by Unknown
We raced after him, throwing each other worried glances as the cave seemed to swallow us. The sound of the water was louder inside, a lullaby turned into a siren's call. The glowing stones lining the river's bed seemed brighter in the deeper darkness and it became harder to resist the Lethe's pull. Griffin started to wander closer to the water's edge. I pulled him back and gave him a firm shake.
“Thanks,” he whispered and it echoed back to us. His eyes went wide but I gave his arm a reassuring squeeze and he rallied.
Up ahead of us, Hades turned into a side tunnel. Persephone was right behind him but Griffin and I were close behind her. No one wanted to be alone in the creepy echoing cave with the Lethe. Down the side tunnel there were torches in brackets on the walls emitting a soft light but down towards the end was an opening that shed an even brighter light across the rocky ground. That's where Hades headed.
He walked briskly and reached the room before we did. So when we rounded the corner it was to find him with a hand fisted in a man's shirt. The man had a shaggy head of white hair and sleepy blue eyes. His skin was really pale, as if he'd never seen the sun, and his body was lean. Hypnos, I presumed.
“What the hell, Hades?” He said and I couldn't help chuckling at his choice of words.
“I came to speak with you and you wouldn't answer me,” Hades growled as he yanked Hypnos off his feet and into the air. “When I tried to enter your cave, those damn flowers put me to sleep. My wife had to come kiss me awake.”
“You know the power of the poppies,” Hypnos whined. “Why would you walk through them?”
“Because they aren't supposed to work on me!” Hades shouted and little pieces of rock fell from the ceiling. “I rule here and all the magic in the Underworld is supposed to be made submissive to me. You know that and yet your flowers worked against me.”
“I... well...” he wrung his hands. “I'll work on the flowers. I'll change them tonight, I promise.”
“Your flowers are gone but that's not enough,” Hades' eyes started to burn brighter. “I've been informed about the Net. I know that you and Pasithea are the manufacturers. You've ridiculed the Lord of the Underworld and you shall pay the price.”
“I have knowledge of your friends!” Hypnos shouted desperately as he cringed, legs and arms pulling into his body as he dangled in Hades' grasp.
“What was that?” Hades asked in a terrifyingly quiet voice.
“Your friends are within the Land of Dreams,” Hypnos slowly lifted his head. “I can take you to them.”
“And why would I need you as a guide?”
“Because they're lost in the Cave of Dreams,” Hypnos swallowed hard.
“Do you know anything of this, Vervain?” Hades turned to me.
“They went to save me from Morpheus,” I whispered and then confronted Hypnos. “Are you saying they're still there?”
“The Cave can be very confusing if you don't know your way around,” Hypnos started to smile. “You lose your companions, your way, your mind. I can help you through the caves and lead your friends out.”
“You will go in and retrieve our friends alone,” Hades shook Hypnos.
“I'm going in too,” I said to Hades. “I have something to say to that bastard Morpheus.”
“Hey,” Hypnos protested.
“Fuck you, crack head,” I growled. “Your son severed me from my body and tried to hold me prisoner. I'll call him a bastard if I want.”
“Yeah, alright then,” Hypnos pouted. “You don't have to get all twisty with me.”
“Un-freaking-believable,” I huffed. “Just tell me where the Cave of Dreams is.”
“It's further into the Land of Dreams,” Hades shoved Hypnos out of the room and through the tunnels. We stepped out of the cave and emerged in the incinerated poppy field. Hypnos stopped short and gaped at the sooty remains.
“My wife's going to kill me,” he whimpered.
“I'm going to kill you if even one of my friends has been hurt by your sons,” Hades snarled. “You're hanging onto life by a very thin thread, Hypnos.”
“Which way? “ I interrupted before Hades killed the one guy who could get everyone out of the Cave of Dreams alive.
“The Cave of Dreams is located in that mountain,” Persephone pointed to a mountain range that looked pretty far away.
“Great,” I rolled my eyes and considered changing into a dragon and flying. “Now how are we going to get there?”
