A Taste of Greek (Out of Olympus #3) (22 page)

“The mood my dear uncle is in right now, he won’t listen,” Triton said.

“I agree.” Eros made a grimace. “And there’s no place in heaven or on earth that will protect you from Zeus’s wrath.”

Hermes pushed off the counter and stood next to her, taking her hand. “You’re freaking her out, guys. So stop it.”

But Eros was on a roll. “But it’s true, and she needs to hear it. She stopped Olympus in its tracks for days. No one has ever grounded the gods before. It cannot go unpunished.”

“Thanks, Eros,” Hermes said dryly. “I appreciate your candor. But I’m the one who left his shoes so . . . accessible. She was just curious.”

Eros’s eyebrows rose in concert with Triton’s. Penny gave Hermes a sideways glance. Why was Hermes making excuses for her?

Sophia braced her hands at her hips. “All of you: stop! It doesn’t matter how it happened. It happened. So let’s deal with it. Put your heads together and figure out a solution. How do we get Penny out of this mess and, at the same time, satisfy Zeus?”

Penny couldn’t help but admire the woman. She seemed so strong and stood up to the three gods in her presence. She scanned her memory of Greek mythology and couldn’t remember ever having heard of a Greek goddess by the name of Sophia, though Sophia was honored as a goddess of wisdom by the Gnostics. Did this mean Sophia was mortal?

“Right,” Hermes agreed.

“I really don’t see how,” Triton added.

Hermes glared at him. “You’re not helping.”

“Maybe Hera will help. She’s the mother goddess after all!” Eros suggested.

Hermes huffed. “She wouldn’t even help me find my sandal. I called her a few hours ago, and she got all pissy with me. We’re out of luck with her.”

“Well, Penny can’t stay here,” Triton said firmly, tossing her an apologetic look. “As much as I’d like to offer you shelter, not even our collective powers could protect you from Zeus. Not even if I called Dionysus back to help us.”

“Dionysus?” she echoed and turned to Hermes. “You mean your friend Dio?”

Hermes nodded. “The very same.”

“I’ve met the god of wine?” She was still trying to wrap her head around all the revelations. How could she not have made the connections? In hindsight, the truth had stared her in the face all along. “Why didn’t I see this?”

“See what?” Hermes asked.

Penny motioned to him and his friends. “All of this. I should have seen it. It’s all so obvious now: your name and the names of your friends, the fact that Zeus looked so young, you telling me you were in the messenger business. And both of you speaking Ancient Greek, when nobody speaks it anymore. Even the name of this place: Olympus Inn. There were so many signs.” She suddenly remembered the torrential rainstorm on the day she’d first met Hermes. “And that first day. Remember when we met in the coffee shop?”

Hermes nodded, his eyes perusing her curiously.

“I was walking behind you and Triton when the rain started, but then you guys were suddenly gone, and when I saw you again, you were sitting in the coffee shop, dry as a bone!”

Triton and Hermes exchanged a grin. “Ah, that!” Hermes admitted. “We have a way of drying ourselves with our powers.”

Triton chuckled. “Comes in darn handy too, considering Zeus has been pretty pissed lately and likes to let his bad temper out in the form of torrential rain and thunderstorms.”

Eros moved closer. “Hate to interrupt the conversation, but Zeus can teleport in here anytime and whisk away your pretty lady from right under your nose, so we’d better come up with a plan fast.”

“What about Hades?” Sophia asked all of a sudden.

“What about him?” Eros said.

Sophia leaned forward. “Isn’t Hades’ Underworld the only place nobody can teleport in and out of? Including Zeus? He couldn’t just waltz into the underworld.”

Penny’s eyes widened in shock. “Hades’ Underworld?” That’s where they wanted her to go?

“Your wife’s a genius!” Eros proclaimed, looking at Triton who grinned back.

“I know.” He put his arm around Sophia and pulled her against his body. “That’s why I married her.” He paused. “Among other things.”

Hermes scratched his head. “It could work. Only, Hades and I didn’t part in a good way last time I was down there.”

“No,” Penny protested. “You can’t just dump me in the underworld and let me burn there for eternity.”

“Would you rather be crushed to death?” Triton asked.

