Chapter 45

Eros and Astraea appeared in the throne room. The lady in the nightgown with whom we have been so frequently acquainted, disappeared. In an instant Eros had absorbed his surroundings. He saw the staircase revealed, the shattered window, and Odin.

A trail of blood glistened; Odin's breath was raspy, beads of sweat stood upon his brow. "Master!" Eros cried running to his side.

The old man's eyes shone; Eros was not dead.

"E....ros..."

"What...has happened....to...him...?"

Melancholy replaced the taint of death.

"He's become lost, but I will stop him."

Once more Odin's eyes shone.

Astraea stepped through the broken glass, and descried Eros look to the heavens. She saw the tears and the pain. The stars had ceased to fall; the frightful black mist had stopped swirling. People who'd lamented in the streets were quiet.

"Hold on master, help is coming."

Odin's breath was shallow, it became faint.

"Astraea fetch--"

"No." He grabbed Eros' tunic. "You must not delay....Stop...your fallen brother."

Eros couldn't leave him.

"I'm an old soldier...This day....is long overdue."

Then the guards came.

The captain said, "Bring a mage this instant!"

A guard disappeared from out of sight.

The captain knelt beside Eros, "We can take care of this, sir."

Astraea pulled at his shirt. Eros at last tore himself away. He looked upon Odin one last time, then he returned through the shattered glass. He descended down the staircase into the past where footsteps echoed in the dark.

Astraea led Eros driven by some mirthful impulse. Eros wondered how far they had descended when at last they reached the base of the pit. They followed a passage into a cave, which was marvellous. It had veins of crystal. The tiny ventricles lit up the tomb.

It was then they saw the ancient castle that rested within. Like a ship in a bottle. The haggard edifice had seen better days, yet despite being buried for thousands of years, it retained its majesty, and splendour.

Eros said, "Have you ever seen something like that?"

Astraea was silent.

"All this time," Eros continued, "This ancient wonder has been here."

They advanced along a broken, stony path, the castle towering in the foreground. Then across a narrow bridge that extended over a great chasm. Looking down, Eros wavered. Astraea sensed it. She spun around, and, placing her slender hand upon his shoulder, she steadied him.

"Come on," she said.

Dusty streets and abandoned homes greeted the sorceress and chevalier when they passed through the portcullis. Eros saw a tattered doll. The castle had once been so full of life, a thriving metropolis, now it was abandoned.

But one person didn't ever leave this place. She still sat upon her throne, and Thanatos would be close to restoring her. Eros's body tensed when he saw the palace. The exalted structure scratched the roof of the cavern. That must be where she was. Astraea had navigated them through the streets expertly. Eros wondered how she knew where to go.

They entered, and Astraea again led him on through the labyrinth of corridors and passageways perfectly. They strode into the throne room and they both saw her - the stone sorceress.

With a slow stride Eros came before the empress trapped within stone. Incredulously he brushed her lifeless visage. Arethusa was precisely as the playwright had described her: she leaned forward, her right arm rested on the side, her left stretched out before her. No doubt that is where she'd touched her sister's cheek when it had happened. He looked upon the countenance that smirked.

"Magnificent," Eros swivelled at the sound of his voice, "Isn't she?"

"Why haven't you released her?" Thanatos strode into the centre of the room, Eros said, "That's your plan right?"

"Yes, and the reason I haven't is because I can't." Thanatos cast a glance at Astraea who didn't seem herself. The earlier excitement had vanished, and now she appeared to suffer. Astraea seemed close to fainting. The sorceress bent over holding her stomach and her head.

Eros had followed Thanatos's eyes, "Astraea?"

She swayed to her side; her balance off, bringing her slender hand up she massaged her forehead.

Thanatos said, "That is to say – I couldn't." He laughed as Eros looked at Astraea, not understanding what was going on. Thanatos meanwhile continued, "Priya used her own blood, which she shared with her sister." His eyes zealously concentrated upon Arethusa. Then he was back, setting his gaze upon Astraea, "That which she shares with her lineage."

It finally dawned on Eros.

"By blood was it done, and only by blood can it be undone."

He looked upon Astraea who staggered, a creature flashed across her countenance. It was that same venom that manifested so often during their journey together, most recently in Nebuchadnezaar's reception.

