Heir to the Underworld
Page 13
Well, you wanted answers. You wanted the truth. Was it worth it? If you could go back now, would you?
Yes. Oh, please.
All around her, the rough huntsmen sported violently among the dinner tables, wrestling and shoving one another but somehow managing not to knock things over. The assembled throng of glittering courtiers swirled in a blurring mass, beautiful and uncanny. A new world, a magical world spread out all around her. Somewhere she could belong, thrive maybe. So dangerous. So tempting.
Would you?
No…
She darted a quick glance at Cernunnos, to examine his handsome face and clever, sparkling green eyes. The majestic antlers atop his head seemed strange still, but appealing somehow, stirring some deep echo from her soul.
Would you?
I don't…know.
Cernunnos whispered in her ear. "All things considered, events are going precisely as I would have liked. Half the battle was getting the Greeks to even come here. Now that they are, I am confident in your ability to be charming." He chucked her under the chin. She pressed her mouth closed and fought an urge to spit in his face. "You will behave, my child, won't you--for Abigail?" He squeezed Freddy's arm just this side of pain. "I'm sure that's what your mother would wish."
Freddy's insides froze. "Was that a threat?"
He grinned. "I require very little--only that you behave as the captivating young woman I know you to be. If you do not, if you make trouble, it will…disappoint me." His eyes flashed. "And I'm sure it will hurt your mother."
Terror lashed across her like the searing crack of a whip. She recoiled as far from Cernunnos as the vise-like grip on her arm permitted. "You bastard."
"You will behave?" His grip tightened, fingers digging in like little barbs on her arm.
Freddy nodded once, and her insides writhed at the surrender.
"That's my girl." He pointed toward the bonfire. "See our distinguished guests? Your potential fiancé and his family."
Freddy looked where he pointed. Three men stood with their backs to her, heads bent together. They were so similar in posture and general looks, Freddy would have known they were family without Cernunnos' telling her. Two wore variations on the Roman armor of the pre-Christian era. Elaborate chest and back plates over dark tunics, flaps of leather dangling from their waists, high black boots with elaborately decorated shin guards. They looked like extras from a big budget sword and sandal movie.
One of the men turned at Freddy and Cernunnos' approach. The other two continued to argue in low voices. Cernunnos bowed at the waist. "My Lord Hades, allow me to present my daughter Frederica." Cernunnos beamed.
Freddy looked up in surprise at the name Hades. Freshman year, her English class had done a whole unit on the Greek gods, and Hades was one of the Big Guys. Staring at the man's face, Freddy was oddly reminded of Deg. Hades was ivory-skinned, dark-haired, and tall. His eyes shone gray instead of gold, though, darker, harder, immeasurably old and wise, sad and somber. The line of his chin was hidden beneath a well-groomed beard, his hair cropped close to his head and face.
Hades wore black armor with silver detailing, a large three-headed dog serving as the centerpiece on his breastplate, and a length of fabric knotted in a large bow around his midsection.
Hades inclined his head to her with cold politeness. "I did not know you had a daughter, Lord Cernunnos." The level to which he resembled Deg beneath that massive beard really was eerie.
Cernunnos shrugged. "A half-blood. But beautiful, nonetheless."
"Very," replied Hades in a colorless tone.
I don't think I like you. Freddy stretched her lips into a big, bright smile, as insincere as Hades' compliment.
Cernunnos motioned to one of the other armored set. "Your son Polydegmon I believe she has met."
Freddy blinked dizzily. Not just because of the name. At that moment, the other two turned, and one of them was Deg. Deg Deg, her Deg coming to dinner at Cernunnos' lair just as if the Lord of the Hunt wasn't a murdering, evil, kidnapper nutjob. Seeing Deg shocked her so badly she leaned on Cernunnos' arm for support. Just when she'd thought she couldn't wrap her brain around anymore weirdness, the crazy kept on coming.
Freddy stared at the ground and tried to shuffle her dizzy brain into order. So, Cernunnos said he was a god. Hades was the name of a god. So, so…was she supposed to swallow this was the real god Hades standing there shaking her hand? And Deg was his son? So therefore Deg, Deg Deg, her Deg, was a god?
