Pandora Gets Angry (21 page)

“Do you forgive me for slugging you?”

“Not yet, but I will. It was very smart.”

“Oran—uh. Yes. Thank you,” Alcie said, biting her lip.

“Okay, that's the third or fourth time I've seen you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Stop yourself from swearing,” Pandy answered, wiping her greasy hands on her toga. “What gives?”

Alcie was silent for a bit. Then she reached into her leather pouch and pulled out the cobalt blue enamel and gold box.

“I have decided that swearing is not maidenly,” she said. “It used to be funny, I know. But I've seen the ugly side of fruit in the last few ticks of the sundial, and … and I am simply not going to do it anymore, using fruit or anything else. At least I'm gonna try.”

“But it's part of your curse!” Pandy said. “It's part of the effect of you standing so close to the box when it was opened! You don't have a
choice
.”

“Yeah, well, that's where you're wrong.”

Alcie gently opened the blue and gold box so that Pandy could see inside.

“It's a string,” Pandy said, unimpressed. “A nice string, Alce, but I'm just sayin'.”

“No,” Alcie said. Then she broke into a wide grin and a look crossed her face that Pandy hadn't seen since they were little girls. It was a look of sheer astonishment.

“It's my life-thread. The Fates gave it to me. I was never supposed to be in the underworld, not for a while anyway, but they'd already cut it, so they gave it to me. Pandy, I'm the only one who has their own thread. Lachesis said that.”

“
Lachesis
? You met her?”

“Yep. And she said that my life was in my own hands now, to do with whatever I wish. And I think I'm going to try to start being a little more responsible. Starting with the swearing.”

Pandy was dumbfounded. Suddenly she heard Fair Persian, Douban, and Iole in the corridor outside.

“Perhaps you could come back, Douban,” Fair Persian was saying. “Baghdad has need of an excellent physician, now that your father is no longer.”

“He can't,” Pandy heard Iole snap. “He is coming with
us
, as I have already communicated to you.”

“Yes … but,” Fair Persian began.

“No
buts
,” Iole said as their voices trailed off down the corridor toward the stairs.

“Gods!” Pandy said. “What's going
on
with her?”

“Puh-leeze!” Alcie said. “You can't see it? She thinks Fair Persian is trying to steal Douban away from you.”

“Steal! He's not mine! I haven't even … looked … at him.”

Alcie just looked at her with a big, goofy smile on her face.

“Oh no? I've seen you! Listen, my friend, you can't fool me. I wasn't born yesterday, you know. Well, in a way, I was, but never mind that. I've seen the way he looks at you. He obviously adores you.”

“You think?” Pandy said, smiling.

“I have been known to, yes.”

Pandy gazed at her friend.

“I am so proud of you,” she said, finally.

“Mutual,” Alcie said as the call to evening meal came up from below.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Outward Bound

The next morning, washed and well fed, Pandy, Alcie, Iole, Homer, and Douban, accompanied by Mahfouza's entire family, made a quick stop at the marketplace to replenish their supplies and to introduce Alcie to the silversmith who had lost his cat. They presented him with a ruby apple as payment for Hera's destruction of his shop, which very nearly caused him to faint again.

The group walked to the very edge of the city and faced west, the river before them and the wide Arabian desert beyond that.

“I will send the others home,” Mahfouza said. “And I will wait with you for a barge to take you across.”

“No need,” Pandy said, slipping a garnet pomegranate and a sapphire fig into the hands of the beautiful girl. “We're fine. These are to help you rebuild your house and thank you. Oh, Mahfouza, thank you for everything.”

“Pandora, my dearest, thank
you
for restoring my family. But do you not want at least one piece of fruit as a remembrance of your time in Persia?”

“We're not leaving with nothing,” Pandy said, then she nudged Alcie to open her pouch. Mahfouza saw many pieces of the glittering jeweled fruit inside.

“Everyone else is carrying food,” Alcie said, speaking low and looking around as if there might be thieves. “I have the important stuff.”

After many hugs all around and promises to return one day if at all possible, Pandy turned toward the river, about to sit and wait for a boat.

“It would be groovy if we could just walk across.”

At once, her legs began to move on their own and she was ten meters across the river—on top of the water—before she knew what was happening. When she realized she wasn't sinking, she turned around in surprise and saw Alcie, Iole, Homer, and Douban right behind her. With a laugh, she threw up her arms, waving madly to Mahfouza's family. Stunned for only a moment, all nine brothers and sisters began waving and cheering, shouting for good luck and safe travels.

