Hello again everyone, its Xanthe here.

Remember me?

I should think you do, I mean I only saved the whole damn world five years ago.

But now I have another issue, my father has disappeared (that’s Hades in case you’ve forgotten) and so has my pet hellhound so now my brother Zach, and my two favourite cousins Luke and Roxy are going to help me find him.

Hooray.

********

Xanthe:

Chapter 1.

Okay, all we know is that on Christmas day at the meeting of gods on mount Olympus my father disappeared along with Woofie. He was sat in the throne room brooding and was presumably deep in thought. The next thing the other gods knew he was gone, one minute he was there the next he wasn’t, simple as.  So in lieu of my father Zach and I are in charge of the underworld. Oh joy.

So I have to get him back before a war starts and this time it’ll be world war three not just a pathetic skirmish between a lot of Greek monsters and a bunch of demigods.

So the situation so far: I am sat in Kat’s sitting room on the isle of the blest and drinking a cup of coffee, Zach is in the loo and Kat is laughing her head off (metaphorically speaking) because I have just told her about the dairy producer who doctored sell-by dates so people bought gone off dairy products and was therefore sentenced to be boiled in cheese fondue for all eternity. Albert Einstein devised that particular punishment. Go figure.

I guess even the greatest minds can go BOOM! Sorry, got carried away there. I blame the coffee.

Now I suppose I’d better fill you in on my plan of action. I’m getting Luke and Roxy to come all the way down here to go and find my dad. One other reason that I want Luke and Rox here is that I’m scared to talk to Kronos without them, see Kronos has always hated me it might have something to do with the fact I defeated him five years ago.

“Xanthe?”

“Yes Kat?”

“Don’t worry about your dad, you’ll find him,”

“I hope so Kat, I hope so”

“You will find your love also, now your two years are up”

“My two years were up three years ago an I still haven’t found who ever it is I will love for all time”

“I think you met them five years ago, you just don’t know it yet, but I saw the way he looked at you, and he still loves you”

“Tell me Kat, who is it?”

“That would not be fair, if I am wrong it might destroy you”

“Ah but Kat honey you ain’t never wrong” Zach said as he entered the room

I suppose I kinda forgot something, Kat is now my sister-in-law. She married Zach two years ago so at least I don’t have to share the palace with Zach anymore

“Oh, but I am darling, I get things wrong all the time. I misjudged my attack on Kronos, now I am dead because of it, I thought my dear sister hated me, but I was wrong”

I am assuming by ‘dear sister’ Kat meant me.

I stood up.

“Bye guys, see you soon, I’m going home now”

“Bye sis” said Zach

“Goodbye Xanthe”

********

Chapter 2.

Okay, now, I suppose you are thinking Hades is gone, big deal. Not.

But actually it is, all those people who are dying slow, painful deaths will suffer even more because without my dad no one can die, he can’t judge the dead so no-one can come into the underworld because everyone must be judged. So why can’t I do his job?

Because I’ve not got enough bloody experience, that’s dammed well why it’s crap really. I just don’t know all the formalities and dad can’t teach me ‘cause he ain’t here.

So why can’t Zach do his job?

Because Zach knows even less than I do, he was out of circulation (dead) for forty years, he cocked up when we were about eighty-nine, and learned nothing for forty years until five years ago when I got dad to bring him back.

“Don’t worry mistress you will find him” one of my servants had followed me into my father’s study where I was staring at his portrait.

“Will I?”

“You are Xanthe Queen of death mistress, you can do anything”

“I am not the Queen of death, I am princess”

“No more is this the case, thy father hath gone, you are now our mistress” the ghost of William Shakespeare had also entered the room

“Go away William, I’m not in the mood for your philosophical speculations”

“Speculations they are not, it is the simple truth I speak”

“Then bugger off. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I am not the queen of death, my father rules death now GO!” I shouted

I ran to my room and sat on the bed. The black walls were a comforting sight. I was so tired of the ghostly inhabitants of my father’s realm telling me I was now their queen.

I lay face down on my bed and cried myself to sleep.

My dream was a good one, a memory of the events that had happened five years ago, meeting two new friends, and seeing an old one, then everything in my dream changed, someone spoke my name over and over again, their voice full of love and adoration their face was there too but I could not remember who they were.

But as this question was raised the most important question in my life was answered. I was destined to love this nameless man, this man who had been in my life before and at that time I had never spared a glance for.  But who was he? Who could he be? Can you guess who he might be? I sure as hell can’t but is it the person Kat meant?

********

Chapter 3.

Two days after my mysterious dream Rox and Luke arrived. They were riding Pegasus; Horus was perched on Luke’s shoulder and was looking pointedly away from me. The damned bird hates me.

Rox screamed with excitement as she vaulted off Pegasus’ back and ran over to give me a hug as she did so I noticed a ring encrusted with loads of sapphires, emeralds and diamonds on one finger. Luke came over and gave me a hug and a brotherly kiss on the cheek. I scowled at him.

“Hello Roxy, hello Luke”

“Hey Xanthe” Luke drawled

“Hi Xanthe!!!!” Rox squeaked I noticed she’d become a lot more excitable in the five years since I had last seen her

“Guess what!”

“What?”

“We’re engaged,” said Luke with an easy smile. Once that smile would’ve set my heart racing but now all it did was irritate me.

“Congratulations, when’s the wedding?”

“Valentines Day, Aphrodite is planning it so it might be a bit over the top” Rox said

“But that’s only three weeks!” I said

“Yeah, so you best go shopping I doubt you have anything suitable” Luke teased

“Like you’d know” I snorted “besides I’ve got my own personal seamstress and dress maker. I doubt it will take long,” I said with a grin

“Cool” Rox said

“Uh-huh, now come in and have a sandwich and a drink, Zach and Kat should be here in a sec,” I said

We went to the lime green room for our light and rather late lunch. As they sat on the lime green sofa I sent a servant for nine cheese and ham toasties, a jug of iced water and five slices of apple and blackberry pie.

As we sat waiting for our lunch, Zach and Kat to arrive we talked about the times we had spent sitting around campfires and talking about various things in an effort to distract ourselves form the fact that the fate of the world rested on our shoulders.

When Zach and Kat arrived a whole round of congratulations and apologies began. (Congratulations on getting married and engaged apologies for missing the wedding)

********

Chapter 4.

After lunch I showed Rox and Luke around the palace. We had to stop when we toured the garden because Woofie recognised them and got a little bit over exited.

I showed them their room and told them to ask a servant to take them to the casual dining room at half six.

At half six I made my way to the casual dining room, I sat down in my normal place to the right of the head of the table ignoring the fact that the place had not been set

“No Queen, this is your place” a servant indicated the head of the table

“No this is my place. That is my father’s place”

“Your father is gone you are Queen, you must sit in your rightful place”

“My father will come back. I will find him”

“You cannot leave, you must rule in his stead”

“Why me, why not Zach?”

“You know more, you are worthy, and he must prove himself”

“Spectacular, I save the world and this is what I get?”

“Is what, what you get?” asked Rox as she entered

I stood up, changed seat to the head of the table then I answered

“I have to stay here to rule the underworld while my brother, you and Luke go and find my dad”

“I can see why you’re annoyed” Luke said

“Annoyed don’t cover it”

“Grammar Xanthe, grammar” Luke smirked

“There ain’t nothin’ wrong with my grammar,” I scowled

“Hmmm” said Luke

I was saved from more remarks by the arrival of the starter pâte, toast and salad. We ate in companionable silence, finally after eating our way through a main course of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings we began to talk about various plans for finding my dad and Woofie, we settled on our starting point.

Tomorrow we would talk to Kronos, luckily my dad had a spare key for the door to Tartarus. All I had to do was find it.

********

Chapter 5.

Tartarus is my least favourite place in the underworld for two reasons:

It stinks

It’s were Kronos lives

I mean what’s to like? None the less I have been there a lot recently, so this time was no different, I opened the door at the top of the stairs and proceeded to descended the steep stone steps with Rox and Luke at my side, pushed open the heavy iron door and stepped out, the pit of Tartarus was about one hundred yards away, cautiously we moved closer.

“Hello again mortal. Can I help?” I could tell he was trying to be friendly

“As a matter of fact you can,” I said, “you can tell us what you have done with my father and my pet dog”

“What, with Hades and that stinking hellhound? I don’t know. Some spirits were talking of his disappearance but I thought it was a ploy”

I was surprised by the fact he didn’t know

“But you must know. You’re Kronos you know like, everything” flattery is the best way to handle the titans.

“Perhaps I did once but no more is that the case. I would think it was one of my enemies, one who would profit from a war, they would frame me, make it seem like it was my fault then you raise an army to destroy me. I suppose you have a lot of people to choose from, I have a lot on enemies”

He sounded almost sad, thinking about how many enemies he had

“You make your own enemies,” I said

“Perhaps, but I had grown too fond of power, I could not face having to relinquish it, the gods feel that way now, that is what this is about I feel, your father must be found or the collapse of the gods will begin.”

“Like you care,” I said

“I care now, five years of brooding in this pit have shown me what my previous imprisonment could not, I am evil and I regret that but I cannot change who I am”

“Hmmm” I mused, “I’m sceptical”

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me”

“Why should I?”

“I suppose I did try to kill you”

“You suppose? You tried to destroy the whole world!”

“Yes, but I wanted my power back, so what? If you lost all your power would you not want it back?

“No, I would be grateful that it was gone, then I would be free to find my father”

“Hmm, now I’m the sceptical one, anyhow I cannot tell you who took him, but I would like to I can only tell that a war would be very much in his favour. Think granddaughter, you will find out and it will surprise you when you do”

“Do not call me granddaughter, as far as I’m concerned you are nothing but an animal” I waited for a response but got none, evidently he was sulking, Kronos did that a lot, in fact over the last five years I had spoken to him often; once or twice a week even and every time he’d started sulking.

“Come on, I think our audience with Kronos is over, lets go and have a cup of coffee”

“What have you got with coffee Xanthe?” Luke asked

“It tastes nice that’s all” I hoped my tone sounded suitably offended

I span on my heel and pressed the gem on my Alice band of darkness and vanished. I walked straight through the iron door, once inside I unlocked it and let the others in I deactivated my Alice band and joined them discussing Kronos’ hints, then we ran out of breath and decided to wait until we could sit down and relax before we carried on our conversation.

********

Chapter 6.

I sat in my favourite black and ebony chair with my coffee cup on placed precariously on the arm of the chair as I sat I listened to Rox and Luke debate about who was behind my father’s disappearance. He still wanted to blame Kronos but Roxy thought that Ares was behind the disappearance, I had my own theories but they were too radical to even suggest. But it was interesting, someone who had something to benefit from Ares being busy with a war, but who?

“Hey guys, I got an idea.”

“Hmm?”

“Well what if it’s someone who has something to benefit from Ares being busy with a war,” I suggested

Luke looked sceptical. “Who would want him out the way though?”

“Who wouldn’t?” I asked

“Aphrodite? After all she has about a hundred affairs at once, perhaps she wants him out the way so she can spend more time with one of that lot.” Rox grinned at our surprised faces as soon as she’d gotten her breath back

“Or even one of the guys she was having an affair with, he might want to get Ares out the way to spend more time with Aphrodite”

“Speculating isn’t getting us anywhere” I said “you two and Zach have gotta go find my dad,”

“How do we find him if we don’t know where he is?”

“If we knew where he was we wouldn’t have to find him now would we” I said

“You know what I mean Xanthe”

“Okay, okay. Anyhow you have to go and ask questions. I’ll send various ghosts and spirits to check up on you”

They didn’t question that, I wouldn’t have liked to explain that one, and so I’m not going to do it now.

I was bored of the two of them arguing over the various theories we had proposed, they decided to talk to Zach before making their first plans.

“I’ll see you at dinner” I said

“See ya” said Rox

“Later Xanthe” said Luke

I walked upstairs to my room, opened the door and headed straight for my en suite bathroom.

I walked into the walk-in shower, slid my clothes off and turned the shower on. I let all my muscles relax; I washed my black hair carefully, taking my time and combing it through making it silky and smooth.

I turned the shower off, stepped out, put on my silk dressing gown and went back out into my room. I opened draws and took out my underwear, I put it on then took my second-favourite black silk dress, put that on too and with that I put on my black silk dolly shoes. I went down to the study and sat in my dad’s chair behind my dad’s desk, I looked at he rack of eight hand bells on the desktop. In order from left to right they read:

Xanthe Zach Furies Servant (food)     Servant (drink) Servant  (cleaner) Messenger     Guard

I looked at the bells, selected the third bell (the one labelled ‘Furies’) and rang it.

Within moments they appeared, hideous withered hags they smiled evilly at me

“What isss it missstresss?” they hissed

“Arrange a council at twelve noon tomorrow, I want to talk to those who judge the dead. Whilst my father is gone am in charge, I may wish to make some changes”

“Yesss missstresss” the Furies vanished in a puff off acrid smoke.

********

Chapter 7.

The following morning I woke up at eleven, one hour until the meeting. I pulled on black skinny jeans, a black top and brushed my hair.

I didn’t bother with breakfast, it would take too long and I only had a half-hour until the meeting.

I sprinted into the garage, grabbed my leather jacket off the hook and swung myself onto my Suzuki bandit. I zipped up the jacket, and sped off towards ‘city hall’.

As soon as I arrived I stopped the bike and ran to the door, eventually I was through the maze of corridors and in what had been my father’s seat. Once I’d caught my breath I began the meeting.

“Hello everyone” I said I saw Kat was in her usual seat in row three. Good, at least she was here. That would make my life easier.

“Hello ma’am” mumbled the assembled spirits.

“Now, I want to make a few changes to row one of the council. I am bringing Katriona daughter of Athena forward to row one. I would like to send Albert Einstein to row two in place of Hercules. And finally Hercules to Katriona’s old seat on row three. Are there any objections?” I finished with a sharp intake of breath, I hadn’t breathed much in that sentence. Nobody raised their hand in objection so I asked again as ritual dictated I asked three times, on the third time Kat raised her hand.

“Yes Katriona?” I asked

“When your father returns he may not approve of these changes, if you make them he may not be happy”

“Au contraire my friend, his council plans clearly state these seating changes to take place at the earliest opportunity.”

“Very well” she said

“If you would change seats now please” I said.

Once they had I thanked the council for their time and told them of my plans to find my father, they agreed that finding him was a priority and Kat suggested getting Aaron in to help us look at hat facts we got. I agreed and the council was disbanded

********

Now just to be really helpful I will draw you a little picture of the council rows and their jobs. The most important is at the top.

Chapter 8.

The day after the council meeting Rox, Luke and Zach left, Kat and I waved them off with brave smiles, hoping they would come back alive.  After they’d gone we went back to the palace to have a cup of coffee and wait for Aaron to turn up.

Two hours later a messenger knocked on the door and told us that Aaron would be arriving shortly. We got up and walked back out to the front of the palace just in time to see Aaron dropping down out of the sky using a pair of metal wings like the ones Kat used to have.

As we greeted Aaron his voice saying my name sounded so familiar, and in a flash I remembered my dream, the voice, his voice saying my name. Then the world went black.

When I came round I was lying on my bed, Aaron was leaning over me concern etched into his face. I sat up; it was just us in the room and I felt a desperate pull toward him, I loved him but it was an urgent kind of love, I needed him to love me too. So I did the stupidest thing I have ever done.

I kissed Aaron.

And he kissed me back, I mean properly kissed me, the feeling of urgency subsided but was replaced by fear, fear that he wouldn’t actually like me after this kiss, that he was just taking advantage of the moment.

“I love you,” he whispered. With those three words my heart soared and I knew that my three years of waiting had finally borne fruit, I had found my soul mate in Aaron, now my life was almost complete. Almost but not quite, he still had to marry me but I was pretty sure that would happen.

After a brief but rather enjoyable interval we went downstairs to the least formal dining room for dinner because I’d missed lunch that, had apparently consisted of a very tasty tomato soup and some home baked bread.

Dinner that night was consisted of grilled fish for a starter, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for the main course and chocolate mousse for pudding.

After dinner we retired to one of the drawing rooms, as we sat in friendly silence Aaron and I looked at one another. Kat saw our looks and smiles and excused herself on the pretence that she needed to go to sleep. We acknowledged her excused and watched her go.

As soon as we were sure she was gone Aaron sat next to me and kissed me again. We carried on kissing until a knock on the door forced us to look up and stop. As soon as I was in a dignified position I called to them to come in.

“What do you want?” I asked the spectre

“I was sent to inform you that it is time for the annual visit to the fields of punishment, if you wished to send the council in your place, it would be understood after all they have more experience than you”

“Excuse me but I have been going with my father on that visit for the last one hundred and twenty-five years and I will go this year”

“But what about the incident last year ma’am?”

“As far as I’m concerned that never happened” the ‘incident’ last year was Medusa rather stupidly attempting to cut my heart out.

After dismissing the spectre Aaron and I spent half an hour together before we said goodnight and went to our rooms.

********

Chapter 9.

The following day I rose at half past six, dressed and shovelled down some breakfast, I was at city hall by seven, half an hour before the inspection party left.

I sat on the wall outside the door, the weather was less gloomy than usual so I sat outside and watched the grey clouds move slowly in the light breeze. Eventually the rest of the council arrived, Kat came first then William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill and Mary Seacole. As soon as they arrived the Furies did too, two of them flanked me while the other walked behind me so nothing could sneak up on me, I ordered it to go to the back of the group, not behind me ‘cause it made me uncomfortable.

Around ten minutes later we were approaching Medusa. I drew my sword and held it on guard in front of me Churchill smiled mockingly at me. I glared back at him wishing he’d drop dead on the instant then I remembered he was already dead and wished he’d died a more painful death.

As we approached Medusa began to thrash around in her chains I laughed as I remembered why she hadn’t cut my heart out last year, she’d died when Perseus had cut off her hear so her spirit was headless too, she couldn’t see anything,

As we approached I said “alright dear?”

Then she broke her chains and swung at me with her sword, aiming straight at my heart, I blocked her blow automatically and span around so I was behind her

“You tried to cut my heart out once before, do you really think I’d let you do it again?”

I heard a voice echoing from the far corner of the fields “what heart Xanthe? You’ve not got one”

Holy crap. It was Sophia, a daughter of Hephaestus gone bad she’d been my brother’s girlfriend during his brief time as Kronos’ little helper I’d grassed her up without knowing my brother had been involved too.

“Shut the hell up Sophia”

“I hate you”

“So you’ve told me. Repeatedly” I walked over to her and glared at her eventually I spoke “I’m sorry for what I did, but it was for the best, at least now you have to be nice to me”

“Why is that corpse breath?”

“Again with the corpse breath thing,” I said, “anyway my dad is missing, and I reckon you know where he is.”

“So what if I do. I’m not gonna tell you”

“What if in exchange for the information I give you your life back and set you up someplace nice in the living world?”

“Alright he’s at the forge under the throne room on mount Olympus the dog is too. My dad put them there”

“Okay, if that’s true and he comes back I’ll get my dad to give you your life back and set you up someplace nice in the living world but only if he comes back. In the meantime you’re going to the isle of the blest” I was somewhat sceptical, why would she tell me something I actually wanted to know, she hated my guts, I think she would quite like to kill me, not that it’s an easy job I mean there’s only one way; to cut my heart out.

“What’s that a luxury prison?” I ignored her and collected my thoughts

“I am Xanthe the Queen of death, I send the spirit of Sophia daughter of Hephaestus to the isle of the blest where she will remain until my father returns”

Then she disappeared.

“Come on people. Lets go home I want a cup of coffee” assorted mumbles of discontent came, barely any spirits like coffee. I can’t understand why.

********

Chapter 10.

Around half an hour later I was sat back in my armchair with my cup of coffee telling Kat what I wanted her to do.

“Kat, I want you to go see my brother and tell him what Sophia told us, I want him to check it out.”

“You believe her?” asked Kat

“Nope. I don’t trust anyone ‘cept you, Rox, Luke and Zach”

“So why do you want them to check it out?”

“‘S worth a try innit”

“Hmm, I s’pose” she looked sceptical

“Exactly” I grinned at her

“So how do I tell them?”

“Easy, I send you, you tell them”

“So what do I tell them?”

“Okay, now listen very carefully I shall say this only once”

I thought for a second then recited the ritual words

“I Xanthe Queen of death bid you Katriona daughter of Athena deliver the following message to Roxanna daughter of Poseidon, Luke son of Zeus and Zachariah son of Hades;

“‘Hi, Xanthe and I talked to Sophia, she told us that Hades and Woofie are in the forges of Hephaestus and we want you to check it out. I will be staying with you to help you find him and get him out.’”

