2012 Part 24

'Okay, I see; that's very perceptive of you,' said Alexander relieved. 'But it is true the people of Elysium are with me in this. My journeying with Barboncito has wakened a new interest in their restoration to the living world. The People of Elysium are not here by accident. I have seen the work of Rhadamanthys and it's true you are the chosen ones. More reason to lead you from here and for you to become mentors for the living world. It's what Barboncito told me is his purpose - and my people on the other side of the Sipapu share his goals. They see the world being destroyed and work for its recovery. There is a clear common interest which needs now to be connected if the world is to be saved. We are all in the same world whichever realm we inhabit, if Gaia dies so do we all.'

'But we are already dead, I pa.s.sed over ten of your centuries ago!'

'But that's the whole point! You are uncontaminated. You are pure. You are before Europa's deluge which all but destroyed your people on earth and will in the end destroy everything. Fourthworld needs your unsullied experience of how to live. Few people in the now know, I mean really know how to live. There is no time left for people to change by themselves. NightChant, I can't expect you to follow what I'm saying for you have not experienced the world as I have, the world as people have made it. You are so lucky to know it as you do. You have helped me to realise the immensity of the tragedy we have wrought. It's so huge that I've been ages making sense of the magnitude of it. I used to think people were clever enough to work their way out of the hole they were digging for themselves. That there was time to invent ways out before the world became uninhabitable. That we would somehow stop the pollution, clean the seas and the air, free the people from their blindness, get it right in the end. But through the real meaning of Hozjo two things have convinced me that Barboncito and Hades are right.'

He paced about the Hogan talking quickly, breathlessly. NightChant regarded him with wonder and adoration. Hecate, however, almost lost her grip on her task and was thinking about shedding NightChant's outer skin and revealing herself to make sure this sad, mistaken apology for a son of the great Zeus got his act together. NightChant was such a push-over. Hecate decided she had got the mix wrong. Sure she had hooked him, but her purity made her too uncritical of his limited experience and inadequate sophistication. She would have to find a way of NightChant tripping him up. It would be a real effort of will to allow him to go on. Maybe, she hoped, if she left him alone he would come to it for himself.

She cursed that the whole Pantheon was under a new ban by Zeus of talking directly to mortals, apart from the exception of Alexander, and she was unable to reveal herself to him or he would fail her test. For people, she reflected, to believe they thought for themselves was one thing, it was another to actually ensure they did it. Talk about risky. It would also put the G.o.ds out of a job. However the alternative of a world without people would be pretty boring without being able to work on their thoughts. The G.o.ds were okay on their own, in their way, but without birth and death to turnover new people to give renewed interest, people would soon become predictable. Maybe the G.o.ds should wait another ten million years or so, make a new kind of flood and make a fresh sixth-race as the best way out of the present mess? Although she didn't like Hera much, she had to concede that it was too late for that and there was too much work already done. Perhaps their work was really over in this world either way. Still, It would be a pity to allow it all to go to waste just because people refused to act out in public what they knew in private had to be done. Really, it was that simple.

She, like Hera and many others in the Pantheon couldn't believe it had come to this, despite having known it instinctively for aeons, as Europa's children multiplied and fanned out across the globe. Like Hera too, she wasn't sure about Zeus' alternative ideas to search for, or create other intelligent life forms on other worlds in other universes. What was the point? What use were they as G.o.ds if they couldn't work it out with this current lot? So, if she couldn't do anything as Hecate, she'd have to do what she could as NightChant. She would make ingenuousness work. After all, Alexander really believed he had got to the truth of the matter. See how he expounds, he's really got something to say. With Barboncito making way in the Now, with the endless hordes of Hades ready to sweep away the negligence of the Now for the apparent 'simple goodness' of the Past, he really did believe he was going to save the Earth. She would use this belief and hope to lead him away from too much pride.

'Alex-Andre - Protector,' NightChant spoke softly but her use of his full tribal name made him pay her attention. Such use of names had special significance in the Hogans of Barboncito. It denoted seriousness of intention and the need for the named to pay attention. To ignore such an address was unbecoming in a chief. When she was sure he had stopped his flight of rhetoric, she continued, 'I'm all ears to know these two things which have convinced you my Chief, but we are of the dead. We have pa.s.sed our time in the Now. We left what we could back there for those who came after us, more we cannot do. There is no future here. You must listen to me, there is no future in Hades.'

