Later that day, Hades stood unseen in a large, open meadow. On the springy, green grass, he placed one of Helios’s pristine cows. By the time he had returned to the Underworld to retrieve a cow, he no longer cared about choosing the best, and the only reason he saw this plan through was because he’d like to locate the Graeae. It made him anxious that there had been no contact from their abductors, no hint of where they had been taken. He considered that perhaps Medusa had something to do with their disappearance, in which case it would have been more of a rescue. Perhaps that was why no one had come to collect the eye.
The cow mooed, drawing Hades’s attention.
There was a flash of light across the way, at the very edge of the field, and Helios appeared. His purple robes fluttered around him, as if seconds behind his movement. There, he paused and scanned his surroundings, obviously suspecting a trap. Still, he vanished once more and appeared closer to the cow, again peering into the trees surrounding the meadow. The next time he appeared, it was beside the cow.
He rested his head on its back and threw his arms around its middle.
“Oh, Rosie!” He moved around to her front and lifted her long face in his hands, touching his nose to hers. “I have missed you.”
Watching this exchange made Hades feel very uncomfortable.
“I’ll take you far from here where you can never be taken away from me again.”
He kissed the cow’s nose—once, twice, and as he went in for the third, Hades appeared.
“I’m sorry. I just can’t watch this.”
Helios released the cow and stepped back, glaring.
“You,” he said, gnashing his teeth. “I knew it.”
“Yet you came anyway.”
“Where are the rest of my cows?” he demanded.
“Waiting to be returned to you,” Hades replied.
The God of the Sun narrowed his unsettling amber eyes. “You want something.”
“Of course I do. I know you’ve been watching the trials Hera’s put me through.”
Helios saw everything that transpired on Earth, even the things he pretended to ignore. The entire reason Hades had abducted his cattle in the first place was because he’d refused to give the location of Sisyphus, the man who had stolen souls with a relic he had obtained from Poseidon.
The god gave a lazy smile. “I watched long enough to see your face get beat in by Heracles. That was a satisfying fight. Pity he did not win.”
“Or better that I won,” Hades said. “Or your cows would have become permanent residents of the Underworld.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Is this your peace offering? Rosie? Or are you offering the whole lot?”
“Think of Rosie as a start,” Hades said. “The more cooperative you are, the more Rosies you get back.”
Helios’s mouth tightened. “What do you want?”
Despite knowing that the God of the Sun was very aware of what Hades needed, he decided it was best not to quarrel with him—as much as that was possible given his mood.
“I need to know where the Graeae are located. They were taken from Dionysus’s club.”
Helios laughed and Hades frowned, uncertain about what exactly his response meant.
“You are so busy searching for the gray monsters, you haven’t even noticed what is unfolding around you.”
“And what exactly is that?”
“Unrest,” he said. “And do you know what unrest breeds?”
War.
Hades did not say the word aloud because he did not wish to speak it into existence, but he knew what Helios was implying.
The god laughed again. “I predict another war soon. Olympianomachy,” he said in a lofty voice, smiling. “It has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“So certain we will lose?” Hades asked.
“I have no doubt.”
Helios was loyal to only himself. Even his choice to side with the Olympians rather than his fellow Titans was born out of a wish to maintain his well-being rather than loyalty to Zeus.
“You forget that you are all seeing, Helios,” said Hades. “Not all knowing.”
“I’ve always chosen the winning side,” said Helios. “That has never been by chance.”
“Treason is a poor look, Helios.”
“I have taken no action,” said the god. “And I am helping you. That is far from treasonous.”
He was helping, albeit resentfully.
“What does all this have to do with the location of the Graeae?”
Hades could speculate all day long, but he asked because he wanted a direct answer.
“Everything,” said Helios. “I am doing you a great service in telling you that the Graeae were intended to be a weapon. Their gift was supposed to be the foundation on which a war was built against the Olympians.”
Hades was not surprised.
“Intended?”
“We both know you are in possession of the eye, and without it, the sisters are blind…useless.”