I paused for breath “I also bid you stay with Roxanna daughter of Poseidon, Luke son of Zeus and Zachariah son of Hades and help them complete their mission, I bid you leave tomorrow at dawn”

I laughed at how ridiculous I sounded “sorry about that Kat, but I have to send someone and I imagine you want to see Zach again”

“Don’t worry Xanthe, it was funny and I do want to see Zach again, I miss him,” she said

“I miss him too” I said “when he’s gone I feel like there’s a part of me missing”
”of course you do” said Kat “he’s your twin, he is part of you, he’s more part of you than he is part of me”

“Maybe, but he loves you, he loves you more than you know, I mean he proposed to you three days after he met you”

“True” she conceded “but I sometimes wonder if he regrets that”

“Of course he don’t, he loves you, remember that”

********

Chapter 11.

Dinner that night was a sad affair. Aaron and I sat watching Kat prepare herself mentally for her journey. We ate quickly and retired to the drawing room for drinks.

We’d been talking for almost fifteen minutes about nothing in particular when it happened. The first thing I noticed was Aaron look meaningfully at Kat, she stopped talking straight away and looked at me weirdly.

“What?” I asked

“Hush my love” Aaron said

“Huh?” I said, then I blinked in consternation, Aaron had slid down on to one knee before me, from his pocket he drew a box, inside was a golden ring encrusted with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds. Very, very care fully he picked it up and held it before him.

“I love you Xanthe, and I promise to love you for the rest of our lives, will you marry me?”

A lot of things went through my mind right then, a few of them rude, plenty incoherent and some of them so disgustingly gooey that it made me feel ill to think of them so rather than embarrass myself with any of them I replied with a simple “yes”

“Thank you” said Aaron, and then he placed the ring on my finger before standing up and kissing me.

“I’ll give you two some privacy” Kat said

“No you won’t, I’ve gotta add to that message I gave you earlier.” I gathered myself “I Xanthe Queen of death bid you Katriona daughter of Athena deliver the following message to Roxanna daughter of Poseidon, Luke son of Zeus and Zachariah son of Hades in addition to your earlier message and instructions to tell the afore mentioned Roxanna daughter of Poseidon, Luke son of Zeus and Zachariah son of Hades that I Xanthe Queen of death am engaged to Aaron son of Athena”

“Will do”

“Cool, come on then Aaron, I think we’ll go to my room”

“I’ll carry you” he said the without waiting for a reply he scooped me up in his arms and ran to my room as though I weighed eight ounces instead of eight stone.

I have to say, that night was probably the best night of my life. I have a feeling you don’t want to know the details so I won’t write them here. If you do then you have no respect for other people’s privacy or you like to shove your nose into other people’s business, which really amounts to the same thing.

********

Chapter 12.

The next morning I awoke with my arms around Aaron, we were lying in my bed, our bodies still intertwined, as I surveyed the clothing strewn about my room I felt Aaron stirring, I looked up at him and he smiled back at me.

“Good morning my love” he said

“Good afternoon is more appropriate, it’s half twelve”

I slipped out of bed and stretched

“I’m going to have a bath, my hair needs washing, care to help me?”

“Mmmm now how could I resist that?” he laughed and slipped out of the bed

He slid his arm around my waist then pulled me into the bathroom. The bath was already full of warm, clean water and we slid in, he took the shampoo bottle off the shelf and began washing my hair.

When Aaron was done he pulled me around on top of him and began kissing me again.

A sort while late we were back in my bed when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in” I said

A spectre entered carrying clean clothes for Aaron and two trays of breakfast.

We got dressed quickly, then ate the breakfast the servant had brought,

“What shall we do today?” Aaron asked

“Well, we could go swimming in my private pool, or test the springs on all the beds in the house or we could try out my new hot tub”

“I like option three, it sounds quite fun”

“Lovely. But before we do anything I’ve had an idea. Why don’t we have a joint wedding with Luke and Rox?”

“Good idea, but how do we ask them?”

“I send them a message,” I said

Five minutes later I was in dad’s study, I rang the bell labelled ‘messenger’ and waited, about three seconds later a spirit of a young boy arrived. I smiled at him, I knew him well, his name was Jack he was a son of Hermes.

“I Xanthe Queen of death bid you Jack son of Hermes to go to Roxanna daughter of Poseidon and Luke son of Zeus and ask them if Aaron son of Athena and I can get married at the same time as them to make their wedding a joint one, if Roxanna daughter of Poseidon and Luke son of Zeus answer yes then ask Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty if she may adjust the wedding plans to make them for two couples. If Roxanna daughter of Poseidon and Luke son of Zeus answer no return directly to me, however in the event of the first scenario return to me with the answers of Roxanna daughter of Poseidon Luke son of Zeus and Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty”

“Yes mistress” Jack replied. Then he vanished.

“Now Aaron honey, we need to wait for about five minutes for the messenger to return with the answers.”

“Okay baby”

The messenger returned with exactly what I wanted to hear. I would be married in two weeks.

********

Zach:

Chapter 13.

Weird Stuff Happens

Hi. Xanthe reckons I should tell this bit ‘cause I was there so here goes:

We’d spent a week on mount Olympus, and found nothing out. We had no leads, no progress and naff all to report.

Until my beautiful perfect wife turned up. She told us that Sophia (my ex) had told them that Hades was in the forge under the throne room Xanthe wanted us to check it out.

Oh, yeah. The other thing she told us was that Xanthe was engaged to Aaron. By the time we’d made sense of it all, thought about everything and had a chat about it, it was like one in the afternoon. Then Jack one of the messenger boys from the palace of the dead (AKA home) arrived.  He wanted to know if Rox and Luke wanted to have a joint wedding with Xanthe and Aaron. They said it was a great idea so he flitted off to ask Aphrodite. She said yes so then he kinda went ‘POOF’ and vanished.

Any way, after all of that happening we had to decide who would go and check out the forges. Luke volunteered but Roxy said if he went she would go too. So I said I’d go, then Kat came up with her weirdest bit of logic yet.

“I’ll go because I’m already dead. I can’t be hurt or captured”

“NO!” I shouted “there is no way I’m gonna let you go”

“Dude calm down” Luke said

“Y’ know, Kat’s got a point guys. She’d be the best one to do it. Like she said she can’t be hurt or captured,” Rox said

“What?” I asked

“Oh c’mon you guys! You gotta realise that Xanthe, Kat and I are just as capable as you lot. It’s just ‘cause we’re girls you think we need wrapping up in cotton wool”

“Ow” I said, “that’s harsh”

“Harsh maybe, but it’s still true I’m just as capable as you are Zach. Besides I need to do this, I just feel like a spare part most of the time. I need to do this, I have to prove to myself that I’m still strong” mumbled Kat.

“Okay then, if you really want to do it you can but please be careful, I can’t live without you”

“You won’t have to, I’ll be back in a few hours with Hades,” she said

“Hmmm, I don’t reckon you need to worry about the with Hades bit yet” I said

“Yeah, but I want to be as fast as I can” with those words she sank through the floor of the throne room

********

Kat:

Chapter 14.

As I sank through the marble floor of the throne room I wondered why I was doing this, true I wanted to prove myself, true I wanted to protect Zach but did I have another motive? To tell the truth I wasn’t sure myself.

My mission was really very simple; find Hades. Easy, really easy since the passage was strict with only few rooms full of forging tools on either side.

A few minutes later I noticed that the rooms I passed contained tools but Hephaestus’ bronze bulls, silver cats and golden dogs, there were automatons of all different shapes and sizes. This was the home of a man who wanted to be Zeus. I took a careful mental note of all the things I saw. After all it was evidence against Hephaestus and that was something I really wanted. I mean he’d kidnapped my father-in-law.

After a while the rooms became cells, the first one I passed was empty, the next one too, after that I passed about seven more empty cells until eventually I saw Woofie, sat on the floor of a cell looking extremely upset.

I wanted to let him out but I thought it would be a bad idea ‘cause the only people who can shut him up are Xanthe and Hades. So I decided to go on to find Hades then go back and get Woofie.

I had a feeling that I didn’t have far to go in fact I was so preoccupied I walked straight on past the cell containing Hades.

“Oi, Kat!” he yelled, “come back here”

I wheeled around

“Sorry sir” I said, “now how do I get you out?”

“Pass me my helmet of darkness, it’s on the shelf behind you”

I got the helmet off the shelf and passed it through the bars to Hades

“Thank you” he grinned,

I think it was supposed to reassure me but unfortunately his grin is somewhat sinister

“Now” he continued “I’m going to disappear, don’t panic it’ll only be for a second.”

As I watched Hades raised the helmet to his head and put it on. The moment it touched his head he vanished.

I gasped, he had been there and now he wasn’t. I mean I know he’s a god and all but that’s really going a bit far.

Hades chuckled as he removed the helmet. He was now stood next to me.

“Ah, I think we might want to run, someone’s coming.”

“Oh hell, we need to get Woofie,” I said

“Lead the way”

I sprinted off in the direction of Woofie’s cell, when I reached it I literally skidded to a stop.

Hades grabbed the door of the cell, ripped it off and tossed it aside, I gasped again.

“If nobody knew we were here before they do now” I muttered

“Take my hand, I’m going to get us out of here” he said it has to be said that something in his manner reminded me of Xanthe.

I took his left hand, the right one was holding Woofie’s collar. As I looked I saw that it was the same one Aphrodite had given Xanthe all that time ago, five years and she still had it. I did strike me bas odd that he was wearing it but then it had been his best collar and he’d been taken on Christmas day.

The next thing I knew I was standing in front of Zach, I ran over and kissed him.

“I told you I could do it”

“I never doubted you”

“Yes dear” I said

“Excuse me Katriona, I have something I want to do for you”

“Yes?”

“Yes. Now give me a mo I really hope I can remember what to do”

I remember feeling all hot and heavy, the world seemed different, then the feeling cleared.

“Oh my gods” breathed Zach

“What?” I asked, that was when I started to notice, my voice had been all faint when I was a spirit, now it was strong, I was alive

“You’re alive”

“****** Hell” I said (sorry I swore but I was kinda surprised)

“Oh, sir” I said to Hades “did I tell you Xanthe’s engaged to my half-brother Aaron and that they’re having a joint wedding with Rox and Luke?”

“No”

“Ah. Sir, Xanthe’s engaged to my half brother Aaron and they’re going to have a joint wedding with Roxy and Luke”

“Well, I think I want my daughter here, with me so I can spend some time with her before she goes and gets married,”

I thought that he was stating The Quite Frankly Blooming Obvious but hey ho, don’t matter does it?

“Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” asked Luke

“The bell,”

“What bell?” asked Rox?

“The bell that summons Xanthe to me exactly five minutes after I’ve rung it”

“Well why couldn’t you use that to get out?” Zach asked

“Because she wouldn’t be able to get out the cell. We would’ve been stuck in there together”

“Oh.” I said

“Ah ha. Found it,” Hades pulled a tiny silver bell from his pocket and rang it. It made no noise and I was immediately reminded of the bell he’d rung on my first visit to the palace of Hades.

********

Xanthe:

Chapter 15.

Aaron and I were walking through the rose gardens on the way back to the palace when I heard a tinkling sound accompanied by a calm, cool voice a bit like the one in lifts

“Five minutes”

“Oh crap, Aaron, we need to grab anything we want to take and then hold my had as tight as you can”

“Why?”

“Because my father has rang a tichy little bell what gives me five minutes to grab what I need before I’m magically transported to wherever the hell he is”

“Ah, um love, you’re grammar is slipping”

“Oops, now be quick”

We sprinted back to the house, ran upstairs and changed into clean clothes, grabbed some other essentials, shoved them in a bag and held hands.

As Aaron’s hand closed over mine I heard the voice again

“Five seconds”

Aargh! Did I have everything?

“Four seconds”

I knew I’d forgotten something

“Three seconds”

I always did

“Two seconds”

I squeezed Aaron’s hand tighter

“One second”

I shut my eyes tight

“Hey, you can open your eyes now Xanthe” said Kat, she sounded different, her voice was stronger

I opened my eyes, my senses adjusted themselves and I was assailed by the sound of hearts beating, and then as I reached for the heart beat I wanted to hear most I realised I couldn’t hear it. I couldn’t hear Aaron.

Then I blacked out.

I came to about half an hour later Aaron was standing over me

“Are…you…alright?” I managed

“Yeah, I’m fine, why?”

“Couldn’t…hear…your…heart”

“Huh?”

“Ah” said Hades, “I have a theory regarding that, Zachariah, can you hear Kat’s heartbeat?”

“No, and why in the name of Zeus can’t you call me Zach?”

“No I thought not. Besides, I don’t want to call you Zach, I don’t think it suits you”

“Anyway…what’s…Zach…got…to…do…with…it?”

“Don’t worry, the point is that my children can’t hear the heartbeat of the people they love”

“Oh, good”

“Oh! Congratulations, I really hope I don’t have to blast you to bits for hurting Xanthe Aaron”

“Okay… thanks sir, um I think”

“Ignore him love” I said “he’s pretty weird sometimes and he never makes any sense”

We spent the next week on Olympus engaged in frantic wedding preparations and giving evidence against Hephaestus, the latter was nowhere near as fun as the former and appeared to bear no fruit until we received a written statement and apology from Hephaestus.

It read as followed:

To Hades,

I’m sorry for kidnapping you but I was really desperate, I wanted to talk to you and explain but I never got chance.

I only kidnapped you because I was counting on the blame falling on Ares so I could finally spend some time with my wife, if that hadn’t worked I would’ve sent your daughter incriminating evidence of Ares kidnapping you ect. I guessed that her hot-headed temperament would lead her to present the evidence therefore leaving me in the clear.

Again I apologise and wish to offer my congratulations to your daughter on her engagement.

Regards Hephaestus

P.S enclosed is a letter for Xanthe from my wife giving the time of a fitting for her wedding dress.

P.P.S I really am most sincerely sorry

The letter from Aphrodite was really quite entertaining so I’ve put it in here this is how it goes:

Hello darling! Aphrodite here! Just letting you know darling I need you and Roxie to come to the big pink palace (my place) tomorrow at ten o’clock. To choose the dresses and shoes you see darling. Now, the wedding is one week tomorrow, I’ll pick you and Roxie up at nine that gives us until five, that’s four hours to get you ready. Eros will pick Aaron and Luke up half an hour later. You won’t see them after you leave until the wedding. Tradition you know.

Lots of love to all of you darling. See you tomorrow.

Toodle-pip

Aphrodite.

P.S sorry that Hephaestus was so silly, any how we’re all sorted now and I will make sure he never does anything like this again.

P.P.S what does P.S mean????!!!!!!

P.P.P.S come to think of it what does P.P.S mean????!!!!!!

She carried on with the ‘what does P.S mean’ thing until she ran out of paper class or what?

I mean I can’t believe she spelled Roxy as Roxie all the way through the letter and that she thinks I don’t know that the huge pink palace with ‘Aphrodite’s house’ painted on it was where she lived. I mean how dumb can you be?

Oh, yeah as dumb as Aphrodite. Duh.

********

Chapter 16.

At ten o’clock Rox and I walked over to Aphrodite’s palace, we were shown in, given drinks and asked to wait until the dresses could be put on the dummies and lined up for us to choose from.

When they were done we were taken to a pale pink room with a white carpet and mirrors everywhere so you could see every angle at once, the dresses were on dressmakers dummies in a line along the edge of the wall.

Roxy made a beeline for the blue-green dress in the corner. It had silver embroidery and a silver ribbon barking the bodice portion on the front and back, the skirt frilled out at the bottom and looked absolutely beautiful, I had a feeling that she’d choose that one.

My eye, however was immediately caught by a hot pink dress made of a ruffled silk with a skirt that spiralled out from the black silk ribbon at the waist, the ribbon was embroidered in a fine gold thread.

“Well darlings do you like anything?” asked Aphrodite

“Ooh yes!” Rox exclaimed “this one here”

“Oh, good choice darling! It will suit you beautifully!” Aphrodite cooed, one she and Rox were done discussing the many merits of the dress Aphrodite turned to me

“Now Xanthe darling, what about you?”

“Well I like this one” I said, indicating the dress “but I’m not sure if it’ll suit me”

“Darling! I designed that one with you in mind! I think it shall be splendid!”

“Y’ think?”

“Of course darling!”  And on she went, she described everything good about the dress. Once she was done we moved onto shoes.

The attendants carried in about forty pillows, a pair of shoes on each one.

“Now dears, look at anything you like, so long as it goes with the dress”

Rox and I bent over the pairs of shoes, eventually she selected a pair of five inch silver stilettos, and I selected a more appropriate pair of shoes with one-inch stiletto heels, they were made of the same ruffled pink silk as the dress, they had the same gold embroidery with black silk strap that matched the ribbon on the waist of the dress

“Well darlings, have you chosen?”

“Yes, I have” I said

“Me too” said Rox

“Lets see then”

We showed her our shoes.

“Perfect darlings, we’re nearly done, we just need to choose the flowers for the bouquets” she turned to the attendants “clear away anything we don’t need”

I turned to her, “I thought we’d only be an hour or so, we’ve already been one and a half”

“Really?! Oh dear, we’re behind schedule!”

As she finished the attendants brought in several hundred types of flowers, there were roses, carnations and tulips plus about five hundred plants I reckon Demeter had kept for mount Olympus instead of giving them to earth. Oh well, don’t matter do it?

Rox ran straight over to the table once the flowers were all laid out and began finding blue flowers and some greenery to mix in with them.

I however found some roses the same colour as my dress and mixed in a few white flowers and some of the gold-sprayed sprigs of beautifully twisted grasses.

Once we’d chosen our flowers Rox and I showed them to Aphrodite, she got an attendant to bind the stems up and make them into bouquets, then she pushed us off into separate side rooms so the attendants could help us into our wedding dresses and put a fraction of the make-up they’d be using next week on me.

Then they helped me get my shoes on and held the door open for me so I could walk out into the main room.

I looked in the mirror and nearly fainted, the person looking back at me wasn’t me, it couldn’t be, her pale face had rosy cheeks, her black hair in perfect ringlets, her arms were beautiful and slender, her body curved under the dress and looked more beautiful than I could ever do. Before I could blink and turn her back into me Rox came out of her room, I saw her reflection in the mirror behind me

“Oh my gods Rox you look beautiful,” I said at the same time she said

“Oh my gods Xanthe you look beautiful”

“Oh my gods you both look beautiful,” cried Aphrodite

“I don’t look anything like normal, I’m too pretty” I said “ I mean my skin never flushes, and my hair is naturally straight not curly!”

“Only two things are true in that darling, one is that your skin never flushes and the other one is that your hair is not naturally curly but you are beautiful, you just need to realise it. Aaron sees it, I see it, I put it there, I saw you as a baby and I added a little extra beauty because I knew that one day that beauty would come into its own, and that day is coming” Aphrodite whispered

“Really?” I asked

“Really, really” said Rox

********

Chapter 17.

Six days later Rox and I were busy frantically checking guest lists, making sure we’d not left anyone out, I mean if we’d left out just one minor Olympian our lives would then be plagued by whatever it was they were in charge of for instance Eileithyia goddess of childbirth would stop us having any children.

So we had to invite everyone I mean I really don’t want my life to be plagued by misfortunes sent by various minor gods.

Dinnertime the night before the wedding was early, half past five we had pasta with pesto and cherry tomatoes. After dinner Zach and Kat turned up in separate cars to take us to our various parties.

Zach, Luke and Aaron were going to Dionysus’ place with a load of mates for an evening of immature games.

Me, Rox and Kat were all going to go over to Aphrodite’s palace for a disco with most of the minor goddesses.

I was just about to grab my bag when my dad came over to me

“Xanthe, I need a word”

“Proceed”

“In private”

“Oh” I followed him through into the kitchen “what?” I asked

“It’s about your mum”

“What!”

“I think it’s time you met her”

“Umm… okay”

“Selene, come in”

“But…but…but” I stammered as Selene, goddess of night came in

“Hello Xanthe,” she said

“Umm… hi?”

“I am sorry I lied to you all these years Xanthe, I wanted to avoid telling you, but it’s too late now, you’re immortal”

“What?”

“You and Zach are all Olympian, not half, Zach is no longer immortal, he was destroyed and when you chose to bring him back I could only bring him back as a mortal, to make him immortal is beyond my power”

“Wait… Zach is mortal but I’m immortal?”

“Yes,” Selene said

“But I can’t marry Aaron now! It’s not fair on him, to waste his life with someone who won’t age and die with him”

“Yes, but perhaps I can make you mortal, would you accept that?”

“Yes, I would give up my life for Aaron, giving up immortality is easily done, you can’t miss what you never knew you had” true, I didn’t care, to tell the truth I was more worried about Aaron than anything else

“True, true. Very well. Tomorrow as you speak the wedding vow you will become mortal and stay that way until the end of your time”

“Okay, now, I’ll yell at you later for not telling me that my mum is alive but right now I’ve goy my hen party.” I meant it; I was going to yell my head off (figuratively speaking) when I had time.

I walked out of the house arm in arm with Rox and Kat, after all this was my last night of my immortal life.

I may as well enjoy it.

********

Chapter 18.

The following morning I woke up at half eight, put on jeans and a t-shirt, I ate my breakfast slowly, about five minutes after I’d finished Rox came down and fixed us both a cup of coffee, I drank it quickly and refilled it from the pot and fiddled with my hair.

