The Immortal Game (book 1) (21 page)

“Where are they going?” Ruby asked.

“On the hunt. There’s likely an unlucky stag headed that way.”

“Hunting?” The nymphs and Artemis carried one bow among them, and all but Artemis were still naked.

“Artemis is the goddess of the hunt,” he said. “She’s the closest of all of us with the nymphs. I think she prefers their company to any of ours.”

Pan and Hermes stood near where Artemis and the nymphs had run off barefoot into the woods. The two gods were surrounded by a group of nymphs, who laughed as the pair spoke over one another, vying for their attention.

Ruby and Ares sat on a fallen log near the river’s edge. “Do you do this often?” she asked as she watched Pan lean on a large rock, one goat leg crossed over the other, and blow a breath across his pipes. Music filled the air again.

“I never come. I wanted you to see them,” Ares said. “It’s always the same. Pan calls them. Most go off hunting with Artemis. Those that are not dedicated to her, those who have not taken a vow of chastity, meet with Pan, or Hermes, or any other god that will have them, to lie in a meadow for the afternoon.”

Ruby picked up a curved stick from the ground and dug it into the soft sandy dirt. “What about Apollo?” She thought of his many conquests on Earth and glanced to the trees where he and the nymph had disappeared into the woods.

“Apollo only ever sees Kissiae.”

“I saw him go off with her.” Her eyes remained on the trees, but the two were nowhere in sight. “How long have they been together?”

“Hundreds of years,” Ares shrugged. “I haven’t kept track.”

Ruby thought of the pain of being in love for hundreds of years and having to hide it. “I thought she was mortal. How can she be hundreds of years old?”

“Nymphs live for much longer than humans. When the stream or the tree they are bound to dries up or dies, they die too.”

“The nymphs live across the water?” The trees on the far side of the river were the same as the ones around them, a combination of the bright green leaves of deciduous trees mixed in with the darker green of conifers. Ruby could hear distant birdsong over the gently flowing water. The ground beneath the trees was a carpet of brown leaves and needles. It was more like a forest on Earth than the unusual variety of plants that lined the pathways near the gods’ abodes.

“Yes. The nymphs live in the outer realm of Olympus,” he said.

Ruby tossed her stick aside. She saw Aphrodite standing between two gods. A slender teenager with shaggy bangs challenged a much bigger god to a wrestling match. The blond was the same god who served the Table of the Twelve the night before. His chest was puffed out and he was talking up into the larger god’s face.

The bigger god rolled his eyes at Aphrodite as if to say, I’ll be with you in a minute, honey. I just need to beat this guy’s eyes out.

Ruby looked at Ares. He watched the exchange with a slight smile. She kept her eyes on him. “She’s very beautiful.”

His smile dropped and he glanced to the ground in front of him. “She is the goddess of beauty.”

“And love,” Ruby finished the moniker.

“But not hearts,” he said, as he caught her eye.

“Everyone else seems quite taken with her.” The smaller god was now removing his sandals in preparation to fight. The larger god remained stoic. His feet were planted in a wide stance.

“I think it’s a curse to her,” Ares said.

“A curse?”

“Men immediately become overcome with desire for her. Women are instantly wary, suspicious, and jealous.”

That was exactly how she had reacted to Aphrodite. But she had reason, she reminded herself. Aphrodite wasn’t just beautiful. She and Ares had been in love once.

“She’s married to a bitter god she doesn’t love,” Ares said. “And everyone else loves her too much. I think she’s pretty lonely.”

Ruby watched Aphrodite place her hand on the chest of the smaller god in an attempt to dissuade him from the fight. Light filtered through her red-blond hair. It shone like copper.

“Who is she married to? Is he here?” The gods and nymphs talked or sat on the bank of the river. They all ignored Aphrodite and her suitors.

“Hephaestus?” Ares said. “No. He’s probably in his workshop, alone, engineering some marvel over a bed of hot coals.”

Ruby’s thumb played at the iron ring on her finger. She put her palm flat on the rough bark behind her and leaned back. “Why is he bitter?”

“He was born deformed. His feet are as useless as his hands are brilliant. For a long time he was shunned by the gods. He’s practically a hermit.”

Ruby was surprised that Aphrodite, who could have anyone, would choose an introverted, deformed god to marry. “She loved him once?”

