The Siren Song

by Anne Ursu

  He did not answer, and Charlotte couldn’t get a good look at his face to see if there was anything there at all. Working valiantly to keep down the lump in her throat, she turned her attention back to the sea in front of her. When she was safely away, she looked over her shoulder at the Poseidon, lit by the great full moon. The yacht was covered in squid arms—Sir Laurence, it appeared, had wrapped himself around the boat. A tentacle hung off to the side limply, and Charlotte gulped. But he still had many arms left, and he was using them. Off to one side, she saw two huge yellow eyes floating just above the surface of the water, focused intently on the yacht.

  “Thank you, Sir Laurence,” Charlotte whispered. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Then she turned back around and went off into the night.

  Charlotte used the trident and the boat’s compass to go back exactly the way they’d came. She went right through the Strait of Messina without any sign of Scylla or Charybdis, as she knew there wouldn’t be; for it had been they Jason had been talking to in the library before the party. Charlotte hadn’t been able to place them at first, but when Jason betrayed her, she knew. It hadn’t been a mistake that they’d ended up in that strait when they were going to the yacht; Jason had arranged the whole thing in order to make it look like he’d saved her. Not that he’d needed to, for Charlotte was a sucker for boys with nice eyes and rumpled hair and sympathy toward her adventures with the Greek gods. It was her fatal flaw.

  What had he been doing, anyway? Proteus must have sent him to follow Zee, not her, to learn more about his life. Because he wanted his son to prove himself to Poseidon. But Jason had had his own agenda: Befriend Charlotte, wait till she got on the cruise, wait until the ship was lost, then show her how to save it. Meanwhile, Zee had been in Philonecron’s hands this whole time.

  The boat sped through the night-black water, bouncing hard along the waves as it went, wind pounding against Charlotte’s face. She had the throttle as far forward as it would go—and it turned out that, on an Immortal’s speedboat, that meant you could go pretty fast.

  Charlotte couldn’t even hear herself think over the roar of the engines and the rushing of the wind, but still, every once in a while she shouted something at Zee, pretending his mind hadn’t gone AWOL from his body, pretending he was with her, pretending they were together just as they had been going down to the Underworld. The boat was going so fast that she didn’t want to take her eyes off the sea in front of her for even a second, so she couldn’t get a good look at him, and in a way that helped. Because the sight of him under Philonecron’s spell made her lose all her strength—and if that happened, then all would be lost. If it wasn’t already.

  And then, a dim light glowed on the dark horizon. The boat sped closer and Charlotte beheld the Isis Queen, aglow with lights still on from the previous night, back when everyone was awake and aware and heading happily toward Virginia. At the sight of the distant ship a wave of relief hit Charlotte; her body broke out in shivers and tears sprang to her eyes. The ship was still there. It wasn’t too late.

  Still, as she got closer to the cruise ship, she saw the sea begin to stir, as if the water itself were uneasy. She peered down at the waves, but saw only blackness. Was the Ketos coming? Was that water churning off into the distance because of the movement of a great monster, or was it just a trick of Charlotte’s eye? How much time did she have?

  As the waves grew more unsettled and Charlotte sped on, the bouncing of the boat became furious and arrhythmic, so she had to clutch the steering wheel to avoid being thrown from the boat and into the dark sea, but not before pointing the trident at her cousin and yelling at him to hang on. Charlotte’s body kept slamming into the driver’s seat, and with every hit, her back throbbed and her bones screamed. But she was getting close now—the Isis Queen loomed ahead of her, rocking in the restless sea. She slowed down her speedboat and, flicking on the spotlight, started to scan the ship’s hull for a place to lash on the boat. When she found it, she eased up to it and tied on the speedboat. Then she turned her attention to her cousin.

  “Zee!” she yelled. “You have to come with me!” What was she doing? He had to come with her so he could be eaten by the Ketos? But what was she supposed to do?

  Zee was still hanging onto his seat, so hard his knuckles had turned white, but his face was no longer empty. He was looking around vaguely, blinking rapidly, his eyes full of fog—but at least they weren’t empty anymore.

  She scampered back to him and put her hands on his arms. “Zee…Zee, are you awake?”

  One blink. Two. Three. Then his eyes met hers. “Char—Charlotte?”

