Everyone remained silent. I looked into the water again, just in time to see the tip of one long scaly tail disappear under the boat. Within a few seconds, the nose of the same beast reappeared. They were still swimming circles, but they were not bothering us.
“I think Hecate is right,” I breathed. “I think we are fine. They have not bothered us yet.”
My daughter was unfazed by the giant creatures and in fact, she seemed almost mesmerized by them as she watched them swim fluidly beneath us. Cadmus and I exchanged amused looks above her head. Simply observing her was a joy to us. She was such an unexpected blessing to both of us.
Weariness began to take its toll on me, however, and I leaned against my husband, absorbing his strength. He leaned forward, pressing a warm kiss to my forehead.
“Sleep, my love,” he suggested. I nodded, closing my eyes.
The next thing I knew, Raquel was shouting.
My eyes blinked open and we were approaching land. I rubbed at my eyes and turned to Cadmus.
“How long was I asleep?”
“A few hours,” he replied. “You needed it.”
“Did you rest?” I asked.
“I’m a warrior,” he answered, as though that were answer enough. I rolled my eyes.
“And warriors don’t need rest, apparently,” I muttered. From my periphery, I saw him smile. I didn’t dwell on his arrogance though. I had to admit, it was one of the things I loved about him. Instead, I turned my attention to the beauty that faced us.
The coast was lined with tropical plants and palm trees. I could practically smell the coconuts in the sea breeze that lightly ruffled my hair. The sand was white, the water was blue and calm. There was no sign of the Hydras now as we glided smoothly through the water to come to a rest in the soft sand by the shore.
I had never smelled anything like the air here. Clean and crisp, it tasted of salt and rich flower blossoms. Brightly colored tropical birds rested in the trees above us. The temperature was just right- not too warm and not too cool.
“Welcome to paradise,” Hecate said. As she did, the ladder uncoiled from the floor of the boat and dropped to the water below. She wasted no time in climbing over the side. One by one, we all waited our turn to climb off the ship and within minutes, we stood on the perfect sands of the beach.
“Mon dieu,” Aphrodite murmured, gazing up and down the lengths of the coast. “What beauty!”
“It doesn’t compare to you, my love,” Ares announced, bowing low as he swept up her hand and kissed it. Aphrodite smiled and kissed him soundly before returning her attention to the shore.
“I’ve never actually been here before. I should have come long ago.”
“It is said that this is a place of perfection,” Hecate said quietly. “And I personally believe that to be true. The weather is always perfect, there is no strife or hate. It is most certainly a perfection.”
I couldn’t argue. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. But somehow, it seemed vaguely familiar.
“I feel as though I’ve been here before,” I murmured to no one in particular. Ahmose stared at me in consternation.
“I will be so happy when your memories are fully returned to you,” he replied. “Of course you have been here. Once upon a time, Zeus sent you and Cadmus to live here. You appealed to his generous nature and asked that due to all of your misfortune with your necklace if you could be sent from Olympus. He agreed and sent you to live here, until the time when he needed to retrieve you so that he could render you mortal.”
“We were removed from this paradise to live tragic lives in the mortal world again and again?” I was incredulous. Our story just seemed to get worse and worse as more was added to it. Ahmose nodded wordlessly. There was nothing more to be said. It was bad enough as it was.
“I don’t remember it at all,” Cadmus said quietly to me. “But I wish that I did.”
“I’m not sure,” I mused. “I’m beginning to wish that I didn’t have any of my old memories. They cause nothing but pain.”
I was thinking of his betrayal and he knew it. He stared at me regretfully and pulled me to his chest.
“I’m so sorry, Harmonia. If I could change everything, I would. I promise you- I would.”
“I know,” I murmured. To our right, Raquel explored the coastline terrain, marveling at the beautiful birds and plump fruit.
“Don’t eat it!” several of us cried at once. She turned to us with an impish grin.
“I won’t,” she called back. “But I’d like to.”
“As would I,” Ares grumbled. “I’m hungry enough to eat an entire Pegasus.” He glanced at Ortrera. “Don’t scowl at me, daughter. I wouldn’t eat yours.”
Appeased, Ortrera and her warriors splashed through the shallow water to make their way to land. Cadmus, Ahmose, Annen and I followed behind, followed by Alexi and Eris, both of whom had remained strangely quiet.
Something occurred to me and I turned to Eris.
“A person has to be true of heart to approach these islands,” I observed. “And you passed the test. How did you do that?”
“I do not know,” she answered honestly. “I have no malice in me at the moment. All I am focused on is getting Alexi’s soul back.”
“So you are focused on doing good for someone else,” I mused. “Perhaps that is what did it.” She shrugged her shoulders. I knew that her change of heart was only temporary. After Alexi was restored, I was certain that she would be back to her old, conniving ways soon enough. As my polar opposite, her very nature was one that relished discord and discontentment. There was no changing that.
