by A P Mobley
“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that could be a good place to start searching,” Andy whispered, pointing at the largest door. “Maybe it’s Poseidon’s room?”
Zoey began tiptoeing toward it. “Let’s find out.” The group crept down the hall as quietly as they could. Darko’s hooves clapping against the tiles made the most noise, but Zoey didn’t think it was enough to alert anyone of their arrival. Once they reached the door, they opened it and slipped inside.
This room was the size of a gym, the tall seafoam-colored walls decorated with tree-sized coral structures and glowing clusters of crystals. From the ceiling hung a chandelier adorned with dangling pearls and seashells. Like the hall outside, the floor’s tiles were golden, which matched the canopied bed at the far end of the room.
From behind the bed’s canopy, someone was snoring so loudly and obnoxiously it reminded Zoey of an elephant trumpeting. Something glittered in the corner of her vision, next to the bed, and Zoey peered closer.
Beside the bed and held by a golden stand there stood a bronze three-pronged trident, shiny jewels and pearls encrusted on the handle. Much like the Helm, it emanated ancient power as though it were a god itself. Zoey grinned. It had to be Poseidon’s Trident!
Zoey gestured at her companions to catch their attention, then pointed at the Trident. When they spotted it, their eyes grew wide.
“Kali and Darko,” Zoey whispered. “You watch the door while Andy and I grab the Trident.” They nodded to her plan.
Zoey held her breath as she and Andy tiptoed toward the Trident. If they were in Poseidon’s bedroom—and if the Sea God was the person snoring behind the canopy—they needed to be as quiet as possible.
Once they’d crept to the Trident’s side, Andy wrapped his hands around the object of power, and Zoey prepared to help him in case he couldn’t pick it up by himself. However, to Zoey’s surprise, he pulled it from its stand easily despite the fact it was as tall as him.
When they turned around to leave, Zoey caught a glimpse through a slit in the canopy of a silver-haired man with blue skin. He looked identical to the disguises Prometheus had concocted for the group. He was snoring, golden blankets pulled up to his chin.
That’s definitely Poseidon, Zoey thought. Beside Poseidon slept a pretty woman with sea-green skin and pin-straight black locks fanned out around her head.
Zoey and Andy snuck back to Darko and Kali. Together, the group slipped out of the room and into the hallway, then gently closed the door behind them.
Darko gestured toward the door at the opposite end of the hall. “Most of these rooms are probably just more bedchambers,” he whispered. “The one at the end of the hall—that’s our best bet for escape.”
They hurried down the hall, toward the door Darko suggested. Suddenly, its knob turned. Zoey and Andy bolted behind a pillar, while Darko and Kali dashed behind a statue.
“Andy, the Helm,” Zoey whispered in panic. “Put it on so they can’t see you.” He nodded and shoved the Trident into Zoey’s hand. Thankfully, the object was lighter than she expected, and she didn’t drop it. She thought it would weigh a ton, but it weighed no more than the axe at her belt.
Andy hurriedly pulled the Helm from his pack and tugged it over his head. Immediately he disappeared. He grabbed the Trident from Zoey. It vanished with him, and relief flooded her.
The door creaked open. The sound of shoes clacking against tiles echoed through the air. The sounds grew closer, then abruptly stopped.
Zoey’s heart pounded. She slowly turned her head. A beautiful woman standing over six feet tall stared sideways at Zoey with a puzzled look on her face. She wore a cream dress that reached the floor, her skin a sea-green, her irises the color of amethysts. A crown made of pearls and seashells sat atop her head, matching jewelry circling her throat and wrists. Her curly white hair was pinned in an extravagant updo.
Zoey gulped and gave the woman a little wave. “Uh, hi.”
The woman crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes into slits. “Who are you, and what do you think you’re doing scampering about my palace?” She talked dramatically, putting emphasis on tons of her words.
“Your palace?” Zoey squeaked, shrinking back.
“Yes, my palace. Haven’t you any idea who I am? Amphitrite, Goddess of the Sea and Wife of Poseidon?”
