Hades's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

After the kneeling, Hades walked alone to the open ground beyond the hall. The cold from above had pushed down into the rock. A new pillar of black ice had grown up out of the mosaic overnight, fed by Demeter's winter pressing through the ceiling of his realm. Inside the ice he could see a small, clear shape — a frozen city, tiny towers and streets, held in the stone like a held breath. It was his marker. As long as it grew, the world above was dying faster than he could answer. He lifted his scepter. The gold bird on its head caught the red light, wings open. He set the point against the base of the ice pillar and pushed his will down through the wood. He meant to warm the ground from below — to send heat up through the roots of his orchard and ease one breath of spring into the frozen fields above. The mosaic shook. Cracks of orange light ran out from his feet. The three-headed hound came to his side and braced against the tremor, all three throats low and steady. Hades pushed harder. The pillar of ice cracked down its middle. For one moment the tiny city inside it glowed warm, and he felt, far above, a thin patch of snow give way to wet earth. Then the pillar healed. The crack sealed. New ice climbed higher, swallowing more of the small towers. His scepter rang in his hand and went cold. The heat he had spent did not reach the surface. Demeter's grief was wider than his fire. He lowered the scepter. He understood, fully now, that he could not soften her winter from beneath. The road out was not under the world. It was through her. Persephone came out into the red light behind him, dark gown trailing, her crown of flowers bright against the dim air. In her hand was one of the shining red fruits from his orchard, whole and waiting. "Let me go up to her," she said. "Not to stay. To be seen." Hades looked at the frozen city locked in its pillar, at the hound watching him, at his wife who was already queen. He set the scepter down against the stone. "Then we go together," he said. The ice did not melt. But for the first time, it stopped climbing.