The Immortal Game (book 1) (15 page)

If she lived.

She took a picture of her parents from the wall. The paint underneath was brighter than the faded green around it. In the picture her parents stood on a beach with a vast blue ocean behind them. She didn’t know where or when the picture was taken, but they were together and they looked happy.

Silent tears slipped down her face, a strange mixture of regret and hope.

She thought of going upstairs, to the TV room, or to the kitchen, but she didn’t know when Ares would return from Olympus. She had slept through the morning and it was already late afternoon. She was eager to get back.

She closed the front door, placed her palm flat on its smooth wooden surface, and said a silent good-bye. She turned to walk back to Athena’s, and almost dropped the picture when she ran into Mark coming up the porch steps.

He caught the frame by its edge before it landed on the hard wooden boards. “You’re here,” he said, as though he was surprised to actually find her. He looked at her face and hesitated. “Are you crying?”

“No.” She wiped the tears away. “I’m fine.” She took the picture from his loose hands and held it close to the front of her rain jacket as she went down the porch steps and into the chilly Northwest drizzle.

“Ruby?” He stopped on the path and touched her lightly on the elbow. “You haven’t been in class all week. What’s going on?” His brow was furrowed with concern.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” she repeated.

He glanced again at the photo in her hands. Was it so odd to be holding a five-by-ten picture of your parents and nothing else? If it was, he decided to ignore it.

“The final’s in three weeks,” he said. “I’m sure I could talk the study group into letting you back in if you wanted me to.”

“My chemistry grade isn’t a measure of my overall well-being, you know?” She glanced to the peeling red paint of her house behind him and shrugged. “I might drop organic, anyway.”

He looked to the side and exhaled. His head whipped back around to her as if he needed to say something quickly, before he lost his nerve. “Does this have anything to do with the guy who was here the morning after the exam? You’ve been acting weird ever since then. Is he hurting you?”

She swallowed. Was Mark Harris the only person on Earth who noticed that something had changed for her? Was there no one else who cared?

She thought of Zeus and Apollo. Even the threat of two powerful gods seemed like a better choice than living in a world where almost no one cared about her at all.

Something inside her hardened. She had bigger fish to fry.

“You know, Mark—” She looked him in the eye. “—it’s really none of your business.”

She saw his fair skin turn the color of boiled lobsters before she turned and walked away.

“I’ve read about this, Ruby,” he said in a loud voice that followed her down the street. “First he’ll control where you go and what you do, then the emotional abuse will start. One day he’ll snap and hit you. It’s a classic abuse pattern. You don’t have to …”

She let his words trail off behind her. Let him think whatever he wanted.

…

Athena pulled dress after dress out of her immense walk-in closet. Each one covered in a thin plastic film. Her high-ceilinged bedroom was painted ivory and trimmed with gold. The bed was large, but the wooden headboard, carved with pictures of people wearing long robes and examining scrolls, was massive.

“You and Ares can still surprise Zeus and Hera,” she said. “If you don’t act quickly they might realize that something is going on. The energy of the Earth is calm. Too calm. Most gods block it, but a shift like this could draw attention.”

“How will Ares get me there?” Ruby tried to sit up straight in the oversized chair but the pillows were too soft and she kept sinking back down.

“I’m not sure how Ares will do it,” Athena said as she shook out a dress and laid it flat. “Apollo’s influence might have helped. He has more friends than Ares. In any scenario he’ll have to ask for favors and secrecy from other gods. Olympians love to gossip. The clock may already be ticking for both of you.”

“I thought gods would be more, I don’t know, cultured,” Ruby said. “More interested in knowledge, or ethics, or something.” She turned Ares’s ring on her finger and wondered if Apollo was telling Zeus about her at that moment.

Athena took several pairs of sandals from her closet and lined them up at the foot of the bed. “Imagine spending a few thousand years in the same small town with the same handful of people. It gets dull.” She removed the thin plastic film from the dresses strewn across the ivory bedding.

The bright colors were at odds with Ruby’s mood. “How can he make me a goddess?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that yet.” Sage had a dress half unwrapped. “Focus on Zeus and Hera. I’ll be honest with you.” She glanced up. “Your chances aren’t very good.”

