Cities of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 2)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “I… don’t trust a living tapestry.”

  “It’s not alive. It’s enchanted. I think it’s lighting up for you.”

  “It is,” a woman’s voice said, who sounded almost like Badb but not quite. They turned to see Macha entering the great hall, her eyes full of concern but something else as well. Astonishment, maybe?

  Cameron immediately held out Thor’s hammer and tried to give it to her. “If you won’t permanently take this thing, would you at least find someone to… clean it?”

  Macha nodded and pointed toward the table. “Set it there. I’ll have it taken care of. It’s true then. You killed Nyyrikki with it?”

  “Well, he didn’t give me much choice.”

  Macha smiled at him and her golden eyebrows pulled together as she studied the couple. “I can’t believe you did this again. Badb kept insisting the first time wasn’t an accident, but Nemain and I weren’t convinced. Did you intend to come here this time? Do you need my help?”

  “We intended to come here,” Selena told her. “Because of something Ukko said about invading the Otherworld on the eve of Samhain.”

  “No,” Macha gasped. “He found enough followers. He’s coming back.”

  “Holy shit,” Cameron said. “Ukko was telling the truth? He’s actually going to try to invade this place?”

  Macha shook her head slowly as her gray eyes widened. “Ukko was never permanently cast out of the Otherworld. He wouldn’t need to wait until Samhain Eve to invade if he were planning a war against us. He was sending us a warning that Ninurta is about to return.”

  Chapter Seven

  The Dagda rolled his thick fingers across his large oaken table as the assembled Greeks and Tuatha Dé argued about how to contend with a god Selena knew little about. Cameron’s knowledge was as limited as hers: Ninurta was a Sumerian god of agriculture and was sometimes portrayed as a god of war, but why he scared the gods here and why he’d been permanently cast out of the Otherworld remained mysteries to them.

  Poseidon lifted his head, covered in dark blonde curls, and peered at the couple who were trying to hide in the shadows against the wall. “I think one thing is clear,” he said. “Anyone who still doubted these are the two the Tuatha Dé have been waiting for should have no more doubts.”

  “They could have listened to me the last time and known that,” Athena insisted.

  Ares nodded in agreement with his sister. “Why isn’t Badb back here yet?”

  “She can’t just abandon Anita,” Selena said. Her announcement was greeted by blank stares from most of the deities in the room, so she explained that Badb seemed to think Anita Granger would be able to help them find Nuada’s heir.

  “Well,” Aonghus said with a shrug, “then she has to stay for now. But as soon as you can safely return to Earth, you should replace her so Anita isn’t alone. Badb needs to be here if Ninurta is coming with an army.”

  “What is this guy’s story?” Cameron asked.

  Macha’s eyes narrowed at the thought of one of her worst enemies. “The Mesopotamian gods allied with the Norse and Slavs in the last war. After they conceded defeat, Ninurta led a group of gods who broke the armistice in a failed coup. The survivors were permanently banned from the Otherworld.”

  “But if Samhain Eve is some loophole, why hasn’t he tried to invade the Otherworld before?” Cameron asked.

  “Support,” the Dagda answered. “He needed a new army.”

  “And is this a real army or is this like the five Aztec god army, which isn’t really an army. And that wasn’t really a war.”

  “Cameron,” Selena groaned.

  “It wasn’t,” Cameron insisted. “That was a handful of pissed off gods fighting. And a couple of demigods, but the gods caused most of the damage.”

  Macha waited a few seconds to make sure Cameron wasn’t going to keep talking before answering him. “We have no idea how many supporters he’s found. But his… army is most likely a combination of gods and demigods.”

  “Another question,” Cameron said. Selena sighed and backed into the shadows again. “How does the Otherworld just open up on Halloween? Why don’t more people know about this and where’s the door?”

  “The door…” Poseidon repeated.

  “Yeah, you guys should probably guard that better.”

  Poseidon blinked at the Dagda. “Is he serious?”

  The Dagda’s pink face lit up and he shrugged. “Probably not. He’s usually only ever serious about one thing.”