Hades gritted his teeth. They were not useless, even without the eye. In fact, Hades felt like the greatest power they possessed was the secrets they kept.
“You said they were intended to be the foundation on which a war was built. What do you mean?”
He did not want to mention Medusa, even if Helios was aware of the gorgon. He’d rather the god bring her up on his own.
“Hades, don’t play dumb. Their eye gives access to the future. It is a valuable tool for anyone in battle. In the…wrong…hands, it is an avenue to lay the foundation for victory.”
It was a thought that had crossed Hades’s mind before.
“Who took the Graeae, Helios?”
“Is that what you wish to know? Who took them, or where they are? You only get one question, one answer. I have already given you a mine of gold.”
“Are you not interested in obtaining the rest of your cattle?”
“Rosie here will do,” Helios said, patting her back. “With her, I can breed a new herd.”
Hades curled his lip in disgust.
“Choose wisely, Hades,” said Helios.
He did not need to think long. The most immediate need was obtaining the Graeae. Hades would find out who abducted them later. In fact, he thought he could already guess who was responsible. There was only one organization bold enough to think they could go against the gods—Triad.
Though that thought was paired with the image of Hera and Theseus sitting side by side during his second trial. Had Hera found an avenue through which she intended to overthrow Zeus?
“Where are the Graeae?” Hades asked at last.
Helios offered a wicked smile.
“Lake Tritonis,” he said. “You’ll find them held in the caves.”
The God of the Sun pulled Rosie close, his great strength allowing him to carry the animal under his arm.
“You are about to find out, Hades, that you’re on the wrong side.”
Hades narrowed his eyes at the message but said nothing. Not that Helios would have listened, because in the next second, he was gone. Hades could safely say that while he’d suspected an inevitable uprising against the Olympians, he had always thought that relics would be the avenue through which an opposition would attempt to gain power over them—not via literal divine monsters. Worse yet, divine monsters could be created, and if Triad was responsible for this, if they had managed to gain the support of a handful of Olympians, then they were far more of an adversary than Hades had thought.
At least now he had a path forward, and it began at Tritonis.
He called up his magic to teleport when Hera appeared in the clearing.
“Fucking Fates,” he said, the words coming out slowly as a hiss.
“Hades,” she said, a wicked smile on her face. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Chapter XX
The Amazons
Now is not the time, he wanted to say, but he knew what she would threaten.
His future with Persephone, though he had done enough to damage that himself during their last encounter. His chest ached at the thought of how he’d left her—with no comforting words, only a countdown to say goodbye to her friend—and even though he had fucked up, he did not need Hera making it worse. It was that thought that made him relent, despite the pressing matter of locating the Graeae.
He would just have to send Ilias to Lake Tritonis. For a brief moment, he’d considered including Dionysus in the retrieval, but he did not know the god’s loyalties, and with a potential revolt on the horizon, he did not want to take any chances.
“What is it?” he snapped. He saw no reason to hide his resentment of the goddess. Especially after what she had put him through during the last two labors, though that only made his stomach churn. What did she have planned for him next? Was it to be something far worse?
“I’d like you to retrieve Hippolyta’s belt,” she said, almost casually.
Hades’s brows lowered. That was a relatively tame ask given what she had saddled him with before.
“Hippolyta’s belt,” Hades said. “Why?”
“Do not question my wants, Lord Hades. It is none of your business.”
Hades narrowed his eyes. “Does Ares know of your wants?”
“The belt was his gift to Hippolyta. I see no reason to ask him.”
Hades glared. There was nothing particularly stunning about the belt. It was leather, and Hippolyta wore it to symbolize her status as Queen of the Amazons. Its only power was that it gave its wearer superhuman strength, a useless power for both Hippolyta and Hera, who already possessed such a skill.
Unless, of course, it was an attempt to gain another weapon in her fight against Zeus. The belt could give an Impious mortal the power to face a god.
Hades’s mood darkened, and suddenly he wondered just how much his labors had intertwined with her ultimate goal of overthrowing Zeus.
