Heir to the Underworld

by Walker, E. D.

  Cerberus growled again, and the stones vibrated beneath Freddy's sandals. Hades' helmet swung from her fingers, tempting Freddy to put it on and try to sneak past, if only to avoid the gaze of the hound's three sets of murderous eyes.

  But Deg lifted the helmet from her fingers and tucked it under his own arm. "The helmet will avail us nothing. I'm sure we reek of fear, and Cerberus would smell us if we tried to pass. In fact, I'm not certain the Helmet of Invisibility works on him at all."

  Freddy swallowed, her gut churning with fear. "So, what's the plan? I remember there are ways to get past this thing."

  "A few." He looked at her. "How is your singing voice?"

  She curled her lip in distaste. "In a word? Not good. You?"

  He shook his head. "Nothing short of the skills of Orpheus will tame the beast."

  "Hey, I remember I saw Hercules wrestling Cerberus in a movie once. Couldn't you--"

  "No."

  "What about food or something?"

  Deg scratched the back of his neck and blushed. "I forgot to bring anything."

  "So…now what?"

  He swallowed and stared at Cerberus. Drawing himself up, Deg stepped toward the hound and boomed out a very long-winded speech in Greek.

  Two of the heads paused in their snarls and turned to look at the middle one. The middle one looked back and forth between the other two, looked at Deg, then turned back, waiting. Deg, chest ridiculously puffed out, swaggered forward with confidence.

  Cerberus lunged, three ferocious maws gaping open to snap the god in two. Freddy grabbed Deg by his cloak and strained to haul him back with all her weight. Deg overbalanced and fell, dropping into the mud half on top of her with a wet splat.

  Cerberus clawed his way toward them, the center head snapping at Deg's foot. He kicked the beast hard on the muzzle before scrambling out of range. Deg sat up and drew his knees in, resting his head against them, arms hanging at his sides.

  She leaned over and shook his shoulder. "What did you say to it?"

  Deg raised his head, his face fixed in an expression of stony dignity. "I said, 'Cerberus, O Fell Hound of Tartarus, I, as Heir to this Underworld, I, Firstborn of Hades and his queen Persephone, I, Polydegmon, hereby order you to let me and my companion pass.'" Deg brushed at the front of his muddy tunic with dignity, then sighed and deflated. "It does not seem to have made much of an impression." He glowered and tapped one foot, then snapped a look her way. "What about you? Your father is a Lord of Animals. Can't you--do you not feel an affinity with Cerberus?"

  She cast an uncertain look the dog's way, but retreated another step as its three heads lunged for her. "Oh yeah. He likes me. I can tell."

  "You should be able to control him."

  "Uh-huh. Because this is the perfect time to test out my hypothetical and previously unknown powers--with a giant, three-headed, man-eating dog the size of Texas. Yup. Good plan, Deg. I'll get right on that."

  "You controlled your father's hellhounds."

  "What?"

  "Had you not noticed?"

  She shook her head, her stomach fluttering with unease. Anything that reminded her of her blood connection to Cernunnos made her vaguely nauseous.

  He shrugged. "The hellhounds are bound to serve and protect all of his bloodline. That includes you. You did not notice that they left as you ordered them to?"

  "But…the fox-fairy didn't obey me."

  "No, the Fairy Host are not bound to. Only the hellhounds are blood-bound to serve Cernunnos and his kin."

  She bit her lip and shivered. "Great. That's all I need. A pack of crazy zombie dogs lapping at my heels." She eyed Cerberus, and tried to ignore the hopeful way Deg eyed her. At last, she shook her head, her voice an agonized croak. "Deg, I can't. I--"

  "Sssh. Never mind." He pulled her against his side and squeezed. She huddled with him in the muck for one miserable minute, but then Deg's head lifted in sudden attention, like a pointer scenting prey. He hopped to his feet and extended a hand to help her stand. "Pleasant as it is to dawdle with you, if we are going to go we had better go quickly."

  "Does that mean you have a plan to get past the puppy from Hell?"

  He fished in his cloak and pulled out a dainty glass vial filled with water.

  "What is that?"

  "Water from the River Lethe."

