It angered me that she was elevated in status and the difference was so plain. I even told my owl. “Do you see this? Salt stained, and I will have to sew the holes. Do you hear me? A goddess sewing her own clothes.” I chuckled as he shook his feathers as if in answer. “Well, not all of us can be as fine in our skin as you, sir.”
Kanani gave us news that sent Cenia into a singing and dancing fit.
Thunderclouds formed over my spot on the balcony. I had brought them with my fury. The waves rolled and I smiled as I saw the ships waiting to spot us, pull up anchor and move away.
Cenia was sad, but I was happy to be alone. I was tired of being watched.
There would be a celebration ten days long for the fallen Arman. There would be all manner of gods, goddesses, nymphs, and heroes. Everyone was invited except for me.
“You are sure? Specifically, I am not allowed?” My nails dug painfully into my palm.
Kanani nodded. “You are to stay in your rooms. Cenia is to wear her finest robes and she alone will attend.”
Pretending that I was not as bitter as I felt, truly, I was curious to meet these Olympians, but in a show of bravery, I helped my sister choose a dress. Her hair was neither as heavy nor as unruly as mine, so it was easily fixed with human hair pins. We placed it high on her head to reveal her neck, and I chose special flowers and shells to adorn it.
She looked a mixture of goddess and island nymph, which I knew played to both of her strengths. My sister was so beautiful when Kanani and I were done, that I was mystified by her once more and forgot my anger. She had calmed since her first fits upon arriving and was kinder to Kanani and others. She was somber, and sweet, and I had never been so proud.
“Please,” I warned her. “Be cautious around the Olympians.”
Now that she was dressed, I worried what might happen if the gods envied her as my father had said they would. The eye of a god can mean terrible things. The eye of more than one, could mean war.
“I will be fine,” she promised, and we drank a glass of wine together before I sent her on her way.
The tears finally came once she was gone. Alec had wanted me to feel the exception to Cenia, I knew. I could hardly tell how to play his games, and I wished that I could have someone advise me in the art of the Olympians and their plots.
The moon was high, and I paced the balcony. Even my owl stayed away from me, as if it knew my frustration.
Everyone I loved or knew had gone. Fled to their own lives. So, what was mine?
If Cenia would be a wife, what of Freya?
A tiny voice knew the truth and spoke to me, making me cry all the more: The fallen have no business being anything but low.
I knew the gods. I knew them well even without ever seeing them physically. I had read so much about them that I pictured them all with ease in the castle. Despite Alec’s humor before about her looks, they would be as planets around the sun…my sister.
On the balcony, I checked the moon once more. “Grandmother,” I said. “Please keep your eye on Cenia. For me. I will give up anything that you ask.”
“Don’t make empty promises, girl. Your sister needs no looking after.”
I turned to find my grandmother, who in reality seemed no older than Cenia and I, sitting at my table.
“Hurry,” she said. “They will notice soon.”
The sky was black. A void without her shining above.
“Hurry and do what?”
“You want advice. You want to know what to do. To protect Cenia. To protect yourself. How to make the Olympians come to heel.”
“Yes.”
My grandmother came close to me, and she kissed my forehead. When she pulled away, I was dressed in a sheer gown of black that was thin enough so that the shadows played tricks on the eye. One moment my breasts were slightly visible and the next they were not when I moved.
“What is this?” I asked, both horrified and fascinated.
The fabric swished like water along my skin as if enchanted.
“My advice. The Olympians are here to see you, too. Not just Cenia. And they are waiting to meet the other titan-blood. Let them see the other sister. It’s important that you are not forgotten.”
“If I do not?”
I was not afraid of Alec’s wrath. I knew he would not harm me, nothing irreparable. But I was afraid that punishment might mean we were banished to our rooms and Cenia would never allow it now that she had been so free.
I frowned at my grandmother and she smiled when I said, “But this dress is….I am not ungrateful, but it is a tad…vulgar.”