'But there is the past, NightChant, we have forgotten the past and what I know now is that while it was not always good, you of the past know how to live. We who know only how to plunder the world, have forgotten how to truly live. We must stop what we do and live. Barboncito steals these ideas from here and is trying to make them live in the Now. Hades and Chronos together with Zeus can hold time long enough for the knowledge of your people to be re-learned in the present. A show of ma.s.sed will-power at his door must make him pay attention. To balance Hades and Zeus, the past with the present is heroic work. This is my mission from my father.'

'And of the future?'

'There won't be a future without me! That's precisely it! I know from Zeus, Hera, Mnemosyne and even dappy Pan that there's no future unless I succeed. I must bring Hades to Zeus! But not in entreaty, I want him to come in full panoply, as he should, his hordes at his back and Chronos at his side!'

It was on the tip of Hecate's tongue to remind Alexander of the last time Zeus was directly challenged in the Now by the forces of the Past, but as NightChant she was unable to do so. Therefore let Alexander ma.s.s his hordes and present himself in Erebus if he could. Her Harpies had ways of acting for themselves once loosed on the over proud and Hecate would try to protect him - if she could!'

Chapter 5.

Persephone, lately returned from her confrontation with Zeus, was occupied trying to restore the disrupted weather systems of Europe. She too was dismayed by wider weather changes over which she found she now had limited control. Her coming to Zeus out of her proper time had meant a particularly late spring for the year. Her main task was the regularity of the seasons, which she struggled to maintain in spite of a fatigued Gaia who was slipping imperceptibly from vigorous growth towards mere maintenance. Gaia continued to complain to Zeus and anyone else who would listen, that this lamentable state of things must inevitably end with Her becoming too fragile to sustain a human population. Persephone was trapped in a three cornered conflict. She hated change. All her considerable powers of creativity were channelled to the maintenance of a seasonal cycle designed for all life. She had become used to one element of her conflict with Zeus, which at first she had found almost too difficult to bear. Her fury at her abduction by Hades to the alien realm of Erebus had been transformed in the arms of her dark and lordly abductor, now husband, into love for his clarity of purpose and the steadfastness with which he maintained the split between his world and the Now. A secure Past helped her work in the Now, gave people something reliable. There was no development in his realm. A kind of day/night in Elysium gave continuity, and was unchangeable. Seasons came and went and there was preservation. She used this as her anchor to cope with the complexity of change during her time in the Now. She would not bear children by Hades, for to create life was to conjure the unpredictable. As the centuries moved in the Now she needed constancy more and more as life became increasingly complex.

The second part of the conflict was also old but less constant. She loved Zeus her father, and Demeter her mother, as she loved her husband. But things were moving too fast for her in the Now. Demeter liked it as little as she, but they both reluctantly recognised the inevitability of the intrusive effect of people on the world and she also saw the growing powerlessness of Zeus and the G.o.ds to affect the minds of this fifth race.

The third element she liked least. There was movement in Hades. Life had entered. It wasn't the first time and probably wouldn't be the last. But this time there were differences. Life had always come by invitation, or at least consent. It was either kept in its place in Hades as she was herself, or allowed to leave on strict conditions of exit. Alexander, son of Zeus and thus her half-brother was not only uninvited and therefore not allowed, he was also counselling ideas of change.This she had from Zeus and not her husband. Hades too was changed. He was less determined to maintain the divide between past and future. He sought his father Chronos in his fastness and they spoke long together. The tectonic plates of time were on the move, serious shifts in expectation and understanding were occurring on both sides of the sipapu.

Persephone and Hades had never worked together much in the organisation of their day to day lives. Hades never confided in his wife about his work and she got on with her own tasks. Thus the seasons had come and gone largely without much remark. The relationship made for stability - it was good enough - in fact it was highly practical. Now her sense of stability which she needed for her work was under a.s.sault. Zeus wanted her to find her friend Hecate and watch out for the arrival of Themis and her rather worrying warlike companions. Chronos was to be brought face-to-face with the future for the first time and his recent fondness for Hades was a real worry. In the meantime she was to watch out for her new half-brother who by all accounts was the least predictable of them all and, if the reports she had from Ljeschi were true, he was still making waves in Elysium.