  Anger and fear clotted in her throat, and she yanked her hand free from his. "Why do you have that?"

  Deg sighed and clasped his hand around the vial. He avoided her gaze, studying the dank ceiling of the cavern instead. "I meant to trick you into drinking it when we reached the world Above."

  "Oh, really?" Horror shivered along her nerve endings, but anger, too. How dare he? She braced her feet, squaring up to him, ready to punch him in the head if he moved toward her with the vial.

  He scowled at her. "Yes. But it will not do much good to make you forget everything if I cannot get you past the damn dog." He passed the vial to her. "Be ready."

  She stared at the glass then at Deg. "Ready?"

  "You must get that into one of Cerberus' mouths."

  Her mouth fell open in shock. "What good will that do? Why are you so obsessed with wiping everyone's memory all of a sudden?"

  A muscle in Deg's jaw ticked. He spoke with short, jerky phrases, measuring his words and, obviously, holding onto his patience with an effort. "The Lethe water works differently on magical beasts. If you can get him to drink it, he will fall into a deep sleep."

  Freddy eyed the vial, trying to compare the tiny thing to the gigantic dog she would drug. She glanced back at Deg. "What are you going to do?"

  "I will be the bait. If my Uncle Heracles could do it, why not me?"

  "Deg, wait--"

  But he'd already run over to the dog, swinging his cloak in the air and screaming. He looked like an idiot.

  A knot of fear formed in her throat. She glanced around frantically, trying to figure out a plan to give the doggy his medicine before Deg got ripped into three gory pieces.

  Deg launched himself onto Cerberus's back and reached around to lock one of the heads in a chokehold. The middle head gagged and rasped, but the other two swung around, trying to bite Deg.

  He punched one on the nose and swung his leg out to kick the other between the eyes. The dazed dog heads blinked, and the body staggered. The middle head went cross-eyed from lack of air.

  Seeing her chance, Freddy rushed toward the middle head.

  The tail swung out, flexible and muscular. The snake struck for Deg's ankle, fangs glinting. Deg kicked again and managed to knock it back, but the tail whipped around, ready to strike once more.

  Freddy slid to a halt on her knees in front of Cerberus. She uncapped the vial of water. The left head turned and snarled in her face. Foul breath and spittle splashed across her so forcefully she recoiled. The beast barked again and, seizing her chance even as her ears throbbed, Freddy splashed the waters of Lethe into the dog's mouth. Cerberus swallowed. Freddy held her breath.

  The beast growled and snapped at her fingers. She tugged her hand back and crawled to safety through the mud, her breaths coming in short, panicky rasps. Deg still held on for dear life as the hound bucked beneath him. His fingers unknotted, slipped, he sagged sideways. The right head lunged toward his side, ready to tear his flesh off.

  She ran toward him, heart in her throat, even as she feared he'd be gutted in front of her.

  Then Cerberus stopped. Stopped snapping. Stopped thrashing. Stopped waving his snakey tail about. Each set of eyes clouded over. He whined once, deep in his throat, and the whole cavern echoed with the sound.

  The hound pitched over onto his side, sound asleep and snoring. Deg dodged the falling body and rolled away to avoid being crushed. The snaky tail thumped the ground once then stilled, its forked tongue lolling out.

  Freddy grabbed Deg. He was filthy, his tunic torn, his side bloody and his whole body splattered with clingy black mud. Freddy looked no better. Deg stumbled and put a shaking hand
to his head.

  She made him lean on her shoulder. "Come on."

  "We have to get to the River Styx and catch the ferry." Deg fell down again.

  Tired and aching, she hauled him up by his soggy tunic. "Ferry?"

  "Charon's ferry." Limping past Cerberus at last, Deg leaned on her and she held tight to his waist.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Charon was a ragged old man in a voluminous cloak that might once have been black. Now, the man and his mantle were both a shabby, faded gray. Freddy stood with Deg on the shore of another great river.

  "The Styx," Deg said. "The River of Hate."

  The river's name seemed appropriate to Freddy. That she had to cross the Styx to get out was just about right, because, boy, she was sure starting to hate the Underworld.

