The Immortal Game (book 1) (40 page)

Ruby scanned the sheer face. “Rock climbing?” She looked at Ares. “Without ropes?”

“We’ll do it together,” he said.

She took hold of the rock and Ares stepped behind her. He pressed his warm body flat against her back. They climbed as one person with her tucked into the frame of his body, one tentative hold at a time. Her hip burned. She willed herself not to look down.

The rock topped out in a small cave not ten feet from a craggy opening. Ruby smelled grass, fresh air, and flowers. Earth.

Outside of the cave the bright light stabbed at her eyes. She shielded her face with her hands. On the ground before her was soft brown dirt, green grass, and in the small depressions of Persephone’s footprints there were new spring flowers.

Tears filled her eyes without warning. Through her blurred vision she saw that they were on the side of a mountain, a mountain that looked out over more mountains to the east and the ocean to the west.

“The Olympics,” she whispered. Her voice was choked. “We did it!”

A smile flickered across Ares lips but then died.

“Not yet.”

THIRTY

Ruby winced at the pain in her hip as she and Ares ascended the golden steps of the Great Hall of Olympus. Persephone had gone off to see Demeter. Ruby and Ares were happy to let her go.

A large group of gods came down the main path toward them. Ruby had known the Seasons would spread the word of their arrival as soon as she, Ares, and Persephone had flown through the gates of Olympus.

The gods’ faces were stoic. Ruby looked them over anxiously. She was eager for news of what had happened while they were away. She remembered the feel in the grove before she and Ares had left, like tightening guitar strings. She pictured the Cyclopes, and the gods that would side with Zeus, all gathering at the Great Hall.

But if a war had transpired on Olympus while they were gone, Ruby couldn’t tell. The trees and plants were as pristine and as fragrant as ever. The abodes were intact, huge and imposing on the Olympic landscape.

The group of gods got closer to the Great Hall. Athena was there and Aphrodite. Ruby saw Hermes, Eros and Psyche, and Pan. These were the gods loyal to Ares. Behind them came a separate group: Hephaestus, Hestia, and Dionysus, the gods that would support Zeus and Hera.

Ares didn’t look at the gods. He strode into the Great Hall.

Ruby hurried to keep up.

Ares passed the willow altar he had made for their wedding without a glance, and went through the archway with the two eagles holding lightning bolts in their talons.

Once they were in the garden Zeus was easy to find. He held a menacing-looking pair of pruning shears and clipped at a six-foot evergreen before him. If he knew they were there, he ignored them.

“It’s time,” Ares said.

“Yes,” Zeus said without looking at them. “Spring has sprung, as they say.” He continued to clip the tree. A large limb fell at his feet. “I’ll alert your mother. She’ll want to begin her preparations. She’ll need a month, or…”

“Now,” Ares commanded the king of the gods.

Ruby’s throat was dry despite the water she had drunk in Hades’s throne room. Her stomach growled.

Zeus glanced at her when he heard the sound and looked her up and down.

She knew she was filthy and that her clothes were singed. Ares’s T-shirt was ragged, ripped, and dirty. She’d wanted to go to Athena’s to clean up, but Ares had insisted that they not give Zeus any more time to plot against them.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Zeus said. “We need time for—”

“Ganymede,” Ares cut his father off with a shout that carried over the gathering Olympians in the garden around them.

Zeus’s eyes shot to Ares’s.

Ganymede came into the center of the garden and swept his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes.

“Bring us ambrosia and nectar,” Ares said. His eyes did not leave Zeus’s.

Ganymede looked to Zeus, but Zeus didn’t break from Ares’s gaze. The cupbearer scanned the group of gods. They remained silent. He left to do Ares’s bidding.

Hera walked into the garden and pushed through the crowd. She looked at her husband and her son locked in a silent battle. She stood by Zeus’s side. “Ares,” she said. “Where have you been?”

Ruby wondered what Hera knew. Had she been in on the plan to stop the wedding?

Ares didn’t answer his mother.

Ganymede walked into the garden with a tray. On it were a golden chalice and a silver bowl.

Ares’s eyes broke away from Zeus to look at Ruby. He took a deep breath and smiled. Despite the pain in her hip, her hunger and thirst, Ruby smiled too.

