by E. A. Copen
The land dropped off not five feet from where we’d stopped, forming a cliff. We stood at the top. A hundred feet below, something had swallowed the land and spewed out a blue-green sea. Black, igneous rocks dotted the sea close to the shore, sure to kill anyone who made the jump. The sea itself stretched to the horizon and beyond, foamy waves slamming against the rock face.
“Our palace once stood where the horizon is now,” Hades said. “It’s there we’ll find our monster. This sea stretches from here to the river, blocking the passage of souls from this realm, and access to the gate.”
Jean floated forward, his eyes bright with excitement. “A sea monster. Tell me you have a boat.”
Hades grinned. “Not me, my friend, but I was able to call in a favor.”
He climbed out of the chariot and gestured for us to follow, halting on the very edge of the cliff and pointing down. Jean and I exchanged a glance before joining him on the edge of the cliff.
There, anchored just offshore and to the left of the dangerously sharp rocks, was a single boat. A galleon, if I had to guess, but I’ve never been big on boats. It looked like it’d been put through the wringer. Torn black sails fluttered in the wind. Dark, rotten wood made up the deck while shells and barnacles clung to the outside.
I frowned. “You got had, Hades. That thing belongs at the bottom of the ocean.”
Jean let out a loud gasp. “No! It isn’t! It can’t be!” He turned to me and grabbed my shirt, shaking me excitedly, shouting like a two-year-old girl who’d just seen her favorite Disney princess. “Lazarus! It’s The Flying Dutchman! It’s bloody real!”
“Okay, Jean.” I picked his hands off me. “Chill. It’s just a boat.”
“Just a boat? It’s a legend. The legend! And we’re about to get on it to go fight a mythical sea monster. Do you know what this means?”
I shrugged.
Jean rolled his eyes and floated away from me to stand before Hades. “My Lord Hades,” he said, removing his hat and placing it against his chest. “Allow me to volunteer my expertise as a captain on this mission.”
Hades crossed his arms and glanced at me. Jean followed his gaze and tilted his head, eyes pleading.
“He’s got experience,” I offered with another shrug. “According to people around town, he’s the savior of New Orleans, and he was a monster hunter in his day. I’ve seen him stand up to an Archon. Put Jean behind the wheel, and you won’t regret it. Besides, I don’t see any other captains volunteering. Do you?”
“Very well.” Hades turned back to Jean. “You have command of the Dutchman. Lazarus, you, Josiah and I will take responsibility for Persephone directly. Our mission is to find her and retrieve her safely at all costs. My army shall defend us and assist Jean.”
“I’m not getting on that rickety thing,” Josiah said and stomped out the cigarette he’d been smoking. “I’ll go on ahead and make sure Charon doesn’t take off. But don’t take too long, Lazarus. The Ferryman’s not known for his patience.”
“What’s the matter, Josiah? Scared of a little sea monster?” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Not my fight, mate. And you can’t afford what it’d cost to make it worth my time. I’m here for one thing and one thing only, and that’s to exorcise an Archon from your girl. Not to play pirate.” Josiah pressed his fingers together. “G’day,” he said and snapped. With a flash like lightning, he disappeared.
“Your friend seems fickle.”
“He’s good as long as you pay him.” I frowned out at the ocean. Wherever Persephone was, we’d probably have to swim to it. Good thing I was a strong swimmer.
Chapter Twenty
We loaded onto the boat. Considering Hades’ troops numbered in the thousands, you’d think it’d be crowded, but souls were compact. Jean put most of them to work pulling on ropes, moving boxes around, rolling cannons and gunpowder around below deck. He appointed a grim-looking Greek named Elpenor as his first mate. Apparently, the guy had more than a decade of sailing experience.
Hades and I stood behind Jean as he took the helm and guided the ship into the open water. A new heaviness settled in the cold, salty air, as if the underworld had sucked in a breath and was waiting to exhale it.
