The Gatekeeper's House (10 page)

“
Every aspect of the world
or humanity is served by the gods. There’s a god or goddess for
love, peace, war, hate, wisdom, healing, the sea, the sky, the
underground—you name it. I’m the god of sleep.”

If Hip was a god, his brother was, too,
and that explained a lot about what was happening with Therese. It
also explained the crown. It was the crown that finally helped her
to at least try to believe.

“
Never mind,” Hip said with
a sigh. “You’re one of those mortals who can’t handle the
truth.”

“
I can, too,” she insisted,
though her chattering teeth might have indicated
otherwise.

He turned and sought her eyes. She was
surprised by the smile that stretched across his face. He held out
his hand, and she took it, though her own hand was trembling like a
drug junkie in need of a fix.

“
The god of sleep, huh?” she
asked. “Then shouldn’t I be falling asleep in front of
you?”

“
I’m not serving at this
moment. I’m in mortal form. My godly form would be too much for
your mortal eyes.”

“
Oooh. Too much for my
eyes,” she teased.

“
It would kill
you.”

She looked him over from top to bottom.
He sure was hot enough to be a god. “The god of sleep, huh?” she
repeated. “So what does that make your brother?”

He gave her a wary glance. “The god of
death.”

She stopped again in her tracks as her
mouth fell open. “But Therese…”

“
Let me take you to her,
okay?”

“
To Therese?”

“
If you can handle it, that
is.”

Jen sucked in her lips and squeezed his
hand. She gave him a nod. “I can.”

Chapter Eight:
Mistakes

Tizzie appeared beside Meg in Than’s
chambers, her black serpentine hair hissing wildly. Blood mixed
with tears and slid down her cheeks. Than rarely saw his sister
looking so distraught.

“
What is it?” Than
asked.

“
The Malevolent has breached
the gates,” Tizzie reported with a look of anguish on her face.
“And she’s just freed Medusa from my custody.”

For a moment, Than thought he must be
in the Dreamworld. This couldn’t be possible otherwise.

“
How could that happen?” Meg
demanded.

“
Her power overwhelmed me,”
Tizzie replied, unable to look her brother and sister in the eye.
“She must have someone helping her.”

Who would be working with the
Malevolent?

Than squeezed Tizzie’s shoulders.
“Where’s Father? He won’t answer me.”

“
No one’s supposed to know
this,” Tizzie started. “But he’s gone to Mount Olympus to bring
back Mother. Apparently Cybele said something during her
interrogation that made retrieving Mother his first
priority.”

“
Where’s Cybele now?” Than
asked.

“
Alecto is with her in
Father’s sitting room,” Tizzie replied.

Than disintegrated and
dispatched to question Cybele. But to his sisters, he said,
“
Our
priority is to
recapture the Malevolent. Agreed?”

“
Agreed,” his sisters
replied.

***

Therese fell on Hecate’s bed, flat on
her belly, and buried her face and cried.

Clifford jumped onto the bed and licked
nervously at her ear. “What’s happened?”

“
Therese?” Hecate called
from her comfy chair across the room. “Therese, honey, talk to
us.”

Therese rolled onto her side on the bed
to see Hecate standing over her, Cubie’s paws on the bedside, and
Galin, who’d been napping near the bath, with her head stretched up
in concern. Clifford nuzzled her hand with his head.

“
I’ve ruined everything,”
Therese confessed. “Than doesn’t think I love him.” She covered her
face and returned to her belly. She missed having her own room
where she could have a good cry without an audience, without
worrying about how she must look to others.

“
Listen to me.” Hecate sat
on the edge of the bed. “You can’t just lie here and cry about
this. You can do something. Think about what company you’re
in.”

Therese rolled over and sat up as
Hecate continued, feeling even more pathetic.

“
Look at my sweet polecat
over there. All Galin wanted to do was help Alcmene deliver
Hercules. Alcmene had been in labor for days. Hera had convinced
the Fates to keep their arms crossed to prevent Hercules from being
born, but poor Galin thought Alcmene would go mad with the labor
pains. So Galin courageously deceived the Fates by announcing that
a son had been born. The Fates held up their arms in surprise, and
Hercules was born.

“
The Fates were embarrassed
when they learned of the deception, and they changed Galin into
what she is today, but first they cut off her female parts and
warned her that if she ever gave birth, it would be through her
throat!” Hecate gritted her teeth. “To this day, I refuse to have
anything to do with those three old gambling witches. But look at
Galin. Even after all that, she’s found a purpose here with
me.”

Therese shuddered, recalling her visit
with the Fates last year. If she’d known what they were capable of,
the cruelty…she shuddered again.

Galin jumped into her mistress’s
lap.

“
We have a good life
together, don’t we, Galin?”

“
Yes,” the weasel said. “It
made me sad to hear you retell my story, but if it hadn’t happened,
I wouldn’t be with you. I’m happier than I’ve ever
been.”

Cubie moved closer to the pair and
nudged Galin’s paw. “The same goes for me.”

“
And you’re next,” Hecate
said. “I hope that’s alright with you, Cubie. You’re story always
brings you to tears.”

“
Go ahead and tell it,” the
Doberman said with a sigh.

Therese wiped her eyes, and Clifford
climbed into her lap as they listened to Hecate.

“
Cubie was once called
Hecuba. And she was married to Priam, the King of Troy. They
had—what was it, Cubie, nineteen children?”

“
Yes. Nineteen.”

“
You’ve probably heard of
them—Hector, Paris, Cassandra…”

“
Oh, of the Trojan War?”
Therese asked. “Like in
The Iliad
and
The
Odyssey
?”