“This is it,” he said, serious now. “Your last moment to be human.”

She had not thought of it like that. She had always thought of the future, of being a goddess, of being Ares’s wife.

“It’s a lot to ask,” he said. “Maybe it’s too much.” He shrugged and shook his head. “I’m asking you to do it anyway.”

“I’d do anything for you, Ares. I thought that was pretty clear by now,” she said with raised eyebrows.

He gave her a sly smile, like he was trying not to laugh. She wished he had laughed, though. She wanted to be happy.

Ares took the gold chalice from Ganymede and handed it to her. “Nectar,” he said. “The drink of the gods.”

Ruby took the cup. The metal was surprisingly warm against her hand. She looked in at the red liquid. It smelled vaguely like cinnamon and cloves. Her throat convulsed, eager for any moisture.

She put her lips to the warm metal and drank. Subtle spicy warmth spread into her mouth. Her thirst was slaked with a single sip. A hot, uncomfortable tingle traveled through her entire body, from her scalp to her toes. The heat took her breath away and she gasped.

Ares’s eyes were wide and eager as he took the goblet from her. “Now the food of the gods.”

Her body still felt hot as he brought a spoon of the pearlescent golden ambrosia to her lips. It was cool, sweet like honey, rich like wine, and oddly light.

The coolness from the ambrosia mixed with warmth from the nectar. The two mingled, filling her cells, awakening her flesh, and galvanizing her will. Her hip no longer throbbed. Her hunger dulled.

Images and voices came to her. She didn’t know if her eyes were open or closed, but she saw people. They chattered over one another in her head. Dark became light. Babies were born. Girls became women. Boys became men. Virgins became lovers. Women became mothers. Men became fathers. War passed to peace. Hate passed to love. People grew old. People died.

She felt people’s dreams and their hopes and their desires. She felt their fears and their doubts. She saw people change their lives and she saw people living in the pain of fear and stagnation.

The images came faster and faster until they were a blur. Spirals danced in her vision. The images changed from people to caterpillars forming cocoons and releasing as butterflies. Over and over. She felt pulled in opposite directions. Her emotions ran like a rollercoaster; from the highest high of hope to the lowest low of fear.

Her body shook, slowly at first, then violently, in fits. Her legs gave way. Someone caught her. She opened her eyes, as if from a dream, but she felt awake and energetic. Ares was there, as she knew he would be, holding her and smiling.

He pulled her up to her feet. She was only vaguely aware that all of Olympus was watching.

“It’s done,” he said. His eyes searched hers and she could see his rapid breathing. “What did you see?”

“I saw everything,” she whispered. Then stronger, “Life and death, love and hate, innocence and passion.” Her eyes narrowed. “Spirals.” She laughed. “And butterflies.”

It all clicked into place.

“I saw the boundaries that hold people in and the possibilities when they break free. I heard people. I
felt
them.
Millions
of people,
changing
. Some were excited. Some were afraid. I can still feel them.” She narrowed her eyes. “But it’s distant.”

“Ruby,” he held her gaze and raised his voice so that everyone could here. “The goddess of boundaries. The goddess of transformation. The goddess of dreams and aspirations.”

Yes.
That felt right.

Ares’s smile faded and he turned to Zeus and Hera. “We’re ready,” he said.

Zeus looked like he might say something, but Ares didn’t give him a chance.

“You swore it,” he said.

Hera looked at her son and then at Ruby. The corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly and her green eyes softened around the edges.

Ruby smiled back.

Aphrodite pushed her way through the crowd with the wedding tray she, Athena, and Ruby had made up so long ago. She took the olive branch crowns and placed one on each of their heads. Ruby smiled at Ares with cream-colored olive blossoms nestled in his black curls.

Aphrodite handed Zeus the white silk ribbon of
hieros gamos
.

“Sacred Marriage,” Zeus said, reluctantly, as he held up the wide ribbon. “The union of gods. The binding of two souls.”

Ares took Ruby’s hands in his and she felt what he must have always felt when they touched. The rest of Olympus faded into the background and the subtle feeling of humans on Earth lessened. She felt their energy meet and flow together in a circuit they completed with their hands.

She fixed her eyes on Ares’s as Zeus wrapped their clasped hands with the ribbon that would bind their bodies, their vows, and their souls.

