Poseidon's Trident

by A P Mobley

  Zoey peered into the blue-black abyss, catching glimpses of broken glass, mermen, sharks, and rocks as they flashed in all directions. “I think we lost Poseidon.”

  “Uh, we didn’t, actually,” Darko said at the rear end of the sub, his tone laced with fear. “He’s right behind us.” Zoey looked back to see the sea god, his face contorted with rage, as he darted through the water like a fish.

  “Does this thing go any faster?” Zoey cried. Andy pressed his foot down harder on the pedal, and the submarine sped up.

  “Is he gone?” Andy asked a few minutes later. “I think this is the fastest it goes.”

  Zoey looked back again. She guessed they had to be going over a hundred miles per hour, zigzagging through the canyons and valleys, but within moments Poseidon was visible in the rear window. “He’s catching up,” Zoey said.

  “We don’t have any other options left,” Andy said, tensing. “We have to fight.”

  “Do you think we’re ready?” Zoey asked, then took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart as the realization hit her. It didn’t matter if they were ready. Whether they were or not, Poseidon wasn’t going to let them go.

  Andy tugged the wheel back, and the sub tipped upward. They raced toward the surface, Poseidon swimming behind. “Eventually we’re going to have to battle a whole pantheon of gods if we wanna save Diana and the twins. If we wanna save the world. Besides, we have the Helm, the Trident, and ourselves.” Zoey swallowed hard. She understood what Andy meant.

  While they traveled, Kali opened the compartments on the upper sides of the sub. Sheathed weapons—spears, swords, daggers, and a bow and quivers of arrows—fell out from them. “Lucky for us, Marina and Troy must have been paranoid,” she said.

  After about ten minutes, the submarine broke the surface. Up here the sun was hidden behind gray clouds, rain drizzling down. Kali grabbed the spear she’d found, while Darko slung a quiver of arrows over his back and readied his bow, Andy picking up the Trident.

  Zoey made sure her dagger and axe were secure at her belt, then pulled the Helm over her head, chills passing through her as she disappeared. She was terrified, more terrified even than when she’d been at the edge of Tartarus. They’d never battled a god as powerful as Poseidon. In fact, the only god they’d ever fought was Persephone, and they wouldn’t have been able to survive the encounter without Karter’s help. Zoey didn’t know what to expect. She had no idea if they could win this.

  Andy opened a door on the roof of the sub and climbed out. Darko went next, then Kali, then Zoey. When Zoey stepped onto the top of the sub, she readied her axe. The group situated themselves back-to-back then, staring out at thousands of miles of ocean, preparing for a showdown with the God of the Sea.

  They waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  But nothing happened.

  Darko lowered his bow. “Where is he? He was right behind us.”

  As if in reply to Darko’s question, something burst from the water hundreds of feet away. Waves crashed toward the submarine and tipped it back and forth, nearly sending the group toppling into the ocean. Zoey yelped, dropping her axe into the water as they stumbled to their knees, holding onto each other so they wouldn’t fall.

  A shadow passed over them, and Zoey looked up to see what it was. Any shred of hope she may have had for victory dissolved the instant she laid eyes on it.

  Before them rose the largest creature she’d ever seen. It looked like a snake with pointy fins extending all the way down its back, its eyes yellow, its scales silver. Its head alone was the size of a bus, a long tail thrashing behind it for as far as she could see. Bloody fish guts were stuck between its sharp teeth, each one long enough to shish-kebab everyone standing on the submarine.

  Atop the creature’s head kneeled Poseidon, another young man Zoey hadn’t seen yet sitting next to the god. He had a shock of curly white hair, skin the same shade as Poseidon’s, and a navy-colored fish tail instead of legs, a large twisting seashell in hand. That must be Triton, Zoey thought. Son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.

  Zoey stood up straight, trying not to succumb to her fear. Was her father watching over her? What about Spencer? If they were, could they protect her now? Give her strength?

  She knew one thing: if this was the end, at least she’d go down fighting for humanity alongside people she cared about.