How typical of Deg not to mention the fact that gods do exist, never mind he and his whole family were ones. Her nerves crackled in sudden irritation, sparking bright, making her body seem hot and roiling as a pot of boiling water. 'I heal quick,' he'd said. Ugh.
Visions danced in her head of leaping over the dinner table and impaling him in the eye with a steak knife.
Oh jeez, and didn't Cernunnos say she had a Greek fiancé? Deg is a Greek. Her thoughts muddled together, white noise blocking out everything. Her body was suddenly a separate entity she had no control of. She didn't know what to do. She stared at Cernunnos.
He, either oblivious to her dilemma or trying to smooth over the moment, pressed on with introductions. "Your other son, Lord Hades, has not had the honor, I believe. Clymenus, my daughter."
Clymenus stepped forward, a delicate guy, effeminate really, the only one of the three not wearing armor, just a pale pink and gray toga. He wore his blond hair so long it fell in perfect ringlets to dust his shoulders. Built along spare, lithe lines, he possessed a fragile, womanly face though he had the same hard gray eyes as his snooty father. His lips, though smiling now, generally seemed to settle into a thin, sulky line. He snagged her hand and kissed it, his fingers mashing hers together. "It is always a pleasure to meet another demigod like myself. Particularly one as beautiful as you, my lady."
Freddy barely heard the compliment. Her attention had refocused itself, like a magnet drawn to another magnet--to Deg. Her heart hammering in her chest, her gaze slid over toward Deg, but he still wouldn't look at her. Dressed in his stiff blue and silver armor, hair slicked down in tight curls, he seemed as remote as the moon. He looked good, though. Handsome. Strong. God-like?
Damn it.
A high voice, melodic as a bird singing, piped up. "Cernunnos, love, you don't mean to sit to dinner without me?" The voice belonged to a newcomer, a woman who sauntered over to them. Freddy's breath left her in an awed gasp. The woman was achingly gorgeous, her beauty hard and sharp. Taller than Freddy, taller than Cernunnos save for his antlers, the woman's face resembled a bird, with dainty, fine-boned features and fierce eyes. Her snowy white hair seemed as fine as a newborn's, the skin of her exposed shoulders and face was the same shade. The blood red of her irises was the only color in her complexion.
Freddy suppressed a shiver of terror and looked away from the too-bright beauty.
The women on either side of the white-haired lady must have been her sisters. They were all built the same--tall, beautiful, lean with wiry muscles. Looking across the line of their faces, their features were jarringly alike, only differing in their coloring.
Cernunnos grimaced at their approach but contorted a smile to cover it half-successfully. "Ah, the Morrígna. So glad you three could make it."
One of the women, with coal-black hair chopped close to her head, stepped forward. "Well, we barely received the summons in time, didn't we, my lord?" A black band of Celtic knot-work was tattooed around her arm, and stylized wings were etched across her right cheekbone. She wore black leathers, thick bronze wrist cuffs, and a heavy necklace of twisted bronze with an opening at the front. They were called torques. Cernunnos and most of the others, including Freddy herself, wore them.
"Lady Badb, such a hasty, thrown together banquet, I beg a thousand pardons you three were overlooked." Cernunnos leaned in to give the dark-haired woman a large, smacking kiss on the cheek. Badb flinched and seemed to fight the urge to wipe her cheek. The corner of the white-haired lady's mo
uth tipped up in a small smile.
The last of the three women had dark red hair growing past her waist. Her dress hung baggy and ill-fitting, and she wore no jewelry save a pale gold torque capped with two wolves' heads. Leaves and other bits of forest detritus matted and snarled her hair.
"Child." Cernunnos turned to Freddy, a sharp glint in his eye. "Come meet the Morrígan and her sisters. Badb and Nemain." He clasped the white-haired woman's hand and swallowed. "The Morrígan is my queen. My…wife."
His wife? And he's throwing me in her face. Classy guy, this Cernunnos. Freddy sent him a dark look of disapproval. Sleaze-ball.