Zeus gave Ares a curt nod when it was done.

She expected the simple rote words of
hieros
gamos
they had each memorized, but instead Ares said, “Ruby, my love. We have been separate streams.” His voice was soft and quiet, as though he was speaking only to her. “From this day on our lives will flow out together as one great river. I promise to love you, Ruby, every day, for all eternity. I promise to move in your currents and bask in your eddies, and to float with you forever.”

Ruby blinked back tears.

He took up a more formal tone and continued with the words of
hieros
gamos
. “In the name of the Great God Zeus and the Great Goddess Hera I welcome you Ruby, the goddess of transformation, as my eternal wife.”

She bit her lip to control her overwhelming emotions. It was her turn to say the vows. She closed her eyes. A tear slipped down her cheek. She felt the solidity of Ares’s hands in hers. She looked at him again and took a deep breath.

“I, Ruby, take you Ares, the god of war, for my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, though there will be no sickness, only health, and there will be no poorer, only wealth; from this day forward and for all eternity.”

Ares smiled, though there was a bewildered look on his face. She realized he had never heard modern wedding vows.

“In the name of the Great God Zeus and the Great Goddess Hera,” she continued. “I welcome you Ares, the god of war, as my eternal husband.”

A plain iron band that matched Ruby’s lay on the silver tray. Hephaestus had made it for her months ago.

Ares mouth went slack when he saw it. He followed her hands with his eyes as she put the ring on his finger above the ribbon that bound them. “Let this ring be a symbol of our love, and our strength.”

“Your souls are now bound by your promise,” Zeus said. “But
hieros gamos
only begins with a vow. It is completed with a physical act. When male and female become one, then the two will be linked forever.”

Aphrodite came forward. “We mark Ruby’s moving from human to goddess and from maiden to wife in the old way.” She held up the silver scissors from the tray. “She is made anew.”

Ruby tensed when she felt the goddess take her long hair in her hands. Her eyes widened as she heard, more than felt, the shears snip the hair in a few jagged cuts at the nape of her neck. She reached up and touched the frayed ends that now skimmed the line of her jaw. She glanced at Ares. He smiled and she saw that he had known, of course.

Hera placed her hand over Ruby’s and Ares’s bound ones and said, “I bless this couple. As I have blessed all those who are truly in love and truly dedicated to one another.” She looked at Ares and then to Ruby. She smiled a genuine smile. “May you bring forth many sons.”

Ruby’s smile fell, not at Hera’s old-fashioned desire for boys, but at the reminder of the curse Kronos put on her and Ares’s sons.

Ares’s face was serene and content. He was not worried.

Hera’s gaze held no malice. It was meant as a blessing. A gift.

Ares kissed her in front of all the gods of Olympus. Ruby let herself relax.

…

“The party will go on for days,” Athena said to Ruby as Pan played his pipes across the Great Hall while the muses sang and danced. Ruby was happy they had recovered all the gods’ belongings from Hades’s throne room.

Ruby dug her spoon along the bottom of her goblet of ambrosia. It was no longer cool to her now immortal tongue, but it was still sweet, and rich, and light. She put the empty cup on the table next to the wedding crowns and took a sip of the full-bodied wine Dionysus had created in honor of her and Ares’s marriage.

Ruby’s hip was completely healed. She and Ares had danced until her feet were blistered, which was much longer than she could have danced on Earth, and the blisters had already mended.

Ares sat next to her. His arm was draped over her shoulders. He wore a clean white chiton. She wore a white silk peplos with silver trim and a silver band of butterflies in her now much shorter hair. Once she learned to control her molecules she would be able to grow her hair out in a moment. For now she liked the look. She was different and it showed.

The voices and energy she felt from Earth chattered in the background of her mind. Occasionally they broke into her consciousness and sent a jolt of excitement or fear through her. Athena assured her that she would learn to block it. She hadn’t gained Ares’s level of connection to humans, luckily.

Ruby looked around the room and thought of her father. She had always assumed he would be at her wedding. He would give her away and they would dance together. Instead she and Ares sat at a table with Aphrodite, Athena, Eros, and Psyche. Hermes and Pan joined them as the Muses collapsed into their chairs at the table next to them.