Finally nine o’clock came, I abandoned my coffee cup and dashed to the door, Aphrodite’s limo was waiting outside, Rox and I bundled in and the limo sped off.

As soon as we arrived at the palace we were bundled back out of the limo buy attendants and taken inside, we were waxed, exfoliated and moisturized in about an hour.

The next hour was spent having loads of make-up applied to every part of my face imaginable, as this was happening my hair was being washed, dried and curled.

I was then taken to a different room too Rox and I was helped into my wedding dress and other paraphernalia, part of my curled hair was coiled top of my head and was held there by gold combs encrusted with rubies and diamonds, the rest was left to hang down loose at the front, framing my face.

A white veil was placed over the hair at the back and held in place with a golden tiara, my dress was then pulled carefully over my head and laced up tight at the back.

One attendant took a filmy hot pink garter from a stand and fastened it at the top of my leg.

Then my shoes were slipped on my feet and fastened quickly, I was helped up, and my skirts were adjusted, I was then taken out to a Rolls Royce that was decorated with lots of bows and ribbons.

Rox walked out of the door opposite, she looked awesome in her sea-green dress, and she looked at the Rolls, looked at the ribbons and shook her head.

“Okay… it’s a bit over the top isn’t it?”

“Yep,” I grinned “but that’s Aphrodite for you”

“Indeed”

We sighed and slid into the Rolls.

As soon as we were sat down the attendants handed us our bouquets and shut the door, two of them got in the front, one started up the car while the other checked that we were comfy. We were so the one driving stepped on it and we sped off.

We arrived at the pavilion that’d been set up in the main square, a huge white silk canopy adorned with pink roses had been set up, rows and rows of chairs had been lined up on either side of the isle. Aaron and Luke were stood at the altar in front of Zeus.

The attendants opened the doors, straightened our skirts and led us to our fathers. I took my father’s arm and smiled at him, he grinned back.

We began walking down the isle towards Zeus.

As I walked I examined Aaron, his blue eyes were as usual the colour of the sea on a stormy day, his thick brown hair was neatly brushed and his smart black suit set off his pale skin.

Luke was wearing a silver-grey suit with a white shirt, but my eyes didn’t really have time for him, I was too busy looking at Aaron to look at Luke.

I reached the end of the isle and looked back, the hundreds of Olympians all looked back at me, smiling, many of them were already crying.

“We are gathered here today to witness the bonding of these two couples.

So, do you Aaron son of Athena take Xanthe daughter of Hades to be your wife, to love her and accept her and to do so forever?”

“I do” Aaron’s voice sounded somewhat triumphant

“And do you Xanthe daughter of Hades take Aaron son of Athena to be your husband, to love her and accept her and to do so forever?”

“I do” I smiled, at Aaron, trying to convey all my love and adoration in that single expression

“You may kiss the bride”

Aaron pulled me into his arm and kissed me and I knew my smile had shown all that I’d wanted it to.

The same process was repeated for Roxy and Luke before the wedding feast.

My happily ever after was assured

********

Three and a half months later

Three and a half months later (funnily enough) I was frantically sprinting around looking for Roxy who was staying with me and Aaron for the weekend.

I sped around a corner and ran straight into her, literally. We picked ourselves up,

“I need your help,” we chorused

“What?” we chorused again

“Whoa” I said, “right you first”

“Okay, thanks, now I’ve got a problem.”

“What?”

“I’m well… you know”

“Yep, I know” I had a weird feeling I had the same problem as her

“And I don’t know how to tell him”

“Be straightforward and honest”

“Y’ think?”

“Yep, now Rox, I’ve cot the same problem as you”

“Ah, well I’m guessing being straightforward and honest would be the best approach”

Now, Rox and I knew what we were talking about but I doubt you do so I’ll explain; we were both going to become proud parents in a few months.

Now you see the problem.

“Well, I suppose we’d better go and see how they take it” I grimaced

“I s’pose”

“Well c’mon then” we began making our way to the sitting room were Luke and Aaron were sat.

When we arrived they were eating sandwiches, lovely, a nice calm atmosphere in which to drop an extremely large, extremely explosive bombshell. But that’s the way I like it.

“Hey Aaron” I sat down next to him on the sofa “I’ve got some good news for you”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, Aaron, you’re gonna be a father”

“Wow… really?”

“Yes, I’m so happy”

“Me… a dad?” he smiled “that’s brilliant!”

“Hey congrats man! Well done” Luke said

“Thanks” Aaron was in a happy blissful daze as he replied

“Honey, they aren’t the only lucky ones,” said Rox

“Really? You mean you too?”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?”

“It’s brilliant”

“Hey congrats man! Well done” Aaron said

“Thanks dude”

********

Epilogue.

A few months later I gave birth to a baby girl, she had her father’s eyes set in my face; we called her Selene after her grandmother.

Roxy had a boy who she called Connor after her grandfather on her mother’s side. Obviously not on her father’s side or he would’ve been called Kronos.

Oh yeah, and Sophia, well she was consigned to Tartarus for all eternity, it turned out she’d actually made up everything she’d told us on the off chance of getting lucky.

And Kronos, well he’s still were he always has been and he’s gonna stay there for the rest of eternity.

I did yell at my dad, in fact I was quite angry with him for letting me blame myself for my mum’s death for my whole life, even though I really like Selene I just couldn’t seem to think of her as my mother until the second of February two thousand and nine when my Selene was born, my dear daughter nearly died and would’ve but for her grandmother, so now I really do think of her as my mum, I mean Selene’s first word was gwandmaw, which we think was supposed to be grandma. We’re still not sure.

So we all got our happily ever after in the end, all the loose ends are tied, from the four teenagers who set out to save the world five-and-a-bit years ago so many things have changed to all of us, I mean we’re all married now. So once and for all I believe I can safely say:

The End.

Queen of Death

PAGE 1

This is where my dad sits when he is here, at the moment I’m sitting in his seat.

This is row one, there are only four seats on row one, and they are the ones who decide punishments for those who have lead bad lives.

Row two. These are the seats for the ten council people who have the second vote on a punishment in the event of a tie in row one

And finally row three; they have little to do except a few things to do with organising events and having a third vote in the highly unlikely event of a tie in both rows one and two.

]]> http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=23 2 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=20 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=20#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:16:51 +0000 Ross http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=20 Prologue.

Hello, I am Luke son of Zeus; I am finishing the story first told by Roxanna daughter of Poseidon (Roxanna prefers to be called Rox or Roxy). This tale was then continued by my least favourite cousin Xanthe daughter of Hades.

Xanthe is reading over my shoulder as I write and is now yelling at me to stop being such a cheesecake, a habit with which she has recently become obsessed. Although, I doubt even my father knows why she chose cheesecake.

Our other companion is Katriona daughter of Athena. Katriona prefers to be known as Kat. If you try to call her Katriona she will probably try to rip your head off.

One more thing. Upon occasion in this book Rox and Xanthe will have extracts from their own thoughts and feelings at times they find important.

********

Luke:

Chapter 1.

Why are some gods so annoying?

“So let me get this straight,” I said, “you want me to ask Apollo where the hell we need to go, stuff like that and then go with you”

“Yes” Rox smiled at me, I smiled my half smile back at her and winked for good measure, okay so I like her. Dude, get over it people.

“Okay, I’m sure I can manage that.

“Thank you Luke!” squealed Rox I think I blushed, I’m not sure. Well whatever I did Xanthe smirked. I wondered idly how angry my dad not to mention her dad would be if I slapped her. Very was the answer.

“Can we wait till the end of the party though, it won’t help if the birthday boy vanishes,” I said.

“I suppose so,” grumbled Xanthe.

I got up, went over to Rox  “in that case” I said, “May I have the honour of this dance?”

“Ooh” she squeaked “yes, I suppose so” from the huffing coming from Xanthe’s general direction I guessed that this was not her normal behaviour. Awesome!!! She probably liked me too!!! Forget I ever said that or die.

I took her hand and led her onto the dace floor. Metaphorically smiling I placed one hand on her waist, took her hand with my other and we began a graceful waltz. She was a good dancer, better than anyone else I’d danced with yet. Her sea-green eyes were about a foot below mine (making her about five foot six) they were entrancingly beautiful and matched her face perfectly as we danced her long blonde hair fell in a perfect waterfall down her back.

It was it my imagination or did she pull herself closer? I certainly felt her hand on my back increase in pressure.

I danced on in a dream-like stupor but all to soon the dance came to an end and the other two I managed to get soon did too.

The chorus of happy birthday was brief and I quickly cut the cake, it seemed years until the first guests took their leave, but finally they were all gone. My watch from Rox was on my wrist, the gold glinting in the light from the chandelier.

“Luke” came my father’s voice “come” I went over to him.

“Apollo is here”

“Thanks dad”

“Hey Luke! How are ya dude?” came Apollo’s voice.

“I’m fine how ‘bout you”

“Bored” he said, “now I hear you want my help”

“Yep” I made a popping noise on the ‘p’.

“Okay, first question. You gotta go to Kaiafas Beach in Greece. Second question you got one week. You gotta travel fast. Third question ‘cause I’m the god of prophecies that’s how.

“How did you know what I was gonna ask?” I said somewhat belatedly

“I just told ya. Man some people are so dense” he laughed at the look on my face.

“Apollo” I said exasperated.

“Ooh! Gotta go!” he said and promptly vanished.

********

Chapter 2.

My favourite birthday present

I heard my name being called. I turned to face my father.

“Yes dad?”

“I have something for you” he whistled and an eagle came flying through the window, closely followed by Pegasus.

Woofie had gotten back to his normal size and was happily eating what looked like the worlds biggest dog biscuit.

Roxy ran over and hugged Pegasus. Interesting, that was a generous gift, even by Olympian standards.

“Luke, this is one of my sacred birds from mount Olympus. Care for it, it can grow large enough to carry three grown men when it wants to, so be very careful” my father said.

“Does the bird have a name?”

“Yes, it is called Horus after the ancient Egyptian god.”

“Thank you father,” I said

“Oh yes, Katriona,’ Kat winced at the sound of her full name

“Your mother asked me to give you this” in his palm there sat a tiny pair of silver wings “if,” he continued “you press these wings between your shoulder blades they shall grow to a larger size and carry you wherever you wish to go”

“Thank you sir” Kat took the wings from him and put them in her bag.

Finally I was able to go and change, I put on the clothes my father had given me for a present, they were impervious to dirt and would change their appearance and material at my will; that meant armour too.

I willed the clothes to be a green short sleeved t-shirt and grey jeans I put on the watch from Rox and filed the hipflask with diluted nectar (the drink of the gods).

As I walked back into the hall I saw that the girls were changed, Xanthe in her usual black, Kat in a pink top and blue jeans and Rox in a green t-shirt and grey jeans. As we noticed each other’s outfits we laughed, we matched.

“Oh brother” grumbled Xanthe. “Rox he so fancies you”

I ignored her and walked over to Rox.

“When do we leave?” I asked.

“Tomorrow, at dawn.” She replied, “We need some sleep first”

“Okay”

I showed them to rooms and settled down into my room.

********

Chapter 3.

Well that didn’t take long

As the sun rose I woke up, I didn’t have to change, only will my clothes into the same ones I’d worn the night before.

When we met in the dining room for breakfast Rox was wearing the same things she had been the night before too. We both noticed and laughed Xanthe repeated her comment from the previous night. This time I did tell her to shut it.

I sat down at the oak table with some hot buttered toast when Rox came and sat next to me, I smiled to myself. As we ate our toast I could hear various snide remarks coming from Xanthe’s general direction, I tried and unusually succeeded to ignore her. It probably had something to do with the person sat next to me.

Three minutes later Horus was growing at an alarming rate and soon he was big enough to carry me, he didn’t stop there though, he carried on until he was big enough to carry two people. I guessed he knew my mind.

“Xanthe, get Woofie to shrink then ride Pegasus, it’ll be quicker if we’re all flying.”

“Fine, but what about you?”

“I’ll ride with Luke”

“Oh my gods Rox! You so fancy him!” Xanthe smirked

“Shut up Xanthe!” we shouted together

Four or five days later we were almost at the beach. Our progress was sped up by the fact that we could fly. Our only problem was that we’d gone to the wrong beach and were several hundred miles from the beach we were supposed to be, anyhow on day five things started to go right finally.

I climbed up onto Horus’ back and helped Roxy up in front of me; I hooked one arm about her waist and pulled her closer. She caught my other hand and held it there, tilting her head back against my chest. Horus took off smoothly and quickly, powering us away from Xanthe and Kat.

Twisting herself around and pulling my head down she kissed me softly on the mouth. Triumph soared in my chest and I held her at arms length away from me. She must’ve misunderstood me ‘cause she ducked her head and blushed.

“Sorry” she muttered

“Don’t be, I love you” saying the words aloud shocked me, made me realise the truth of that statement I did love her and I would never love anyone else.

“Then kiss me”

I did, it was quite a long kiss and was only interrupted by a need to breathe.

“Now all we have to do is make sure Xanthe doesn’t find out.”

“That’ll be hard. I don’t think I can stand not kissing you for five minutes let alone all evening.” She replied.

********

Chapter 4.

Some birds are extremely irritating

Especially the metal ones

As we flew on making the most of our time together I felt Roxy stiffen in my arms.

“No…” she hissed

“what is it Roxy?”

“stymphalian birds. We have to go back and help. They’re being overwhelmed”

Horus? I thought tentatively

Yo boss.

We gotta help.

Cool.

Roxy smiled as she felt Horus turn around and speed back in the opposite direction.

“Thanks honey” she said

“It is my pleasure I assure you” my formal manner of speech (blame Athena) was evidently hilarious to her. I knew that because she laughed when I said things like that.

What felt like thirty seconds later we were with the others. Kat and Xanthe had shields. Kat had gone for the practical approach and was firing arrows at the stymphalian birds. Xanthe in her rue unpractical manner was trying to chop them in half with her sword.

Roxy:

I can’t believe Luke loves me. It’s incredible. After the moment when he kissed me I was in shock until Pegasus told me the most horrid thing!  He, Kat and Xanthe were under attack from stymphalian birds. Luke got Horus turned around and we were there in about a minute though it felt like less.

I saw Xanthe sword and shield in hand attempting to hack the birds out of the sky. Kat was alternately firing arrows and hiding behind a shield that she’d gotten from only the gods know where. I then noticed that Kat was on Pegasus and Xanthe was wearing Kat’s wings. That didn’t half surprise me I can tell you.

I  looked at Luke. He was calmly assessing the situation. He took Horus over to Pegasus and Kat who was riding him helped me down to sit in font of her.

To my astonishment he then quite calmly proceeded to jump off Horus.

That was the last thing I saw. Apparently I fainted.

Luke:

The jump was exact, precisely calibrated and it worked. Okay, before I tell you why I jumped off the back of a giant eagle mid-flight  I expect I need to explain this. As you should all know by now my father is Zeus. As you should also know from history lessons Zeus’s symbol of power is a bolt of lightning. Now I, being his son can run an electric current all over my body. Hence the jump.

Now if by now you have not at least guessed my plan then you are rather dim no offence meant there by the way, anyway my falling body was an easy target for the birds so they all dived for me. Only once they were all over me did I change my clothing to armour and concentrated. The birds were now dust and ash falling to earth.

********

Chapter 5.

The thing at the top of my

things-I-never-thought-

I’d- hear-myself-say list.

Horus flew underneath me and caught me at the same time two things happened.

Number one- my clothes changed back to normal

and

Number two- I heard Xanthe scream

The birds had worked the wings loose until they had come off entirely and Xanthe was left in a wild free fall to land five hundred feet below on the grassy area directly beneath us.

we landed on the grass by Xanthe’s body. Roxy arranged her in a position that was more dignified and stood back. I however rushed forward in something midway between a leap and a plunge and crouched by her side.

I took her hand it was deathly cold.

“Please, please, please don’t be dead”

Then her eyes opened

Xanthe:

My head hurt. I concentrated on clearing it and I heard the sound of Luke’s voice pleading with me not to die.

I opened my eyes.

“Never thought I’d hear you of all people says that”

“Thank the gods! You’re alive”

“Not really. Technically speaking I’m dead because I have no heartbeat or pulse. But in the sense that I have not left this life and gone to the underworld then yes I am alive.”

“How come you have no pulse?” asked Rox

“Comes from my dad’s side of the family,” I said with a grin.

“Ah. Xanthe how old are you?” the look on Roxy’s face was curious and wary

“Five thousand, two hundred and one”

“Seriously?”

“No I’m only one hundred and twenty nine really”

“Okay…”

“ Ignore her love” Luke said and then kissed her

I felt so crazy jealous then I wished that I’d not made that deal with Aphrodite. Ah well. What’s done is done and cannot be undone.

Luke:

Okay. So I don’t hate Xanthe after all. In fact she’s probably my second favourite cousin after Rox of course. But never tell her I said that, I’d never hear the end of it. All the same I was glad she wasn’t dead

********

Chapter 6.

Chicks in armour.

Okay. The short story is that we got to the beach without further incident in just two days. The only problem – the beach would be full of people tomorrow. That was very bad news. How could we fight if the beach as full of innocent people?

We found a solution. Rob (a son of Ares) was in the neighbourhood. He was a government official and was able to order the beach to be closed. Meanwhile the children of Iris would use their power to create an illusion of the government officials enjoying a day on the beach.

Now to the point, the children of all the Olympians and the occasional minor deity were fighting the battle. The children of Athena would be planning the attack. That is to say they would be telling all the units to go to the various places they needed to be in when they had to be there.

The day of the battle came. Before dawn the whole army rose and put on their armour, everyone that is apart from me, Rox, Xanthe and Kat.

We made our way to the equipment tent.  Aaron was in charge; evidently he’d gotten bored of driving his mother around in a fancy limousine. And I hope she never reads that.

Anyhow we went in and found Aaron collecting three parcels from a stack at the back of the tent. He looked the same as ever.

“Perfect timing guys” he said

“Cheers” I said

“Now as it happens I have your armour here.”

“Whose armour?”

“Okay” Aaron said “Xanthe this is yours. Your dad reckoned you might want it so he sent it up from the… well from his house”

To my complete and utter astonishment Xanthe smiled. I almost fainted in shock.

“Awesome, cheers Aaron” taking the bundle she disappeared to change behind the screen.

“Okay,” Aaron continued “Roxy this is yours. It was made for you by the Cyclopes I think it’s a metal only found in the deepest part of the ocean around your father’s palace.

“Wow, cool” Rox gasped she then disappeared behind the screen just as Xanthe came out in a black stygian chain body and plateskirt, her black hair was pinned up and was in a spiky style, in it where two throwing knives that I guessed weren’t just for decoration.

When Rox reappeared she was dressed almost identically to Xanthe but her armour was made of some strange green metal, and her beautiful blonde hair was spilling down her back.

I knew that Aaron knew that I didn’t need any armour. In fact I had to show off a bit by changing it right in front of them. My clothes shimmered and changed to gold and silver armour.

Rox gasped

“Okay people. You should have everything now” Aaron said

“Then what is that?” I pointed at the last bundle in Aaron’s hands

“Oh, these are your swords”

I took the swords from Aaron and unwrapped them. I examined them; the tips were pointed, sharp, the hilt was gold, the steel blade polished to perfection and as I concentrated I realised they were specially designed to help me channel electricity along the blades.

“Awesome” I said “but what about Kat?”

“Oh I’m staying here, I’m helping with tending the wounded…” she smiled.

That surprised me. Kat did not seem to be the sort of person to sit idly by during a battle. Then she completed the sentence “…in between commanding the archers, directing the next bit of the battle and all that jazz”

********

Chapter 7.

Well that was fun.

Okay part one of the plan: Xanthe, Rox and I were to take five thousand of our ten thousand men, which for the dumber people out there is half.

I was a little annoyed that Rox had insisted on going. I’d hoped to convince her that she was needed somewhere less dangerous because we were about to do the stupidest thing in the whole entire history of stupid things. We were going to attack the army of Kronos the titan lord with just five thousand men. Now if that isn’t stupid then the next bit will convince you, we were going to ‘flank’ them. ‘Flanking’ is when your army divides into two, half attacks from one side and half from the other side. Sounds simple enough but its actually really goddamn complicated. I mean we haven’t got any way to coordinate our movements.

Step two: the other demigods would lead the rest of the army in from the front and back hopefully really distracting them so enabling us to win emphasis on the hopefully part.

So now you know what we were supposed to do I suppose I’d better tell you how it went.

Dawn came and Rox and I were crouched behind a sand dune watching, waiting, and praying. Rox peeked over the dune and gasped.

“What is it babes?” I whispered

“The army is here and there’s about twenty thousand of them”

“Well, my dad has pissed off a lot of people honey”

“Yeah I’d noticed”

I looked behind me, the two-and-a-half-thousand-men we had were twitching and rustling. I prayed Xanthe would notice that we’d charged so she could bring her two-and-a-half-thousand-men over and hep us beat the crap out of Kronos and co.