An idea crossed Zoey’s mind. She focused on what she could say to get Amphitrite to leave them alone. Her throat began to tingle. She put her hand to her heart, feigning shock. “Wait, you’re Amphitrite? I apologize, I’m just a lowly maid. Pretty new, only worked here a century or so.”
Amphitrite’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh, I see now. For a moment you almost looked like a mortal. But no, you couldn’t be. Your divine essence is unmistakable.”
“Oh, uh— Yeah, of course,” Zoey said, confused and unsure of what the goddess meant. “Anyway, I just finished cleaning Poseidon’s bedchamber—and I could’ve sworn the lady sleeping next to him right now was his wife.”
Amphitrite’s jaw dropped. She shot the door to Poseidon’s room a glare, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white.
“I’ve thought she was his wife the whole time I’ve worked here, actually,” Zoey continued, throat still tingling. “Since every time I go in there, I see her. They seem to spend a lot of time together.”
Amphitrite didn’t say another word to Zoey. Instead, she stomped down the hall toward Poseidon’s room, snarling under her breath about “that floozy of a Nereid.”
Amphitrite threw open the door and stalked in, immediately screaming in her exaggerated way at Poseidon and the woman, but the group didn’t waste any time to wait and see what happened next. They sprinted down the hall, then burst through the door and into the next section of the palace. Andy kept the Helm on so he stayed invisible, but Zoey could hear his feet pounding against the floor beside her as they ran.
The chamber they hurried through now had to be a dining hall, because it was even bigger and more open than Poseidon and Amphitrite’s bedchamber, with rows of tables and chairs perfect for a feast. Pillars, crystals, and coral structures lined the walls, a chandelier much like the one in Poseidon’s room hanging from the ceiling.
They rushed out the other end of the dining room, then careened down more halls that twisted every which way, looking for any sign of water and an exit so they could activate the Pocket-Sized Submarine and escape. As the group flew past several more chambers, Zoey thought she caught a glimpse of some other women lounging about, some working, but the group moved too fast for anyone to notice them.
Finally, the group reached what had to be the throne room, its wide walls lined with crystals, coral, and marble statues. The room’s high, arched ceiling stretched to fifty feet tall. A long rug woven from seaweed led down the center of the room to a dais, where two pure-gold thrones adorned with jewels and pearls in swirling patterns sat. At the other side of the room, a massive set of golden doors beckoned the group.
“Is that the entrance?” Kali asked as she pointed at the doors, panting.
Zoey held her side, which ached from all the running. “Has to be,” she replied, and the group hastened toward them. Together, they shoved open one of the doors and stumbled outside, then stopped dead at what they saw next.
A flight of marble steps led down into a dark courtyard bigger than a stadium and lit only by clusters of the same glowing crystals they’d seen throughout the palace and in the Labyrinth. There were paths winding in multiple directions, fountains trickling into ponds, and gardens full of flowers. Women with different shades of blue and green skin who were dressed like Amphitrite—Zoey assumed they were goddesses or maybe ocean nymphs of some kind—walked along the paths and congregated around the ponds, laughing and talking without a care in the world.
However, the courtyard itself didn’t shock Zoey. It wasn’t surprising; it belonged outside a palace. Wh
at shocked her was what sprawled for miles beyond.
A dome which looked as if it was made of glass encased the palace and courtyard, as though preserving it inside a giant pocket of air. Outside the dome there was blue-black ocean, with valleys and canyons of rock extending for miles. Inside the mountainous structures, millions more crystals glowed, illuminating houses which looked as if they’d been carved into the rocks. Creatures with the heads and torsos of men, but who had fish tails instead of legs, swam in between the buildings alongside large toothy sharks.
Beside Zoey, Andy asked, “Are those . . . mermaids? Er, mermen?”
“I think they might be the sons of Triton by the Nereids,” Darko said. “Amphitrite is technically a Nereid, and I think all these other ladies are too.” He gestured at the women in the courtyard. “If I remember correctly, Triton is a child of Poseidon and Amphitrite. The astynomia don’t learn a lot about him because he’s a minor god compared to his father, but instead of legs he has the tail of a fish, and so do all his sons.”