  “Greetings, traitors,” Poseidon said, his booming voice reverberating through the air. “Allow me to make this simple for you. Hand over the objects of power you have stolen, and I will ensure your deaths are swift and painless. If not, you will suffer greatly and die slowly and horribly.”

  No one said anything, but Andy brandished the Trident at Poseidon. Zoey shot the boy a wide-eyed look; his expression was determined, but it twitched as if fear was threatening to overcome him at any moment.

  Poseidon sneered, and the sea-serpent monster inched closer to the group. “Your attempt to remain brave is commendable, and if you’re as idiotic as you look, you might even think you have a chance to survive. However, against me, my son Triton, and the Trojan Cetus”—he gestured at the sea monster—“a creature so strong only Heracles has been able to defeat it, I can assure you that you have no chance. Stand down.”

  Andy spread his feet and crouched down. His wings unfolded and extended far above his head, and he leapt into the air and flapped them furiously. He flew without wavering—higher and higher—until he was eye level with the Sea God. The Trojan Cetus hissed.

  Poseidon drew back a little, staring at Andy as if he’d seen the boy before and was trying to place from where. “It cannot be. This—this is impossible. You faded away centuries ago. Anteros?”

  Now it was Andy’s turn to look confused. “Wait, what? I’m not Anteros.”

  “You are not,” Triton piped up. His voice was softer than his father’s, more boyish. “And yet, you must be. I met you before. You do not look exactly as you did—you look like a mortal now—but your divine essence is unmistakable.”

  Zoey remembered what Amphitrite had said to her in the hall earlier: “For a moment you almost looked like a mortal. But no, you couldn’t be. Your divine essence is unmistakable.”

  Then she thought of the question she’d asked the Fates the first time she met them: “Why are our threads of life so special? You said they turned white and started to glow, but what does that mean?”

  “We cannot say,” they’d said. “In time, you will discover it for yourself.”

  The realization hit Zoey like a truck.

  She ripped the Helm off her head. “Andy, that’s it!” she yelled. He looked down at her. “No god is trying to give us powers. We had powers all along, but they only started to come back after you touched the statue and then me. Somehow, we must be gods, but in mortal form. We are Anteros and Calliope—that’s why you were so drawn to the statue and why when we died in the Storm, our life threads turned white and started to glow.”

  Poseidon turned to Zoey. “Calliope? But how . . . If both of you faded away, then why would you try to usurp the gods for humanity? They are the very reason you . . .” He trailed off, then shook his head. “It is no matter. This does not change the fact that you are both traitors. It does not change the prophecy foretold, nor the fact that you conspired against the gods. You must be killed.”

  Poseidon dove off one side of the Trojan Cetus, the side closest to Andy, waving his arms in circular motions as he came down. The water beneath him swirled up toward him. He did a flip, the spinning water swishing into a tsunami wave. The wave paused, suspended midair. Poseidon landed on the liquid as if it were solid. Upon impact it rippled within itself but kept its shape.

  The Lord of the Seas looked to Triton and the Trojan Cetus. “My son, I task you with retrieving the Helm of Darkness while I take back my Trident. And Cetus”—the sea monster turned to Poseidon—“y
ou may have the mortal girl and the satyr aiding Anteros and Calliope. Only after the Trident and the Helm are safe with me may you take them as well.”

  The Trojan Cetus nodded, licking its teeth with a forked tongue the color of ash. Poseidon faced Andy and raised his arms. The tsunami wave shot up at lightning speed, lifting the god with it, straight for Andy.

  Triton leapt off the sea monster and splashed into the water, then swam toward Zoey like a shark stalking its prey. Crap! she thought, tugging the Helm over her head and disappearing. She ripped the dagger from her belt. Why’d I take this off in the first place?

  Darko loosed an arrow at the god. It pierced him where neck met shoulder. He stopped, screaming in pain, golden blood trickling into the water.

  The assault only bought them seconds. Triton raised the large twisting seashell to his lips and blew into it. A sound like a car horn trumpeted across the sky, and a crack of thunder split the clouds above. The ocean pushed the submarine back and forth, the rain beginning to teem.

