Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) by Cedar Sanderson Page B

her. “Going to sleep all day?”
    “Um...” Linn rubbed her eyes. They felt like glue had been poured into them. “Grampa?”
    “Has gone. It’s time for you to start training.”
    “What? He left?” She felt all muzzy. “Training?”
    “Seems you have a sword to learn how to use. Can’t chop off your own toes,” he commented dryly.
    She sat up. It was, by the sun in the window, a couple hours later than before. She glared at him. “What did you do to me?”
    “You took a little nap.”
    “I did not. You put me to sleep.” Linn was furious.
    “Well, and if I did...” He grinned again. “I can do it again when you’re being annoying.”
     
    Chapter 9
    Sekhmet, still in great cat form, sat Sphinx-like watching the scene play out with wry amusement. They had returned to the high path after a restless night and traveled to the court of Quetzalcoatl. Now that rainbow-feathered personage sat on his throne perch and hissed in frustration. Facing him were the Scholar and Peter, a strange pair in that blazoned room of great stone blocks and barbaric grandeur.
    “Scholar," he insisted, "you must leave the high Plane and return to Earth. You are unsafe here.”
    “I won’t. They ruined my home!” she wailed, her hands fluttering. Abruptly, she realized what she was doing and crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at the Mayan god.
    He sighed and rattled his feathers. “You will. You are needed below in the battle against the Olympians.” He still sounded firm, but he had gentled his voice for her.
    “What can I offer?” she snapped.
    “You know more about the Old Ones’ nature than anyone else in either plane. We need that knowledge if we are to foil their plans.” He was practicing patience, but she was trying it.
    “Foil their plans? Really, you just said that?” She was a past mistress of sarcasm, too.
    Sekhmet suppressed a chuckle. The Scholar never pulled her punches, even with a senior immortal. The feathered serpent directed a fiery green eye in her direction, and she looked back, calmly. She could, of course, just scoop the Scholar up and take her willy-nilly, but it would be better if the irascible demi-god was persuaded to go on her own.
    Peter interjected. “Hypatia, dear. You really should consider it. Humans have grown so much in the time you were gone.”
    She looked at him, and Sekhmet saw the tears on her cheeks. “I... don’t want to leave you.” The old woman looked at the old man mournfully.
    Their love was a strange one, the demi-goddess crippled by the burning of her library and the English soldier who had been left to die in the blistering sun so far from the green hills of home. The gods knew they had seen stranger ones. Now he held out his hand to her. She uncrossed her arms and took it in both of hers.
    “I will be here when you get back. It will be a grand adventure, old girl.”
    Hypatia sniffled a little. Then she looked back at Sekhmet. “Will I have access to a library?”
    “Scholar, have you heard of the Internet?”
    The scarred old woman shook her head. Sekhmet broke into a very un-cat like grin. “Oh, this is going to be fun!” she chortled.
    “Where are we going?” Hypatia looked interested now, not just combative.
    “A very safe place. I think you will like it. There are sandy beaches and palm trees.”
    The Scholar snorted at the idea of a vacation spot. “I’ll do fine in a nice room full of books, thank you.”
    “You can have your books on the beach,” Sekhmet assured her with a laugh.
    Peter and the serpent god watched the women walk out of the room together. The last thing they heard was Sekhmet’s rumbling murmur repeating. “Oh, this is going to b e fu n ...”
    The god and the mortal looked at one another. Quetzalcoatl sighed. “Her sense of humor is irrepressible, isn’t it?”
    “The most charming thing about her. That, and those long claws protecting my heart from harm.”
    The serpent nodded knowingly. It had to be hard on the