Downfall of the Gods Read Online Free Page B

the point.”
    “Oh come on,” he whined, “that’s just sophistry. No way he can do it without your help. Or mine. Therefore, to all intents and purposes—”
    “Pol,” I said. “Please. Pretty please.”
    He winced as though I’d slapped his face. “It’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? All this, for some mortal.”
    “It’s not for him,” I said, a bit too quickly. “It’s about ethics. Morality. It’s about the meaning of restitution.
    We have a duty to teach mortals how to behave.” He gave me his sad look. “What are you up to?” he said. “For crying out loud, I’m not up to anything. Why does everyone always assume I’m up to something?
    Believe it or not, my entire life isn’t spent in devising malign schemes of impenetrable complexity.”
    “True. From time to time you sleep.”
    “Shut up, Pol. And you’re going to help me. Father says so.”
    He raised his hands as though in silent prayer. “I give up,” he said. “This family is impossible. Just don’t blame me if it all ends in disaster.”
    “Pol,” I said, “don’t be silly. What could possibly go wrong?”
    L ORD A RCHIAS WAS shocked. “You’re joking.”
    “No.”
    He tried to back away, but he was up against the cell
    wall already. “It’s impossible. You can’t do that.” “To the gods—”
    He shook his head. “Not that,” he said. “It’s specifically excluded, everyone knows that. To the gods all things are possible, but they can’t raise the dead. It’s— it’s fundamental .”
    I sighed. “You poor dear,” I said. “You obviously don’t know the first thing about what we can and can’t do. We’re the gods, we can do anything.”
    “Including—?”
    I nodded. “We choose not to,” I said, “most of the time. But we have the discretion. Besides,” I added, “we’re not going to. You are.”
    He gave me a look of pure distilled revulsion. “I can’t.” “With a little help,” I said. “Or maybe you don’t want to. Maybe you aren’t sincerely remorseful after all. In which case—”
    “That’s not the point.”
    I grinned. The words had come out all in a rush. He was afraid. I’d beaten him. “If you sincerely regret killing Lysippus the musician, you must want him to be alive again.”
    “I do.”
    “Fine. Then prove it. Go to the Kingdom of the Dead and bring him back.”
    Directly behind his head was that wonderful view of the city and the mountains. I looked past them, across the Middle Sea, through the dense forests of the Mesoge, over the White Desert to the Holy Mountain, and met Father’s eye. I hope you know what you’re doing , I lip-read.
    “There’s no such place,” he said. “There is no Kingdom of the Dead, it’s a human myth.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “Is it really.”
    “Yes. Logically, it must be.”
    “Do explain.”
    He looked up at me angrily. “The dead don’t come back,” he said. “Therefore, all and any accounts of the Kingdom of the Dead circulating among mortals can’t be based on eyewitness testimony. But the traditional accounts are full of lurid and picaresque detail. They must therefore be lies. Therefore there is no Kingdom of the Dead. Logic.”
    “Mphm. It exists. I’ve been there. It’s run by my aunt. She’s not the nicest person ever, but compared to the rest of my relatives she’s not too bad. And you can take your logic and shove it.”
    He breathed out slowly. “This is ridiculous,” he said.
    He was getting on my nerves. “Do you have to make a fuss about every damn thing?”
    He raised his hands in surrender. “There is a Kingdom of the Dead,” he said, “because you say so. If I don’t go there, I die and suffer eternal torment. The way I see it, I’ve got as much choice as a nail.” He looked up at me. “Well?”
    “I think you’ve got the gist of it.”
    He nodded. “That’s mortals for you,” he said. “We can be trained to perform simple tasks.”
    I ADMIRED HIM for that remark, though probably I read