"Astraea what's wrong?" Eros ran across to her, he shook her but she was senseless.

"I solved the riddle Eros," Thanatos was odious to behold, "She has dreams of Arethusa," still Eros tried to reawaken her senses. "I was confounded at first, but then I learned what Arethusa was trying - before this," he motioned to the lady of stone. "She was experimenting in dark magic. She wanted to save her parents, but they died long ago. She knew the only way was to remove that impediment. To go back, and change what happened. To overcome time.

But the spell wasn't finished when Priya tricked her. She couldn't very well remain encased in stone, so she did what she could."

Eros listened, but he didn't understand what Thanatos was getting at.

"What are you talking about?"

"Arethusa thrust her consciousness through time, not back, but forwards! Possessing another of her line, so that she could free herself from her prison. But the spell was imperfect, and she went too far. You see Eros, Astraea doesn't dream of Arethusa, she is Arethusa."

Eros couldn't believe it, he wouldn't. Tears filled his eyes. He held Astraea in his strong arms, looking into her face, but she wasn't there. Astraea cast him across the room. He bounced hard off one of the pillars.

Thanatos laughed.

Eros struggled to raise himself as Astraea knelt before Arethusa.

"No!" Eros cried.

Astraea unsheathed a dagger.

"You can fight it."

She turned back to him with eyes that had become white. Astraea was utterly possessed.

"Aboard the schooner, you couldn't let him kill me. You stopped her then as you can now."

Astraea's heart beat beneath her chest where a battle raged, but the cancer inside was too powerful. After all these years it was so close, its will permeated her very soul. Astraea wept when the blade slid across her palm. The blood began to flow; the spirit whispered an incantation while Astraea's blood dripped onto Arethusa's brow.

Eros looked on when the stone began to crack, when Astraea shook convulsively as the poltergeist left her chest and rushed to that of the restoring sorceress. He felt a pang in his breast when Astraea's limp body fell. Her lifeless head cracked against the floor.

Then he saw Arethusa reanimate. Stone was yet crumbling off of her, landing in great chunks at her feet when she began to rise. Her eyes opened, but the empress was weak after all these years, and she fell to her knees. Thanatos was there to aid her, and to help her to her feet. She looked up into his dark eyes because from within Astraea she had watched this man serve her. She'd witnessed his sagacious will, and indomitable iron wrist. Long had she wished he'd been with her on her many campaigns. The victories would have been that much sweeter with him to share them with. As he held her in his arms he whispered, "We've done it your highness."

Arethusa was lost in the moment, at last she was free.

The old sorceress returned to the present moment. She looked at the woman at her feet. With scorn on her tongue, she said, "She loves him passionately, she tried so hard to resist me."

Eros looked at Astraea lying unconscious. He saw her for the first time. Her body had been possessed all this time by the most powerful of her race. But always had she resisted from within, struggling internally against an impulse that she was compelled to obey, though she didn't know why. It must have been awful, having someone, something, forcing you to do what you didn't wish to.

Sorceress Arethusa and Thanatos moved for the exit, Eros blocked them off. Arethusa fired a ball of dark energy that struck him in the chest. Barely conscious his head rolled to the side on the stone floor. He saw Arethusa fall to one knee. Thanatos bent over her with such tenderness, and devotion in his eyes.

"Please your highness, you're weak."

Eros saw him help her up. "You need to regain your strength." He wrapped his arms around her. "Tomorrow... annual meeting... vita obscura...."

Eros espied the sorceress's glare. It was that same frightful creature he'd seen beneath the surface of Astraea's skin.

"Zeus Ordain...palace in the woods..."

He could only discern these words. He concentrated.

Sorceress Arethusa stroked Thanatos cheek, she whispered, "Revenge."

"What...them?" Thanatos asked.

Eros saw him turn to look at him.

"Bury them," she said dispassionately.

Rock fell around Eros who lay on his back looking at Astraea. She was still alive because her chest moved up and down when she breathed. He had to get up, but he couldn't. Paralysis was no doubt an effect from Arethusa's baleful spell. The roof began to fall. It smashed against the floor. He looked at Astraea when the rock fell around her. Then he heard a portentous crack. Looking to the roof above, he saw it break apart. A huge chunk fell down upon him.