Doubt fluttered in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew this invasion of the underworld was Loki’s doing. It had been bothering me ever since I freed Fenrir. The wolf Titan had spoken of vengeance against the gods who wronged him. While I was a little rusty on my Norse mythology, I hadn’t forgotten about how it all came to an end: Ragnarök, a great battle between the gods that destroyed the world. On the one side, Loki and his allies. Everyone else stood against them. Outnumbered and without a chance of winning, Loki launched his attack against the other gods and died in dramatic fashion.
I’d always thought of it as allegorical. Every culture had their end of the world stories. But what if it was more than just an allegory? What if it was a prophecy?
The boat rocked. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my stomach. I needed a distraction, or I was going to be hanging over the side again. “Hey Hades, you said the Valkyries that invaded claimed this was all retaliation for something that happened a long time ago. Any idea what they meant?”
The god’s face turned grave. “It was a very long time ago, but yes. It’s because of two brothers, Hodur and Baldur. Hodur was jealous of his younger brother, who was a sickly lad and spoiled rotten by every god in existence. It was hard not to like the boy. He was well-made, well-mannered, and generally pleasant while his brother was…well, Hodur was Loki’s best friend for a reason. The two got into trouble constantly. One day, when they were left alone, Hodur and Baldur got into a fight.
“Here is where accounts diverge. Some say it was Hodur’s idea to murder his brother with a bough of mistletoe, but most believe it was Loki’s. Hodur had never been a particularly bright boy, even if he was mean. Nevertheless, it was Hodur that did the killing. And when Baldur was discovered, we gods were called upon to pass judgment.”
Hades hung his head. “It was a mistake. Hodur was still a child himself. He couldn’t be expected to defend himself. Yet that is what we made him do. He was forced to stand before a council of twenty-one gods to argue his case. Do you know what he did instead, Lazarus?”
I shook my head.
“He cried for his mother and wept for his brother. Poor lad.” Hades sighed and shook his head. “And we condemned him to death for it in a unanimous vote. Loki fled. It was many years before he was found, but no trial was held for him. Odin took it upon himself to enact the punishment upon Loki, murdering Loki’s children in front of him, and using pieces of his dead children to bind him in a spell that held him captive. His only remaining son was chained in a pit in the underworld while his sister was made to watch him suffer and waste. They were left like that for centuries.”
I shuddered. “No wonder he wants revenge. Who else sat on that tribunal of gods against Hodur?”
“It was so long ago. We were different then. The world was different then.” He made a fist and punched his palm. “But if Loki wants his vengeance, let him come and take it. I’ll meet him in single combat any day and accept my fate should I fall. Attacking my home, taking my wife…that I cannot let stand.”
The boat suddenly lurched to a halt, quaking as if it had run aground. Hades and I fell forward, and I would’ve slid off the deck completely if he hadn’t grabbed my hand. Crewmen raised shouts from below while Jean looked around with sharp eyes. Wood groaned.
“We must’ve struck a rock,” Jean said. “Inspect the lower decks for damage!”
Hades stood with a grunt and drew the sword at his hip. “That was no rock.”
A woman’s scream cut through the air like steel. Hades and I whipped around to spy a rowboat floating in our wake. Persephone lay inside it, bound with a golden rope while a bearded man pressed a trident to her throat.
Poseidon.
He waited until he was sure we’d spotted him be
fore smirking, shifting the trident to the side and jabbing it through the bottom of the boat. Seawater sprang up through the three holes he left behind, pooling around Persephone and pulling the boat down.
Hades surged to the edge of the boat but stopped short of leaping into the water when the Dutchman shuddered and groaned. A huge black tentacle shot out of the water, just barely missing the boat. Hades stumbled in surprise, but I put out a hand and kept him from falling as five more tentacles exploded from the water. Each tentacle was covered in bright blue suction cups lined with red teeth. They fell on the boat, curling around masts and snapping them as if they were twigs. The crew of ghosts drew their swords and hacked at the beast, but it barely noticed. Even if they got through one tentacle, there would be five, six, seven more, all of them tearing the Dutchman apart. The ship would go down long before they killed the monster.
The monster’s tentacles writhed, smacking the ghosts into the water. As they hit, the ghosts dissolved in a puff of smoke.
