The Beloved of the God of War

2 - Prisoner

“Who’s this?”

I stared at the woman instead of answering, even though I should have known better. I knew the stories about her, how she despised being watched. It took me a few seconds longer than it should have to tear my eyes away from the her quiet but charged, elemental beauty.

Even then, I found myself unable to speak.

“She says the Aloadae have Ares.” Hermes nodded at me, a wordless command to explain the rest of what I knew to the goddess standing before us. 

I didn’t give myself the chance to dwell on the relief of being spared from answering the initial question. The interruption on his part had to have been accidental, anyway, or at least just proof of his indifference toward whatever my answer would have been. He had no reason to care about my name, after all. And judging by the way her gaze instantly sharpened at her half-brother’s words, she no longer cared about me, either, past the information I could supply.

“The Aloadae have an urn that can seal a god,” I told Artemis - for Artemis she was; I was sure of it. “And only someone of god-blood can lift the lid. It’s somewhere at the foot of the New York Bluffs.”

“How do you know this?” asked Artemis, and I winced. I had been hoping that she would trust Hermes to have tested my credibility already. I had a feeling it would be much more difficult to satisfy her questions with the answers I gave him.

I settled for half the truth. “Another human. She heard that you and Hermes have been looking for Ares for some time now. She approached me.”

“And who is she?”

This time, I knew there would be no dodging the question. She waited for my answer, and I cursed my luck that she was more prudent than Hermes in a proper interrogation. “The Aloadae's...mother,” I said reluctantly after a brief struggle with myself. It wasn’t as if I could lie, anyway.

“Their mother?”

“I don’t know what else to call her. Their father kidnapped her and made her his...consort, or something like that, when they first materialized on this plane.”

My stomach turned even as I spoke the words. But the truth was that it happened all too often these days now that demigods and monsters roamed the earth unchecked. Who could protect the weak, after all? Certainly not the gods. Not anymore, if they ever had.

“And why did she come to you?”

“She trusted me,” I said. I stopped there. The compulsion to reveal the whole truth was already boiling up inside me, but I could still resist the urge as long as Artemis didn’t push any further. I was already starting to sweat with the effort of holding back.

“We can talk about that later,” insisted Hermes, and for the second time in less than a minute, I was thankful for his timely interruptions. “If it’s true, we need to go. Now.”

Artemis finally relented, but she kept her forest-green eyes trained on me as if I were about to bolt any second now. To be fair, I felt like I was. “She comes with us,” the goddess said, and I started at her words.

Me? What did they still want with me? I had already outlived my usefulness to them. I’d told them everything they needed to know - and nearly everything that I knew, at least. If I went with them, I’d only be a burden. Hermes seemed to think the same way, and he opened his mouth to protest immediately.

“If you’re lying, you won’t live long enough to regret it,” Artemis told me, and suddenly I understood. I was insurance in case this was a trap. I was still trying to work my paralyzed mouth when she raised a hand and beckoned at Hermes. “Take her,” she said. “How far is it from here?”

The god shrugged. “You know it changes day to day. But I know the direction it’s in. I’ll get us there.” He reached out both hands, one of which Artemis took without hesitation. I couldn’t say the same for myself.

“I’m afraid,” I said, and it was the truth. “Please don’t make me go.”

“You heard the woman.” Hermes grinned at me, but somehow it felt dangerous rather than reassuring. I hoped it was mischief and not something more sinister that I saw in his clear blue eyes. “Take my hand,” he said. “It’ll be alright. Promise.”

I wished he hadn’t made an oath, even in jest. I felt my chest tighten as I sensed the lie curling behind his words - promises made without sincerity hit like the smell of diesel fuel, but ones made by a god were even worse.

He gave me a strange look, but before he could decipher the flash of pain that crossed my face, I quickly took his hand. “Okay,” I said. I chanced a glance at Artemis only to find that she was still watching me. I regretted it immediately, and turned away again.

Hermes, I remembered when he began to pull us after him and pick up speed, was not just the god of mischief and shepherding; he was the god of travel, of crossing boundaries and liminal spaces that even other gods could not see. His feet were swift, and somehow he lent us that power as well. I found the countryside turning into a blur as we raced on, until green slowly began fading to blue.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour when we found the seaside. Hermes dropped our hands, and I collapsed to the ground in a kneel, instantly exhausted.

“No time for that,” he said cheerily, and he pulled me up with a hand under my arm. “I saw a glimpse of the Aloadae on the way here. They didn’t see us, but I saw them. They’re already on their way back from hunting.”

Artemis nodded. “Then let’s get to work.”

When they found the hiding place of the man-sized, giant urn, they didn’t bother calling me over, but it was just as well. I shouldn’t have been here anyway, I told myself. I shouldn’t have been feeling this way, my heart clenching in my chest as they carefully lifted the giant lid between them. And who could know why I began to cry when they lifted the emaciated, gasping prisoner from within it? Who could know why I dropped to my knees when I saw his eyes, clouded with dumb horror and agony so fierce that I couldn’t even breathe?

“We have you,” I heard Hermes murmur. Artemis said nothing aloud, but she brushed the matted, filthy strands of hair from the prisoner’s face. My heart clenched again when I saw the man cringe at her touch, as if it pained him.

“We’ve got you, Ares.”

------

“I said I’d grant you a boon,” said Hermes. He watched me with an intensity that was neither gratitude nor excitement, and I swallowed hard at the realization that he was beginning to suspect what I might be. I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t even know the whole answer to that myself, yet.

“You did, Lord Shepherd.” My hands shook. I shoved them deep into the pockets of my hoodie in a futile attempt to stop them.

“I won’t go back on my word. I’ll grant you a second as well, for your service.” The god looked back over his shoulder where Artemis was laying Ares against a tree trunk, now that we had returned to Hermes’s countryside territory. “What is it you want?”

I glanced at them myself before answering, but to my shock, I found both of the other gods staring back. Their eyes pierced me like a bolt of lightning, and I quickly shifted so that Hermes stood between us, blocking their view of me. Of course, he noticed I was using him as a shield, but he said nothing of it.

“What is it you want?” he asked again, and there was a growing, furtive light in his brilliant blue eyes that made me drop my own to my now-tattered shoes.

“Please forget me,” I said softly. “And please, don’t look for me.”