"Thank you," Mom said.
Freddy nodded, confused but grudgingly grateful for Cernunnos' help. She still hurried Mom on, deeper into the camp and away from Cernunnos. Far away. Where her mom was concerned, Freddy didn't trust Cernunnos as far as she could throw him.
~~~
The Helmet of Invisibility was a very useful thing to have when baiting a trap. The Helmet enabled Polydegmon to dispatch the first guard when he came into the hut.
Displacing one of the goons out front from his post had taken a bit of doing--five whole minutes of Colin moaning, groaning, and finally whining outright for a drink of water.
The guard ducked into the hut and lunged for Colin with murder in his eye. Colin winced away from the inevitable beating. Polydegmon, unseen, slung his arm around the guard's neck and choked him with ease to unconsciousness.
Colin was too torn up to help, so it fell to Polydegmon to strip off the guard's uniform and divvy his weapons between Colin and himself. Polydegmon stripped the guard's uniform and passed his borrowed sweat pants and T-shirt back to their rightful owner. Colin was naked, and Polydegmon would wager the Hound's own clothes were warmer and more comfortable than the guard's reeking uniform. The clothes Colin had arrived with in the Otherworld were now bloody rags in a heap.
The fairy guard's feathery tunic was greasy and pungent. The kilt was a welcome change from confining modern clothes. Airy. Polydegmon lifted the cloth and smudged a layer of grime into his hair and all over his face to better blend in with the camp's population. He tied the guard's weapons in place for himself and helped Colin secure his. Although how Colin expected to handle a weapon when he couldn't stand was beyond Polydegmon's comprehension.
Colin held Hades' helmet and eyed it with a profound reverence Polydegmon could appreciate. Colin cast one dubious look his way. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Polydegmon scratched at his cheek thoughtfully. His nail came away black, and he wiped it against his kilt with a sigh. "I kidnapped your daughter out of my father's Underworld, thereby violating my father's trust, the codes of my people, and the treaty between Cernunnos and my family. How much worse can my predicament become?"
"You're right." Colin shot him a rueful smile, tinged with respect. With gratitude.
Polydegmon ducked his head away, proud, embarrassed, and depressed all at once as he watched the Hound put on the helmet.
His partial satisfaction was very short-lived. After only a moment, his sister walked in with a plate of food in her arms. The other guard trailed in her wake.
Kore dropped the plate with a shriek and a loud crash. She stared at Polydegmon then, after a moment, she composed her delicate face into some semblance of dignity. "Hello, brother."
"Little sister." He gave her a mocking bow.
The guard behind her lurched forward. He clawed at his throat and gasped, falling to his knees as if under a great weight. The guard collapsed, and Polydegmon fetched Kore to him to keep the lout from pinning her to the ground as he fell. Kore drew in her breath for a scream, but Polydegmon slipped a hand over her mouth before the sound could come out. She shrilled her displeasure in a muffled shriek under his hand. "Be still." He tried to scold like Father but found only moderate success. Kore did cease her struggle, but it was with an eye roll and a snort.
The Hound appeared before their eyes, the helmet tucked under his arm. Kore trilled indignantly under Polydegmon's hand.
Colin looked pale and had collapsed against the wall near the guard. "I guess I'm in no shape…to…take down guards…right now…" He grimaced when he tried to stand.
Polydegmon released Kore and helped hoist Colin to his feet. The other man sagged as a dead weight against him, barely able even to cling to Polydegmon's shoulders. Polydegmon could have screamed with vexation. "Kore, I live in perpetual shock no one has yet murdered you."
Kore shoved the back of his shoulder. "What did I do?" She fumed, but a second later, her eyes slid toward Colin. "Brother, what do you do here?"
Polydegmon glowered at the floor, at Colin, at Kore and finally, forcefully, at the ceiling. "By Zeus's beard, can nothing I do go right?"
~~~
One good thing about Cernunnos' interference--it had gotten them disguises. Badb and Nemain were still out cold when Mom and Freddy stumbled upon them in the wreckage of the hut on the fringes of the camp. Mom looked at Freddy for a long speculative moment. "I'll take Badb. Black's not your color, Fred."
