“We’re here,” answered the rats together.
Juliet flicked on the flashlight and yelped in surprise. She was standing in the attic of her own house! And right in front of her was the painting she had looked at so many times, the one Great Aunt Bessie had brought home from Greece—the painting of a field of golden flowers with its young shepherd. But the picture had changed. Though the youth was still looking out over his flock, in his arms he now held a spindly legged kid, and on his face was an expression of pride and relief.
Juliet wasn’t sure whether she found the change in the painting delightful, or terrifying.
“Wowza,” said Jerome. “That was one weird trip—even for us!”
“Be quiet,” cautioned Juliet. “I don’t want anyone to hear us while we’re going down to my room.”
“Won’t they all be asleep?” asked Roxanne.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what time it is. My father might be up by now.”
“Already?” asked Jerome. He glanced toward the window at the end of the attic. “It’s still dark!”
“Dad’s an early riser. He says the dawn delights and inspires him.” She didn’t add that he had been getting up early lately because he was so worried about the poetry festival. “And my mother gets up even earlier sometimes. She likes to work in the middle of the night. She says it’s easier to concentrate.”
“You’ve got sort of an odd family,” said Roxanne.
“Yeah, too bad we’re not normal—like talking rats!”
“Geez,” said Jerome. “No need to get touchy!”
Walking softly, guided by her flashlight, Juliet crossed the attic and peered out. The door to her mother’s studio was open, but the room was dark. Feeling a little calmer, she started down the stairs. At the bottom she put her hand over the flashlight, so only a little light leaked out around the edges. Then she tiptoed to her room. She was barely through the door when a voice said, “There you are! I was starting to get worried.”
It was all Juliet could do to keep from screaming. “Byron!” she hissed. “What are you doing here? You scared me half to death!”
“I’ve been waiting for you! I wanted to find out what happened.”
“How long have you been here?” She paused, then added, “What time is it, anyway?”
Her brother shrugged. “About quarter past one.”
“That can’t be right! We were gone for hours.”
“It’s right. I set my alarm for half past midnight so I would be up when you got back.”
“But how—”
“Don’t think about it,” advised Jerome. “We’ve got other things to deal with right now.”
“Right,” said Roxanne. “It’s time to use that key!”
“What key?” asked Byron.
He listened eagerly as Juliet and the rats filled him in on what had happened while they were in the other realm. When they finished, he said bitterly, “Oh, man, I can’t believe I didn’t get to go. Okay, what about the key? Now that you’ve got it, are you really going to open the amulet?”
“I think I have to,” said Juliet. She slipped her finger between the chain and her neck. “At least this doesn’t seem to be getting any tighter. I wonder if I could break it if I yanked hard enough.”
“More likely you’d just hurt your neck,” said Roxanne.
“But feel free to give it a try,” added Jerome. “It’d be kind of interesting to see if you can yank it hard enough to cut off your own head.”
“Be nice, Jerome!” said Roxanne.
“Thing is, I’d really like to take it off before I use this key,” Juliet said.
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” said Jerome. “Better just use the key and get it over with.”
Juliet took the key, which was no longer than her fingernail, and inserted it in the tiny lock. She turned it and heard a tiny click. The amulet swung open. A rush of air—warm, sweet, and musky smelling—brushed past her cheek.
Then a man’s finger thrust straight out from the amulet.
Byron leaped back with a cry of fear. Juliet wanted to scream, too, but was so terrified, she couldn’t make a sound. She clawed at the chain, but it was unbreakable.
The finger moved around as if trying to find something to touch. Juliet tipped her head back as far as she could, her eyes wide with fright.
“Jerome,” whispered Roxanne. “What the heck is going on here?”
“I dunno, Roxie. But whatever it is, I don’t like it!”
The finger touched Juliet’s chin. She gasped in horror and dropped the amulet. At the same time, the finger withdrew, as if it had been burned.
Before Juliet could catch her breath, a male voice, rich and beautiful, asked plaintively, Who are you?
