of peace. You are my fierce warrior- a child after my own heart. I love each of you.”
She nodded, a tear streaking out of the corner of her eye. I froze. I had never seen her cry, not in the thousands of years that we had known each other. She wiped it away impatiently.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t know why I am emotional.”
“Because we are in a difficult situation,” I soothed, patting her shoulder. “It’s alright. Ortrera. You weren’t yourself.”
She nodded as she stood. She nodded to her warriors and they once again looked comfortable as they relaxed just a little. She looked around the group.
“Now what?”
Aphrodite shrugged. “Now we are free to proceed, I think. We’re none the worse for the wear even though you just tried to kill your sister.”
She couldn’t quite keep her grudge from her voice and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Mother,” I warned. “Ortrera didn’t mean it. You know that.”
She shrugged with her nose in the air. I shook my head, but Ortrera interrupted.
“It’s alright, Harmonia. I don’t blame her. But I do hope you know that I would protect you with my life.”
“I know.” I glanced at my mother and she looked slightly mollified. “Of course I know. You’ve proven yourself time and time again. And I would trust you with my life.”
That seemed to make Ortrera feel better and she examined the countryside in front of us.
“I have to admit, this is not what I thought the Underworld would be like. Which way do you propose that we go?”
“That’s a very good question.”
As we studied the horizon, however, a cloud seemed to descend from the distance. White and jagged-edged, it seemed to drift toward us, continually changing shape as it moved.
“What’s that?” Aphrodite pointed.
I squinted. “I don’t know.”
It got closer and as it did, we saw that it was made from butterflies…thousands of white butterflies. They fluttered in a huge circle above us before they floated down around us. They seemed to gravitate more toward Ortrera and clung to her arms and legs. She stayed frozen as she turned slightly toward me.
“What is going on?”
I shook my head slowly. “I have no idea.”
I reached out a finger and a butterfly landed lightly upon it, followed by another and then another. They seemed to be everywhere- all around us.
Ortrera was almost covered with the insects. They were pretty little things, but they were tangled in her hair, clinging to her arms and fluttering around her legs. And then suddenly, they weren’t. They formed a cloud once again and hovered directly in front of us.
“It’s almost like they want us to follow them,” Aphrodite pondered. At her words, they moved forward a bit.
“I think you’re right,” Cadmus agreed, taking my hand and swinging my knapsack onto his shoulder. “I think that’s exactly what they want.”
“So we should just follow a big swarm of bugs?” Ortrera asked incredulously.
Ares rolled his eyes. “Daughter, you should know by now, nothing is what it seems in the Underworld. Or anywhere else, for that matter.”
He looked down at Aphrodite’s scratched up legs. She had thin streaks of blood from a few of the deeper scratches running down her slender calves.
“Do those hurt?” he demanded.
But before she could even answer, he had snatched her up and slung her onto his back, as easily as Cadmus had swung my knapsack. She rested her face against his stout back, clearly exhausted. I felt sorry for her. This was not something that my mother was accustomed to. But then again, neither were the rest of us.
“Let’s go!” he called over his shoulder as he began marching up the next hill with Aphrodite on his back and the butterflies leading the way.
Cadmus looked to me. “Would you like for me to carry you?”
I laughed wearily. “I wish. But no. You need your strength, too.”
He looked at me in mock outrage. “You think I’m so weak that I can’t carry you?”
“Of course not. I know you can. But we don’t know what is coming and I want you at your best when we face it. Raquel needs you.”
That thought sobered him up immediately and he nodded. “Raquel needs us both. And we’ll be there. I promise you that, my love.”
I leaned up and pressed my lips to his, savoring the warm, familiar kiss. The unknown was scary, but facing it with Cadmus made it more palatable.
“Ready?” He raised a dark eyebrow.
“As I’ll ever be.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist and we followed the others into the fields of the Underworld.
Chapter Five
Erebus was such a neutral place that it was easy to forget where we were as we traveled. This part of the Underworld wasn’t foreboding in the slightest. It was breezy, earthy and seemingly normal.
It was also very large. The flower dotted fields were so vast that we seemed to walk forever. One strange thing about the Underworld was that there was no sun to gauge the passage of time. The strange muted light that surrounded us stayed the same. It didn’t fade or brighten, so time seemed to run together.
Finally, after walking the steep hills for hours, I couldn’t take it anymore- at least not today. My calves were literally trembling from exhaustion and I stopped in my tracks.
