Heir to the Underworld

by Walker, E. D.

~~~

  Freddy woke the next morning with bright light searing through the insides of her eyelids. Moaning, she oozed back into her pillows.

  "Not today. You already slept through the morning. Wake up." Slim fingers fastened around Freddy's arms and dragged her from her bed's lush embrace. She stared blearily at the gaggle of fairy women, led by Kore, who had invaded her hut.

  "Wha--"

  With no words of warning, they descended on her en masse, stripping Freddy to her skin with practiced, economical movements before she'd even half-awoke. Head foggy with sleep, she found herself hoping they were, indeed, fairy women. Some of them were shaped along such untraditional lines it was hard to tell.

  Keeping her head down, Freddy tried not to count how many strangers there were in the room as the women scrubbed at her body with a cloying, flowery-scented soap. They led her to a bucket of water, knee-high and freezing. Stomping her feet to stay in motion, she tried to hug herself warm, but the ruthless attendants pulled her arms away to soap and rinse them. She set her teeth as the next bucketful of water cascaded over her. "Kore."

  Kore glanced over from the selection of gowns she had sorted onto Freddy's bed. "Yes?"

  "Wh--what is this?"

  Kore's eyes widened. "They didn't tell you?" She tsked and walked toward the bath. "Today we hold the betrothal ceremony. You leave tonight to live with your in-laws."

  Freddy gulped. Just how far could her stomach plummet? It was hula hooping somewhere in the vicinity of her knees and falling fast now. "Tonight? I'm getting married tonight?" She'd hoped for more time. If not to plan an escape, at least to get her head to bend around the idea of marriage. To Deg. Being married. To Deg. Married.

  Kore waved her hand. "No. No. The sponsalia is tonight. It's May." She giggled. "Bad luck to get married in May."

  Freddy jerked her head to look at Kore. "Really?"

  "Certainly." Kore gave a brisk nod. "My Uncle Zeus says so."

  Freddy could not keep her eyes from widening at the casual name-dropping of the friggin' king of the Greek Gods.

  Uncle Zeus? This is my life now? Seriously?

  She bit her lip to keep from saying anything. The handmaidens rubbed her down with thin, coarse towels, and one of them grazed her neck. She winced at this touch on her new bruises and scratches. Memories of last night broke to the surface. Freddy tugged Kore to her. "Why did Morrígan attack me?"

  Kore's hand spasmed open. She dropped the gown she had been holding, then made a flustered bend to retrieve it. Casting a wary glance at the handmaids ringing them round, she dropped her voice. "Many thousands of years ago your father spared a warrior the Morrígan would have taken. She found out about this when they were but newly married. The Tuatha and the Wild Hunt were a breath away from all out war, but her sisters made the Morrígan see sense. She returned to Cernunnos, and things settled between them. Until you were born." Kore twisted the dress in her fists. "Your birth made the Morrígan remember your father's old betrayal. She demanded he even the tally by sacrificing you in her honor."

  Freddy shivered and clutched a towel as the handmaids helped her out of her tub. She swallowed, not sure she wanted to know all of this, any of this, but she met Kore's eyes. "Is that what the scars on my back are from? Cernunnos--he knew about them. I figure they must have happened before we left here."

  Kore nodded. "One night the Morrígan went after you with her sisters. She was in her crow form. She…used her talons. Cernunnos sent you and your mother away after that."

  Freddy reached back to touch the series of silvery scars, her mouth dry as she traced the small lines, realizing just how much she didn't know about her family. About herself. Staring into that well of thought made her dizzy, so she changed the subject. "What did Cernunnos do to Morrígan to piss her off the first time?"

  "It is a long story." Kore wet her lips and eyed Freddy. "Do you know of the hero Cúchulainn?"

  Freddy shook her head. Not something her teacher had covered in English class.

  Kore turned and tossed the dress in a pile with the others. She tucked her legs under her on the bed and began her tale in a reverent, resonant tone, as if she were telling a spooky story at a campfire. The only things missing were low lights and a flashlight shoved under her chin. "Cúchulainn was a great Irish hero many centuries ago, the son of a god and a mortal princess. That is him: Cúchulainn, the Hound of Ulster." Kore pointed to Freddy's favorite tapestry on her wall.

