Page 11 of Gods' Battleground

“Yes, you, capture me, Leda Pandora,” she chanted in response. “But onlyyou.”

“I think she likes you, Leda,” Jace commented.

“Clearly.” I stopped Vertigo when she started hopping up and down again, and this time I had to use both hands. “Ok, so you wanted me to capture you. Why?”

“If you’d lived most of your life hearing everything, seeing everything, well, then you too would embrace the peaceful serenity of total silence,” she said sensibly.

And she did sound sensible, especially for a crazy person.

“Yeah, I kind of understand why you crave the silence,” I told her. “But why me? Why did you wantmeto capture you?”

“I heard about you, I did, yes.” Vertigo spoke so fast, her words bled together. “Leda Pandora. The Angel of Chaos. You’re not like other angels, no, you aren’t. You aren’t like other gods or demons. Youprotectpeople. I need you to protect me. Won’t go back to the way things were, no, oh, no, won’t go back.”

“To Faris?” I asked. “You won’t go back to Faris?”

“Faris is a bad man. A very bad man. The things I’ve seen…” She shook her head. “Bad, bad, bad, bad…” she muttered.

“Ok, we get it,” Jace said. “You don’t like Lord Faris.”

She kept muttering, “Bad, bad, bad, bad…”

“Vertigo…” I stopped, frowning. “Actually, what is yourrealname?”

She stopped muttering to herself. “Real name?” She blinked. “I’ve never had another name. Always been Vertigo. Born into slavery. Always been Vertigo. Vertigo, Vertigo, Vertigo…”

“Great, now you’ve done it,” Jace told me, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, she was crazybeforeshe met me,” I pointed out. Then I turned to her. “I need to ask you something, Vertigo.”

“Vertigo,” she repeated. “Ver-ti-go? Ver-ti-go. Ver-ti-go!”

Yeah, so this conversation might take a while.

“Yes,” I continued. “It’s about something Faris said?—”

“Faris?” She scowled. “Bad, bad, bad.”

“This is hopeless,” Jace told me.

I brushed off his negativity and focused my attention on Vertigo. “Regarding my sister.”

“Sissy, sis, sister…”

“Save your breath, Leda,” Jace said, his expression hard. “She’s clearly completely insane.”

Maybe, but I wasn’t about to give up. Not when I was so close to the answers I sought.

“Yes, my sister Bella,” I said to Vertigo.

Vertigo stopped muttering. “Beautiful Bella, the beautiful witch.”

“That’s right! Bella the beautiful witch.” I pointed at myself. “Mysister.”

Vertigo seemed to consider my words for a few moments, then said, “She’s beautiful.”

“Yes, I think we’ve thoroughly explored that topic already,” Jace said impatiently.

Vertigo blinked at him, then laughed. “You’re funny.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and added, “Pretty angel boy is funny.”

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