Three days later, having slept and eaten upright, as the sandals continued their march and Alcie told of her adventures in Hades' kingdom, they reached the border between Persia and Syria. Shortly after the sun had reached the midpoint of the heavens, the sandals slowed, then came to a complete stop.

Without thinking, Pandy was about to simply walk into Syria, when she heard Alcie cough slightly behind her. Turing around, she saw Alcie cock her head to one side. Then Pandy looked at Douban. Then it hit her. He was leaving. Actually leaving. And it was doubtful she would ever see him again.

As Iole, Alcie, and Homer began to, obviously, look down into their pouches, checking for things they already knew were there, mumbling to one another and staring into Syria, Douban took Pandy by the hand.

“It is very likely that I will never have another chance to say this,” he began. “You are the most remarkable person I have ever known. Your courage and determination are inspiring. Even my father thought so. Your respect for duty and what is right is, with the exception of your face, the most beautiful thing about you.”

Three days of uninterrupted walking and her legs felt fine. Now they were beginning to wobble.

“And, if you will permit me, I should very much like to come and visit you in Athens one day.”

“That,” Pandy managed to get out, her voice squeaking before it settled. “That would be fine … lovely. If I'm alive.”

Douban laughed and leaned in.

Pandy's mind went nowhere and everywhere all at once. “What is this?” she thought with a shiver of excitement as she instinctively tilted up her chin. “This—oh, Gods! Is this it? This is IT! My first KISS!” But it wasn't the rush of girly excitement she'd been expecting at this moment. It was more natural, as if this was absolutely the way it was supposed to be. Her first kiss would be with someone she didn't just have a schoolgirl crush on, but with someone who knew her well, respected her, and whom she really cared for.

Then she heard Alcie scream.

Immediately, the spell was broken. Pandy and Douban quickly turned to look at Alcie and Homer, both having stepped over the Syrian border, both now barefoot. In front of Alcie, lying in the sand, was Hera's right leg complete with one golden sandal. Lying at Homer's feet was Hera's left arm, her rings and bracelets glinting in the sunlight.

No one spoke for a long, long time.

Then Pandy had an idea.

“Iole and Douban, please remove your sandals,” she said, taking off her red-leather footwear. Then, with her hands, she dug a shallow pit and buried all three pairs.

“Pandy!” cried Iole.

“Well, what do you suggest?” Pandy cried desperately. “We can't have her following us!”

“No, you can't,” said a familiar voice. “At least not for a while.”

With a start, Pandy whipped her head to see Hermes standing a short distance down the borderline. Feeling tremendous relief, she ran straight to him, but he put his huge hand out to stop her.

“Not so fast,” he said, a frown creasing his perfect face. “You would really leave her here? In the sand? Not a wise move. Zeus sent me simply to check on you. And if you had done well, maybe give you a little help getting to—where are you going next?”

“Rome,” Pandy answered.

“Rome, eh? Good times! I barely had time to make it to the Bureau of Visiting Deities in Baghdad. I'm zooming over the horizon, I look down, and here you are holding hands with that nice young man and the Queen of Heaven is in pieces all over the desert. What kind of a report am I going to give to the Sky-Lord? Not to mention your father when he hears about the holding hands part. What am I going to say, huh? Answer me that.”

“I didn't know what else to do,” Pandy said, now fearful that word of her actions had somehow gotten back to Zeus and, quest or no quest, Pandy was as good as dead.

“No,” Hermes said. “Zeus doesn't know yet. But he will. Because she'll have to be restored, Pandora, and you know that.”

Without waiting for her to answer, Hermes caused the buried sandals to rise out of their pit and fly to him. Then he shrunk Hera's arm and leg and, along with the sandals, put them into a peacock blue silk pouch he simply materialized out of thin air, then tucked it neatly away into the folds of his silver toga. He turned back to Pandy.

“Personally,” he said with a little smile, “I love it. I wish she could stay buried for the next few thousand years. But I can't speak for Zeus. He might be, shall we say, put out. Or he might tell me to drop her in the Tigris. I don't know. And I don't want to know for a while. I have a bit of time before Zeus wonders where I am, so I'm going to take a little walkabout. Perhaps see that this young man gets home to his family in one piece. That should take up a few days, but I'd get to Rome fast, if I were you.”

“How?” Pandy asked.

