Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  13

  WILD HORSES

  Assateague Island wasn't a place that Sam had ever heard of before. Most of the places he had gone to all over the world were at least near some place he had heard of at one point or another. But there wasn't much of significance near the island of Assateague. It was tucked away on the eastern coast of the United States. It seemed like it got plenty of tourist interest given its luxurious visitor's center and a lot of the activities the island had. It wasn't world-renowned, maybe, but it did seem mildly famous for the wildlife that frequented the island and its beaches.

  Sam had to double check the location they had been given to be sure that this was actually the right place. It just didn't seem like the kind of place that a pearl belonging to an ancient Greek god would be. Then again, if the pearl had been lost all that time ago, then that was long before the United States even existed. Back when the pearl ended up there, it was nothing more than a shore on a nameless land.

  “Are we sure this is the place?” Daisy asked, clearly sharing his sentiments.

  “Apparently,” Sam said. “Why? Disappointed?”

  “It's just not quite what I pictured...” Daisy said.

  “It's awful,” Erica chimed in, slapping a large horsefly off of her shoulder. “Can we just get the pearl and get out of here?”

  “You were the one that wanted to come along,” Daisy said with a roll of her eyes. “I'm sure you would have been much more comfortable back at that fancy ball of yours. If you want to go back to that, no one's stopping you. Just leave the necklace behind.”

  Daisy was usually rather reserved and quiet but it was clear that she really wasn't a fan of Erica's presence on this journey. Sam couldn't entirely disagree. It was sometimes rather annoying to have some snobbish rich person breathing down their necks, judging every single aspect of their journey. Still, they needed the pearl that Erica had on her necklace and they weren't willing to just rip it from her throat. So they had to make do with the circumstances that had been presented to them. They could deal with some obnoxiousness if it meant having the pearl. Once they were done with this voyage, it wasn't like Erica was going to suddenly be joining the Order of the Black Sun. They would only have to put up with her for a short while longer.

  “That's not going to happen,” Erica said with a glare.

  “I know,” Daisy said. “But wouldn't it be lovely if it did...?”

  Luckily, Aya was a much more neutral presence aboard her ship. She didn't have any animosity with anyone—all of her harsh feelings were probably reserved for Dajuan. She just watched and occasionally exchanged amused glances with Sam.

  Aya leaned over to him. “But is this the right place?”

  “If our Daisy's good friend, Mr. Irving, is to be believed...then yes. This is the right place.”

  “Mr. Irving? Who the hell is that?” Erica asked. “And why isn't he here?”

  “A colleague of mine,” Daisy said. “He was the one that pointed us in your direction on our search for the pearls.”

  There were wild horses walking along the shoreline, dozens of them. Their hooves splashed through the shallow waters as they hurried along the beach. They didn't seem to mind the waves too much but were smart enough to keep a safe distance away from the currents.

  Sam had never seen anything like it.

  There were a few stray people with metal detectors walking along the beach, hoping to find something valuable in the sand. They may find a random coin or two here or there, maybe some trash lazily left behind, but they would be far from real treasure hunters. They hopefully never found the pearl of Poseidon that was supposed to be somewhere on the beach. If they did, then there was really no chance of tracking it down. At least those metal detectors were useless when it came to finding pearls. That made Sam feel a bit more optimistic about their chances. That, and the fact it wasn't a huge beach. At least they knew they were in the right vicinity, as long as the pearl hadn't been moved.

  “How are we supposed to find the pearl here?” Erica asked, looking like she wanted nothing more than to get away from the sandy dunes. “It could literally be anywhere.”

  Daisy was staring at the groups of horses that were making their way down the beach. She didn't just look fascinated by them like everyone else, no, there was something really stirring inside that strange head of hers. She started walking toward the horses, following them across the sand. Sam and the others had to hurry up to catch up with her.

  “What are you planning?” Sam asked as he tried to keep up with her quick pace. “We're really not supposed to get that close to them. Didn't you see the signs? Is one of the horses actually the pearl or something?”

  “Not exactly, but I think I might know where the pearl is thanks to them. I've been giving the abilities of the pearls some more thought. The one Purdue found could control water. The one that Erica has controls earthquakes. The third might have something to do with horses. Don't you think it's odd that we ended up here of all places?”

  “Horses?”

  Sam was reminded of the little known fact that Poseidon was the god of horses as well as being responsible for the sea and earthquakes too. That took a few seconds for Sam to process. Horses just seemed so out of place when put beside Poseidon's other two dominions. Having horses wasn't nearly as interesting as commanding vast forces of nature. It seemed so minimal but if horses really were part of Poseidon's responsibilities, then maybe Daisy had a point. She certainly knew much more about all of this than Sam did. At this point, he knew to trust her judgment when it came to odd things like this. The more ridiculous it was, the more of an expert Daisy Judge was.

  They followed the horses over the dunes and into the marshes of the island, away from the beach goers, the surfers, and the tourists. They went past the fencing that warned them that they were trespassing if they went any further. Sam had trespassed in far more dangerous places than this in his travels so wasn't at all worried.