“Ready boys and girls?” I said

The army grinned.

“Then lets go and kill some monsters.”

They grinned again

“CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!” I shouted. I hoped Xanthe noticed

I heard a corresponding shout of ‘charge’ from Xanthe and we all piled in.

Things started to go wrong almost immediately. I saw two children of Dionysus weaving iron tight vines around a manticore be squished by a giant spider.

I heard a scream, on the plus side the other half of our army had joined the battle on the down side Rox had a huge cut down her forearm, she’d gotten distracted by having half an army plough into us.

“Get out of here, Apollo is over there. He’ll heal you,” I shouted

“Okay, I’ll come straight back” she said, and then she screamed again. An arrow protruded from her shoulder.

“I’ll carry you,” I yelled. I scooped Rox up in to my arms and pegged it over to Apollo

“Can you heal her?” I asked

“Yes, now get back out there.”

********

Chapter 8.

From bad to worse.

Things got really, really bad really, really fast and proceeded to go firmly downhill from there. We’d lost about five hundred people already.

Ten minutes later it was a lot worse, demigods were falling left right and centre, Xanthe’d taken down about one thousand men on her own, her stygian sword flashed in an arc slicing monsters to pieces all over the place and her black and silver shield blocked all blows swung at her, for the first time in my life I was scared of her.

I saw Rox running back to the fight, trident gleaming, arm perfectly normal. Monsters fell at her hand; they could not touch her as the swift movements of her shield blocked all their attempts to harm her. I noticed that at my hand too many monsters fell, my swords swung and slashed at various things that I can’t even begin to describe.

The fight was slowly headed towards the sea, and I noticed the Kronos’ army was shying away from the water and trying not to go near it. Roxy could control the water she had to soak them.

As I watched the others fight I saw Xanthe dash off towards the way off the beach. I let her go without complaint she at least might survive.

Then she really surprised me by coming running back followed by an awful lot of spirits. At their head was one I recognised all too well it was Zach, Xanthe’s dead twin brother. I think I said something very rude as they then proceeded to liquidize the enemy.

We stood there, Xanthe, Rox, one or two hundred of our soldiers, a great host of dead and I and most of us watched as Xanthe dismissed all the spirits but one, tat one was Zach.

Then things went from bad to worse; Kronos arrived.

“Well little demigods you have done well, but can you defeat the lord of the titans himself? Can you defeat Kronos?”

“You ******* *******” I shouted. Kronos laughed then walked out onto the beach.

“Well what d’you know, I agree with Luke,” said Xanthe in mild surprise

“Insolent mortal”

“Hate to burst your bubble love but I ain’t mortal”

“Your brother was little demigod”

“Now that made me mad” she hissed

“And me. Don’t forget me” Zach said

“Your army is gone Kronos, you have no power and I shall prove it by killing you myself” I started when I realised that against all odds it was Kat who had spoken

“I’d like to see you try”

“Suits me,” she growled

“NO KAT, PLEASE, YOU CAN’T DO IT OR…” Xanthe choked off at the end of the sentence.

And Kat jumped at Kronos, she flew up and plunged a little dagger right into his eye. He roared with rage and pain before flinging Kat away from him and onto the rocks at the edge of the sea then Kronos crumpled.

“I’m not dead yet”

Then I had an idea. “Girls, stand back”

They actually did as I asked and I stepped forward and thrust my swords into each of Kronos’ eyes then I concentrated on my power, summoned all the electrical energy I could and channelled it down my swords into Kronos he exploded. I grinned, then I heard a scream.

********

Chapter 9.

Sure as hell didn’t see that coming.

I turned, saw the water gently placing Kat on the ground and sprinted over to her. Rox knelt by her side and Xanthe who had hated Kat was crying and spluttering apologies to her, Xanthe has asked permission to tell this part of the tale in her own way so I thought I’d let her.

Xanthe:

Okay so I guess I owe you an explanation so here it is:

I was horrid to Kat because she had numbered heartbeats. She had only one month left from the day I met her and I knew it, my attempt to prevent her from doing what amounted to committing suicide was totally pointless, she didn’t even listen.

“Kat?” I whispered

“Yes…” her voice was faint

“I’m so sorry”

“Don’t be, I understood…”

“Xanthe, can you ease her passing?” asked Rox

“Yes, I can” I whispered

I collected my thoughts and tried to remember the necessary words, they came all to easily, as though they had been lurking in the back of my mind and waiting to be said.

“Go now friend of the children of Hades, rest in peace on the isles of the blest, may your soul find eternal peace in that place and be able to stay there until you wish otherwise, go now friend of Xanthe princess of death” I choked up on the last words, announcing my name and my title.

Then I felt Kat die, I reached out and shut her staring eyes.

“Goodbye my friend” I whispered

Luke:

Around half an hour later the festivities began. The children of Apollo had been working overtime to heal all those with injuries that really needed healing and had time to do those that weren’t so serious.

Xanthe was still wearing armour and her shield was propped up against one wall, I examined it, I had an ever-changing inscription engraved upon it above the sliver skull that dominated the shield.

“Xanthe what does this say?”

“It says; I am she that does not live yet need not fear death for death is my kin. I am Xanthe princess of death”

“Wow”

“What are you wondering?”

“I was wondering how you got all that out of three runes”

Then everything got a little bit embarrassing, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades all materialised in the middle of the room.

“Well done my son” my father intoned

“You too my girl” said Hades

“Congratulations Roxy” said Poseidon

“We have decided to give you all a gift each.” Zeus said “Luke what do you want?”

“ I want to be able to spend a long and happy life with Roxy,” I said nervously

“It shall be so”

“Roxy, what would you like?” asked Poseidon

“I would like you and mum to live together until she dies”

“I will make that happen for you my girl”

“And finally, Xanthe what do you want?” asked Hades

“I want Zach back, I miss him and he was the best brother anyone could ever have, besides he deserves a chance to kill Luke.”

“Okay, just make sure Zeus knows it’s not my fault.”

Before our eyes the spirit of Zach solidified and turned into a real living person. Xanthe hugged him.

“Thank you father,” she said.

********

Epilogue.

Finally we have come to the end of our story so it’s goodbye from Roxy and me. But a short word from the girls and Zach first, oh wait Zach is a girl. Dude, I’m joking, you can put the sword away.

Roxy:

I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone who has read this story through to the very end and goodbye.

Xanthe:

I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone who put up with my ramblings and to Luke for agreeing to let my brother and I (please note the correct grammar there) have a short say in this epilogue an now you can have a word from Zach. Oh and Luke is a cheesecake.

Zach:

Hi people, I’m not a girl, its just Luke being stupid.

Anyway I wanted to say well done for putting up with my sister, she’s just about the most annoying person I know (joke) I’m actually really, really grateful to her for choosing to bring me back from death, and I hope she realises that. Anyway goodbye.  And I’m not going to kill Luke… much.

Oh and I really like Kat, she’s cute and I’m not sure how to handle her, any advice would be useful.

Luke:

Goodbye again. And I wanted the satisfaction of writing this:

The End

Finally

Sky’s Son

]]> http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=20 1 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=18 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=18#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:15:38 +0000 Ross http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=18

Prologue.

Hi, my name is Roxy, well my nickname is Roxy my full name is Roxanna Medea Jones but I prefer Roxy or Rox for short, I really hate my middle name, apparently my dad chose it but I never saw why she used it, I mean he never did anything for me or mum.

My mum said that if I ever meet my dad I would feel different then, but I didn’t agree, if he’d really left mum and then ignored her for fifteen years then I wouldn’t give a damn what happened to him.

But as I turns out I was wrong.

I do care.

I kind of have to care.

I mean he is my father.

********

Chapter 1.

This is my story.

I was fifteen, we lived in a small flat in London, my mum and me and I would still be there now if I hadn’t persuaded my mum to buy a lottery ticket.

We won one eighth of the whole thing, not quite whole thing, but sixty thousand pounds, I persuaded my mum to book a plane to Greece and a room each at a big beachfront hotel.

From the moment I got there it felt good, I could do whatever I wanted, buy whatever I wanted and, best of all I got to meet another girl in a similar position, Katriona (Kat for short) had pointed out that some of the accountings on her dad’s bank statement were not things he’d bought, he’d been given fifty thousand in compensation and had done the same with the money as my mum had.

Kat was fifteen and a half so we were similar in age, Kat was way smarter than me but she didn’t like to stay still, a bit like me I can’t sit still for longer than a minute.

“So tell me about your dad, who is he?”

“What?”

“You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“About your dad and stuff”

“No, what stuff?”

“You’re not human, well not all human, you’re half god, half Greek god”

“Okay” I said the funny thing was I believed her, I’d always known I was different in some way.

“You believe me?”

“Yes” I wished I were saying no

“Thank the gods”

“Are you too?”

“Yes”

“Who is your mum?”

“Athena, that’s why I know so much stuff”

I thought about it. “So who is my dad?”

“I don’t know, could be anyone, Apollo, Dionysus, even Zeus, Hades or Poseidon”

“Oh” I cursed myself for thinking that she would know

“But I can find out”

“You can? How?”

“Here, drink this” Kat pulled a flask from her bag

“What is it?” I asked

“Identifier, Apollo makes it and my mum gave it to me”

“What’s it do?”

“Tells you who your parent is”

“Awesome” I took the bottle from Kat and took a sip

I am Poseidon, I claim you as mine. Come to me child for there are things we must discuss.

********

Chapter 2.

“Who was it?”  Kat’s voice cut through the echoes of Poseidon’s voice.

“Poseidon”

“Come again?”

“Poseidon”

“Are you having me on?”

“Nope” I said, “he said to come see him but how do I find him?”

A woman in a suit came over “walk into the sea, a dolphin will find you” she said

“Hello mum” said Kat shyly

“Oh” I said, “hello Athena”

“Oh hello dear good holiday?”

“Yes, I’ve got a feeling it won’t last for long though”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell your mother”

Two hours later I said goodbye to my mum and backpack on I walked into the sea. Kat followed me in.

Now I think I’d better explain myself, it took two hours to prepare because we’d been praying to my father so we could breathe and stuff.

Once we were completely submerged two dolphins came, we each grabbed the dorsal fin of one dolphin and soon they were carrying us into the deeper waters.

Unexpectedly soon we were so deep we couldn’t actually see the dolphins in front of us. Then, suddenly out of the murky darkness came a light, a huge underwater palace loomed out of the murky water, and suddenly I knew where I was. The palace of Poseidon. Home.

The dolphins stopped outside the pearl doors to the palace and let us dismount. A large bronze bell hung on the wall I rang it. Scarcely a second later the door flew open and a man in a t-shirt shorts and flip-flops and a gold trident in his hand smiled at us. “Hello girls come on in. I’ve been expecting you. I hope you’ve already guessed but in case you haven’t I am of course Poseidon”

My dad took Kat and I into the palace we went into a room filled with sofas, chairs and coffee tables.

“I hope you’re not disappointed with my house, I’m not one for formality or posh rooms and stuff”

“Nah” I said, “me neither”

“Now Kat, your name is Kat isn’t it?” Kat nodded

“Good, I expect that you’ve heard it all before so I’ll say this for the benefit of my daughter.” Taking a deep breath Poseidon began. “Approximately sixteen years ago a prophecy was made, Kat would you be so kind as to recite it?”

“Um yes sir.” Kat began to recite the words.

“Three children of the gods

The three most powerful

Two girls, one boy

Kronos they must fight

Fail they might unless

The daughter of the wisest

Travels with the first of three

But be warned

The price is the life of thee”

“Good,” said Poseidon “I’ll make it simple, from what we have deduced the prophecy means that we, that is Zeus, Hades and I will each have a child, this has, of course happened, I have you, Hades has a girl, strange named Xanthe or Xena or some such something or other, and Zeus has a son, Luke I think or Larry or Barry or Harry. Well you get the idea I hope. Anyway,” he continued, “ the rest seems pretty damn obvious, and you have to fight Kronos, the titan lord you will fail without a daughter of Athena, probably Kat, although it might be another”

********

Chapter 3.

“Now, I’d have to be a really rubbish father to send you off on a quest with nothing but instructions and a good luck wish so I got you this.” He passed me a gold eyeliner.

“Um, thanks but no thanks, gold eyeliner is so weird”

“I know, I know but this isn’t eyeliner take off the lid”

I took off the lid. Immediately it grew and the end split into three prongs until it was a hefty gold trident.

“Nice, thanks dad”

“Hey, no problem and I got you this.” He passed me a gold ring set with an emerald.

“Put that on your middle finger, left hand then press the emerald.”

I did as I was told and a huge gold shield with a small emerald in the middle spiralled out.

“Nice, how do I get rid of it?”

“Press the emerald and it should shrink again”

I pressed the emerald and the shield shrunk again.

“Good,” said Poseidon “now for the best bit, I hope you like horses”

“I love them”

“Good, best thing I ever made you know”

“Yeah”

“Now this is the real deal not a half-breed”

“Not a half breed what?”

“Pegasus” with that word a pure white horse with beautiful wings trotted through the door.

~Right boss. Is this your kid? echoed inside my head.

“Yep” said my dad

~Hi lady

“Hello Pegasus”

Kat stared at us “are you…?”

“Yes we are” said Poseidon

“How did you know what I was going to ask?”

“I’m a god”

“Oh”

An hour later we had a map, fresh clothes and everything else we’d need.

“Oh, Roxy I’ve got something for you, to make up for fifteen years of presents that I haven’t given you.” So saying, dad handed me a box, I opened the box and inside was a beautiful gold bracelet in the shape of a dolphin set with sapphires with two glimmering emeralds for eyes.

“Thanks dad, it’s beautiful”

“I’m glad you like it, it’s a traditional gift, anyway off you go, I don’t like long goodbyes.”

“Where are we going?” I asked

“To the underworld, now off you go,” replied Poseidon

“Okay dad, see you.”

I clambered onto Pegasus and said, “go”

“Yes lady” and Pegasus went, almost as soon as we were airborne Kat screamed, I felt like doing the same.

********

Chapter 4.

As we left my fathers palace we suddenly realised we were no longer under water, when I pointed this out to Kat she said it was god power, not something I should question.

As we flew out into the sunlight we were heading towards Athens and the underworld, we flew as fast as possible towards Crete, the sun was long since set by the time we arrived and a pink glow was topping the edge of the east horizon as the sun began to rise once more.

We walked leading Pegasus towards a restaurant as per my father’s instructions; we went up to the door and knocked five times then waited…

And waited…

And waited, finally the door opened and a distinctly rat-like man poked his head out.

“Ah good, the demigods, someone wants to see you.” he said

“Who would that be then?” asked Kat

“The master of war and conflict, lord Ares.”

“Ah” said Kat “that could be a problem”

“How so?” asked the man

“None of your business.”

“Good” he said to himself “already it starts”

We didn’t ask what he meant; I had a funny feeling we didn’t want to know.

As we walked down a gloomy corridor electric lights came on showing crumbling plaster and the remains of peeling wallpaper, a battered wooden door made an abrupt end to the corridor. As we reached the old door a voice bade us enter.

We did and saw a man in black clothes sitting on a leather chair.

“Ah good, you two are here”

“What’s it to you?”

“I have against my better judgement agreed to provide an army when, or if as I very much doubt you’ll make it to that stage, you confront Kronos”

“Hurrah” I muttered, “thanks for your encouragement”

“I did hear that”

“So what?”

“So shut your face”

“You shut your face” interjected Kat

“How dare you tell me to shut my face?”

“Very easily”’

“SILENCE, I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!” bellowed Ares

“Pig headed git” I said

“Good, well done you might actually do this, I wish you luck.” Said Ares in a calm cold voice that suggested he meant exactly the opposite of what he said.

Then he vanished.

“Will your ladyships and Pegasus come through to the twin room?” said the rat-like man who had opened the door.

“Yes” I said, “we will”

********

Chapter 5.

The following morning when we woke we put on fresh clothes, ate the breakfast that had been left outside the door and looked for the doorman, funnily enough we found him next to the door.

“Ah madam and madam how may I be of assistance?”

“You can tell us the way to the temple of Poseidon at Sounio”

“But that is a way to the underworld!”

“That is the point”

“But you cannot go there it is folly!”

“Okay buster, lets get this straight, we can and we will. Now where is it?”

“Turn left from the big square, then follow the signposts.”

“Thank you, we’re going now.”

As we left the building we unconsciously reached for Pegasus’s sturdy back and held onto his white horsehair mane, as we continued down the cobbled street we reached the ‘big square’ we took the left street and walked straight into a signpost pointing to the temple of Poseidon at Sounio.

Half a mile and one or two interesting conversations later we had reached the temple of Poseidon we stopped in the exact centre of the temple and knelt, we brushed the dust and dirt off the floor an revealed a symbol, a leaping dolphin.

“Kat, have you got the disc?” I asked, referring to an object that my father had given Kat to get us into the underworld without either of us dying.

~Lady, uh I’m coming too ain’t I?

“Of course” I said

“What are you on about?” asked a befuddled Kat

“What, oh I’m talking to Pegasus”

“Oh, I got really confused, here it is.” So saying Kat handed me the disc, I took it and pressed it into the mirror image indentation on the floor.

~Lady, if I’m coming hold my mane or I’ll get left behind!

Pegasus sounded so urgent I panicked and grabbed his mane, the world distorted and blurred, all colours vanished, then my consciousness departed and I blacked out.

I came around almost immediately, just in time to see Kat vanish, then a strange sense of weightlessness surrounded me and I too vanished from the earth.

I was standing by a grey river surrounded by a quite different sensation to the one I had left behind, it was a heavy smothering feeling, like a pillow wrapped about the head, muffling the senses, it was the heavy claustrophobic feel of death and all that accompanied it.

I looked around and saw Pegasus stood next to me, I knew he was as white as new snow but he seemed somehow darker, greyer and dirtier than he really was, we stood by a river, also unusually grey, even for a dirty river, but this river was clean, no crisp packets, old washing machines. Nothing, zilch, zip.

********

Chapter 6.

A cobweb-eyed spectre floated out of the fog and spoke in a voice that wasn’t quite there: “my master lord Hades wishes your company”

“Well he can shove his wishes up his…” I began

“We’d be delighted to oblige him” interrupted Kat, turning to me she hissed, “you do not refuse a god, ever and you most certainly do not tell them to shove something up their arse”

The bemused spectre watched us impassive and said in the same empty voice “your friend is wise, you should pay more attention to her. Now follow me”

As we followed the spectre I began to realise what the river was, it was the river Styx, the river of the underworld, and it began to dawn on me where I was, the underworld, the underworld damn, damn, damn, damn! Who was I kidding? Who did I think I was? How could I possibly save the world?

~Easy lady, you’re the boss’s kid, you can do anything. Oh and lady think your answers, then you don’t sound stupid all the time. Pegasus’s voice, cut through my despair.

~Um Pegasus? I experimented

~Yo lady?

~Were you reading my mind?

~Uh yeah sorry lady.

~Don’t worry; just tell me before you do.

~Okay lady, will do.

For a couple of minutes we walked on I silence, there were no conversations either mental or verbal.

“We are come to the palace,” said the spectre “go inside, follow the corridor, go through the door at the end. Do not go anywhere else or it shall be fatal”

I started; we were at the oak doors of a huge black granite palace, and I knew it was Hades’ palace, his home. And we had to go inside, we were expected, expected by the lord of death, something told me it wasn’t going to be a tea party, something bad was going to happen, only I didn’t know what it was yet.

As we entered the corridor we saw hundreds of black doors leading to other rooms and corridors, linking the huge palace together. As I walked along I reached up and patted Pegasus’ neck, I could sense his unease. The corridor was about four hundred meters long; I took about two minutes to walk the length of it, when we did reach the end a huge oak door with silver inlay in ancient Greek letters stood, it was the match of the one outside, except smaller. Obviously.

Kat raised her fist and knocked three times, the noise echoed along the corridor then faded away.

As soon as the echoes had died the door swung open, another spectre stood or rather floated in the doorway.

“Take the left hand passage when this one splits, follow it until you reach the end. Do not go anywhere else or it shall be fatal”

I thanked it and continued on my way, Kat and Pegasus followed. The door was exactly as I expected, the same as the two preceding it, when we reached this third door Kat knocked again, we got the same result although this time we had to go up the stairs at the corridors end. At the fourth door (this was at the top of the stairs) we got a different result, the ghost of a woman with long black hair stood there. “Lord Hades is ready now,” she said.

We went in, ‘lord Hades’ was indeed ready for us.

“Sit” he said motioning to a black sofa. We sat; I politely enquired what he wanted.

“Thank you for asking, I would like you to come with me, we are going to visit Kronos”

“Ah” said Kat

********

Chapter 7.

Hades led us to a door in one wall of the room he opened it to reveal a stone passage with steps cut into the downward sloping floor. As we entered the passage the door slammed shut. Hades smiled “I do have the key, don’t worry.” I decided no to, I honestly didn’t see the point.

