Harvest of the Gods (3 page)

Chapter Four

Three dead Froekn were sprawled across the wet ground. Three more names to add to the list of horrible things Demeter had done. Ben, Ethan, and Jake. I stood staring at them, at the bluish tint to their skin, and the way they were all as wet as the ground. I watched a drop of water roll off the dark leather of Ethan's boot and plop into a puddle. Even the air smelled wet, like a storm was brewing.

“
Why are they wet?” I looked over to Fenrir, who stood beside me with arms crossed and forehead lowered over his eyes.

“
She froze them, the ground too. Everything was melting by the time we got here,” his teeth were grinding together. “I've had enough of this, Godhunter. I need her dead. Her or I, it has to be one of us to give me any peace.”

Godhunter. I knew it was bad when Fenrir used that title in particular. It was partial hope and partial admonition. He expected me to do something about this and he expected it to be done months ago. Bad enough that the greatest trackers on the planet couldn't find Demeter, but the Godhunter... she should have brought Demeter down by now. All of that, he got across to me with one word.

“I know,” I squeezed his arm. “Me too.” I bent over Jake. “Always with the ice or heat. Isn't there more to Demeter's magic than that?”

“
She's a fertility goddess,” Trevor answered. “Her magic is that of the Land, the Seasons, and Growth. She could create life if she chose to but her anger has corrupted the magic and now all she does is destroy.”

“
Like Aphrodite,” I sighed. “Yeah, I remember when Persephone told Demeter that the power of Creation will always conquer
Destruction but I don't think Demeter bought it.”

“
She should have listened to her daughter,” Samantha, my Froekn best friend, who was also married to Fallon, one of my lion lieutenants, had come with us since she'd been at Pride Palace when we got the news.

“
Not listening to Persephone is kind of what started all of this,” I grimaced. “She's really taken it too far though. All because Persephone wanted to move in with Hades.”

“
It's like Munchausen by proxy,” Samantha huffed, “hurting her child under the guise of helping her.”

“
Okay,” I held my hand out to Fenrir, “I need the hair.”

He handed me a long lock of golden hair, bound at both ends with little pieces of duck tape. I frowned down at the silver tape. Men. Then I shook my head and held it up to my nose, taking in Demeter's scent. It was a complicated smell, part heat and part cold, like frozen ashes, the scent of a fire burning in an igloo. Underneath that was something bitter, acrid, like wine turning to vinegar.

I frowned, scent was a very personal thing and often  with magical people, it was very telling. Demeter's scent was no different, a bitter woman who blew hot and cold. That was her alright. When I'd first cut the hair from Demeter's head, I could have killed her but I chose to leave the job up to the Froekn. The hair I took practically guaranteed they'd find her and if I was entirely honest with myself, I really didn't want to kill another friend's mother. Yes, I've done it before.

“
I should have killed her when I had the chance,” I grumbled. The hair hadn't helped the Froekn, Demeter had disappeared, and now I was left the task of finding her again.

I found the trail easily, the sharp layer of her hatred making it so clear that I could almost see it like a red mist in the air. I followed
it to a spot where she'd traced out. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, Froekn could actually follow a scent through the Aether, and it turned out that I had a similar capability. I could see the trail in my head, a path through the Aether and into the God Realm. Problem was, it was blocked. Wherever she'd gone in the God Realm, she'd sealed the place beyond the usual wards. I couldn't even tell where she'd exited.

“
Fuck,” I swore. “She's blocked her path into the God Realm somehow.”

“
Yeah, that's the problem we've been having,” Trevor sighed. “It's okay, Minn Elska, you tried.”

“
No,” something tightened inside me. “This isn't right. I should be able to find her. I'm part fey and the fey created the Aether. I should at least be able to tell where she went in the God Realm.”

“
I can help you,” everyone turned to look at Torrent. I hadn't even realized he'd come along, until he spoke. “I can go into the Aether through the Inter Realm and take a longer and closer look at her trail.”

“
How would you even know what to look for?” I asked as my heart sped up.

“
If you would just step into the Inter Realm with me, you can follow her trail through the Aether, and I can decode the block she has on her location.” He said matter-of-factly.

“
Step into... decode?” I shook my head. “We don't even have a router here, there's no Inter Realm connection, and how can you decode magic?”

“
I am made of codes, Internet energy,” he shrugged, “but I'm also made of magic. Iktomi had to imbue me with some of his own magic in order to give me life. Because of this combination, I've been able to connect with most magic like it's source code, a
readable set of instructions that I can take apart. If you can point me in the right direction, I can unblock the path for you.”

“
Holy hand grenades!” I grabbed him and hugged him. “Torrent, if you can do that, you might just save my life again.”

“
I'd be happy to help,” he smiled wide, the perfectly smooth skin on his face rippling like water instead of wrinkling. His clear green eyes, glass-like in their clarity, shimmered over a second, like a light had been passed behind them.

“
Bring me our vengeance, boy,” Fenrir rumbled as he stepped forward and grabbed Torrent's shoulder, “and you will be considered family by the Froekn.”

“
He's already family,” I smiled at the man who'd saved me from Iktomi, betraying his own creator to save a stranger and win his freedom. “But I'm sure he'd appreciate the gratitude of the Froekn.”

“
It would be my honor to help Vervain's people,” Torrent nodded.

“
That's a good lad,” Fenrir nodded. “This goddess has plagued us for far too long. I refuse to lose any more of my children to her.”

“
Where are we anyway?” I suddenly realized I had no idea of where Trevor had brought us.