Cernunnos stepped away from his wife. He wrapped his hand around Freddy's arm and led her forward. The white-haired Morrígan's lips smiled, but it seemed more like she was baring her teeth. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she looked at Freddy. "I can see why you kept her from me, husband. Quite a charming girl." Her hand reached out to stroke Freddy's cheek.
Freddy instinctively flinched away, afraid of Morrígan without quite knowing why.
Cernunnos' gaze flicked between Freddy and the rest of them. He tugged Freddy not quite smoothly to her seat at the table. "Well, now everybody knows everybody let us eat and enjoy." He thumped into the sturdy wooden chair at the head of the table, motioning for the servants to bring food.
Freddy sat down hard on her seat. She darted one more look at Deg, hoping for some guidance, some help, any acknowledgment at all. Finally, she managed to catch his eye. He studied her--hurt, and maybe longing, writ large on his face before he wiped all expression from it. His eyes darted to Morrígan a few seats down and across from Freddy. A worry line knotted between his brows, and after that he stared at the luxurious spread of food, at the bonfires ringed around them, even at the other people at the table. But not at Freddy. She swallowed her disappointment and gazed at her own lap.
The first platter of food made its way around the table, passing from hand to hand, but before any food had even reached him, Hades cut right to the meat of the matter. "My son tells me you have my daughter, Kore. I am here to negotiate her release."
Cernunnos threw his head back, laughing and displaying that mouth full of even, too sharp teeth. "Think you she is my prisoner? Lord Hades, I assure you the Maiden of Spring stays here as my guest."
Freddy flicked her gaze to Morrígan, but the goddess seemed unconcerned, eating her meal and chatting with her dark-haired sister.
"How kind of you to honor her so." Hades' dark eyes clouded. "However, her mother is sick with worry. So, if you will bring her to me, we will forgive and forget and say no more of this…unfortunate incident."
The stag-god smiled still, but his eyes glittered. "What a kind offer. Unfortunately for your poor wife, Kore will stay at my home for some time yet. I do, however, offer you another solution to this…what was the phrase you so eloquently employed?" He smiled at Hades. "Ah, yes. This 'unfortunate incident' cannot, I am afraid, end with Kore's return. I do, however, offer you a trade." Cernunnos made a great show of selecting a hunk of carved meat from the platter one of the servile sprites held before him.
"A trade?" Deg glowered at Cernunnos. "We want nothing you have to offer us except the release of my sister."
"Nothing? Hmm…I wonder why I rather thought you did?" Cernunnos' eyes trailed to Freddy. She couldn't help but look at Deg.
Deg's gaze, seemingly against his will, strayed to her. He met her challenging stare for a long minute before he flushed and turned away. She wished he would stop doing that. His behavior was freaking her out. What was so wrong he couldn't stand to look at her?
"What do you offer?" Hades cut in.
"In exchange for your lovely daughter, I offer you my lovely daughter." Cernunnos gestured to Freddy.
"Truly?" Hades pursed his lips.
"I see." Clymenus raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Deg spilled his wine.
"What?" Outrage fired in her gut. He was trading her? Like a freaking baseball card or something? Her father was trading her? Freddy dropped her goblet. Cernunnos sent her a quelling look, which she met glare for glare. "So, I'm just a thing to you, a toy you're using to get a better one." She jumped from her place and would have left but Cernunnos' hand snapped out. He detained her with an iron grip on her wrist that pressed the bones painfully together.
"Will you excuse me for a moment, my lords?" Cernunnos tossed back at the Greek trio before he hauled her around the side of a hut, out of sight. He held her by the shoulders and stared into her face.
The sheer size and force of the man--god--creature--thing--overwhelmed her. She'd meant to shake him off, but found herself frozen, held still by his will alone.
"A daughter would do well to obey her father," he snarled, "and to be silent in the presence of men."
And just like that her fear evaporated along with her awe of him. He could do his worst, and it still wouldn't be half as bad as what he'd already put her through. She folded her arms across her chest. "Were you this much of an asshole to Mom?"
He released her shoulders and stepped back. She stared at him and tried to read what thoughts swirled behind eyes so eerily like her own. No luck.
