Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning 2)

Chapter 28

Hades brooded, and be couldn't stop staring at the sketch the lit tle spirit had given him.

"Do you like it?" Eurydice asked.

"How did you know?" Hades' voice sounded rough and foreign to his own ears. How long had it been since he had carried on a real conversation with anyone? He couldn't remember.

"I have been thinking a lot about her. I even started dreaming of her. Only, when I see her in my dreams, she does not look like she did when she was here. But how she looks - it's hard to describe - how she looks in my dreams feels right. So I drew her that way. When I showed Iapis, he told me that I should bring it to you."

"I hope I did not overstep myself, Lord," Iapis said.

Hades could not take his eyes from the sketch. "No, old friend, you did not overstep yourself. You were right to show me." He made himself take his eyes from the sketch and look at Eurydice.

"Thank you. May I keep it?"

"Of course, Lord. Anything I create is yours."

"No, little one," Hades said sadly. "Anything you create stil belongs to her."

"Wil she return to us?" Eurydice asked.

Hades looked back at the sketch of Carolina. Her mortal features were sweet and kind, her body ful and womanly. He felt a stirring within him just looking at the likeness of her, and he closed his eyes, blocking her picture from his mind. He had lacked the strength to trust her, and because of that she had almost lost her soul to Tartarus. But she had battled back from the abyss only to be betrayed and wounded by his rash, thoughtless words. He did not deserve the gift of her love.

"No," Hades said. "I do not believe she wil return to us." Eurydice made a smal , sad noise, and Hades opened his eyes to see Iapis taking the spirit into his arms.

"Hush, now," the daimon soothed. "Wherever she is, she has not forgotten you. She loved you."

"Please leave me," Hades rasped.

Iapis motioned for Eurydice to go, but he stayed in his Lord's chamber. His concern for the God gnawed at him. Hades did not pace back and forth in frustration. He did not work out his anger at the forge. He refused to eat and he rarely slept. He held court, passing judgment over the somber dead as if he belonged among their ranks and had been condemned to eternal y wander the banks of Cocytus, the River of Lamentation.

When Persephone tried to see the God, Iapis had felt a stirring of hope at Hades' display of anger. But it was shortlived. As soon as the Goddess of Spring left the Underworld, Hades had withdrawn within himself again. The God could not continue as he was, yet Iapis saw no respite ahead. Time seemed to fester the dark God's wound instead of al owing him to heal.

"Iapis, do you know what happens when one soul mate is separated from the other?" Hades asked suddenly. He was standing in front of the window that looked out on the area of his gardens that joined the Elysia forest and eventual y led to the River Lethe.

"Soul mates always find each other," Iapis said. "You know that already, Lord."

"But what happens if they cannot find each other because one of them has done something inexcusable?" Hades turned his head and looked blankly at Iapis.

"Can you not forgive her, Hades?"

Hades blinked and focused on the daimon's face. "Forgive her? Of course I have. She was only keeping her oath to Demeter. Carolina's sense of honor would not al ow her to betray her word, not even for love. It is myself that I cannot forgive."

"Yourself? How, Lord?"

"Carolina Francesca Santoro is a mortal woman with the courage of a goddess, and I hurt her for the most empty of reasons, to salve my own pride. I cannot forgive that in myself. How can I expect her to?"

"Perhaps it is much like the night you insulted her," Iapis said slowly. "You have only to ask, and then be wil ing to remain and hear the answer."

Hades shook his head and turned back to the window. "She bared her soul to me and I betrayed her. Now she is beyond my reach."

"But if you would agree to see Persephone - "

"No!" Hades snarled. "I wil not see a frivolous shel who mocks the soul that once resided within her body."

"Hades, you do not know that the Goddess mocks Carolina."

"Cerberus rejected her. Orion loathed her. The dead cal ed her a charlatan. That is knowledge enough for me," Hades said.

"She is a very young goddess," Iapis reminded him.

"She is not Carolina."

"No, she is not," the daimon said sadly.

"Leave me now, Iapis," Hades said.

"First let me draw a bath and set out fresh clothes for you." When Hades started to protest, Iapis blurted, "I cannot remember the last time you bathed or changed your clothing! You look worse than the newly dead."

Hades' powerful shoulders slumped. Without looking at the daimon he said, "If I bathe and change my clothing, wil you leave me in peace?"

"For a time, Lord."

Hades almost smiled. "Then so be it, my friend."

Hades settled back into the steaming water. The black marble pool was built into the floor of his bathing room. He rested against a wide ledge that had been carved from the side of the pool. A goblet of red wine and a silver platter fil ed with pomegranates and cheese had been left within reach of his hand. The few candles that were lit glowed softly through the rising steam like moonlight through mist. Hades drank deeply from the goblet of wine. He had no appetite and he ignored the food, but the wine left a satisfying wooziness in his head. Perhaps, for just one night, he would drink himself into oblivion. Then he might sleep without dreaming of her. In one gulp he upended the goblet and looked around for more. Iapis had left a pitcher close enough that he did not have to leave the soothing heat of the pool to refil his cup.

"That daimon thinks of everything," he muttered.

"Not quite everything."

Hades jerked at the sound of her voice, and dropped the goblet. It clanged as it bounced against the marble floor.

Persephone blew on the steam. It parted and suddenly she was visible to Hades. She lounged on the ledge opposite him, and though she was submerged in water up to her shoulders, her naked body was as fully exposed to him as his was to her. The Goddess's eyes rounded in surprise. Carolina was certainly no fool. She had had no idea the dour Lord of the Underworld was so delectable.

"Hel o, Hades. I do not believe you and I have been formal y introduced. I am Persephone, Goddess of Spring."

He averted his eyes from her and lurched from the pool, quickly wrapping himself in a robe. She could see his jaw clenching and when he spoke it sounded like he was forcing his words through gritted teeth.

"Leave my presence! I refused to see you."