“Well, I’m calling them mermen,” Andy said.
“What do we do next?” Kali asked. “How are we supposed to get through that?” She pointed at the dome.
“The Trident is one of the most powerful magical items in existence,” Zoey began. “And it can cause earthquakes and control the oceans and all that. It’s gotta be strong enough to break the glass of the dome. What if we used the Trident to crack it? Water would start filling this place like a bathtub, and we could let the Pocket-Sized Submarine grow and climb into it before the whole place floods.”
“I don’t think they’re going to let us just waltz in and break their dome,” Darko said, gesturing at the Nereids in the courtyard.
“Do you have a better plan?” Zoey asked.
The satyr shook his head. “Not really.”
“Sounds like that’s what we’re doing, then,” Andy said, still invisible. “Let’s go.” They started down the marble stairs.
Rumbles like cracks of thunder sounded in the air, and the ground began to tremble. The Nereids in the courtyard shrieked. Zoey yelped, stumbling, trying not to lose her footing. Ahead there was a thud, and Andy reappeared. He tumbled down the stairs, the Helm flying off his head.
“Andy!” Zoey cried.
He landed at the bottom of the flight, the Trident still in hand, then turned and gave Zoey a quick thumbs-up. “I’m okay,” he said.
The Helm stopped rolling ten feet ahead of him, bouncing up and down as the ground shook. A collective gasp sounded through the courtyard. The Nereids had stopped walking and talking and laughing, now staring at Andy and the rest of the group in shock.
From somewhere inside the palace, a man bellowed. It was a sound so loud and angry and ancient it sounded as though it could swallow entire continents.
“Where is my Trident?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CETUS
Zoey’s stomach clenched.
She glanced over her shoulder to find no one was behind them, but the man’s voice echoed across the courtyard. Zoey, Darko, and Kali leapt down the last several stairs.
“We have to hurry,” Zoey said.
The Nereids in the courtyard drew knives from their skirts and stalked toward the group, their delicate features twisting from shock to fury. There had to be at least fifteen of them.
“It’s the traitors who put Hades and Persephone in Tartarus,” one said, her voice far too sweet for the horrible expression on her face and the sharp blade in her hand. “Get the Helm and the Trident back and kill these intruders.”
Darko clopped ahead and grabbed the Helm before the Nereids could, while Andy scrambled to his feet and charged for them, brandishing the Trident. “Stay back! I know how to use this!”
He slammed the base of the Trident down, and to Zoey’s surprise, the force shook the ground beneath the Nereids like an earthquake, sending them screeching and falling backward. Andy glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the group, his lips in the shape of an O as though he hadn’t meant to do that.
“Where is my Trident?” Poseidon boomed again from inside the palace. It seemed as if his voice was getting closer.
Zoey seized the Pocket-Sized Submarine from her robes. “Andy, break a hole in the dome. We have to activate the submarine and get out of here!”
The group dashed pell-mell to the left side of the courtyard, toward the closest wall of the glass dome, darting around clusters of glowing crystals, the earth beneath them trembling still. The Nereids climbed to their feet and stumbled after.
Within minutes the group reached the glass. A brown-haired merman swam down to stare at them curiously, but when Andy reared back the Trident as though he were about to bat a home run, the merman’s expression morphed into one of terror and he splashed away.
With a yell, Andy slammed the Trident’s prongs against the glass. The dome cracked in all directions from the point where Andy hit it, until stopping twenty feet above their heads.
Frigid ocean water began spilling into the courtyard and over Zoey’s bare feet. The water felt like icicles stabbing her skin, but she refused to waver. She threw the Pocket-Sized Submarine into the liquid and hurried backward. “Give it space to grow,” she told the others, and they backed away with her, the water pooling around their calves.
Behind them, the Nereids snarled in rage. The group swung around to see the nymphs racing toward them, blades ready. Andy ran forward and splashed the base of the Trident through the water and against the ground, sending shudders so powerful through the earth and liquid the nymphs went toppling back.