“Persephone!” Hades struggled out of my grip and ran to the edge of the boat where he teetered a moment, watching the water cover her as she struggled against the ropes. With a war cry, the god threw himself into the ocean after his brother.
Poseidon smirked and dove gracefully into the water.
“Jean,” I shouted spinning around. “Time to go!”
A tentacle shot toward us, missing me by inches.
Jean drew his rapier and slashed at it. With one cut, he severed the tentacle and left it flopping limply on the deck. “I’m staying.”
“Don’t be an idiot. I don’t care how good you are with your sword. That thing’s going to break this boat in half. It’ll destroy you, maybe for good.”
He looked over his shoulder at me with a smile. “Won’t that be a tale? Captain Jean Lafitte, finally destroyed battling a kraken in the pit of Hades? Go and save your woman, Lazarus. This is where I’m meant to be.”
One of the masts cracked and tumbled into the water. Jean grabbed one of the severed ropes as it swung by and used it to propel himself toward yet another writhing tentacle.
Staying on the boat was suicide, but jumping into the water with that thing didn’t leave me confident I’d survive. Still, my chances were better in the water than on the boat. If I wanted to save Persephone and get the key from Hades, jumping was my only chance.
“I’m really starting to hate boats,” I grumbled and took a few steps back.
With a running leap, I cleared the railing and tumbled toward the ocean. Icy cold water slapped me in the face and forced me to let go of the breath I’d been holding. I plunged deep into inky cobalt darkness. Bubbles marched upward all around me. Black shapes twisted and curled, thrashing wildly. A dark shadow loomed far below, the body of the kraken tearing the boat apart. A single, massive red eye opened and focused on me. Shit.
I suddenly remembered how to swim and kicked into action, pushing myself frantically away. My lungs burned with the need for air and saltwater stung my eyes. Still, I pushed myself, swinging my arms wide in desperate strokes.
My head broke through to the surface, and I gasped in a breath that felt like fire, pushing water from my eyes. To my right, the kraken finally snapped the Dutchman in half and pulled half of it under the waves. Broken scraps of wood littered the ocean all around me. Neither Hades nor Persephone’s boat were anywhere in sight. That meant they were underwater. I had to get to them, or I could kiss my ticket home goodbye.
One of the kraken’s tentacles shot out of the water less than ten feet away. Wrapped around it was none other than the soul of Jean Lafitte. He hacked at the tentacle with a shout and sliced off a five-foot section, cackling madly. “Who wants some calamari? It’s on me!”
The water vibrated as the kraken below screamed. Ripples formed all around me. The damn thing was coming to the surface.
I tried to swim away, but I wasn’t fast enough.
Something rubbery pushed me up and out of the water, forcing me forty feet into the air. A deafening roar shook me to the core. I spied Persephone’s boat balancing on another tentacle high above the water. Perfect! Now all I had to do was get to her. I fought to find something to hold onto, but a clear, slimy substance coated the kraken’s body, and I slid down the slope of its head toward the mass of writing tentacles splashing in the water. One reached out to grab me.
Hades leaped out of the water with a war cry, his sword drawn. He cut the tentacle in half before smacking into the kraken’s back next to me. “Lazarus,” the god shouted and dug his sword into the creature’s thick skin to keep from falling further. He extended a hand to catch me as I fell and held tight.
“She’s on the other side,” I shouted up at him, kicking away another tentacle.
“Then we go up and over. I’m going to throw you. Ready yourself!”
Hold the phone. Did he just say he was going to throw me over the kraken? Like hell I was letting him toss me. “Wait a minute!”
Hades didn’t listen. The kraken shifted, preparing to dive. With a mighty show of strength, Hades lifted me with one arm and flung me through the air as if I were a football. I flailed as I sailed through the air. Tentacles curled ahead, but I somehow slid through right before they tightened around me and crashed into Persephone’s boat. Water sloshed everywhere as my weight threatened to tip it back into the sea.
Persephone rolled back and forth, straining against the ropes that bound her and fighting to keep her head above the water filling the boat.