She laughed. “It is not enough to be beautiful in a room of beautiful immortals anymore, moon-child. You are Freya the Fallen. You are already so low. Display yourself to the mighty and they will be your freedom.”
And she was gone.
I refused to enter the main room at the entrance. The Olympians would see me before I saw them. Instead, I went around back through the servant’s quarters.
There were so many rooms, I quickly was lost. Following my nose, I entered the kitchen. The mortals froze and stared at me as if I had serpents for hair.
Kanani strode forward and she looked bloodless. “What are you doing here?” she hissed and then she saw my dress. She spoke rapidly in her language, a prayer I thought it was. “What in all of the islands are you wearing! Do you want one of those monsters to take you and break you now?”
“I’m lost,” I said, my voice small and my throat tight.
“Back to your rooms! Cover yourself, quick!”
I raised my chin and fought my wobbling lips. “I will not. I will display myself as my….I must make them remember me. You won’t understand.”
I had checked my dress in the mirror. It was a trick of the imagination that you could see me clearly. But my stance was wavering seeing the horror in Kanani’s eyes.
“Fine.” I turned and left the kitchen. I made my way towards the music finally finding the back entrance to the main room.
But I faltered at the door.
Nymphs waited in the hallway as well and they were giggling and drinking, their lithe bodies covered in glittering jewels instead of clothing. Their curls were perfect ringlets around heart-shaped faces.
“Oh gods, is that the other sister?” one whispered.
“Do you see her hair? She looks like she’s been rolling in a barn.”
They tittered and laughed, and I touched my hair realizing it was already full of salt from my walk outside from my suites. And I’d drug it on the floor all the way to this part of the castle.
I backed away from the entrance, right into a hard body.
He steadied me, and I turned to find an amused Alec hiding in the hallway at his own party.
“I see you decided to go against my wishes.” His eyes sparkled, the green depths moving with power. He smelled of wine, and his smile was easy. It was the most relaxed I’d seen the king. We were only a breath apart. “And now it seems your bravery has fled. Should I show you back to your rooms?”
I stepped away from him. “No.”
I touched my hair again trying to decide what to do and Alec gazed knowingly to where the two nymphs had been.
A servant left the main room where the party was held, and the door caught halfway while closing. I could finally see the Olympians from my hiding place.
My stomach twisted. Cenia was in her element. She already was on the arm of a golden god whose bright head was thrown back in laughter at what she’d said. “Apollo,” Alec said, his mouth close to my ear. “I knew he’d be stuck to her side, but never fear, she’s merely been pleasant with him. I do think the two of them would compete for looks more than enjoy each other.”
Surrounding her were various gods and strange creatures. All of them more glorious than the next.
Still, despite it all, our father had been wrong. I knew Aphrodite to look at her. She also stood with gods at her elbows, waiting on her, feeding her. And my sister was nowhere near as sensual
. The goddess made Cenia look like a gem overly shined to try to appear genuine at market.
Cenia would one day rival the goddess, but it would be with wisdom of how to appear to men, and not for any other reason.
My mouth turned dry at the thought of going inside. Not one goddess had her hair free and full of sticks. Not one looked as I did.
What had I supposed? That since I had not fit in with my family that the Olympians would be more familiar.
“They are so different. So different from…Me.”
“Hmm. You are looking in the wrong place, I think.” Alec reached around my shoulders and cupped my chin to turn my head towards the corner of the room.
I first saw Milos standing next to three other dark headed figures and I gaped as he moved aside to reveal a group of what could only be the kings and queens of the underworld. “Who…which?”
My eyes soaked in the sight of darkness marring the glowing occasion. Alec made a noise in the back of this throat, letting my chin go. He said, “Starting left to right. That is Milos, of course, my brother. With him is Hecate and Hermes is the only bright one among them. Rarely are they apart. That handsome fellow standing alone is Charon.” I shivered to see the ferryman shrouded in his robes, hidden in shadows. “Then Thanatos and Hypnos, the twins. And I’m sure you can guess who the tallest is.”