The glass dome made a sound like a groan, and Zoey turned to see it fracturing farther and farther in all directions, the ocean shooting violently through its cracks. The Pocket-Sized Submarine was unfolding itself like bronze paper. With each passing second it grew larger, taking form, tipping back and forth as the water continued to spill into the courtyard.
“Where is my Trident?” Poseidon roared from inside the palace, this time louder than any other. A monstrous boom sounded, and the golden entryway doors flew off their hinges and down the staircase, then crashed into a fountain.
Poseidon came bounding down the stairs, Amphitrite at his side. His white robes billowed behind him, each step shaking the courtyard. Even from this far away, the god possessed a commanding presence, ancient power more potent than that of the Helm’s and the Trident’s emanating from him now that he was awake and upset.
The Nereids ran toward him when they saw him. “We tried to stop them, good Lord of the Seas, we tried,” they cried over and over. “It’s the traitors, the traitors who stole the Helm of Darkness from King Hades. They have taken your Trident.”
Poseidon waved a hand dismissively at the Nereids as he reached the bottom of the steps, then turned to the group and glowered. “How dare you steal from the gods,” he boomed. “You will pay with your lives for this. I do not care if my brother wanted to keep you alive before. Doing so is pure idiocy. This ends now.”
Zoey walked backward toward the Pocket-Sized Submarine, the icy liquid tugging at her waist, her legs numb. By this time, it was the size of a small car and was shaped like an elongated oval with a flat top and bottom, three circular windows on each side and one in the front and rear. What appeared to be rotors attached to its back and underside unfolded themselves, a door on the side closest to Zoey popping open. Inside, a few lightbulbs flickered on to reveal compartments, spinning gears and cogs, and five seats: two in the front, three in the back.
The glass dome groaned again, fracturing even more, a waterfall of ocean tumbling down.
“Get in!” Zoey shouted, saltwater pelting her in the face. She coughed and spluttered. “Get into the submarine!”
The group wasted no time. Kali clambered in first, then kneeled at the door and pulled Zoey and Darko out of the water and into the sub. They scrambled toward
the back, cold water dripping off them and onto the smooth metallic floor. Outside, Andy shoved the Trident into the sub. He began climbing in, but Kali grabbed him under the arms and heaved him up before he could finish.
“Do we have everything?” Kali asked, putting her hand on the door once Andy was safely inside. “The Helm, the Trident?”
Zoey quickly glanced around. The Helm was secure under Darko’s arm, and the Trident lay beside Andy. “Yes,” she said. Kali slammed the door shut and sealed it. From the rear window, Zoey could see Poseidon as he charged toward them. He waved his arms, parting the water as he advanced.
The dome groaned, this time louder than any other, and Zoey watched through the front and side windows as cracks spread farther and farther across the glass until a colossal chunk broke away and plummeted into the water beside them. Angry ocean whirled up and around the submarine, sending them spinning. The force tossed them against the walls. They screamed. When the sub finally slowed to a stop, Zoey’s stomach still churning, all that was visible outside was blue-black water and the blurred outline of glowing crystals, glass fragments swirling around.
Andy clambered to the front of the submarine. He jumped into the driver’s seat, a nautical-styled steering wheel in front of it. There was a dashboard of buttons and levers beside the wheel and two pedals under his feet.
“You think you know how to drive this thing?” Zoey asked.
“I don’t,” Andy said, pounding the buttons. A pair of headlights flashed on, illuminating Poseidon’s palace before them. It was completely submerged in water now. “But I have a driver’s license, and I used to play a lot of video games. I’ll figure it out.”
Zoey scrambled past Darko and Kali and into the seat next to Andy. She looked over the dashboard, panic brewing in her chest. “And how exactly does playing a lot of video games help you drive a magical submarine?”
“Like this,” Andy said, pulling the lever closest to the wheel all the way down and pressing on one of the pedals. The submarine sped forward. Andy grabbed the steering wheel and spun it to the right. The submarine flung around. He slammed his foot on the pedal, and they shot through the water straight ahead.
