Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(14)

"Don't worry, Brother," Artemis smiled. "Each of them will find that later tonight they will have incredibly good luck at the... what did you call those clanking boxes? Slot..." Her voice trailed off as her mind registered the look of shock on Apollo's face. She turned her head and followed his stunned gaze. Her eyes went large and round as the seated statue at the center of the spurting fountain rotated in a slow circle towards them and began to speak.

"COME ONE, COME ALL, COME TO THE MALL!"

"The horrid thing looks like Bacchus," Artemis gasped.

"I think it is Bacchus," Apollo said, careful to keep his voice low.

The statue opened its mouth and chortled grotesquely. "Ah, but tonight we have a special show for you! Nymphs, I command you dance for the Vegas revelers, two by two!"

As per his order, pairs of nymphs detached themselves from where they had been standing at the edges of the crowd and, to the delight of the watching mortals, they began a seductive dance around the circumference of the fountain in time to the canned music of bells and pipes and horns. Golden glitter haloed the lovely forest deities as they twirled and leapt and frolicked with superhuman grace.

The Bacchus statue mechanically nodded his head in appreciation. Jell-O-like, his chins wobbled as he continued to speak.

"Nymphs, the magic of your beauty is pure and true. Tell me, Apollo, what thinks you?"

At the sound of the animated statue calling his name, Apollo jerked in surprise and took a half-step forward. Then his body froze as one of the lesser statues rotated and came alive in response.

"I agree they are lovely, fair and bright. Tonight I enhance their beauty with the magic of my immortal light!"

The real Apollo was struck speechless as he stared at the caricature of himself. In the next instant the music intensified as a laser show began and the nymphs stepped up the tempo of their dance to the spontaneous applause of the captivated audience.

"How dare he!" Artemis hissed, but her brother caught her arm as she started forward with fire in her eyes.

"Wait! We can't do anything here before all of these mortals."

"Let me have my bow and but a single arrow, and Bacchus will be eternally sorry for his distasteful little jest," Artemis said.

Apollo shook his head at the statue that was supposed to represent him. "He could have at least made it look more like me."

"It is blasphemous." Artemis' voice was low and dangerous.

"Is my lyre actually glowing green?" Apollo tried unsuccessfully to smother a chuckle. "And please tell me that my head is not that large."

His sister's next words were drowned out by the bellowing Bacchus.

"Lovely Artemis, how fair thou art. It is by your royal command that the invocation shall start!"

It was Artemis' turn to stare, dumbfounded, as an unflattering copy of herself came alight. It turned and lifted one thick arm. Artemis gasped as it began to speak, the mechanical female voice sounding nothing like her own.

"It is my intent and tonight I do dare, to send out through the nymphs in the shimmering air, this invocation - this summoning spell. So I cast my power and amidst you tonight it shall dwell."

The nymphs instantly began a hypnotic humming as the canned music faded into vague background noise against their sweet voices.

"He goes too far." Apollo's eyes darkened. No one mocked his sister, not even one of the immortals. But he was surprised to feel Artemis' hand tighten on his as this time it was she who kept him from striding forward.

"Listen to the nymphs." Her voice was thick with tension.

Apollo put aside his anger at Bacchus and listened to the music of the nymphs. The melodic humming had a seductive, familiar tempo, and even before the semideities began to sing the words of the invocation, Apollo felt the hair on his forearms prickle in response to the invisible insurgence of power that poured into the air around them.

"Seekers of the ancient ways, think upon

the coming again of the immortals

and of your distant ancestors

who once honored the old gods

and gave blessing to field and forest, wind and

water, earth and air. This night we invoke past times - past days. "

The nymphs' voices were so beautiful that the listening mortals hardly breathed.

"What are they doing?" Apollo said, feeling a sudden tightening low in his throat. "This is a true invocation ritual. I can feel the power - by Zeus' beard, it is almost visible!"

Helplessly, the two immortals watched as the nymphs continued to spin their magic web.

"Celebrate the reawakening of the Olympians

and the return of the ancient mysteries,

the quickening of beauty and of fruitfulness.

We proclaim the return of the gods

with spell and chant and song.

Let the aid of the ancients be invoked! "

"We must stop them!" Apollo began to move forward, but once again his sister's firm grip stayed him.

"How?" she whispered. "How do we do that without causing a horrendous scene?"

Apollo's jaw tightened. "But we cannot allow them to complete the invocation. Think of the consequences of a modern moral binding the aid of a god!"

"You are the one who should think, Brother. The invocation is harmless."

"How can you say that? The power feels magnified tenfold! The long absence of magic in this world must be acting to intensify the ritual. This binding will be unbreakable," he said through clenched teeth.