“Are you alright?” Aphrodite asked me gently.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I’m not sure. Ask me when we’ve left this place,” she shuddered. “A more miserable place I’ve never seen.”
Ares called back to me, interrupting our conversation.
“Harmonia? Can you come here?”
My mother and I exchanged quick puzzled looks before I made my way back to the front.
I found Ares staring in hesitation at someone in a small, secluded area. I followed his gaze. The woman was hooded, her dirty hair falling around her shadowy face. She was muttering incoherently with her legs sprawled in front of her, scratching into the ground with an old rusty piece of metal. She had written the same thing over and over in scraggly, thin writing.
EMPUSA
EMPUSA
EMPUSA
EMPUSA
My startled gaze flew to my father’s.
“Isn’t that Hecate’s daughter’s name?” he asked slowly. I nodded, taking one step in the woman’s direction.
Ares grabbed my arm. “Wait! Let me.”
He approached her slowly, the same as he would a frightened animal. The woman lurched to her feet and hunched away from him into the corner, whimpering.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” she whispered.
He knelt in front of her, holding out one hand slowly.
“Hecate?” he asked.
“That’s not Hecate,” I shook my head. “There’s no way, Ares.”
He glanced up at me.
“Don’t be so sure,” he muttered, returning his attention to the dirty woman.
“Hecate?” he asked again, this time moving a little closer. She clasped her hands over her ears and began screaming. Her shrill shrieks filled the air and I resisted the urge to cover my own ears to block out the horrible sound.
He reached out a hand to touch her and she wrenched away. As she did, however, her hood fell down, revealing her face.
It was most certainly Hecate.
I froze, as did Ares.
“Hecate,” I whispered, moving to touch her. She lurched to her feet and took off sprinting. She made it three steps before Ares had tackled her to the ground, holding her down as he tried to reason with her. Hecate seemed terrified, as if she had never seen us before in her life.
I loomed over Ares’ shoulder.
“I’m not sure that man-handling her is the best way to get her to trust you,” I remarked. “What do you think has happened to her?”
“I know not,” he shook his head. “It is this place. It can turn the sanest person crazy.”
As if on cue, Hecate began wailing about Empusa again in incoherent, desperate words.
I dropped to my knees next to her.
“Are you trying to find Empusa?” I asked quietly.
She stopped crying and stared at me with liquid, hazy eyes.
“Do you know her?”
Her question was crystal clear as she gazed into my eyes.
“It’s complicated,” I replied carefully.
“Ares,” I turned back to him. “What can we do?”
I was referring, of course, to Hecate’s mind. She had lost it. And Ares knew exactly what I was talking about.
“I don’t know,” he replied limply, loosening his hold on the goddess of witchcraft. It was hard to believe at this current juncture that Hecate had recently summoned armies from the Underworld to aid us in Camelot. She was utterly helpless right now. “Try your bloodstone.”
I pulled it over my head and pressed it to her skin. She looked at it fearfully, but didn’t exhibit the normal awakening behavior. It had no effect on her and the hope fizzled out of me. This was the first time that the Bloodstone hadn’t worked and I couldn’t imagine why- unless Hecate was just too far gone or if maybe even her internal magic was just too strong- it was subconsciously blocking the Bloodstone.
“I wish that we had access to the Fountain of Truth,” I muttered. “It would surely restore her memories.”
“Harmonia,” Aphrodite began hesitantly from my shoulder. I turned around quickly- I hadn’t even known she had been standing there. I had been that focused on Hecate.
“You have drunk from the fountain- very recently. It is in your blood.” Aphrodite’s face was anxious and cautious as she made the unspoken suggestion. Her statement triggered a memory… of Lachesis drinking my blood in Camelot to expose the truth. She had wanted to see if I was lying and my blood had exposed that I was.
And then I remembered Hecate herself telling me that blood could reveal the truth. I sighed.
“Do you have any idea how tired I am of people drinking from my blood at this point? This is getting ridiculous,” I complained. “At this rate, I’m not going to have any blood left soon.” Regardless, I positioned myself closer to Hecate and pulled out a small dagger.
“Hold her tightly,” I instructed my father. He complied and I cut a tiny slit in my arm, holding it above Hecate’s lips. She didn’t open her mouth, so my father forced it open.
“Gently,” I snapped at him. “There’s no need to be so rough.”
“Besides the fact that she betrayed us all,” he replied angrily. “I do not take to traitors kindly.”
“She was coerced, I am sure of it. We need to keep that in mind,” I pointed out as I dropped a few drops of my vital blood into her mouth. Ares held her mouth shut until he made certain that she had swallowed it and then we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Her face was blank and impassive as she stared absently past us and I started to get panicky. What if she really was so far gone that nothing would work to bring her back? There were so many things that I wanted to talk to her about. I wanted to find out why exactly she had betrayed us and I needed to find out more about her daughter so that I could find my own.
But it appeared that I would get nothing from her. She stared right through me, her eyes flat and empty. The chilly air whipped around me as I turned to Ares dejectedly.
“It’s of no use. Let her go.”
My voice was stark and hopeless and I hated the sound. But it was how I felt. I had no idea what to do now.
“Harmonia?”
Hecate’s murmur was so low that I had to strain my ears to hear it and I whipped back around, my heart thundering with hope.
“Hecate!”
She sank to the ground, hugging herself with shaking arms. Before I could say another word, she wilted further into the stones surrounding her and closed her eyes. She didn’t reopen them. I shook her shoulder, trying hard to wake her, but she remained asleep.