The Gatekeeper's Daughter (11 page)

As they waited in line, they chatted and watched the people walking up and down the street, Therese still paranoid by the appearance of the twins. Deimos and Phobos wouldn’t dare take her from a crowd of
movie-going mortals would they? What about from a dark theater? She shuddered. Across from them was a café, and further over, a grocer, both well-lit and bustling with activity. The afternoon shower had left behind a residual coolness to the air, and Jen crowded close to her, warming herself with Therese’s body heat. She heard Jen direct a prayer her way: “I’m so cold, Therese. Keep me warm.”

Therese flinched, wondering if her friend knew she was communicating with her. Surely not, she thought, putting an arm around her, happy to have contact with a mortal.
“Cold?”

Jen nodded.

A man walked by with his dog, a golden boxer with a brown head. Therese noticed them because the dog was muttering, “So unfair. So unfair.”

Therese wondered what the dog meant. Testing her new abilities to communicate with animals, she sent a thought out toward the dog. “What’s not fair?”

He looked at her with surprise, stopping in his tracks, and gave one short, desperate yelp. Therese understood it to mean, “My man beats me.”

Therese gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Jen asked.

“Look at that dog. He looks so sad.”

Just then the man holding the leash jerked the dog, saying in a gruff voice, “Come on, you idiot. What are you stopping for?”

Jen and Therese exchanged looks of concern.

“He’s a jerk,” Jen said.

Therese watched the dog and his man continue down the street, wishing she could shoot an arrow into the man’s heart and make him love his dog.

In the darkened theater in the middle of the center row, Therese sat between Jen and Pete, pretending to be interested in the bucket of popcorn in her lap, which the three of them were sharing.  Courtney sat on the other side of Jen, with Ray and then Todd on the end. At first, Therese was disappointed she wasn’t closer to Ray and Todd, since she hadn’t seen them much this summer, but she realized not far into the movie that it didn’t matter where she was sitting. All she could think about was piercing Pete. Her arrow of hate should neutralize Cupid’s arrow of love so that when Pete looked at her, he would feel indifference. There was a chance the hate would be stronger than the love, since it would be the fresher wound. She fidgeted in her chair and mopped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her sleeve.

Her plan was to ask him to walk her to her door and then, when they were alone, she’d shoot him at such a high speed that mortal eyes couldn’t detect it. Then she’d tell him she was getting back with Than and wait for his response. Hopefully he’d shrug and walk away.

When the time finally came and Pete was pulling into her gravelly drive, she said, “Pete, would you mind walking me to the door?”

“I’ll walk you,” Jen offered.

“Thanks, Jen, but I need to talk to Pete. Call me later. Maybe you can sleep over tomorrow.”

Jen wrinkled her brow. “O-kay.” Her tone carried a hint of sarcasm.

Pete turned off his truck and followed Therese to the base of the wooden steps leading up to her screened porch.

“Pete, I…” before she could say another word, he took her in his arms.

“Oh, Therese.
I knew you’d come around.” He showered her with kisses.

She pulled back, a bit too forcefully, forgetting her god-strength.

“Whoa,” he said, stumbling back.

“I’m so sorry. I just want to talk.” She whipped out the invisible, collapsible bow from her purse and cocked it in position. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“What are you doing?”

Therese took the arrow from her back pocket and fitted it into the bow in less time that it took to take a breath. As she released the arrow into his chest, afraid of the finality of whatever consequences lay ahead, Jen ran up from behind him.

“Pete!”

“No!” Therese cried.

Pete turned toward Jen as soon as the invisible arrow struck, his eyes falling upon his sister.

“What do you want?” he growled at Jen. “You’re interrupting!”

Jen stopped in her tracks and looked at Pete, bewildered. “What? Mom’s been trying to get a hold of me. I’ve got a ton of missed calls from her.”

“All our problems would be solved if you’d just go away.”

Therese staggered forward. “Wait.” Now what would she do? She couldn’t have Pete hating his own sister. And she couldn’t pierce him with a love arrow in Jen’s presence and risk him desiring her. Her father was bad enough. Oh, god! She prayed to Than and to Cupid as the two siblings yelled at one another. What have I done?

“Take another arrow,” Than prayed back. Then he appeared beside her, invisible to the others. “Tell Jen to wait for you in your room upstairs and pierce him again as he looks upon you.” He disappeared, leaving her with the arrow in her trembling hand.

“Jen, Pete’s upset.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Jen snapped.

“Leave him alone for now. Wait for me in my room.”

“He’s never talked to me like that before. God, Pete. How can you say that to me?”

“Please,” Therese begged. “Go to my room so we can talk. I’ll be right there.”

“Get out of here, Jen!” Pete hollered. “I can’t stand the sight of you.”

Jen wiped tears from her red cheeks as she ran up the porch steps. “Shut up already!”

Therese waited until Jen was out of sight. Then she fitted the new arrow to the bow and shot Pete once more. “Look at me, Pete!”

He wore a sneer, like a hungry wolf.

“Than and I are together again. It’s for good this time. I just wanted you to know that.”

Pete stomped toward his truck, snarling as he passed her, “Why don’t you two bitches stay out of my life, okay? I’m sick of all the drama.”

He drove off, leaving Therese stunned in the dark night. At least he no longer loved her. She heard a twig snap in the forest and rushed inside. The house was dark except for the small light over the kitchen sink. Carol and Richard must have already gone to bed. She went down the basement stairs to the garage to make sure Richard’s car was back. Yep. Thank goodness they were alright. She headed up the stairs to her room, thinking it was good she wouldn’t be alone tonight. She and Jen both needed one another’s company but for different reasons.