  The wild horses brought them to an enclosure of shrubs that obstructed the view of their surroundings but also kept it well hidden from anyone that went this way. Sam couldn't believe the number of horses that were on that part of the island, far away from any onlookers or camera flashes. This was some sort of haven for them. The strangest part was that all of those horses walked around a spot in the sand in unison. The horses that they had followed to find the place joined in, as if drawn to the pacing horses. They were flocking to it and orbiting the patch of sand like it was some tiny planet for them to orbit.

  “I knew there was more to them...” Daisy said with some pride.

  Sam usually got annoyed when Daisy acted like she was the greatest problem solver on the planet, but he had to give her credit for this one. He never would have cared to follow a few horses off of a beach. That usually would have been such a supreme waste of time. He had seen a lot of things over the course of his adventures but wild horses acting like this was definitely a new one. Erica looked just as confused but didn't seem to know how to voice her thoughts. At least she was starting to develop a filter instead of just blurting out the first thoughts that came to her head now. That was progress, at least.

  “Usually an X is supposed to mark the spot,” Sam said. “But horses will do just as well. Thanks guys.”

  Sam moved toward the orbiting wall of horses and started pushing his way through to the sand in the middle of their stroll. Part of him was concerned that they were guarding something and would all just start kicking him with their hooves if he got close to the sand but they all remained calm, just continuing to circle around like they were part of some ritual. Sam didn't bring a shovel so just got on his knees and started clearing as much sand as he could out of the way with his bare hands. He punched through the coarse earth, shoving every bit of sand out of his way as he dug. Suddenly, Daisy was right beside him, throwing her own arms into the sand. Erica didn't do the same and neither of them were too surprised. She wasn't there to help them get another pearl. She was there to
deal with hers.

  “Wait,” Daisy said, her eyes growing large with excitement.

  She withdrew her arm from deep in the sand and when her arm came out, it was holding something between its fingers—a pearl.

  The pearl looked just like its siblings, a little white orb with blue markings swirling around its surface. Sam couldn't believe he was holding it. It was the final pearl. They had actually done it. Now all they had to do was bring them all to Poseidon's trident and then they would hopefully have calmed down the god or whatever that water being was that had attacked the facility.

  They both got up and Daisy held the pearl tightly in her hand. The horses all seemed to respond to the new owner of the pearl, bowing their heads low.

  “Go now,” Daisy said. “We will return the pearl to its proper place.”

  The horse surprisingly did exactly as they were told and dispersed in an orderly fashion, just as Daisy asked them. So that was what this pearl could do. It couldn't command the sea or earthquakes but it could command the creatures that Poseidon had made to walk the earth.

  “We have all three,” Daisy said, giddy with excitement and holding the pearl high. She was closer to interacting with a Greek god than ever. “Let's get to that trident!”

  14

  THE TIPS OF THE HIDDEN TRIDENT

  Their excitement over having the three pearls was still palpable but this whole mission required more than just finding the pearls. They needed to bring them back to their owner, back to Poseidon's trident, and that wasn't going to be an easy task.

  Sam poured over that torn up old piece of parchment for hours. No matter how much he looked it over and squinted his eyes, nothing stood out to him as unusual about the map...but there had to be something useful. The location of where the pearls needed to be was there. That was what Mr. Irving said and that strange homeless man hadn't been wrong so far. Sam remembered him talking about it vividly, saying that the map showed the location of Poseidon's trident, but that the only way to get there was once they had all three of the pearls reunited.

  Daisy joined in and the two of them spent more hours on the boat trying to figure out which way to go. There wasn't any clues, anything that could lead them to the trident. Even Erica stood over them, but didn't seem to really be paying all that much attention. She was probably just bored, or impatiently trying to hurry them along by hovering over them.

  “Wait, look,” Erica said and pointed to a small piece of land that was sketched on the chart. It was tiny and very easy to overlook. It was long but split into three sections on one end. It unquestionably looked like a pitchfork—or a trident.

  “Do you think?” Daisy asked.

  Mr. Irving did say that the answer was on that map and this was the only thing that even remotely resembled a clue on that chart.

  “There's only one way to find out.”

  The ship traveled to the spot on the map. It was a fairly long journey but they were all in a good mood now that they were possibly so close to their destination. Positive attitudes helped make any voyage go by faster. It helped distract from the swaying vessel, the choppy waters, and the possibility that they could end up getting lost at sea or eaten by sharks.

  “We're close?” Aya called down from the wheel. “Very close.”

  Sam rushed to the edge of the boat and looked out to the distance. He stood there for hours, but nothing new came into view. The only thing he saw was endless water stretching out in front of him.

  “Where is it?” Sam asked, looking out ahead of them. “What are our coordinates?”

  When Aya told him, it matched the coordinates of that pitchfork-shaped island perfectly. It should have been there right in front of them...but it wasn't. If it wasn't ahead of them, then it should have at least been close by and within view, but there was nothing at all anywhere around them, no matter what direction they looked in. There was nothing at all. They were still just surrounded by a vast plane of nothing but blue ocean. The trident island was nowhere to be found.