“Hades,” I breathed, and the dark gaze swiveled in my direction and pinned me where I stood.
“And at his elbow, that small goddess is Persephone.”
“But isn’t she a goddess of spring?” She noticed Hades’ attention and also glanced in our direction.
“She was,” Alec said. “It’s complicated. A power shift. She is now the queen of the underworld. She has transformed for that station.”
Alec was right. I would fit in much better with these river gods of the underworld and the ferryman of the dead. They all wore black robes and were less adorned than the other Olympians. Persephone seemed to be trying to beckon me even now. Her small features were delightfully fierce.
A warrior immortal walked from the room into the dark hallway, mumbling something in frustration and he stopped when he saw us. “Alec, there you are.”
“Not enjoying the company, Ares?”
“Looking for more wine.” He gave a sly smile in my direction. “And better company.”
Alec made that noise I’d gotten used to and Ares moved on with a laugh. “The wine then!”
“Come,” Alec said towing me away from the door.
I was sad to leave, finally having worked up my nerve maybe to enter, but he did not take me back to my rooms. He took me to his.
“This is your bedroom.” I swallowed.
The king was obviously deep in his cups, but I had had not nearly enough to let him bring me to his bed and ravish me. Perhaps this had been the plan all along. To bring Cenia as a guest, and me as something far lower.
Alec maybe was the defender of men, but he was, to me, a god and king of the Olympians and my enemy. And he was my jailer and had every right to hate me.
Hating me could boil into the need to conquer, I knew.
I touched my cheeks to hide my thoughts, but he merely pulled his cloak from his shoulders. The clasp was an ornate metal piece. “Turn around,” he said, and he placed the cloak over my shoulders, tying it with a basic piece of string.
The fabric was pretty, and finer than the ones I’d seen him wear while riding. And it wasn’t heavy or cloistering like I had supposed.
“Kanani,” he said quietly, and she appeared as if by magic.
“Yes, sire.”
“Here,” he handed her the metal clasp and motioned to my hair. “Can you do something with this?”
Kanani sat me down on the edge of Alec’s bed, and she began to weave my hair expertly until it was wound as braids both along and on top of my head. It was a dark crown when she was finished that was expertly done. She then used the clasp on it, making Alec help her bend it closed.
Alec clamped it shut and I glanced at it in the mirror. He said, “The metal is the same as my armor. Forged by the gods. You have power in your hair, I guessed it straight away. This clasp should hold it.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant. I touched the crown and loved the style.
“That’s why your mother probably never cut it. I bet she never let you either. Am I right?”
“Uh. Yes. She never did.”
He nodded.
Kanani brought black and white flowers from a vase and she cut them and placed them in my hair. When I glanced in the mirror, though I was dressed in all darkness, it was quite pretty. I would not glow as Cenia had with colors, but perhaps I was not alone in my darkness for once. I was dressed as those of the underworld.
Alec rubbed his chin. “Ready?”
“You will let me go? Truly.”
“I don’t think I can keep you away. Come.”
He held out his arm and fed me strength.
And that is how I entered the party. On the arm of the king, with all of Olympus watching us, curious as cats.
Chapter 7
There are three places and that’s all that matters to the Olympians. Above, Zeus is king of the skies and land. Between, Poseidon, king of all that the water touches. And then there is the third place, the dark place. Beneath, realm of Hades, king of the underworld.
Alec held my arm so tightly through the cloak that it almost hurt. I was curious why until my knees grew weak, and I tripped over my skirts a number of times. At first, I thought perhaps I was faint. It had been a trying time from being ripped from my own halls and thrown there on the shore of the Seven Islands. Death had surrounded me on all sides and maybe I was finally too afraid to pretend bravery any longer. But I soon realized that the Olympians were testing me. Their power, a cloistering and sickening sweetness that rubbed my bones, had set my nerves alight, and therefore my body was taking the brunt of what my mind had not created boundaries for just yet.
