when Pete confronted me about it, I didn’t believe him. He did a really hard thing getting his own father put behind bars without my support. I think the whole experience has done something to his mind.”

“Maybe.”

“Some people’s minds just aren’t as strong as others,” she added. “I had an uncle lose his to schizophrenia. They say it runs in my family. That’s why I want to get Pete looked at.”

Poor Pete, Therese thought. She hadn’t realized he appeared to be so bad off. She had to put a stop to his ghost visits before his behavior made his mother even sicker with worry.

Although Therese wanted to stay and listen to more of the conversation, Apollo motioned for her to follow him from the house to the barn.

***

Jen and her brothers had already turned the last horse out to pasture and straightened up the barn. There wasn’t anything left to do, but she waited around, biding her time, wanting Bobby to go inside so she could have a word alone with Pete. Bobby had gotten obsessed with coiling a rope.

“I’ll finish that for you,” she offered.

“Nah.
I got it,” he said. “You can go on in.”

She fished around for something else to do. Pete was just standing there, in the corner, gazing at an empty stall.

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

“Waiting for you to leave,” he replied.

“Why?” She looked across the barn at Bobby, but he kept his eyes on his rope.

“I want to talk to Bobby.
Now go on inside.”

Oh. So they’d been waiting for
her
to leave.

“Why can’t I hear?”

Bobby groaned. “Why did you have to tell her that? Now she ain’t ever gonna leave.”

“That’s not fair,” she objected. “Y’all leave me out of everything. You don’t know what it’s like being the only girl.”

“Here we go,” Bobby said.

“I’ve got something private to tell him,” Pete said. “That’s all.”

“You talked to Daddy’s ghost again, didn’t you,” she accused. “I told you to stop that. It’s what’s making you sick.”

“You don’t know that,” Pete said.

“Yes, I do,” Jen insisted. “It’s the only explanation. You were fine until you started coming in here at night and drawing your own blood. You don’t think I ain’t noticed all those cuts on your arms?”

“It’s the only way to call him,” Pete said. “He’s not in his right mind without the blood.”

“He has no mind!” Jen shrieked. “He’s dead. You’ve got to stop this!”

“Go on inside,” Bobby interrupted. “I want to hear what Pete has to say.”

Jen crossed her arms at her chest. “I ain’t going anywhere. He can say it in front of me, too.”

Just then, Pete fell to the ground, his body shaking like bacon in a frying pan.

Jen dropped to her knees beside him, wishing now she hadn’t been so hard on him. He was more delicate than she realized. “Bobby, go get Mom!”

“What’s happening to him?” Bobby asked.

Pete’s eyes rolled to the back of his head so that only the whites were visible. His mouth strained open, his tongue swollen and slapping against his lips. He was trying to speak.

“Cy-Cybele,” he stuttered. “Apollo, hear me.”

“Just go, Bobby!” Jen hollered.

Bobby ran from the barn.

Jen shrank back when Therese and another god, beautiful and golden haired, appeared in the hay, on their knees beside her.

“Are you doing this to him?” she asked them.

Therese shook her head and put a finger to her lips.

What on earth was going on? What were these gods doing to her brother?

The golden god beside her, with golden brown hair and evergreen eyes, looked down at Pete and said, “Cybele?”

Pete’s body shook more fiercely. His head jolted from side to side. Then, all at once, his body went limp.

“Pete!” She wanted the gods to go away and leave him alone, sure that they were the ones causing his affliction.

In a strange voice he said, “
Melinoe may know where to find me. An impenetrable blindfold impedes my sight. I’m dangling by a chain at my waist, from what, I do not know.”

“Oh, Cybele!”
Therese cried. “Don’t worry! We’ll find you!”

The gods were using her brother to talk to each other? But this couldn’t be good for Pete. “Help him!” she begged Therese.

“There’s something else,” Pete—or rather the voice inside Pete—said. “Before he trapped me here, I overheard Zeus give orders for something on Cyclopes Island. That can only mean one thing.”

Therese looked up at the other god with a strange expression on her face.

“Therese,” Jen pleaded.

“He must be amassing an arsenal of thunderbolts,” the other god said.

“You have to stop him,” the voice inside Pete warned. “Make it your first priority.”

Therese exchanged glances with the golden god. Jen felt like she might be sick if her brother didn’t wake up soon.

“Do something,” Jen insisted. “Don’t let him stay like this.”

“Pete?” Jen’s mother ran into the barn, followed by Bobby and Mr. Stern. She fell beside Jen, who looked up to see Therese and the golden god had disappeared. “What’s happened to him?
Another seizure? Bobby, call 9-1-1!”

Bobby went to the old rotary phone on the barn wall and made the call while her mother and Mr. Stern tried to revive Pete. Jen watched on, still dazed by what she’d seen.

Therese?
Jen prayed.
What’s going on? I’m scared to death.