  “Oh, Zee…” Charlotte exhaled, her eyes flooding with tears. No, no, there wasn’t time. “Zee, listen to me, can you walk?”

  “I—I—” He pushed himself up, and then promptly fell down again.

  “Zee, listen…. There’s no time…. You need to do something for me, okay? You need to stay here. Do you think you can drive the boat?”

  Zee looked up at her, eyes wide with confusion. “Y-yes.”

  “If something happens, something—unusual, I need you to drive away as fast as you can, okay?”

  Something passed through his eyes. “Phil—Philonecron?”

  Charlotte shook her head. “He’s not here. But if you see anything coming toward the ship, I want you to drive away, okay? As quickly as possible. Just pick a direction and go.”

  “Wh—what about you?”

  Charlotte squared her jaw. “I’ll be okay,” she muttered. (Maybe.)

  “Charlotte!” Zee protested. He tried to push himself up and immediately fell again, then let out a gargled scream.

  “Zee, I have to go. I’ll be okay. I’ll come back for you, and if not, go. Promise me.”

  And with one last glance at her cousin, Charlotte crawled onto the bow and unlashed the boat. Heart pounding, she scampered up the ladder and pulled at the door in the hull. It was, of course, locked—but locks mean nothing when you have a magic trident. But when Charlotte placed it against the door, she realized that the trident was much cooler than it had been, and the gentle humming of the handle was barely perceptible. Too long away from Poseidon, it was losing its power.

  Her heart sank, and some other sensation passed over her too, some icy feeling just like the one you get when your doom is approaching. Without quite knowing why, Charlotte turned her head around.

  Someone was coming. Someone, or something—a light heading toward her, an oddly shaped glowing dot on the horizon, moving with great speed—were those horses next to it? Was that a tentacle behind it?

  No, no, not someone or something, but someone and something. Under the bright moon Charlotte saw Sir Laurence, waving two arms in the air menacingly as he moved toward the cruise ship, and in front of him was a towering man in a massive, glowing chariot pulled by four white horses.

  Poseidon.

  Charlotte yelped. She had had no intention of seeing him again. Sir Laurence was supposed to come—that had been the plan all along. Once she had the trident and had signaled him, he would attack the yacht and create her distraction, and then he would come to the Isis Queen and, after she had stopped the Siren, she would change him back to Sir Laurence Gaumm, English gentleman.

  Sir Laurence was supposed to be there—yes, but Poseidon was not. But he’d managed to slip away during the fight, and now Sir Laurence was chasing him—to protect Charlotte, and to protect his own chance at salvation.

  Hanging off the ladder, Charlotte yelled down at her cousin. “Zee!” she shouted. “Go!”

  From his position on the small boat, Zee couldn’t see the approach of Poseidon, and he looked up at her, bewildered and still foggy. “Charlotte, what’s—”

  “Go!” But Zee yelled something else up at her and started feeling his way toward the front of the boat, toward the ladder, toward Charlotte. She narrowed her eyes, pointed the trident at the boat, and whispered, “Take him out of danger.” Then, as the boat roared off, she cast one last lo
ok at the horizon.

  She couldn’t tell how long it would take Poseidon to reach the boat—before Charlotte got to the Siren, or after? Before the Ketos attacked the ship, or after? And what was she supposed to do then? How was she supposed to fight off the Ketos and the Lord of the Seas? Having the captain hit the gas pedal just wasn’t going to do it.

  Well, she would deal with that later. Charlotte had gotten the trident to stop the Siren, and that’s what she was going to do—for once she confronted the battle brewing outside the boat, there might not be any Charlotte left to save the ship.

  Charlotte went through the hull door, then ran through a short entryway and burst through another door to find herself near the doctor’s office. Deck Three. Charlotte wanted to collapse on the familiar carpeting and hug the ship, but there was no time to rejoice. She sprinted up two flights of stairs and through the hallway until she came upon the locked doors of the Mariner Lounge.

  Nothing had changed. The wooden chair she had used to try to smash the doors lay broken against the ground, and through the porthole window Charlotte could see the heads of the passengers and crew, still mesmerized by the singer. She tried the door once more for good measure.

  “Open,” she whispered, feeling the trident’s hum diminish a little more. And just like that, the doors flew to the sides and Charlotte stalked into the lounge.

