The Heart of War (35 page)

It was morning before she came out of the tree; she looked around carefully but did not see the Stag-Man. Tired, scared out of her mind and hungry, Maggie wandered through the forest trying to find her way home. It took hours but she finally stumbled upon the village and told her mother what she had seen. Maven said it wasn’t any of their business and that Maggie was never to repeat what she seen or Cernunnos—the Stag-Man—would surely kill her just as he had done to her friend.

Maggie couldn’t just leave her friend on the ground in the cold dampness of the night. She begged her mother to do something, anything, but Maven refused. She said it was too dangerous and better left alone. The woman wasn’t their concern. That night, safe and warm in her bed, all Maggie could think about was her friend Diana, lying out there cold and alone. Stealing the quilt from her bed, Maggie snuck out of the little tree house and back to the forest. “Oh, pretty Diana,” she cried and sank to her knees near the body. Maggie put her arms around Artemis’ corpse and wept for a long time. “I’m sorry, I tried to help, I’m too small. I’m sorry.” Maggie covered Diana with the soft quilt that Maggie’s grandmother had made so that Diana would not be cold anymore and then she laid down next to the bloody body and wept some more.

“No,” Ares returned, his heart was heavy and his stomach threatened to heave up its contents as the images played over and over in his mind.
Artemis, oh dear Gods! Artemis.

“This is your SISTER!” Zeus boomed. “You will not help us exact revenge against Cernunnos? I would think you, of all of us, would jump at this chance, Ares.”

“Did I say that?” Ares smoldered. “However, Father, now you must believe I had nothing to do with Artemis’ death. Say it; declare me innocent of this crime.”

“You weren’t even born innocent,” Zeus sneered. Father and Son had a tumultuous relationship at best but Zeus had always found it hard to believe that Ares, ill-tempered or not, would ever cause Artemis to suffer. Ares would never raise his sword to her in any manner other than vigorous sparing. Ares had a long rocky history with all of the Olympians save Artemis, Hera and Hades with whom Ares did a lot of business. Here before them was proof positive of Ares’ innocence in the death of his sister.

“Zeus?” Hera asked sternly. “He’s proved his innocence in this matter; you must return Ares his property and his place here on Olympus.”

“It doesn’t prove him innocent in the death of my Wife,” Eros interjected defiantly.

“It was an
accident
!” Ares sneered without looking at his Son. “Psyche jumped.”

Eros stood up heatedly, planted his hands on the table and leaned forward to make his accusation. “To get away from you!” The winged God of Love slammed his fist down on the table. “Your temper, your badgering, you drove her to it even if you didn’t throw her off!”

“She was out of her mind before I got there.” With that, he set out to reclaim today dancing in the palm of his hand he stood there trying to remain calm when all he wanted was to slap Eros across the face as hard as he could. “I tried to stop her. You can believe that or not, I honestly don’t give a damn anymore.”

“Why would you, Father? You are ARES, you don’t give a flying shit about anything or anyone but YOURSELF! If you even
think
about letting him back on Olympus, Grandfather, you just remember he still owes me a woman!”

“I didn’t kill Psyche!” Ares thundered.

Eros ignored him. “I’ll take
that one
,” Eros pointed at Alena.

“Over my dead body,” Ares threatened.

“I can arrange that, Father,” Eros lobbed. “Just stand still for a second.”

“Eros I swear…” Then Ares bit his tongue deciding instead to the let the coming images speak for him. “We had a deal, Father. Now show me what I want to know.”

3

Alena was still asleep in the chair when the screen above them lit up again. Everyone watched intently as the pages of the mental photo album flipped past. Zeus wasn’t in the mood to fiddle around with such incidental things but if he had any hope of getting Ares to help them then he had to do as Ares wanted.

Without warning, a shrill cry rang out in the Great Council Chamber.

The sharp sound caused Zeus to cease poking around in Alena’s head. On the floating screen, the Olympians saw her beaten and bloody. She was tied down while a man hovered over her. His face twisted in a snide expression as he leered down at his victim. To all in the room, simply looking at the image made them ache. What they had seen done to Artemis, beloved as she was, seemed small by comparison to what they were viewing now.