Juliet looked around, then realized that the words had not been spoken out loud, but instead had formed directly in her mind. Terrified, she clutched the sides of her head.
“Who are you?” she squeaked. “And how did you do that?”
“Who are you talking to?” asked Byron.
Juliet waved a hand to silence her brother as the voice in her head said, I am the prisoner of the amulet. I was hoping someone might open it soon. I’ve been aching to talk to you! I need your help.
“My help?” asked Juliet, still speaking out loud.
To free me.
Juliet’s heart hammered against her ribs, and she wanted nothing more than to fling the amulet out the window. But it was held tight about her neck by the magic chain.
“Who are you?” she whispered again.
Jerome scurried over. Tugging on her sleeve, he asked urgently, “Juliet, what’s going on? Who are you talking to?”
“Shhh! Let me listen!”
Certainly you must have heard of me, said the voice, sounding almost mournful. Or has the world turned completely away from the god of love?
“The god of love?” asked Juliet. “I know there’s a goddess of love. Aphrodite, she’s called. Or sometimes Venus.”
That’s my mother!
“Then who are you?”
Do you mean you've never heard of Eros—or perhaps you know me as Cupid?
“Cupid?” Juliet asked in astonishment. “You’re Cupid?”
“You’re talking to Cupid?” echoed Byron.
Juliet put her hands on her hips. “If you’re Cupid, what are you doing inside this amulet?”
I told you: It is my prison.
“Juliet!” shouted Jerome. “What the heck is going on here?”
“Just a moment,” said Juliet to the amulet. Turning to the rats and Byron, she said, “Whoever is in the amulet is talking directly into my head. He claims that he’s Cupid.”
“Good grief,” said Jerome. Flinging himself to his stomach, he muttered, “Maybe if I’d had a mother, she could have warned me about days like this.”
“Be quiet,” said Roxanne. “Let Juliet talk to him. Maybe we’ll finally get somewhere.”
“Would it be possible for you to talk out loud?” asked Juliet. “It might make things easier.”
Give me a moment. It’s been a long time since I actually used my voice.
“He’s working on it,” whispered Juliet to the others.
“How’s this?” asked Cupid.
The words, spoken out loud, came directly from the amulet, causing Byron, Jerome, and Roxanne to cry out in surprise.
“Much better,” said Juliet. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m confused about something. You called the amulet your prison. But you couldn’t possibly fit inside this tiny thing. Heck, if you were inside it, I couldn’t even lift it!”
“Do not underestimate the powers of the old ones. The amulet is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It holds me easily. My prison is comfortable enough. Even so, freedom would be better.” He paused, then said, “I think this would be easier if we had a chance to see each other.”
“How can we do that?”
“Are you near a mirror?”
“There’s one right in front of me.”
“Then just point the amulet right at it.”
Juliet did as the voice asked. Looking directly at herself, she could see the open pendant dangling around her neck.
Suddenly an eye appeared at the opening.
Juliet squeaked in fright.
“Oh, hush! I told you, I just want to see you. you’re a very lovely girl. I like the green eyes. It’s a nice touch. Now, if you want to see me, lift the amulet and peek in.”
Juliet started to raise the amulet, then said, “Won’t this put you upside down?”
The voice actually laughed. “No. The opening is just a hole in the wall of my cell. It moves around as you move the amulet.”
Juliet tried to lift the amulet to her eye but gave up in frustration. ‘1 can’t do it. The chain’s too short!”
“I can look in it for you!” said Roxanne. She scurried over to the desk. Standing on her hind legs, she put one eye to the amulet.
“What do you see?” asked Juliet eagerly.
“Oooh, he’s handsome! But he doesn’t have much on. Maybe it’s just as well you can’t see him.”
“Are you telling me he’s naked?” asked Juliet, horrified at the idea that she was wearing a naked man around her neck.