  The Styx seemed as different from the Lethe as night from day. The Lethe had been a deep, healthy green, brimming with life and beauty, the Styx was a muddy expanse of dead gray sludge. Freddy waited at the landward end of a rickety black dock while Deg addressed the ferryman in soft-toned Greek.

  Charon grunted something and thrust out a palm. Deg rolled his eyes.

  "What is it?" Freddy called.

  Deg looked back at her over his shoulder. "He wants a bribe. Technically speaking, only my father can order him to take someone back." Deg muttered something. Judging by the violence with which he said it, he was cussing.

  "How much does he want?"

  "Ten times the normal fare. It is our good fortune the normal fare has not gone up in five centuries." Deg fished in a pocket of his cloak. He pulled out a money pouch and weighed it in his hand.

  Charon's murky gray eyes shone, he licked his parched, cracked mouth and said something to Deg in Greek.

  Deg chuckled and tossed Charon the pouch, then turned back to get Freddy. Taking her by the elbow, he helped her into the rocking ferryboat. The ferryboat tipped and pitched. She gripped Deg's arm to keep her balance.

  "I will not let you fall."

  "I know. I trust you, Deg." She smiled at him.

  Charon snickered.

  Freddy cleared her throat and dropped her voice low. "I thought he only understood Greek."

  "No, Charon understands all the languages of man that have ever come and gone in all the ages of the world."

  "But he only speaks Greek?"

  Deg shrugged. "After the fall of the Roman Empire, there did not seem to him to be much point in bothering with the rest."

  Charon grunted his agreement as he lifted his oar and pushed away from the landing. The ferryman fell into a steady rhythm of push and pull as he transported them across the dead gray river.

  Deg settled in the opposite end of the boat from Charon and held his arms out to Freddy. She went to him and snuggled into his lap, accepting the comfort of his arms. He wrapped his cloak around her and himself then leaned back, sighing in contentment as he closed his eyes. With the stench of the river, she could almost ignore her own forceful stink. Deg's, too.

  Freddy stared at him, her brow furrowing with worry. "Deg--" She gulped as her voice echoed and filled the cavern. She glanced around then whispered, "Won't they come after me?"

  He sighed. "I will not lie to you. Clymenus might. But I trust your watchdog will get you away safe."

  Freddy jerked her chin up, sensing a 'but'. "And you?"

  "Me?"

  "Won't you be in trouble? You're breaking the truce. Isn't this going to ruin everything?" She sat up and faced him. "What will your father do to you?"

  "Maybe nothing. Maybe--" He broke off and shook his head. "I do not know what Hades may do. As for everything else, that is not your concern. I know Clymenus will be furious. The treaty with Cernunnos will be voided, most likely." His hands cupped her face and, despite the grim situation, he glowed with pleasure, apparently just because he was looking at her. Freddy warmed, even in her soggy, stinking clothes. "I find I do not care about any of that as long as I can get you safely away from this mess." He kept his gaze locked on hers. "Even if it does mean I will never see you again."

  Freddy shook her head in violent denial, her heart fluttering with alarm. "It doesn't have to mean that."

  Deg's fingers traced down her cheek to brush over the line of her jaw. "Ah, my Amazon, from my first entrance into your life I have been nothing but a burden and a danger to you. Will it not be a relief to go back to your normal life? To see the last of me and all my kind?"

  Her gut clenched, a sour taste of misery in the back of her throat. "Of course. A big relief. Why wouldn't it be?"

  "Do not pretend you have been happy since all this started."

  "You know I haven't." She shifted so she could look him full in the face. "But once you get me back home, I don't see why you can't visit. Sometimes. If you wanted…"

  He squeezed her, his arm solid and strong around her body, easing some of the fear-filled shaking in her limbs. "I want to. You do not know how tempted I am, but I cannot endanger you. If I know where your watchdog hides you, others could use that knowledge to find you and drag you back into their twisted games. I cannot risk that. I will not."

  She gave him an ironic, unfelt smile. "It's so nice to be popular."

  Deg winced.

  She ran her thumb over the sculpted lines of his cheekbone. "Even if you can't promise me everything will be all right, can you promise me you will be?"

  Deg hesitated. "Ye-es."