With efficient speed, Mom stripped off Badb's feathery cloak and Freddy tugged off the heavy, coarse woolen dress Nemain wore. Badb's outfit fell too long and dragged on the ground behind Mom. Freddy kept itching at her gown and having to hitch the bodice back in place. Nemain had been rather well-endowed in the chest area. Freddy looked at Mom. "Will we pass?"
Mom's brow knit in worry and fear, but she nodded anyway. "We'll have to, won't we?" She grimaced and plucked a bit of lake weed out of Freddy's hair.
Freddy knit her arm through Mom's. Together they marched into Cernunnos'--into Morrígan's--camp.
Freddy and her mom looked enough like the two goddesses to pass casual inspection, but pushing the good luck was so not an option so she hurried Mom along.
"Where will the prisoner hut be?" Freddy hissed through her teeth.
"Just around here." Mom turned one last corner, Freddy hard on her heels then Mom paused, trying to look like a relaxed loiterer instead of an interested observer. It was all Freddy could do to stay standing with the tension roiling through her.
"You sure this is it?"
"Yes."
"No guards?"
"Your boy has been gone for more than half an hour. I would hope he could dispatch two guards with all that time on his hands."
Freddy looked at Mom's pinched and nervous face. Mom would never pass for Badb, not looking like that. Freddy glanced around the street, but it was empty. "Mom, if Morrígan and her backup singers show, will you let me set something on fire?"
"Frederica--"
Freddy waved her down. "Never mind. Come on. We might not get another shot at this." She towed Mom across the street to duck into the prisoner hut.
Deg jumped as she entered. He flicked his dagger out.
"Deg," Freddy gasped and almost fell into his arms in relief. She would have except for the dagger he had just drawn. She eased back into the entrance. "Is this a bad time?"
Deg grinned and sheathed his knife, drawing her close with one arm.
Mom knelt on the floor by Dad and smoothed back the ragged blond hair from his face. He traced the planes of her face with one fingertip. They didn't say a word to each other and didn't seem to need to.
Deg distracted Freddy, admiring her gown, a glint in his eye that made her forget how cold and clammy she was. He plucked at her sleeve. "What's the occasion?"
"We ran into some old friends." Freddy crinkled her nose and recoiled as a massive stench overpowered her. "Did you happen to roll in a dung heap while we were gone?"
Deg flashed a rakish smile and held her close. "Fairies, like certain woodland creatures, believe the more pungent you are the better to attract the fairer sex."
"I just hope the lake water washes some of the stink off you."
Deg wrapped his other arm around her as she tried to squirm away from the smell. "Ah, Frederica, it warms my heart to hear you express your gratitude so eloquently. And in such a heartfelt, moving manner. I am so honored I was able to risk my life to save you and your family…just to hear you tell me I stink."
"Shucks, Deg, I am grateful. Really, truly, deeply grateful." She pushed at his chest to keep him back. "But, darlin', that don't change the fact you smell like crap." Deg kissed her hard on the mouth and part of her melted with feeling while the rest of her held its breath.
"Beg pardon," he murmured when he pulled back. "I have never yet learned the trick to resisting a woman who insults me."
She held her breath and leaned into his shoulder. "Don't start." His laugh rumble
d against her ear, and Freddy let herself unwind in his arms. The world, the danger they were in--even the fact he'd become Mr. Bog of Eternal Stench--faded out.
Kore stepped forward. "Well, brother, I'll leave you to your madness."
Deg released Freddy to grab his sister back, his face suddenly taut with tension. "No. Come with us."
Kore tried to yank her arm free, but she wasn't strong enough. "I cannot." She looked sad, resigned.
"Kore, for once in your immortality admit you have made an error and let me help you--"
"No." One hard jerk and she'd freed herself. Freddy edged closer, in between Kore and the exit. Kore's eyes were on Deg, and she didn't notice.
Freddy leaned toward the street. An unsettled murmur floated in the sounds of the camp.
"Freddy," Mom called. Dad had lost consciousness somewhere in the middle of the family disagreement, and Mom was bent double under his dead weight.