“Well, he’s not quite naked. He’s got this piece of white cloth that goes over his shoulder and around his waist. Big gray eyes. Curly golden hair. Oh, and wings. Big white ones, almost as tall as he is. Also, he’s got a bow and arrow.”
“What does his cell look like?”
“Not much to it. Sort of like the inside of an egg, just kind of white and rounded.”
Juliet shuddered, thinking how horrible it must be to be trapped in a space like that. “Who locked you in there?” she asked Cupid.
“My mother.”
“Are you kidding? Why would your mother do a thing like that?”
“She did it in a fit of anger. Mother is the jealous sort, which is one of the problems with romantic love. When she was angry, she didn’t always think about what she was doing. Putting me in this amulet, for example, made it a very dangerous item. After Mother gave it to Helen—”
“Helen of Troy?” gasped Juliet.
“Who else?”
“Was she really the most beautiful woman in the world?” asked Byron eagerly.
Cupid snorted. “She was pretty enough. But not so pretty that she could have caused that horrible war all by herself. I had a lot to do with it.”
“You wanted the Trojan War to happen?” asked Juliet, aghast.
“Don’t be silly. I simply mean I had a lot to do with the war because as long as Helen was wearing me around her neck, she was so irresistible that men were willing to die for her.”
Juliet shuddered. “That’s not going to happen to me, is it?” she demanded.
“Not right away. I’m just waking up again. It will take some time for my power to return to full strength. It’s very confusing right now. It’s as if there was a long period of . . . nothing. I wonder if the gods have gone to sleep. But not long ago, I was pulled from my slumber. My heart still stings with love and loss, and I am mightily weary of this prison, which I beg you to release me from.”
“If I do release you, are you going to run around making people fall in love with each other?” asked Juliet.
“I can’t deny that when I’m around humans, I do feel that urge. But I am much more interested in finding Psyche.”
“Who’s Psyche?”
“The woman I love. She’s the reason Mother imprisoned me in this amulet.”
“I don’t understand,” said Juliet.
Cupid was silent for a moment. Finally he said, “As I told you, Mother is the jealous sort. So she got very upset when she learned there was a mortal girl who was so beautiful many men had turned their hearts toward her, claiming she was like the goddess of love on Earth. In her fury, she sent me to teach the girl a lesson.”
“What kind of a lesson?”
“I was supposed to make Psyche fall in love with a monster. Which, of course, I could easily do with my magical arrows of love. The problem was, Psyche really was as beautiful as everyone said, and I fell in love with her myself—partly because I was so startled by her beauty that I scratched myself with the arrow I had meant to shoot at her. To make a long story short, I took her for my bride. I couldn’t tell mother this, of course, so I put out a story that Psyche’s father had forced her to marry a monster, which made Mother very happy. Then I put Psyche in a palace, hoping that in time I could bring Mother to accept her.”
Cupid sighed. “Unfortunately, Mother was not much given to changing her mind—or forgiving anyone she felt had crossed her. And because I could not allow Psyche to see me until Mother accepted our marriage, I visited her only under cover of darkness. Even then I continued to pretend I was a monster, so Mother would not learn of what I was doing. But in those visits, in the quiet darkness, hidden by night’s inky cloak, Psyche and I spoke of love. In time she no longer worried whether I was man or monster—never suspecting that I was a god—and came to love me truly. We had the deepest and best of loves, the love that contains both eros and agapé, and we became man and wife in fact as well as name. But still I could not let my beloved see me, and I was always gone before rosy-fingered dawn arrived.”
Cupid was silent for a while. Finally he said, “Perhaps to never see her husband was a harder thing than I should have asked Psyche to bear. One night the temptation became too much. After I had fallen asleep, she slipped from our bed to fetch a lamp so she could catch a glimpse of me. But her hand trembled and hot oil fell on my shoulder. In that moment Mother’s wrath was ignited. Spells were cast. I was flung into this prison, and my dearest love was set to endless wandering.”
