Pawn (14 page)

“You do what your heart tells you to do of course. You my baby are a goddess of love. No one ever said it had to be virginal love. As long as your heart is pure you’re fine. So do you love him?”

And that as the mortals said, was the sixty four thousand dollar question. The truth was that she didn’t know. She loved Rufus as she loved all people. That was her nature. But she loved him in another way as well. But being so new to the whole idea of sex, she wasn’t sure if that was what was meant by loving him. Or what was supposed to be.

“My ladies.”

“Ananke?” Di looked up, relieved at first not to have to answer the question, but then surprised to see her standing there with a worried expression on her face. There was never a reason to worry in the spinner’s home. This was always a place of peace. No one would risk the wrath of the spinner by upsetting her. But then as Ananke opened her mouth to speak, she understood that there was one. There was always one. She could see him marching angrily towards them, and his name was Plutos.

Proving he was everything she’d always believed of him, he simply elbowed his way past Moirae’s handmaiden, a goddess in her own right, sending her sprawling to one side, and marched out into the courtyard, where he fixed them all with a contemptuous stare.

“I should have known. The three gossiping old hens, clucking away as they wait for the farmer’s axe.” He looked angry Di thought, and in his anger his true evil showed through. He was supposed to be the god of prosperity, but his black heart yearned for far more then that modest dream.

“Let’s see. Hera, the old fisherman’s wife. Going stupid with age. You should know better than to mix with these two. You at least have a position to uphold.” He turned his attention to Moirae, who was calmly sipping at her tea, paying him little attention.

“And then there’s the mischief maker. The so-called spinner of fate. Fate’s bitch would be more like it.” One thing was certain, he had no respect for the spinner, and that wasn’t clever.

“You think a few little tricks will save you from me? Think again. You may be able to fool the others but not me. Your power is limited to tricks and illusions. Not real power.” Di couldn’t help but think he was playing a dangerous game in testing her. A very dangerous game. But Moirae didn’t seem to be too worried about it. Maybe Plutos should have been worried by that. But he was angry and proud, both very dangerous faults in a man or a god.

“Oh and last but not least, my darling Aphrodite.” The hatred in his words was almost palpable and she knew he would have attacked her then and there if he could have. But even he wouldn’t dare. Not in front of witnesses. An attack upon one was an attack upon all. Plutos wasn’t yet that powerful or that stupid.

“The goddess of love and beauty. You should know that there is no such thing in the world any longer. You are a relic of a bygone age. A fossil. A creature that should have been long forgotten.” There was so much bitterness and rage in his voice that he scarcely sounded like a man. But then he had never been much of one. That was one reason that she had rejected his advances long ago. Another was that his overwhelming arrogance while bad enough in itself, only served to conceal a greater darkness within. The man had no heart. None at all. He had wanted her only as a thing. Something to hang on his arm and show the world how great he was.

“This world belongs to me. Plutos, god of wealth and prosperity. And I say what happens in it. Not an old cow, a trickster and a pathetic goddess on her way out. So how dare you interfere in my plans!” All of a sudden he was shouting, disturbing the peace in the courtyard, sending the birds in the trees flying away in panic. “How dare you save that annoying little worm!”

Finally Di understood his anger, and it in turn angered her. He was the one behind the attempt on Rufus’s life. He was the one who had sent his brother to kill him. It might have been his servants doing the deed, but he was the ringmaster. That was intolerable.

“He was dead. Good and dead. A thorn in my side finally plucked despite all the protection fate’s prissy little bitch here could lend him. And then you dare to save him!” Plutos’ face was screwed up in hatred and anger, making him seem like something from the underworld, and there were rumours that he had been doing deals with Hades.

“It was bad enough when you brought him to the hall. A piss weak mortal dining among the gods. Proudly proclaiming your dalliance of shame. It was insulting. But then you save him! You raised that little shit from the dead and ruined my servants’ plans. How dare you!” If he hadn’t been shouting before, he was then.

“Now my high priest’s plans are once more at risk. The threat is returned, and more than that, with his brother in that mental bin, more dangerous than before. You have placed all of my plans in jeopardy, and for that you shall pay.” For a moment Di almost thought he was going to try and strike them down then and there with his powers. But even he wasn’t that stupid. He used his cunning instead.

“I am calling an assembly of the council, and you my pretty little thing, will be held to account. No one interferes in my bailiwick, least of all a failing handmaiden long past her sell by. I will demand your censure, and we both know that I will get my judgement. There are none strong enough to deny me, none foolish enough to try. Not on this.”

He was so ugly. That was her main thought. The hatred and arrogance and of course the eternal greed that fuelled his soul, shone through like glowing poisonous gas. That hatred had made him something very hideous. Something so far from the man he had once been. She assumed. Like a lot of things, a little greed could be a good thing. It could motivate people to work hard and give them the desire to advance themselves. It could help to run a society and keep a family fed. But taken to its terrible extreme it was something beyond foul.

Her next thought was to worry. How she’d healed Rufus she still didn’t understand. But she understood censure. It was the only thing a goddess truly feared. The judgement of their peers. And they could impose some serious penalties upon her if they truly believed that she had done wrong. That she had crossed over in to the bailiwick of another god. The gods did not trespass. It was one of their oldest rules.