Hades seemed either ignorant or was deliberately ignoring these changes and while she suspected he already knew what she herself knew, he was never available for comment. From Hecate she learned Alexander was gathering his hordes and would soon be heading directly for the Halls of Hades. She too sensed the beat of silent wings knowing full well that no one fully controlled the Megarea, not even Hecate. She hoped Alexander would evade them successfully. His destiny was to do so but not everyone managed to fulfil theirs against such marauders as these sisters. Melding discretely with Hecate she updated her knowledge of Alexander, and was unsure whether to be pleased or unhappy when their communication was added to by the intervention of Pan, as sub-voce as he was capable. She protested and all three slipped into L3, 'As long as you are in Hades Pan, you are to remain silent. Only Hecate, myself and Hermes can be heard here and you've already broken you ban.'

Pan communicated on L3 in a spot flash. What he said animated Persephone and Hecate. It was the best solution to the Alexander problem they had heard even though it added new complications to the status quo. It however had the advantage of being likely to head off the delaying potential of the Erinyes. They hurriedly cut short the meld - all three hoping others on the Hadean 'sphere had better things to do than listen in. Fortunately their hope was fulfilled. Hades and Chronos saw the approach of Themis with Athena and Ares as the current priority and they would deal with Alexander in due time. So far, Zeus' diversion was working. Hecate and Persephone agreed to help Pan work his plan for Marina.

Marina put down her experience of Ljeschi on her ear-set as a waking dream and refused to waste more time on it. Such experiences were not abnormal for sub-s.p.a.ce travellers. She knew she was stressed by her work, by her concern for Alexander and the subliminal worry everyone had about the unexplained changes in the weather. There wwre also the complex gyrations practised by the UN and JNO to maintain a reasonable semblance of routine in a world of changing and often unreadable circ.u.mstances.

Her mind was full of Barboncito and Alexander. Lulled by the pulse of the aircraft she slipped into a deep reverie. As her mind spun away into fantasy she had the sensation of falling back to earth. At first she simply dropped in the kind of breathless free-fall she had experienced in her training as a sky-diver. Using these skills she righted herself against the increasingly forceful upward column of air upon which she seemed to be travelling. She enjoyed the sensation as she revelled in all physical activity. Letting her mind go, she entered fully into the experience and no longer knew or cared if the free-fall was a real bodily sensation or solely in the imagination.

The most astonishing thing was Ljeschi's voice in her head. Later when sh had time to reflect, in so far as she was able to think about it at all, she decided it was less a voice than a sensation of communication. It was more an internal than an external trespa.s.s on her consciousness. The direction of her fall seemed to be determined by her own desire, and not really by a feeling that Ljeschi was willing her towards a predetermined spot on the map of Mediterranean Europe. Her first perception was of the huge rotundity of the earth. The height achieved by the aircraft allowed her to see clearly the curvature of the globe. At once awed and enchanted by the vision, the sensation of flying into its bosom felt like a longed for homecoming. At no time did she feel unsafe or in anything but the most reliable of hands. As the earth's circularity inevitably flattened into the long line of the horizon, directly beneath her in full sunlight, lay the coastline of Greece with her islands, tiger's-eyes in a velvet sea. In the silence of falling found only in dreams, she directed her increasingly fast descent towards a s.p.a.ce between a range of spa.r.s.e, dry hills, at first the merest speck in the boundless distance. At a point when she wondered, dreamlike, if she would crash to her death against the side of a huge cliff, she careered like a fighter plane silently screaming at low level, through the very rock - into a place beyond. The supporting air on which she flew softened and lay her gently on the sandy earth of Elysium. The voice of Ljeschi ground into her ear, 'Okay sister, I got yer here now it's up ter you. There's just two things yer needs ter know baby, one, like I'm not supposed to be here and two, you neither. We 'ave ter trust to Them bein' too bothered wiv other fings ter worry about us.'

She lifted her eyes and Pannie Ljeschi was grinning at her from his cross-legged position by her head.

'Look, you're a lady of quick wit, let me say wot I gotta say, and let's get the questions over like, fast man. You an' that Trefoil bloke guessed it right. Congrats darlin' yer don't need all that DNA stuff neither. I'm who you think I am and it's obvious, G.o.ds don't die they simply fade from yer mind like. We're still floatin' about in the ether so's ter speak. You're dead right about the other Firm an'all. It's out ter get JNO and that's only the beginning. Yea, and that Barbons.h.i.tto geezer is one of its main agents. But what yer don't know is the big cheese behind the other Firm is more'n just another branch of the family, it's Hades 'imself aided and abetted by his dad Chronos. An' what they're after is just a little thing like the total stoppage of time and then its reversal so's there'd be no proper living human life left to spoil the world. It's the past coming to stop the future to absorb the present. See, no problems, no new thought, no accidents, no development, no complexity, Hades will have it all and Chronos will return and devour the future at last. See? You gott.i.t lady?'