He did not let himself think on that long, though. He filed the information away for later. Perhaps he was onto something—something that would allow him to end Hera’s labors and prevent her retaliation against Persephone.
“Do whatever you must to trade,” she said. “You have until sunset.”
Hades gave a frustrated growl as she left. He took out his phone and called Ilias.
“Yeah?” the satyr answered, out of breath.
Hades arched a brow. “Are you in the middle of something?”
“Running a marathon,” Ilias replied, a sarcastic edge to his voice.
Hades did not question it. “When you are finished,” he said, “I need you to travel to Lake Tritonis and secure the Graeae. Tell no one. I will be back as soon as possible.”
“Got it,” Ilias replied, and when Hades hung up, he vanished.
* * *
The Amazons lived in Terme, which was north of New Greece, and while part of the mainland, it existed on no mortal map. A smaller island extended off the coast, which they called Themyscira and used as a training ground. The landscape of Terme was lush and green, the terrain made of cresting hills and deep divots where white water flowed over great rocks. Their city was encased in a tall and expansive wall of stone and graying brick. Its towers and gates were heavily guarded as there was always a brave mortal or two trying to scale the walls, and depending on their intentions, they were either released or held in prison under Queen Hippolyta’s discretion.
It was at one of those gates that Hades appeared. While it was likely he could have appeared at Hippolyta’s sanctuary, doing so would have been considered in poor taste, and since he was going to ask a favor of the Amazon queen, he decided against it.
The two women at the gate were tall and stood at attention, dressed in bronze hoplite armor, including a helmet, breastplate, and greaves. They carried bronze shields that reached from their chins to their knees and spears in their right hands. They were stoic and strong.
While they stood still before the wooden gate, he could tell by how they stiffened that they did not expect to see him.
“Lord Hades,” the one on the left said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“You don’t have to lie,” he said. “I need to speak with Hippolyta.”
The Amazon on the right used her spear to knock on the gate thrice, and the doors opened to reveal the interior of the Amazons’ oasis, which was just as lush, packed with evergreen oaks, cypress, and flowering myrtle and oleander. Dirt paths wound through identical homes that were composed of sun-dried mud bricks and covered in a flowering vine that smelled strongly of honey.
On the other side of the gate, another Amazon waited. She was dressed the same as the two guards and said nothing to him, only turned and led him down the winding road. Hades followed between the tightly built homes. The floral smell was stronger here, and Hades noticed plump bumblebees moving from flower to flower, zipping between him and the Amazon he followed.
The path led to a round courtyard that was several feet below ground level and accessible by a set of stairs that extended around the entire perimeter. Despite the center being covered in sun-dried brick, the Amazons had managed to make the space look just as lively as the surrounding landscape, filling great stone pots with flowers and greens. Opposite this gathering place were more of the same homes, and from over the tops of their roofs, the mountainous terrain of the rest of Terme was visible, where clouds hung low to meet their peaks.
Despite the fact that the Amazons had a queen, there were no palaces here, and Hippolyta did not even sit on a throne. She was queen because of her knowledge and expertise in battle.
Nothing else mattered.
The Amazons not on guard wore white peploses and cloaks. Some wore gold or leather belts while others chose ribbons, and their hair was braided into intricate styles that kept it off their necks and out of their faces—a completely practical choice, both due to the heat and because of its interference in battle.
Hades followed the guard down the steps into the lower courtyard. There was a large fountain in one corner where the women could draw drinking water and a firepit where they cooked community food, but the thing that caught Hades’s attention was a metal pole protruding from the ground and the woman tied to it.
Hades nodded toward her.
“What did she do?”
The Amazon did not look in her direction but answered, “Slept with a man outside the mating ritual.”
Hades said nothing. The Amazons procreated once a year with a tribe called the Gargareans, keeping only the female children born from the couplings—males were returned. It wasn’t that the Amazons hated men; they found them unnecessary for anything outside of sustaining their society, so to seek one out beyond necessity was considered shameful.
And dishonor among the Amazons was a death sentence.