Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning 2)

"Wil you not return with me?" Eurydice's voice had become frightened again.

"Yes, don't worry. I'm coming" - she hesitated - "but, honey, would you mind going on ahead of me?" Lina pointed behind her. "I need to do something first, and I don't want to ask you to wait for me."

"But you wil return to the Palace of Hades?"

Under the Helmet of Invisibility, Hades held his breath, waiting for Persephone's answer.

"Of course? I just need to have a quick talk with Demeter." Hades and Eurydice breathed sighs of relief.

The girl understood Persephone's need to speak with her mother. In many ways the Goddess had taken the place of her living mother. She nodded and smiled. "I can return ahead of you to the palace."

"You won't be afraid to go by yourself?"

"No. I belong here. I am not afraid."

Lina hugged her again. "I won't be long."

Eurydice grinned and skipped through the ivory gates. As Lina re-entered the grove of trees, she heard the girl's voice echoing through the limbs. "I wil see that a meal is made ready for you. You wil be hungry when you return and I must make certain that..."

Lina smiled wryly. Eurydice would be fine.

Feeling like a voyeur, Hades shadowed the unsuspecting Persephone. He should not continue to fol ow the Goddess. Eurydice was free; she was returning safely to his palace. That had been his reason for donning the Helmet of Invisibility and going after them. And it had been a credible reason. Now he should return to his palace. His task was completed. But he didn't turn back. He couldn't. Not yet. He wanted to watch her as she hurried so graceful y through the trees. The bal of light touched her lovely features like a bright caress. He envied that light.

She passed through the tunnel quickly, barely pausing before raising her hand and cal ing the light back within her. Then she stepped from the entrance to the Underworld and into the soft glow of a beautiful pre-dawn morning. Hades fol owed her.

Persephone looked around quizzical y. Hades wondered if she was worried that Orpheus might stil be lurking near. No, he reminded himself. The musician had been cast away by the power of the Goddess's righteous anger. Persephone would know that he would be far from there. But she was obviously searching for something. She walked away from the tunnel and down the little path that was lined in frothy ferns. Occasional y, the Goddess stopped and peered amidst the greenery as if looking for a lost trinket. Then she would sigh, mumble something unintel igible, and move on. The path tilted gradual y up and soon Persephone stood near the high bank of Lake Avernus. The Goddess smiled and breathed in deeply, obviously appreciating the view. Hades wanted to shout that Avernus would seem as nothing when compared with the wonders of Elysia. There were beauties in his realm that were far more spectacular than an ordinary lake in the simple, mundane light before dawn. He ground his teeth together. He wanted to show the magnificence of his realm to her and to watch her face brighten with the discovery.

"There you are!"

Persephone's voice sounded relieved and she rushed over to a pil ared marble basin which stood to one side of the path. Resting within the basin was a large glass bal . Its interior was murky, like it had been fil ed with thickened cream. Hades recognized it instantly as the oracle of a Goddess. Persephone stood in front of the oracle. She hesitated. To Hades it seemed that she was almost uncertain of what to do next. Then she closed her eyes, as if she needed to concentrate very hard. When she opened them a moment later her full lips lifted in the briefest of smiles. With no more hesitation, she passed her hands over the crystal three times, causing the inside of the globe to begin to swirl.

"Demeter," Persephone spoke to the oracle. "I almost messed up. Badly." The face of the Goddess of the Harvest materialized within her oracle.

"You use the word almost, which must mean that you righted your error," Demeter said, her voice sounding a little hol ow and unnatural as it echoed from the oracle.

Persephone sighed. "Yes, but if I hadn't, my mistake would have cost a lovely young girl a lifetime of misery."

"Being Goddess does not mean perfection. We must each use our best judgment. Sometimes mistakes are made."

Persephone pulled at a long strand of her hair and twirled it around her finger.

"I don't want to make mistakes that cause others pain."

Hades forced himself to turn away. He strode quickly back through the tunnel. He had intruded upon the Goddess's privacy too long. His conscience would not al ow him to continue to listen to Persephone's conversation with her mother. Hades yanked off the Helmet of Invisibility. It was not meant as an eavesdropping device. It was to be used with discernment, not selfishness. He was ashamed of himself. Had he not just berated Stheneboia for selfishness and deception?

He had never before behaved in such a manner. He was not a cal ow youth. He understood that sneaking and spying would not win a goddess's heart.

Hades stopped.

Was that what he desired, to win Persephone's heart?

He raked a hand through his hair. He wanted her. His body had begun to ache for her. For eons he had thought that his difference had in some way hermetical y sealed him from the common lusts of the gods. He avoided women, be they mortal or immortal, because his very nature had been fashioned so that meaningless passion and brief dal iance was not enough for him. Age after countless age he had witnessed in the spirits of the dead that which mortals knew so wel , the eternal bond forged by soul mates. Bearing witness to that unique, unforgettable depth of joining had soldered the difference that had already been imprinted into his nature. Anything less than mating for eternity would never satisfy him.

Oh, he had tried - centuries ago. His stomach stil tightened when he thought of his one brief mortal lover, Minthe. He had come upon the maiden during one of his rare visits to the World of the Living. She had been gathering flowers for her first fertility ritual and his appearance had seemed an answer to her prayers. He had made her his, there in that fragrant meadow, and there he had visited her often until she vowed that she loved him and that she would leave her home and cleave only to him.

Looking back, he was amazed by his own naivete. He stil shrank away from the memory of her hysterics when he had final y revealed himself to her as Lord of the Dead. In his mind he could see it al happening again. Minthe's blind flight from him as she hurled herself over the cliff, and how he had snatched her from the air before she could end her own life.

Instead of condemning her to an eternity of lamentation within his realm, Hades had cal ed forth his immortal power and changed her form into the sweet scented, ever-growing herb that retained her delicate beauty, as wel as her name.

Unlike mortal women, goddesses did not fear him, but they also did not understand him. They scorned him, thinking him somber and stern because he ruled the Underworld. Until Persephone, no goddess had ever bothered to visit his realm. He scoffed. Truly, he had never had any desire to offer an invitation. Goddesses had no real loyalty, no real ability to love. Look at Athena, she even betrayed her precious Odysseus by al owing him to be led astray for twenty years before returning home to his faithful wife.

It had been easy to convince himself that there was no mate for him. Mortal women must die to reign forever beside him, so they feared him and shrank from his love. Goddesses were immortal; therefore, they could never truly belong to him.

He had been content to rule his realm and live surrounded by the beauty of the Elysian Fields and the wonders of his palace.

But no longer.

Hades' lips twisted in self-mockery. The God of the Dead desired the Goddess of Spring. Even within his head it sounded impossible.

Then he remembered the Goddess's bril iant smile and the childlike wonder with which she responded to his realm. Yet she consistently displayed a maturity that belied her youthful appearance. She was different from the other goddesses - that she had proven. But was she different enough to love him?

How to woo Persephone? He paced back and forth across the black path while he considered. Then a sudden idea halted him. His smile was fierce with victory. Hades brought his fingers to his lips. His whistle pierced the blackness, traveling with mystical speed al the way back to his palace.