  Her eyes went quickly over the crowd—her parents had been in the back of the room, off to the side of the doorway, but Charlotte couldn’t see them from her vantage point. She wanted to run to them, to fall into their laps—she’d been so scared that she would never see them again, and now that they were so close, her heart tried to pull her body to them. Later, she told herself, later.

  Onstage Thalia was singing into the microphone with her eyes closed, as her dark hair hung like curtains over her face and she swayed back and forth in her slinky green dress. She was crooning some horrible ballad, the sort of thing they play in your dentist’s office when they really want to punish you for not flossing, and as her stomach turned Charlotte reflected that she could not, for the life of her, understand grown-ups. Drawing air through her nose, she lifted up the trident, which felt nearly lifeless at this point, and aimed it at the singer.

  Thalia’s eyes popped open. Surprise stopped her cold, and she paused her song mid-note and blinked. Then, regaining her composure, she began to sing again, cat-like eyes fixed intently on Charlotte. As she sang, she articulated her words very carefully.

  Go away, little girl

  Put your toy down

  You might get hurt, little girl

  Someone’s angry with you….

  That was enough of that. “I’ll turn you into a toad,” Charlotte snapped, aiming the trident again.

  The singer’s eyes widened, though she still sang on. Charlotte didn’t hear the words this time, though, as something outside of the lounge had caught her eye.

  The Mariner Lounge lay in the stern of the ship, and its walls featured tremendous windows so its guests could look out upon the sea. Or, at this moment, so they could look on the very large creature that seemed to be rising out of it about a hundred yards from the ship, a creature with a worm-like face, angry-looking pig-like eyes, a massive mouth, and tremendous, sharp teeth.

  Thalia followed Charlotte’s horrified gaze out the window, then pointed and screamed. “Ketos!” she shrieked, and in the blink of an eye she dropped her microphone and sprinted out of the lounge.

  Charlotte stared at the Ketos, which was opening its mouth as it approached the ship, and then followed Thalia. She had no idea how long it would take the adults to wake up now that Thalia had stopped singing, and she didn’t exactly have time to wait and see. She had a Ketos to kill.

  Just outside the lounge was a door leading outside to the small strip of deck that encircled every level of the ship, and Charlotte burst through. And what she saw made her freeze.

  The Ketos was moving fast. Its head was bigger than the Isis Queen itself, and its worm body stretched on for what seemed like forever. On the horizon, a tail that might be as thick as the ship flickered over the surface of the water, creating great waves in its wake. That was scary enough, but a few hundred yards to the left was Poseidon, who was bearing down fast on the ship in his chariot. When he saw Charlotte, he let out a roar that the waves themselves seemed to cower from. And close behind him was Sir Laurence, one arm reaching for the Ketos, another swinging for Poseidon.

  “Give me my trident!” Poseidon screamed. He stopped and, raising his arms above his head, summoned a spinning column of water from the choppy sea. The column moved rapidly toward Charlotte, who took a single step back, clutching the trident to her chest. Then a tremendous force slammed her into the wall of the ship. Her head hit the wall hard, and that was when everything went black.

  Charlotte awoke to find the trident lying next to her, and a cackling Poseidon galloping toward her. She dove toward her prize, and Poseidon began to shout menacing commands at the sea.

  Then a tentacle swooped down and crashed into Poseidon’s chariot. The chariot wavered, the horses screamed, and Charlotte pounced on the trident.

  Roaring as he righted himself, Poseidon turned and directed a jet of water right at Sir Laurence. It broke harmlessly against the giant squid. While Poseidon’s attention was diverted, Charlotte got up groggily and ran around to the stern to make her stand against the Ketos, clutching the trident. Meanwhile, Poseidon had raised his hands to the heavens, and a dense, rolling cloud came in and began to dump thick, sharp pieces of hail on the squid’s head. Sir Laurence dove under the sea.

  “Now I’ve got you!” Poseidon shouted, propelling his chariot back toward Charlotte.