The passage went down and down to the border of the lowest abyss in the underworld- Tartarus. Finally after about five minutes of silence apart from the clop clopping of Pegasus’ hooves we reached a door. The afore mentioned door was a heavy iron contraption with a lock that could only be opened from one side; ours. It crossed my mind that we wouldn’t be able to get back in but I figured that Hades would’ve gotten around that.

Once the door had been opened we all trouped through, as soon as the door had slammed shut a booming, sinister voice echoed from the abyss “so son you come to visit me again. To mock me? Or to boast of the ones who shall allegedly defeat me, the titan lord”

“Shut your face,” bellowed Hades “I am not your son”

“I no longer have a face thanks to you and your treacherous mother” came the voice.

“Mother Rhea is a wonderful person”

“You only say that because she is your mother, and I am your father”

“Only biologically, but not morally” said Kat

“Who speaks?”

“None of your business” I said

“Ah” said the voice, “another one?”

“Yes get over it,” I said

“Not your daughter is it?”

“No, she is organising the furies for something or other” replied Hades, then without another word he turned, put on a shiny black helmet and vanished.

About ten seconds later the door opened, I didn’t ask how I just went through, the door shut behind us and we began going back up the passage, I quickly realised I preferred going down, it was easier.

“How did you open the door?” I asked Hades

“Helmet of Darkness love, it allows the wearer, that’s me” he patted himself fondly “to go through walls and become invisible and so on and so forth. The only ones who have such a device are me and my daughter”

“You have a daughter?”

“Yep, Xanthe is her name”

We carried on talking for some time in this manner, pleasant small talk nothing more.

When we reached the door we had first entered the passage from (the one that led to Hades’ office) and he unlocked it using a heavy iron key, in we went, we resumed our seats and faced Hades. As I watched he reached under the ebony desk and pulled out a small silver bell. Hades rang it, the bell made no sound in the house, but I knew wherever Xanthe was the bell would ring loud and clear.

********

Chapter 8.

Twenty minutes later Xanthe came into the room “hi” she said, “I’m Xanthe, you must be Roxanna and Katriona, you” (here she pointed at me) “are Roxanna, and you” (here she pointed at Kat) “are Katriona” Kat scowled “Kat NOT Katriona”

“Yeah and Rox or Roxy will be fine thanks” as I spoke I noticed her abnormally pale skin, her black eyes and her ruler straight hair, I had a feeling her hair was naturally straight.

“Cool, I prefer to be called Xanthe ‘cause there ain’t no way to shorten Xanthe.”

“Grammar Xanthe, grammar” said Hades crossly

“Sorry dad” replied Xanthe she turned to me again “can I show them around dad?”

“Um, yeah, why don’t you show them your room?”

“Yeah, okay,” said Xanthe happily and off we went. Twenty minutes later we were in a large room full of black cushions, black chairs, black tables and cupboards of clothes all in black, even the walls and ceiling were in a black paint. Xanthe dragged a backpack out from under the bed and put clothes, toothbrush sleeping bag and a popup tent in it.

“How do you fit all that in one bag?” I asked

“God power” Xanthe answered, “what colour sleeping bag green, blue? What?”

“Uh green please.” Xanthe put a green sleeping bag in.

“And you?” she asked Kat

“Um, white please,” answered Kat. Xanthe added a white sleeping bag.

“Right, all packed.” She said. Then the sound of a bell filled the room, “dad wants us” she cried and then off she went. I followed at a more leisurely pace.

When I reached the office room Xanthe was sweeping some things into the bag, she left a flick-knife out in the table along with a black box, as I watched she opened the box and drew out a bracelet, it was a silver snake studded with black diamonds with rubies for eyes. Xanthe put the bracelet on and picked up the knife, she flicked it out, as the blade opened out it grew into a long sword blade and the handle broadened into a sword hilt that had a silver skull etched into it.

“Nice” I said

“Yeah” said Xanthe and pushed on the sword’s blade, immediately it transformed back into a flick-knife.

Two hours later we were ready to leave the underworld after getting supplies, fresh clothes and other necessities, Hades led us to a stairway off the main corridor on the top floor, this corridor would take us to the living world, in a small Italian village with some old Greek ruins, once we got there we would have to go underwater to the coast of Greece, cross the country in three days, find Zeus’s son and return to fight Kronos.

********

Chapter 9.

As we began to climb the stair I realised it would take several days, it did…

On the first day we climbed non-stop until we were too tired to continue, when we were we located a small hut on a rocky outcrop close to the stair. Wearily we all trouped inside and began to unroll sleeping bags and pump up air beds while Kat cooked sausages on a small gas hob, also out of the magic bag.

We ate our sausages gratefully and began to tidy up; as soon as we were finished I fed Pegasus and went to sleep.

The following morning we ate bacon and eggs for breakfast and began to climb the stair once more. Again we climbed for hours and stopped in another hut and repeated the procedure of the previous day, but as I was feeding Pegasus he spoke to me;

~Uh, lady someone or something is following us. I thanked Pegasus and went back inside to tell the others. Xanthe at least was calm but Kat was almost blue in the face by the time she’d finished yelling at Xanthe for telling her to calm down.

For five more days we climbed the stair, only ever stopping to eat and sleep, but on the sixth day we heard the heavy breathing of- something but what? What was this thing that panted like a dog? Soon, very soon we would find out, but now we had to climb and get to the world of life as fast as possible.

That evening Pegasus came indoors with us and we locked and bolted the doors and windows, then decided on a watch rota, Xanthe would halve the first watch, I the second and Kat the last.

I woke up to see Xanthe peering around the door whispering to something, or herself. I hoped it was herself or we were in big trouble.

“Xanthe?” I murmured Xanthe whipped around, long dark hair swirling around her face “yes” she whispered back

“Whom are you talking to?”

“Oh I was just thinking aloud”

“Good, I thought you were talking to someone else”

“Flipping hell I already told you I wasn’t talking to no-one” Xanthe’s grammar was slipping again as often happened when she was angry or stressed.

Then Kat opened her eyes, “she was talking to someone, or rather something, and she’s got a hellhound out there Rox” she cried.

********

Epilogue.

This is the end of my part of the story.

I will now let Xanthe carry on where I have left off, I will have to trust her to report events accurately as I have but she has promised she will try.

You will see how the story continues because it has only just begun but rest assured that after the interim you will not be bored as there is much, much more to come.

I hope you will continue to read once Xanthe has done her part of the tale and passed it on to the next person who is justified to write it.

The end

From me.

Ocean’s Child

]]> http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=18 2 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=16 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=16#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:14:34 +0000 Ross http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=16 Prologue.

Hello everybody! I’m Xanthe daughter of Hades etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I am going to continue where Roxy left off. Just in case you’ve forgotten Roxy is the daughter of Poseidon, she is travelling with Pegasus (the magic flying horse of Greek mythology) and her friend Katriona daughter of Athena, however if you call Katriona by her full name she will rip your head off, literally so it’s best to call her Kat

When you left us I had just been caught doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing…

********

Chapter 1.

“Stop, it’s Woofie!” I cried

“Who is Woofie?” asked Roxy, puzzled now.

“Err,” I mumbled “he is my pet hellhound, I found him in the fields of punishment when he was a puppy”

“Oh” said Kat hysterically “I suppose that’s alright then!”

“Calm down Kat” barked Roxy. Kat calmed down

“Did you know he was following us?” asked Rox

“Nah, I guess he just missed me and followed my scent,” I said

“Okay Xanthe, are you sure he isn’t dangerous?”

“Yes, of course I’m sure, I’ve grown up with him ain’t I?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“S’ okay, Woofie ain’t offended are you Woofie?”

Woofie barked and licked Roxy’s nose. “Bleergh” she spluttered, “what was that for?”

“He likes you stupid,” I laughed

“What else did your dad give you?” she asked

“Well, I got a magic ring what turns into a shield, this flick knife with a black stygian iron blade and this Alice-band.” I took the black silk Alice-band with a silver skull on it and showed it to her.

“What does it do?” asked Rox

“Well, it’s basically the helmet of darkness except it’s an Alice-band”

“Cool…”

“Well, sorry to break up the party but I for one still don’t trust her,” said Kat throwing me a dark look.

“Well I’m sorry miss prissy perfect but I don’t give a damn whether or not you trust me.”

“Shut your face corpse breath”

“Oh yeah,” I sneered, “That’s the typical demigod response! You being the daughter of Athena and all I thought you might be able to thing of something original!”

“Huh! You stupid cow”

“You sure you ain’t daughter of the god of stupidity?”

“Shut your face!”

“STOP IT AND SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU” yelled Rox from where she was tidying up the beds and sleeping bags.

We shut up, fast; the ground was starting to shake.

“Roxy calm down” I shouted, “You’re going to get us all killed!”

“I’m not doing anything,” Roxy yelled back

“Yes you are, trust me! Just calm down!”

“Why would she trust you?” asked Kat

“Look, this ain’t the time, alright? Just get Roxy to calm down!”

“Why?”

“Because you idiot she’s making an earthquake and the hut will fall in on us!”

“Why would she do that?”

“She ain’t doing it on purpose! She can’t help it! Poseidon is god of earthquakes”

“Oh, right.” Se turned towards Roxy “Roxy calm down! Think of something relaxing, any thing!” shouted Kat, trying to keep the panic from her voice.

Then the roof began to collapse; great chunks of plaster fell down and rained down upon our heads, I grabbed my bag, caught hold of Kat and Roxy and, together we stumbled out of the hut. Pegasus snorted, reared up on his hind legs and stretched out his wings, then he galloped out of the hut, skidding to a halt in font of the edge of the ledge on the edge of the stair.

Shaking Kat turned to me “well done, I guess you saved our lives”

“Yeah, I guess I did” I said, since I figured that was as close as I would get to an apology “thank the gods Rox tidied up while we were arguing, or we’d be without sleeping bags” I said.

“Nah” said Rox “thank me”

“Yeah” I said, “that works”

********

Chapter 2.

Three days, three whole days it took for us to climb the rest of the stair, we progressed somewhat faster than before due to the fact that Roxy had the bright idea of us riding. In short this meant I rode on Woofie, Rox and Kat rode, or flew on Pegasus.

We reached the top in half the time in this fashion and so presently I emerged into the (living) world for the first time.

What took me by surprise was the light, the heat and the sound, the sound of human hearts beating, counting down to the owner’s death and the new arrival in the underworld. I was used to the cold grey world of death, which was my home, and was destined to be the only place I could stay without knowing how and when everyone was going to die.

For instance, in the crowd on the beach there where ten stabbings, fifty cases of cancer, twenty lots of other diseases, around seventy heart-attacks two hundred and fifty people that would die in a car crash plus one hundred and sixty two that would die of old age. That’s five hundred and sixty two people I can list quickly but there were thousands more that I could say but you’d be here forever if I did.

“Is it always so bright and colourful here?” I asked Rox

“I don’t know, I’ve never been to Italy before” she replied

“No you fool, the life world”

“What? Oh, yes it is”

“It’s just I’ve never left home before” I said

“What? You’ve never left the…”

“Yes” I snapped interrupting her “my dad said I couldn’t cope with knowing how everyone was going to die”

“You know how I’m going to die then?”

“Yes”

“Tell me.”

“No, if I tell you you’ll try to change it and it’s fate how you die”

‘Fate,” she snapped “can be avoided, destiny cannot”

“I can’t tell you, I would if I thought you wouldn’t try to change it,” I said “and the only way I can know that is if you swear an oath on the river Styx”

“Very well then” said Rox “I swear on the river Styx that I will not try to change how I die”

“ You…” I began, but suddenly I began to choke “I… I… I can’t tell you, my father won’t allow it.”

“Oh, okay”

“What about me?” asked Kat?

“Um… I can’t tell you, I’ll start choking again”

“Oh, yeah, sorry” she mumbled

I carefully steered the conversation away from the subject of death.

********

Chapter 3.

We’d found a campsite the previous night and done everything we needed to set up a camp, in the morning I went to pay the bill while the others packed up our camp.

When the others joined me we found the way out blocked by a pink stretch limo, the door opened and an impossibly pretty woman told us to get in. we did and the limo sped off. About ten minutes later we stopped in a deserted field and the woman (who I guessed was Aphrodite) told Roxy and Kat to wait outside, as she wanted to talk to me alone.

“Well dear, I am as you’ve probably guessed Aphrodite. I have come to ask you if there is anything I can do for you”

“Like what?” I asked, I was as you can imagine pretty perplexed.

“Like if you want to meet the love of your life straight away or something like that.”

“Um no” a thought occurred to me “can you stop me having like, romantic love for two years though?”

“I was afraid you’d say that” she sighed, her face fell

“Why?”

“Because then you must pay a price, a price dictated in the first age, an age long before the gods, and so it is beyond my power to prevent it”

“What is the price?”

“You truly wish to know?”

“I do”

“Very well, I shall tell you. You will wish that you love a man who you never shall love except as a wish, I caution you against this path Xanthe daughter of Hades for it will bring you naught but pain. If you choose not to heed my warning I ask you to remember it isn’t my fault”

“I still wish to take that path” I said “but I will remember that you cautioned me against this”

“Thank you, now call the others in.”

I did as I was bidden, when the others entered a man did also, he wore black clothes and was cloaked in a stinking attitude.

“Lord Ares,” said Kat, her voice was frosty.

“So you made it this far, well done” his voice was frostier than Kat’s.

“Yeah, it is us again,” said Roxy, her voice was cold and devoid of emotion.

“Now calm down darling,” said Aphrodite, her voice laced with charm she went to sit on Ares’ lap and kissed him.

“Ew, gross” I muttered

“Uh, baby,” said Ares “not in front of the kids”

“Oh sorry, darlings” said Aphrodite to me, Kat and Roxy. “Now I have something for you,” she clicked her fingers and three parcels each labelled with one of our names, Aphrodite handed us a package each, we took them with muttered thanks and opened them.

In my package was a beautiful black knee-length dress spangled with silver stars, a pair of black leggings, a pair of black socks and some smart black high-heeled boots.

In Roxy’s was a long sea-green dress, a pair of gloss tights and some dainty green high-heels, they were beautiful and I knew they would suit Rox’s taste in clothes.

Kat had a white floor-length dress spangled with gold stars white leggings, a lovely pair of white dolly shoes and a gold bracelet with an owl on it. The image of the owl was set with diamonds and had a gleaming emerald eye.

“Do you like them?” asked Aphrodite

“Yes” we answered, “they’re beautiful”

“Good, now I have something else for you too” she said, handing us another package each.

Our second packages contained a handbag each. Mine was a beautiful black silk purse spangled with silver stars on a silver chain; I also got a rhinestone-studded collar with a matching lead. Roxy had a sea-green silk purse also on a silver chain and Kat had a white silk purse spangled with gold stars on a gold chain.

We thanked Aphrodite and Ares for their gifts and took our leave.

********

Chapter 4.

We’d gone about three and a half miles riding on our various animals when we found ourselves somewhere we did not want to be, in the middle of a graveyard to be precise.

For the others this was a bit creepy but it made me feel more at home, the fact that we were now alone in this place and there was no-one there to intrude upon my death-sense. Except of course Roxy and Kat, but I was used to them and I could block them from my mind now so they were no longer a problem.

A crash came from the trees around us and a great gold sphinx burst from the trees and straight at Kat’s throat. Now since I don’t like Kat I would’ve let her fight it if it’d been any other monster. Except it was a sphinx and sphinx are hard to kill, in fact the only way to kill one as far a I know is to stab it through the heart, I had to get it off Kat to do that though.

I knelt on the wet grass and spread my hands out wide.

Spirits of the dead I thought come to me, serve me the daughter of death, I am the child of Hades. Hear me and obey.

While I waited for the newly inhabited skeletons to dig themselves out of their graves I reached into my pocket and drew out my flick-knife.

I flicked it out and watched as it turned itself into a two handed sword like the one my ghostly fighting tutor had taught me to use since I was five years old.

I ran up behind Rox “get your weapon,” I whispered in her ear.

Rox reached into her pocket and drew out a gold eyeliner

“This is no time for putting on make-up,” I yelled at her. Rox ignored me, took the lid off and put it in her pocket. Immediately the eyeliner transformed into a gold trident, she pushed a gem on her ring and it turned into a gold shield with a trident on.

I was good thinking, I did the same, the ring on my finger turned into a silver shield emblazoned with a skull and some writing I never got around to reading.

I ran up to the sphinx and whacked it with the flat of my blade, then I span around, my long black hair whipped the sphinx in the eyes as I ran away from it. I reached for the silver skull on my Alice-band and pressed it. I heard Kat gasp as my form flickered, once, twice, three times and then I was gone.

Confused the sphinx looked about it, but I was long gone, I crept up behind the sphinx and cut it’s tail off, the sphinx’s head was that of a woman and in accordance with this it let out a very high-pitched and girly scream.

********

Chapter 5.

An explosion of earth, skeletons scrambling out of graves, rushing at the sphinx, attacking it, fighting, and absolute pandemonium followed the sphinx’s scream. I joined in, becoming visible again and stabbing at the sphinx but always just missing it’s heart.

I was running out of energy, I made a snap decision; I would make one last attempt to kill the sphinx. I summoned up all my remaining energy and plunged my arms forward, burying my sword up to the hilt in the sphinx’s heart.

You are dismissed I thought at the spirits return your borrowed forms to where they came from then return to my father’s halls. I am the daughter of death, the child of Hades. Hear me and obey.

Forcing the spirits I had summoned from death back into death nearly surpassed my remaining strength and only the ritual words saved me from exhausting my remaining power.

“Thank-you” said Kat “you saved my life”

“Yes” I said “I suppose I did and…”

“Thanks I’m…”

“Grateful?”

“Well, yes and I, I’m sorry I didn’t trust you”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it”

“But I was a complete…”

“What’s done is done an cannot be undone, or unsaid” I stated

“What?”

“I don’t know either,” I laughed and smiled, I wondered if she noticed that it didn’t reach my eyes.

“Don’t worry then”

“Yeah” I said keeping the scepticism from my voice, “sounds like a good plan”

We busied ourselves with clearing up the mess from the fight and preparing to move on, we had a good five hours until sundown so we had time to carry on and find a better place to stay for the night.

Around half an hour later we were ready to continue on our way and shortly we were doing so, about a half-mile further down the road I spotted a smaller road, we went down it and found ourselves in a field by a wood, we climbed into the wood and found a clearing. We pitched our tent and settled down to eat.

********

Chapter 6.

That night I had a nightmare, hundreds of thousands of monsters were joining together, forming an army, an army the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Zeus and the Olympians had battled Kronos at the beginning of time.

But now, I realised the son of Zeus and the children of the Olympians would battle Kronos again, and I would be one of them, many would die but millions more might be saved,

Come to me my army, you must dig, dig to the centre of the earth and free me from Tartarus came a voice, a voice I knew only too well, it was the voice of Kronos the titan lord.

Now I think I owe you an explanation, according to science the centre of the earth is molten rock, but really the centre of the earth is Tartarus, and what gives the earth gravity is actually Kronos and some other titans that live there. Without Kronos the earth would be pretty much normal but all the things you mortals call global warming will be even more frequent since they are actually caused by Kronos’ growing strength.

My sleeping mind reverted to the dream; monsters loomed out of the dark, things rumbled and growled, I realised that the monsters were actually in a circle surrounding me; they were closing in on me.

I woke up drenched in a cold sweat; I closed my eyes, collapsed back on my pillows and went back to sleep. I almost forgot the dream, almost but not quite.

In the morning I got up and found Rox and Kat beginning to cook breakfast, they were talking about a dream they’d both had last night, it was the same as mine although they didn’t know about the true structure of the earth as only Hades and his children knew about that. Except Kronos knew so someone must’ve told him. Of course, Zachariah (Zach for short) must’ve done that.

Now Zach was my twin brother, he got fed up of everyone fussing over me and decided to turn into an evil twit along with his girlfriend Sophia. He went to Kronos and told him about the earth’s structure. Except dad found out, he got stressed and sort of blasted Zach to bits then sentenced his soul to eternal damnation in the fields of punishment, it was on a visit to Zach I found Woofie, so some good did come of it after all. I did try to kill the person who ratted him out so at least I tried.

********

Chapter 7.

I went over to the others, and they told me about the dreams that they’d had and questioned me on the stuff Kronos had said about how to find him, I guess I should’ve told them but I didn’t think I should then so they remained blissfully ignorant of the forces that created the world.

It was at that time that I realised that one of us must die in this venture, I was determined to make this my death, I would not let anyone else die, besides I wasn’t sure I could die.

I sat moodily by the fire poking at the flames with a branch, bored I got up and began to practise my sword skills, and Kat got her bow and arrows out and began to practice her archery.

“Xanthe where do we go now?” asked Rox

“Somewhere else?” I suggested

“Ha ha” she said sarcastically “what ‘bout you Kat?”

“I think I should ask my mother”

“Ooh” I said nastily “mother is she, I really had no idea you were so sophisticated”

“SHUT UP!” bellowed Kat, then came the inevitable words “sorry Rox”

“Please stop arguing,” said Rox

“STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!” I shouted then I stormed off into the trees.