“Well, let me see,” Penny said full of sarcasm, tapping her chin with her index finger. “Instant death or burning for an eternity in the underworld? Gee, I don’t know what I like more.” She paused for a moment. “Yeah, I know: none of the above.”

“You wouldn’t burn,” Hermes said, his lips twisting into a grin.

“At least not for an eternity,” Triton added.

Hermes rolled his eyes at his friend. “Let me handle this, will you?” Then he turned to her, taking both her hands into his. The action settled her pounding heart by a fraction. “Hades isn’t all that bad. And neither is the underworld. Even if it’s a little clogged up at the moment.”

Triton raised his eyebrows.

“Okay more than a little. But that might actually come in handy. With the ferry service on strike, there’s no way for Zeus to cross Styx if he made his way to the underworld. He’d be waiting just like everybody else. We’d be safe from him.”

“We?” Penny asked.

“Of course we. I can’t send you down to the underworld alone. I thought you knew your mythology. What they say about Hades and his appetite for women is true. If I sent you down there on your own, he’d drag you into his bed in no time.”

Shock coursed through her. “But I would never—”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re no match for his powers. And I’m not going to give him an opportunity to try them out on you.”

Penny heard the sharp edge in Hermes’ voice and locked eyes with him. Hermes’ eyes blazed at her. Was that jealousy she saw glinting in them? She had to be mistaken.

“If Hades lays one hand on you, may the Gods help him, because I’m going to have his hide.”

“You’d better get ready right now,” Eros suggested.

Hermes turned to Triton. “Where’s my other sandal?”

“Upstairs in the apartment. I’ll get it for you.”

Within a second, the second sandal suddenly lay on the kitchen island.

“Thanks.” Hermes released her hands, slipped out of his shoes and put his sandals on. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

“But, I’ve got to pack. And Grams, I’ll have to tell her,” Penny protested.

“No time for that. I’ll get you everything you need once we’re down there. As for your grandmother, Sophia will make sure her nurse will take care of her.”

Penny shot a pleading look to Sophia.

Sophia smiled back at her. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she’s taken care of.”

“And work? What am I going to tell them?” Penny asked, turning back to Hermes.

He shrugged. “That you’re on a field trip?” He smiled. “We’ll figure it out later. Besides, there’s really no saying how long it will be until this blows over.” Hermes took her hand into his.

“Okay then,” she said reluctantly. “How are we gonna get there?”

Hermes chuckled. “We’re teleporting.”

Confused, Penny wrinkled her forehead. “But didn’t Sophia just say you can’t teleport into the underworld?”

“That’s true, but we’re only teleporting to the entrance. Now hold on to me.” He pulled her into his arms.

Warmth seeped into her body, but before she could enjoy the sensation, everything around her went dark.

31

The foreign sensations flooding her body were overwhelming her. All Penny could do was hold on to the only thing that seemed to be solid and strong during the flight through darkness: Hermes. Her arms clamped tightly around his back as she tried to ignore the feeling of weightlessness which, while not unpleasant, made her feel out of control. And she’d never liked the feeling of not being in control of her body, her feelings, or herself.

“Open your eyes, Penny.” Hermes’ soothing voice drifted to her ears.

Only now did she realize that she’d closed her eyes, and quickly opened them, adjusting them to her new surroundings. She sniffed. The scent of oil was strong and unpleasant.

“Where are we?”

She looked past Hermes’ shoulders and spotted a commercial-sized boiler.

He released her and motioned to the wall behind her. “The entrance to Hades lies behind this wall.”

“This is the entrance to Hades’ Underworld?” she asked doubtfully.

“One of them. There are many others, located not just in casinos like this one, but also inside McDonalds, Disney World, and not to forget Congress: there’s a major entrance in the Capitol building.”

Her mouth gaped open as she tried to digest the information. She looked at the wall and searched for a door or an opening, but there was none. “But how are we going to get the underworld from here? I don’t see a door.”

He grinned. “We’ll walk through it. Come.”

Penny clasped his outstretched hand, but couldn’t hide her doubtful look. “You sure about that?”

“I’ve done it a million times.”

He led her closer and took one step forward. His foot disappeared in the wall as if it were a mere optical illusion.

“Now you,” he instructed, pulling on her hand.