A chill ran along Juliet’s spine. “We just met a woman who told us the same story,” she said. “It must have been Psyche!”
“What are you saying?” cried Cupid.
Juliet told him about the evening’s journey, and all that she and the rats had experienced. “But I don’t understand,” she said, as she finished her story. “How can Psyche still be alive? Didn’t this all happen a long, long time ago?”
“Very long ago,” said Cupid sadly. “There are mysteries here that must be unraveled. You must release me from this prison!”
“I’d be glad to! But I don’t know how!”
“No one has told you anything in your travels?”
Juliet took a deep breath. “No, they have told me some things. I’m supposed to find a mouse that can roar. But I don’t have any idea how the heck I’m supposed to do that!”
“Well, if you don’t want to be carrying me around your neck for the rest of your life, you’re going to have to try. But at least I can help you now. I must warn you about something, though.”
“Now what?” said Jerome. “I’ll tell ya, Elives is gonna owe us one heck of a bonus before this is over!”
“While I was sleeping, the amulet’s power was dormant, drowsing much as I was. Now that I am awake, its power will begin to spread, casting a spell of love that no man will be able to resist.”
“What are you saying?” cried Juliet.
“Before long you will have more adoration coming toward you than you can imagine.”
“Juliet Dove, Queen of Love!” said Byron in awe.
Juliet was stunned by the idea. “That’s like my worst nightmare,” she whispered. Suddenly an even more appalling thought struck her. “Cupid, if you make me fall in love with anyone, I swear I’ll throw this amulet in the ocean! Unless someone drags you up from the bottom of the sea, you’ll never get out of it. So don’t mess with me!”
“Calm down, Juliet,” said Cupid gently. Then, with a hint of a laugh in his voice, he added, “Besides, I’m not sure how you’d throw me in the ocean without coming along yourself.”
“He’s got you there, Juliet,” said Jerome.
“For t
he time being,” continued Cupid, “whatever we do, we will have to do together. I do not want to cause you problems, Juliet, but I cannot help being what I am. I do not know what forces framed me, nor for what reason I was brought into being. That is as much a mystery to the gods as it is to you humans. But I do know that wherever I go, love swirls like a storm, and chaos often follows. The sooner you can find a way to free me, the better for both of us. I ache to find my own lost love and hold her in my arms once again. In truth, I am a prisoner of love myself—my body held here, my heart held by Psyche.”
The sorrow in his voice pricked Juliet’s conscience. “Of course I’ll try to help you. But can’t you do anything to get the boys to leave me alone?”
“Truly, it is much easier to turn that kind of thing on than it is to turn it off."
“Well I’m not going to be able to help you if I’m constantly fighting off a pack of boys.”
“Yet the only way you’re going to be free of that pack of boys is by helping me! Once you release me from this prison, the magic that binds the chain around your neck will be broken. But until I do get out of here, things are only going to get worse as far as the boy situation is concerned, and there’s not a thing I can do about it. I told you, now that I’m awake, my power will grow stronger by the hour.”
Juliet turned to Roxanne and Jerome. “I think you’d better go tell Mr. Elives what’s happening.”
“Good idea,” said Roxanne.
“I’m on my way,” said Jerome. He stood on his hind legs, gave Juliet a little salute, then scuttled under the bed and disappeared.
As they waited for Jerome to return, Cupid told Juliet stories about life among the gods. She felt almost as if she had been swept back to the days of Mount Olympus. Cupid was well into the tale of Demeter and Persephone when Jerome bolted from beneath the bed and gasped, “Bad news! Really, really bad news!”
“What is it?” cried Roxanne. “What’s happened?”
“I can’t find the magic shop!”
“What do you mean you can’t find it? It doesn’t make any difference where it is; we always just go back to it.”
“Not this time we don’t. It’s missing! I been wandering around . . . well, I don’t know where. But it was pretty scary. Finally, I decided to come back here before I got totally lost.”
Juliet Dove, Queen of Love Page 10
