Fort Morgan (27 page)

“
I told them that we
understood their position,” Seth said. “After all, we don’t know
what condition Sissy will be in when she recovers.”

“
If she recovers,” Ivan
said under his breath.

“
But
Delphie. . .” Bestat said. She glanced at
Seth
and
blushed.

“
Unfortunately, the word
of an Oracle bears no weight when the ballet company is in a
tizzy,” Ivan said.

“
They want to keep you,
Ivan,” Seth said. “I guess in the short time you’ve been there,
you’ve done wonders with the men’s corps. They’d like you to take
over the
corps
.”

“
No more young students,”
Ivan said.

“
It’s a promotion,” Seth
said.

“
I’m no pervert,” Ivan
said. “They can trust their young dancers with me!”

Bestat laughed, and Seth smiled.

“
Why is that funny?” Ivan
asked. “You remember what happened when Sissy was in that horrible
clinic? The first one?”

Nodding, Seth smiled.

“
Why is that funny?”
Ivan’s voice rose in indignation.

“
Because no one in their
right mind would think you were a pervert,” Bestat said. She got up
and moved her daughter onto her hip. She went to him and kissed his
cheek. “It’s funny because it’s so absurd.”

“
You don’t know what has
been said!” Ivan asked.

“
Humans are
so. . .” As if she were speaking
of
a species different from
herself, Bestat sighed.

“
Small-minded
,” Seth said.

Ivan gave a curt nod.

“
We’ll go together,” Seth
said. “My lawyer is meeting us there.”

“
I’d prefer to see Sissy
first,” Ivan said. “Before we go.”

“
Of course,” Bestat
said.

“
Is there time?” Ivan
asked.

“
They wanted this drama,”
Seth said. “Trust me when I say this: They can wait.”

Bestat hugged Ivan, and Seth got up from his
seat.

“
Will you eat?” Bestat
asked.

Ivan shook his head. She gave him a soft
smile. On their way through the kitchen, she pressed a cup of black
coffee into his hands.

“
Thank you,” Ivan
said.

He followed Seth into the secure garage
below, where the limousine waited.

~~~~~~~~

Phoenix, Arizona

“
So,” Mari
said.

She swam across the small, heated pool to
where Otis was lounging in front of massage jets. The pool,
surrounded by trees heavy with stone fruit, was fairy-magic. Mari
had it created to impress Otis. He was impressed.

“
So?” he asked with a
grin.

“
You’re a healer,” Mari
said. “Right?”

“
That’s correct,” Otis
said. “Why do you ask?”

“
I’ve been thinking about
what to do with. . .” Mari gestured in the direction of
where the suite living area should be.

“
Oh?” Otis asked. He
intentionally kept his voice curious but without judgment. “What
were you thinking?”

“
Originally, I planned to
give them a fast-acting plague,” Mari said. “Something very
16
^th
century.”

“
Was that a particularly
good era for plague?” Otis asked.

Mari grinned, and he smiled.

“
Any era is a good
age
for plague,”
Mari said. “Except maybe this one.”

“
Why is that?” Otis
asked.

“
Vaccination has taken the
punch out of a good plague,” Mari said.

“
Yes, I imagine that’s
true,” Otis said. “Of course, in America, it’s becoming common not
to vaccinate children.”

“
It gives me hope,” Mari
said.

“
Hope?”

“
For a good plague,” Mari
said. “You know, the Antionne plague was likely to have been caused
by the measles virus.”

“
Ah,” Otis said. “I get
your point.”

“
Two thousand deaths a day
in Rome?” Mari smiled. “Every day! More than nine million dead all
together. It wiped out their entire armies and two
emperors!”

“
Sounds awful.” Otis shook
his head at Mari.

“
It was,” Mari’s smile
fell. “Horrible. But
apparently
human beings want to return
to plague days. Imagine, a third of the population
is. . .”

“
At least two billion
people,” Otis said.

Mari nodded.

“
Were you. . .
there?” Otis asked.

“
Oh, God, no,” Mari said.
“Mother would never let me that near sick humans. Plus, truth be
told, that kind of thing breaks my heart. All those dead children.
I’m not as heartless as I pretend to be.”

She shook her head and looked away.

“
Yes,” Otis said. “Breaks
my heart, as well. I’ve never been able to tolerate the suffering
of children.”

She glanced at him and smiled. She gave him
a nudge, and he moved over to share the massage jets. He reached
for her hand and interlaced their fingers.

“
I’m enjoying our time
together,” Otis said.

She leaned against him.

“
Why plague?” Otis
asked.

“
This hotel allows
horrible things to happen under its roof,” Mari nodded. “A good
plague would shut it down for a while.”

“
Oh,
I see,” Otis said. “The plague would draw the
authorities who would, in turn, uncover the depravity.”

Mari nodded.

“
I like the way you
think,” Otis said.

“
It occurred to me that
your son. . .”

“
Yes, he would
quickly
overcome
a plague,” Otis said. “Which one were you thinking?”

“
Bubonic,” Mari said.
“Disgusting disease. Bloody, too. I could enhance it so that those
men die in a couple of hours.”

“
Rather than a day?” Otis
asked. “That is fast.”

“
Exactly,” Mari
said.

“
My son would not be
affected,” Otis said.

“
Even an enhanced
virus?”

Otis shook his head.

“
Shoot,” Mari
said.

She stared at the wall in front of her for a
moment.

“
If I
cut off
his. . .”
Mari gestured below the water.

“
Heal back,” Otis
said.

“
Even if I take it or
destroy it?” Mari asked.

“
Even if,” Otis said.
“Trust me. The
Bratva
tried all of this on my older sons. Outside of a
bit of pain, there was no
long-term
consequence.”

“
Wow.”

“
Of course, that was more
fun for the Bratva,” Otis said. “But a fairy princess such as
yourself has better things to do than kill and torture a human for
a few years.”

Mari scowled and looked away. After a few
moments, she sighed and looked at him.

“
What finally worked?”
Mari asked.

“
Worked?” Otis
asked.

“
With your sons,” Mari
said.

“
They quartered them, and
then chopped off their heads and gutted them like pigs,” Otis said.
“Then, they took the entrails and head away. It was too much trauma
for any healer to overcome.”

Otis nodded.

“
Messy business,” he said.
“Brutal.”

“
It doesn’t sound like
fun,” Mari said.

Otis nodded.

“
I was hoping to have
fun,” Mari said.

“
I do have an idea,” Otis
said.

Otis glanced at her. She scowled for a
moment before giving him a “go ahead” nod. He smiled and told her
his idea. She grinned. The next thing he knew, they were standing
next to a table laden with his favorite foods and a bounty of wine.
He was dressed in a tux and tails, and she was wearing a sheer
maroon lace evening gown.

“
What’s this?” Otis
asked.

“
A little celebration,”
Mari said.

He held out a chair for her, and she sat
down. He went around the table to sit across from her. She smiled
when he sat down.

“
So it is done?” Otis
asked.

“
Not yet,” Mari said. “But
soon.”

“
You’ll let me
know?”

“
Of course,” Mari said and
poured the red wine.