  Poseidon’s dark blue eyes searched the shadows where Selena tried to remain hidden and he nodded. “As he should be.”

  Selena caught her breath. They all know more about our fates than they’ve admitted. What the hell are they hiding from us?

  Macha shifted in her seat and changed the subject. “We didn’t create the Otherworld, Cameron. We have no control over the rules that govern this place. And a long time ago, humans and demigods did know about the ability to travel here on the eve of Samhain. That’s how it made into the legends and myths of the Otherworld.”

  “I’m sure Cameron and Selena both have numerous questions, but we will try to address them later,” an unfamiliar god said. He was sitting next to Aonghus so Selena guessed he was one of the Tuatha Dé. “We can’t allow them to be here on Samhain Eve though. It will be far too dangerous. Badb will need to find somewhere safe for them to hide on Earth until this threat has passed.”

  “Yes, Aí, you’re right,” Macha agreed. She turned to Cameron and Selena again and told them, “For now, why don’t you rest? After the day you had on Earth, you must be exhausted.”

  “Actually,” Cameron said, “we’re going to take a walk first. Don’t worry, we’ll stay away from the glass castle.”

  Selena assumed there had to be a reason Cameron had decided they were going to wander around the Otherworld again, particularly since it was night here now, but she waited until they were outside to ask him. Cameron glanced over his shoulder at the Dagda’s castle and motioned for her to follow him. He led her up the nearest hill and only then did he answer her question.

  “I don’t trust those rooms not to have ears. Did you notice Poseidon’s reaction to the Dagda hinting at you being the only thing I’m serious about?”

  Selena nodded and looked down at the palace below them. “I’ve always suspected Badb knew more about our destinies than she was telling us, but I think they all must know more than we do. And for some reason, nobody wants us to know.”

  Cameron blew an angry breath through his lips as he glared at the palace, too. “I won’t bother telling you again how much I dislike them and how much I don’t trust any of them.”

  Selena turned away from the castle so she could look at Cameron. He was so beautiful, even in his anger, that her stomach and chest filled with the butterflies she hadn’t experienced since she was an awkward teenager. Since meeting him, they seemed so normal and common an experience for her now. “I don’t know what else to do, Cameron. When Badb first told me I was meant to join the Tuatha Dé, it felt like the right decision. I still believe that because it still feels right. But the human part of me acknowledges there’s a lot going on that’s making me question what they’re hiding. I only know that I never could have had a normal life. My choices were to spend the rest of my time on Earth running and hiding or death. Becoming a goddess seems like a much better alternative.”

  Cameron stuffed his hands inside the pockets of his jeans as he seemed to think about what she’d said. He finally sighed and acknowledged she may be right. She’d never really had the option of a life outside of hiding from the New Pantheon, and now that the gods knew what she could do, hiding from them all. “I thought I could protect you without you having to become a goddess, but we’d still be hiding all the time. Just because I’d prefer that existence over becoming a god, it hasn’t been fair of me to expect that you’d rather live that way.”

  Selena smiled at him and laced her arm through his, resting her head agai
nst his shoulder as she studied the night sky of the Otherworld. In so many ways, it resembled the sky of Earth with its bright round moon and twinkling stars that broke through the blackness, but she didn’t recognize any constellations. These weren’t her stars and this wasn’t her moon. Maybe none of them were real anyway. Maybe nothing here was real and was only imagined, an illusion of the gods.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “For understanding.”

  Cameron pulled his hand out of his pocket and put his arm around her. “Hey, if there’s one thing you can count on, Selena, it’s me. I promise.”

  Selena’s throat burned with the familiar pain of her body wanting to cry, but she blinked back the tears. How would she explain to him why she was crying without telling him the truth? She settled on a half-truth instead. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, Cameron.”

  Cameron kissed the top of her head and told her that was the most meaningful compliment anyone had ever given him. Selena couldn’t hold her tears back anymore. Perhaps her decision to join the Tuatha Dé wasn’t the right one; perhaps, if it meant having to abandon a love far stronger than any she’d even dreamed of, if it meant abandoning the future she wanted most, it wasn’t worth the sacrifice.

