The Gatekeeper's Sons (The Gatekeeper's Trilogy) (22 page)

Therese’s appetite left her, and she sat chilled and afraid. “What is the name he gave you?”

Tizzie looked at Than, and Than nodded, so she said, “Steven McAdams. I know he is American, but that is all. Tonight I will find out more.” She gave her lusty smile.

Meg scowled at Therese. “It’s rude not to finish your plate.”

Therese took a sip of the soup and tried her best to finish the rest.

“Maybe we should change the subject,” Than suggested. “Why don’t you two tell her what it’s like living in the dark abyss that is the
Underworld. She’d like to be better informed before making the decision I discussed with you.”

“It’s actually quite fun on days when I go to
Tartarus and torment the evildoers for their sins on Earth,” Meg said.

Therese shivered and let out a just-audible moan.

Than’s smile faded. “Listen, Therese, my sisters may take satisfaction in their work, but they, unlike the souls they torment, are not evil.” Then he bent his brow at Meg, “Could you tone it down a little?”

Tizzie
smirked. “Well, I have to admit, I enjoy my job. Than’s right: It is
very
satisfying. But I also like the precious stones our father has mined from deep underground. He gives them to us as gifts when we are especially swift with his just payment.” She lifted one of her arms to jangle the emerald bracelets.

Than frowned. “Now let’s not go in the opposite direction with extremes,
Tizzie. I don’t want her to be terrified, but I also don’t want her under any delusions of grandeur. The Underworld is a loathsome place, even if there are a few perks. There aren’t any animal companions or beautiful plants. No sunrises and sunsets. Everything is cold and lifeless.”

“That’s not so,”
Tizzie objected. “Cerberus is there, who can be quite entertaining when provoked, and so are Swift and Sure, Father’s two black stallions that pull his chariot. They look fierce with their red eyes and huge bodies, but they are sweet when they are eating pomegranate seeds from my hand. And as far as real plants, you’re forgetting the poppies around Hypnos’s abode—albeit, they make you want to go straight to sleep.”

“And don’t forget the asphodel along the Elysian Fields,” Meg added. “Those fragrant white flowers are real even if everything else there
isn’t. And the rivers are real, and they’re really quite beautiful and serene when neither I nor my sisters are using them as weapons of torture.” The edges of her lips twisted up into a half smile.

Therese narrowed her eyes at Than. “Your sisters don’t make the
Underworld sound nearly as bad as you do.” Then she frowned. Maybe he doesn’t want me after all.

As if he had read her mind, he took her hand in his and gave it a warm squeeze. “I would love for you to come with me, but I want you to be sure. I want you to know what you’re getting into.”

So he’s not like his father, she thought. He’s not going to trick me like Hades did Persephone.

“And Cerberus can be kind if you bring him cakes,”
Tizzie offered. “Though Alecto never should have given that information to Orpheus.”

“You have to admit, dear sister, how fun it was to see him torn to pieces,” Meg snickered.

“Not for me. I saw no justice in it.”

Meg spoke though grit teeth. “It was his due dessert for how he tricked us all.”

Therese asked them to tell her the story of Orpheus, so Tizzie began.

“First you must know that the very first musicians were gods. Though Athena didn’t play, she invented the flute. Hermes made the lyre and gave it to Apollo, and when he plays, we all lose our thoughts to his beautiful music. Hermes also invented a shepherd’s pipe, which he plays himself, quite well, actually, when he’s not running
errands or going on adventures with Zeus; and Pan, Hermes’s little goat-footed son, made a pipe of reeds that sings the songs of nightingales when he blows through it.

“The Muses play no instrument, but their voices are the loveliest of any I have heard in my long existence. I tell you all of this because despite the superiority of the gods to humans in all ways, there was one demigod—part human and part god—who nearly equaled the gods in musical talent, and that, of course, was Orpheus.