~~~~~~~~

Olympia

“
You would deny Heather’s
children their mother
simply
because you dislike Eros?”
Jill’s voice rose with disgust.

“
Of course, he would,”
Jill’s grandmother, Eurybia said in a low tone.

“
I am Zeus,” her
twin,
Crius
,
said
in an imitation of Zeus.

“
I am Zeus!” the man on
the throne yelled. “I can do as I please.”

Crius and Eurybia snickered.

“
I can make sure that you
are not Zeus!” Tanesha held up the juice bottle full of serpent
dust.

“
Husband,” Hera
said.

She put her hand on his arm and he looked at
her. The court fell silent. While the rulers gazed at each other,
Jill’s grandparents moved closer to Jill. Hecate, Jill’s
step-sister, shifted to stand just behind Tanesha, and Perses’
first wife, Asteria, walked to his side. Asteria and Hecate shot
Zeus of look of sheer loathing.

“
Why are they
so. . .?” Jill whispered.

“
Zeus tried to have his
way with Asteria,”
Crius
said.

“
Ever wonder how he ended
up in the Sea of Amber?” Eurybia asked.

Jill glanced at her father’s parents and
they were pointing at each other. Noting Jill’s surprise, the twins
laughed. Hera shot them a dark look, and they stopped laughing.

“
Sire,” Hera said. “It’s a
small thing to allow Hedone to return to Denver. As you said,
h
uman
life is short. She will be back before you even miss
her.”

“
What if she lived in both
worlds?” Jill asked.

“
Now who’s a meddling
elf?” Eurybia
asked
in a gleeful voice.

Zeus turned his attention to Jill.

“
Love does belong in the
world, nephew,” Crius said.

“
If we hide it away here
in Olympia, the human world will be without love,” Eurybia said
with a sly smile.

Jill scowled. She
was
reasonably
sure the twins were involved in this hearing primarily as a
way to antagonize Zeus. The ruler cleared his face in such a way to
indicate that this fact was not lost on him.

“
Surely, you remember what
happened the last time you took love out of the world?” Hecate
asked.

The entire court turned their attention to
Perses’ oldest daughter. As if he were looking at a bug, Zeus
squinted at the Goddess.

“
I do,” a voice came from
the crowd.

“
Who said that?” Zeus’s
head jerked up to review the crowd.

“
I remember.” A young
woman stood up from the crowd.

She had a quiver of arrows strapped across
her chest and she carried a bow. Eurybia gave her a little wave,
and the woman returned with a slight curtsy.

“
I remember what happened
the last time you took love from the world,” a young man
said.

He stood next to the woman. They were
wearing the same orange color of clothing. When he shifted to her,
it was clear they were lovers.

“
Orion,” Eurybia whispered
to Jill. “He’s incredibly handsome, don’t you think? A real
star.”

Jill squinted. The woman
with the arrows and her lover looked oddly familiar to her. A man
with a laurel wreath on his head like a crown stood. He and the
woman with the arrows exchanged a grin. Also wearing orange
clothing, he was an identical replica of the
woman
. He raised a handsome
eyebrow at Zeus and a nod to say that he remembered what happened
when Zeus had taken love from the world.

“
Which time?” a
Scottish-accented voice came from the end of the crowd. A muscular
man carrying a trident stood. “And you do, too!”

He shook the trident at Zeus, who looked
away.

“
Come on,
ya
cowards!” the
man said. “You, Dionysus, cried on
me
shoulder for years until the twins
took care of it!”

One at a time, the Gods and Goddesses rose
to their feet until they stood together.

“
War, strife, suffering!”
A woman jumped from the stands to the floor of the court. Both sets
of twins applauded her effort. “Human beings killed each other in
droves while we sat idle because you were sick of Eros.”

“
Athena!” Zeus rose from
his seat. “You dare to confront me in open court?”