“Allow me,” Hades gestured and five black horses appeared. They snorted and stomped the ground, their deep brown eyes lit from within, just as Hades' were. “We ride the night mares of course.”
“Of course,” I rolled my eyes. “What was I thinking?”
Chapter Fifty-Four
The night mares ate up the distance between us and the mountain range within minutes. As we rode, a cloud of blue mist lifted from their hooves and trailed behind us. There were images in the mist... and screams but I ignored them and focused ahead. I was fairly certain that they were illusions so I felt secure enough in ignoring them. It was what awaited me in the Cave of Dreams that had me worried.
We pulled to a stop directly in front of the mouth of a cave. This cave didn't have any gold embellishments or flowers at the entrance but it didn't have any water running out of it either. Less water was always a good thing in my book.
“If she's injured in there,” Hades grabbed Hypnos again. “I will hold you responsible. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Lord Hades,” Hypnos bowed and then waved me forward.
“Vervain,” Griffin stopped me. “I feel like I should go with you.”
“You don't have any magic yet,” I shook my head. “Stay here, Griffin, please. If you go in with me, you'll become a distraction and a liability.”
“Just come back alive and awake,” he sighed.
“I'll try my best.” Then I followed the drug dealer into the Cave of Dreams.
As soon as I stepped foot inside the cave, a chill ran up my spine. It was cold and damp but that wasn't what had provoked the response. There was something wrong. I scented the air and picked up the metallic aroma of blood.
“Someone's hurt,” I said to Hypnos.
“This way,” he led us down a tunnel, his wispy hair lifting in the gentle breeze that flowed by us.
As we walked, things got distorted. The stone walls changed texture. First they looked like bark, then velvet, then rice paper. They rippled and bled. They tore and things leaped out of the walls and ran across our path. I jerked back but Hypnos gripped my arm firmly and urged me on.
“Pay no attention to them,” he whispered. “They're dreams, nothing more.”
“Right,” I grimaced. “Illusions can't hurt me.”
Voices echoed, some singing, some screaming, some whispering but I couldn't understand what any of them were saying. My head started to ache and I stopped for a second to rub my temples. A stab of pain forced my eyes shut for a second. When I opened them, Hypnos was gone.
“Hypnos,” I called, my voice echoing back to me from the breathing walls. “Hypnos, where are you?” More echoes but nothing else. “Damn you, you drug-dealing double-crosser! I'm going to kick your butt when I find you.”
I wandered forward, following the scent of blood, but soon my nose got confused too. Blood changed to bacon. Yes, bacon. Sizzling fat and crisp meat. I could practically taste it. My stomach rumbled. Then I was thirsty, my mouth dry as sandpaper, and everything blurred for a second. I was no longer in a cave, I was in a kitchen. My mom was cooking breakfast, something I don't actually remember her ever doing. I mean, I'm sure she did, she was my mom, but I don't have any particular memories of it. Yet there she was, standing at the stove frying bacon.
“Sit down, Vervain,” she said over her shoulder. “Odin will be here soon.”
“Odin?” I sat woodenly at the little breakfast table in the fifties style kitchen that I'd never seen before. I picked up the plastic napkin holder and frowned at it. Everyth
ing was wrong.
“He'll want eggs, I imagine,” she turned and I jerked back in my chair. She had an eye patch over one eye, the same side Odin had worn a patch over.
“Mom?”
“I'm not your mother, girl,” she shifted into Odin then but he was hostile, his remaining eye burning into me with rage. Not at all the Odin I remembered. “I'm not your anything, you selfish, stubborn brat.”
Then a line of blood appeared across his neck and his head slid from his shoulders. I screamed and the body became me, the scream transferring to Trevor. He was suddenly before me, clutching at my headless corpse, and the room was now the same room Odin had died in. Except he wasn't dead, was he? That was my corpse on the floor. He hadn't saved me this time.
“Why am I still alive?!” Trevor shouted as tears poured down his cheeks. “No,” he whimpered. “I'm not supposed to live through this. I can't.”