“Wherever Orpheus played his lyre and sang his sweet voice, the animals—even the rocks—followed. Every nymph of the woods where he travelled was in love with him, but he had interest for none until his eyes fell on Eurydice. She, like the others, could not resist his song, and she loved him immediately. They were married in the woods among all those who loved them, but right after the wedding, when Eurydice went walking through a meadow with her bridesmaids, she was bitten by a viper and instantly killed.

“They say even the rocks wept. Orpheus’s grief was impossible to endure. He hastened to the
Underworld, set on charming everyone there with his song. Our sister Alecto was the first one to be moved by his beautiful voice and the melody emanating from his lyre. She gave him cakes to feed to Cerberus. Once through the gates, his music charmed the judges next, and then Meg and me, the tormenters in Tartarus. For the first time, I think, we wept with tears. Sisyphus got to sit down on his rock, and Tantalus forgot his hunger and thirst. Our father Hades and our mother Persephone came from their chambers to hear the melodious sounds.

“Orpheus sang a song about the bud being plucked before its bloom and his wish to borrow, not take, his love for a little while. Iron tears fell down my father’s face, and my mother kissed his softened cheek. They beckoned Than to bring forth Eurydice, but gave Orpheus this condition: He could not look back at his love until they were through the gates of the
Underworld and across the Acheron.”

Meg took up the story here, “Orpheus had little faith, it seemed. Eurydice was behind him, followed by our brother, as they climbed through the caverns above the river. As Orpheus passed Cerberus and jumped onto Charon’s waiting ferry, he looked back, extending his hand, and in that moment, my brother, under my father’s strict command, pulled Eurydice back down into the darkness.”

Therese shuddered and glanced at Than, whose mouth was turned down in a frown.

Meg jeered, “Orpheus did not keep his end of the bargain, and he should have gone on back with the fact of his failure; however, in a desperate rage equal to Zeus, he tried to force his way back into the
Underworld. When his entrance was refused, he finally gave up and wandered off until a band of Maenads—women frenzied with the wine of Dionysus—found him and tore him limb from limb, flinging his severed head into the river.”

Therese looked away from Meg’s awful smile. She felt sorry for Orpheus, suspecting he hadn’t meant to betray his deal with Hades.

Than spoke up here, “I found his soul and took him directly to Eurydice, and they are there now together, though as I’ve told you, they aren’t quite the same as when they were alive.”

The change of subject had done nothing to bring back Therese’s appetite, but she chewed on the potato patties lest she appear rude. She forced the food down with the glass of tea, which she tasted now for the first time. She nearly choked. It was sugary sweet, just the way Than apparently liked it. The corners of her mouth curved up into a smile when she recalled the way he had relished his sweet tea at her house two days ago.

The sugar reminded her of the brownies. “Oh, Than, the brownies. Should I get them and serve them to you and your sisters?”

The girls exchanged confused looks.

“She’s not referring to nymphs,” Than explained. “Her brownies are something called chocolate.” He stood up from his chair. “I’ll get them.”

Both girls produced their lustful smiles. Apparently they were familiar with chocolate.

Than brought the platter to the table and passed it around. Therese watched him take his first bite of the chewy, fudgy square. He closed his eyes and uttered something like a moan. “Oh, my,” he said once he’d swallowed. He took another bite. “I can’t believe I’ve lived so many centuries without chocolate.”

“And we’re always so busy,”
Tizzie said, still smiling. “We rarely take the time on Earth to enjoy its pleasures.”

“Well, well, well,” Meg said after finishing her square. “I think Therese has discovered a bribing tool. If you ever have a request for me, bring me chocolate.” She took another square and shoved it whole into her dark red mouth.

After Than ate a third brownie, he pushed his plate away from him and took Therese’s hand in his. “So, Therese, will you go with me tomorrow night to the Wildhorse Saloon and teach me more about dancing?”

“On one condition,” she said, with a bargainer’s smile that would have made Hades proud. “I want to meet your parents.”

The three siblings looked at one another with astonishment.

