“Isn’t that…” I breathed.
“Yes,” Cadmus confirmed, without missing a stroke of his oar. “That is Hercules. Reattach your eyes, Harmonia. It’s just muscle.”
“A lot of muscle,” I corrected. “Wow.”
Cadmus shook his head good-naturedly, but he didn’t mind. He was confident in his worth. He was everything to me and he was twice as beautiful as Hercules.
The river carried us gently for miles before it opened up into a wide lake. From here, I could see that across the lake, there were islands.
“The Isles of the Blessed,” I said needlessly.
Everyone around me was staring in fascination. In the middle of the islands, a majestic mountain rose from the ground, sweeping so high that it seemed to touch the white clouds.
“Olympus,” I murmured. Or rather, the duplicate Olympus. It was where the gods were being held. A sense of urgency came over me and I wanted nothing more than to hurry and get there. Everything that we had been through up until this point could be resolved if we could just free Zeus. The moment we had been waiting for was upon us.
Chapter Twelve
This was beyond anything I could have imagined.
As we traveled through the look-alike Olympus, the similarities… no, the duplicity was incredible. Hades had thought of every last detail and had supplied it. No wonder the Olympians had thought they were in Zeus’ banquet hall and had allowed themselves to be deceived. Everything here was identical to the ancient city in the Spiritlands. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that I was there right now.
But I was not. I was here.
And here was… fascinating. I couldn’t help but hang my mouth open in amazement as we passed quaint shops, mouth-watering restaurants, dress makers, tailors… all identical to things that existed on Olympus. There were even blue lotus blossoms drifting down from trees in the air, falling gently across the cobblestone streets. I cast out a hand and allowed one to drift onto my palm.
“Don’t eat it,” Cadmus warned.
“I won’t,” I murmured. “It’s just so… everything is…”
“Unbelievable,” Aphrodite breathed, staring around us in awe.
“My thoughts exactly,” I agreed. A random thought occurred to me and I turned to Hecate, dropping the flower onto the cobblestone street.
“Hecate, you said that you created a portal from Zeus’ own banquet hall to here. Does it still exist?”
She nodded. “It does. But it is closed and they wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. They have eaten here so they must remain.”
“I know,” I replied softly. “I was just wondering about it.”
“If I open it, we can use it,” she answered knowingly, understanding my question. “But not them.”
“Not them,” I repeated quietly, pondering that. “It must have been so strange for them all of this time… being trapped here in this identical world, never being able to get home… especially with the portal right beneath their fingers. They simply couldn’t use it.”
“They are not accustomed to being rendered helpless, either,” Cadmus interjected. “I still can’t quite believe that you managed to carry this off. I can’t believe that Zeus allowed himself to be deceived. It’s almost unfathomable.”
“He knew it would happen,” Hecate reminded him. “He had seen it coming long before it happened. He just didn’t know how or when. He was constantly watching for it. We simply used an approach that he didn’t expect.”
“And who would expect this?” I asked, still staring around me in wonder. “This is incredible.”
Hecate didn’t seem impressed. But then again, she probably just harbored regret over the part she played in putting the gods here. I couldn’t blame her. I would feel the same way. So rather than rubbing salt in her wound and continuing to gush about the wonders around us, I fell silent.
We made our way quickly through the city and up the winding road to the palace. Pristine and sprawling, it was exactly like its authentic counterpart. Massive marble columns lined the porches and walkways, manicured lawns stretched as far as the eye could see and thousands of windows sparkled in the light.
As I stood still and looked upward at this beautiful building, I suddenly felt apprehensive. Would Hades be waiting for us inside? He had to know that we would find our way here. Was this a set-up or a trap? I took a deep breath, but I didn’t see what choice we had. We had to continue.
In typical fashion, Ares barged onward, up the wide steps and to the front doors. He didn’t knock, he simply entered. To my shock, the doors weren’t locked. That seemed strange and only increased my unease.
As we filed into the palace, it was easy to pretend that we were entering the real palace on the real Olympus. The rooms were sparkling clean, the stone floors buffed and polished. Windows stretched floor to ceiling, elegant and lavish furniture was artfully arranged in every room with beautiful art adorning the walls.
But each room was empty.
“Where is everyone?” Aphrodite murmured as we made our way quietly through the rooms.
“The dungeon?” Ortrera suggested.
“Most likely,” I agreed. “We should head that way.”
As we turned into the next hall, we finally encountered another person, a young servant girl with her arms full of fresh towels.
“You, there!” Ares called, motioning to her. “Where is everyone?”
She seemed startled to find strangers walking toward her, but she didn’t run away. She approached us with a timid expression.
“They’re in the courtyard, sir,” she replied meekly, her head bowed.
“The courtyard?” Ares’ brow was furrowed. “Very well. Thank you.”
She nodded and scurried on her way as we looked at each other anxiously. The courtyard? Perhaps this was a trap after all. Maybe an ambush was waiting for us outside. We would have to tread carefully.
Ares and Cadmus led the way through the remaining part of the castle and within a few minutes, we spilled out the back doors onto the terrace that led to the courtyards.
“What the hell….” Ares stopped talking as confusion overtook him.
The gods were having a party.
Long lantern strings were hung festively from tree to tree, swinging gently in the breeze. Elaborate flower arrangements and fruit adorned each long banquet table, while large lotus blossoms drifted down upon the banquet attendees. In the middle, several gods were dancing and everyone here was laughing and having a wonderful time while Zeus and Hera looked on from the head table.