“Is this it?” Zeus asked gruffly. “I see you’re still as depraved as ever.”

“No, you’ve gone too far but wait,” Ares advised. He didn’t want to see what Jaakim had done to Alena, that was beyond Ares’ ability to stomach. However, Sha’Quanda gave him more than enough information to sign the man’s Death Warrant and to complete the task. What Ares didn’t know was why Jaakim let her go, why he didn’t just kill her when he was done with her. Now Ares would know the answer.

Above their heads on the screen, Ares had his answer as Jaakim knelt next to Alena, her hands still tied useless behind her head and her legs still secured and open with that bright band of gold protecting her. “Have you had enough you little bitch? Are you going to stay out of my business now?”

Mumbled word came out of her dry lips but they were incoherent at first. Jaakim leaned closer to her, knife in his hand; he pressed it to her throat. “What?”

“Kill…me,” Alena croaked in desperation. “Please?” She did her best to raise her throat to meet the cold blade and she waited for him to drag it across but he did not.

“You want me to kill you? Why?”

“I can’t…can’t…do it…my-self. I’ve tried. Please…kill me.”

While the offer was very tempting, it gave a Jaakim a cold shiver that went straight through his body and to his very soul. She tried to commit suicide and failed? How could that be? “Are you trying to trick me?” He looked down at the gold between her legs. “You think if I kill you, whoever owns you will exact his revenge?”

Alena shook her head, her gray hair caked with cum and blood. She lifted her throat as far as she could and pressed it against the sharp blade. Jaakim had heard people beg for death before but not like this, the little Witch wasn’t just trying to end the pain he and his men inflicted upon her, she really meant it. “Kill me…do it. You know…you want to.”

Jaakim considered it for another moment before making his decision. “No, you live, Sister Maggie the Witch. You live so the rest of them know not to cross me.” That was what he said but in his own heart, Jaakim did fear retribution from whatever creature put the irremovable belt on her. It was altogether possible that the owner of the belt would come and have his say once he found out what Jaakim and the others had done to her but it would be better to present him with a live but damaged body than with a corpse. In that respect, Ares and he had much in common. The blade moved from her throat to the ropes on her wrists as he cut the binds and freed her. “Get in here!” he shouted toward the flap of the tent and two men walked inside. “Take her back now; get her out of my sight.” Jaakim grabbed Alena by her long gray hair and hauled her off the torture table, but her legs were so weak she couldn’t stand and she crashed to the sand. “Get up!” he railed and planted his boot in her flank. Alena, holding her side, began to crawl toward the opening. “Whatever you do, don’t touch her again. She’s damaged,
tainted
.” He spat. “But if you ever do this again, Sister Maggie, I won’t hesitate to grant your fondest wish.”

Zeus turned to Ares. “Who is that man?” Ares just stood there, his eyes fixed to the screen, his jaw set tight and, if Zeus didn’t miss his guess, his son’s dark eyes were growing a bit misty.

“Jaakim,” Hades spoke up, “he and all of his men reside with me, compliments of Ares. He destroyed the entire camp yesterday leaving none but a handful of children and clergy alive.”

Zeus opened his mouth but Ares spoke first. “Don’t lecture me, Father. He deserved, they all did. You can see that for yourself.”

Hades nodded in agreement.

“Go forward, a month, maybe two,” Ares advised his Father. “You’ll know it when you see it, Father.”

With a great huffing sigh, Zeus began the task of looking through Alena’s mind once more. A month or so slowly flipped by and then a familiar sight met the eye of all gathered.

On the screen, Eros swept Alena high into the air. She let out a startled cry as her feet unexpectedly left the ground and the water jugs shattered as she dropped them. “You knew I was looking for her, why didn’t you bring her to me?” Zeus spent just over one-hundred years trying to track down Cernunnos’ reluctant bride, ever since the day he first heard of her existence he’d spent nearly every waking hour in his Viewing Room where he could spy upon every single person and every single place on the planet from the safety of Olympus. Zeus scoured the Earth for her convinced that she knew something about Artemis. However, this was most unexpected. Zeus thought Cernunnos might be trying to protect one of his Druids or some favored Mortal, the God of Gods never expected to find Cernunnos himself was the killer. It was unconscionable. Unthinkable.