Then Than said, “Maybe if you offer to play your flute for them, they’ll come.”

“Music and chocolate,” Meg said. “A killer combination.”

“No pun intended.
” Tizzie laughed.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Wildhorse Saloon Revisited

Therese felt strange Friday evening squished in the backseat of her aunt’s old red Toyota Corolla between two gods, Than and Meg, on their way to the Wildhorse Saloon to meet the Holt kids, Ray, and Todd. Richard kept stealing glances behind him at the eccentric beauty beside her, dressed as she was in a red leather short suit, black go-go boots, and her blood-red rubies on her earlobes and around her neck. Although Therese had been proud of how she looked in her olive cotton camisole and her Levi boot-cut jeans, she now felt totally eclipsed.

Tizzie
had promised to meet them later after her tormenting obligation. Therese imagined her hovered over her victim with a swarm of snakes dropping from her head. Would the blood still be dripping from her eyes when she arrived at the saloon? Therese shuddered.

“Are you okay?” Than whispered close to her ear. His warm breath sent chills across her scalp and down the nape of her neck. Because her red curls were up tonight in a high pony tail, she could feel
Than’s warm breath caressing her neck as he spoke. “Are you cold?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Just a little nervous.”

“Do I make you nervous?” he whispered.

She made a little nod, but then breathed, “In a good way.”

He gave her a broad smile, showing his perfect white teeth, and took her hand in his. Therese quivered with desire.

“Can you drive a little faster?” Meg asked coldly.

Carol looked at her in the rearview mirror. “I’m going the speed limit.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Great.”

Therese wondered how Meg could get away with punishing people for forgetting their manners and be so rude herself. “I’m sorry we don’t have more room,” Therese offered.

“It’s quite alright.” Meg’s voice was not kind.

“That’s not what’s getting on her nerves,” Than whispered. “She’s jealous of how smitten I am with you.”

“
Than,” Meg threatened. “There’s no need to speak rudely of others.”

Richard gave another uncomfortable glance back at Therese’s companions.

When they arrived at the Wildhorse Saloon close to eight o’clock, Todd’s giant yellow truck stood out as a beacon in the parking lot, but neither Pete’s truck nor Mrs. Holt’s Suburban was among the three dozen other vehicles. Therese texted Todd while she led the group inside the dance hall, a wave of cigarette smoke accosting her like a stifling blanket. She tried to hold back the cough gagging her throat. Ten or so couples danced a fast polka around the wooden dance floor in front of the empty stage where Pete’s band had performed two nights ago. More people gathered around the two bars—one on either side of the hall—and two or three older men, sitting on stools alone, looked drunk. Todd and Ray turned from where they stood in line at one of the bars and waved, their red minor bracelets dancing around their wrists. Therese waved back and led her group across the dance hall toward them.

After their initial hellos and some talk about Todd’s truck and when Therese would get her ride—since she had missed the maiden voyage—they stood around awkwardly sipping their straws and watching the dancers on the floor across the room. One of the older men who had been sitting alone and apparently drunk approached Meg and asked for a dance. Therese was surprised when Meg consented, but Meg’s mocking expression made her wonder about the Fury’s motive.

The new song was a waltz, and Therese could feel Than turning toward her to ask, but before he had his words out, Todd grabbed her hand and said, “Let’s go!”

Therese gave Than a look of apology as she allowed Todd to pull her out on
to the floor. He glided her easily around and around with his thin but strong frame, and soon Therese was having fun and laughing out loud, especially at Todd who was now telling her all about his family’s trip to California and the strange people they met there. He gave a glance at Meg as they passed her and her drunken partner and said, “Though we have a few strange folks right here in Durango.”

He wanted to know more about Meg
and Than. Although Therese was just a bit tempted to tell the truth—Than was the god of death and his sister was one of three tormenting avengers known as the Furies—she decided to hold her tongue, shrug, and say, “They’re guests at the Melner cabin. I don’t know much about them.” She knew she wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know.