Freddy pushed Kore out of the way and brushed by Deg en route to her dad. Freddy lifted most of Dad's dead weight off Mom's shoulder and onto her own, but sharing the weight was very awkward--awkward and slow going, which is so not what was needed for a speedy get away. She tossed a glare over her shoulder at Deg. "Little help?"
Deg twitched his head back at her to show he'd heard, but at the moment his attention was all for his sister. Kore had a clear shot at the door. He held his hand out to his sister, palm up like a beggar. "Kore, come with us."
For one moment, all of Kore's energy seemed to surge toward him in acceptance.
One moment only, though, then she fell back.
Deg's fingers curled into his palm like the death spasm of a very long-legged spider. Everything in him wilted and dimmed. Kore's refusal was the final betrayal, the final failure to complete his dishonor. This moment twisted Freddy's own heart so hard she gasped at the sting of it.
She looked at Kore, who had conspired to start this whole mess. Freddy surged toward Kore with a snarled, "Forget this." She moved past Deg. He grabbed for her, but Freddy shrugged him off. "Listen, Kore. It's your fault Deg got dragged away from his normal life and plunged into a world of misery. It's your fault I got kidnapped and married to that ass Clymenus. It's your fault my dad got tortured today. And now, it is your fault we are all here on this screwed up rescue mission to save his life. So just shut up, suck it up, and go with your stupid brother."
Kore stared at the floor and worried at her lower lip with her teeth. "I'm staying."
"Okay. Fine." Freddy nodded. "Now what, Deg?" She turned back to look at him, then swung around all at once to clip Kore on the jaw. Freddy's knuckle popped open and bled. The pain felt good all the same, satisfying, because Kore had had that coming for a long time. Kore crumpled, and Freddy lifted the other girl onto her own shoulders. She turned to Deg. "I'll take Kore if you can carry my dad to the lake. Okay?"
Mom shook her head. "They'll catch us."
Freddy adjusted Kore's weight on her shoulders. "Might I suggest it is time for that last ditch distraction?"
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Deg summoned a flame from his fingertips after a few tries. The prisoner hut's thatch roof caught fire quite easily, and Freddy backed away with the others to watch it consume the building with greedy speed.
The small fire served as a distraction well enough. Lots of smoke, not too much danger. As soon as the smoke rose high enough for the alarm to circle round the camp, Mom let out a blood-curdling shriek. She slipped on Deg's helmet and led the way out of camp.
Freddy tucked her skirt up so it wouldn't trip her and hoisted the unconscious Kore back into place on her shoulders. "Are we ready?"
Deg lifted her dad and nodded.
Screams and hollers started all round the camp. Nothing like a fire to put the fear of third degree burns into a god.
Freddy and Deg ran. She sobbed and screamed about all the smoke Kore had inhaled as part of the diversion. Deg tripped along like a drunken man and wailed convincingly about Dad's burns and many injuries. The crowd forming to put out the fire ignored the clamor, as Freddy and Deg trotted out of the camp with the others.
Kore got heavier every minute. Not just from sheer poundage. Freddy's guilt weighed her down. Freddy had been taken away from the place she thought of as home, and she'd hated it. And now I'm doing it to Kore.
No. I'm taking Kore back where she belongs, where she'll be safer--but that still didn't make it right to Freddy's heart. Even the grateful looks Deg cast her way didn't ease Freddy's guilt over kidnapping Kore like this.
The sounds of some sort of pursuit, which Freddy tried to ignore, became louder behind her. Cutting into the woods, Freddy was the first to meet up with Mom at the lakeshore, Deg only a few feet behind.
Mom waited for them, knee deep in the lake water. She wasted no time in greetings, just started the chants as soon as Freddy came into sight. Mom helped Deg tow a barely conscious Dad into the lake. Deg hauled Dad along with him in the water. Mom swam back to help Freddy get Kore through.
Freddy and her mom submerged themselves, but Kore jolted awake. She thrashed away and gasped in a mouthful of water. Kore sank under. One white hand fluttered above the surface before it descended.