I grabbed the ropes to untie them but immediately pulled my hands away as the skin sizzled. Magic ropes. No wonder she hadn’t broken free.
Persephone’s eyes darted behind me. I turned and just barely avoided being stabbed in the face by Poseidon’s golden trident. Almost on instinct, my Vision kicked in. My hand lashed out and plunged inside the god’s chest and brushed against his golden soul. I hesitated.
There would be consequences for killing the god of the sea. I should probably think twice about that, especially considering my hometown was a coastal city with a long history of flooding and hurricanes.
Poseidon looked down at my hand stuck inside him and then back up at me.
“Lazarus,” Persephone screamed, “do something!”
Screw the consequences.
I ripped Poseidon’s soul from his chest and squeezed. His eyes widened in surprise as he looked at his own soul squirming in my hand. The kraken screamed and slapped several tentacles against the ocean. A huge wave washed over us, and when it receded, Poseidon was gone. Only his trident remained, resting on the bottom of the boat. I seized it and used it to cut Persephone free of her ropes.
“About damn time!” She snatched the soul out of my hand. It sparked and shrank to the size of a peanut before disappearing to wherever reapers kept their souls.
The kraken belted out another screech and sank. Our tiny rowboat swayed. Persephone grabbed my shoulders and pulled herself up on shaky legs. Blue ocean loomed beneath us, zooming closer. The kraken was retreating and trying to drag us under. We had one chance.
I grabbed Persephone’s hand. “We have to jump, or we’ll get pulled under!”
She nodded. “On three. One. Two.”
Jean flew by, waving his rapier and chasing down another tentacle, shouting a challenge at it.
“Three!”
We leaped from the rowboat and crashed into the icy cold water. The impact tore Persephone’s hand from mine. Something black snapped against my head. I turned and realized it was the trident slowly sinking to the ocean floor. No way was I letting a treasure like that disappear. I snatched it and fought my way to the surface where a piece of the Dutchman floated.
Nearby, Hades was helping Persephone onto a larger section of the ship. The two shared an embrace and a passionate kiss with lots of tongue. Nothing like a little kraken to spice up your marriage, I guess.
“Hey, lovebirds!” I shouted and pulled myself further onto the floating bit of wood. It nearly capsized until I
quit trying. “I hate to break up the reunion, but what about the kraken?”
“With Poseidon gone, the beast will die as well,” Hades said, squeezing Persephone to him. “Eventually the sea too will retreat. It will take time, but we can rebuild what was lost. Thanks to you.”
“And Jean,” I reminded them. Speaking of the pirate, where was he?
Everywhere I looked, all I saw was floating debris. A few souls floated above the water, looking lost, but none of them were Jean.
A barrel floated around a large piece of debris a short distance away. Jean’s still form draped over it. Paddling with the trident, I was able to reach the barrel only to find him snoring. The bastard had worn himself out fighting and fallen asleep on a floating barrel.
Hades had his tongue down Persephone’s throat again. Gross. Get a room.
I sighed and rested my head against the tiny bit of wood I was stuck on. The next time someone suggested I go anywhere on a boat, I was going to tell him to kiss my ass. Never again.
Chapter Twenty-One
We paddled out to an island no bigger than a minivan. Before the land flooded, it must’ve been the knoll of a huge hill, practically a mountain. Now, it was just a stub of grass with a single dead tree.
Persephone made it ashore first and walked dripping wet to the tree. As soon as she touched it, the tree sprang to life, sprouting pink flowers and lush green leaves. Then she and Hades sat in the shade while I hauled the still-sleeping Jean onto solid ground.
“Lazarus?”
I turned at the sound of Persephone’s voice. She smiled and kissed my cheek, pressing something cool and smooth into my palm. When she stepped back, I opened my hand to find she’d given me a golden locket.
“What’s this?” I untangled the chain and held it up.
She gestured to the locket. “Open it.”
I fiddled with the clasp until it opened. Pressed inside, under a clear sealant, was a single dark red seed. “A pomegranate seed?”
Persephone smiled, but the gesture seemed sad somehow. “The reason I spend half my time in the underworld and half the year with my mother.”
