The Gatekeeper's Sons (The Gatekeeper's Trilogy) (41 page)

Another woman entered the room and said to Persephone, “Thanatos wishes to speak with you, my lady.”

“Thank you, Hecate.” Persephone turned back to Therese. “Good luck to you, sweet girl.”

“Thanks so much,” Therese managed to say. Tears pricked her eyes. Perhaps she had already died and gone to heaven!

The three figures vanished from the room and left Therese alone.

After a few moments,
Therese dried and put on the white silk gown from Hera and extinguished the candles the goddesses had lit. Then she left the spa and went to the large canopy bed in the middle of Poseidon’s chamber where a small bedside lamp in the shape of a mermaid had been left on for her. She pulled back a fluffy down comforter and silk white top sheet, moved the eye mask from the goose feather pillow, and climbed inside the bed and pulled the covers over her. Her whole body relaxed. Every muscle, every bone, every neuron firing at the synapse seemed to respond to the most comfortable bed and sheets and pillow she had ever slept on. She put the eye mask aside for now and prayed for Than to return.

He was there beside her in an instant, and a good thing, too, for she had nearly fallen asleep. He lay above the covers and she below, like the last time they spent the night together. He stroked her wet hair.

“You smell so good,” he said. “And you feel so soft.”

She reached her arms up and took his face in her hands. “This may be our last night together,” she whispered. “So I want you to…”

“Shhh,” he whispered, putting a finger to her lips. “Don’t talk like that. What happened to being positive? I know what you want, and believe me, I want it to, but I won’t give it to you tonight. You have to wait, to fight for it.” He kissed her, and kissed her, and then he groaned, “So you better win.”

She kissed him back, ran her fingers through his now dry hair, and took pleasure in his caresses. They caressed one another for several more minutes, neither really wanting to stop, but both knowing it would be better in the end. Then she put on Aphrodite’s eye mask and snuggled against his chest just as the most beautiful music she had ever heard began to sound through the walls. Apollo played the lyre and Hermes the pipe, and the beautiful melodies lifted her spirits again and carried her to heights of optimism that gave her the feeling, as Than lay there stroking her hair, that nothing could stop her now.

Soon after, she fell asleep.

Chapter Forty-One:
The Battlefield

In the morning, Than gave Therese a pair of jeans, a shirt, clean undies, and pair of socks he had brought her from her house.

“You went through my underwear drawer?” she asked.

He gave her a wry smile.

“How are my pets?”

“Your aunt and her boyfriend are taking good care of them.”

Luck
ily her sneakers had dried overnight. After she changed, Than led her to the assembly hall where the gods and goddesses were just now coming in from either their chambers behind their thrones or the banquet hall or, in the case of Poseidon and Hades, the chariot shed.

Once the gods and goddesses were seated, Hephaestus
presented McAdams and Therese with the golden sword and shield he had wrought and forged for them. Ares belted the sheathed sword around McAdams’s waist while Than did the same for Therese. Therese pulled the blade from the sheath. It was surprisingly light.

Than stood close by and whispered, “Be careful with that thing. I can’t be killed, but I can still feel pain.”

She gave a nervous giggle and returned the sword to its sheath, watching McAdams with a wary eye.

Than
grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, so that they were breast to breast. “Speaking of pain, if McAdams, you know… I won’t let you suffer. I’ll take your soul, and I’ll take you straight to your parents.”

She swallowed hard and gave him a frightened nod. Then he kissed her once more before taking his seat beside his father.

McAdams had dark circles beneath his eyes and bags that would put those of Hephaestus to shame. He looked pale, almost languid, and Therese actually felt a little sorry for him. She wondered where he had passed the night and what comforts Ares, and perhaps other gods, did or did not provide.

Then she remembered how she had watched her parents die, and anger rose within her. She would kill him.

“We all know the rules,” Zeus announced. “So let us begin.”

Therese nearly jumped from her sneakers when the assembly hall vanished and in its place was a clearing surrounded by woods. Pines, cypresses, elms, hemlocks—all trees Therese recognized. Beyond the clearing, the sun at high noon pierced through the canopy of leaves onto a deer here, a squirrel there. Cardinals, sparrows, jays, and other birds whose names she did not know flittered from tree to tree, just like they did in the bird atrium at the San Antonio Zoo. Ants burrowed in the dirt around her feet, and white limestone rocks, pink granite rocks, and other kinds, too, were partly buried in the earth, partly exposed.

The thrones had disappeared, but the gods and goddesses sat on tree stumps in the clearing in the same formation in which they had gathered at the hall on Mount Olympus. For all Therese knew, they had never left the court, and all of this nature around them was a vast illusion.

Suddenly with a roaring thunder, the ground beneath them lifted up, like the floor of an elevator, and both Therese and McAdams stumbled and fell with the trembling earth. The clearing rose at lea
st thirty feet so that the gods could look down upon the forest surrounding them below, like the reverse of a coliseum in that what was once the battlefield in the center had become the audience seating, and what was usually the audience seating was an outer circular battlefield. But unlike the audience of a coliseum, this battlefield was ripe with life and natural structures. Behind Zeus, mountains of pink granite jutted up from the forest below, exceeding in height the level of the gods’ platform. Beyond Poseidon, Therese could make out a river bordered by forest. A stream ran from the pink granite mountains, into the river, and then circled around Apollo and Hephaestus and plunged into a roaring fall to a deeper canyon behind Hades. The water pooled into a smaller body of water at the bottom of the deeper canyon. Another stream ran into a fall behind Aphrodite, but the trees were so thick on that side of the forest, that Therese could not see through them. Among the trees behind Demeter, however, she thought she saw fruit. If her plan was to outrun and hide from McAdams, this would be a long battle, and fruit would be necessary to keep going. Otherwise, she and her enemy wouldn’t need to kill one another. They would starve to death.