“You would lose.” Hera jumped in before Di could answer. She was never one to tolerate threats and rudeness, and she liked Plutos no more than anyone else. “Or do you forget who rules the council?”

“Zeus? That old relic. Mark my words you senile old bag, his days are numbered as are yours. If he dares to stand against me I will strike him down, and the rest will either follow me or join him in Hades.”

“This is my time, my world and I will not be defied. Not by a withered old prune. But he is not stupid enough to defy me. He is not an old woman with dust for brains. Besides, the jumped up little handmaiden had no right. The case is mine regardless.”

“She had every right. Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and your agent struck down her consort. You are in the wrong.” As calm as Hera was, her words just seemed to infuriate Plutos even more, and for a moment as he stood there staring, he looked as though he might explode.

“Her consort? You slept with that shit monkey?” His eyes were bulging and his face white with uncontrolled rage as he turned to her again. “He is a coward. A creature of no significance. He is unworthy of even the title of mortal. He is less than a pet. Less than even a beast in the field. Less than vermin. And you debased yourself with him!”

“How could you?” But it wasn’t heartache that made him so angry she knew, he had no heart. It was pride. He could not stand the thought of being second to anyone, least of all a mortal, and she had turned him away.

Finally Di had had enough. More than enough. And she let it loose as his accusations flew.

“No! How could you? How can you? Rufus is my consort and you will show him the respect he is due as such.” Plutos wasn’t the only one who could yell, and the bile that was coming out of his mouth was unbearable. Unfortunately the words she really wanted to use simply wouldn’t come out of her mouth. They were neither of beauty or love and just as she had those powers to use as she saw fit, the powers used her. Normally she didn’t mind that. It was simply who she was. But sometimes the chance to really level an insult at someone would have been a blessing. “Or it will be I that calls the council and you who will be made to grovel.”

“Never slut!” He screamed at her, his eyes burning with hatred. “No more servants. No more chances for them to fail. I will kill him where he stands slut and grind his body up for fertilizer under my own bare feet.”

“If you try you will lose. Again.” Of the three of them, only Moirae was completely calm as she told Plutos her will. But then she was always calm. Her work gave her a perspective on life that none of the rest of them would ever understand. She alone knew that things would always come to pass as they should. And she had probably known that this meeting was coming.

“Really little sister? My servant’s servant killed him once, and this time I will do it myself. There will be no second resurrection by this simpering little slut. I will see to that.” Di screamed just then, angered beyond all reason, and she would have risen and struck Plutos save for the fact that Moirae stopped her with a hand on her shoulder and Hera held the other. Open warfare would not serve any of them well. Plutos though, misunderstood her. Where others would see concern, he saw only weakness.

“Yes. Sit yourself down whore. And stay there until I decide you should move.”

“You should leave now.” Moirae suddenly turned serious, her voice letting everyone know that she had decided that there had been more than enough talking, and she wanted him out of her home. Permanently.

“And you would make me how bitch?” He laughed at her, pumped up on what he thought was his victory. He should have known better.

A gust of wind came out of nowhere and rustled the trees all around them, making him look up. It was a mistake. There was a sudden snap, the sound of twigs breaking, and then a blindingly fast flash as a branch of her favourite pear tree held back by a tangle of other branches, was suddenly released by chance. It smashed him full in the face, just as she intended, and sent him flying backwards, bellowing in shock and anger. It was a good blow.

Of course it wasn’t deadly, much as Di might have wished for such a thing. Even if it could have been permitted and he wasn’t a god, he was a necessary being. He could not be killed. Greed was a part of the world, and for the moment Plutos had a place because of it. But still it wiped the sneer off his face as he got back up and put his hand to his face and watched it come back covered in bright red blood. Angrily he started wiping the blood away. The branch had made a damned good job of breaking his nose.

“You - !” Plutos looked upset, and she liked that. Though it was unworthy of a goddess, she liked it very much. Still she maintained her composure and let Moirae do the talking. This was her game and Di knew she had prepared for it long ago. Just how long did it take after all, to grow a tree in exactly the right way that its branch would be twisted and held back by other branches, waiting for exactly the right moment to be released? And what else did she have ready?

“You were told to leave Plutos. This is my home and you are not welcome here. Do not return, and do not test my patience with your pathetic displays again.” Plutos looked around, for once a little bit nervous as he hunted for whatever else could be out there in the peaceful seeming courtyard, waiting to strike him. It was a good look to see on his face.

Maybe her words got through to him, the understanding that even if he owned the world he had no such place in the home of fate. Maybe he realised that fate was never a thing to be trifled with. Or maybe he just decided the better part of valour was retreating to strike back later at another weak spot. Di feared it was the latter. But at least he turned his heels on them, snarled a little, and left them without any more unpleasant words.

“I wonder if we’ll be able to hear the scream.” Moirae murmured it just loudly enough for them to hear. Naturally they turned to her, questions in their eyes.

“When he sees his car.” She clarified it as much as she intended to. Telling them that his brand new gold plated Bentley, had accidentally slipped its break, rolled down the hill, jumped the side of the cobbled road, and finally sailed off a cliff to erupt in a bonfire of burning fuel and twisted metal, would have been too much.

It was enough for Di and the others that they could find a fresh smile when the distant echo of his scream made it all the way back to them in the courtyard. More than enough.