“We’ve got to stop,” I called to Ares who was still briskly leading the pack with my mother on his back. Aphrodite had actually fallen asleep against his shoulder blades, her arms dangling loosely around his neck. I envied her. I was dead on my feet.
“Why?” he asked in surprise, turning.
“Because I’m going to fall down any minute,” I snapped. “Not all of us are machines like you.”
He raised a dark eyebrow. “I’m not a machine. Sue me for being fit.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew that I was being cranky, but I just couldn’t help it. I had never been so tired in my life. Cadmus wrapped me in his arms and I buried my face against his chest, inhaling his delicious scent. He always smelled like the outdoors- clean and musky. I was so weary and so comfortable in this spot, that I knew I would fall asleep right here if I didn’t move.
I pulled away reluctantly.
“We’ve got to find somewhere to sleep.”
“Where do you suggest?” Ortrera asked as she looked over the countryside. “There’s nothing but empty fields for miles and miles.”
“Well, that could be a problem,” I acknowledged.
“But not an insurmountable one,” my father added. “Look.”
In the near distance to our right, there was a cluster of large boulders in the juncture of two hills. It would provide some semblance of protection from the rolling fields. I didn’t hesitate. I simply started walking toward it. The butterflies fluttered in a billowing cloud above us and they followed us overhead as we moved.
The open space was misleading. Even though it looked fairly close, it still took us an hour or so to reach the boulders. But once we did, we were pleasantly surprised. It was a cave.
Out here in the middle of nowhere, a cave stood alone. Ares slid Aphrodite gently to the ground and then pushed ahead, joined by Cadmus and Ortrera as they plunged inside the dark depths of the doorway. My mother and I stood quietly with the Amazons as we waited for the verdict.
It came quickly.
Ares poked his head out of the doorway. “It’s safe. Come on in.”
My mother and I glanced at each other warily, but we didn’t hesitate as we followed them in. We were simply too tired to care. And as we entered the small cave, it was immediately evident that there wasn’t anything to worry about, anyway.
It was one room and barren. There was nothing in it at all but a few scattered pebbles and a tiny clear pool of water. It wasn’t fed by a spring, so I decided that it must bubble up directly from the ground. As we stepped in, the temperature immediately dropped a few degre
es as we were surrounded by the cool stone.
I took a deep breath as I looked around. There was evidence of an old campfire in the center because the ground was blackened and there was a pile of partially burned logs. So, clearly this was a cave that was used by others at times. We’d have to hope that they didn’t choose to return tonight- because I was just too tired to defend it against intruders.
Ares rubbed Aphrodite’s arms gently as he gazed into her eyes.
“Are you alright?” He studied her face as he waited for an answer. She was unusually pale so it was obvious that she was exhausted. She was also unusually quiet, which was even more of a red-flag. Silence was something that simply wasn’t in her molecular make-up.
She nodded. “I don’t know why I feel so tired. I’m just… wiped out.”
He examined her carefully, running his hands over her arms and brushing her honey-colored hair back from her face. “You seem to be fine,” he replied cautiously.
She nodded. “I know. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with me. I haven’t been injured. I’m just so tired.”
I watched her in concern. “Mother, you should lie down. You look like you are ready to fall down.” She nodded in agreement, weariness etched on her exquisite face. She had never seemed as delicate as she did right now.
I grabbed her knapsack and rummaged through it, finding a soft wrap. I wound it around her shoulders and helped her settle onto the hard ground as comfortably as I could make it. I sat beside her quietly with her head in my lap, stroking her arm as I watched Ares and Cadmus talk quietly by the cave entrance. Aphrodite was asleep within a minute.
I glanced in alarm at my father.
“Ares!”
He turned to me questioningly, but when he saw Aphrodite asleep already, he rushed to my side and scooped her into his arms. He settled with his back against the stone wall as he cradled her to his chest, allowing her to sleep in comfort.
“Is she alright?” I asked quietly.
He nodded, although his face wasn’t as confident.
“She’s just tired, daughter. She’s not accustomed to extended hikes in the Underworld.”
“Okay,” I answered quietly. I prayed that he was right. My mother’s face was slack and innocent in her sleep and it was hard to imagine that anything could be wrong with her. So, I put it out of my mind.
Moving to Cadmus’ side, I snuggled against him. “We should sleep, husband.”