  She let her hand fall and put on her best Stern Face, trying to intimidate him into telling the truth. "Are you lying?"

  "Yes." Deg slumped. "Everything depends on my father. He may be overjoyed at an opportunity to go to war with the stag and get Kore back. Or he may think I betrayed him. Short of him chopping me up and feeding me to Cerberus, the worst he could do is exile me from the Underworld. And Mother would always take me in."

  "But you love the Underworld." Freddy shifted to her knees. The boat rocked, but she ignored it. "Besides, Mt. Olympus gives you hives, doesn't it?"

  Deg laughed outright, but stifled the noise with one hand, pinching tears from his eyes as he grinned at her. "The upper gods and the denizens of the Underworld do not mix well or often. But if I do face exile, I would at least still be able to see most of my family on the mountain."

  "Exile?" Her breath seemed sucked away, leaving her chest aching and empty. "I can't let you do this. I can't." She whipped around, frenzied now. "Charon, take us back."

  Deg grabbed her elbows. She turned back to him, trembling with guilty urgency. She'd been cut off from her whole world for a few days and already hated it more than enough to know she wouldn't inflict that on anyone. Especially not someone she cared about. Not now. Not ever. Not for anything. "Take me back. You're not ruining your life for me. I don't want that." Freddy wiped at her eyes with her thumbs, swiping her tears away.

  He took over drying the tears with gentle fingers.

  Charon muttered something over his bony shoulder from the front of the boat.

  Deg nodded to the ferryman and looked back at her. "Charon says we're more than halfway across the Styx already. He won't turn back now. If we want another ride, it will cost us. You don't want me to have spent all that money to get us to the other shore for nothing."

  "Deg--"

  "Freddy, it is done. I sealed my fate as soon as I stole you from the villa. If we go back, it would make things worse. For everyone."

  Freddy crumpled against the boat, heart-sore and sick for what she'd done to Deg's life. "This sucks."

  "For you, at least, there will be a happy end. We're nearly there."

  The other shore was a thin line of gray light in the distance. Freddy blinked. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people gathered on the opposite shore. She gripped Deg's arm.

  He followed her gaze and smiled reassurance. "Do not worry about them. They are dead."

  "Oh. Okay. Dead." Freddy looked at Deg. "How is that supposed to make me feel better?"

  "They will not harm us." Deg's voice assumed a
lecturing-tone. "Those are the unwanted dead. Their loved ones did not bury them with Charon's fare--one coin in the mouth. Charon does not take anyone to the Underworld who cannot pay him."

  "How long do they have to wait?"

  "Wait? Well…forever. Some of them have been here since the burning of Troy. Without the coins they can never cross."

  She shook her head, trying to rattle the information into some kind of sense. "So…they just have to stand there forever staring at somewhere they'll never be able to go?"

  Deg looked startled by her reaction. "Yes. That is how it has always been done. You cannot expect Charon to make exceptions. He has to earn a living somehow."

  Freddy looked at Charon and reflected that the term "living" didn't seem to apply too much. "I guess I get his part in this. But why doesn't anyone else do something? Your father? You?"

  Deg grimaced. "These people had no one who cared enough about them to bury them with due rites. It is not our responsibility."

  Angry and offended, Freddy yanked herself away from him. "Why does it matter whether anyone cared about them when they were alive? It's your job to care for them now they're dead, isn't it? They're your subjects right? I mean, you are the Prince of the Dead--"

  "I am Heir to the Underworld. Though even that stands in jeopardy--"

  "A monarch owes it to his people to do right by them." She rose to her feet, tipping a little in the boat. She planted her fists on her waist and managed a respectable glare.

  He would not meet her gaze. "I am trying my hardest to do right by you, Frederica Fitzgerald. And for now, you are problem enough--"

  "Thank you so much--"

  He grabbed her and pulled her back down to his level, his face intent, his eyes anguished. "Why can you not just be grateful and worry about yourself? You are not out of danger yet, and you are the only responsibility I care for now. I am trying to keep you from being forced to live your life in a land you hate with a man you do not trust, and I risk much to do so. Think about that. Remember that before you begin to scold me for neglecting the dead."