Jen sat slumped on Therese’s bed with a wad of tissues in her hand. Her eyes were swollen, her nose red. “Can you believe he said those things to me?”

Therese sat on the bed across from her. She couldn’t let Jen think her brother hated her. Then she recalled what Hip had once told her: people have free will. The arrows only make stronger a feeling already
present. Maybe Pete really did blame Jen for their family problems. If so, he was a jerk.

No. He couldn’t have meant what he’d said. Therese knew Pete. “He didn’t mean it. He was just mad and taking it out on you.”

Jen wrapped her arms around herself, shivering like a wet cat. “He’s never talked to me like that. He’s been plenty mad before. What did you say to him?”

“That Than and I are back together for good. I thought he needed to hear it from me.”

Jen sighed. “I need to call my mom. Can I sleep over?”

“Of course.”
It would mean Than would have to stay away, but she was probably safer with Jen, anyway. Deimos and Phobos wouldn’t take her in the dead of night if she were lying by a mortal, would they? She doubted she would sleep.

“Broken heart or not, he shouldn’t have said those things to me.” Jen kicked off her boots and piled them in the corner of the room.

“I’m so sorry, Jen. There’s something else you need to know.”

Chapter Sixteen: Amphisbaena

The cool chill of night in Athens lingered in the air and wrapped its long fingers around
Than, as though wanting to deter him from visiting Amphisbaena. The sacred caves in the underbelly of the acropolis smelled acrid and dank, and for once Than was glad his immortal senses weren’t as sensitive to stimuli as mortal ones. With heavy boots, he trudged into the first of the caves searching for signs of the serpent dragon.

He could sense her presence, but couldn’t pinpoint her exact location as he stole silently over the rocky cavern floor. A thin ribbon of water, stagnant and foul, divided the ground in half. Than straddled it as he followed it to the back of the cave. The first chamber opened onto a second, larger one, the size of an auditorium. He unsheathed his sword as he glanced around the cliff edges above him, feeling the serpent close. A billow of fire shot across the top of the cavern, and the residue of smoke lingering behind spelled, “I see you, Thanatos.”

“Amphisbaena? I just want to talk,” he said into the darkness.

Another flash of fire illuminated the cavern ceiling, and this time the smoke remaining spelled out, “Drop your sword.”

Than gripped the hilt, fearing a trap. If he didn’t drop it, he’d have to take her by force. “Can I trust you?”

The fire shot in a blaze above him, and the smoke read, “One says yes. Two says no.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He waited for the fire, but when none came, he put down the sword. His fingers had barely left the hilt when the serpent darted from her lair and wrapped her thick, slimy body, at least a foot in diameter, around him, binding his arms to his sides. No matter how hard he pressed
his arms against her, he couldn’t get free of her ever-tightening grip. He disintegrated and grabbed his sword and was about to slice the serpent in two when a spider, the size of his skull, jumped on the end of the sword and spun a cocoon around him, trapping him. He disintegrated once more, in time to see the spider leap in all directions, from one side of the cavern wall to the next, weaving a web around the serpent. The moment he realized the spider was Athena, the web was cinched and the two heads of the serpent drawn tightly together. Fire spewed through the air from both dragon heads.

Athena transformed from the spider and commanded, “Release Thanatos.”

Amphisbaena loosened her coiling body, and Than god traveled out while his third self cut his second self free of the cocoon. Then he integrated and faced Athena, sword in hand.

“I don’t want her slain,” Athena explained. “I’ve grown fond of her, and her screams would torment me.”

“She’s immortal, though, yes?”

“Yes. Unlike her mother,” Athena replied. “Nevertheless, I intervened to protect her, not you. But I will help you get your answer.”

“Why? Do you need something from me?”

“No. I only want peace among the gods. Hand me Apollo’s elixir.”

Than tugged at the leather strap around his neck and tossed the vial to Athena, who caught it and poured it into one of Amphisbaena’s mouths.

“Ask your question,” Athena said.

Than took a step toward the serpent. “Amphisbaena, do you know where Hippolyta’s golden girdle is?”

Fire shot from both heads. The smoke on the right side read, “One says yes.” The smoke from the left read, “Two says yes.”

“Good. That’s great,” Than said. “Where? Where is it?”

The fire came again. The smoke on the right read, “One says Crimea.”
The smoke from the left read, “Two says Samsun.”

Than narrowed his eyes. “But those cities are in two different regions. Crimea is part of the Ukraine. Samsun is on the northern tip of Turkey. Which is it, Amphisbaena?”

When the fire cleared, the smoke repeated the same message: “One says Crimea. Two says Samsun.”

Than scratched his chin. “Is the girdle in someone’s possession?”

The smoke that lingered read, “One says no. Two says no.”

“Is it underground, lost among ruins?”

“One says water. Two says water.”

“The golden girdle is underwater?”

“One says yes. Two says yes.”

Than looked at Athena. “So the girdle is underwater near the shore of either Crimea or Samsun? That narrows it down, I suppose.”

“Perhaps Poseidon can help.”

“Yes. Good idea.”

Chapter Seventeen: Mr. Holt

Before Therese could tell Jen what was on her mind, Carol burst through the door.

“It’s a girl! You’re going to have a sister!”

Therese jumped from her bed, a surge of joy sweeping over her.
“A sister?”