“Trevor!” I yelled as loud as I could but he didn't hear me. “Trevor,” I tried to run to him but I was rooted in place, glued to the vinyl seat of a kitchen chair from a kitchen that was no longer there. “I'm alive, Honey-Eyes, I didn't die. See? I'm right here. Look at me. Trevor!”
But he was too busy tearing at his hair, rending his flesh with hands that had sprouted claws. He was killing himself, trying to find a way to follow me into the grave, and I knew suddenly that this was no illusion, at least not the Trevor part of it. I was in his nightmare now, an illusion sent to break him. If it worked, it would break me too.
“No!” I screamed and burst free from the invisible bonds that held me. I fell forward, kneeling on the cave floor, little stones digging into my knees painfully. I hissed and started to stand but something knocked into me from behind, sending me face first into the dirt. My teeth punched into my lip, cutting it open and filling my mouth with blood.
I spat and rolled to my back, groaning. There was a giant black bear looming over me. I scuttled backward, half convinced it was an illusion, but then it roared. The sound was deafening within the close quarters. It rolled through the cave and back again like a tidal wave of terror. I could feel the sound in my chest and I knew the beast was real.
I swayed to my feet and the bear barreled into me. Claws in my belly, teeth on my flesh. Blood ran into my eyes and I shook my head, trying to clear my vision. My wounds were healing but it seemed slower than normal. What should have been healed in moments was taking long minutes. Agonizing minutes. I tried to focus on the bear through a haze of pain but he was gone. A tiger stood there in his place.
“Tigers and bears, oh my,” I ground out. “Shall I add my lion to the mix?”
“I don't know,” Phobetor's voice came from the tiger's mouth. “Are lions good at protecting their young? Because you sure aren't.”
“What?” I felt my arms drop in confusion. The pain was taking its toll. I felt blood dripping down my legs, puddles forming on the ground beneath me. I was going to have to heal myself soon, use the power of my fire, but I had a feeling Phobetor would attack the second I tried it. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Did you like the dream I gave you?” He'd begun circling me. “Did it help you realize that you're not fit to be a mother?”
“You!” I finally figured out what he was babbling about. “I knew that wasn't my own nightmare.”
The tiger cocked its head at me but before it could react further, it was being thrown into the cave wall. I gaped at the whimpering animal and then at Morpheus, who stood over it. He kicked the tiger in the ribs, then lifted it and threw it so far down the tunnel that it disappeared from sight. He turned to me and frowned, looking over the blood and torn clothing.
“Vervain,” he wiped the blood from my face. The blood had finally stopped dripping from my wounds and it was a great relief to feel them finally heal. Still, I didn't have time to be relieved.
“Get off of me,” I pushed Morpheus away. “Trevor!”
Trevor was still tearing at himself but while I'd been busy with the bear/tiger combo, he'd decided to attempt the impossible. He was slashing at his throat, trying to sever his head from his body. He shouldn't have been able to make it past the first cut. He should have passed out from pain and blood loss but he kept going with insane determination. I screamed and launched myself forward but Morpheus grabbed me by the arms and pulled me up short. I began to fight him but he shook me.
“Stop, Vervain!” Morpheus shouted. “He can't see you. He's lost to the nightmare.”
“Do something!” I screamed at him. “He'll kill himself.”
Morpheus didn't say anything more. He let me go and stared at me for a heartbeat. Just one heartbeat but it was enough for me to see the weight of what he was about to do. He waved a hand and the nightmare faded for Trevor. The body disappeared and Trevor stopped his maniacal slicing, dropping his hands limply. Then he crumpled to the floor.
“Trevor,” I rushed to him and turned him over.
He was pale, the slices on his throat raw, gaping wounds. Blood had soaked his shirt completely and ran down his jeans. He was barely recognizable but as I watched, he shifted. Instead of his wounded body, I held a large black wolf, unharmed but panting heavily. Scraps of torn and bloody clothing were strewn about him. I pushed the pieces of cloth away and exhaled a relieved breath.
Trevor was out cold, exhausted from the effort it had taken to heal his wounds, but I stroked his soft fur and laid my face against his head. My heart was still racing, terror still flowing through my veins. That was too close. My body shook and tears flowed down my cheeks to soak into Trevor's fur.
