"Leave her out of this," Hades spit.
"I wonder if perhaps, when this is all done, she'd like to marry me. She makes such a lovely queen. Funny, you don't have any heirs, but I'm sure she'll give me some. After all, I never kidnapped her from the earth. She'll view me as her liberator…"
Hades let out a fierce growl and aimed his scepter again.
"My Lord!" Thanatos shrieked, running up to him. "No!"
Exhaling heavily, Hades put the scepter down. He glared at Philonecron. "Well, perhaps I should be more precise in my language this time. Philonecron, grandson of Poseidon, Assistant Manager of Sanitation, I ban-"
"Wait!" Philonecron threw up his hand. Thanatos cringed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You're being watched, you know And if I am banished, those shadows out there-have you seen them? Yes? Impressive, aren't they? -will tear this Palace down bit by bit."
Hades was visibly shaking with rage. Philonecron still smiled placidly. Hades closed his eyes, put a hand on his mouth, and squished his face in thought. Suddenly his eyes popped open, and he leaned over to Thanatos and whispered, "Can I banish the shadows?"
"My Lord." Thanatos bowed his head. "Um… I don't believe the shadows are citizens of the Kingdom."
Thanatos's voice was unusually high. "You have no control over them."
With that, Hades let out a yeeeaarrgh! that shook the whole room. Philonecron continued to smile. Charlotte slunk back toward the walls.
"Now" Philonecron clapped his hands together. "My Lord, in the spirit of reconciliation, generosity, and general bonhomie, I am giving you a choice. As you have seen" – he gestured broadly-"I have an army surrounding your Palace. You have no army. You have no defenses. You have nothing. Even a god cannot fend the shadows off forever; there are simply too many. At a signal from me they will start beating, burning, boring, busting, and generally wreaking havoc. They will continue until they get to you, my Lord, and when they find you, they will do the same to you until you surrender.
"After your surrender we will take you to Tartarus. You remember Tartarus, don't you? I'm sure all the people you've been punishing relentlessly for millennia will be very happy to see you. Not to mention all the Dead you've been mistreating, whom I'm going to throw in to keep you company.
"Or," he continued, spreading his arms out magnanimously, "you can just turn your crown and scepter and Kingdom over to me. I'll banish you-and I assure you, I am always very precise in my language-and we can save the Palace. Really," he said, looking around the room, "it has a lot of potential. Awfully plain on the outside, though. Mine will have a bit more… panache. Some cast-gold bas-relief ornamentation portraying the story of my great conquest over the indolent, uxorious tyrant-"
"Get out!" Hades spit.
"You get out," Philonecron declared.
"No, you get out!"
"No…"
Charlotte sighed heavily. This was going nowhere. Hades was going to do nothing, and the shadows were going to burn the place down. Charlotte would die and get thrown into Tartarus, the kids would all die and join her Mr. Metos would have his liver eaten for all eternity, and Zee would have to spend the rest of his life with Philonecron.
She hurried over to the balcony to check on the shadow army. They still stood, quiet and waiting. It was so quiet outside suddenly-without the echoing approach of the army, with the great stillness of the shadows, the whole world before her seemed cast in perfect silence.
Except, of course, for sounds coming from inside the Palace. Philonecron and Hades were still yelling uselessly at each other. Charlotte crept over, closed the door, and began to listen to the great silence around her.
The shadows stared at her, without movement, almost without life. How strange it was. Maddy's shadow was out there, Elizabeth's, Ashley's, Audrey's, Angie's, and Zee's friends too-the kids from soccer, the kids from school, and that Samantha girl who made him blush. They were just things, just reflections of light, enchanted with blood and with her cousin's own words…
If I can -
If I can-
The whispers reverberated in her mind, but she couldn't make out the words. She closed her eyes and pictured her cousin-on the first day, when her parents had thrust them together in the living room; at school with a crowd of kids surrounding him; on the soccer field, showing everyone how it's done; lying on the couch after his concussion, helplessly trying to deflect her mother's concerns; stopping to warm her as they went down to the Underworld; looking at her urgently as the Footmen led him away. She pictured him there, standing next to her, leaning down, whispering in her ear.
"What did you say, Zee?"
And then suddenly she could hear him-as if he were there, now, right next to her.
If I can -
If I can enchant them…
But before she could make out the rest, one of the Footmen came bursting through the door. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small black horn, and blew-the commanding sound went through the Kingdom. The shadows started moving again then, stamping their feet, brandishing their fire and their bits of darkness. The whole Palace seemed to shake. Charlotte screamed. From inside the room came Philonecron's booming voice:
"Shadows!" he cried. "Bring the Palace down!"
CHAPTER 26
THE SHADOWS SPREAD OUT ALONG THE GROUNDS, shaking their torches in the air. They lit trees on fire, surrounding the Palace in small bursts of flame. Charlotte could not move. In the blink of an eye Hades strode out onto the balcony, eyed a crowd of shadows that was bringing down one of the remaining trees, aimed his scepter, and fired a stream of blue flame.
Charlotte screamed, "Nooooo!" and ran to the balcony wall-but when the smoke cleared, the shadows were still there, though a nearby cypress had exploded in blue fire.
Cursing loudly, Hades fired the scepter again, but still to no avail. Smoke rose from the grounds below, and Charlotte began to cough uncontrollably.
A group of the eerie warriors reached into their chests, plucked out black balls of shadow, and began to hurl them at the Palace walls. The walls burst on contact. Shadowy bits flew through the air, like fireballs, destroying whatever they hit.
Some of the shadows dived into the walls themselves, and blocks of marble began to fall to the ground. Charlotte turned to Hades and yelled, "We have to go!"
He turned to her and shook his head firmly. "I am not leaving my Palace."
"It's too dangerous!" Charlotte yelled as a bit of marble burst around her.
"I'm Immortal," said Hades.
"Well, I'm not!" said Charlotte, and she turned and ran back into the throne room.
There she found that Philonecron and the Footmen were gone. The second throne had been turned into a pile of ash. Behind one of the tapestries stood the trembling form of Thanatos, and Charlotte shouted, "Let's go!" Another crash-the balcony doors exploded, and glass just missed Charlotte's head. Smoke filled the room, and the floor shook. She took off, her heart pounding in her ears, passing through the throne room doors, down the endless hallway, and out the Palace door.
The world was on fire, the world was breaking to pieces. Bits of marble and chunks of wood fell from the sky. The columns flanking the front door had large cracks running through them, and something welled up in Charlotte's throat. The column was just a spell, not real, not alive, but he had been nice to her-and kindness was hard to come by in the Underworld.
A chunk of wall came crashing down in front of her, and she took off again, running down the gold-paved front walk, through the line of flaming cypresses, with her sleeve to her nose and mouth so she could breath.