Part 35 (1/2)

Azzie found Mother Joanna at the bandits' camp. She and Hugh were seated at the table, going over a map and discussing what sounded like the hijacking of a caravan two days hence. As Azzie reached out to dismember a drunkenly merry man, she stayed his hand. ”Hold, Azzie,” she said. ”These are my men. I am in charge here.”

”What?” Azzie responded.

”My wish was granted even sooner than I'd antic.i.p.ated,” she stated. ”For this I owe you considerable thanks.”

”Think nothing of it,” Azzie said. ”Just be in Venice for the ceremony.”

”Of course. And I do get to keep my soul?”

”Certainly. That was a part of the bargain.”

”Good. I'll be there.”

Shaking his head, Azzie sprang into the air and was gone.

PART NINE.

Chapter 1.

The first hint that the h.e.l.lenic G.o.ds had broken out of Afterglow en ma.s.se came at 013.32, Universal Sidereal Time, when the chief of Demonic Studies at h.e.l.l's Brimstonic University noted that one of his subalterns had failed to return from an expedition. The subaltern's a.s.sistant reported that a pack of loose deities had seized the researcher while he was poking around old bones at an archaeological dig near Mt. Olympus.

The chief called the Limbo underworld prison to see if anything had happened recently.

”h.e.l.lo, who am I talking to?”

”Cicero, keeper of the Unwanted Deities Sector of the Limbo Life-Forms Penitentiary.”

”I'm inquiring about the old G.o.ds of Greece. Zeus and that lot. Are they still safely under lock and key?”

”I'm sorry to say there's just been a breakout. They're free.”

”When do you expect them to be rounded up?”

”I'm afraid it's not so easy. These old Greek G.o.ds are quite powerful, you know. It's going to take some action on Ananke's part to pen them up again.”

”Thanks. I'll be in touch.”

Chapter 2.

Back in the real cosmos!” Phoebus cried. ”I could bend down and kiss the Earth,” Hephaestus said.

The first thing they did was have a celebration, a reunion dinner roasting Zeus. They sang ”For He's a Jolly Good Fellow”; they did comic imitations of his elaborate and portentous style. They sacrificed the usual animals and got the blood all over everything because servants, not the G.o.ds themselves, usually did the dirty work of sacrifice; they got drunk and acted in a bawdy fas.h.i.+on.

Zeus rapped on the table for attention. ”I want to thank you all. It was very good of you to put on this celebration for me.”

”Three cheers for Zeus!”

”Thank you. Thank you. Now then, on to something a bit more serious. I've been looking into what we might do with ourselves, now that we're out of Afterglow. I'm talking about all of us together.”