Marina Thought fast. She didn't follow all the intricacies of the little man's train of thought. Her knowledge of Greek G.o.ds went nowhere as far as Alexander's. But she held fast to her intention to find Alexander at the point of his disappearance in the Matkatamiba. She believed he and Barboncito had crossed some kind of barrier into another place where the other Firm operated. She'd kept her mind open about the Greek G.o.ds stuff and went along with the idea of inner and outer realities. Whatever state of consciousness she was in, Ljeschi, Lucina, Hep, Alexander and the others were real enough to have entered her consciousness as live beings and she felt herself alive enough at this very moment and she needed answers to a few questions before she could act.

'Am I in the place beyond the Matkatamiba?

'You could say that, lady,' Pannie smirked at her.

'Okay, I believe you're who...'

'That's more'n your boy did at first,' grinned the little manikin. 'I never thought he'd gett.i.t. Talk about 'ard work, anyhow...'

'I thought you wanted to do this fast! Where's Alexander? Where Am I? What do I have to do and what am I really up against? Last question, what's my chances of getting out of here with him, both in one piece?'

'So you're ready for fast my girlie is yer? Okay, pin yer lugs an getta load 'a this! You, my girl are in Hades, inna realm called Elysium ter be exact. That's the Underworld to you. The Underworld, yea? Not h.e.l.l. Like, there's no such thing as h.e.l.l, that's all make-believe. Hades, or the world of Hades is like in the past. Everybody wot ever lived, their doin's gets logged here and goes on happenin' repeatin' and repeatin, 'cos there's no time here, no future. See? Now the Underworld's not just one place all joined up like. It don't all join up so's all the dead people sorta mingle and mix things up else they might all start developing sumfink from the contact like, and that'd be growth and that's not allowed 'ere, that's not what it's for. So they're in different realms. Erebus, where Hades and Persephone live; Elysium; where Chronos rules and Tartarus, which you don't want ter know abaht. See? Now then, your Precious Alexander reckons to know all about it - an' I daresay 'e does, he knows the theory like but he's right lackin' in the knowledge department. No experience, not like us, too new, see? You've gotta knock abaht the 'sphere a bit ter know how to 'andle fings down 'ere like. So 'e's gone and got 'imself inter a right 'ole. That's where you come in. All you gotta know is he's only got it 'alf right an' he's gotta get out of here on 'is own with Hades in tow. On 'is own mind yer, not in front of a whoppin' great army like, you got that lady? Nah then, abaht the enemy as you put it, it's mainly 'im, he's 'is own worst enemy, Alexander I means. Them Erinye kids are gunnin for 'im 'cos 'es overeachin' 'imself...'

She interrupted him. Her instincts told her that this was a time for action and she did not have time to make full sense of all this. Unusually for her what she was thinking came straight out of her mouth.

'Look, I can't be doing with all this. I'm sure it's all very useful to know who's who and what's what and all that. But like you said, I've got to get on with it. So where is he? How far from here? What do I have to do to get him out?'

'I guess you're right, you're all life and livin' you are. You'll pop outer here like a champagne cork an' take 'im wiv yer. P'raps the problem in the first place was ter give 'im too much info. Okay, okay yer not far from 'im. Stick around and you'll see 'im soon. All you gotta remember is that yer not supposed ter be here an' well, I dunno, just be yerself and you won't go far wrong! Hecate'll sort it all aht, I 'ope.' And he was gone as suddenly as he appeared.

Maybe she was still in the stratosphere and dreaming, or somehow she was here, wherever, in this dry land talking with a c.o.c.kney chimera. Take things as you find them my la.s.s, she said to herself. Fortunately her tenacity for her task remained undiminished. Alexander was her quest, dealing with the other Firm was what she had to do. She was sure he was in the same business as she was, whatever this Greek stuff was doing to him.

She gazed about her. Her blood sang with a love of life against the strong sense of desolation which came through the landscape. It reminded her forcefully of the contrast between Barboncito and Alexander. It was a kind of beacon within her. Life was making and doing. Physical action allied to ideas - thought made action. Weaving the present into the future as the present was woven in its turn from the past. She felt that if she didn't keep a firm hold of this idea in this place, her spirit would be dragged down and she would cease to be herself. JNO had to triumph over the Firm in whose territory Ljeschi had said she now was, if indeed she was anywhere tangible.