  The tapestry was a long portrait, one of the few in her room Freddy could stand staring at for any length of time. Scrutinizing the young warrior, Freddy had to admit in any century Cúchulainn would have been a good-looking guy. His hair was long and golden blond, braided at the sides, the rest pulled away with a golden cuff at the nape of his neck. He leaned against a long spear with a barbed end, a wry grin on his face with a hint of dimples low on his cheeks. His robes were long, a golden red plaid draped across his shoulders and back, pale cream leggings wrapped around his muscular legs. He had a long mustache growing past his chin, which looked a little silly. His nose reminded her of Dad's a bit, too large, but definitely not ugly. He looked very young in the painting, a few years older than Freddy maybe. His eyes were a pale blue-gray and glinted in self-satisfied assurance.

  Oh, yeah, Cúchulainn was good-looking all right, and he would probably have been the first one to tell you so.

  Kore cleared her throat and looked away from the picture. "The Morrígan wanted to take him as her lover. He refused her--an unpardonable crime. The Morrígan promised him death for the offense. She connived with her sisters to make it so."

  Freddy's mouth went dry with sympathetic fear. Morrígan was one scary lady. Her nerves prickled, and she sensed however Cúchulainn's story would end, it wasn't going to be happy. Freddy flinched in surprise as her maids suddenly slathered her all over with sweet-smelling oils. The oil was slightly warm, though, and their hands were gentle, so some of her itching uneasiness burned away. Her skin certainly shone, silky to the touch when they helped her into her under things, then sat her down to begin dressing her hair.

  Kore twitched at the pile of gowns and pulled one out to examine a small tear. She worried at the hole and plucked more strands free as she continued her tale. "One day on his way to a great battle, Cúchulainn crossed a river ford where an old woman was doing her washing. He drew closer and saw she was not washing her own clothing, but his--"

  The washerwoman outside my room. I didn't imagine her. "His clothes were covered in blood." Freddy blurted out. Hairpins flying, Freddy whipped her head around to face Kore, while her maids cursed her with pagan tongues.

  Kore looked up from the gown she'd nearly shred to pieces. "You know this part?"

  "It seems familiar. Go on." Morrígan, you bitch. You evil, evil bitch. Freddy set her teeth, swallowing fury with a hard choke that left her gut as unsettled as rancid food. She very carefully settled her body into stillness so her maids could repair her hairdo, and so she wouldn't lash out in sheer, howling frustration.

  "Cúchulainn approached the hag to ask what she did. The hag looked at him with empty red eyes. 'I am washing the clothes of Cúchulainn, who will soon be dead and gone.'" Kore intoned in a low voice then shivered at the effect. She looked at Freddy, her eyes wide. "The washer at the ford is a death omen, a powerful one. Cúchulainn knew his death was nigh.

  "Cúchulainn continued on the road to the battle alone, knowing he went to certain death but determined to end in glory. The battle was fierce, his enemies consumed with hatred for the great warrior. He was stabbed by his own barbed spear, but cut it out of his own body to keep fighting. His entrails poured out, a river of blood and guts, but he longed to die honorably. In battle. He ordered his men to tie him to a rock so he could die standing. He fought on for several hours, killing many foes. It was only after the Morrígan as the white raven landed on his shoulder in triumph that his friends despaired and knew he was dead."

  Freddy shook her head, trying to control her
overwhelming desire to find Morrígan and bitch-slap her. "How does Cernunnos come in?"

  "The Morrígan's victory complete, she let the enemy take Cúchulainn's head and hands. She plucked his eyes out for herself, but did not linger. Even though she had brought on his death, she could not help but feel it was a terrible waste."

  Freddy looked over to the tapestry of the smiling young man and imagined him bleeding and dying. Holding his guts in with one hand while he fended enemies off with the other to save the land, the people, the life he loved. Of him begging his men to tie him to a rock just so he could keep fighting for their freedom. Admiration stirred within her for the fallen warrior, and she hated Morrígan even more for engineering his death. "It wasn't a waste. It was evil."