I sat alone by the creek and began to get my flute out of my bag; I put it together and began to play it. I wove a tune only the dead could hear; I played a song specifically for one spirit, the spirit of my mother.

My mother’s spirit was so old it must be called by my flute’s magic.

“Xanthe” came a voice. But it was not my mother’s voice; it was Roxy’s.

“What?”

“Look I know you don’t like Kat but please try to get on”

“I’ll try but I just can’t stand her”

“I know, I know”

We made our way back to camp and sat back down, Kat was nowhere to be seen.

“Tut, tut Xanthe, you don’t even care where Kat is” chided Rox

“I said I would be nice not that I would care about her.” I said. Now I have to be honest, Kat was a big problem for me; her heart was tick, tick ticking away, practically yelling how and when it was going to die.

********

Chapter 8.

Kat returned sporting a tawny owl and a grin as wide as the base of Mount Etna (which, incidentally is not all it’s cracked up to be) looking very self-satisfied and sat down on the far side of the fire (basically as far away from me as she could get) and threw me a cold look.

“I found one,” she said, indicating the owl

“Good, you best get on with it then” replied Rox

“Um, sorry for existing but is any one going to tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” I said. Kat ignored me and stifled a smirk

“Xanthe, calm down. Okay, Kat is going to use the owl to send a message to her mother for help”

“We don’t need any help”

“Yes we do Xanthe, we’re stuck travelling to only the gods know where to find only the gods know who” Rox stated

“Rubbish” I snorted

“No it isn’t”

“Yes it…”

“STOP! Don’t let a petty argument get in the way of doing what is right” shouted Rox

During our ‘heated discussion’ Kat had gotten up and knelt down in the trees and began chanting words in an undertone, speaking to the owl.

“What is she doing?” I asked

“Getting on with it”

“With what?”

“With messaging her mum. Duh.”

“Okay, okay keep your hair on”

As we finished speaking Kat released the owl and watched it fly off into the remnants of the dawn. Returning to the fireside Kat sat down and began to stir the fire with a stick.

“Come on” said Rox and she led me over to the fire and sat down. I sat down and began to stir the fire with a stick of my own.

Five hours we waited until a flash of light behind us alerted us to the presence of The Mighty Athena Goddess Of Wisdom, we all turned to see a tall and forbidding woman in smart black jeans and a dark purple shirt with long curly blonde hair the same as Kat’s.

“Well children, how may I help?” asked Athena

“We need to find the son of Zeus mother,” replied Kat

“Very well. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes ma’am” I said, knowing how touchy Athena was.

“Then follow me”

“Yes ma’am” I said, Rox repeated my acquiescence but Kat replied with a ‘yes mother’ or something.

********

Chapter 9.

Athena led us to a glamorous black and silver limousine and told us to sit down and fasten our seatbelts.

“Do you have appropriate clothing for a party?” asked Athena

“Yes ma’am” I replied, “Aphrodite gave us some things”

“Good, go and get changed then I will tell you more.”

I reached into the bag and drew out what Aphrodite had given us, my black package I kept on my lap but I handed Rox hers and practically threw Kat her clothes.

I went behind one of the screens that surrounded groups of seats and changed putting a few essential items into my black purse including, my flick-knife sword some make-up and a hairbrush. I was pleased to find that the bag had the same god power on it as was on my rucksack granting the interior of the bag infinite space.

Woofie shrunk to handbag size and I pulled his rhinestone-studded lead and collar from Aphrodite out of the bag, as I put the hellhound-sized collar around his neck it shrunk to fit a handbag-sized Woofie instead.

As I returned to Athena I herd Rox creeping up behind me, I whirled around and found myself staring straight into Rox’s sea-green eyes.

“Not going to get me that easily Rox”

“Oh okay, but it was worth a try”

We turned to face Kat and her mother who now sat side by side on the bench seat and looking scarily similar.

I seated myself opposite Kat and looked at Athena “well children as you may have deduced we are going to a party, the son of Zeus will be there. It is his seventeenth birthday so carrying gifts for the ‘birthday boy’ as you mortals say it would be most appropriate henceforth.”

And never use a big word where a diminutive alternative would suffice. I thought, stifling a smile I returned my focus to Athena’s complex prose. And promptly wished I hadn’t.

“… And here is one for you to give him Xanthe when you see him.”

“Excuse me ma’am but what is his name?”

“The son of Zeus? Oh I think its Luke”

Uh-oh. I thought. I’d had a slight issue with him when I was… younger.

Taking the package Athena handed me I stowed in my bag

“What is it?” I asked

“A leather cord with a gold lightning bolt pendant on”

“What is this one mother?” asked Kat

“A gold hip flask”

“And this one?” Roxy asked

“I believe that’s a gold Rolex watch.” Turing to look at the driver she shouted “Aaron, get going or we’ll be late”

“Yes mother” Aaron replied.

********

Chapter 10.

As we pulled up outside a mansion around an hour later we found that several other limousines like ours were there and many other glamorously dressed people were climbing out of them and entering the house.

Aaron came over and opened our door with a flourish, out we got and we got out of the car and walked over to the house.

Before I got out I studied him, he had blue eyes the colour of the sea on a stormy day, thick brown hair of a shade I’d never seen anywhere else and skin almost as pale as mine. I had to admit he was gorgeous, and I was able to admire him in a detached manner. Phwoar, he was gorgeous though.

As soon as we got inside a pounding noise of human heartbeats overwhelmed me.

“Erm, guys can we go outside a minute?”

“Sure” we ducked back out the way we’d come.

“Okay, crazy idea time. I think I can sense Luke’s heartbeat I know what it sounds like so it might not be too difficult.”

Kat mumbled something that sounded remarkably like the f-word, then ‘corpse breath’ and several other obscenities.

Walking back into the house I proceeded to draw upon my senses, giving up control of my mind and withdrawing into myself. I concentrated on the remembered sound an the one that I knew it would have become… yes that silent countdown, heard only by me thud, thud, thud Luke’s beating heart was growing louder until it was almost deafening.

I opened my eyes and met Luke’s electric blue ones.

“Hello Xanthe” he said.

With that simple greeting the memory came Aphrodite’s face swimming into my mind ‘You will wish that you love a man who you never shall love except as a wish, I caution you against this path Xanthe daughter of Hades for it will bring you naught but pain’ the curse of the first age had found it’s way into my heart.

“Can we have a word?” I asked

“Sure” replied Luke

“In private”

“Oh okay, not going to try to kill me again then are you?”

“No, why do you always have to bring that up? Besides, you ratted my brother out.”

“Hey! I’m just your annoying cousin” he smirked “besides it was you who told me about that in the first place”

I wanted to say a lot of things to Luke right then, all of them obscene so I decided not to bother. I raised one eyebrow instead.

Luke winced “why do you always do that? I creeps me out.”

Which, dummy is why I always do it I thought, instead I said “Hey! I’m just your annoying cousin”

“Very mature Xan” scowled Luke

“Do. Not. Call. Me. Xan. Ever. Is. That. Understood.” I growled putting a venomous edge on each word.

“Okay! Okay! Keep your hair on!” he said putting his hands up in surrender “OUCH” he shouted. Woofie had just bitten his ankles.

“Well done Woofie, good dog”

“That’s Woofie? I thought he was a full-grown hellhound.”

“He is” I smiled smugly “he can shrink ‘n everythin’.”

“Grammar as bad as always? Your mum would be disappointed” he remarked snidely.

“You know nothing about my mum, or what she would want so shut up” I hissed

“Okay,” said Rox “time to go outside.” Then she muttered to me “what’s that about trying to kill him?”

“Oh, I really, really hated him when I was younger, he got my brother killed.”

“Oh”

“Yep, oh indeed”

We followed Luke outside to a small bandstand on the lawn, we took seats on the bench and Rox explained our situation.

“so” she summarised “we need your help to defeat Kronos” she gazed at him with such silly adoration I wanted to slap her. But I stayed my hand; it would not do to lose my temper now. Besides, if I got up, Woofie would fall on the floor and I might hurt him.

********

Epilogue.

Xanthe:

Well to my annoyance I must now hand this story over to

Luke oh joy (not) and I hope he can tell it truthfully (but I doubt it) so with regret I must say goodbye and hope he doesn’t exaggerate too much (if he does I will give him a nice unfriendly slap in the face).

Thank you

Xanthe

Roxy:

From the moment I saw Luke I knew I was in love. I know how cheesy that sounds but right now I don’t care. I love him and I will always love him.

That’s all

Roxy

The End

Almost.

Death’s Daughter

]]> http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=16 2 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=13 http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=13#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:12:36 +0000 Ross http://rebecca-miller.co.uk/?p=13 Prologue

My Story.

My name is Rosanna de Vare; I was born on Friday the thirteenth of April in Bristol 1759, I was orphaned at the age of 14, my parents were rich, I’d always had whatever I’d wanted but I’d never taken any pleasure in that, I’d dreamed of a life of adventure on the seas, I wanted to be the most feared pirate in the Atlantic ocean. Like that was going to happen.

My chance came when my house was burned to the ground on Saturday the second of May 1773, I barely escaped with my life and fled to the docks, there I found a group of about thirty-five girls with the same idea as me, eventually we came up with a plan, three of us would distract the guards of the navy ship Elizabeth while the others would sneak on board, we would incapacitate the guards then join them.

Once out at sea we would consult the charts to find a small island where we could change the name of the ship to something else that was less recognisable.

When we did get the ship out to sea we each made a vow on the goddess Artemis, a vow to never love a man (or woman), to stay maidens for the rest of our lives and to help one another in what was best for the ship.

I was the last to make my vow and, as the last word left my lips a woman’s voice, Artemis’ voice echoed around the ship

“One of you has made a vow that you can never keep, so as a punishment you will be doomed to sail the seas for ten years, forever seeking safe harbour and only finding it once a year until the vow is broken, name this ship after me, and it will always be fast and have the winds in it’s favour, only one girl among you may be captain, I name that to be Rosanna de Vare, however the one at the right hand side must choose what is right not what is easy when the impossible happens; heed my word or you shall never be free of your curse.”

“Come on then girls, hoist the sails and all that, we need to change the name of this ship,” I cried

“Aye captain!” they replied, broad grins on all their faces

********

Chapter 1.

Ten Years Later.

T

en years later in 1783 the Artemis, me and her crew were the terror of the seas, the bane of the British navy and the most wanted pirates in the world, we’d terrorised the seas for years, robbed every ship we met and hidden the loot on a small-ish island off the east coast of Africa, we only docked every year to drop off supplies we didn’t need and picking up a few things we could sell, we had increasing variety in the goods we could sell as new lands were being discovered all the time.

It was on the way to our one safe harbour we saw a small merchant ship on the horizon, probably with a crew of seven or eight.

“Assume your positions girls. Aye!” I shouted

“Aye!” came the reply

We then spent ten minutes dashing frantically around messing up the ship and changing into ripped and tattered dresses (with our trousers underneath of course).

As the ship came closer we all lay about on deck and tried to look like weak females, it worked as it always did, the captain of the other ship came nearer and nearer until his ship stopped alongside the Artemis he opened his mouth and shouted in a broad Scottish accent:

“Well young lassies, what be you doing out at sea on your lonesome?”

“Please good sir,” I shouted in the most girlish voice I could manage “we were attacked by the Artemis, her crew killed all the men on board and tossed their bodies overboard, they left us for dead”

“Well lass, you and your friends are lucky to be alive, the crew of the Artemis rarely leaves survivors and even then they’re half dead and barely ever make it past a few days”

“Please sir, where are you bound? We are sailing to Bristol sir, could you take us there?”

“Indeed I can lass, now you can all come aboard, we’re bound for Bristol too”

“Thank you sir, do you perhaps have something that could be used as a bridge, so we can come aboard?”

“Aye! Indeed we do lass,” he turned to his crew “men, push a plank over to yonder ladies aye!”

The men pushed the plank over a one by one we crawled across it, as the last one of us landed on the deck we exchanged looks

“Thank you greatly sir,” I mocked, “you’ve really been a great help”

As one we ripped the skirts off our dresses a tossed them aside, we then fluidly drew our swords and levelled them at the men’s throats; we forced them back to find a ring around the mast.

“Mary, tie ‘em up” I said, Mary took a rope from around her waist and tied the seven men to the main mast while the others swarmed below to take anything of value and put it in the sacks attached to our belts.

Ten minutes later we were done, the men remained tied up to the mast while we pushed the joining plank overboard and swung back to our own ship on the ropes cut loose from their rigging.

“Who be you then lass?” the captain asked

“I am Rosanna de Vare, captain of the pirate ship Artemis, and you’ll be lucky to escape with your life”

“No lass, you cannot be the captain of the Artemis, for the real Rosanna de Vare leaves no survivors, that’s what the stories say anyhow”

“Ah, but if I leave no survivors, where do the stories come from? Besides, who says you’re a survivor?”

“But you’ve not killed us lass”

“Correction, I’ve not killed you yet.”

“But…but” the captain then proceeded to do a wonderful impression of a stranded fish.

I took the bomb from Susanne, lit it then tossed it onto the ship, I smiled to myself, the men would survive, the rope tying the men would snap as soon as they began to struggle, then if the wanted to the could run to the dingy and escape

“C’mon girls, lets go” I grinned, I didn’t care if the men died, if they had the wits to struggle then they’d live, if they didn’t, well I wouldn’t like to be them lets put it that way. Susanne laughed too, many of the other girls did as well (Susanne is our ‘cabin girl’, she does what she’s told and actually likes it, I’d never be able to stand it)

********

Chapter 2.

Competition.

W

e carried on sailing until we reached Bristol, there we disembarked and proceeded to the merchant’s area, we heaved our heavy crates over to Nathaniel, a merchant who was somewhat unreliable in the manner he procured goods, this among other reasons is why may people avoided him, he didn’t look very trustworthy, in fact he had more than a passing similarity to a scrawny rat, which in all but the obvious way he was.

“Hello Rosie, how can I help?”

“First, don’t call me Rosie and second isn’t it obvious?” I glared at him

“Yes, yes I’m very sorry, but you see you’re not the scariest thing out there any more”

“What did you say?” I hissed

“You heard the Artemis isn’t the worst thing out there any more, haven’t you heard of captain Jack?”

“Who?”

“Captain Jack Demon, the new terror of the seas”

I could see from his face he liked being the bearer of bad news

“Well listen, I’m still the second worse thing out there so you better be afraid because you’re gonna pay the price for that remark if you don’t keep your mouth shut” I was rattled but I talked big to cover it “so” I continued “how much you gonna pay for all this stuff?” I gestured at the crates behind me

“Hmm” he said, “I’ll give you a hundred crowns”

“Two hundred” I grinned lazily

“One-twenty-five”

“One-seventy-five” I countered

“One-fifty”

“Done” I knew I wouldn’t get any more out of him than that

“Y’know, you drive a hard bargain Rosie”

“Don’t call me Rosie, if you value your life”

“Alright, alright, here’s your money” he handed me a pouch full of coins, I counted them out carefully

“You’ve only given me one hundred, you still owe me fifty” I was in fact lying, the pouch contained one hundred and fifty coins, but the bastard owed me money anyway

“Fine, fine” he handed me another pouch of coins

“Thank you, at least you know what’s good for you” I laughed then punched him in the jaw, knocking him out.

“Sophia, do the honours” Sophia is my ‘first mate’ a sort of second-in-command in the ship.

Sophia bent over his body and took his purse, she handed it to me, and I took it and tucked it inside my cloak.

I smiled with satisfaction that would teach old Nathaniel to mess with the crew of the Artemis.

I walked away from the merchants towards the dockside hall as we called it. It was basically a large hall-type-thingy with lots of information poster on, for the benefit of those who’d returned from sea and needed to catch up on the news, on one wall was a collection of wanted posters.

There was one for the Artemis, but for a change it wasn’t the first in line, it was the second, in front of it was a picture showing a ship, I could just make out the name on the side, it read: Vengeance I grimaced

“Girls, we have a problem”

********

Chapter 3.

A Small Dose Of Piracy

I

Was pretty astonished that Nathaniel’d been telling the truth, I mean it wasn’t a habit of his, unless it seemed it was something nobody wanted to hear. I really hated him, he delighted in other’s pain and suffering, he cared for nobody but himself. One day it would be his death, I was pretty damn sure of that much.

That was my first reaction; my second was anger. How dare some upstart boy take my title? How dare he usurp the girls and me? And how dare he think for a moment he could do those things and still escape the wrath of the Artemis and her crew?

“Okay girls,” I said “anybody got any ideas? ‘Cause I sure as hell haven’t”

“Yeah, I got one” Sophia said

“Yeah? I’m all ears”

“How ‘bout we go show them who they’re messing with?” Sophia grinned evilly

“Excellent plan” I grinned evilly too, before long we were all grinning evilly, we looked like a bunch of evil grinning things grinning evilly.

We walked back to the Artemis as fast as we could without running, within minutes we were off into the open seas, we reached the end of the channel in a matter of hours, the old Artemis was fast, built for speed and agility.

As we left the channel I saw two ships, one on the horizon, the other considerably closer.

“Target at twelve o’clock, approach from the starboard!” I shouted

“Aye!” the girls yelled back

“Prepare the disguises, the crew of the Artemis are going to prove themselves!” I cried

“Aye!” they yelled back

“And stop yelling aye! It’s getting on my nerves!”

“Aye!” Susanne yelled

We all collapsed in hysterical laughter but returned to seriousness a minute later, we knew when to stop joking around, in our…profession we kinda had to.

We reached the ship as it reached us, as per my orders we approached from the starboard, the Artemis and its crew were once again dressed in old dirty dresses, all ripped and tattered.

The men on the ship fell for it, the whole ‘helpless female’ thing is so dull but a pirate’s gotta do what a pirate’s gotta do. We boarded the ship just as the one we’d seen earlier approached behind the one we’d temporarily taken captive. Before the prow of the ship passed out of sight I saw the embellished gold writing that adorned it, it was the Vengeance, I cursed under my breath, Demon had had the guts to show up here! This was my territory dammit! If I got my hands on him I’d wring his scrawny little neck, that’d teach him to cross me, Rosanna de Vare, captain of the Artemis!

Then to cap it all the Vengeance stopped in it’s tracks, it just sat in the water, as I watched its crew swarm up from below decks and swing on ropes onto the deck of the ship I was on now, I delayed for as long as I could before I gave the order.

“Girls, take the loot and get back to the Artemis I’ll join you when I’ve settled my argument with Demon.” I shouted

The girls returned to the Artemis without so much as an ‘aye’ between them, later Susanne told me that something in my voice had forbidden questioning of my orders.

“Well, well, well” came a drawling voice, “it seems I have some business to resolve with miss…?” he looked at me quizzically

“Rosanna de Vare” I supplied

“Ah, miss de Vare, so back to the ship boys, I’ll bee there in a minute” he continued smoothly.

********

Chapter 4.

Jack Demon

T

he crowd of boys cleared, leaving one stood on his own in the middle of the deck, I examined him warily, his hair was a light brown but dirty and matted, his face was quite thin but handsome none the less, his mouth in a curious half-smile, his eyes; sea-green with streaks of stormy grey were highlighted by the dark rings etched almost as though they were permanent, the mark of many sleepless nights. I turned my eyes to the rest of him, he was tall and muscular, about six feet and seven inches, that made him about one foot and five inches taller than me.

“Are you done examining me yet?” he spoke with a slight Scottish accent

“I wasn’t examining you Demon, I was analysing the best way to kill you” I glared

“Big talk for a girl” he smiled crookedly in a way that made my heart race

“I’m not just any girl Demon, I’m the captain of the Artemis,”

“And I’m supposed to be impressed by that because…”

“You’re a dead man walking Demon,” I snarled, to my delight he stiffened at my words, I didn’t like the way he made me feel, it wasn’t right.

“You have no idea,” he muttered

“Listen, I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m the most feared pirate in the world, you’re just some upstart boy who thinks he can outwit me”

“Well I’m very sorry about that” he replied icily

“Yeah, well sorry isn’t good enough, you gotta die”

“Oh yeah?”

“Oh yeah” and with that I drew my sword, kicked him in the chest and knocked him to the ground. I placed my sword at his throat

“Go on,” he croaked, his voice suddenly hoarse and ragged “kill me, I would welcome a quick death, it’s better than what is in store for me anyhow”

“No, if you want to die then I shan’t kill you, I’ll let you suffer” I said, the truth was I couldn’t bring myself to do it,

“Ah, an unmerciful woman are you? A shame for one so beautiful to be so evil”

I think I blushed I’m not sure, I mean there’s nothing special about me, I’m too thin, my curly blonde hair looks ridiculous, with my Mediterranean blue eyes I look more like a china doll than a real person, my pale skin emphasises this effect, its quite annoying sometimes as it can occasionally undermine my authority with captured ships.

“Shut up,” I said, quickly backing away towards the starboard side of the ship, as I reached the edge I turned, grabbed a rope, sheathed my sword and swung over to the Artemis.