Therese appeared on her knees beside Jen and wrapped her arms around her. Apparently the others couldn’t see her friend.

“He’s okay,” Therese whispered in a barely audible voice just before she disappeared.

Therese’s gesture should have made Jen feel better, perhaps, but it didn’t. She was angry that the gods were using her brother in a way that clearly made him sick. And she was determined to make them stop.

***

Than was alarmed when, after Therese and Apollo made their report to Hades, she asked him for a word alone in their rooms.

“What is it?” he asked, anticipating the worst. Maybe she discovered who was fated to die on their wedding day.

She climbed onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. Then she closed her eyes and nestled her face against his throat.

He swallowed hard. He hadn’t expected her to fold herself into him and was reminded of how much he missed being alone with her. If only they could have more time like this.

“This feels nice,” he whispered and then brushed his lips across her hair.

“I’m worried about Pete,” she said.

Talk about a mood buster.

“I think he’s obsessed with seeing the future,” she added. “I think he needs help.”

Than tightened his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,” she said, burying her face in his chest. “But I was thinking maybe…”

He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “Maybe what?”

“Couldn’t we ask Tiresias for advice? He’s been in Pete’s position. Maybe he can tell us how to help Pete.”

It actually wasn’t a bad idea. “When should we go talk to him?”

“You’ll come with me?” She gave him a huge smile. “Thank you! I’ve only ever gone into the fields once, to see my parents. I wouldn’t know the first place to look for him.”

“Tiresias isn’t in the Elysian Fields.”

“What? Where is he?”

“Tartarus.”

Therese’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Why?”

He wished she hadn’t asked, but he couldn’t avoid the truth. “That’s where all seers who use their gifts to predict the future end up eventually. It’s considered an act of pride. Mortals acting like gods. It’s one of the worst infractions a person can commit.”

“Then why would Hip tell Pete to do it?” The look of disgust on Therese’s face made
Than stiffen.

“He never told Pete to do it.”

“That’s not what Pete said.”

“He told Pete that blood helps the dead communicate with the living, but he never told Pete to do it,” Than said again.

Therese jumped from Than’s lap and punched the empty leather chair across from him.

“Hip should have known Pete would try it,” she said.

“Don’t blame this on my brother,” Than said. “Pete still had a choice. Hip even warned him. He told him the same thing I told you. Pete still chose to do it.”

“But Pete helped us. Cybele spoke to us through him. That should count for something.”

“The same can be said for Tiresias,” Than said.

Therese looked across the room at him with a face full of despair. “We have to find a way to save Pete’s soul. I can’t let him end up in Tartarus forever. You’ve always said life isn’t fair but death is. I don’t see how condemning Pete to Tartarus forever is fair.”

“Playing god is one of the unpardonable sins.”

“We have to help him.
Please, Than.”

Than went to her and kissed the palm of her hand. He wished he could think of something reassuring to say, but when she threw herself against him and into his arms, all he could do was hug her back.

Chapter Eight: Tartarus

Therese followed Than through the dark, cold corridor that spiraled down, down, down into the pit of Tartarus. The shrieks and wails of tortured souls reached them before she and Than broached the gate, causing her to shudder. The Phlegethon flamed up wildly here, casting shadows overhead. As Than pulled the gate open, the iron scraped along the stone floor and ceiling, and the hinges creaked. Tizzie, hovering over her prisoner, turned at the sound of their entrance.

Tizzie’s
hair hissed in snakes about her head. Blood dripped from her red sockets. Her dark face was fierce and terrifying. Her wolf, below her on the stone floor, howled.

“We’ve come to see Tiresias,” Than explained.

The prisoner below Tizzie lay stretched across a stone slab. Tizzie held a medicine dropper in one hand, from which a purple, foul smelling liquid dropped against her prisoner’s tightly clamped lips. Therese gasped when she looked more carefully at the prisoner. She knew him. It was McAdams, her parents’ killer.

Memories of the days when she hunted with the Furies flooded through her. She recalled the face in the window just before her mother was shot leaving Fort Lewis College, the plunge into Huck Finn Pond, the cold water oozing up her body, suffocating her parents and her.

Than led her by the elbow away from Tizzie and the prisoner, further into the deep, cold pit. Far off in the distance, she recognized Sisyphus, who’d been recaptured and who had returned to his task of rolling his rock. He didn’t seem to notice her. To her right, she recognized Tantalus and the grapes dangling forever above his reach. His inconsolable moans made her shiver. Apparently you didn’t have to be a seer to never make it out of Tartarus to the Elysian Fields.

Soon they came upon Meg, and surprisingly, other gods were with her: Hades, Persephone, Hecate, and Apollo. As Therese
and Than neared the group, she recognized Melinoe in the midst of them, chained with her back against a wall, her wrists and ankles shackled. Meg’s eyes bled like those of her sister, and her falcon fluttered threateningly near Melinoe’s face.