  She took a few steps back, clutching the trident to her. Poseidon reached up toward the hail cloud and directed a stream of icy chunks right at Charlotte. They hit her like knives, cutting and bruising her skin, and she scrambled under a nearby table as the chunks of hail pounded on the tabletop above her. Then Sir Laurence burst back through the water, swung for the chariot, and knocked two of Poseidon’s horses down. The horses screamed, the chariot tipped to one side and, stumbling, Poseidon shot his hands out to right them. Free from the hail, Charlotte looked up—and suddenly her head whipped to her right. The Ketos was almost upon the ship now.

  With a scream, Charlotte burst out from under the table, lifted the trident in the air, pointed it at the Ketos—and gasped in horror. The trident was ice-cold, and it lay perfectly still in her hands, feeling desolate and void, like a dead animal. Charlotte stared up at it in a panic. Did it have anything left at all? It had to have something left; she needed to stop the Ketos, propel the ship away from Poseidon, and keep her promise to Sir Laurence. She needed it, or all would be lost.

  Meanwhile, Sir Laurence had moved toward the Ketos and was beating on him with two arms. As Charlotte watched, the Ketos thrashed him with his tremendous tail. Sir Laurence was repelled backward and fell into the sea with a monumental splash.

  “Ha!” boomed Poseidon, now thirty yards away. “Not so strong against my Ketos, is he?” Tears stinging her eyes, Charlotte stared desperately at the sea as it churned over the place where Sir Laurence had gone down. “Now, as for you…” Charlotte lunged against the deck rail, throwing her arms and legs around it, and hung on with all her might. Poseidon growled and uttered a command, and moments later a wave pounded against Charlotte. But she held her breath, closed her eyes, and held on.

  Surely, when the wave passed, Sir Laurence would emerge again, surely he would have recovered from the impact, surely he was all right, surely he was coming back.

  But when Charlotte opened her eyes again there was no sign of her friend.

  Choking back a sob, she freed her trident arm from the rail and swung the trident over her shoulder. Pointing her prize at the quiet patch of sea, she shouted, “Fix him!” A long puff of blue steam came out of the trident, and that was it. Tears pouring down her cheeks, Charlotte looked wildly into the wa
ter. But a tremendous roaring noise interrupted her, and she whirled around to find herself staring directly into the gaping maw of the Ketos.

  “Stop!” Charlotte yelled, pointing the trident at him. Nothing happened. The Ketos’s jaws began to rise over the ship. Slime dripped off its story-high fangs, and a horrible, rotting smell washed over Charlotte.

  Another wave came at her with tremendous force, too much for her one-handed grip, and she was sent banging against the wall again. Nearby a window shattered. She felt the world slow down, as if it took seconds to move an inch, and when she hit the wall she felt her grip on the trident slowly release and heard it clatter to the floor.

  She bounced off the wall and hit the deck and scrambled frantically amidst the water and broken glass for the trident. But it wasn’t anywhere. And Charlotte looked toward Poseidon with dread, expecting to see his prize in his hand, wondering what he’d do to her now—but he didn’t have it either.

  No, the person next to her did.

  Zee?

  Propping herself up on her hands, Charlotte whipped her head toward her cousin, who was standing, holding the trident.

  Poseidon was yelling at Zee now, insensate with anger. “Give me that, mortal!” He began to mutter something to the waters below.

  Zee yelled back at the top of his lungs, “You want it? Go get it!”

  And with that Zee, looking nothing like someone who had just been under a spell, ran three steps forward, trident poised, and with a loud grunt hurled it like a javelin directly into the Ketos’s mouth.

  One moment of awful silence, and then a horrible screech filled the air, and the Ketos began to writhe violently. Poseidon roared. The Ketos’s enormous tail whipped spasmodically to the right and caused a tremendous wave to crash against the starboard side of the ship. The ship lurched, and Zee lost his balance for a moment. Poseidon turned on Charlotte and Zee and yelled, “I’ll tear you limb from limb!” Then with a tremendous crack of the whip, his horses began pulling the chariot toward her. Meanwhile, the still-writhing Ketos’s tail had thrashed all the way over to the other side of its mammoth body and came flying toward the side of the ship where Charlotte and Zee crouched. But the tail never quite got to the ship. Poseidon’s chariot lay directly in its path, and the tail slammed into it. In blind panic, the Ketos wrapped its tail around the chariot, desperate to hold on to something. Before Poseidon could react, the Ketos’s tail coiled around and around until neither god nor chariot could be seen.