“Iole, step across the border, if you please,” Hermes said. “Are you all across now? Yes? Good. Say good-bye to the nice youth. Special smile from you, Pandora. Don't think I can't tell what's going on. That's right, wave to him. Bye-bye! How do you get to Rome, Pandora? Like this.”

He blinked.

And they were gone.

Epilogue

High above Rome, on a cloud bank, Jupiter sat and studied his friend, his brother and, in almost every way …

… his near exact double.

“They're
all
coming?” Jupiter asked.

“Most of them,” the other figure said. “I haven't taken a head count lately. But surely it's not a problem.”

“Not at all,” Jupiter said. “Well, not for us at any rate. Happy to have you. I am simply concerned about the populace. What will they do when they see various sets of two almost identical beings—should they happen to see us.”

“We do adorn ourselves a bit differently,” said the other, brushing back strands of silver hair being tossed about by the high winds.

“True, true,” Jupiter acknowledged. “But then there's the matter of lodgings.”

“Yes, I have been meaning to talk to you about that. We actually have a
home
, you know. Mount Olympus. It's lovely.”

“Of course,” Jupiter said. “I've been, remember? Deity Family Day, several centuries ago?”

“But my point is, it's fortified, remote, no humans trespassing. Why don't you build yourself a nice palace somewhere close to Rome and secret it away. Invisible walls, that sort of thing. With spacious quarters for guests. I'll help. Let's do it together, right now!”

“Not so fast, dear brother,” Jupiter said. “Romans don't necessarily think of us, their gods, as having a distinct home. We are merely the sponsors, the benefactors, the protectors of various aspects of their human existence. And in that respect, we must abide by the perceptions of the people who do us homage. Your Greeks are different and for that, you and the others are lucky. But Juno and Venus and Mars and Mercury and the rest, well, we exist on the wind as it were.”

“If I tell Hera she has to sleep on the wind, I won't hear the end of it for eons.”

“Oh,” said Jupiter, looking away for a moment, “Hera's coming too?”

“Yes. And, Jupiter, please try not to act so disgusted.”

“Does it show?”

“Only because it's what I see in my own looking glass every sunrise.”

“Here's a thought,” Jupiter said, gazing down from the dizzying height into the heart of Rome. “Why don't we all camp in the city? It'll be easier to help the girl. We can all be together. We can meet up faster if need be. I know a wonderful bakery for morning rolls. Dare I say it will be fun!”

“None of this is fun, brother. You know what is at stake if Pandora fails.”

“I do,” Jupiter said, his face becoming somber. “But Hera can't possibly still be thinking of harnessing all the remaining evils for her own purposes at this point, could she? We're all sort of in the clear, aren't we?”

“Two, maybe three large Evils are still free,” said his counterpart. “But the final one is the biggest of them all. And if
that
is left loose in the world and remains fixed, it will only be a matter of time before the others are fabricated out of mankind's extremely fallible mortal nature. Hera won't hesitate to pounce on that opportunity.”

“I don't know why I am surprised,” Jupiter said. “Juno has been following right along with everything that Hera has been doing. The only words out of her mouth for the past few months have been ‘Good for Hera!' and ‘That's what I would have done!' or ‘Smart move, sister!' We married badly; I've taken to drink more than usual.”

Finally, Zeus smiled.

“Pandora's got at least four evils in the box. Five at this point, for all I know. And I would certainly hope so, considering the strings I had to pull with the Persian Bureau of Visiting Deities to get an emergency override for her power over fire and that map they're using. Do you know, Jupiter, that I had to agree that a contingent of rocs be allowed to come to Greece on a fact-finding mission—to see how we immortals ‘do' things back at home. At any rate, that's four more evils than any of us expected. Personally, I thought she'd be dead within a week when she started. She's rather remarkable, this girl. But none of it has been a gambol in the forest. And Greed, if she gets to Rome, will prove exceptionally difficult. Which is why some of us from the Greek contingent are going to be here. But the help must be specific and subtle. Tiny. Nothing general, no broad strokes, if you will.”

“I understand.”

“I think it might be entertaining, rather amusing, to live among mortals for a bit. I like your ‘camping in the city' idea.”

“I'll arrange everything,” Jupiter said.

“Good. So it's set, then,” Zeus said, rising to go. “As soon as I hear from Hermes that Pandora's still alive, those of us who're coming will be on our way. Greek and Roman gods together.”

He laughed in spite of himself.

“However this works out, it should prove very, very interesting.”