“So, Jack Demon remember this as the day you were almost killed by Rosanna de Vare, and be thankful you survived to fight again”

********

Chapter 5.

Remembering

A

s I returned to the ship I found Sophia waiting in my cabin, leaning on the hammock I smiled wearily at her and raised an eyebrow in a quizzical expression, Sophia barely ever came in here as she felt that it was an intrusion on my privacy (my words not hers) and felt uncomfortable in other people’s rooms.

“Well, are you going to tell me why you’re here or not?” I asked

“Sorry captain, I just wanted to ask how the confrontation went”

“Well, I gave him the customary warning, if he comes back then I’ll kill him but he could be a potential ally, the Artemis could have a sister ship, then we could be in two places at once savvy?”

“Hmm, maybe but the men may not be trustworthy”

“I wouldn’t leave Demon in charge Sophia, I’d send you to be captain of the Vengeance, which I’d rename Calypso after the sea goddess, Susanna could be my first mate and you could choose any of the crew on your ship to be your first mate.”

“Oh… that clears that up”

“Yes it does, now go and get some food,” I ordered

“Are you coming?”

“No, tell Susanna to bring me down a little food,” I tried to look stern “I’ve had the day from hell today but I’m not going to change my eating habits regardless” she laughed and said she’d pass on my orders.

I lay on my hammock staring at the wood panelled ceiling and thought about the choice I’d made ten years ago, was it the right one? Did I have the right to command the girls? Why had I done it?

A knock on the door interrupted my dark musings

“Come in” I sighed, the door swung open and Susanna entered, she didn’t even have to ask where to put the plate any more, ten long years had made sure she wouldn’t forget. As she left I felt sort of guilty, I never thanked her, perhaps I ought to be a little nicer to her, in fact not just her everyone, the whole of the crew.

I swung out of the hammock, picked up the plate the swung back up into the hammock, I picked at the bread and cheese barely eating anything, and eventually I gave up and settled down to sleep.

I slept awfully that night, words from the past echoing through my head, but one phrase in particular kept on coming back; ‘when the time comes you must do what is right not what is easy’

When I woke the next morning the words still kept echoing through my head, I knew that it was time Sophia and I had a nice little and somewhat complicated talk.

I climbed up the ladder onto the deck, I stood at the prow of the ship and looked out at the sea, something was wrong the waves were rough and choppy but worst of all were the black clouds roiling and writhing on the horizon.

Sophia appeared at my shoulder

“What’s wrong?”

I considered her question for a second “do you remember what happened ten years ago?” I asked

“Who amongst us doesn’t?”

“I’ll take that as a yes, now do you remember the bit about the ‘one at the right hand side’?”

“Yes…”

“Well I’ve worked out what it means, it’s about you, you are my right hand woman, see?”

“Yes, I think I do”

“Good, because there’s a storm coming” I wasn’t just talking about the weather “you’ve got a choice to make, it’ll be hard but I trust you to chose what is right, not what is easy, make the right choice for the ship and the crew”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Just promise me you’ll make the right choice for the ship, please”

“I promise”

“Thank you, Sophia, things aren’t as stable as you might think, something bad is going to happen, I won’t be here to help you and I’m very sorry about that, but please listen, when I go away you have to take charge for better of for worse, please”

“I’ll do it, just tell me where you’ll be going”

“I wish I could but I don’t know myself, but believe me I don’t want to go, I’ll be forced to. The impossible is going to happen.”

“I have a bad feeling about this”

She had no idea.

“We should head away from the storm,” she said

“No, we should head towards the storm, destiny is definitely in that direction”

“So you want to head towards the bad things?”

“Pretty much yeah” is what I said, what I thought was; no, of course not, I haven’t got a choice though.

And so it came to pass that the Artemis headed into the heart of one of the biggest storms we’d ever seen.

********

Chapter 6.

The British Navy.

W

ithin a day the Artemis had reached the storm, we carried on as far as we could then cast down the anchor to wait it out, I drew up a table on a piece of parchment dictating the times of the bailing shifts and the groups that would do them.

We were so busy that we didn’t notice the ships surround us until it was almost too late.

I shouted over the noise of the storm; “girls, take the ship and go, I will find you again no matter how long it takes”

The girls obeyed, as they began preparing the ship I took a rope and swung as far as I could out over the water to the deck of the nearest navy ship, my rope only made it halfway, so I let go and used my own momentum to carry me the rest of the way. I rolled as I hit the deck and landed perfectly on my feet. I drew my sword fluidly and held it out in front of me, I circled round pointing my sword at each of the men surrounding me, as I completed my circle they lowered their bayonets to point at my neck, I sighed in defeat and let my sword clatter to the deck.

“Okay, okay you win” I held out my wrists wearily, one man came forward and fastened iron manacles around my wrists then he shoved me to the ladder that led below decks to the brig. When I finally dropped down into the dark, dank brig I was forced into a cell my manacles were quickly removed, the door slammed shut and locked fast.

A drawling voice came out of the shadows “well, well, well. Fancy seeing you here miss de Vare” Jack Demon walked towards me a half smile on his face.

“What!” I exclaimed, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Such language is unbecoming to a young lady”

“Well, why are you here, Demon?” I asked ignoring his comment

“I’m taking a break” he laughed hollowly “what do you think? I’m a prisoner just like you”

“So what’re they gonna do with us?”

“I don’t know” he admitted “I think they’re going to hang us, we’re pirates remember?”

I sighed dramatically, “great, not only do I die, but I die with you”

“Oh, come on there must be worse ways to go”

“Yeah” I agreed “but not many”

“You know, you were different last time we met”

“I know, I know” I sighed then looked at him directly “I-I’m scared Jack” I managed

“I know Rosanna, I am too”

“Jack?” I asked

“Yes?”

“Call me Rosie”

“Okay Rosie, if it makes you feel better”

“Thank you, it does”

I crawled over to him and sat next to him, he put his arms around me.

“Go to sleep Rosie, I won’t let anything hurt you” he whispered, I smiled, closed my eyes and lent my head back against his chest, before long I was asleep.

The morning came too fast; I was the door opening woke me, a plate of ship’s biscuits was pushed in then the door slammed shut again. I pulled the biscuits towards me, took one then offered them to Jack; he took one with a grin and began to nibble the edges, eating it slowly.

We spent the rest of the day talking until Jack said it was time to sleep, I looked at him and fluttered my eyelids, “Jack, can I ask one more question?” I asked

“Okay, but just one more”

“You remember the first day I met you?”

“Yes, didn’t you try to kill me?”

“Yes, but that’s not important”

“To you maybe”

“Do you remember I told you that you were a dead man walking?”

“Yes”

“Well, I was wondering why you reacted the way you did”

“Oh, that. I wonder if you’ll believe me, it’s quite a long story”

“We don’t appear to be going anywhere”

“Okay, okay. Five hundred years ago one of my ancestors angered a priest, being a grumpy old man living in Scotland he overreacted and he cursed him, his descendants would be cursed, each and every one of them would die on their twentieth birthday.

“Now, this happened without fail until five years ago, on the night of my twentieth birthday I ate what I thought would be my last meal and went to bed. That night I had a dream, I was the last one of the line to bear the curse instead my soul would go to hell, and the souls of all my descendants would too. I would live a normal life but I would have no chance to go to heaven, my soul was damned.

“I figured that I may as well enjoy myself while I was alive, I mean if you’re going to hell you may as well do it properly, besides I’m actually quite sceptical about heaven and hell existing”

“Fair enough” I said, “you had a better reason to turn pirate than I did”

“Really?”

“Yes, I should’ve stayed for my parents funeral, gone to whatever relative I was meant to go to and been a good little lady, had a respectable marriage and sons, instead I ran away from what I’d done and made a new life for myself”

“And what had you done?” I could hear the foreboding in his voice.

“I killed my parents Jack, I’m a murderess”

“No, you didn’t kill them, it wasn’t your fault they died”

“Yes it was Jack, I was the one who started the fire, and I killed them”

“Don’t worry Rosie, you made that decision and now nothing can change that, no matter how much you want to you can’t take it back, so stop worrying your pretty little head about it, there’s nothing you can do”

I wanted to believe him but somehow I couldn’t.

********

Chapter 7.

Death Sentence

T

he rest of the voyage to England took only a day, we spent that one as we had spent the others; talking about ourselves and plotting to get out. We waited and waited for the voyage to end, hoping for a way out of the death trap we found ourselves in. When we arrived in England we docked at Bristol port, guards tied our wrists with rope and shoved us into a cage on the back of the cart. We stood together back to back in the tiny space.

“Remember the plan?” I asked

“Yes, I’m not quite that idiotic” he grimaced.

The plan was very simple, I still had my knife, the guards hadn’t searched me, and I still had a weapon along with a couple of lock picking tools. They would be our ticket out of here.

When we arrived at the lock up I took out my picks as soon as I was sure we were alone, I only had three picks, I had to be fast. The first pick bent, the second was no good either, but the third, well the third worked. We crept out of the cell and up the stairs, we reached the door at the top, it was open, so we crept through that as well. We made it out into the courtyard then stopped, a portcullis a portcullis of all things blocked the gate; we were trapped. I swore so colourfully that Jack looked quite impressed until the guards came clattering out of a doorway and surrounded us. We were trapped once again, wearily we followed them back to our cell and allowed them to lock us back in, this time they searched me, taking my knife and all the things I’d hidden away. I had nothing left; it looked like we were going to die after all.

I stared between the bars looking at the wall, the future was short and looked bleak, I was going to die and so was Jack, how strange that the deaths of everyone I love would be bearable so long as he remained, because strangely, impossibly I was in love. The impossible had happened just as Artemis said it would, I had broken my vow.

“What’s wrong Rosie?” Jack asked

“I’m so sorry Jack, we haven’t another way out, there’s nothing we can do” my voice cracked and tears spilled down my face “we’re going to die”

“No Rosie, don’t give up, never give up because there’s always another way, you just have to find it”

“What other way is there? Tomorrow we are to be hanged, there’s nothing we can do,” I was sobbing uncontrollably by that point

“Well, the boys should be docking at dawn, with any luck they’ll hear about the public execution of captain Jack Demon and captain Rosanna de Vare, they’re smart they’ll know to rescue us”

“Really?” I asked

“Really truly honestly, trust me”

“Never trust someone who says trust me”

“You know what I mean Rosie, now come here and sleep, you’ve got a busy day tomorrow”

“What, being hanged counts as busy now does it?” I laughed weakly; Jack smiled and drew me closer

“Sleep” he said softly

“I-I don’t know if I can”

“Then I’ll make you”

“How…?” I began then gave up and snuggled closer to him instead

The dawn came too fast, my head was cushioned on Jack’s muscular chest but the rest of my body was sprawled on the hard, uneven stone floor Jack was already awake, I wondered if he ever slept, somehow I doubted it.

The lanterns had gone out, the cell was dark and dingy; it was hard to peer through the gloom until my eyes adjusted, soon however the sun rose high enough for the light to penetrate the tiny slit of a window that was the only light source for the cell.

“How long?” I asked eventually, Jack new what I meant

“A few hours, it’ll be at noon, they want to get the maximum audience, after all they’re using us as an example” he smiled wryly, “it’ll be fast though, they don’t want us to have a chance to escape”

“Well, what a relief, a quick hanging. How on earth is that supposed to work?”

“They will read the charges then get it over with, we’re a threat. Besides if we escape we’ll turn them into a laughing stock”

“I don’t want to die Jack, I’m too worried about what will be waiting for me when I do”

“Don’t be afraid Rosie, we’ll make it. I’m sure of it.” He smiled “don’t give up hope”

I smiled weakly, there was no point trying to argue with him, he was so damned optimistic it was hard to argue.

The waiting was the worst part, time crawled past so slowly a second felt like a minute and a minute felt like an hour, it was almost as if nature was punishing us too, the stone floor was even more uncomfortable, clouds came over and it began to rain, hard sheeting diagonal rain that came trough the window and formed a puddle on the floor.

My last few hours and I wouldn’t even see the sun, perhaps I deserved it, perhaps not, and I’m still not sure.

********

Chapter 8.

Execution

A

t last it was time, a guard came to fetch us, he was eager to do his job well, in fact he spent an unnecessarily long time tying our hands, he used almost every type of knot conceivable, double knots, butterfly knots and seaman’s knots, it was quite frankly ridiculous.

I stumbled up the rough stone stairs, Jack was next to me, well he was next to me for a bit anyway, he kept falling down and swearing. In fact I was quite impressed that his language was as colourful, if not more so than mine.

When we finally reached the top of the staircase we were forced back into the cart that we’d come in, the portcullis went up slowly, and the cart began to trundle off at an excruciatingly painful pace. We reached the execution centre five minutes before noon; before I had time to do anything except swear at the guards I was stood on the dock with a noose around my neck, Jack smiled at me and unknown to him it sent a surge of courage through my body.

When the weasel-faced man finished reading the charges he looked up from the huge scroll and spoke in a nasal, whiny voice

“Do you have any last words?”

A voice came from the crowd “they’re pirates, murderers, they don’t deserve any last words”

“To hell with you all…” I shouted, this was followed by a lot of ruder words, Jack smiled at me again then joined in with the stream of abuse we hurled at the crowd.

“Well, where are they?” I asked under cover of the crowd’s angry yells

“Any minute now” he hissed, then he added in a softer voice; “Rosie, just in case they don’t come, I can’t let you go without telling you I love you”

“I-I love you too” Jack smiled weakly at my faltering admission.

The executioner was just about to tighten the noose around my neck when a throwing knife sliced the ropes on both my noose and Jack’s, letting us throw them aside. A second knife with a rope tied to the hilt thudded into the gallows above my head, I barely had time to wonder at the impossibility of it all before Jack was climbing the rope in an almost monkey-like manner, I jumped, caught hold of it and began to scramble up it, it was difficult with my bound hands but I reached the end of the rope half a second after Jack, around thirty boys stood there, staring at me.

“C’mon boys, you’ve seen a girl before, now move it” Jack snapped

“But captain she ain’t comin’ with us is she?”

“She’s with me, I promised I’d get her out”

“Is that who I think it is?”

“That depends” I said, “I am as you should’ve realised by now Rosanna de Vare, captain of the pirate ship Artemis”

“Oh hell” someone said “boss, tell me she’s joking”

“I’m afraid she’s serious, Emmett” Jack grinned

“You mean I did my best knife-work for her! Well damn!” he grimaced and flexed his heavily muscled arms

“Stop complaining, now lets move” snapped Jack

We got there faster than I would’ve believed, it seemed Jack was the unquestioned leader; his air of authority was practically visible it was so strong.

Jack scooped me up into his arms as soon as we were on deck and ordered the crew to set a course for the open sea, we were out of the channel by the time the sun had set, he yelled at his crew some more and told them not to disturb us for the rest of the day. Jack scooped me up again, set me down at the door to his quarters, and opened the door with a flourish I walked inside slowly.

A table stood in one corner an actual bed in the other; I nodded appreciatively, taking in the clothes cupboard and washstand. For some reason a baby blue silk gown was draped over one chair.

“Are you actually expecting me to wear that?” I asked in disgust

“Why of course, trousers are hardly suitable garb to wear when dining with the ship’s captain,” he teased

Grimacing I took the gown from the chair “turn around, no peeking” I said sternly, Jack laughed but obeyed, as soon as it was on I told him to turn around again and took a seat at the table that I now noticed was covered in plates of food, we ate quickly and silently.

Jack stood up when he was done and moved towards the bed I followed him over and sat down on the edge. He grinned then pulled me to my feet; with a soft laugh he began unlacing the back of my dress, I giggled in an embarrassingly girlish way. As the dress crumpled to the floor I stepped out of it and began to unbutton Jack’s shirt. He laughed then, a deep throaty chuckle and scooped me up into his arms and set me down onto the bed with extreme care then he lay next to me. As I had done so many times in the cells we’d occupied I snuggled closer to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, he bent his head down and kissed me.

I gasped in shock, Jack looked up, worried

“What is it?” he asked

“I-I wasn’t exactly expecting it” I whispered “besides, you shouldn’t really do that to a woman who is neither your fiancée or your wife,”

“C’mon I’m going to hell anyway, I may as well do it properly”

“Well, I can’t argue with that” I muttered and I kissed him again.

I drifted to sleep in his arms, wishing that the night would go on forever.

********

Chapter 9.

Mutiny

T

wo days later we caught up with the Artemis and it was with sorrow that I left the Vengeance, Jack insisted on accompanying me, which was I think the root of the trouble, Sophia saw my hand in his and her eyes narrowed, I snatched my had back immediately, but Jack didn’t understand

“What is it my love?” he asked too loudly and as I watched Sophia’s eyes narrowed even more until they were barely more than slits.

“Traitor, you are no longer welcome here,” she hissed

“What if I agreed never to see Jack again?” I asked

“You have betrayed the ship Rosanna de Vare, you can never come back, and anyhow I am a far better captain than you”

“Ah, so after all these years this is what it comes down to, you like power so much you would commit mutiny for it? For god’s sake Sophia I can do what I want, I can choose who I want to be with”

“So,” she said, her voice icy “we are no longer good enough then, you have chosen to go with a boy instead of staying with us were you belong!”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Rosie belongs wherever she wants to be” Jack said

“Rosie! Rosie! Well, well, well you really have gone far haven’t you captain” she said, her voice full of scorn

“You have broken your vow, and as such you are cast out of the crew of the Artemis, you are no longer captain of this vessel, and you may never board this ship again” as she finished tears began to spill down her face

“I’m sorry old friend,” she whispered “but rules are rules, I swear it is not mutiny”

“Indeed, I cannot expect you to break them for me” I whispered back, surprised at her sudden change of heart, I didn’t trust her “may I get my things before I leave?”

“Yes, but hurry”

I walked over to the trapdoor that led below decks and followed the corridor to my cabin I opened the door and stepped inside; taking a bag of the shelf I crammed my clothes into it.

I filled the bag quickly and took another; soon I had filled three bags with clothes and another two with other possessions, money, jewellery and other useful things, to my surprise I saw my sword hanging on the wall, smiling I fastened it to my belt and felt my courage return, now I was complete again.

I returned to the deck carrying my bags, Jack sat on the railings, hands in pockets he took some of my bags wordlessly and dumped them into the rowing boat. He was about to help me down but I climbed back up onto the deck, before I left I had to say goodbye.

There were too many goodbyes, I felt like I was at a funeral, and I was the corpse. All my friends, my crewmates, people I had known for most of my life had something to say, most of it was bad, telling me I had betrayed what it meant to crew the Artemis, the others wished me luck, and told me that they’d come with me if they could, I told them to stay, not to ruin things for themselves, after all they had a life here, the best thing they could do for me was to stay here.

********

Chapter 10.

Some People Never Learn

I

returned to the Vengeance without looking back, my old life was gone, but I had a new life now, I had a life with Jack on the Vengeance, a new ship, a new crew, and a new start.

Little did I know that my dream was just that, a dream. We reached the ship and climbed up the rope ladder, as we reached the top Jack’s crew surrounded us, and forced us back, one boy stepped forward

“Jack Demon, you promised that she would not be coming back, you know what happens when a crew member breaks a promise, you are no longer welcome aboard this ship, we will take you to a port in England and form there you and the girl can make your own way. Until then you are to be kept in the brig.”

“Ralph, have some common sense, Rosanna has been banished from her ship, I was planning on going with her to help her find another ship anyway”

“You are still banished, you know the rules,” he grimaced “seriously Jack, mate I really don’t want to do this”

Jack just nodded; he took my hand and led me to the brig without complaining. When we arrived he pushed open the cell door and pulled me inside, he sat me on the bench then walked out of the cell again and back up the ladder.

