Threads

Chapter Nineteen: Part 2

Allira’s face went from triumphant anger to fear in a split second.  Ambrose stormed down the steps towards them. Altair was there now, pulling Alice’s hand aside to look at her cheek.

“Wow, you’re lip is bleeding.”

She glared at him, but said nothing, her ears still ringing. She noticed the rest of her companions hanging out the doors of the limousine, staring in shock.  It was humiliating. Ambrose reached them and looked at Alice’s cheek.

“She has drawn blood.” His voice was low and furious.

            “Evidently,” Alice muttered, and winced at the pain that speaking caused.

Then Ambrose turned on Allira, fire in his eyes. “Get out of my sight.” Allira ducked her head. She looked sullen, like an angry child -sorry she’d been found out, but not for what she’d done.

“I’m sorry…”

            “No, you are not. I’ve grown tired of your constant misbehaviour, your tantrums. And now you strike my guest of honour?” he said, angrily. “I’m sick of you acting like a petulant child. I’m sick of you! Pack your things and get out.”

            She looked horrified. “But…”

            “Out! You try my patience,” he said firmly. “Need I bring guards to escort you?”

Allira turned away, devastated. She shot one last hate filled look at Alice.

            Ambrose turned his full attention to Alice. “Are you alright?”

            “I’ll be fine,” Alice said. “It’s time to go home.” She turned, ignoring his further apologies, and climbed back into the limousine, followed by Altair and Shakra. She didn’t think about Maya until they had all settled onto the leather seats. The girl was gripping Gabriel’s hand tightly, her thin body shaking in spite of the heated interior.

            “Are you okay, Maya?”
            “I’ll be okay…in a minute.” She breathed deeply. “I didn’t like being back there, and then Aspen…” She trailed off and took another huge gulp of air.

            “Aspen has a broken neck now.” Alice poked carefully at her sore lip. “He’s not going to be bothering you again.”

            Maya laughed shakily. “I wonder how many times you’re going to save me.”

            “As many times as I have to.”

            Sunday morning Alice just lay in bed. For two glorious minutes she lay there staring at the light fixture. Then she remembered all that had happened the night before, and sat up with a sigh, unable to roll over and go to sleep again.

The swelling of her lip had gone down considerably, and she no longer had a red hand mark on her left cheek to remind her of what had happened.  Her cell phone on the night table beside her said it was ten. Not a bad time to get up.  She ate a bowl of cereal on the couch and watched TV without really watching.

And she thought about last night.

            Had any of this stuff happened to them on Ambrose’s orders? Or were his people simply out of control, as he suggested?  That seemed a bit farfetched. He was the one with the huge house, all the money, the fame. Not to mention he was supposed to be a god.  Wouldn’t they listen to him?  Allira always seemed to be dancing on the line though. Alice had noted the looks he shot the Siren, fondness laced with anger.  There was no doubt that Allira had a burning desire for Ambrose. It was ridiculously evident every time she glared at Alice. The Siren didn’t appreciate his attention being on someone else. You would think she’d be used to that by now, seeing that he’s apparently a lady killer. That made her laugh humourlessly. Lady killer: that expression had the potential to be far too literal. What exactly had Aspen meant when he said Ambrose “used” those other Sorceresses? Did they end up dead?  If he really was a Titan he probably wasn’t bothered about killing people. She remembered their earlier conversation about what Titan he was. She couldn’t even take an educated guess because she had no education in Greek mythology, at least, not an extensive one.  Alice grabbed her lap top from the desk and flipped it open, keying in a search on Titans. The results were confusing - too many long Greek names. Why wouldn’t Ambrose tell her? Was he ashamed of who he was? Maybe that was the key. She had to find a Titan that had done something terrible or foolish, someone with a history you wouldn’t want anyone knowing. Okay, so there are twelve Titan gods in total. Sometimes called Elder Gods, but then they had children, also called Titans. I don’t even know how many those are. And they all have stories of their own. It was impossible. Wait…he has a painting of that woman, the one with the jar who looks so much like Maya. Maya says he called her “Pandora”. I have to find a God who’s obsessed with Pandora.

She keyed in a search on Pandora and within seconds was staring at a picture of her… Or Maya.

Alice read on:  Pandora released the jar of evil spirits. I knew that. She was given to Prometheus and Epimetheus to cause the downfall of man because they made Zeus mad. So he’s either Prometheus or Epimetheus. The article continued, “Prometheus wanted to send her back but Epimetheus, blinded by her beauty, took her as his wife, and she opened the jar, releasing a plague of harmful spirits.” Sounds like that might be him, maybe Zeus punished him for that too - it would explain why he both loves and hates her. Alice suddenly remembered one of his songs she had heard back in Victoria. Perhaps that would give her more insight. Something about a Goddess called Styx?

She looked up the lyrics again.

“Goddess Styx, veil of darkness, born of chaos and of night.

Sweep me away my immortal passion, burning dark and bright.

You can’t say that what we had was honest or divine,

But what I wanted at the time, was just to make you mine.

And I told you what we had, would never work again,

And so you called our father, the one of gods and men.

Cast me from my throne in Othrys

Take from me my right

All because I dared to love the goddess of the night.

            Alice frowned. Goddess Styx? Wasn’t he obsessed with Pandora? Who knows with Greek gods, they probably always had several things going on at once. When she looked up ‘father of Gods and men’ it was clear the line referred to Zeus. She read up on the story of Styx too. She appeared to be the Goddess who personified hatred, and Zeus had named one of the rivers of the underworld after her.

But here was an interesting paragraph:  “The river Styx is often used as a binding oath for the Gods. It is an oath taken very seriously. If a god didn’t keep his word, Zeus would make him drink from the river of hate, which was so foul the god would then lose his voice for nine years.”

That was certainly helpful information. But what about the line ‘take from me my right’? Did that mean Zeus had taken his power away? But then, how had he killed Altair’s mentor with magic? Maya said he kept Witches and Mages to do his bidding. Did Ambrose somehow use their magic, channel it? If that was the case, why didn’t he use magic more often? Alice closed the laptop with a huff of frustration. She still had way too many questions, and none of the information made her any less nervous.

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