A nauseous wave of fear traveled through Ruby’s middle. “Still,” she swallowed. “I want to know.”

“Ambrosia,” Sage said. “And nectar.”

“But I’ve already eaten ambrosia in your bars at Athenaeum.”

“The small amounts I put in the bars won’t do it. Not on Earth. At best my customers will find that they outlive most of their friends. To become a god you must eat pure ambrosia and drink unadulterated nectar on the hallowed grounds of Olympus; the true food and drink of the gods in their true home.

“The ambrosia will fortify your molecules and strengthen their bonds. The nectar will develop your will. Together they’ll bring out the energies that are most attuned within you. Your presence on Olympus will galvanize their force.”

“What do you think I’ll become the goddess of?” This was at the crux of her fears. Even more than facing Zeus. What would the wife of the god of war become?

Athena looked at her, her grey eyes softening for the first time. “I can’t know that, Ruby. No one can.”

“Has anyone else ever done it? A human, I mean?”

“A few. Ares’s son’s wife, Psyche, was human once. She’s the goddess of the soul.”

Ruby’s eyes shot to Athena. “Ares’s son?”

“Eros, the god of love. Cupid is what the Romans called him.”

She knew that Ares had been deeply in love before, but she hadn’t known there was a son. An anvil of dread lifted from her chest. Ares’s son! He wasn’t the god of pain or the god of misery, or any of the other horrible things she had imagined. He was the god of
love
.

Athena fluffed out the fabric of a turquoise dress. Silver decorations flashed in the light from the ornate overhead light.

“Why all the dresses?” Ruby asked, feeling a little better.

“Not dresses. Peploses.” Sage held up the hanger. The fabric was attached at each shoulder with an intricate silver pin. “It’s what we wear on Olympus. Which do you like?” She picked up one of the shapeless pieces of fabric lying on the bed. “Maybe the pink. It will look nice with your brown hair and brown eyes.” She took it off the hanger, but then stopped and threw it back down with the others.

“No. This one.” Athena smiled. “It’s perfect.” She held up a floor-length silky white peplos with golden leaves resting at the waist. “For purity. Hera’s the goddess of marriage. She’ll love it.” Athena shrugged. “Or else Zeus will. Either way, it can’t hurt.”

“Huh?” Ruby asked, nervous at the gleam in Athena’s eyes.

“The alternative to Zeus striking you dead on sight is that he
likes
you. He does have an affinity for humans.”

A chill went through Ruby, though she wasn’t sure if it was at the thought of being struck down by the king of the gods or of being desired by him.

Athena seemed unbothered by the possibilities. “If Hera likes you …” She arched an eyebrow at Ruby. “… if she thinks you’re pure enough for her favorite son, well, then she can save you.”

Sage looked back at the white peplos. “She’ll be able to tell how virginal you are, one way or the other. She’ll feel it on you. But a little strategic marketing can’t hurt either.”

…

The white peplos was two long pieces of fabric sewn shut at the right shoulder. The left shoulder was made by bringing the front and back pieces together and attaching them with an intricate butterfly pin. The butterfly’s wings were made of spiderweb-thin strands of gold that attached to a delicate outer edge. Its long body was a line of red gems.

“Rubies,” Athena said with a smile, as she finished knotting a gold braided belt around Ruby’s waist and stepped behind her. They both looked in the full-length mirror. The white silk fabric fell gracefully on Ruby’s curves. The golden sash was the only thing that held the peplos together. She turned to the side. The ruby pin glinted red in the light and the movement opened the peplos slightly, revealing the bare swell of her hip and the beginning of the curve of her breast.

“You’ll fit right in,” Athena said.

Ruby shivered with so little between her and the world. She didn’t see how this outfit would express the purity Hera would want her to possess, but Ruby knew she wanted Ares to see her in this.

Athena gave her a pair of sandals with flat bottoms and gold cords that wound up her calf and tied at the top. She brought a black velvet tray of jewelry to Ruby.

“Hera and Dionysus are famous for their dinner parties,” Athena said. “All twelve Olympians, and most of the lesser gods, will be there tonight.”

Ruby’s eyes went quickly from the elaborate necklaces and bracelets to Athena’s heart-shaped face. She began to sweat despite the thin peplos and the cold rain outside.

