Destroyer of Light (13 page)

***

“I love you,” he said quietly, for what must have been the ninth time since they closed the palace gate behind them. They stood at the Styx, his voice the only sound disturbing the peaceful lapping of water against the gravel shoreline.

“I love you too,” she replied. The golden poplar tree hung overhead as Aidoneus and Persephone gazed across to the other side. It was taking Charon longer than usual to reach them. Of course, given the number of souls departing his boat on the road to the Trivium, that was to be expected.

Aidoneus didn’t mind the delay. It gave him a few extra moments with his wife. The shades waiting for his judgement— the high priest of Delphi, three kings and two magistrates from Hellas, a prince from Ilion, and an Amazonian tribal queen— could wait just a little while longer. They had eternity to do so. “Promise me, no matter what they might say to you…”

She let herself melt into him as his arms closed around her. “I know who I am, husband. They can’t take that away from me.”

“I only say it because you are entering a different world. They will only respect my protection of you up there— not who you really are. If you need to use that to your advantage, do so.”

Persephone turned to face him, his hands now resting at her mid back. “It’s only my mother that I’m speaking to, Aidon. What worries you?”

His stomach did another turn as he thought about Hecate’s strange reaction to the pomegranate and the look on her face when she learned that Persephone hadn’t consumed any seeds. “Nothing.”

Her mouth twisted into a half smile. “We know that isn’t true.”

“I’m
worrying
over nothing, more accurately. Demeter cannot do anything to you. Even by the laws of the world above, you outrank her now. Only one among the immortals could stop you from returning here, and he swore an oath that your place was with me— gave you to me, by his understanding.”

“So did my mother.”

“This is different.”

“Tell that to her.”

“I thought that’s what
you
were planning to do,” he said with a rueful smile.

Persephone leaned into him again. “I’m going to miss you, Aidon. I’m going to miss
this
. Even though I’ve only been here for two months, it seems like a lifetime has transpired.”

“Oh?” he said in confusion.

“Not in a bad way,” she giggled. “So much has happened in so little time. It’s like my time as Kore in the world above was a dream I awoke from.”

Aidoneus was about to respond when he heard the swish of an oar through water. Both looked up to see hooded Charon rowing across the Styx at an even pace, until the prow of his boat raked against the rocky shore.

“Can your majesties forgive my tardiness? The boat was full.”

“Full?” Aidoneus said, his voice betraying his surprise.

“Yes, full. Even for a craft such as this and beings as insubstantial as they. But to look at the far bank, does it surprise you?”

“Concerns me, is all.” He straightened and lifted his chin. “Charon, can you permit us a moment?”

“Of course, my lord.”

Hades turned to Persephone and cupped her face, staring down at her.
I will be here waiting for you
.

No
, she answered.
More important matters await you. As they await me. Give me a few days, Aidon. I can reason with her, I can say goodbye, and I can arrange to see her again.

He knitted his brow.

Briefly
, she said with a smile.
But I must concede some things. I think visiting her from time to time is fair.

He grimaced and gave her a heavy sigh, grinding his teeth together.
I suppose.

Aidon, only to visit. This is my home.
You
are my home.

Persephone tilted her head up to look into his eyes, then closed them as his lips descended to hers. She held his shoulder blades, the sinews of his back cording under layers of cloth when he drew her closer. Aidon pulled away slowly and brushed a thumb over her cheekbone. “I will miss you, my queen.”

“And I you, my lord. Take good care of our realm while I’m away.”

“I always have,” he said, giving her a warm smile. “And I always will.”

Aidoneus suddenly bent down and swung Persephone off her feet and into his arms, to her delighted surprise. He walked to the edge of Charon’s boat, the Styx drenching his himation up to the knee, and carefully sat her on one of the bracings. The Boatman cocked an amused half smile and said nothing.

Aidoneus held Persephone’s hand for a long moment before placing a light kiss on her upturned wrist. “Farewell.”

“And you.”

He walked to the prow and leaned into it with one shoulder, giving the boat a mighty push. It rocked and settled into the water, gently swaying to and fro before the Boatman steadied and guided it the rest of the way with his oar. Persephone watched Aidon walk backward until he was standing once more on the shore. A quick brush of his hand instantly rid his clothes and sandals of the cold water clinging to them. He grew smaller in her sight as Charon rowed them away into the slow current.

Persephone locked eyes with him one last time before Aidoneus opened the gate behind him and walked inside. She raised her hand in a farewell as the door closed, then repositioned herself on the bracing opposite Charon, quickly losing herself in thought.

“My lady has a smile on her face, though she departs her realm?”

Persephone glanced up at him. “What? No, not because I am leaving. That’s not why.”

“Does it have anything to do with the celebration last night?” he asked with a slight smirk that reminded her for a moment of his younger brothers.

“In a way.” She bit her lip. “Yes, in fact. Absolutely and completely.” Persephone smiled and leaned back with a sigh. “I’m in love, Charon.” She stopped, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be making a scene.”

“And why ever not? Should our Lady not make it known that she loves our Lord?”

“I know. I only—” she sighed. “I love him so much. I can’t explain it without feeling ridiculous or wanting to burst apart at the seams. Do I sound foolish to you?”

“Of course not.” Charon smiled. “To hear you express your joy and know that is it returned… what could make my heart happier, my queen?”

