The Gatekeeper's Promise: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Six (The Gatekeeper's Saga 6) (20 page)

“The black magic has gone to her head,” Chimera explained
, as she sat in the water, panting. “My family and I thought she meant to restore power to the Titans, but apparently she has no intention of freeing them from Tartarus.”

“Then what
does
she want?” Hip asked.

“We can’t figure it out,” Chimera said. “My father was promised the trident, but now he doubts she ever intended to give it to him.”

“Did she say why she sent you here?” Hecate asked.

“
She wants us all to battle it out,” Chimera said. “The last few standing will get their powers and strength partially restored and become her servants on Mount Olympus.”

Hip thought immediately of Jen as his mouth fell open. “And what happens to the rest?”

“They remain here,” Chimera said. “Forever.”

***

“I’ll go get the others!” Jen said, not knowing what else to do.

“Don’t leave me here!” Therese begged her. “Jen, I’m scared.”

Jen watched in horror as Therese
grit her teeth and grunted. Another contraction seemed to be coming on. They were happening more frequently.

“Okay, okay,”
Jen said. “I’m not going anywhere. Do you need water or anything?”

“Will you just, oh, just, hold on!” Therese screamed. “Stop talking!”

Jen clamped her mouth shut. Geez! She was only trying to help.

“Take this blanket,” Than said. “Let some fresh water soak part of it. Then bring it back and put it on her head.”

That was actually a good idea, Jen thought. At least it gave her something to do. She took the blue cotton blanket with the birds embroidered on it and held a corner of it beneath the falls. The water was freezing as it crept up her wrists and onto her sleeves. She wrung most of the water out and carried the blanket back to Therese, who was sweating and panting like a fish out of water. Jen put the corner of wet blanket across Therese’s forehead.

“Hold my hand,” Therese insisted.

Jen did as she said.

“Don’t break it,” Jen said, wincing from her friend’s tight grip.

“Oh hell, oh hell, here it comes again!” Therese screamed.

“
Breathe, Baby,” Than said.

“Oh, I can’t take this! I can’t take it! Make it stop!” Therese screamed at the top of her lungs.

“You can do this.” Jen moved Therese’s sweaty hair from her eyes. “I know you can. You’re the bravest person I know.”

Jen was shocked when Therese broke into tears and cried, “I’m not brave! I want to be, but I’m not!”

Then the pain seemed to subside, because Therese relaxed, at least for the moment.

“
You are brave, Baby,” Than said. “I’ve seen it. Jen’s right. You can do this.”

“Okay,” Therese said. “Okay. I can do this. I can. Oh, God. Oh, hell. Here it comes again!”

Just as Jen thought her hand was crushed for good, she was relieved to see the other gods had finally made it back.

“Is she…” Hecate lost her words as Jen nodded.

“Do you know what to do?” Jen asked.

Hip and Hermes exchanged worried glances, but Hecate rushed over and pulled down Therese’s underpants.

“Give me that blanket,” Hecate said. “I can already see a head.”

Jen handed
the blanket to the goddess and felt Therese’s grip tighten.

“Here it comes!” Therese shouted.

“Go ahead and push, Therese,” Hecate said. “As the contraction comes on, bear down.”

“Oh hell! Oh holy hell!” Therese cried.

“You’re doing fine,” Hecate said calmly. “The baby’s coming.”

Jen sat up on her knees and watched with utter amazement as the baby slid like a wet baby seal out from between Therese’s legs
. Then she watched in horror as Hecate used a dagger to cut the umbilical cord.

“It’s Hestia!” Hip said. “She’s beautiful!”

The baby girl wailed, and all but Therese laughed.

“Rip that blanket in half for me, Hermes,” Hecate ordered.

Hermes did as he was told.

“Oh hell, oh, God, oh, here it comes again!” Therese screamed.

Hecate handed baby Hestia off to Hermes as Jen endured another hand-crushing squeeze from Therese.

“Oh, no,” Hecate
said. “Don’t push, Therese. Do you hear me? The boy is breech.”

“What does that mean?”
Jen glanced at Than, who lay on the floor with his eyes tightly shut.

“It means he’s upside down,” Hecate said.

Than opened his eyes. “Why is that bad?”

“The legs don’t come through as easily as the head,”
Hecate explained. “Just wait a minute while I try to turn him.”

As Hecate put a hand inside on the unborn baby, Therese screamed and writhed in pain.

“Never mind! Okay!” Hecate said. “It’s okay. Let me just try to get his little feet.”

“Here it comes again!” Therese screamed. “Oh hell, oh man, oh help me, please!”

“Don’t push!” Hecate shouted. “Jen, I need you here!”

“What can
I
do?” Jen asked, scared to death.

“Get over here,” Hecate said. “Hip, go hold Therese’s hand.”

Jen and Hip glanced fearfully at one another as Jen crouched beside Hecate at Therese’s bent knees. Jen was horrified by the bloody mess on the ground.

“What is that?” she muttered.

“That’s just the placenta,” Hecate said.  “Hestia’s placenta. It’s normal. Now reach over here and grab this tiny foot.”

Jen’s eyes widened in shock. She had to stick her fingers into the bloody mess? She thought she might faint as sweat broke out on her forehead. She reminded herself that she had to stay focused for her friend. Therese and her baby were on the line.

“Got it,” Jen said when she finally found the foot and curled her fingers around it.

“We need to turn him so I can get to the other leg,” Hecate said as Therese began to wail again.

“It’s okay, Baby,” Than said.

Tears sprang to Jen’s eyes as she watched Hecate thrust her hand inside of Therese, cupping the baby.