He shook his head. “All the gods used to fight over her. Everyone but Heph. She had great fun teasing us all. She’d pretend to pick one of us and then change her mind and pick another. Zeus eventually got sick of it.

“I don’t know if he did it as a punishment to Aphrodite, or as a reward for the son he had always ignored, but Zeus chose Heph to marry her. She’s never loved him,” Ares said quickly. “She was never faithful.”

“You.” Her eyes darted to Ares. “She cheated on him with you?”

“I was so in love with her. I never thought about the consequences.”

Ruby glanced at Ares’s son and tried not to feel jealous that Aphrodite shared a bond with Ares that she did not. “Are you close with Eros?” She sat up again and rubbed at the marks the coarse bark left on her palms.

“He’s always preferred his mother’s company. They both rule love. That’s made them close.”

“Why are there two gods for love?”

“Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. Eros is the god of love and desire. There is a bit more fire to his style of love. Some say he got it from his father.”

“I see.” She laughed, but she thought he might be serious. The passion of war had mixed with the passion of love to produce desire. She looked to the far trees. She didn’t want to picture a passionate Aphrodite and Ares together.

SIXTEEN

Ruby sat under The Olive Tree in Athena’s garden. The small leaves rustled in the breeze but Ruby didn’t look up. The tree was still beautiful to her, and special, but it was there every morning when she woke and there every evening when she went to bed.

She thumbed through the yellow myth book Athena had shown her so many months ago in Athenaeum. She had studied most of the stories and she was even beginning to understand the complicated family connections that linked them together.

The spring equinox had come and gone. She and Ares should be married by now. She should be immortal. They should be living in their abode and thinking about their family. In short, they should be moving on with their lives, as it were.

Instead they were still waiting for the first flowers to bloom on the slopes of Mount Olympus. The weather on Earth continued on as rainy and cold as ever and Ruby was annoyed with the wait. Even Ares, used to having an eternity, began to share her impatience.

A hair fell into Ruby’s face with the next breeze. She swept it behind her ear and flipped around the pages of the myth book. She passed the stories she knew so well: Pandora, Echo and Narcissus, Hercules. She stopped at the picture of Persephone being pulled into the Earth by Hades. She hadn’t read that one yet. It bothered her more than the others.

Athena rushed into the garden. Her face was flushed. “Where’s Ares?”

“He went with Hermes and Pan, to see if the flowers—” she paused at the look on Athena’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I went to Athenaeum and then to your house. I got the things you wanted.” She held up a small duffel bag. “A guy was there as I was leaving. Mark?”

“Are you kidding?” Ruby laughed. “Mark was there?” She pictured the last time she saw him. He had accused Ares of being controlling and abusive.

“He was asking all kinds of questions,” Athena said. “He wanted to know who I was and if I’d seen you. If I knew anything about this tall guy with black hair that he saw you with. He wanted to know if I knew why you’d stopped coming to class and why you never seemed to be home.”

Ruby was shocked that Mark cared so much or that he would pursue it so far. They had been study partners. This seemed—

“Who is he?” Athena demanded.

“He’s just a guy. Someone I used to study with.”

“He said he was going to call the police. He wants to file a missing persons report.”

“So? It’s not like they’ll find anything.” Ruby closed the book and put it on the table.

“They won’t find
you
,” Athena said, her head cocked at an angle as though Ruby were being dense.

“But they won’t find
anything
. I’ll just be one of those people who never turn up.”

“They’ll think you’ve been kidnapped, or worse. Ares will be the main suspect. And now I’m involved. This Mark guy saw me leaving your house with a bag of your stuff.”

“So? They won’t find you or Ares.” Ruby shrugged. She still didn’t understand why Athena was so concerned. “Mark might wonder what happened to me for a little while but he’ll be in medical school soon. His brain will be so crammed with information he’ll forget all about me.”

Athena put the bag down on the ground and rested her hands on the back of a chair. “I know you’re happy here, and Ares is. But Apollo and I still want to be able to go back. I’m not closing the store. I’m hiring management. I don’t need the police looking for me.”

Ruby nodded as the implications dawned on her. “Of course.” Athena had done so much for her and Ares. Ruby had not thought of her at all. “What can we do? What did you tell him?”