Half an hour I spent sat there, I had no idea what Jack was doing, frustrated I got up and began pacing, I spent about five minutes pacing but then Jack came back and led me silently back up to the deck,

We descended the rope ladder to the rowing boat and went back to the Artemis; as soon as we were there we climbed back up the ladder to the deck. Jack hopped agilely over the rail, ran to the main mast and climbed up onto the rigging, he stood were everyone could see him and shouted at the top of his voice

“EVERYBODY LISTEN” he cried “YOU HAVE BEEN FORCED TO ACCEPT A CAPTAIN THAT WAS NOT NAMED TO BE SO, IT WAS MUTINY!” he took another breath and continued “THERE IS ANOTHER CHOICE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS, COME WITH US NOW AND JOIN ANOTHER SHIP, A SHIP CREWED BY MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE, TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE MORE THAN EITHER CREW COULD ALONE! THINK, YOU COULD BE BETTER, YOU GO WITH THE CAPTAIN YOU WERE LOYAL TO, OR DO YOU CHANGE YOU MINDS AND BETRAY A FRIEND SO EASILY?” his face was bright red and he was breathless, but even so he carried on, with even more energy than before “COME NOW, MAKE A FRESH START TRY. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STAY HERE WITH A TRAITOR” he finished breathlessly and scrambled down to the deck again, he stood by me and put his arm around my waist “not bad eh?” he laughed as around fifteen of the girls came over to stand by us, they drew their swords and raised them defensively

“We’re with you captain” Mary said from the middle of the crowd “I’d rather follow you than he any day” elated by her words I scanned the faces, I saw Susanne, Charlotte, Daphne, Constance, Opal,
Pearl,
Phoebe, Naomi, Susannah, Isadora, Emmeline, Marion, Esme and Cecilia in addition to Mary. The girls all grinned at me, it was clear from their faces that they all agreed with Mary, I smiled back at them

“Thank you, all of you, now all we need to do is head over to the Vengeance to pick up our male crew members” I said, I smiled at Jack “I would like to say, if you have any questions ask Jack, not me, he’s in charge for the moment at least”

We all piled into the rowing boat, it was rather overcrowded and I found myself squashed against the side, luckily the voyage was short and we arrived at the Vengeance very quickly, when we arrived the girls followed Jack up the ladder, I brought up the rear and arrived on deck just as Jack was halfway up the rigging, he reached the top and began to shout again

“LISTEN EVERYONE, I AM GOING TO OFFER YOU A CHOICE, YOU CAN STAY HERE ON THE VENGEANCE OR YOU CAN COME WITH ME AND ROSANNA’S PORTION OF THE CREW AND WE CAN FIND A DIFFERENT SHIP, A SHIP CREWED BY BOTH MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE, TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE MORE THAN EITHER COULD ALONE! COME WITH US AND MAKE A NEW START!” he finished and looked defiantly at the boys gathered on the deck, around fifteen stepped forwards to join us, we had a crew of thirty-two now, that was enough to crew a large ship, I did realise that we’d left both the Artemis and the Vengeance short-handed oh well that was their problem not ours.

Jack introduced us to his part of the crew: Dorian, Jasper, Emmet, Julian, Lance, Cedric, Arthur, Cyrus, Victor, Sebastian, Fabian, Felix, Martin, Tobias and Jareth. They were in turn introduced to my part of the crew and seemed overwhelmed by the amount of women present.

We reached Bristol five days after our mass crew gathering and spent only a few hours planning before our method was decided, we would use the same method I had used all those years ago to steal the Artemis, it would work, I mean bored young men would lap up the attentions of a group of pretty young girls who all appeared slightly tipsy, I would lead the party of girls while Jack would lead the boys to actually capture the ship, we’d then go to my island and take as much of the loot there as we could, stow it away and take it to a new place so we started off with a horde.

I glided up to the guard and winked at him

“Hello,” I whispered, “need a little company?”

“Mmm” he murmured, “that sounds very fun”

“I can make it sound more than fun”

I really couldn’t believe he was buying it, it was really improper and I was sure he’d run me through with his bayonet any second now for even insinuating it

“Perhaps we could go for a drink?” I asked,

“My friends could… join in, I promise you’ll have fun…” I let the words trail off leaving the suggestion in the air

“Perhaps, I’ll have to see these friends first thought”

“Girls, come on out now” I called softly through the night, fifteen pretty girls came out of the shadows and began fawning over him, I walked up to him and caressed his face then drew back and punched him in the jaw so hard he was knocked flat out.

“Sorry darlin’ I’m taken” I whispered

Half an hour later we’d repeated this process on four more guards, it was ridiculous they were determined to have a little fun with a group of pretty girls; it was absolutely disgusting, why couldn’t they have fun some other way.

We finally finished our work and crept aboard the ship, I couldn’t help noticing that it was called Elizabeth II which I thought was quite funny, the boys were casting off and I joined Jack at the helm, he bent down and kissed me, we broke apart with a start, a loud voice shouted disturbing the calm of the night

“THEY’RE STEALING THE ELIZABETH II, STOP THEM!”

I laughed, we couldn’t be stopped now, I couldn’t resist it, I had too do it

“You can’t stop us; we are Rosanna de Vare and Jack Demon! There is nothing you can do. If it makes you feel better you didn’t stand a chance. Even so you never learn do you? That’s twice I’ve stolen a ship from you and both times with the same method!” I shouted at the assembled men who stood gawping on the Warf.

********

Chapter 11.

Sister Ships

A

fter much discussion a name was decided on, Jack wanted to call it the Revenge but I wanted to call it the Calypso in the end it was Susanne who found the solution, a compromise was the best option she said so we called it  Calypso’s Revenge, it was a good name and the whole crew was well pleased with it.

We had a more serious problem than the name of the ship however the navy was pursuing us and we were running out of places to hide, they would catch up with us eventually, that meant we would have to fight them, luckily only one ship was pursuing us, the Intervention, it was a good fast ship, one of the newest in fact.

We made it as far as the west coast of Africa before they caught us, we were heading for the east coast past the Cape of Good Hope, it was a good place to hide, I mean it was where the Artemis stored her loot and nobody has ever found that.

We dropped anchor and readied the cannons, the crew armed themselves with swords, cutlasses and the more oft seen guns. I had my usual sword; I needed it I could not get used to fighting any other way. We had a few possible strategies in place, the one we would use was the girls joining the fight halfway through and taking them by surprise, we’d discovered that the best way to distract the enemy was the girls; we’d wear skirts that had been ripped so they barely came down to our knees and ragged bodices with very low necklines, we’d be ‘deadly and beautiful’ Jack joked

The Intervention stopped dead in the water, it was not even fifty feet from us, the cannons began firing and at such close range they wreaked havoc. Parts of the ship were blasted away within seconds; luckily our cannons did as much if not more damage to their ship. Even so we were definitely loosing, Jack’s men were doing their best but for every man they killed another stepped forwards to take his place. The battle had been going on for barely twenty minutes and already the deck was littered with bodies, I scanned the faces but none of the men were our crew, I was roused from my reverie by Jack’s voice.

“Rosanna! NOW!” he practically screamed

“GO!” I shouted at the top of my voice and as one we jumped down from the rigging, swords in hands guns firing left right and centre, bangs flashes, screams, shouts and mayhem was coming from all directions. We were losing, more and more navy soldiers came forwards, it was a never-ending stream of people trying to kill us.

Shouts came from across the water, two voices, one male one female and I looked to see two familiar ships alongside us, the Artemis and the Vengeance and two familiar figures stood on the prows of them, Ralph and Sophia!

“For Rosanna!” Sophia cried

“For Jack!” Ralph bellowed

“Attack!” they shouted in unison and more familiar figures and a few unfamiliar ones swung onto the decks of Calypso’s Revenge, Sophia and Ralph joined us too and suddenly I found myself fighting alongside Sophia

“So what made you see sense?” I asked

“I don’t know” she confessed “but I just woke up one day positive that you were in trouble, I found Ralph and we worked out you’d come here, I assume you were heading to the island, it seemed to me like the place you’d go”

“Yes but why did you ask Ralph?” I was pretty distracted from the fighting but I still managed to behead one man and stab another

“Well I remembered what you said, about sister ships and it seemed like it was worth a try so I found him and talked to him”

“Fair enough” I said, and that was the last I saw of her until the battle ended.

The fight went our way after that, we forced the few surviving navy men back to the Intervention and watched them sail away in a strangely joyful manner. It didn’t seem right and I thought I heard a voice calling my name but I shook it off as a figment of my imagination.

We tided up the deck, dumping the navy men’s bodies overboard and checking the faces to see if they were anyone we knew, I did a head count, we should’ve had seventy people but no matter how many times I counted there I found only sixty-nine, someone was missing and I thought I knew who.

“Divide into two lines,” I ordered “girls in one, boys in the other” a few of the girls looked at me quizzically

I told Jack to check if anyone was missing from the boy’s line whilst I checked the girls, I looked down the line for the face I needed to see it wasn’t there.

“Girls, look for Susanne!” I shouted, but I knew they wouldn’t find her; she wasn’t here to find. Susanne was on board the Intervention.

It was time for a rescue mission.

********

Chapter 12.

Rescue Mission

M

iraculously we’d not lost a single person, a few were injured but there was nothing life threatening, Susannah’s medical expertise saw to that. Apart from Susanne’s predicament nobody had a chance of dying. Strangely the most active person in the formulation of the plans was Emmett, he seemed to have developed as ‘sentimental attachment’ to Susanne and I felt an almost motherly disapproval. I don’t know why but I’ve always felt like I had to protect her, she was just five when we stole the Artemis and was only fifteen now, much too young to be being arrested for piracy.

We discovered that she was being taken to Bristol, it was quite a way away but the Intervention had to return to its homeport, this was quit ridiculous I mean they could hand her and be done, it wouldn’t take long then they could get back to Bristol. Now we had to chase them all the way and hope we could beat them there so we could save Susanne.

We had three good, fast ships and just enough people to crew them, we’d decided that me and Jack would carry on in charge of Calypso’s Revenge while Ralph and Sophia (a surprising match seeing as Ralph believes women to be lower than men whereas Sophia believes the opposite) captained the Artemis, Jasper and Mary (a second surprising match) would captain the Vengeance.

In the end we made it to Bristol in the early hours of a dull grey Tuesday morning, only a few scant hours after the Intervention had docked. We hid the names of the ships with boards hastily nailed into place bearing the original names of the ships; to my surprise the Vengeance had originally been named Victoria. I remembered that that was one of the ships that’d been sent to pursue us when we stole the Artemis or, as she had previously been known the Elizabeth.

We saw the signs before we registered anything else about the city, the atmosphere was exited, tense, the citizens themselves were all babbling excitedly about the signs that had gone up overnight, there was to be a hanging at noon, the execution of a pirate, one of Rosanna de Vare’s crew in fact.

We returned to the ships to plan, eventually it was decided I would go with Jack and Emmett to rescue Susanne; Emmett would use his throwing knives to get a rope to her and use a second to cut the noose so she could actually escape. We were hoping Susanne could manage to untie the ropes on her wrists by herself so she could climb faster but it wasn’t essential.

We arrived at execution dock seconds after the same weasel-faced man who had read our charges finished reading them for Susanne, I almost smiled as she began swearing at the crowd but Emmett’s knife flew past my face and flew in a glorious silver arc to slice through Susanne’s noose, she ducked down and somehow managed to free her hands by cutting the ropes with the knife. A second knife flashed past, a rope trailing behind it the thud made Susanne look up, she jumped, caught hold of it and began so scramble up it, it seemed that she’d make it when it happened.

The executioner pulled his sword from its sheath and sliced through the rope. I saw Susanne’s mouth open in a scream as the rope fell and I heard the sickening crunch as she hit the wall, I heard a second scream as she began to slowly but surely pull herself up the rope towards us.

Emmett stepped forwards and began to haul on the rope, slowly pulling Susanne up towards us. I saw him wince each time she screamed but he kept on pulling her up.

After what seemed like hours but was only a minute and a half Susanne reached the top, Emmett scooped her up in his arms and began sprinting back towards the ships; we got there just as the Vengeance and the Artemis were leaving the docks, those on board Calypso’s Revenge were readying her for launch, Jack and I climbed up the ladder leaving Emmett below, I reached the top and darted past Jack and his half of the crew who were now pulling Emmett and Susanne up to the deck by hauling on the ladder bringing it up to the deck.

I carried on running until I reached the dining salon, I cleared everything off the table simply sweeping it onto the floor, Susannah laid a blanket and some pillows on the table.

Emmet came into the room not a minute later, he was panting heavily but he still carried Susanne, he gently set her down on the table then collapsed into one of the chars panting. Susannah bent over her, arranging her in a more comfortable position, she took Susanne’s pulse and bit her lip. She came over to me “she’s not good” she said, “she’ll make it though, she’s strong. She’s got quite a few broken bones though; the entire left side of her body was damaged. She’s broken her arm, her leg and a fair few ribs too”

Emmet had his breath back by now and in a flash he was bending over Susanne, stroking her hair and whispering her name, Susannah gently took his arm and sat him down in one of the comfier chairs, he tried to get up but she pushed him down.

“Sit,” she ordered “stay, you can see her when she wakes”

I moved over to stand by Susanne and took her hand, “come on Susanne, fight, don’t give up”

Tears blurred my eyes, welled up and spilled over splashing down onto her face, I was crying so much that I didn’t see her eyes open, I didn’t notice she was awake until I felt her hand on my arm, I looked down and wiped the tears from my eyes.

A faint, pained whisper escaped her dry, cracked lips “Rosanna… thank you… saved my life. Emmett… where?”

“I’m here love,” he said, by her side in an instant, “what… what can I do? He interrupted himself with a yawn

“Go… sleep, I will be fine” she murmured

“No. I’m staying with you. I cannot leave you”

“You… must. For me… please” she managed, as her eyes closed and consciousness left her

********

Chapter 13.

Family

S

usanne was back to normal after the best part of two months, however none of us could leave the island where we stored our loot. We had made our way there after Susanne was injured, it was a safe place to stay while she recovered and nobody would find us there.

Unfortunately we had managed to trap ourselves. Such a huge bounty as had been placed on our heads was a dangerous thing indeed, every man, woman and child in the British Empire was searching for us. It was all we could do to steal enough food from passing trade ships to keep us alive.

I was bored of the island, the beautiful beach and the warm water was poor compensation for the fact that we were trapped, it did seem as though we would die there, seventy skeletons left for some future explorer to find. But one night Jack had an idea that changed everything, we had to pretend to be dead, three trading ships and some paint was all we would need.

The sun was barely over the horizon and yet we were beginning our plans, a group of girls lay looking pitiful on a rock in the sea only a mile or two off the coast of Africa. A large trading ship called the Titan was sailing by not a hundred yards from them.

I raised my voice and shouted with all my strength, in my most feminine voice “please sirs, we have been shipwrecked help us” and as I knew they would they did the chivalrous thing, the came over to help.

The fight started as soon as we were on board, we slit the sailors throats and threw them overboard. It was sickening work but it had to be done. Between the seven of us girls we managed to steer the ship over to the island were a group of boys were waiting ready to nail on a plank painted with just one word; Vengeance. Stage one was complete.

The next day came and we used the same trick on a second ship, this too worked well and by the end of the day we had renamed that ship the Artemis. By the end of the third day we had three large ships each bearing the name of one of our ships, there was the Vengeance, the Artemis, and Calypso’s Revenge.

Now you may or may not have guessed our plan but for those who have not it was as follows; we would use these three ships as decoys, towing them out to a place were they would be found before wrecking them on some rocks or blowing them to bits and arranging them in a manner that would show the names of the ships (the false ones, not the real ones). This would almost guarantee that someone see them and report the destruction of the three most feared pirate ships in the world leaving us to go and do whatever we wanted once the excitement had died down, but until then we would hide in the one place the British navy would never look, the most boring place in the British empire; Scotland. Jack was going home.

********

Chapter 14.

Coming Home.

J

ack smiled broadly as he stepped onto the wooden promenade, he didn’t look back as he left the ship behind and began strolling casually through the streets, I walked with him struggling to keep up with his long strides. Eventually he slowed and turned down a small side street, he went right to the end, there was a small wooden door, just big enough for an average-size man to fit through, a bell pull hung next to the door, Jack raised his hand and rapped twice on the door with his fist, ignoring the bell.

He’d barely lowered his hand when the door flew open, a woman stood in the door, her face etched with worry, the skin around her eyes was crinkled as though she was the sort of woman who laughed a lot, but the haunted look in her eyes made me think she had not laughed in a long time. But as her eyes fell on Jack the look in her eyes was replaced by joy, her worried expression was replaced by a smile and she threw her arms around Jack.

“Oh, Jack” she sobbed, “you came back, you came home” her voice had the same Scottish sound as Jack’s

“I promised I would mother, and I never break a promise unless I have no choice” he put his arms around her and patted her in the back “where is Ralph?” he asked

“Your stepfather is at the forge working Jack, he ought to be back soon though, imagine how happy he’ll be when he finds out”

“Is he alright then, I know he was unwell when I left”

“He recovered just a week after you left, he’s been wanting you to come back for ages thought, he’s missed you”

“I missed him too, I missed you as well though mother”

“Oh Jack I am glad you are back,” she finally released him and stepped away, then she noticed me

“Oh hello dear, I am so sorry I didn’t notice you, my name is Martha, Martha Smith. I’m Jack’s mother”

“A pleasure to meet you ma’am, my name is Rosanna,”

“Are you perhaps Rosanna de Vare?”

“Um yes how did you know?”

“Intuition dear” she tapped the side of her head knowingly and opened the door to let us inside.

We entered the house, walking into a spacious room furnished with an overstuffed settee, indicating that the Smith household was doing well. Martha showed us upstairs to our rooms, Jack was of course to have his old room, and I had the one next door. Jack had protested that I could share with him but his mother wouldn’t hear of it, there was however a door that connected the two rooms so the occupants could pass from one to the other without being observed. It was a good idea and one that made the nights pass too quickly.

********

Chapter 15.

The Man I fell In Love With

T

ime passed there, much faster than I would have thought, before I knew it we had been with his family for six months, all I knew was that I had been there too long, if we didn’t go soon Jack would never leave and I was dreading that time when I would go and leave him behind. All the time I had been there with him I saw the changes, changes so subtle you probably couldn’t imagine them. But I noticed. I watched and I saw things I did not like one bit. He was changing. He was becoming a stranger to me. A boy named Jack Smith, and I missed the man I knew. The man named Jack Demon, the man I had fallen in love with.

And then the time came. I was walking with Jack; we were going to the docks to visit our crews who had been living aboard the ships the whole time we were on land.

It was on the way back that it happened, we were walking down the side street that lead us to his home when he stopped dead forcing me to stop too. He turned around to face me then took a step back, sinking down on to one knee.

My first thought was that his trousers would get dirty, my second was a wave of shock, I knew what he was doing and I was not exactly happy about it.

“Rosie, I love with all my heart, please marry me, stay here with me and raise a family” his beautiful melting eyes pleaded for only one answer, the answer I couldn’t give. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and carefully sealed away my heart.

It didn’t work, I began to sob before I’d actually said anything “I am so sorry Jack but I can’t. I really want to but I can’t”

“Why not? Don’t you love me?” the pain was evident in his face and voice.

“Sort of, but you’ve changed Jack, you’ve changed so much” I was crying uncontrollably now

“How?” he asked, his face tortured

“I love a part of you Jack, a part of you that has gone away somehow. The man I fell in love with has gone”

“No Rosie, I’m still here,” he whispered

“No, the person who stands in front of me is a boy named Jack Smith, a boy who does as he is told, who never stands up for himself. That is not the man I fell in love with, the man I fell in love with is called Jack Demon. He is strong, brave and clever. He stands up for himself and never gives up even when all seems lost. A man who stands up for his friends and yet honours his enemies too.

I love you but I cannot marry you and stay here, the sea is my home now Jack, it has been for the last ten years, I may look happy on land but underneath I want to be back on my boat, to sail away and stay at sea forever”

“How could you love Jack Demon? That is the side of me that is full of darkness, the side that most people despise. Why is it that you do this to yourself, that you demand to be with a man who had a soul as black as the night?”

“I like the dark, without it we’d never see the light, and as for the night I’ve nothing against that either, without it we’d never see the stars. I like the stars Jack. They are constant, never changing.”

“Then for you Rosie, I will always be Jack Demon. I will always be the man who never gives up, who cares for his friends, who loves you with all his heart and will do for the rest of eternity.” The pain was gone from his face, and a new courage was there, the man I loved was finally back.

And that was when he kissed me. It was a kiss like no other; it put all others to shame. And I let all that I felt for him go into that kiss and hoped that he would realise how much I loved him from that one kiss.

Eventually we had to stop

“Well” he grinned, “When do you want to leave?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you hate land remember. So lets go, tonight if you want. I just wish…” he stopped hastily

“What do you wish?”

“Well, that you would marry me. I would like it to be official, that you are mine and nobody else’s”

“Then I suppose you need to ask again” I grinned

“Marry me Rosie?” he asked

“Yes” was all I could say, any more than that and I would’ve become utterly incoherent.

Epilogue.

The Happily Ever After

F

inally after all that we had been through we got our happily ever after. Not just Jack and me but the others too. Susanne and Emmett got married a few months after Jack and I did, as did Sophia and Ralph.

We filled all the gaps in the crews of the Vengeance and the Artemis what a little recruiting in various parts of England and Scotland too, in the seedier areas of almost every town there’s a child who wants adventure. They just needed a route to it and we provided that route.

The sad thing was the children we took would often never be missed, so may times the children we took were orphans it was awful. All the illnesses in the slums made far, far too many of them take on adult roles before their lives as children had properly begun.

All these boys and girls were eager to get away from the bleak existence that was all that they had before them, when they were actually out at sea many a very few of them managed not to be seasick. However in all cases without a single exception the children refused to go back and said that they would overcome the sickness. And in every case they did.

Jack and I had our first child not long after we were married, she was a little girl whom we named Amelia, she looked a lot like Jack, her hair was precisely the same shade as his although it was curly like mine. Her eyes too were a mix; they were sea-green like Jack’s but shot through, not with grey, but with Mediterranean blue.

The End.

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