“I was wrong,” Morpheus knelt beside me and I lifted my head slowly to face him. “I don't love you like this. This is beyond my understanding.”
“It won't always be,” I reached a hand toward him and he lifted his but before I could touch him, before I could let the love magic show him just how wrong he'd been, another voice intruded.
“Step away from her, brother,” Phantasus was standing in the entrance to a tunnel down from us. He held a syringe in his hands. It was full of a glowing liquid that sparkled blue.
“Net,” I whispered as I jumped to my feet, settling into a defensive stance in front of Trevor.
“Oh, you're familiar with it?” Phantasus sauntered forward with a smile as Morpheus stepped in front of me. “Our mother makes it. She distills it from the poppies our father grows. I've brought it just for you, a gift, and with it you shall sleep, perchance to die.”
“Yeah, I know about your parents already and you fucked up the quote,” I gave him a sassy look. “You'd think a dream god would have gotten it right. It's sleep perchance to dream.”
“Not for you, it isn't,” Phantasus grinned wickedly. “Because while you lay sleeping, little Godhunter, I shall cut your head from your body.”
“Leave her be, Phantasus,” Morpheus said. “I was wrong. I'm letting her go.”
“Why, because she offered you an apple of immortality?” Phantasus scoffed. “Or a drink from the grayel? Empty offers that are of no use to us and you know it.”
“Why don't you just drink the ambrosia that the other Greek gods take to remain immortal?”
“And swear fealty to Zeus?” Phantasus sneered. “That arrogant asshole makes us spy for him.”
“He asks us to do things we're uncomfortable with,” Morpheus glanced at me.
“More uncomfortable than killing people?” I made an affronted face.
“Yes,” Morpheus whispered and looked at me as if I should know all about it.
But then I did. I'd seen it in his blood, his memories. Zeus had asked too much of them, more than he should have. It was like a doctor denying a patient medicine, totally unethical. Hypnos and Pasithea may have been horrible people but they were right about Zeus, he was even more horrible. I shuddered, pushing away the thoughts of deeds Zeus had asked the Oneiroi to do.
“Look,” I said to both of them. “I'll get you your immortality. You don't have to do this any longer.”
<
br /> “Even after what I did to you?” Morpheus turned to face me in shock.
“Yes,” I gave him a sad smile. “Loneliness can make us do horrible things.”
“You forgive me then?”
“Well you did just save Trevor's life,” I held out my hand. “Friends?”
“Friends,” he grinned and shook it.
“Great. Now let's go find the others.”
“Oh shut up!” Phantasus rolled his eyes. “You know she can't help us. She just wants her friends back.”
“Why do you keep saying I can't help you?” I eyed Phantasus. “I can. I know both Idunn, who grows the apples of immortality, and Jesus, who guards the grayel. I'm sure I can get one of them to help you.”
“You really don't understand, do you?” Phantasus narrowed his eyes on me as if he were looking into my soul. “Hmph, you should know more about our world by now, Godhunter. We're Greek gods so we can only gain immortality through ambrosia, the Greek source. Human belief limits us to our own pantheon. It's the main reason most of the gods start war among your kind, to gain sacrifice in their own ways, so they won't have to rely on their pantheon's source of immortality. It's all a delicate cycle. Human belief shapes us, sacrifice empowers us, we use that power to create immortality, that immortality is then restricted by belief, and if that belief fails, if the sacrifice stops, there is no immortality.”
“Wait,” I frowned. “Are you saying the source of immortality in some pantheons could run out?”
“Eventually, yes.”
“Eventually?” I persisted. “So the sources are all still reliable? Like the ambrosia?”
“The ambrosia is still viable,” Morpheus answered quietly. “It just comes at too high a price.”
“Why didn't you say something the first time I offered it to you?”
“You obviously didn't know about the restriction,” he shrugged. “It was more important to me that you made the offer. The fact that you wanted to help me is what matters.”
“Enough,” Phantasus sliced his hand down. “This is moot. She wouldn't have helped you anyway. Women are betrayers, they're born that way.”