  Darko and Kali were pitched off the sub. Zoey cried out, slipping off the edge. Freezing saltwater swarmed her. It stung her eyes and filled her nose and mouth.

  Someone took hold of her arm, the arm without a hand, and pulled her up. She blinked and spluttered and gasped. Her vision was blurry, drenched curls stuck to her face, but she could tell it was Triton. With one hand the god held her, and with the other, he seized the Helm off her head, taking it for himself.

  Triton shoved Zoey deep underneath the surface. She paddled, swimming up, but he kicked her down with his tail. The knife, she remembered, bubbles flying from her lips as air escaped her lungs. I still have the knife.

  Triton brought his tail down at her again, as if to push her farther beneath. She clenched her hand around the dagger, mustering every bit of strength she had, and slashed his tail with the blade. He squirmed and she wrenched it out, then thrashed again blindly. She felt the dagger rip through something rigid and textured, as though it was tearing through Triton’s scales and the flesh beneath.

  His tail kicked frantically. Golden liquid clouded the water. Zoey paddled out of the way and toward the surface.

  She flung her head out of the water and gulped several deep breaths. She did her best to rub the liquid out of her eyes so she could see, the ocean churning. Twenty feet to the right, Kali tugged a spear from the center of Triton’s back, Darko splashing nearby. The god went still and floated belly-up.

  The waters calmed the moment Triton “died,” the rain lessening into a drizzle, but Zoey’s stomach fell. In all the chaos of fighting him, she’d forgotten he’d taken the Helm of Darkness from her. What if Triton dropped it and it was sinking to the bottom of the ocean right now? “Darko,” she called. “Kali! The Helm . . .” Darko lifted his arm to reveal he had the Helm in hand, and Zoey breathed a sigh of relief.

  A shadow came over them, a hiss sounding from the left. Zoey turned to see the Trojan Cetus slithering through the water toward her, raising its head high above the surface, its forked tongue flicking across its teeth.

  In that moment, Zoey froze. She felt as if time itself stood still. Fighting Triton had been difficult enough—she’d almost drowned doing it—and she hadn’t even been the one to kill him in the end. That was Kali’s doing. All she had for a weapon was this knife, and she was missing her dominant hand. Not to mention she was in the middle of the ocean sitting before a gigantic ancient sea monster. She didn’t stand a chance—not any at all.

  Why should she try? She’d tried to get the Helm from Persephone in Tartarus, and it had ended in losing her hand. She’d tried to save Karter in Hephaestus City, and it had ended in getting everyone captured. Why would this be any different?

  The monster reared back as if ready to strike, and Zoey caught a glimpse of Andy in the distance, fluttering through the sky, Trident in hand. Poseidon rode the tsunami wave, wielding ropes of water and lashing Andy with them, over and over. Andy used the Trident to block the assaults, but he seemed to be growing tired. He wavered. It looked as if he might finally fall.

  “You leave her alone!” Kali yelled, and Zoey looked up. A spear soared for the sea monster. The weapon bounced off the creature’s head, not a scratch made. The Trojan Cetus turned its attention to Kali, hissing all the while.

  Andy is fighting a god by himself, Zoey thought. And Kali made a last-ditch effort to get the monster’s attention off you. And you can’t even try to fight this thing?

  It was then that time started again. Suddenly the fact that Zoey had barely been able to survive the fight with Triton didn’t matter. The fact that she’d not been the one to kill him didn’t matter; the fact that all she had was a knife for a weapon didn’t matter. Her missing dominant hand didn’t matter.

  Fate had chosen her to overcome all odds. She’d fallen in the face of adversity, and now she chose to rise again.

  Zoey loosened her grip on the dagger and let it sink. A crazy idea crossed her mind, a thought so insane it might not work. But that didn’t matter. She had to try.

  She focused on the Trojan Cetus, focused on talking it out of serving Poseidon, focused on talking it out of eating her and her friends.

  Her throat began to tingle.

  “Trojan Cetus,” she said. Her voice sounded commanding and powerful, like how she would imagine a great goddess to speak. The monster turned to her. She thought she saw a flicker of surprise in its yellow gaze.