One thing was clear, Barboncito was the enemy and anyone remotely on his side was a risk to her work in JNO. Given that she was in his territory, everyone and everything she met was a potential enemy, including the little man who got her here. She would trust to her instincts and follow her own feelings. Her internal thoughts and external experience seemed to work fully together in this current state of being. She would go with her feelings and act in accordance with the strength of the life force she had in her, and ignore the drag on her spirit she felt from this place. She felt somehow incredibly vital. Physically strong and mentally charged, like a boxer at the peak of condition for the big fight. It was as if her whole life was a preparation for the acts she would be called upon to perform in this place.

'Right then - enough of this! To work!' The little manikin had said she would see Alexander soon. She jumped lightly to her feet and dusted herself off. She immediately regretted her clothing, designed to make easy pa.s.sage in the male dominated world of UNPEX officials and not for gallivanting in mountainous country. She tore the seams of her dress to mid-thigh to offer more freedom of movement. Looking around she spotted a high, jutting rock outcrop which would give a clear view over the terrain. She climbed her way to it with a strong feeling of expectation, as if something critical was about to happen. The very air of the place seemed charged, as if happenings were imminent. Climbing to the edge of the overhanging rock was awkward until she jettisoned her fashion shoes. She got only occasional glimpses of the country below, until arriving at the precarious edge of the cliff, she craned over the brim and beheld its full magnificence. She was at the high limit of a soaring canyon of which a long defile at the nearest end opened like funnel, into a long valley fanning into the vast distance, bound in the farthest extremity of its span by high, snow-capped, mountains. Hardly visible on the flat spreading plain in a light, greyish, mist were spires; other tall buildings, and the cross-hatching of streets and roads, suggesting a largish town or city.

Towards it three main roads converged. Two entered from the open end of the plain while the third struck straight as a pencil from the narrow end of the canyon. Her photographic mind registered as much of the ground as she could and in particular she absorbed the general bearing of the country around the city as far as she could see. She also gleaned a generalised knowledge of the lay-out of the city. She was about to set off there; when in her peripheral vision she noticed movement to her left at the extremity of the narrow end of the high funnel. Till that moment the place was characterised by its brightness and utter stillness. She had subliminally noted the quietness and total lack of movement. No bird sang, no breath of air troubled the gra.s.ses. No person, nor the remotest sign of occupation issued from the sprawling buildings. Nothing entered or exited by any of the roads. Yet there was no peace in the stillness. It was like the lull before the storm, except there was no weather to speak of, it felt like everything had stilled expectantly, waiting for a signal. For some reason the idea came to her that she was waiting for the onset of some ancient battle. That there were rival armies, hidden from each other in the folds of the hills, tensely waiting for the horn of battle to announce the first charge or the loosing of the first salvo.

Turning to peer into the darker narrowness of the canyon proper she first saw an expanding cloud of reddish dust from where the relative darkness of the canyon gave way to the blinding-light of the plain. It approached very slowly. Ultimately she was able to make out a moving column of people, then she saw some were mounted on horses, some on foot, others in a variety of vehicles, ranging from animal drawn wagons to motorised vehicles of all kinds, from what appeared to be ancient motor cycles, old first world-war buses, early limousines to modern cars. She immediately noted that Ljeschi had been wrong. If the past was as segregated as he said, how was it there was such a variety of technology on display in the procession that advanced strangely below her? As she watched her eye was soon drawn to the head of the bizarre cavalcade. Bareback astride a piebald pony, and the apparent head of the procession, was a young Native American, his squaw riding pillion. What had drawn her eye was the flash of gold from the cape over the young man's shoulders. She had no trouble recognising her missing lover and felt an sudden pang of jealousy towards the squaw at his back.

The motley crowd on the road was clearly making for the city. It would be some time before Alexander at the head would arrive. Time enough she calculated to cut across country and enter the city in time to see him get there. Although alert, she knew she did not have enough information about what was happening to conceive of any kind of positive plan. She needed to see and observe before doing anything decicive. She considered waiting and then joining the procession to follow events. An Alternative was to enter the city and pick things up there. A third way was to skirt the advancing party and follow it a discrete distance and watch, keeping herself hidden. She decided to enter the city in advance of the moving column. That way she could remain discrete, and suss out the lay of the land. Opportunity for action always presented itself and there was less chance of error if first you knew as much as possible about the terrain. Unsure of herself in this alien world of the other Firm, she resolved to make herself as like the people in the city as soon as possible.

