Destined (41 page)

           
He stopped paddling when his boat neared the edge of the lake, letting it glide into the bank.
 
His yellowed teeth were exposed beneath a wide smile.
 
Despite being covered in grime, there was something soothing about Charon.
 
I saw kindness in his brown eyes and no trace of menace in his smile.
 

“Psyche, you’ve finally come to join me,” he said as he held out his weathered, crooked hand.

I smiled back, although weakly, and took his hand as I stepped into the narrow wooden boat.
 
“I don’t plan on staying, but I could use a ride if you don’t mind.”
 

Charon covered his heart with his hand and sighed.
 
“You are as I’ve dreamed. So perfect,” he murmured.
 
“Even Helen didn’t come to me until she was an old woman.
 
But you…”
 
He caressed a strand of my hair between his fingertips. “No wonder Eros didn’t want to give you up.”

That got my attention.
 
I locked eyes with Charon, no longer caring that he was fondling my curls.
 
“What do you mean Eros didn’t want to give me up?”

“Ah, there is so much in the way of the gods that you don’t understand.
 
Do you even know why Eros brought you to him in the first place?”

I shook my head. “Sit,” he said, “I’ll tell you while I paddle.”

“Oh, your coin,” I remembered, opening the little box and taking out a golden coin.

He took it slowly from my fingers and then sniffed it, long and deep.
 
His eyes rolled into the back of his head with pleasure.
 
When he opened them and saw me watching, he explained. “It smells of you and Aphrodite combined.
 
Truly divine.
 
I will … treasure this.”
 
He tucked the coin into a pouch and plunged his staff into the water, pulling us away from the bank.

I sat nervously on a narrow bench at the back of the boat.
 
“About Eros —” I prompted.

“Ah yes. Eros came to you at his mother’s bidding.
 
He was supposed to make you fall in love with a monster.
 
But you bewitched him.”

“That’s impossible. The first time we met, he couldn’t stand me.”

“Don’t be silly. He just didn’t want to be hurt again.” Charon paused again to wipe at his brow. “Anyway,
 
he came to shoot you with one of his arrows, but when he saw you, he simply couldn’t do it.
 
And he nicked himself with the arrow instead.”

Memories flooded back on me. “Then that wasn’t a dream? The archer in the garden was Eros.”
 
I was somehow relieved by this information, like knowing it’d been Eros and not the most deranged prophetic dream ever meant I wasn’t going nuts.
 

But just as quickly, another realization popped in behind that one.
 

“If his arrow…” My lower lip started to tremble and tears welled up in my eyes.
 
I bit my lip hard to stop the teary aqueduct from overflowing.
 
“He didn’t really love me then.
 
Not on his own.
 
It wasn’t real.”

“Does it matter why he loved you?
 
You won the heart of a god.”

“And I lost the heart of a god.
 
If his love wasn’t real to begin with, what chance do I have that he’ll take me back?”

Charon stopped paddling for a moment and looked back at me.
 
“I’d say your chances are better than average.”

“Thanks,” I said, only half believing him.
 
After we sat in silence for a moment, I asked, “What did you mean when you said he didn’t want to give me up?”

“Aphrodite went into a real rampage after you refused her son.
 
First she sicked Eros on you, but that wasn’t enough. So then she promised to send you here to me.
 
Of course, I figured you’d be dead when you arrived.
 
But I think I like you better alive.” His chuckle came out hoarse.
 
“You are heavier this way though.”

“Oh … sorry.”
 
Was I supposed to apologize for not being dead? “Charon, can I ask you, how do you know all of this?”

“I hear things,” he said. “Of course, most of my information came from the gods themselves.”

“So you actually talked to Eros — about me?”

Charon ducked his head as we entered a cave. The light nearly extinguished behind us. I could barely even see Charon just ahead of me in the boat, still pulling us forward. “Eros stood right where you stood on the bank of that lake. You can be sure he was quite angry when I told him his mother intended to send you my way.”

“How long ago was that?” I moved to the edge of my seat, anxious with anticipation.

“It’s been weeks. Before you went to him.”