  “Has Poseidon really diminished you to this?” she asked. “Has he really lessened your worth so much that all he would ask of you is to kill us? Doesn’t he see how weak and insignificant we are? We’re only mortal and unarmed, powerless against you, the great Trojan Cetus.”

  The monster leaned in, as if it were dying to hear what she had to say next.

  “Killing us won’t bring glory to your name, at least not the glory it deserves,” Zoey continued. “Killing us will only keep you as a pawn of Poseidon, of the gods. Do you want to stay a pawn forever, or would you prefer to be the master of your own destiny?” She paused for dramatic effect. “If you choose the latter, then I ask you to side with us against the gods. If you do, if you defeat Poseidon today in the name of humanity, your name will go down in history as the greatest creature to have ever lived.”

  The Trojan Cetus dipped beneath the surface and slithered toward her. No, this can’t be, she thought, her confidence sucked away in an instant. It didn’t work and now this thing is going to eat me and kill my friends and—

  Rough scales rubbed against her feet, her legs, and she went up, up, up, out of the water, until she was suspended fifty feet in the air. She sat on her hand and knees atop the head of the Trojan Cetus, dripping with saltwater and trembling in fear and perhaps, now that she realized what was happening, excitement.

  Still paddling in the water below, Darko and Kali gawked at her in awe. She gave them a small smile, then turned toward Andy and Poseidon in the distance. The Sea God conjured another tsunami wave and shoved it at Andy. The boy tried to flap away but was sucked into the barrel.

  “Andy!” Zoey cried.

  When the wave died down, Andy was gone.

  Zoey grabbed the sea monster’s slippery fin as best she could despite being soaked herself. “Trojan Cetus,” she said. The tingling in her throat began to spread through her, growing until her whole body seemed to thrum with power. “You will bring glory to your name today. You will take charge of your own destiny, no longer a pawn of the gods. Defeat Poseidon, retrieve the Trident, and save the winged boy!”

  The Trojan Cetus launched itself through the water toward Poseidon. Zoey held on tight, wind and rain whipping her in the face.

  In seconds they reached Poseidon. He’d already allowed his tsunami wave to diminish. It looked as if he was about to dive into the water, to go after his Trident no doubt. When he saw Zoey and the Trojan Cetus approaching, his expression twisted in rage.
>
  “What is the meaning of this, Cetus?” he boomed. “Kill her! Kill Calliope!”

  The sea monster hissed, rearing back as if to strike. Poseidon waved his hands, drawing up a wall of ocean between himself and the sea monster and thrusting it forward. The water-wall collided into Zoey and the Trojan Cetus. The creature didn’t budge, but Zoey cried out and went tumbling down its back, scraping her knees and elbows all the way down until she crashed through the surface, her skin stinging at the impact. She began sinking down.

  Saltwater bit into her scratches, her body aching, but she swam back up. She didn’t get this far to let Poseidon win.

  “—spell should be worn off now,” she heard Poseidon say as the water cleared from her ears, his tone full of irritation. She swung around to see the sea monster hovering over the god, jaws wide open, tongue licking its teeth. “Have you forgotten that you serve me, Cetus? Let me remind you the gods allowed you to live again because of me, because I advocated for your recreation. You are a creature of the sea, and thus belong to me, and so you will do as I say, not what some treacherous Harpy tells you to do. Now go and kill the traitors!”

  The creature paused for a moment, as if recognizing who Poseidon was and realizing what it was doing.

  “Now, Trojan Cetus,” Zoey commanded, energy humming through her. “Bring glory to your name! Defeat the Lord of the Seas!”

  The Trojan Cetus hissed and lunged for Poseidon. Poseidon screamed as the sea monster plucked him up with its teeth in one quick motion and flung him down its throat.

  Poseidon was gone for now, but Zoey’s senses flooded with panic. She looked around frantically, trying to see through the water surrounding, but Andy was nowhere, only vast strokes of deep liquid blue.

  “Trojan Cetus,” Zoey said, her voice tremoring. What if Andy was gone forever? “Please save the boy. Please save the boy with the white feathered wings.” The sea monster dove out of sight.