End of War in Thermopylae by Belinda Harrison

Author:Belinda Harrison [Harrison, Belinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gee Be Publications
Published: 2020-02-21T07:00:00+00:00

17

“I have waited so long for this day,” Ares said. “Once I believed I needed someone to aid me in my desire to become King of the Gods, but now I realise that all I ever needed was myself.”

“You haven’t won, Ares,” I panted, getting to my feet.

“No? And how do you intend to stop me? You no longer have the pieces of the amulet.”

He was right and I had no idea how to deny him of anything anymore but … perhaps if I could distract him, Hephaestus would find a way through the larger shield around us.

“How did you get free from the cage?” I asked, bringing my aspis back across my left side.

Ares smiled, slipping the jet and hematite into his leather vest and picking up his sword from the dirt. He spun it around his hand and held it up to face me. “I wondered when you were going to ask me that,” he smiled. “You are not the only one who is looked fondly upon by a god, or in my case, a goddess.”

“Aphrodite,” I breathed.

“Naturally. When she learned that my brother had aided you on Olympos, she knew he must be behind my disappearance. She searched and searched, until finally she found me.”

“But how did she get you out? Hephaestus assured me there was no way you, or any immortal, could break those bars.”

“He spoke true, believe me, I wasted much time and energy attempting to. No, my clever lover had Hephaestus plied with enough of Dionysius’ strongest wine that he would tell her anything she wanted to know; and that knowledge led her to the key that fit the lock on my cage.”

“Hephaestus would’ve never invited Aphrodite into his home, he’s never forgiven either of you for the betrayal and shame you brought him with your affair,” I argued.

“He would if she appeared to him in the guise of another – say a follower of Dionysius who brought the great god of the forge some of the finest wine as a token of their continued friendship?”

I opened and closed my mouth. It was indeed possible that Aphrodite was able to trick Hephaestus in such a way; after all, Dionysius had helped Hephaestus long ago and Hephaestus had often spoken of his respect for the wine god.

“So the two of you are reunited. Is she with you now – to see you become what you’ve always wanted?”

“No, a battlefield is no place for one of such beauty and when I eventually rise as king, it shall not be here in the mortal realm, but on Olympos where all the gods shall bow before me or die by my hand.”

Hephaestus threw fireball after fireball against the shield, but still it didn’t break.

“When you rise as king? Now that you have the amulet pieces aren’t you going to seek your new position immediately? Or are you afraid that too many of your kin will still see you as an unworthy leader and laugh at your attempt?” I taunted.

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