  Sam swore under his breath. They finally had all of the pearls. They were so close to getting them back to the trident but now the place where they thought the trident was, was gone...if it had ever been there at all. There was a chance that the map was wrong and this island didn't actually exist, or there was a chance that the island had sunk and disappeared beneath the waves, like some lesser Atlantis.

  Sam really hoped that it was the latter, even when that would make things difficult too. Whether it was underwater or not, at least it would exist and they could physically get to it. It would just be harder, that was all. Hopefully Aya had some scuba diving gear she could spare on board. If that was the case and the missing island really was beneath them, then they would need some way of being able to breath when they returned the pearls. If they were lucky, then it wouldn't be too deep down either; if it was then they wouldn't have to worry about breathing since the pressure of the water would crush all of them to pieces if they tried to get near the island below. It was a conundrum and Sam really hoped that luck was on their side.

  Daisy was looking over the side of the ship, down into the depths. She must have been concocting the same theory that was running through Sam's mind too. Erica was just staring around, confused, and threw her arms into the air in frustration.

  “This is supposed to be it, isn't it? Well what are we supposed to do now!? The island should be here, right?”

  “It should be, yes,” Aya called down from the wheel. “But it's not.”

  “Obviously,” Erica groaned. “So this is the end of the line then. A dead end and we're back to square one.”

  “Not necessarily,” Sam said wistfully, almost only to himself as he looked down at the water surrounding them.

  Erica strolled over to him, her brow furrowed. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean that Mr. Irving said that we wouldn't be able to get to the trident unless we had all three pearls.”

  “Yeah, you need to put all three of the pearls in the trident. We already know that.”

  “No, that's not what he said. He said we needed them to get there, not once we were there...” Sam thought of a plan but it wasn't much of one. It really depended on just how powerful these pearls were. He glanced down past Erica's confused face at the necklace hanging around her throat. “Erica...it's time to give me your pearl.”

  “What? No! Why?” Erica looked like she had just been asked to commit some heinous crime. He imagined that a rich woman like her probably used to throw all kinds of tantrums when she was younger, probably when she didn't want to give away any of the many things she had. “We haven't even found the trident yet! I'm not giving it up until—”

  “We found the trident!” Sam shot back and pointed down at the water. “We just need to get to it and there might be only one way we can do that.”

  It took a minute for the implication to really click with Erica. She followed where Sam was pointing and looked down at the sea and frowned. “You can't be serious.”

  “I am. This is it.”

  Erica instinctively put a protective hand over her necklace. The tips of her fingers grazed the pearl like she was just trying to remember how it felt against her skin one last time. Part of him was worried that she was going to change her mind. It was too late to have to deal with something like that. If she did, they might have to resort to more aggressive means of getting the pearl. Hopefully one of Aya's crewmen would be more willing to rip the necklace off of Erica than Sam was. Desperate times called for desperate measures but hopefully, things won't escalate to that point. He would have preferred that they all would be on the same page and cooperate in getting the pearls back to the trident.

  Sam held his hand out. “It's now or never, Erica. The only reason we let you come along is you said that you wanted to be the one to see that pearl to the end of the line. Well, we've arrived at the end of the line. Now we just need to get that pearl back where it belongs.”

  “Just give me a minute,
okay?” Erica stammered. “This isn't exactly easy for me. My father gave me this pearl...”

  “I know it's not easy,” Sam said. “But this is how it has to be, I'm afraid. You have thirty seconds. Let's get this done, alright? We're so, so close.”

  Sam took a few steps away from Erica, giving her a moment alone with her prized possession. He walked over to Daisy who was still looking down at the sea, like she was trying to catch a glimpse of an island down below.

  “Do you think she's going to do it?” Daisy asked, but was still peering in to the depths. “And are you willing to take it from her if she doesn't hand it over? Because I understand if you don't. But if you don't want to get your hands dirty with this, Sam, then I will.”

  “Hopefully we won't have to.”

  “Hopefully,” Daisy repeated. “We can't turn back now, not after we got this far. Poseidon will be furious if we don't finish what we started.”

  Sam thought of those whispers and shouts that came to him in the night, coming from the sea. He still wasn't entirely sure that the voice was Poseidon but if it was, then he knew Daisy was right. He had heard how volatile that voice was. Poseidon would be livid if they didn't return the pearls, especially now, when they probably got his hopes up that the pearls would be back to their proper place very soon. And if they angered Poseidon like that, then what they saw at the compound would probably be nothing in comparison to the punishment they would receive.

  They had to get the job done, whether Poseidon was real or not, because whatever entity was demanding the pearls had proven that it really existed and that the damage it could create was very real and something they should be worried about.

  The thirty seconds were up and Sam walked back over to Erica, holding his hand out again. “It's time.”

  “I know that,” Erica said bitterly. She pulled the necklace over her head, keeping the rest of the pearls connected. She dropped the whole necklace into Sam's hand and it pooled into a clump in his palm. I’m putting what my family stole back. No one can say that I didn't try to do the right thing.”