“Is everyone here?” Thor whispered as he looked around.
“I think so.” I mentally counted heads.
“Form a line, grab the shoulders of the person in front of you, and we'll head out.”
We got in line, then went invisible. I saw the door open and then we were marching silently out of the room, past the Queen's writing desk, a grand fireplace, and a folding screen that seemed to have no purpose other than to form a barrier between the door and the back of a couch. Above me, crystal chandeliers glittered in sunlight that streamed through the windows.
The Picture Gallery Torrent had mentioned wasn't what I'd been expecting. I'd thought it would be rectangular and narrow, a second-floor, balcony type of deal that overlooked the throne room, similar to the galleries I'd seen in the palaces of Faerie. It was where the musicians usually sat and played their music. But this wasn't a gallery like the sort found in medieval castles. No, this was a place where art was displayed. You'd think that as an artist, I would have expected that. It was right there in the title—PictureGallery. In my defense, paintings were usually hung in the musician's gallery too, and I'd just spent five months in Faerie.
ThePictureGallery was rectangular but wider even than the spacious drawing room and with an arched ceiling made of glass. The walls were covered in pale pink damask paper and paintings of various sizes hung from long wires hooked to the moldings that ran along the top of the walls. Royals did not do anything so gauche as hanging paintings on nails. Put a hole in a palace wall? God forbid. And God save the Queen. Er, I mean King. Then again, England's current King had recently been savedfromGod. They might have to come up with a new slogan.
Back to the room. Side tables and long, white couches with gold feet sat along the two longest walls, below the paintings, some of the couches with coffee tables set before them. Oddly enough, the coffee tables weren't centered in front of the couches, nor were the many area rugs centered beneath the couches. Instead, they were laid uniformly down the length of the room with at least six feet between them to show off the parquet floor. This meant that some of the coffee tables sat on rugs and others didn't. It instantly drove me crazy. But at least it was empty, not a single soldier in sight.
Thor, in the lead with Torrent, stopped suddenly. Since I was at the back, I didn't get to see the Throne Room or the reason why Thor doubled back.
“What's going on?” I whispered.
Thor dropped his invisibility. “He's not there. No one is. We may have to split up to search.”
The rest of us became visible too.
“There's no need for that. We've found you.”
We spun to see Jerry appear several feet away from us. As soon as he appeared, other gods dropped their invisibility glamours, but none of them were with our group. My jaw fell open as we were surrounded by large monkeys, bears, and people with feathered wings. I make the feathered wings distinction because these winged peopled weren't Angels; they were Suparnas, falcon-shifters. Which meant that the animals were shapeshifters too; the monkeys were Vanaras, and the bears were Rikshas. All of them were demigods who belonged to the Hindu Pantheon.
And they stood with the King Arthur impersonator. I was so shocked that I couldn't process what was happening. I just stood there, gaping at the Hindu demigods, trying to come up withWizard of Ozjokes. I knew I'd need them if I was going to fight those monkeys. Even though they didn't have wings, they could fly. Flying monkey jokes were imperative.
“Hanuman?” Brahma stepped toward the King of the Vanaras. “What are you doing here?”
“Jehovah made us an offer—help him in exchange for power and a chance to get back at the Godhunter,” Hanuman said.
“We've waited years for this,” Hanuman's mother, Anjana sneered the words at me.
Hanuman was not in his monkey form but the way his snowy hair, so bright against his tan skin, swept down into sideburns looked a little simian to me. His hair was so fluffy, more like fur. Anjana, standing beside her son, had the same color hair, if not the same fluff to it, but her skin was pale. They looked quite striking together.
The Monkey King had once kidnapped the girlfriend of a friend of mine and when several of my husbands went to rescue her, he imprisoned them too. Oh, and he was also enslaving Nagas (snake-shifters) at the time. It's a long story, so I'll skip to the end; we kicked his ass. His ass and the asses of all his allies—the Vanaras, Rikshas, and Suparnas. I'd personally killed the Mother of the Suparnas, her two sons, and the King of the Rikshas. If only I'd killed Hanuman and his mother too. But they had surrendered, and we'd been merciful.
“We gave you a beat down then, and we'll do it again,” I said.
Anjana laughed scathingly. “You had a much larger army with you then, Godhunter, and we didn't have faerie magic. Now both of those things have changed.”
“Took a bite of a stolen apple, did you?” Sarasvati asked. “Well, so did we, bitch.”
“Don't you fucking speak to my mother like that!” Hanuman roared at Sarasvati.
“Don't speak to my wife like that!” Brahma, whose main weapon was his voice, roared even louder than the monkey-man and struck more than his eardrums.
The sonic waves emitting from Brahma's mouth sent Hanuman crashing backward into his monkey soldiers, who scattered, screeching and whooping, some of them even jumping into the air. Hanuman got to his feet seconds after he went down, but was far from unscathed; blood flowed from his ears, eyes, and nose. Hanuman was obviously applefied, but Brahma had still been able to hurt him. Interesting. Maybe the Wild Magic worked differently on the Monkey King. Or maybe it worked better on Brahma. Whatever the case, Hanuman wasn't deterred; he just grinned and wiped his nose on his sleeve, leaving a crimson stripe on the white fabric.
Who wears white to a battle?
The Vanaras, Suparnas, and Rikshas all tensed, but Hanuman held up a hand to hold his army back. “Guess we're even in power now, Brahma.”
“We were never even, you upstart, and we never will be, no matter how many apples you eat. I am your superior in every way. A fact that I just proved by winning first blood.”
“You've always been jealous of me, Brahma. That's why you cursed me into forgetting my magic.”
“No, I cursed you because you were too fucking full of yourself and had no respect for those of us who came before you.”
