Page 167 of Empress, Goddess

‘I would have to wake up Pluto,’ she said, looking to the chambers from which the great rumbling resounded.

‘Can’t you do it without him?’ asked Claudia, eagerly.

‘I… no. I do not have the keys.’

‘But you just said, I am not dead. I don’t belong here.’

‘If you could just wait until he arises, then—’

‘I cannot wait, please. I am needed urgently.’

‘Then I will wake him,’ said Proserpina, rising to her feet. ‘Pluto will decide. He will know what to do.’

In the heat of the moment, Claudia panicked and did the only thing she could think to do.

‘Don’t,’ she said, firmly, flashing warning in her eyes.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Don’t wake Pluto,’ said Claudia.

Proserpina didn’t say anything for a moment. Her face was serene and unreadable as ever, but the flowers that decorated her crown began to bloom as if watered.

‘Why not?’ she asked, in the slightest of whispers.

‘Minerva is rebelling against Jupiter.’

The goddess’s eyes flicked left and right, exchanging looks with several of her handmaids. Proserpina had already heard, of course she had. Perhaps Pluto himself had told her.

‘What does that have to do with you?’ she said.

‘I’m Minerva’s patron, the empress of Rome,’ said Claudia.

Proserpina’s face faltered, which was unnerving. There was nothing more terrifying than a frightened goddess, but if there was, it was a frightened goddess who knew her personally.

‘I have been poisoned, but it seems they didn’t quite finish me off,’ said Claudia. ‘Incompetent men. I tire of them. Minerva also tires of them… Do you tire of them, too?’

Proserpina looked fearfully to the dog, as one of its three heads awoke, blinking slowly. The goddess drew one finger to her lips, signalling for Claudia to silence.