Harvest Moon by Mercedes Lackey Page A

longer before the other gods would give in to Demeter, beg her tocome back and give in to her demand. Which would, of course, be that Persephone leave Hades.
    Hades knew that as well as Persephone did. Unless she could somehow manage to get something growing here that she could eat, she would have to give in to her mother and leave him, since it was clear that there was no chance at all to get her to behave rationally about this.
    All he could do was hold her.
    Demeter would never, ever believe that she wanted to be with him—
    This room in Hades’s palace was quiet, dark, but comforting rather than forbidding. Hades’s sturdy presence was just as comforting. She clung to his tunic with both hands. “Your mother…your mother has never been in love,” Hades said slowly. “I have known her since the beginning, you know. From the very beginning, Zeus and Hera were bound. For all her jealous rages, Hera truly loves Zeus—when he’s not letting his goolies lead him about, he really does love her…your mother never had that.”
    â€œZeus…couch hopping. Isn’t that as much the fault of The Tradition as it is of his own nature?” Persephone ventured.
    Hades nodded. “Which is why Hera keeps forgiving him. And why she has remained faithful to him despite everything.”
    â€œBut why doesn’t Mother understand if she can see that?” Persephone tried very hard not to sound as if she was wailing.
    â€œThat is why she does not understand Aphrodite, who is often genuinely in love, if only briefly. Again, I suspect part of that is the fault of The Tradition. Aphrodite is a little minx, but mortals seem to think that the goddess of love should have the morals of a she-cat, so…” He shrugged.
    Persephone sighed. She actually rather liked Aphrodite; because Hades was right, she did love very genuinely.
    â€œThe one I feel sorry for is poor Hephaestus. His situation is pure tragedy. If I were Zeus, I’d damn well hold him down and pour Lethe-water down his throat until he forgot Aphrodite.” There was heat in Hades’s voice that Persephone had rarely heard. Then he shook his head. “Not that it would do any good. The Tradition again. We’re puppets to it. But I am sure that when Demeter thinks of Aphrodite and Hephaestus, she thinks you must feel the same as Aphrodite does for her husband. She doesn’t believe in love, and she assumes you must be as revolted by my looks and manners as Aphrodite is by Hephaestus’s crippled legs. That is why she cannot understand why you would wish to be with me of your own free will.” He cupped his hand under her chin and raised her eyes to meet his grave gaze. “She has reason for this. On the whole, she has always been carelessly treated by men. When we came into the power granted to us by The Tradition, the men received theirs first, and most of us acted like the foolish boys we really were. Selfishly, taking no thought for anything but the pleasure of the moment, and thinking we deserved whatever we cared to take as a reward for ridding this realm of Kronos and the marauding Titans. After all, we were not being cruel, only enjoying ourselves.”
    He sighed. She smiled tremulously. It was so like him, to be able to see all sides to something.
    â€œI would have thought you would be furious withher,” she replied. “She prides herself on being the mother of all things, and yet look what she does to her ‘other’ children in her quest to get a single one back! If I acted like she is right now, she’d say I was having a tantrum, and I promise you, I would be eating dry bread and water until I stopped acting like a petulant baby.”
    â€œBut you are the only child of her body, my love.” She hoped that he would kiss her, and as if he had read her thoughts in her eyes, he did. He broke it off before she would have liked, however. “As lord of the dead, I