As they retraced the path she had first taken across the Styx over a month ago, she saw the multitudes at the far shore. The asphodel that had once grown there were long gone, dug up by hungry shades who couldn’t yet fathom they were dead. They had no way to know consuming the asphodel roots made no difference now. Persephone shook her head. “So much suffering. So much needless suffering…”

“Suffering is the mortal condition, dear lady,” Charon said as his oar lapped gentle waves against the boat, “and all reach this shore, inevitably. It’s been this way for aeons— ever since mortals came to be. They come, they go, and I bring them home so they can be reborn again.”

“The shades
are
at peace once they are a part of our realm.”
Our realm
. The last time she sat in Charon’s boat she’d scarcely imagined ever referring to the Underworld as her home, much less taking responsibility for it. “But it’s not
their
suffering I speak of. It’s the ones you never get to see, Charon— the loved ones they must leave behind. Mothers. Children. Friends.”

Charon merely nodded. Persephone could see the contemplation on his face and knew that he didn’t truly understand what she meant. He might have heard the same words from a shade— from countless shades— explaining what it meant to leave those they loved behind, but the mourning of living mortals lay beyond his understanding. “And you mean to set all of this right?”

“I must,” she replied. “I know that because of everything that’s happened, your family doesn’t look on Demeter too kindly.”

“Humph,” he grunted, darkly.

“I know her, though; she’s my mother. She’s grieving. She grieved for Eleusis after they burned down her temple a century ago, and the fields throughout Attica didn’t grow anything for nearly a month.”

Charon thinned his lips. “I remember that famine. Not so harsh as this; none have ever been so harsh as this. But we had more souls waiting for passage than I would have liked. Thin. All so thin, just like these. And so soon after Ares’s petty squabble with Athena made such a mess of things…”

“My mother would only do this if she thought I were in danger, or if she thought I was here against my will. I must tell her that she needs to stop this at once, that I am here of my own free will as Queen, and that I truly love Aidoneus.”

Charon gave her a dry smile, then faced away from her, looking into the mists of the river.

“Charon?”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Have you ever been in love?” She realized at once that it might have been rude to ask such a thing of the Boatman.

He read the expression on her face and smiled. “Why fear asking me something like that? In truth, yes— I was once in love.”

“What was she like?”

Charon sighed.
How many hundreds of aeons has it been?
he thought. “This was well before your husband was born. Before Hecate, before Hypnos and Thanatos, even. Back then, the only sons Nyx and Erebus had were Morpheus and me. There were so very few deathless ones then. Consciousness itself, the very idea of existing and being alive— much less gods or nymphs or spirits or whatever we were going to call ourselves— was still new. The woman I loved was older than me.” He chuckled as Persephone’s eyes grew wider. “Hard to imagine, indeed! But she was, just the same. Immortal, like you and I. Of course, nothing mortal existed back then. It was a concept beyond our grasp.”

Persephone settled onto the bracing and brought her knees to her chest as she listened.

“Her eyes… the deepest blue you’ve ever seen. Like the bottom of a lake. I could see myself in them. Her hair was black as a raven’s wing, soft, and she dressed in white— always in white… as I once did. Such pure brilliant white that floated about her, as if she were in the water. As though she
were
the water.” He snorted and a smile curved his lips. “She was skinny, too. A bit too frail to be considered a true beauty, but I quite liked it.”

“What happened to her?” She asked quietly.

His smile turned wistful as he looked back at her. “She was only slightly younger than my parents— one of the first born of the Protogenoi, when we were still piecing together how to make more of ourselves… and whether or not we should. Funny enough, she was also one of the first to become one with her divine domain— as my father eventually did.”

“Were you happy with her?”

“No,” he said, surprising her. “At least not as much as I had hoped to be.”

Charon sat down across from Persephone as the boat caught a slow drifting current. He laid his oar across his knees.

“She loved another. Saw me as a trusted friend and nothing more. Sadly for her, she and her love could never be together.” He looked out at the rocky slopes leading to the mouth of Tartarus and the glow of the Phlegethon. “I believe that was why Styx decided to become one with the river she watched over. Of course, I begged her not to. But after Ouranos claimed power over all of us and created the Golden Men, she saw little reason to cling to a changing world.”

Persephone sat quietly as Charon leaned over the edge and dipped his hand in the water, small wakes forming behind his skinny fingers. Charon’s eyes met hers.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Aristi Chthonia,
the
secret down here, if you asked your husband.”

She raised an eyebrow and grinned. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the coins, would it?”

Charon chuckled. “Aidoneus always wonders what I do with them once I collect them from the shades. Oh, but don’t tell him! It’s one of the last things I still have on your husband. Where do those coins go, hmm? I can’t fly up to the world above and spend them on riotous living. Although I could fly, once…” he drifted off, his eyes dulling for a moment before his wandering mind returned. “Look at me now! I wrap myself in a dusty cloak with no adornment, and my oar is my most treasured possession. I don’t even wear shoes on my feet. I’m a rather boney creature, my queen, and I suppose I’d look rather frightful walking through some sunny
agora
.” He laughed again, more freely this time.

She was unsure whether or not to laugh with him.

“I made a promise, long ago. I told Styx that I would give her everything I had, if only I could have her at my side for all eternity. It was the last time I saw her before she made the river‘s course her own. So to this day, every coin I receive, I give to her. Neither she nor I knew that the Fates would place me here and give me charge over the river lands of Acheron. But I got what I always yearned for in the end, I suppose.”

She knitted her brow, her eyes cast down.

“How many others in this cruel cosmos can say they have lived countless aeons never having been parted from their beloved?” he said smiling. Charon leaned over the edge again and stroked the back of his fingers through the water, caressing it, whispering to the surface. “That is one thing I can say. Can’t I, my dear?”