  But she had no one she could ask, no one she could talk to and try to work through her complicated feelings of being torn between two worlds and two desires. Badb’s first allegiance would always be to the Tuatha Dé and she would always act in her family’s best interest. She had no way of reaching her Aunt Tara. And her best friend, the man her heart wanted more than anything else in either world, would always tell her what he thought would make her happy, even if it meant giving up everything else that mattered the most to him.

  Selena sat with Cameron on top of the hill overlooking the Dagda’s palace for a long time in the seemingly endless night of the Otherworld as he distracted her from what he presumed were her terrified and lonely thoughts with his silly jokes and playing guessing games as to what the creature inside the glass castle might be. Most of Cameron’s guesses veered toward Badb’s former lovers.

  When Selena’s eyes began to close despite wanting this endless night to continue on in its permanence so she never had to choose between Cameron and Badb, between living a life as a mortal on Earth or a life as a goddess in this mystical Otherworld, Cameron convinced her to go back to the palace so they could get some sleep. Even then she heard what he really meant beneath his words, this plea that she would go back to the palace to sleep for a while simply because he was worried about her.

  As they walked down the hill, Selena took in the sights of the Otherworld in the moonlight one last time as she made up her mind: in the end, she wouldn’t leave him. She would wait until they’d found the Unbreakable Sword and Nuada’s heir to tell Cameron the truth then they’d run away together as he’d always wanted. And she would hope it would be enough to save the Tuatha Dé because if she allowed Cameron’s heart to break, if she allowed him to return to Earth without her, she knew she’d not only never forgive herself, but she would die in this strange land from a grief humans, with their futures and pasts so cleanly cut off from their DNA, could never understand.

  In the morning, Selena awoke to discover that Badb had finally returned. She’d dropped her disguise as an old woman, one she obviously reserved for her time on Earth for some reason, and waited for her demigods in the great hall. Selena noticed her right away, looking as stunningly beautiful as always when she appeared as her normal self, this young golden haired goddess with soft gray eyes that she still thought often bordered on kind, even when she was teasing Cameron, which she apparently liked to do.

  Truthfully, Cameron brought her teasing on himself, but she couldn’t help wanting to defend him sometimes anyway. Cameron was already awake, standing in front of the tapestries again as Badb explained why Lugh’s Spear kept illuminating now when it hadn’t the first time they’d appeared in the Dagda’s castle.

  “The closer you get to living out the prophecy and the stronger your gifts become, the more it responds to you.” Without looking away from Cameron, Badb waved Selena over. “Stand in front of the tapestry of the Cauldron, Selena. You’ll see the same enchantment. It will recognize you.”

  After deciding the night before that she would no longer accept the Dagda’s Cauldron, Selena didn’t even want to look at the tapestry, but she listened to Badb anyway. Her chest tightened in a painful vise as she stared at it, and it immediately rippled as if caught in a breeze. She approached it slowly, and Badb watched her. Selena caught her eyes, and she thought she saw something in them this morning, some sort of understanding as to what she’d decided to do, some sadness mixed with hope, perhaps. Or maybe she was imagining things as usual.

  She stopped in front of the tapestry and watched it as the black cauldron appeared to lift from the fabric, the contents within bubbling and a slow, steady steam rising as the flames beneath it licked the bottom of the pot. Selena reached out to touch it, but Cameron stopped her again.

  “Still don’t trust these things,” he told her.

  She shot Badb a look that asked her if it was ok.

  “Go ahead,” Badb assured her. “The flames aren’t real. They won’t hurt you.”

  Selena ran her fingers along the tapestry, expecting to feel the hard, hot metal of a cauldron set over a fire, but despite what her eyes thought they were seeing, she only felt the tight weave of the tapestry itself. She smiled at Cameron and nodded toward Lugh’s Spear. “It doesn’t feel any different.”

  He gave Badb one last mistrustful glance then ran his own fingers along the tapestry of Lugh’s Spear. “Huh. Ok, I have to admit: that’s pretty cool.”