“I’ve got it,” Hecate said. “Now, Therese. Go ahead and push.”

This baby did not slide out like a wet seal, Jen observed. She and Hecate had to ease him out, helping each little arm, one at a time, and then the chin. But at last the baby was free and crying just like his sister.

The entire room, save Therese, shouted their hoorays and bravos and well dones, but when Jen looked back down at her friend, she gasped. Therese was out cold.

***

When Therese woke up and saw her husband sitting up against the wall of the grotto holding a baby, she immediately suspected she was dreaming. But if they were still trapped in Circe’s battlefield—Hip included—a dream was impossible.
That meant her husband really
was
sitting up, and he really
was
holding one of their babies. But had both made it out alive?

She glanced around
the cavern.

“You’re awake,” Than said, smiling down at her.

Jen sat near Therese’s feet holding the other one. Therese sighed with relief as Jen smiled at her.

“Are you ready to meet your babies?” Jen asked.

Hecate turned from where she’d been washing her tunic in the falls. “They need to eat.”

Therese blinked and tried to sit up, ignoring the soreness between her legs. Hecate reached over and hel
ped her lean against the wall beside Than.

“Can you walk?” she asked him.

“Not yet. But soon. I can feel it.”

“Where are Hip and Hermes?” Therese asked, noticing the other gods were missing.

“Looking for food,” Jen said. “We noticed pecans and walnuts during our last outing. A nice change from all the fruit.”

Anxious to hold her babies, Therese
peered into the eyes of the little bundle in Than’s arms.

“This is Hermes, our son,” he said
, gently. “And he’s really hungry. He’s been sucking on my finger for hours.”

Therese took the baby boy into her own arms and, with Hecate’s help, was able to feed him. Little Hestia was soon crying for her turn. It took some getting used to, but Therese finall
y got the hang of nursing. After the babies had been burped, she and Than sat side by side, each with a babe in their arms.

She was amazed by how much love she had for them, and how much she adored their sweet little bodies.
Hestia had little red wisps of soft, feathery hair all over the top of her head and the roundest little bunched-up cheeks. Hermes had dark hair—almost black, like his father’s, but not very much. His lips were fuller, and presently in the cutest pout. Their eyes were the darkest blue she’d ever seen. She couldn’t stop gazing at her babies, stroking them, holding them ever so close. Giving them up to her aunt and uncle seemed like an impossibility to her now.

“I can’t believe I’m actually getting this opportunity to hold them,” Than said. “I’m almost glad we got trapped here.”

Tears pricked Therese’s eyes, and a sob caught in her throat, but she managed to say, “I know.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to stay here.”

Therese looked up at him with surprise. “You can’t be serious.”

“Why not?” He looked every bit as serious as he sounded.

“Well, because, first of all, we’d never see our families,” she said.

“I
f we have to choose between our parents and our babies, it’s an easy choice,” he said.

“
We’re at the witch’s mercy here,” Therese complained. “We don’t know what she’ll do to us next.”

“That’s true no matter where we go,” Than insisted.
“We’re always at the mercy of forces outside of our control.”

“But what about their destiny?” Therese asked. “How can they restore
faith to humanity if they’re trapped in here with us?”

“If it’s their fate, then it will happen,” he said. “I don’t know how, but it will.”

Therese couldn’t believe what Than was saying. As much as she wanted to live with him and their babies, she couldn’t turn her back on their families and their responsibilities. A simple life didn’t sound bad at all, but the entire world could be at stake.

“What if
the rest of the world needs us?” she asked. “What if the other gods are in trouble?”

Than was silent for a moment. “I know we can’t really live here,” he finally said. “I know it’s not
possible. I just like thinking about it.”

Therese’
s breath caught, and she leaned over and kissed her husband’s cheek. Then she leaned down and kissed the baby girl in his arms as she tightened her hold on baby Hermes. She hated not knowing the future of her little family.

“What’s not possible?” Hip asked
, as he surfaced from the canyon with his shirt full of nuts.

Than told his brother what he’d been telling Therese.

“Sounds nice,” Hip agreed. “I was just imagining the same for me and Jen.”

“What a happy little family we could all make,” Therese s
aid to little Hermes. “Oh, what a sweet dream, Hypnos. But Than and I need to think about what we’re really going to do.”

“You mean if we ever get out of here?” Hermes asked as he emerged from the canyon below.

“Don’t talk like that,” Hecate said as she carried the newly rinsed diapers she had made from strips of the blue cotton blanket. “It does no good to think the worst.”

“Oh, I’m thinking the worst, all right,” Hermes said. “Take a look who I found.”

Hermes held out his hand to someone below, and in the next moment, Callisto appeared.

“Callisto?” Hecate asked, bewildered.

“Not just me,” the nymph said. “Marvin is here, too—down below in the canyon.”

“Who’s Marvin?” Jen asked.

“Apollo’s lover,” Hecate replied.

“You know what this means,” Hermes said. “Circe has upped her game. I’d bet all the drachmas in the world on who shows up here next.”

Chapter Sixteen: New Arrivals

Thanatos dived into the cool water, in what had come to be called Poseidon’s River, glad to finally have a bath.

“Aren’t you coming in?” he called to Hip, who sat in the shallows where the water met the bank.

“No, thanks. I’m happy right here.”

Than laughed at the sight of his brother bending over to dip in his head and rinse out his hair. I
t gave him a flashback of the days when they were boys and their mother bathed them in one of the pools formed where the Cocytus River met the Acheron. Hip never did like baths. The memories made Than think of his own twins and how he wished he could be around to help them grow up.