Freddy swam after her. She cursed herself, and Kore all the way out, but even a stupid, selfish whiner like Kore didn't deserve to drown. Freddy dodged the goddess' underwater kicks and grabbed her arm. She tugged her back to the surface for more air and broke through with Kore to gulp greedy breaths in. Once Kore wasn't so frantic, Freddy smoothed her own wet hair back and scowled.
Kore didn't notice. She had stopped struggling and just bobbed in the lake water to stare past Freddy, back at the shoreline.
Freddy sighed, certain from the horrified look on Kore's face, she didn't want to see what the young goddess was looking at. Freddy turned to look anyway.
Morrígan and all her unwholesome host were assembled, nasty weapons in their hands and nastier looks on their faces. Cernunnos was nowhere to be seen. Morrígan smiled.
Freddy raised an eyebrow at Kore. "Do you want to go back to that?"
Kore dove under the water.
"Damn straight." Freddy shivered and followed the other girl back under.
~~~
Polydegmon had lived a long time. A very long time, in point of fact.
His body had never seemed as old as it did now. He ached in every part of himself, and a tightness had taken root in his chest, making his breaths labored for a time, leaving a residual tension even once his breathing evened out.
He had made it out of the Otherworld with Colin, and made it back to his car from the water. The dam stood empty, the car all alone in the long parking lot. Polydegmon sat in the driver's seat with the door open. His feet rested on the ground, his elbows on his knees, his hands fisted in his hair. The chill breeze whipped through the air and stung against his wet skin.
Freddy's guard dog had stretched out in the back seat and covered himself with two wool blankets as he shivered. "Where are they?"
"If I knew, Hound, do you think I would be sitting here with you?"
"The Phantom Queen will come. For me and for Freddy."
"I know."
"You should have left me."
"If you think your foolhardy rescue was any idea of mine, you are farther along the road to delirium and death than I thought." Polydegmon scanned the darkness and strained his ears for the ominous snap of a twig, the rustle of leaves that might mean more than a boisterous wind.
He had but to wait a few moments and the brush across from him erupted in a great commotion as something, or more likely several somethings, crashed through the trees toward the car.
Polydegmon came to his feet. The Hound tried to, but could barely perch himself on his elbows, and that with gritting his teeth the whole way.
Moonlight illumed the invaders.
"Freddy." With a soar of his heart, Polydegmon sprinted forward to meet them and caught her in his arms. She weighed nothing as he swung h
er around. He crushed her against him and hardly noticed his half-dry clothing was wet through again from contact with her rather soaked self.
Two twin rushes of air whipped at him as Freddy's mother and Kore ran past without stopping.
Freddy pushed at his chest, her voice tight. "You're going to want to run, Deg. Morrígan and her evil minions can't be too far behind us."
Polydegmon made himself let Freddy go so he wouldn't squeeze her too hard. "How many?"
Freddy gave a brittle laugh. She sounded on the ragged edge of hysteria. "Lots."
"Let us depart." He yanked her toward the car at a dead run.
When he and Freddy got close, Abby brought the Ford's motor alive with a deft turn of its key. Freddy, at the sight of her dad, broke away from Polydegmon and crawled into the back seat to put her arms around Colin. Kore had taken the front passenger seat. Polydegmon climbed into the back with Freddy and Colin. Abby peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires before Polydegmon had even closed his door all the way.
Colin leaned against Freddy while Polydegmon did what he could for the Hound's injuries. He cast about in his mind for how to help the injured man with such limited resources and found himself short on ingenuity.
Polydegmon snuck a peek at his sister. A stony look, all too reminiscent of Hades, had settled in hard lines over her features.
So much for gratitude at being plucked from the vile seducer's toils.
"Kore," he said in Greek. "I had to get you out of there." Her lips pursed, the skin turning white around them, and he was shocked his sweet little sister was managing to stay so mad at him. "Kore?"
"Be quiet, Polydegmon. You have ruined everything."
This did not bode well for his chances of making her see reason and returning her to the house of their father. Of course, who knew whether Polydegmon himself would still have admittance into the Underworld? He turned his mind away from dreary thoughts of home and instead worried about how long it would take the Morrígan to muster her minions to come after the rescue party.
Heir to the Underworld Page 29