Hesitantly, she stepped forward, dipping her foot into the wall. There was no resistance. Her foot disappeared just as Hermes’ had, even though she could still feel it. To make sure, she pulled it back out, and her foot was still intact.

“Oh my god! That’s amazing,” she said, looking at Hermes. “But doesn’t that mean anybody can just get in there?”

He shook his head. “Only if you’re a dead soul or accompanied by a god will you be able to get through the wall. For all others, it remains solid.”

Curious now, she took another step forward, and a moment later, she and Hermes had cleared the wall and stood on the other side of it. What she saw made her jolt backwards. But Hermes held her hand firmly and didn’t let her escape.

“I thought you said I wouldn’t burn!” She pointed toward the burning river in front of her.

“It’s just PR! Hades is all for blood and gore. He thinks it has curb appeal having a burning river at the entrance. It’s not real,” Hermes assured her.

“Could have fooled me,” she said dryly, still not moving any closer toward it. “That thing is hot. I can feel the heat from here.

Hermes chuckled and pointed toward the fire. “Heating vents blowing hot air in our direction so that the illusion appears real.”

Penny shook her head, still not believing where she was. “This is all so unreal.”

He tugged at her hand and pulled her toward the fiery river. “Reality is relative.” With an encouraging smile, he led her to the fire, then simply stepped inside the same way he’d walked into the wall, pulling her with him.

No flames licked at her body; no heat scorched her skin. By the time her brain realized those facts, they had already reached the other side.

“The River Styx,” Hermes announced, and waved his hand toward the raging waterway.

As far as the eye could see, people stood in long lines along the riverbank. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of them. They looked miserable and confused. Splashing sounds in the water drew her eyes to it. She blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t imagining things, but she saw correctly: faces, twisted in misery, struggled to keep above the surface of the water.

“Oh my god,” Penny muttered as fear slammed into her.

“Ah, yeah, the ones in the water are the impatient ones. They couldn’t wait for their turn on the ferry,” Hermes explained and pointed at the long line.

“But they’re drowning. Look!” She pointed to the souls losing their battle against the raging river.

“Nobody can die in the underworld, though the ones who drown in the river will become slave laborers.”

She gasped. “To do what?”

Hermes pointed toward the beginning of the long line where a ferry was docked. “They’ll be manning the oars of the galley for eternity, ferrying the other souls across.”

She squinted and could now see the openings on the lower deck of the ship from which long oars protruded. At the same time she noticed the vendors on this side of the river, selling ice cream, churros, and other snacks.

“How are they paying for the snacks, or for the ferry for that matter? Mythology says there’s a fee to cross.”

Hermes smiled. “That’s right. We take Visa and MasterCard.”

“But those are dead souls. They can’t take credit cards with them. And even if they could, their loved ones have probably already cancelled their accounts.”

He nodded at her astute thinking. “Yes and no. There’s a grace period. Until their mortal body is actually buried or cremated, they may use any of the funds they possessed while alive. They’ll receive a virtual credit card when they arrive here, but it vanishes the moment their body is buried or cremated. So time is of the essence.”

“What happens if they don’t cross in time?”

“They’re stuck on this side of the river.”

She looked around. “Doesn’t look too bad. There’s food.” She craned her neck. “Is that a bar?”

“Yes, but remember they’ll have no more money to spend. On the other side of Styx, all their needs are taken care of—for free.”

“Oh no, what will happen to those who run out of money and can’t cross?”

“They’ll join the slave laborers on the ferry . . . ”

“. . . manning the oars for eternity,” she completed his sentence, understanding dawning.

Hermes took her hand. “Now let’s visit Hades.”

Hermes drew her back into his arms, and a second later she lost the ground under her feet and felt herself lifted high up in the air. It was different from when he’d teleported them earlier. There was less movement, and she felt more stable, despite the knowledge that they were hovering several feet above the ground. She kept her eyes open, not wanting to miss anything. Hell, she was flying! Or rather, Hermes was flying, and she was holding onto him for dear life.

Her fear slowly dissipated and another feeling took root instead: excitement. She was actually in Hades’ Underworld! She was in a place no living soul had ever seen. As a professor of Greek mythology, she could appreciate this despite the odd circumstances that had brought her here. She could finally see the very things close-up that she’d only read about in books. She saw things others in her field only dreamed of.