“
Yosemite,” Fenrir glanced around.

We were in a clearing, just on the outskirts of a forest. Most of the trees were tall and kind of conical, pine maybe. I don't know, I've never been good at recognizing plants. Far off behind me was a river, peacefully flowing along, and in front of me, back
behind the trees, a mountain rose up into the blue sky. It wasn't like the mountains in Hawaii that I was used to, it was more gray rock than green and its sharp cliffs were straight edges, like something had just sheered part of the rock away. It was beautiful though, if only it hadn't been sullied by death.

“
Yosemite National Park?” I asked.

“
No, Yosemite Sam's house,” Trevor smirked at me.

“
Very funny,” I gave him a look. “The question is, what was Demeter doing here?”

“
Hiding out?” Trevor shrugged, “going for a stroll? Who knows and who cares? Let's just find her.”

“
Okay already,” I huffed. “Torrent, you still haven't answered my question. How do we get into the Inter Realm without a router?”

“
I am a router,” he laughed. “Well, kind of. I can connect to the Inter Realm whenever I wish. I'm a walking hot spot.”

“
There are so many jokes,” I shook my head, “and this is so not the time for them.”

“
Maybe another time then,” Torrent held his hand out to me. “I think your family wants us to get started.”

“
Right,” I took his hand and suddenly the Human Realm was overlaid by the Inter Realm. Everything was sharper, the colors brighter, and multi-colored streams of energy ran in all directions, transporting information all over the world. Now that Iktomi and Mica were dead, there was no taint to the web, no toxic threads running by. It was good to see, like a once polluted stream cleared and running pure.

“
Can you still see Demeter's trail?” Torrent asked.

“
Yes, it's red, very easy to spot in here.”

“
Good, I can't see it, so remember what it looks like. Come on, this way,” he grabbed one of the threads and I jumped on behind him, the information pulling us along at a dizzying rate.

We finally jumped the thread at a spot that seemed to have a glowing tunnel going through it. I walked up to the golden haze hesitantly, suddenly remembering the little jaunt I'd taken through the Aether via the Inter Realm, during which I'd paused to take a look-see. I never did it again. The Aether was hard to behold, a collection of memories, desires, and magic that swam about without rhyme or reason. Now I was not only going to have to take another look, I was going to have to look longer.

“It'll be okay,” Torrent said as if he knew my fears. “Just concentrate on finding Demeter's trail.”

“
Right, okay,” I looked around. “I don't see it here.”

“
I didn't expect you to,” he smiled. “She traced in way back in Yosemite. You'll have to find her again in the Aether. Do you think you can?”

“
If it's as obvious as it was over where we started, I should be able to,” I frowned and looked back over my shoulder, the way we'd come. “I know the direction to look in.”

“
Okay,” he took my hand. “Let's do this.”

We stepped into the tunnel and made our way forward into the Aether. I could feel the change as soon as we passed through the hazy wall but I took a moment to steel myself before I looked up. The Aether was intense, it held pieces of everyone who'd ever traveled through it and energy from every spell ever crafted with it. Looking into it was like looking at a carnival side show view of millions of lives all at once.

I finally looked up and tried to ignore the bombardment of memory upon memory, searching instead for the telltale sign of Demeter's passing. It was nowhere to be found, since I was pretty sure we were in the line that connected Odin's Santa TV to the Human Realm, I was a little relieved to know that Demeter hadn't jumped out in Asgard. On the other hand...

“
Can we move horizontally through here?” I asked Torrent.

“
Sure,” he moved toward the spot I indicated and just kept walking. The Inter Realm moved with him, “it's pretty flexible if you exert your will on it.”

“
Oh, sweet,” I started forward but the tunnel wouldn't budge for me. “You mean if you exert
your
will on it,” I gestured to the immovable wall and began walking behind Torrent.

“
Huh,” Torrent blinked and then shrugged. “Okay, I guess it doesn't do that for everyone. I'll keep going straight and when you spot her trail, just give me a holler.”

“
Okay,” I took little glances as he walked, not able to withstand the onslaught of the Aether for long.

We'd gone quite a ways when I finally spotted it, a red line running across our path and going straight toward the boundary of the Aether. I was about to point it out to Torrent when a memory floating through the Aether, caught my attention.

It was of a little girl with rich brown hair and huge green eyes. She was smiling, reaching up for someone. The memory was from that person's perspective, so I couldn't see the face, but the arms that reached for the child were pale gold and a gold braid swung forward into view. The child laughed as she was swung above the person, smiling down with adoration.

“
Sephy?” I whispered.

“
What's that?” Torrent turned around.

“
I think that's Persephone when she was a child,” I pointed at the memory as it continued to play out, undulating through the Aether, though it stayed fairly close to the red streak. “Demeter's left a memory behind.”

“
We all do,” he shrugged. “It's like paying a toll but it's only a copy, the Aether doesn't steal the memory. So can you see the path now?”

“
Huh?” I blinked and looked away from what had to be one of Demeter's happiest memories of her daughter. “Oh, yeah, it ends right there, at the point next to that blue sports car.”

“
I see the block,” he declared as he moved our little vein of Inter Realm closer to the spot Demeter's path disappeared. “This is no problem at all, only take me a few minutes.”

“
Great,” I chewed at my lip.

The glimpse into Demeter's past was making my belly clench. It was hard to equate the loving mother in that memory to the monster Demeter had become. The most troubling thing about it though, was that it wasn't only Demeter's memory. It belonged to Sephy too. This was the mother she remembered and this was what she'd be losing when we killed Demeter.