  Badb laughed and shrugged a shoulder at him. “I didn’t make them. I’m not sure how it works, other than magic.”

  “Who did make them?” Selena asked.

  Badb smiled at Cameron and said, “Lugh did. A very long time ago. Remember, he wasn’t only known for being a sun god but a god of arts and crafts. He was a god of both and a master of all things.”

  Cameron snickered and let his hand fall from the tapestry. “Well, I didn’t get those genes. You should see my artwork from grade school. It didn’t even deserve room on the refrigerator at home.”

  “Lugh was special,” Badb recalled fondly. “His history is special, too. As usual, the written myths conflict as to who his father was. All rightly claim he was the grandson of Balor, who was Fomorian and not one of the Tuatha Dé, which means his lineage isn’t entirely ours. But his father is Cian, whose father was Dian Cécht. And Lugh’s son was one of our greatest heroes, Cú Chulainn. What you’ve inherited are the qualities of some of our greatest warriors.”

  “That’s a lot of family tree to get to Lugh. Why is this spear supposedly one of the original gifts of the Tuatha Dé but Lugh didn’t come to Ireland with you from one of the magical cities?” Cameron asked.

  Selena had to admit, she’d been wondering that for a long time but with so many other questions constantly swirling around her mind now, she’d forgotten to ask.

  But this, too, apparently wasn’t one of the Tuatha Dé’s great mysteries because Badb didn’t hesitate to answer him. “It wasn’t always known as the Spear of Lugh. After he joined our pantheon, the Dagda gave him this Spear, and it quickly earned that epithet because of how expertly he could wield it. He was invincible in the battlefield with it. When it was taken from him… that’s how Freyr managed to kill him in the last war.” Badb inhaled a slow, deep breath as her voice cracked over the painful memory of losing a beloved friend.

  Selena wasn’t about to ask if they’d been more than friends. And if Cameron even tried, she was going to be the one searching this weird world for someone to perform a lobotomy.

  But Cameron wasn’t a masochist. He didn’t broach the subject either. “And you killed, Freyr, didn’t you? That’s how you got the Spear back.”

  Badb nodded and ran her own fingers along the tapestry. “Thor and Tyr were ly
ing about knowing where the Unbreakable Sword is. The gifts of the Tuatha Dé were divided among the Norse and the Slavs, and since the Norse were stronger, they planned to take the two that were more difficult to obtain: the Spear and the Sword. The Slavs stole the Cauldron and the Stone.”

  “Question,” Cameron said.

  Badb sighed and put her hand on her hip as she waited.

  “How important is this stone? Considering Ireland doesn’t really have a need for proclaiming rightful kings anymore, can we just leave that one hidden and not risk our lives over finding a singing stone?”

  “It’s one of our treasures, Cameron, so of course we’ll eventually find it. But it’s not a priority right now. We’ll have to wait until after this war to search for it. But you certainly don’t have to help us nor does Selena.”

  “Finally,” Cameron exclaimed. “That’s the first time one of you hasn’t tried to drag Selena into something to make me act.”

  Badb’s eyes flickered to Selena and she thought she saw that same sense of sadness tempered with hope as before. “Well… I had to leave Anita in Bakerton, Nebraska, so you need to hurry there and…”

  “Whoa,” Cameron interrupted. “Nebraska? No way. She’s on her own.”

  “I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine as long as we stay out of the cornfields,” Selena said.

  “Why the hell did you have to take her to Nebraska?” Cameron scowled.

  Badb put both hands on her hips and scowled back at him. “Because we’re supposed to be looking for the Unbreakable Sword, remember?”

  “And it’s buried in a cornfield?” Cameron turned to Selena and shook his head. “I told you. This is a deal breaker.”

  Badb rolled her eyes and grabbed Thor’s hammer off the table. Just as Macha had promised, it had been cleaned, but Cameron scowled at it, too. “Keep this with you. Eventually, Thor will be ready to negotiate with you in order to get his weapon back. And until then, you’ve already proven how useful it can be for you.”