  "Yes. Your father thought so, too." Kore crept closer, and Freddy leaned forward to hear her, earning another curse from her agitated handmaidens.

  Kore pressed her hand. "Cernunnos removed Cúchulainn's spirit from his body and offered a deal--if Cúchulainn agreed to serve your father and ride in the Wild Hunt, then he could continue living--after a fashion. He would have a physical form again, and walk in the mortal lands as a man."

  Freddy's throat went dry. "Cúchulainn took the deal?"

  "Yes, and the Morrígan never knew. She thought Cúchulainn safely killed and gone to the realm of the dead. Your father guarded carefully his new huntsman's true identity. The Morrígan and Cernunnos did not have much contact until they married."

  "Yeah. About that. Cernunnos doesn't seem all too keen on the crazy. So why did he marry Morrígan?"

  Kore smirked. "Your father is not, technically speaking, one of Danu's people. He traveled another road, leading the Wild Hunt, gathering fey folk and fairies to his banner, the desolate and broken, punishing the wicked and unwary mortals who crossed his path. His power was such that as the Morrígan and the others' powers waned, they sought his help. They crave belief, sacrifice. Cernunnos needs only fear. He accepted them under his banner, sharing his bounty. But in exchange they had to make him their king. And to be truly king, he needed to wed one of them."

  "So that's why with the scary, evil wife?"

  Kore laughed behind her hand. "A political marriage, yes. These are not unheard of in your world nowadays?"

  Freddy started to shrug then stopped herself at several dirty looks from her handmaids. "Other countries, yeah. All the time. Not in America so much. At least, not that people would admit to. We're supposed to marry for love--or not at all." She smoothed the folds of her underskirts to cover her legs and tried not to think about the circumstances leading to her own sale. Marriage. Whatever.

  Thinking about it only made something cramp deep in Freddy's gut, a churning grief that would have had her howling in a ball on the floor if she didn't keep it locked tight. But the effort to rein in that emotion compressed her muscles, bunching them in painful knots all over.

  Kore lifted a vibrant blue dress with a patterned skirt and held it against herself, sighing. "Gods marry for power, for procreation. Sometimes it starts out as love, but after eons and eons together it contorts into something less savory, convenience or contempt at best. Loathing and hate at worst. My parents are comfortable together, but one could never mistake them for lovers. They thought to marry me to a god from another pantheon, to consolidate power and build alliances. It seemed a fine plan to me."

  Freddy winced at Kore's offhanded tone. If Cernunnos wasn't blackmailing me, I'd be kicking and screaming until my face turned blue. Kore's seeming acceptance of a similar fate itched under Freddy's skin, making her squirm with a vague unease she had no name for. "You didn't want to choose for yourself?"

  Kore shrugged. "It would not have been a stranger or someone I could not tolerate. My parents would have found someone suitable. All the gods from the large pantheons are acquainted. We have great feasts and bacchanals and everyone invites everyone." Kore gave a twirl, the blue gown still pinned to her with one hand. It spun out with her own skirts, a rainbow of blues and pale green. "My youngest brother married not long ago and the Celts were invited." Kore flushed. "Cernunnos couldn't take his eyes off me. I did not give it any thought until a few weeks later when he kidnapped me." She shook her head. "He brought me here, and I was so furious and scared. I begged him to take me home."

  Freddy's skin crawled. She kept her voice flat. "What changed?"

  Kore glanced over, cheeks flushed, eyes bright. "He allows me to be what I am. Do what I wish. You do not know what a heady drug it is to be allowed to be yourself for the first time in centuries. No weaving. No prim propriety. I can ride and shoot and drink and laugh and talk and--Frederica, you cannot even begin to understand the joy of this freedom for me."

  "No. I can't. Not now." Frederica stiffened her spine and softened her voice. "Can I?"

  Kore bit her lip and didn't meet her gaze. Awkwardness prevailed for a moment, then Kore snatched one of the dresses and whipped it out toward Freddy. "I think the blue dress. The red last night looked a bit much with your hair."

  Freddy shook her head, too drained and uncaring to argue about anything. "Whatever you say."

