Page 15 of Monster Whisperer
River
H
ades refused to escort me out of the dungeon until I was wearing a floor-length cape with a hood that covered most of my face and a mask. Cerberus was a coward when it came to Pavlina, but he insisted on coming to protect me when he heard I was going to one of the fights.
“Remember, River. As far as anyone knows, you are just a doctor I brought in. No one can know you can hear them and speak to them. If Demeter knows the monsters have an ally, she’ll take you, and I didn’t bring you into this to end up her prisoner. If you meet Demeter, she will know you are half human, but she won’t know what your other half is. If she asks, you tell the truth that you don’t know. You tell her I kidnapped you from Earth because I didn’t know what you were, and you happened to be a doctor. You say you have no idea why because, as far as you know, you are human and don’t have any powers.”
“Keep your head down, and don’t bring attention to yourself, River. Don’t act like we are familiar. Everyone knows Hades is the only one I’m friendly with down here. Let Hades do the talking for you.”
I had every intention of letting him. This was a scouting mission. I also had to monitor Kimon. The minotaur was built like a tank, and he’d stayed alive in the fighting pits this long. I knew he could handle himself, but no one knew who he was fighting tonight.
I also wanted to watch the crowd. How many people would be there rooting and betting for their monster friends to fight to the death? Was Demeter going to be there? I knew she was in the Underworld because she was making people starve, but would she leave her captive daughter to watch a fight?
I had no idea how we would get to this arena. I was passed out when Hades magically popped me into the Underworld. Did they use chariots down here? I had questions. Could I ride a centaur? That would be pretty fucking cool if it didn’t offend the centaur.
It ended up being anticlimactic. We didn’t get into a golden chariot pulled by unicorns, and I didn’t see a single centaur. I didn’t even get to go outside. I went down a maze of hallways and up so many flights of steps I was glad I religiously attended spin class before I got kidnapped. My thighs were still on fire by the time we reached the top. If Hades could magically travel between realms, why were we taking the stairs?
I was holding my side and panting as we finally reached the top of the stairs. The mask wasn’t making it easy to catch my breath, but I knew why I had to wear it, so I didn’t say a damned thing about that or the stairs.
There was this ornate, golden door at the top of the stairs.
“This is used to be my private box. The arena has long been retired when demigods stopped doing heroic quests to get their daddy’s attention. I was so glad when I got to shut this damned thing down. Demeter knew that, and that’s part of the reason all the monsters are having to fight to the death. It’s not just to cut down on those who would fight against her. It’s a passive-aggressive move against me to reopen something I worked hard to stop.”
“Then, we’ll find a way to stop it again.”
“I’m working on that, River. After you,” he said, holding the door open.
I stepped through the door and got my first look at what an Underworld fighting arena looked like. It looked a lot like what I’d seen in movies and television shows about ancient Greece or Rome. It was enormous, and the seats weren’t as packed as what I saw in the movies. Sure, there were many people there, and they were yelling and screaming to see blood spilled, but this wasn’t the entire Underworld. It couldn’t be. There were too many empty seats.
Hades’ box was pretty plush, but that wasn’t what I was paying attention to. Across the arena was a similar box with the same purple curtains. I could make out people, but they were so far away they looked like faceless blobs. It was just Hades, Cerberus, and me in his box. The other box looked packed.
“Who is that in the other box?”
“Demeter and her cronies. She’s getting rich off these fights, and she’s got a personal vendetta against Kimon, Pavlina, Tryphon, and Demos. They are well-loved down here, even Demos. People would start asking questions if she came at them directly. She wants to watch them die in person.”
“What did they do to her? It seems like she’s got a beef with everyone down here.”
“They were Persephone’s personal bodyguards. They escorted her to the gates of the Underworld for what was supposed to be a normal visit with her mother. It seemed like it would be. Demeter was icy like usual, but they had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. Demeter waited until they were back home to send her army through and show my wife with a dagger at her throat.”
“Would Demeter really kill her daughter because she doesn’t want to leave you?”
Hades threw back his head and laughed.
“We’re Gods, River. Humans used to worship us and sacrifice to us. Gods don’t like it when anyone loves another person more than they love them. That includes their offspring. Poseidon created Tryphon, and yes, he used to kill the wicked, but Poseidon also used him to wreak havoc on towns that didn’t pay proper tribute to him or insulted him. Tryphon hated being used like that. Don’t get me wrong. He loves to eat wicked people any day of the week, but he had a colossal problem taking out entire villages just to prove a point.”
“I think he’s hitting on me. I think they all are except Demos, who hates me.”
Hades didn’t get a chance to answer. A man stood in the center of the arena and waved his hands to quiet the crowd.
“We have something special for you tonight, folks. We have Kimon, the undefeated minotaur from the labyrinth up against Porphyrion, the King of the Giants. Place your bets well. Will Kimon remain undefeated, or will he be slain as Theseus slew him in the labyrinth?”
“Hades, what happens if you die here and you’re technically already dead?”
“You go to the deepest level of Tartarus, where the Titans are kept, for eternal torture. Not even I can get them out. It’s too dangerous. If you think what Demeter is doing here is wrong, none of the other realms would be safe if the Titans got out.”
“Let’s bring out our challenger! Come out, Porphyrion!”
I thought the basketball player I briefly dated in college was a giant, but I’d never been kidnapped to the Underworld and seen a giant from mythology before. This giant was at least twenty feet tall and ugly as sin. It looked like someone smashed his face with a big hammer, and he was ripped with muscle. I didn’t know what he usually wore in the Underworld, but right now, he was wearing a loincloth and carrying two giant clubs with wicked looking spikes on the end.
