The son of Zeus – Peri, he called himself – stayed fairly silent. In fact the whole group did. Despite all of the excitement from the day, I felt rather bored at that time. The only thing that could really distract me from that boredom was the new Godling. He kept looking at me in such a strange way – almost awed – and I couldn't help but notice that his eyes were the exact colour of the sky on a clear day – periwinkle blue. There even seemed to be pale white clouds drifting through them, but I was sure I was seeing things. Then a thought occurred to me – one that made me giggle.
"Peri?" I asked quietly, "Is that short for something?" He looked back again. This time, his gaze wasn't as awed, but instead, more irritated.
"It is nothing of importance," he replied stiffly. I smothered another giggle.
"Your name wouldn't be 'Periwinkle', would it?" He winced visibly.
"Mother thought it quite amusing to name me after the colour of the sky," he said. "She said that it was revenge towards me for the pain of childbirth she had to go through, and the way that he ditched her."
"Still," I said, mostly to cover up the laughter which was coming, "Naming a child, particularly a boy, 'Periwinkle' is just cruel."
"Mother can be cruel when it comes to revenge," he said.
"And who would that be?"
"Nemesis, goddess of vengeance." I couldn't hold my laughter in any more. It just slipped out. He glared at me playfully.
"Well, at least I wasn't named after a slutty singer that my father fancied," he replied casually. I shut up. I was about to give a retort when Maria gasped – and I stopped arguing to take note of our surroundings.
That was when I noticed that the scenery had changed – we hadn't yet made our way out of the passageway, but there seemed to be a garden here, in this odd house underground. The floor underfoot had gradually changed from hard stone to a springy grass, and small shrubs appeared around us. One of them seemed to hold berries, but a closer look revealed them to be small, hard stones – rubies. A gasp behind me told me that the others had seen them. As we moved along, another plant held slightly bigger diamonds. It seemed that the further along we moved, the more extravagant the gems, for the next bush was not living at all. On the contrary, it was made of emeralds, carved to the minute degree as leaves, tiny white flowers of diamonds and small berries made of sapphires. These were so beautiful that, for a moment, I thought of picking some, but something came into my mind.
Walk through the house. Take nothing. Eat nothing.
The words from the prophecy came back to me just in time – both Maria and Peri were reaching out to touch the plant. I slapped their hands away. When they looked at me questioningly, I said simply,
"The prophecy said not to take anything." As soon as I said that, the bushes morphed into the most beautiful pomegranate trees. The scent from the fruit was so mouth-wateringly delicious that I felt I had to try some, but I managed to stop myself. Unfortunately, Maria didn't. She bit into the top of one of them and drank the seeds as if they were blood. I tackled her to the ground as she reached for another, but the damage was done. The entrance was here to test us, and Maria had failed. She struggled.
"Fool!" I hissed. "You are stuck here like Persephone was." Her eyes widened in understanding and she became still. I allowed her to stand. She shook her head in disbelief.
"I am such an idiot," she whispered. I nodded, almost angry.
"You'll have to stay in this passage for the rest of eternity, unless Hades is merciful enough to allow you to enter the mortal realms," I snapped. Her shoulders sagged and for a moment I felt guilty for my impatience.
"I'll stay with you for as long as I can," she murmured. After a pause, she looked up. "Shouldn't we be moving? You don't have long left."
All the while, Peri watched on, a confused look on his face. I realised that he probably had no idea about the prophecy – as far as I knew, Poseidon had never been told of it, so why would he think to tell Peri? As we walked on, ignoring the fruit that's sweet scent was like a sirens call, I told him everything, from the start, with me almost drowning, up until we had seen him. The only thing that I left out was the part about my Story – how it looked, and how it felt. He had no right to know about the deepest part of me. I didn't really know how I could trust him, but there was something about the way that he looked at me that told me that I could.
By the time I had finished answering his – and also Maria's – questions, we had reached the end of the tunnel. A doorway stood, seeming out of place in the pomegranate garden. When I opened it, I stopped, confused. There was a small forest there, as if we had truly just left the house that the entrance to the Underworld was disguised as. Above us, the moonless sky twinkled with stars. I suddenly felt exhausted, as if I had run a marathon. Maria put her hand on my shoulder.
"You need to drink," she said. I grimaced – she meant blood. I was still mostly human, but until I recovered from the blood loss, I would have to rely on blood – that take anywhere between a week and six months.
"I can't drink from you," I said slowly. "You have the Underworld in your blood now."
"Here." I turned to see Peri holding a knife to his thumb. He winced as the knife broke his skin, and then held it to me. I took a step back, shaking my head.
"I couldn't ask that of you," I said. His brow furrowed in annoyance.
"You don't need to ask. Just drink it." When I didn't move, he sighed and lunged at me so quickly that I couldn't see him, much less stop him. He grabbed the back of my neck with one hand to stop me from retreating as he pushed his bleeding thumb into my mouth. When the taste hit my tongue, I couldn't help but drink.
This flavour was different to the Empusa's. While she tasted of nature, Peri tasted of something…else. His blood had power, but it tasted as if the power didn't belong to him, as if it was borrowed. Deeper than that, I could feel his emotions – fascination, admiration and a little…disgust? I pulled away before I could taste more, feeling intrusive. As soon as I was done, he backed away. I yawned loudly, fighting to stay awake.
"I'll take first watch," I dimly heard Peri say. I nodded and sunk to the ground. Before I knew it, the darkness of sleep had pushed itself on me.
* * * *
I watched Rhi fall asleep unnaturally fast and turned on the Empusa.
"Why did you do that?" I demanded. She glared at me.
"You lied to her, son of Zeus. You lied to us both about your being here, and while ever I am protecting her, you are a threat." I stared at her, stunned. She continued. "The only reason that I have allowed you to live is because I would like to get some information out of you before you die." This shocked me out of my stunned silence.
"Look, I was supposed to kill you and take her to Kronos's child so that she could restore Kronos to his 'rightful position', but I saw her and…" I shook my head in disbelief. "I never thought that I would see the Promised One. We have waited for her, as have you." She considered this.
"We?" I cursed my loose tongue.
"Yes, we. Those of us who have been used by the gods, and then pushed aside. Those of us who believe that the usurpers of the heaven's need to be taken down. We think that the Demons would do well…" She cursed and pushed her hand on my mouth.
"Hades may be listening right now. Kronos may even be listening. So watch what you say." She glared once more and removed her hand. "I intend to sleep while I can," she said. "Wake me in four hours." With that she lay down next to Rhi, closed her eyes, ad slept.
A/N wow - it has been a while, huh?
I'm sorry, and I'm trying to do better with the whole consistency thing, but a friend of mine has asked if I could write a tandem with her, so we are working on that. I will still write Rhi's story, and I'll try to get more consistent. That's my new years resolution - to have at least one update every fortnight at least.
I hope you liked this part - not too exciting, though. I'll work on that for next time.
Bye for now, not forever!
Maddy