“
That’s right,” Hecate
said.

“
I lost all of my children
because of that war.” Cubie’s eyes flooded with tears.

Therese knew something about
loss, but she couldn’t imagine losing nineteen children. Plus,
she’d read
The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
in her last year of high school, and she remembered how brutal
the battle was and how valiantly Hector fought. She shuddered and
wondered why people had to kill one another rather than negotiate a
compromise.

“
After the war, Odysseus
took her as his slave,” Hecate said. “And he was unkind to
her.”

Odysseus, unkind? Then again, back
then, women were considered spoils of war. They were property that
could be won and lost and bargained for.

“
A god took pity on me and
turned me into a dog, so I could fight back Odysseus and escape,”
Cubie said. “At first I was miserable and alone and afraid, but
then Hecate took me in and showed me my daughter, Laodice, who’d
been saved by Persephone. She lives down here with
Lethe.”

“
The river goddess?” Therese
asked.

“
Yes,” Cubie said. “Laodice
was said to be my most beautiful daughter, and Lethe thinks so,
too. They make each other happy. And I can visit them when we come
to live here for the fall and winters.”

“
Therese, I’m telling you
their stories so you can see how you can’t let a little
misunderstanding stop you from finding happiness. Galin and Cubie
were able to make the most out of their hard times. You can,
too.”

Hecate was right: Therese was acting
like a big baby. She needed to go back to Than and convince him
that she really did love him, no matter what it took. As she was
about to thank Hecate and leave, however, a knock came at the door,
and Therese, sensing a mortal, dimmed her brightness, as all gods
automatically did to protect mortal eyes. She and Hecate exchanged
puzzled glances. Therese thought she sensed Jen, but she hoped she
was wrong.

“
What mortal would be at my
door?” Hecate whispered.

“
Dim yourselves,” came Hip’s
voice from the corridor. “I have a mortal with me.”

Therese wanted to say “Duh” to Hip for
stating the obvious, but she held her tongue. Then in walked Hip
and, as she had feared, Jen.

Therese jumped to her feet. Clifford
went crazy with excitement, running up to meet Jen like he used to
do.

Jen’s mouth hung open and her eyes were
wide with shock.

“
Hip?” Therese said. “Are
you kidding me? You brought Jen
here
?” Could Than’s twin brother be
any more foolish?

“
T-T-Therese?” Jen asked
with a terrified expression.

“
Can you take her to the
poppy fields and make her think this was all a dream?” Therese
suggested. “What do you think this will accomplish?”

Jen’s head jerked down to Clifford,
whose paws were on her shins. “C-C-Clifford?”

“
She wouldn’t believe me
when I told her I was a god,” Hip explained.

“
I can see why,” Therese
said, maybe a bit too harshly. “With the way you’re acting, I can’t
believe it either!”

Hip narrowed his eyes into a look of
anger he’d never shown Therese before. “Hold on right
there.”

Cubie walked over to Jen and said to
Clifford, “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

At Cubie’s gift of human language,
Jen’s eyes opened even wider. Therese worried they’d pop from their
sockets. Jen looked from Cubie to Therese, and then fell forward in
a faint.

***

Great
, Hip thought.
Can this night get any
worse?

“
What did you think would
happen, Hip?” Therese asked. “That she’d say, ‘Okay, I believe you
now,’ and throw her arms around you?”

“
Something like that,” he
said. He sure didn’t appreciate Therese’s haughty attitude toward
him. Who did she think she was? She was the new god on the totem
pole, and she had better watch her step, as far as he was
concerned. He lifted Jen up in his arms and laid her out on the
bed. “What do you suggest I should have done?”

“
Oh, I don’t know. Anything
but
this
!”

“
Let’s all calm down,”
Hecate said.

Hip’s mind suddenly resounded with
prayers from Meg and Tizzie, and a moment later the two Furies
appeared in the room followed by Than.

“
The Malevolent escaped
Mount Olympus and has freed Medusa,” Than announced. “Why are you
dimmed?”

“
Where are they?” Hip asked.
So this night could get worse after all.

“
We don’t know,” Meg said in
a vicious voice. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“
Where’s Hades?” Therese
asked.

“
Here,” came Hades’s voice
as he appeared in the doorway with the statues of Persephone and
Athena. “We have no time to lose. I need all of you to help me
destroy the ancient ward surrounding my queen. And get that mortal
out of here.”

“
How do we help?” Hip
asked.

“
Come with me to my sitting
room where Cybele awaits us. She knows what to do.”

Hades vanished with the statues in
tow.

The Furies followed behind.

“
What about Jen?” Therese
asked. “Oh no! She’s barely breathing. Than, get out of
here!”

Thanatos vanished.

“
We’ll watch over her until
you return,” Cubie said, meaning her and the other
animals.

“
I’ll be right back,” Hecate
reassured her dog.

Hip, Therese, and Hecate left Hecate’s
chambers and appeared on the scene with Cybele, who spoke in a
manly voice, “This won’t work without the eye of
Polyphemus.”

“
You might have mentioned
that before I assembled all the gods of the Underworld here,” Hades
reprimanded.

“
You left in rather a
hurry,” Cybele stated. “You gave me no chance, Lord
Hades.”

“
Father, can you explain
what’s going on?” Than asked.

“
There’s no time, son. Take
Therese and your sisters to the Island of the Cyclopes and borrow
Polyphemus’s eye.”

Hip and Hecate remained with Hades and
the prisoner, Cybele. Hip noticed that he could no longer
communicate with his mother and hadn’t heard from her in some
time.

“
She continues to solidify,”
Hades explained. “We could soon lose her entirely.”