  ~~~

  The preparations with Freddy's gown and hair claimed the better part of the afternoon. They redid her hair twice and adjusted the hem of her skirt more times than she cared to contemplate.

  The fifty-foot tall woman strikes again.

  Dozens of veils were pinned to her hair, to be discarded after they didn't match the gown or clashed with her hair, or failed to lay right or…the ruthless efficiency of the morning had been replaced with a contagious anxiety. Everything had to be perfect according to Kore.

  Freddy didn't care. The longer they took, the longer she had to get used to the idea her whole life teetered now on the edge of forever.

  The thought of being married to Deg seemed so alien, so outside of what she could even understand. The farthest she'd yet coaxed her mind was to imagine what the wedding night might be like, bringing a warm flush all through her body, which she attributed to the heat.

  But Deg had lied. A lot. He'd only been using her to get to Cernunnos, to find Kore. Freddy couldn't blame him for doing whatever he could to find his sister--she would have done the same.

  Of course, she wouldn't have gone about trying to suck any secrets out through his face. She wouldn't have let him think she had feelings for him when she didn't.

  Or was this haphazard marriage his way of showing his feelings? Marriage seemed a bit much after a few make out sessions, however steamy.

  Freddy could deal with all of this stuff--okay, some of this stuff--better if she could find out what Deg was thinking.

  Kore tugged a fold of sky blue veil into place over Freddy's hair. "There. You're ready. Time to go to your future husband."

  The horror in Freddy's gut set up a low, silent scream that shivered from head to toe in a vibrating tension along her nerves. Two of the handmaidens lifted Freddy's dark blue train. The rest of the helpers fell in step behind Kore and Freddy. The sun had set, and lit torches flickered around all the buildings, the settlement a glowing necklace of bright jewels in the dark.

  Freddy set one foot in front of the other, her dread of this marriage as heavy a weight dragging behind her as surely as the train of her skirt. She kept her head down and tried not to look to either side. Cernunnos' people cheered and clapped, waving flowers and leaves wrapped round with ribbons, throwing walnuts and grain at her feet.

  Freddy sucked in several quick breaths and pinched her eyes closed, trying to bolster herself. I can do this. I have to. For Mom. For Dad.

  She pulled all her trailing, ragged emotions in, pushed them down deep in her chest, and pressed it closed. Hardness settled over her face, into her heart. She pasted an insincere smile on her lips and stared around the assembled mob with brittle cheer. Kore urged her forward and Freddy glided on with a dignity suitable to a goddess--or half of one, anyway.

  Cernunnos met her at the last turn before the banquet round. He stud
ied her then smiled approval at Kore. The former Maiden of Spring flushed with pleasure and stepped back to yield her place next to Freddy. Cernunnos hauled Freddy forward by her arm.

  A long dais, decorated with garlands and bright colored ribbons, had been set up where the bonfire had been before in the heart of the clearing. Elegantly dressed gods and goddesses waited. Morrígan sat at the end of the table, almost gleaming in the failing sunlight. Everyone rose as Freddy and Cernunnos approached.

  She scanned the long table and the surrounding crowd, but Deg hadn't arrived. His half-brother Clymenus rose on the dais and smiled at her. She smiled absently back at him and continued looking around for Deg.

  The stag-god handed her onto the dais. Clymenus' hands, as they clasped hers, were damp with sweat. Cernunnos stepped behind Freddy, and the two men faced the swarming crowd pressed against the dais. Cernunnos raised his hands for silence and the crowd obeyed instantly.

  Clymenus kept hold of Freddy's hand. She was too distracted trying to find Deg to pull it away.

  Cernunnos began a long-winded speech about how grateful he was they were all there on this happy day, how proud he was of his beauteous daughter to be matched so well, blah, blah. Freddy stopped listening.

  She frowned in sudden anxiety, and began for the fifth or sixth time to scrutinize every face in the crowd, every alley letting onto the clearing. Deg was pushing it if Cernunnos had already started the speech. Big entrances were one thing, but missing the whole ceremony--

  "And now in front of all you witnesses," Cernunnos intoned with formal gravity, "I give my daughter, Frederica, to Clymenus, son of Hades, in marriage and for the production of legitimate children."

  Freddy whipped around to stare at him as her mouth fell open in simple, stupid shock. I'm marrying Clymenus?

  Clymenus turned to her and beamed. "And I consent that in two days time I shall take your daughter as my bride."

  Chapter Fourteen

  A long pause followed Clymenus' vow. Obviously, it was Freddy's turn to say something, but she could barely breathe, let alone speak. Blind panic had gripped her throat in a stranglehold tighter than Morrígan could ever have managed. Clymenus nodded bright encouragement. Cernunnos nudged her hard enough in the ribs she staggered, and the stag-god prompted her through his teeth, "And I consent…"