"How did they take down the gates?" Hades asked.
The marchers carried fire, they carried smoke, and they were working their way through the City toward the Palace. The Immortals, unprepared and untrained, were fleeing in droves. A few were fighting back- some threw small lightning bolts, some spit acid, some breathed fire or ice. But the shadows, they kept on marching. Smoke rose up in the City, stones tumbled everywhere.
"Why is everyone running?" Hades asked.
The shadows threw bits of themselves at buildings, the bits pierced the stone, and the stone burst into pieces. Sometimes the shadows walked right into buildings, seeping into the mortar, and the bricks tumbled down around them. Unharmed, they moved on.
"How can they do that?" Hades asked.
Harpies flew in and out of the chaos, cackling merrily, some throwing bits of building at the fleeing Immortals, some dive-bombing the crowd of shadows. The shadows threw their fire at the Harpies -a bit of shadow hit a Harpy and exploded her from the inside out- and, screeching, the rest flew away. Griffins soared in from the horizon, pecking and clasping, but to no effect. Their claws went right through the shadows.
"How is that possible?" Hades asked.
They moved so steadily, determinedly. They moved like fire, like wind, leaving ashes and rubble in their wake. And they were entering the Palace grounds. Crash! The iron gates went down, and the shadows began marching through the breech. They circled all the way around the grounds, turned to face the Palace, and stopped. The rest filed in, lining up beside them. Fifty thousand shadows stood in a perfect circle around the Palace, staring toward it, ready to attack.
Charlotte desperately scanned the shadows, but nowhere did she see the thin, mortal form of her cousin. "Zee," she whispered, "where are you?"
His words rang in her head again. If I can-
If I can -
They were all on the grounds now, filling in around the Palace, a great moat of shadow. Charlotte expected them to throw their flames, their magic, but they were perfectly still. Waiting. But for what?
"This is ridiculous," Hades said. He picked up his scepter, muttered a few words, and aimed it down at a regiment of shadows.
Charlotte gasped. "Wait!" she said, grabbing his robes.
He looked down at her. "What?"
"What are you doing?"
"Well, now… I'm not sure, you understand, because I've never done this to a shadow army before. It doesn't work on everyone. But I believe I am going to shoot a ray of interminable fire at them out of my scepter. The fire, you might be interested to know, is blue." He turned back and began to aim.
"You can't!" Charlotte jumped up and yanked on his scepter arm. "Those belong to children. You'll kill them!"
Hades tilted his head. "And?"
"They're just kids!"
He turned to Charlotte, smiled slightly, and patted her on the head. "Everybody dies eventually. Trust me." He picked up the scepter again.
"No! There's got to be another way! Anyway, you can't get them all at once, they'll tear down the Palace!
Look what they did to those buildings! Look, they're just enchanted. If you can break the spell, if you can get Philonecron -"
Hades said matter-of-factly, "Philonecron is not here. I banished him." He looked over at Thanatos. "Right?"
Thanatos nodded.
"See?" He began to aim again.
Just then the faceless butler appeared in the doorway. "Excuse me, my Lord…" Charlotte thought he looked a little nervous. She didn't blame him, she thought, checking on the army of shadows.
Hades turned. "Yes?"
"A Philonecron to see you, my Lord. He says it's quite urgent."
"Impossible!"
The butler paused, then bowed. "Nonetheless…"
"Oh, show him in!"
At least, Charlotte thought, hugging herself, with Philonecron in the Palace, the shadows probably wouldn't burn it down. That was nice.
Hades swept back into the throne room, Thanatos followed, and Charlotte crept in behind them. She did not exactly want to see Philonecron again-he was probably laboring under the impression that she was sleeping with the Styx fish-but she needed to find out about Zee. She hid herself behind one of the thrones.
The butler went to the door, bowed, and opened it an inch. "Philonecron, my Lord. Assistant Manager of Sani-"
But before he could finish his words, the door swung open, hitting the butler in the face. Hades muttered something to himself.
Through the door marched two Footmen, carrying something carefully on their shoulders. They moved forward, revealing two other Footmen behind them. The four were carrying a great litter, like the kind in which they carry princesses in fairy tales, but inside was no princess.
The Footmen gently set the litter down. With a flourish one of them pulled off the fabric that covered the litter to reveal Philonecron, sitting in a very high chair made of bone and smiling like he had never smiled before. His legs were crossed and his feet dangled in the air. From her perch behind the throne, Charlotte shuddered.
Hades strode forward. "How… how did you get in here? I banished you!"
Philonecron nodded his head and waved his hand in the air, as if to bow "My Liege." He cleared his throat. "If I recall correctly, on the occasion of my banishment you told me that I could not set foot in the Kingdom." He wiggled his feet. "You said nothing about being carried in. Really, though, this is most inconvenient." He sighed. "As soon as you have transferred power to me, all your spells will be broken, and I can walk again. I do look forward to that. I am a great walker. It's very good for the body. And the mind."
Hades slammed his scepter on the ground. "How dare you? I will never-"
"Oh, really?"
In a flash Hades aimed the scepter at Philonecron. A great blue fiery light rushed from it, heading straight for Philonecron's head. But Philonecron, just like that, stuck his hand up in the air. The fire hit his hand, bounced off, and went charging toward Hades' throne – the one Charlotte was hiding behind. She leaped out of the way, and the chair burst into flame and then disappeared into a pile of ash. Thanatos, who was lingering by the window, shrieked.
Hades looked to the scepter, then to Philonecron. "Part demon, are we?" he muttered. "I should have known."
But Philonecron was no longer looking at Hades. His eyes had followed Charlotte as she emerged from behind the throne, and he was staring at her with a brilliant hatred. His lips curled up in a sneer. "Oh, you," he said.
"Oh, hi!" she said. "Missing a Footman?"
"You! You little…" He almost stood up, but then one of the Footmen rushed toward him, and he jerked himself down in the chair. He put out his hands, as if he were trying to steady himself on an invisible rail. "You are trying to come between Zero and me. I will not let you."
"Where is he?" Charlotte stomped her foot. "Where's Zee?"
"Zero is home. He is resting; he's had a very trying day. Besides, there may be violence. I did not want him to see that."
"Is he okay?"
"I assure you, my dear, I would never harm your cousin. You, on the other hand…" He eyed her. "I should have personally dumped you in Tartarus. They've never had a living mortal to punish before. Well"-he tilted his head and smiled cruelly-"it does not matter. You escaped, you came all this way, but all your efforts were for naught. You came to warn Hades, and what happened? Did he offer to appoint a committee? Did he refer you to a Manager? Did he try to show you pictures of his wife?"
Charlotte gulped and looked at the ground.
"No, no, my saucy friend, you cannot stop me. Hades could have stopped me, but now it's too late." He looked around the room. "Where is the Ice Queen, anyway? I haven't seen her."
"Do not call her that," Hades breathed.
"What, the Ice Queen? It's just, she's not in her throne and she's not in the garden. I don't believe she's in the Palace at all. Do you know where she is? No? Hmm. Really, you should keep better track of your wife."