The Descent

Description

Orpheus plays well enough to stop a river to listen. When his wife dies of a snakebite on their wedding day, he does the thing nobody has done: he walks down, alive, and plays for the rulers of the dead until they give in. Nobody says no to him - not the ferryman, not the three-headed dog, not the queen who has never once granted a reprieve. They give her back on one condition, which is not a difficult one, and the whole way up the dark stair he keeps it. This is the story of a man who wins everything and then, within sight of daylight, turns his head.