Now there were conflicting images on the screen: the war torn refugee camp, a ship, an explosion, Alena nearly drowning in the water but at the same time, there were images of Eros and Apollo with her. “You’re right, Ares, as much as it pains me to admit that. Someone has blocked her memories. Apollo, this is your work. I know it.”

Ares gazed at the two Olympians who had given him so much trouble over the course of their lives. “Any answers, brother? My dear loving Son? What did you do to her?”

On the day that he took her away from Ceres Agar, flying her high into the sky, the last thing Eros wanted was to harm Alena. “Nothing,” Eros stammered as he quietly told the story of the first day he saw her gathering water from that mud pit. She was singing as she filled the jugs, it was her voice that first caught his attention, it made him perch in a tall tree and gaze down at her. He was instantly smitten. From that day out, Eros visited in secret almost every day, he hovered high overhead, gazing down, watching, wondering how it would feel to make love to her. She was the first woman to catch his fancy since Psyche. The thought that she now shared his Father’s bed made him ill.

The day came when Eros could wait no longer. He swooped down from the skies and took her away from the dank, dirty and disgusting refugee camp she called ‘home’. At first she was scared, flying so high above the ground, her arms locked around his neck as she clung to him. Large frightened eyes staring up. It wasn’t very long until she started to laugh and look down at the Earth below them. Filled with wonder, the Fey in his arms asked if he could do a loop-the-loop and Eros did, several of them and then a few barrel rolls. Her laughter filled the sky.

He took her to a love-nest he’d built ages ago high in the Italian Alps where they wouldn’t be disturbed. There they had two weeks together before her identity revealed itself to him. Eros was a very patient man when it came to the ways of Love. He enjoyed the chase, the dance, as much as the act itself. Getting to know a woman was the most intimate thing a man could do. He placed no demands on her and she seemed very happy to be away from that camp. In those two weeks, she was everything Eros thought she’d be. Alena warmed up to Eros quite well and he thought that they could have some type of future together. Then she told him about Cernunnos and the belt.

Zeus searched frantically for this woman and Eros simply stumbled upon her. Knowing Zeus intended to use the Fey as bait, Eros was at a loss as to what to do. He didn’t want to see her harmed but he didn’t want to go against his Grandfather. In his search for an answer, Eros did what was probably the worst thing he could have done and enlisted Apollo’s assistance.

Apollo and Eros tried repeatedly but the Fey just kept insisting that she didn’t know what they were talking about. She’d never met Artemis. Apollo’s talent for playing with minds was not as expert as Zeus’. Although he tried to look through her memories, Apollo simply couldn’t open the door to them. “We were going to bring her to you, Grandfather, we just wanted to be sure, that’s all.”

“Really? Then why did you drop her into the ocean and leave her to drown?” Ares began with a soft voice that quickly turned hard as he continued. “You weren’t just trying to get information out of her; you were trying to cover something. What was it, Apollo? What did you do to her?” Eros had neither the heart nor the stomach for violence and certainly never against a woman. Apollo was a different story.

“What do you say to that, Apollo?” Hera inquired, still gazing at the screen. “Your Father can continue looking in her head, break your block. What will we find?”

“She’s a worthless CELT!” Apollo protested boldly. “A stupid little Fey! Why should any of you care what we did with her?”

“What
you
did,” Eros muttered.

“What a fine Family you have here, Father. Liars. Murderers. Thieves. All of them. Good job,” Ares mocked.

“Ares—“

“What?” Ares interjected heatedly. “I am what I am and I make no bones about it. Seems I’m the most honest one among you. Yet it’s I who lives in Exile for crimes you now know for a fact that I did not commit.” For the first time in his life, Ares God of War felt utterly and completely vindicated. “Wake her.”

“Wake? Don’t you want me to finish?” Zeus’ attention was now captive; he wanted to know what Eros and Apollo had been up to while they kept Alena prisoner. He wasn’t concerned about any non-consensual sexual activity that took place. He just wanted to know exactly why they hadn’t brought her to Olympus.