The Secret of the Emerald Sea (25 page)

He hated Liesel, for if she had not come, all would be well. He would never have known this, and would have been blissful in his ignorance. He thought Jane might have told him someday, when they were closer, but what would he have done? He did not know...

“Do you still want to find the girl?” she whispered. “Or only the witch?”

“Both,” he said firmly, and he quickened his pace, his muscles burning, for he was only human, and they were moving so fast.

I still love her
, he thought.
I cannot help it
. He was ashamed that he had failed her when she needed him, and that he had doubted her and let her go so easily.
It was the grief
, he thought,
that made me turn from her
.
And the witch
... He felt again the terrible desire to do harm to Liesel, accompanied as it was by gruesome images of a carriage stuck on the roadside, filled with the stench of poison, and with other terrible things that no one should
ever
have to see.

They walked until nightfall...

Chapter Sixty-One

Liesel had searched for her enemy, but failed to find whoever it was who knocked on the door and foiled her careful plans. Blake was gone, and her crystal ball had also disappeared. She had fretted as she crouched under the bed and found it missing.

Panicked, grabbing for her weapons and whatever potions remained, she headed for the forest where she was sure the boy had gone. Something in her, some voice inside her head, was
screaming
for her to go to the forest. She could feel Hecate’s evil moving through her like a serpent, twisting and twisting. She felt cold under her layers of cloaks as she covered her face with a deep hood that concealed her features and stole away into the night once more.

She ran for the woods, leaving the pub behind, she hoped, forever. She never wished to see that wretched place again. She felt stabbing pains in her back as she ran, and her breathing came hard. Running became impossible, and so she walked, wrenched with pain.

She reached up to tuck an errant lock of hair into her hood. The wind was blowing it in her face. She felt bald spots upon her scalp and screamed. Clumps of silky, glossy, dark hair were
falling out
as she touched them. She reached inside the hood, and brought forth handfuls of hair, shining and perfumed.

Liesel screamed again into the night, touching her face, feeling the smooth, plump skin sink and go dry. It was turning to old parchment.

She needed no looking glass to know what was happening. The Queen of The Crossroads was ending her youth, and with it, all of her chances for peace and happiness. She was turning old again, unable to run...unable to charm or to kiss. She rushed into the forest; she knew her haggard face was terrible to behold. She felt hatred and all of a sudden, she wished to kill. At least the boy had run away. At least he had not witnessed this devastation.

She knew now that Hecate had knocked on the door, just to play with her. Liesel had been so close, but Hecate would not let her have her heart’s desire. She should have tried harder to find the girl, but she had disappeared, and she had found she wanted Blake’s love more than anything else. Now, she would pay for that. She would pay for all of eternity.

She walked slowly and miserably through the forest, tears of frustration running down her lined, colorless cheeks.
I am so old
, she thought,
so old
. Her breath was labored from her exertions. It hurt to breathe the cold winter air. She stopped suddenly, took the iron dagger out of her cloak, and held it to her wrist.
What does it matter anymore?
she thought, and she started to cut the skin on her wrist. She wanted to die now, and she longed to escape her fate. Perhaps she could if she took her own life.

She was too weak to hunt through a forest, she knew. Too cold to pursue the ones she had to find.

And I cannot face Blake again
, she thought desperately.
I will kill him rather than have him know that this is me...his Liesel.
She pulled the dagger hard across her wrist.
But I would rather die myself
.

The knife drew no blood. No matter how hard she pulled at her skin with the razor-sharp blade, her flesh remained unmarked and did not bleed.

“Put the knife away,” she heard a voice say deep within her mind. It was a man’s voice, and it was as cold as the steel she wielded.

“Who’s there?” she yelled into the forest. “Who goes there?” Her voice sounded awful, the old croak she had forgotten was her true voice. Some more of her dark hair lay in bunches upon the ground, falling out of her hood as she moved. She touched her face, putting the knife back in her cloak.

“It will not work. You must finish your task, and come to the River,” Pluto said, a smile in his voice. Liesel heard the harsh laughter of Hecate in the background, and closed her eyes. She thought she might faint. The voices were so loud, and yet they came from inside of her.

“I am not strong enough,” she croaked. “I would like to revenge myself upon Minerva, but I am weak, and old. I cannot make my way through all this forest, and I do not know where to go.” Her voice was choked with tears. She did not want to listen to Pluto and Hecate. Their voices were like acid in a wound, and she must listen to them, forever and ever.

“I will make you strong,” Pluto answered. “Go and break a branch, the longest and strongest you can find, off of a tree. Then wait.”

Chapter Sixty-Two

Liesel looked about her, but she could not find anything. She heard a crunching sound not far from where she searched, and then she saw a huge evergreen tree begin to fall. She ran out of the way, watching the tree crash to the ground. She glanced back at the village, for it was close, and the noise had been loud.

“They won’t hear,” Pluto said soothingly. “Get the branch now.” She reached for a long branch that had snapped off at its base, and held it in her hand.

She held the branch, waiting for something... The branch sparked and caught fire and she dropped it on the ground. She heard the sound of ancient languages in her ears, the ones she had used in spells and incantations. The flames grew, even on the wet ground, and they rose higher and higher until they were over her head.

She tried to move away, but was bewitched by the licking flames. They seemed to dance only for her. Inside of the flames, a figure was emerging, glistening and red, as though soaked in fresh blood. Out of the flames, Pluto walked, his burning limbs turning to healthy bronze skin, his demon’s face growing handsome and smooth.

Pluto smiled at Liesel and extended his hand. The flames died on the ground in that same instant, leaving only a blanket of ash behind. She could not move, for never had she seen such magic, and she was awed by his power. Liesel could feel his strength, and she fell to her knees in front of him.