“He caught me off guard.” Athena shrugged, a motion Ruby had never seen the goddess make before. “I said you were away.” She glanced at the tabletop. “On vacation.”

“Vacation?” Ruby laughed. She couldn’t think of anything that would seem more ridiculous to Mark.

“It was the first thing that came to my mind,” Athena said without apology.

“When did you say I’d be back?”

“Next week. You have until Tuesday.”

“What day is it today?” Ruby realized she had no idea.

“It’s Thursday.”

“We have a few days at least.” She thought of Mark’s tenacity with his schoolwork. “He can be so stubborn. I remember once he …” she stopped, her eyes searched Athena’s.

Ruby stood. “I know who can help.”

…

Ruby and Athena walked on the now-familiar paths of Olympus. Ruby no longer worried about whom she might meet on the trail. The factions on Olympus were as well-defined as the river Oceanus. The gods Ruby had met at the river were Ares’s friends, or at least not his enemies. They were mostly the younger generation of gods. The ones who were weary of long days on Olympus with little to do and the same gods and goddesses they had always known.

Apollo ignored her most of the time and she enjoyed a polite, if distant, relationship with Hera. The goddess had sent Ruby a platinum crown of laurels. Dionysus had hand delivered it. “It’s a great honor,” Athena had said when she saw it. Ruby wore it to every party.

Zeus, thankfully, ignored Ruby most of the time. Occasionally she saw him look away from her, his eyes tense and his face serious. Other than that he never acknowledged her.

Ruby took a side path toward where Hephaestus and Aphrodite lived.

“Are you going to ask Heph to make something to contain Mark?” Athena asked. “Would you imprison him?” Athena’s face contorted with surprise. The goddess’s black curls bounced along as she tried to keep up.

“I’m not from here, Athena. I think in much less drastic terms.”

The path opened into a wide clearing with the husband’s and wife’s abodes each to one side. Aphrodite’s rose-covered abode stood in direct contrast to Hephaestus’s black iron one. It was so overrun with sculptures and ornaments that the original form was obscured. Heph’s abode had its own type of beauty. No one could look at the work of the god of forge and fire and not be in awe.

Heph was reclusive. Ruby had never even talked to him. Gods fell at Aphrodite’s feet and tripped over themselves to impress her. Heph was only called upon when there was a need. Now Ruby needed Aphrodite. She hoped the goddess would help her.

Ruby tapped a large swan knocker against the solid gold door. There was no answer but she didn’t pause before she let herself in. The knocker was a decoration. Ruby used it out of habit more than anything.

Aphrodite was in the wide hall, coming toward them. Her green eyes became wide when she saw Ruby. “Is it time? Have they bloomed?” Her smile fell. “But then you wouldn’t be here. Would you? You would have sent Hermes.”

Ruby’s eyes darted away as her mind was unexpectedly drawn back to the wedding. The alabaster hall was carved with couples in erotic poses. There were men and women embracing, kissing, and more. She was always startled by the contradictions of Olympus. Zeus and Hera wanted it to be a pure place, a place where gods lived high above carnal urges, a place where sons married virgins. The gods played along, but only to a point.

“I have a favor to ask you,” Ruby said as she walked farther into the abode. She didn’t want to lose her momentum.

The goddess followed Ruby with her eyes. “Anything,” she said, and Ruby believed her.

Athena had explained the basics of the wedding: the importance of the vows, the ribbon that would tie Ruby and Ares’s hands together in a symbolic binding, and the crowns that would mark her and Ares as the king and queen of the ceremony. But it was Aphrodite who had filled in the details.

It was Aphrodite who had made sure the crowns were olive branches and that the ribbon was white, as it had always been in ancient times. It was Aphrodite who’d insisted that Pan play his pipes at the reception and that a silver pair of scissors be on the altar. “Never mind why,” she had said to Ruby with a playful grin.

Unlike Athena, Aphrodite knew what love was and believed in it as a force for good. And she, of all the Olympians, understood Ares the best. When Ruby told Aphrodite that Ares borrowed Hermes’s winged sandals and took her to the mountains on the far side of Oceanus, Aphrodite didn’t shake her head in disdain, as others had done. Instead she smiled a soft wistful smile that made Ruby feel sad.