“I’m going to a party?” All she could think was that if Zeus decided to strike her down with his famous bolt of lightning she would be killed in front of a crowd and that somehow seemed more awful.

“Safety in numbers,” Athena said. “Ares thinks Zeus will react better if all of Olympus is watching.” She turned Ruby’s numb body toward the mirror again. She piled her hair on top of her head and stuck a gold comb with small ruby butterflies along its upper edge into the middle. A few straggling hairs fell down to frame Ruby’s oval face.

Ares walked in through the open door behind them. He stopped short. A large canvas bag dangled from one of his hands. His wide eyes roamed over Ruby. She saw him swallow.

“You look—”

“She’s ready,” Athena said before he could finish.

Ruby breathed in and nodded. “How do we do this?”

“Yes, Ares. How will you do it?” Athena mocked.

Ruby glanced at Athena and wondered how much confidence she had in Ares. Apollo thought it was crazy to openly defy Zeus, crazy to ignore an oracle’s vision. So crazy that he had killed people over it.

Instead of answering, Ares bent to the canvas bag and pulled out a pair of gold sandals covered in feathers. They gave a little shake and a pair of large golden wings fluttered out of the back of each one.

“The Talaria?” Sage gasped. “You can’t trust Hermes! It will be all over Olympus by now.”

“Relax,” he said. “I told him things were about to get lively. That was enough for him.” He turned to Ruby. “Getting a human to Olympus is no easy thing. But the winged sandals will get the job done.”

Ruby stared as he bent to put the sandals on his feet. He carefully wound the intricate ties around his ankles and lower legs. When he stood she could see the wings of the sandals beating back and forth in a steady rhythm beneath the hem of his jeans. They seemed too amazing to wear.

He rummaged through the large bag again and pulled out a curly golden fur. It shone bright in the light. “You’ll want to wear this,” he said.

She reached out hesitantly to touch it.

“It’s the Golden Fleece,” he said. “From the only twenty-four carat sheep that ever lived. It will protect you from the weather.”

Ruby expected the fleece to be heavy, but when he handed it to her she found that it was as light as silk. She draped it over her shoulders. It covered her completely.

Ares put the picture of Ruby’s parents in the canvas bag. He walked to the window and motioned for her to follow. A cold gust of air touched her cheeks as he opened the window but her body, covered by the Golden Fleece, remained warm. She peered down onto the street and sidewalk below. Both were dim and empty. Behind the grey clouds the sun would soon be setting.

He gently scooped her up in his arms. He looked into her eyes and kissed her, his lips soft and warm against hers. “This is going to work,” he said.

She nodded and pulled the fleece tight around her. She snuggled down into his strong embrace. If this was to be her last day to live, her last moments even, then she was glad they were with Ares.

“Thank you,” Ruby said to Athena over Ares’s shoulder.

Athena pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded.

Ruby braced herself as Ares stepped off the window ledge, but she felt nothing; no change in how he held her, no dip down as he made that incredible step out into nothing. The rain and cold did not reach her wrapped in the Golden Fleece and Ares’s strength did not falter.

TWELVE

They rose high into the air. Lights marched down the roads to make bright boxes with cross streets until the city was reduced to a simple pattern of lights and darks.

The wide grey river traversed it all at an irregular slant, not conforming to the manmade city’s lines and angles, but snaking and twisting through on its own terms. Ruby closed her eyes and made a silent wish that she and Ares would survive the night.

The winged sandals flew them northward. The lights became scattered and more spread out. A thicker grey swath of river, the Columbia, passed beneath them. Smaller cities and towns appeared below, a smattering of lights nestled into the great deep forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Ruby let her head fall against Ares’s chest and concentrated on his heartbeat, strong and sure, and endless. Nothing but calm energy flowed off of him. She breathed in his scent.

The cold drizzle fell on her face, but she was amazed at how comfortable she was beneath the soft Golden Fleece. Ares was only partially covered by it. He wore jeans and a t-shirt but she felt no shiver from him.

They flew on, silent. Ruby tried not to think about what they were doing, but found it impossible. Would Zeus kill her instantly? Would he send Ares away to Tartarus? The memory of it filled her; cold and damp, dark and desolate. Ruby shivered.