“We should go,” Hecate called to us from the tree line. “We have things to do.”
That we did. We all fell into line and followed her into the trees and through the tropics. Each step led us somewhere even more beautiful. It was difficult to comprehend. Green vines wrapped around luscious trees and flowers. Birds sang quietly, but not too loudly.
I had to agree with Ares. I was starving. It was difficult to resist plucking a piece of ripe fruit from a vine and eating it. But we did. We simply kept walking.
And soon enough, the jungle-like foliage gave way to fields of waving plants and flowers. With every movement, their lush scents were tossed into the air. There were beautiful homes scattered here and there among the sloping hills and a tranquil river flowed in the middle.
Hecate marched right for the river. Trustingly, we walked a trail along the side until we came to a pristine pier. A string of boats were moored there and she stepped into one, careful not to rock it overly much. Annen and Ahmose joined her. The rest of us separated into several other boats. Hecate turned the nose of her little watercraft to head into the river and paddled fluidly along.
“Where are we going?” I called.
She paused her rowing and turned to look over her shoulder. “To the most beautiful island you’ve ever seen.”
I paused in surprise. “Aren’t we already there?”
She laughed. “No, Chosen One. These are the Elysian Fields. They lead up to the Isles. The isles are even better than this!”
I could scarcely imagine it. As we rowed, I watched the sides of the river. Every once in awhile, a person would stop and stare back at us. I was fairly certain that I recognized Hercules. He was fishing on the banks, his enormous muscles bulging larger than any I had ever seen, including my husband’s or father’s.
“Isn’t that…” I breathed.
“Yes,” Cadmus confirmed, without missing a stroke of his oar. “That is Hercules. Reattach your eyes, Harmonia. It’s just muscle.”
“A lot of muscle,” I corrected. “Wow.”
Cadmus shook his head good-naturedly, but he didn’t mind. He was confident in his worth. He was everything to me and he was twice as beautiful as Hercules.
The river carried us gently for miles before it opened up into a wide lake. From here, I could see that across the lake, there were islands.
“The Isl
es of the Blessed,” I said needlessly.
Everyone around me was staring in fascination. In the middle of the islands, a majestic mountain rose from the ground, sweeping so high that it seemed to touch the white clouds.
“Olympus,” I murmured. Or rather, the duplicate Olympus. It was where the gods were being held. A sense of urgency came over me and I wanted nothing more than to hurry and get there. Everything that we had been through up until this point could be resolved if we could just free Zeus. The moment we had been waiting for was upon us.
Chapter Twelve
This was beyond anything I could have imagined.
As we traveled through the look-alike Olympus, the similarities… no, the duplicity was incredible. Hades had thought of every last detail and had supplied it. No wonder the Olympians had thought they were in Zeus’ banquet hall and had allowed themselves to be deceived. Everything here was identical to the ancient city in the Spiritlands. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that I was there right now.
But I was not. I was here.
And here was… fascinating. I couldn’t help but hang my mouth open in amazement as we passed quaint shops, mouth-watering restaurants, dress makers, tailors… all identical to things that existed on Olympus. There were even blue lotus blossoms drifting down from trees in the air, falling gently across the cobblestone streets. I cast out a hand and allowed one to drift onto my palm.
“Don’t eat it,” Cadmus warned.
“I won’t,” I murmured. “It’s just so… everything is…”
“Unbelievable,” Aphrodite breathed, staring around us in awe.
“My thoughts exactly,” I agreed. A random thought occurred to me and I turned to Hecate, dropping the flower onto the cobblestone street.
“Hecate, you said that you created a portal from Zeus’ own banquet hall to here. Does it still exist?”
She nodded. “It does. But it is closed and they wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. They have eaten here so they must remain.”
“I know,” I replied softly. “I was just wondering about it.”
“If I open it, we can use it,” she answered knowingly, understanding my question. “But not them.”
“Not them,” I repeated quietly, pondering that. “It must have been so strange for them all of this time… being trapped here in this identical world, never being able to get home… especially with the portal right beneath their fingers. They simply couldn’t use it.”
“They are not accustomed to being rendered helpless, either,” Cadmus interjected. “I still can’t quite believe that you managed to carry this off. I can’t believe that Zeus allowed himself to be deceived. It’s almost unfathomable.”
“He knew it would happen,” Hecate reminded him. “He had seen it coming long before it happened. He just didn’t know how or when. He was constantly watching for it. We simply used an approach that he didn’t expect.”
“And who would expect this?” I asked, still staring around me in wonder. “This is incredible.”
Hecate didn’t seem impressed. But then again, she probably just harbored regret over the part she played in putting the gods here. I couldn’t blame her. I would feel the same way. So rather than rubbing salt in her wound and continuing to gush about the wonders around us, I fell silent.