Cutting across country was actually quite easy. She was glad she had chosen to do most of her physical training barefoot. Her instinct told her to be as natural in all situations as possible, to rely on a fit body and a clear mind as the best tools in all circ.u.mstances, a philosophy which paid off handsomely as she jogged silently and easily across the sandy plain towards the city.

She was not however the only watcher. Three pairs of steely, hard, yellow-green eyes swivelled in their deep sockets from high on the opposite ledge of the canyon and there was an tetchy rustling of leathery wings.

'Got him Al. There he goes!'

'You betcha Tizzi!'

'You first Meg!' Al whooped.

'What, dressed like this? This is a modern man, and he's wearing Hep's net that Zeus gave him.' Meg lifted her six foot span of leathery wings and made the serpents on her head writhe. 'Just look at me! First off he won't believe in me. What's more this guy knows all about us and is forewarned. He's got Hecate up behind him who's pledged to help him out. I don't expect to make much impression.'

'Yea, but you'll put the frighteners on 'im and his horse good an' proper!' said Tizzi with a big grin.

'Shut up Tiz! She's right. Listen to her,' said Al. 'That'll only make him mad, it won't give him the message we want to get over.'

'Yea but it'll get up his nose and make him really p.i.s.sed off and it'll show Hecate we're here at last.'

'Tiz! You're not listening.' Al clonked her beak roughly with a k.n.o.bbly claw. 'If you were less impetuous and stopped just scaring people for the h.e.l.l of it we might get somewhere'.

'Yea Tizzi, them days are over,' said Meg, exasperated.'We got to be more subtle, just scaring folks don't make them think like it used to. Now they don't believe in anything it just plain confuses them. We got to explain what we're about these days.'

'Yea, an' while we're here chattin', this latest sp.a.w.n of Zeus is upsettin' the whole of Hades and is about to unleash the G.o.ds only know what kind of mayhem on Gaia and it's up to us to...'

'I don't know Tizzi,' Meg hesitated. 'We have to think this thing through a bit more. I mean we haven't got a long term plan have we? I mean we just reacted like we always do. It's obvious he's got it horribly wrong and he's about to commit a terrible crime against humanity and intelligent life by removing growth and development from Gaia. But maybe that's no bad thing. I mean to say we've been that busy setting up consequences for the hubris of his entire culture we're run ragged.'

'And what good's it done us or anything else!' Tizzi raised her awful self to her full eight feet, extended her wings and breathed hot blasts from her great curved beak.

'G.o.ds a'mighty! Tizz, I hate you in that outfit,' said Meg. 'In fact I hate all three of us. Just look at us, dressed to kill. People don't believe in us like this, avenging monsters are jokes for horror films.'

'Sure! sure!' cried Tizzi. 'But at the bottom of all of them there they've all got monsters just waiting to see 'em off. They won't ever get over that. Come on you lot, stop the chat and let's get on with some real avengin'! Look how's this for an outfit! Never fails!' Tizzi turned into huge filthy wolf, top lip curled in a growl, fangs dripping venom - the whole gamut.

'Knock it off Tiz! There's a love,' sighed Meg, exasperated. 'You really don't listen do you. I said he's about to commit a terrible crime, not that he'd done it. Hecate is keeping an eye on him. We can't avenge what hasn't yet happened!'

'Oh come off it Meg! It's in his heart so, it's like he's done it already! He really has forgotten what he's suppose to be about and it's only a matter of time. I'm all for punishin' his forgetfulness, and his pride has definitely got the better of him. He really thinks he can do it, he really thinks he can save the world with Zeus' cape over his shoulders to protect him and NightChant at his side to keep his p.e.c.k.e.r up, so's to speak! And what's more I get the feeling you're falling for the argument. It's not like you to make excuses for the punters. When they deserve a good frightening they just need it, no questions asked, no quarter given. What's up with you today? You gone soft or what?'

'Zeus, Hades, and Jesus H Yhahwe!' exclaimed Meg. 'Al, tell her - she hasn't got it yet!'