Therese and McAdams stood up on opposite sides of the platform staring at one another with fear and anger. Therese wasn’t sure what to do, and McAdams appeared as indecisive. All of the gods sat around them on their stumps, waiting. Aphrodite’s face was stained with tears.

Than, still close by, spoke in a low voice. “My best advice is to avoid hand to hand combat.”

“Then how will I kill him?” Therese muttered without taking her eyes off McAdams.

“Set traps, if possible, and keep far away from him. You’re in better shape and can probably outrun him, but he’s stronger.” Than could not keep the desperation from his voice. “Please be careful.”

Therese kept her eyes on McAdams as she backed away from him towards what had now become a cliff edge behind the tree-stump thrones of the gods. A person would certainly die if he or she fell from the platform and into the canyon woods surrounding them below. But the rocky ledges could be navigated the thirty or so feet to the bottom, and it seemed to Therese there could be caves in the canyon walls. She decided she should descend behind Demeter and collect whatever fruit she could carry, and then run for a hiding place until she could think of another plan.

McAdams charged at her, however, and gave her no choice but to climb down the cliff edge behind Hades. Therese threw her shield down and it plunged, then slid, and finally came to a stop near the bottom of the deeper canyon at least a hundred feet below. She turned and clung to the rock wall, quickly finding her footing as she scaled down the side. She looked up and saw McAdams standing above her. He wasn’t climbing down after her…yet.

“Oh, Than, I should have run to the trees!” she said in her mind, praying frantically, even though she knew he could not help her. “My plan was to collect food and stay on the run till he got weak. But look at me clinging to these walls! This is stupid! What am I doing? I’m going to kill myself slipping on these stupid rocks, and he’ll win by default! I’ve already dropped my shield!”

“Your plan is sound!” Than called after her. “You can still do it!”

Then it dawned on Therese, something she hadn’t thought of before! She could speak to the gods through prayer, and they could answer her! She would have to call them by name so Ares would not hear. Ares would inform McAdams. But the other gods, the ones she knew were on her side, she would speak to them!

She increased her pace down the canyon wall and lowered herself to the bottom. Her shield lay below in the deeper canyon, but she decided she would be faster without it. Since her goal was to avoid hand to hand combat, why be burdened with it when her hands could be free?

She ran along the base of the upper canyon wall toward the thick forest behind Demeter. In her mind, she said, “I’m thinking I should collect food, Than. And then hide. Do you agree?”

“Yes!” he shouted.

Then another thought hit her. She would ask the gods questions that could be answered with yes or no, so as to prevent McAdams from overhearing her plans.

“Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite,” she said in her mind as she ran. “If you can hear me, shout out my name, so I know.”

“Therese!” Artemis cried.

“Therese!” Athena echoed.

“Therese, my dear!” Aphrodite sang.

Therese looked up and saw McAdams had not descended to the forest. He stood there hovering over the cliff edge watching her. She wondered what he was doing. Perhaps he had the same plan of waiting untl she wore herself out.

“Demeter, Persephone, Hades,” Therese prayed as she disentangled herself from the thick undergrowth, twigs snapping beneath her feet. “Say ‘yes’ if you can hear me.”

“Yes!” Demeter cried.

“Oh, yes!” Persephone said.

“Smart girl!” Hades hollered. “Yes!”

Therese was filled with a renewed hope as she picked her way through the branches of trees and shrubs, some stiff like spears, others flexible like snakes, toward the fruit trees. The woods were now so thick, that she could no longer see McAdams. “
Than, has McAdams climbed down from the platform?”

“No!” Than shouted.

So maybe he
did
plan for her to wear herself out. She found a narrow stream and sighed with relief. The woods had become so thick that only little spots of sunlight pierced through the canopy of leaves above her, and she couldn’t tell which way she was going, but the stream would now be her guide. Layers and layers of rotting leaves covered the ground beneath her, and she had to be careful to step over the occasional fallen branch or decaying log.

Another idea struck her.

“Than and Artemis, should I attempt to make spears from these fallen branches?” she prayed. “Just say yes or no. If it would be a waste of time say no.”

“Yes!” Artemis said.

“Ask me another question!” Than cried.

Ask another question? What question? She stared at the sticks.

“You want me to use the sticks for something else?” A thorn bush scratched her arm. “Ow,” she muttered.

“Yes!” Than shouted. “Recall what I said earlier!”

“Is McAdams still up there?”

“Yes!”

What had Than said earlier? He had said to avoid hand to hand combat, to run, and…to set traps! “You want me to use the sticks to set traps?”

“Yes!” Than answered.

“But I have no idea how to do that!” She groaned as she bent over and picked through the sticks on the ground, looking for strong ones.

She saw several bruised apples among the sticks and leaves, most of them rotten, but when she looked up, she could see ripe ones on the branches within her reach.

“I should pick fruit, Than, Artemis, and Athena, but carrying it now will hold me back. I should store it someplace. I should find somewhere to hide, to store my food and my weapons. I could booby-trap it!”

“Yes!” all three voices rang out.

Therese pulled off her shirt and bundled fruit inside of it. She found nuts on the ground and further up the stream, grapevines. She plucked as many grapes as she could fit into the makeshift bundle, gathered up the edges, and carried it in one hand and her collection of sticks in the other.

Think, she told herself, standing in her bra and jeans with her bundle draped over her back.  Originally, she had planned to climb the granite rocks jutting up above Zeus, but only because she thought a look out was necessary. Now that she had figured out she could use prayer to keep tabs on the whereabouts of McAdams, she wouldn’t need the lookout. She would need to hide, and she would want to make it as hard as possible for McAdams to get to her.