I dropped my head. So much had changed in the past few weeks. Maybe he hadn’t wanted me dead then, but I still had no clue whether he cared now.
 

Lost in thought, I gazed down at the water, barely visible in the darkness. It sounded like we kept brushing against branches as we slid through the water. I strained my eyes to see what we skimmed against. The water swirled like an inky pool and gray wispy figures began to emerge. Their long, snakelike fingers clawed at the sides of the boat, but had no more effect than if we were brushing past a weed. I watched in horror as their soundless mouths opened in screams and their hazy eyes chased us as we passed.

“Wh…what are those?” I asked, barely able to speak myself.

“You’re no longer in the land of living. Those are shades, lost forever in the Acheron River.”

“I don’t understand. Why aren’t they in the Underworld?”

“No coin,” he answered. “You don’t think I haul dead people down this river for free do you?”

I looked back down again at the shades and watched them slip beneath the water. Like clouds of smoke blown away in a breeze, they disappeared under the surface. “You can’t just leave them here,” I said, scrambling forward in the boat to get closer to Charon. “You must have so many coins already.”

Charon turned on me, rocking the boat more than I liked, and locking me with an icy glare that was visible even through the blackness. I backed cautiously to my seat in the rear of the boat, knowing I’d overstepped some invisible line.

Still.

“Maybe these souls died on the battlefield and weren’t recovered,” I pleaded. “Or maybe they died at sea. Or maybe … maybe their families were just too poor to spare a coin to line your pockets. It’s not fair for you not to take them.”

Charon threw his staff into the boat, where it clattered against the sides. “So now you’re going to tell me how to do my job? Fine. You row the damn boat.” The boat bucked as Charon thumped himself down on the seat.

I sat in stunned silence until the boat bumped against the wall of the cave. Without Charon steering, we were adrift on the river. Never mind that I’d never paddled a boat before, I certainly wasn’t going to sit around in a dark cave waiting for the current to dump us back in the lake.

Reaching forward blindly, I felt around the boat until I grabbed Charon’s staff. The weathered wood felt smooth, almost polished, from the years of use. I plunged the staff into the water, striking the bottom of the river, and used it for balance while I stood. It took all of my weight to move us forward against the current. With a heave, I quickly moved the staff forward, digging again into the silt on the river bottom, and put my weight into pulling us forward.

After just three pulls, I was starting to feel breathless. I didn’t know how much farther we had to go, but I was already doubting I could make it.

“You’re not so light … yourself,” I panted at Charon between breaths.

Charon snickered. “Must be my heavy heart from drowning all those poor souls in the river.”

His sarcasm fueled my determination, giving me strength when I thought I didn’t have any left. “You’re just … a lonely old man,” I heaved. “But not too old … to change your ways.” I paused from my rowing, resting my head against the staff. Charon was looking back at me, waiting. I shoved the boat forward again. “You’re never too old … to change.”

“What do you know about being old? Or about change for that matter?”

“I might not be old … but I know I’ve got some things to change if I make it out of here.” I shoved the boat forward again, but this time it slid to a grating halt.

“Well, what do you know?” Charon asked. “You actually made it the rest of the way. I’m impressed.”

I was so relieved to not be paddling, that I staggered out of the boat and fell backwards into the sand. Sprawled on the cool shore, my chest heaved and my hammering heart slowly returned to a more normal pace.

Charon knelt down beside me. I heard the sand near my ear crunch under his boots. “How about a deal?” he asked. “I’ll promise to start bringing some souls into Hades without coins —
if
they have a good excuse — if you’ll do something for me.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. What choice did I have? Didn’t I owe it to a world full of impoverished shades not to damn them to eternity in a river?
 

“Sure,” I answered.

His calloused fingers closed around mine. “Good. Let’s get going then.” With an easy pull, Charon raised me to my feet and let me go.

I shook my head in confusion as we began walking. “What’s the favor?”

“You’re giving me a vacation while I accompany you through Hades. As the daughter of Aphrodite, I think you’ve got enough clout to get me the afternoon off.”

“That’s it? That’s really all you want from me?”