Alecto, nicest of the Furies changed into her natural motherly form, a signal to her sisters to regain their own. The Erinyes reduced to just larger than human size took the seriously severe form of Greek women on vases and Tisiphone, got herself up like Madonna in leather breast cones as she thought being a thoroughly modern vamp, best expressed the essence of her savage bis.e.xuality. Alecto put her motherly arm round Tisiphone's waist and drew her close.

'Tizzie darling,' her voice was soft but without disguising its harder edge, indicated an ancient need for respect and attention. 'See what's going on down there do we?'

Tizzie wriggled to get away from her sister like the naughty child she was. Alecto increased her grip a might too tightly for comfort and Tizzie gave in and subsided to nestle submissively against her sister's body and pouted.

'It's a procession,' she said grudgingly.

'Yes my sweetest little petal, it's a procession. But what kind of procession is it I'd like you to tell me, my bitter sweet?'

'It's a lot of people coming through Elysium and going to Erebus, to see Hades and Persephone.'

'Right first time and who's the bloke in charge?'

'It's that Alexander chap who's been chatting up old Ma Hecate and he's in dead lumber 'cos he's getting above himself and we're going to get him! Real good!' At this she turned into a fire eating dragon and hissed a good flame far into the canyon. Hecate gazed upwards and smiled grimly. Alexander saw nothing.

'Now stop that Tizzie my girl!' She turned back to herself and snuggled into the warm shoulder of her sister once again, grinning and showing a filthy row of discoloured teeth. A little plume of black smoke curled from her lip.

'See? You make Ma Hecate take notice.'

'I'm not scared of her!' retorted Tizzie, and she stuck the middle finger of her right hand in the air in a well known gesture.

'No dear, maybe not, but we are wary. That's the point. We need our thinking caps on my sweet. This is no ordinary vengeance project. It's not a clear open and shut case yet, my sugar bun. You don't like this Alexander do you?'

'You bet your sweet a.r.s.e I don't. He thinks he's all sweetness and light and he's got an angle on what's what around here. If he gets to Hades with this lot in tow he'll set the cat among the pigeons and things will never be the same again.'

'Right enough, sweetypie, we've got to stop him or at least see to it he is stopped. Why is that do you think my little cuc.u.mber?'

'Jeez, Al, stop treatin' me like I was a kid, be nice like only you can be.'

'Not now, my kitten, later. Now, you got to get it straight so's you me and Meg don't make any serious mistakes and upset the balance. Come on, let's go, it's quicker to show you than explain everything.'

'Where to?'

'I said let's go!'

Al held Tizzie firmly by one hand and Meg grasped the other and they flew wingtip to wingtip, three black crows towards the city. Al continued her discussion with Tizzie shouting to her as they went.

'We have to go careful like, slowly, slowly catchee monkey - Hang on a mo!' she braked and then dived almost vertically. 'Follow me. Quick!'

Tizzie lost several feathers in the descent. All three alighted clumsily in confusion on the branch of a Mesquite, 'Shhh! You lot. Get a grip! See that!'

Al pointed out the figure of Marina dodging between boulders and almost at the gates of the city.

'That's my girl!' said Al in triumph. 'See her girls, that's the one going to help us sort out this Alexander person in the right way.'

'How'd she get here?' asked Meg. 'It's got to be that b.l.o.o.d.y Pan again. It's enough letting that Alexander in without permission. He's done it this time - we should set the dogs on him!'

'He's the least of our problems, but that girl's the answer to an avengers' prayer.'

'How's that then?' asked Tizzie.

'There's no time to explain everything, stick with me and it'll all come clear. The main thing for now is to remember we've got to watch out for that girl - okay you got that?' Meg was doubtful.

'Hold on Al, that's three interlopers down here now if you include Pan which I always do. Him and that Alexander bloke have already upset things and this girl's another risk. By the looks of her she's a determined type and put her with that Alexander and that'd make two of 'em, live bodies making waves. And you say we've got to protect her!'

'Not you too Meg, Tizzie's a bit of a slow cow at times, but I expect better from you. Just keep by me and keep your eyes and ears open and watch out for this girl like I said.'

Chapter 6.

All descriptions of the Halls of Hades, the Fastness of Erebus, the Shades of Tartarus, call them what you will, are inventions of the living. Hades frequently complained to Zeus that this irksome result was one of many unpredicted outcomes of his eternal a.s.signment. He grumbled on and on to anyone who would listen that the living have no idea of the real nature and purpose of the underworld. What's more, he had it on the best authority that Yahweh too suffered from the same problem of misinterpretation by this reprehensible fifth race of mortals, only more so.