Harvest Moon by Mercedes Lackey Page A

once, and the stranger’s head switched back and forth between them to the point where Persephone feared she was going to get a cramp. “Wait!” she cried, holding up her hand. Both men stopped. Hades bowed.
    â€œMy name is Persephone. I am the daughter of the goddess Demeter. My mother is—” she made a face “—overprotective. This is Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, where the dead go.”
    â€œAh!” The woman’s eyes brightened with understanding. “Like Vallahalia. Go on.”
    â€œYou are actually in the Underworld now, to answer your second question,” Hades put in. She nodded.
    â€œI managed to catch sight of this lovely maid, and—” Hades reached for Persephone’s hand. She let him take it, blushing. “I asked the king of our gods, Zeus, for permission to wed her. He agreed, but cautioned me that her mother would never let her go.”
    Persephone nodded. “She thinks I am still a child,” the girl said sourly.
    The stranger nodded, sighing. “All mothers are like that, I think. I begin to get the shape of this. I take it that you decided to abduct her?”
    Hades hesitated. “Not—exactly. That is more in Zeus’s style than mine.”
    â€œHe courted me!” Persephone said proudly. “And as if he was nothing more noble than a shepherd’s god, or one of the minor patrons of a brook or grove, so I wouldn’t feel as if I had to yield to him!”
    Now it was Hades’s turn to blush, as she squeezed his hand.
    The stranger’s cold eyes warmed a little. “I begin to favor you, god of the Underworld. So. This still begs the question of why I am here.”
    â€œMy mother is the Earth goddess, Demeter. Fertility,” Persephone said pointedly. The woman’s eyes widened.
    â€œAha! So you complicate things by sending another in your place to take the maid. So that she does not know who to curse, and you may garner more allies to soothe her before you reveal the truth.”
    â€œExactly.” Hades beamed.
    â€œAnd because he did not know the maid—” she eyed Persephone “—there cannot be many yellow-haired wenches among your people. You are the first I have seen in this place. I can see where there would have been a mistake.” She nodded, satisfied. “Well, with that settled, I forgive you. You can take me back now and in return for this insult you can help me and my Leopold with a problem of our own.”
    â€œUh…” Hades bit his lip. “This is where things become…complicated.”
    â€œComplicated?” The woman’s expression suddenly darkened. “What do you mean by complicated?”
    â€œThanatos is the god of death, you see—” Hades gestured helplessly with his free hand at the hapless Thanatos. “That was why he was supposed to take Persephone. She’d be dead, and have to stay here, you see—”
    â€œBut I am immortal!” the woman shouted, making them all wince.
    â€œWell, er, yes. But gods can die—” Hades freed his hand from Persephone’s and it looked to her as if he was preparing to cast another protective circle.
    â€œI—!” the woman roared—and then suddenly fellsilent. “Damn it,” she swore. “We can. Baldur did. And I was supposed to die to bring about the fall of Vallahalia—”
    â€œSo…er…you can’t leave. I mean, I just can’t let you go, you see.” Hades gestured apologetically. “It would be a terrible precedent. People would be coming down here all the time, demanding that I turn this shade or that loose. You see?”
    â€œYes, damn it all, I do.” The woman gritted her teeth. “But I am not staying here. If I have to, I will fight my way out.”
    Hades and Persephone exchanged a long look. “I think she would,” Persephone whispered.
    â€œI have no doubt of it,”