“Pluto,” she intoned, bowing her head. “My great lord.”

“Get up,” he said, not unkindly, and he looked into her face. “My, my aren’t we a sight?” He smiled, his cold, blue eyes relishing the look of desolation in the old woman’s eyes as he spoke the mocking words.

“Give me back what Hecate took, and I will do anything...” she begged, still at his feet.

“Nothing lasts forever, you know...beauty, wealth, life itself...all ends, all dies, all is subject to my domain. I claim beauty in decay, wealth that can no longer be dispensed, bodies that can no longer move or breathe...or love. Nothing lasts, and when it is gone, I am all that remains.”

“Don’t,” Liesel said. “You can reverse this. You are strong.”

“I could, but I won’t because I enjoy it so much,” he said, smiling.

She grabbed for her dagger then, and tried to stab him with it, for it was all she had, and she was enraged. He laughed at she plunged the dagger into his skin. It did not penetrate, and it never would.

“You know better than that,” he said, grinning, prying the knife out of her gnarled hands.

She stared at him in naked hatred. “I killed for you,” she rasped. “I killed, and I would kill more if you’d but give me the strength to do it.”

“That’s better,” he said. “Firstly, you did not kill for me, but for yourself. You gloried in it, and Hecate told me so.” He laughed. “Don’t be ashamed, for many have gone before you, feeling godly power for just a moment as they claim the blood of another. It is natural, but it was not for me, or for Hecate.

“The way you felt when you killed,” he continued, “is how I feel as I send you to the River. That is your punishment for I am here to finish what you started, and you are no longer useful here.” He reached over, took her hand and tucked her iron dagger into his robes. “I will keep this for my collection, if you don’t mind,” he said.

“I can’t go down there,” Liesel rasped. “Please let me die here, then let me cross to the other side.”

“I’ve tried to explain, Liesel,” he sighed. “Your suffering brings me pleasure, and therefore, I won’t stop it. Don’t you understand?”

Liesel stared at him. There was nothing to say now. She understood everything.

“I will enjoy sending the daughter of Neptune to Hecate, as well,” he said, smiling. “I’m afraid you are not strong enough for this task we set out for you since she has royal blood.”

“Minerva will stop you,” Liesel snapped, nasty and mean now as ever she was. She hated Minerva, it was true, but now she hated Pluto even more.

“She cannot,” Pluto said. “She is just a goddess. They are never as powerful as gods.” He laughed. “They may think they are strong, but they aren’t, all those women. Only Jupiter is my rival.”

“Minerva is strong,” Liesel said. “She filled my cave with her aura. I could feel her strength. It would have been impossible to harm her, so I chose the girl.”

“But you fell in love,” Pluto said crushingly, “and you failed to kill the girl. You forgot your pledge to destroy her, and now it is time for you to go.”

“I am afraid,” Liesel whispered, closing her eyes tight.

“They always are,” Pluto said with a half smile, and then he brought out her dagger and examined it under the moonlight.

“It is time to go to Hecate. She is waiting.”

Liesel closed her eyes, imagining the boy’s scent, and his soft golden hair. She had been so close, so close, to peace.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the Underworld laid out before her like a scene from a nightmare. Hecate stood by the shore and nodded in welcome. Sisyphus turned from his labors and shook his head sadly. “Fool. Murderer,” he muttered, groaning again as he pushed the great boulder.

“Fool and murderer, indeed,” Hecate said as Liesel, hideous now and bedraggled, walked slowly toward her. Liesel looked at her with hatred. “You robbed me!” she said spitefully. “It was you who knocked on that door with your magic.”

“It was a warning. The timing could not be helped,” Hecate said soothingly. “It was only a warning. That was all.” She led Liesel to the riverbanks.

“But the boy heard it, too!” Liesel spat.

“Yes, well, magic is rarely perfect, as we both know,” Hecate said, her eyes gleaming with good humor. “I thought you would want to know, so that he would not have to see you...like this. Your time was running out.” And she laughed and laughed, walking away from Liesel, who must guard the riverbank now and forever.

Liesel smelled the metallic stench of the crimson waters and she wished herself dead. She watched the souls cross—there were so many— and she felt the pure spirits rise and the mean spirits fall, each to their own place. She was on the border, and she would never know true pleasure, or true pain, again. Only numbness, which was worse than pain.

* * * *

Pluto walked through the forest, looking in wonder around him. He rarely left his palace, and the earth was unfamiliar to him. But he knew the first battle of the Great War should be fought on neutral ground. He must make the first move and place the pieces where they should lie. These humans were bait, and they would bring the war into motion.

His armies were ready. A quick summons would call them up out of the River where they dwelled. He would wait until the moment was right, and he would try to kill the girl and steal Minerva away to his home. Once she was down in his palace, he would have a bargaining chip if the war went wrong.
I also have Proserpina
, he thought cruelly.
She cannot die, but she can languish, and Jupiter will not want Minerva, his beloved child, to suffer such a fate.

He walked through the forest, waiting to feel the aura of other, similar beings. It would not be long before he did. He smiled as he walked, his godly bulk casting strange shadows. He needed to make it to the other side of the forest, but there was no great hurry. With his magic, such things were easily achieved. He gloried in the still, silent beauty of the night for just a moment or two, glancing back at the spot where he and Liesel had stood. Her begging had made him feel happy and strong.

The only thing he worried about was whether or not Jupiter was watching him. He glanced up at the sky and his features darkened. He scowled as he remembered his journey to the Sunlit Cloud.

“This is war,” he muttered, and he closed his eyes, chanting spells he had known since the beginning of time.