Over time, perhaps I would learn how to enter a room filled with so many gods and goddesses without needing to protect myself, but tonight was not that moment.
Like needles, they poked at me, and I felt as though I should bleed. But when I looked at my skin, it was smooth. Alec pressed closer, and his warm power moved through him and into the cloak. There it rested like a mantle upon my shoulder, a protection. After that, the powers ceased to faze me for the rest of the night.
Except for Hades’ power, that is.
My sister pried herself loose from Apollo long enough to walk with me. Every immortal carefully watched the two titan sisters among them, but while most were shrouded in light and golden power, there was a group that sucked that coloring away, a dark spot that waited in shadows. The lords and queens of the underworld were holding court in one area of the room, and Cenia, like myself, was wise enough to bow low upon arriving before the great elder brother of Zeus.
“Rise,” Persephone said, softness covering steel. “Show me those beautiful faces.”
I blushed to hear it. Certainly, Persephone’s beauty was barely rivaled. She reminded me of Cenia at this distance and her features harkened the spring, so unlike the dark hair that framed her face. Certainly though, the most surprising, was how young she appeared, as if the underworld had not let her age past the day she’d arrived. A queen of the underworld, there was no doubt, but a child-bride to the fearsome Hades was what I saw most.
I stood tall, my back straight, and Cenia had a small smile on her face. She was gracious though I knew she was terrified by the bloodless lips. I finally risked a glance at the King of the Underworld and wished I could have warmed up to this meeting for a hundred years. Cold, black eyes stared back as if from my own grave. His skin was the same color as mine, nearly exact, as if he were a lunar god. But while my coloring came from the moon, his came from avoidance of the sun. Nothing could be further apart.
His jet hair was long, like Alec’s, and his jaw while strong, wasn’t as chiseled as say, Apollo or H
ermes. His face kept a sharpness instead, that made his countenance all the more intriguing, and terrifying. Hermes waited at Hades’ elbow, perhaps for a message. I knew him because his sandals had little wings on them befitting of his station.
He did not move when we approached, perhaps because he knew Alec would bring us here first for introduction and was wiser than the others of how best to hear our tale. Either way, Hermes had an arched brow and a haughty expression, happy to see how we’d respond to one of the most powerful. His gaze landed on me, then Cenia, and back again.
Hades’ gaze, too, passed Cenia and anchored to me. His power peeled back Alec’s from my shoulders with ease.
Alec was behind me, and I could sense his burning gaze.
Between the three very powerful Olympians, I was pinned in place, unsure.
Cenia grabbed my hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I am Cenia, your grace.” Ever used to being the center of attention, I was happy to let her have it. “And this is my sister, Freya. Freya the Fallen.”
Hades’ jaw tightened at my new moniker while sweat built between my shoulder blades at the idea that he’d think it was said in jest. As if we two titan-bloods had sat together, laughing and toasting a plan hatched to make light of the Olympians greatest and darkest of kings
Perhaps Hades would think it was said at his expense. Had he not fallen from his place on Olympus to rule? In a way. Coerced. This title of mine…a morbid name. A profound name never-the-less. As if a hero had bested me in a great battle and not that I’d been tossed out of my father’s house in shame.
I tipped my head. “Freya will do.”
“Yes,” Hades said drawing the word out. He nodded at Alec. “I suppose she will.”
And then he broke the staring connection. I could breathe once more.
Relief flooded through me when I glanced backwards to see that Alec’s face held a small smile. I’d gotten the approval of the Underworld it seemed, and for some reason this pleased Alec.
My stomach tightened as a sudden power thrummed through me again, a final sweep as it were for assurance that Cenia and I were not plotting against those who Hades protected. Swift, like the sailing of a twig in the rapids, I felt myself sliding from control.
Beware the Fallen: Young Adult Mythology (Banished Divinity Book 1) Page 6