He said after a long moment, "Your mother always honored my wishes."
"Always?" She snorted in disbelief. "Really?"
He gave a small half smile, tender with nostalgia. "Truthfully, no--not always. She was more biddable than you."
"I'm not her." Freddy's breath caught. There. Oh, man. And just like that it sunk in. Cernunnos was her father.
Ugh. Mom has such crap taste in men.
"No, you are not Abigail." He smiled, and Freddy fought the way her anger at him wanted to melt. "I begin to think I am acting rashly. It would be interesting to see what manner of young woman you have become."
That stung, and she actually grew sicker every extra moment she spent with him. "You never bothered about me all these years. Don't bother about me now." She gulped in a breath, stuffing her anger, her grief, down deep, hiding any weakness far away from Cernunnos' questing gaze. "I traded my life for Colin's. You own me, and you know it. Do what you want. But Deg and his father have seen me, and I don't want to watch myself get bartered away so you can keep your girlfriend." She hurried from the alley before her tears could start.
Cernunnos made no move to stop her.
Chapter Twelve
Clymenus was saying, "She'll make a fine wife. And an alliance between the Olympians and the Celts would have certain advantages."
Polydegmon had never been fond of his half-brother. He did not like Clymenus at all just that moment. Even a deep gulp of Cernunnos' excellent wine did not wash the bad taste from his mouth.
The stag-god sauntered over to the table and inclined his head. "And have you all yet seen the wisdom of my offer?" Mouth set in a sardonic curve, he looked at Polydegmon. "My daughter is beautiful, is she not?"
Polydegmon ground his teeth to keep back a sharp retort to this infuriating smugness. Of all the wondrous qualities in Frederica, surely her beauty is the least significant. Polydegmon had learned this before her own father had, it seemed.
Clymenus, too, was grinning, which did not improve Polydegmon's temper.
Hades looked at Polydegmon, then to his smug bastard on the left. Hades pursed his lips. "I want to see Kore, to know she stays here of her own accord before I agree to anything."
Cernunnos grinned. "But of course. I will call her here at once."
~~~
When Freddy arrived at her hut, Kore was waiting for her. Freddy was too drained to have energy to spare for surprise. "What's up?" Freddy tugged at her hair. The braids made her head throb. She wanted them out.
"I wanted to see you." Kore helped her with the knot.
"Your dad and brothers are in the clearing, you know." Freddy winced at a sharp prick to her skull as Kore stabbed her with a hairpin. "Ow."
"Beg pardon." Kore stepped back, her hands shaking. "Hades?" Kore choked out. "And…Polydegmon?"
"Clymenus? He's my half brother." Kore shrugged, her face emotionless. "Father had a fling with a nymph. My mother was furious. Do you know she turned--"
Tired of playing games, Freddy abandoned her hair and circled the other girl's slender wrist with her fingers, holding without hurting. So far. "What's going on, Kore?"
"What do you mean?" Kore twisted to get her arm free.
Freddy's grip was too strong, and the other girl couldn't pull loose. "Cernunnos just offered to play Swap-the-Daughters, and I want to know why."
Kore tipped her chin up. "I do not understand."
"I go away to marry your brother. And in exchange my--Cernunnos gets to keep you. And I think he knows you don't mind being kept. So. What is going on?"
Kore edged toward her, face eager. "Don't you see? This will settle everything without even a war."
Freddy gaped. Her grip on the wrist slackened and fell away. "You knew what he was planning?"
"Not when Cernunnos captured you, but once he brought you here and explained things, I thought it was perfect." She beamed at Freddy, all shining teeth and bright eyes, lovelier than a flower in spring.
Freddy slapped the other girl hard across the face.
Kore whirled to the side, cradling her cheek. She caught herself on a chair back before she fell.
White-knuckling her fists but keeping them pinned to her hips, Freddy's anger flowed hot and deep. If she started swinging again, she probably wouldn't stop. "What about me? What about my life? Does it bother you at all that I'll never get to see my family or friends or anything I ever cared about again? Does that enter into this perfect plan of yours at all?"