Free Pandora Gets Angry by Carolyn Hennesy Page A

Hector gave her a sly little nod of his head.
    â€œThree of the greatest heroes of the Trojan War,” Persephone said, slightly fawning. “And cutest. They’ve been here for centuries, yapping about how it should have gone, how it could have gone if only someone had drawn their sword earlier or fired their bow later. Blah, blah. Boring, I know !”
    â€œOkay,” Alcie said firmly, out of patience and very confused. “Time for a chat.”
    â€œThat’s cool,” Persephone said. “Fire away.”
    â€œWhy are they here?”
    â€œThey’re dead.”
    â€œI know they’re dead , but why aren’t they in the Elysian Fields?” Alcie asked. “Isn’t that where the heroic and … and …?”
    â€œGlorious dead.”
    â€œYeah, thank you,” Alcie said, feeling like she was talking to Iole. “Isn’t that where they go?”
    â€œWell, not all the time.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAlce, sweetie, think about it,” Persephone said, startling Alcie by using the nickname only her still-living friends knew. “It’s a field. They go out, they run around and scamper like bunnies; they toss a discus or a javelin. That’s fine for a bit, but then they need someplace to lie down and recover from all the eternal fun. Buster … Hades … has rooms in the palace for all the really heroic and glorious dead. Warriors, physicians, poets, scholars.”
    â€œPoliticians,” Alcie added.
    â€œOh, gimme a break!” Persephone laughed. “Well, all right, a few, but not many. The really good get to stay here. And the really bad, but they don’t take up much space.”
    â€œThe really bad?” Alcie asked. “They’re here ? Not Tartarus?”
    â€œHah! Are you kidding? Tartarus is for rookies!” Persephone snickered. “Tartarus is for amateurs! This place makes Tartarus look like a three-day ‘Hey, It’s Spring!’ festival. C’mere, I’ll show you.”
    Persephone walked a few paces, then abruptly turned a corner Alcie knew was not part of the original route.
    â€œBy the by,” Persephone said, “the EF is the green you’re seeing outside the windows.”
    â€œEF? The Elysian Fields?”
    â€œI know ! Cool, huh? But only the heroic and glorious dead get to actually view the splendor. Now, you and your friends might be heading toward heroic and glorious, but you’re not there yet, and if you can’t see the fields, you’re definitely not really dead! It’s all good.”
    A hundred meters farther, Alcie could hear men’s voices shouting, moaning, and wailing. And, more softly, underneath, she heard women’s voices; some sharp, some monotone, but while the men’s cries rose and fell, the women’s voices were a constant drone.
    â€œWe’re walking, we’re walking, we’re walking,” Persephone said, mock-officiously leading the way down a corridor of, Alcie guessed by the short spaces between each barred door, very small rooms. “And we’re stopping. Here we have not necessarily the most brutal of criminals, but the most despicable. Not your average murderers or fiends, but the truly wicked. Those who went against their conscience. Those who betrayed family or country, especially those who did it for money. We have a couple of kings who wiped out entire civilizations, either theirs or someone else’s, because they were power-hungry. And we have a man who sold his wife and daughters into slavery.”
    â€œOrange rinds,” Alcie said softly.
    â€œI know.”
    â€œBut it just sounds like they’re having a fight with someone,” Alcie said.
    â€œYeah, isn’t it grand?” Persephone smiled. “Who do you think is also in each of these rooms with each of these monsters?”
    Alcie was baffled.
    â€œI give,” she said.
    Persephone grinned.
    â€œTheir