Griffin’s heart ached at the thought of never seeing his mates again. “What about the other place?” he said through a tight throat. “The Elysian Fields?”
Ms. Kuttner’s chin came up a fraction. “Just as beautiful as Heaven, but the shades who drift there are happy because they remember little of their mortal lives. I’m sure that Poseidon and Amphitrite will gain permission to come and visit, but I suspect you won’t recognize them.”
The pain in his chest spread throughout his body, making everything hurt. “You’re saying I have to choose between remembering them but never seeing them again, or maybe seeing them again but not remembering them? How is that supposed to be a reward?”
Ms. Kuttner spread her hands. “I don’t make the rules, Griffin. I’m simply explaining them to you. It’s up to you what you want to do.”
“I want to go back.” The words came out before his brain had a chance to process them. “You said I had a third choice. What is it?”
The rental manager considered him. “It’s more of a deal, really. I will only offer this deal once, the terms are non-negotiable, and I reserve the right to change them at any point in the future. But if you agree, I will restore you to your mates.”
Hope and suspicion warred within him. “What is it?”
“You will become my agent. Your loyalty will be to me first, and everyone else, including your mates, second. This shouldn’t be very onerous most of the time, but there may come a point where you will find yourself in contention with Poseidon and Amphitrite as a result. Are you willing to risk that?”
Risking the enmity of the two people he loved more than anything in the world. Would they understand if he took the deal? Would he understand if they did something similar?
God, I hope so. I can’t lose them, not now. “Can I ask you one question first?”
“Of course.”
“Who are you?”
That earned him an indulgent smile. “Your species puts far too much emphasis on appearances. Look at me with your soul, Griffin Moore, not your eyes.”
He did. And suddenly it was as if he stood at Ground Zero of a nuclear bomb. Energy blasted through him, then, tearing him apart in joyous fury and scattering his atoms to the very furthermost corners of the universe.
And in the middle of it all was a voice asking him questions. Bodiless, senseless, selfless, he still heard them.
He listened. Responded. And finally agreed.
When he came back to himself an immeasurable time later he was on his knees, staring up at the rental manager in awe.
“You,” he whispered.
“Me,” she agreed. “Your mortal life is over, Griffin Moore. I lift you up to the same realm as your mates. You join Ian, God of Storms as an Atlantian God. Remember my terms, child.”
He bowed his head as his new status poured into him, filling every crack and crevice in his being. “I’ll remember.”
A flick of long fingers and the cove was gone. He was back in the shadowy coral lagoon. A large chunk of wood stuck out of his chest, hurting like hell.
He grabbed it and concentrated. The molecules of the shaft disintegrated. He felt his flesh close around the wound, his heart begin to beat again. Light poured through his veins, warming him from within.
No, ichor. The body fluid of the gods. His body fluid, now.
Turning, he glared at the gaping hole torn by the dead right shark. Amphitrite was out there somewhere, chasing down her sister. And Poseidon was battling more of the monsters.
He swam toward the hole and felt every cell in his body shift, moving, swelling. And then he was surging through the water, homing in on his mates.
Hang on. I’m coming.
****
Still locked in a rage, Poseidon thrust his weapon at yet another whale. This one was larger than the others, and far cannier. It had avoided his strikes so far, body twisting like a spring in the water, but hadn’t directly attacked either him or Aphros. Kasos and the rest of the tritons were now gathered in a perimeter, watching the battle.
The damned thing is playing with us. Poseidon backed off, sucking in cool seawater as he considered the beast. An evil intelligence glinted in the whale’s rolling eye, a misshapen version of the gracious consciousness normally exhibited by the giant mammals.
I think it’s studying our attack patterns, Father, he heard Aphros say in his mind.
Gaia’s tits. I think you’re right. He could try for a hurled shot, but there were limits to the amount of damage even his legendary weapon could do if he wasn’t holding it. And the whale seemed clever enough to make sure that it took the hit on a relatively unimportant area.
There was no help for it. He would have to get in close and go for one of the whale’s vulnerable points. Aphros, circle behind it, see if you can distract it.
Yes, Father.
Adjusting his grip on the harpoon, Poseidon waited until he saw his son’s ichthyocentaurine form appear behind the whale’s fluke, then darted towards the creature.
The whale wriggled around blazingly fast, smacking Aphros to the side with one blow of its fluke before turning to face him with the long, bony snout. Poseidon backed off, cursing. He could try ramming the harpoon down its throat, but the rows of grayish teeth he could now see in its mouth guaranteed that he’d take serious damage to his throwing arm, exposing him to the whale’s venom and Thetis’s poison.
Something disturbed the water behind the creature. At first Poseidon thought it was Aphros coming around for a second pass, until a massive orange tentacle slid around the whale’s tail and latched on. The whale squealed in fury as it was yanked backwards into the grasp of a gigantic Great Pacific octopus. The cephalopod wrapped more tentacles around the beast, holding it in a firm grip.
And then Poseidon heard an impossible voice in his head. I’ve got it, love. Kill the damned thing already.
There was no time to question. He lunged forward, shoving the harpoon into the whale’s eye. The whale squealed louder this time, thrashing in the octopus’s grip and flinging Poseidon back and forth like a chew toy.
The god held on, sending a blast of energy down the harpoon. A spike went through both eardrums as the whale screamed.
Get back! Poseidon shouted to the tritons and Aphros.
Then he yanked the harpoon free, pulling a trail of gore from the whale’s ruined eye. The orange tentacles slithered free and the octopus darted away. The whale writhed in agony, divine power doing battle with the venom in its veins.
And then it exploded in a bubble of gas and light. The concussion wave was enough to send Poseidon tumbling backwards and down towards the sea floor. He slammed up against a rocky outcropping, his back and shoulder scraping along the roughly encrusted boulders.
Grabbing a rock, he stopped himself, looking back at the whale. A noxious black cloud filled with gobbets of flesh now filled the space where it had been.
And underneath it sailed the giant octopus. It came over to his outcropping, slowing easily. I think you overdid that one a bit.
Griffin?
The octopus cheerily waved one thick tentacle. In the flesh, so to speak.
Poseidon knew even his brother Zeus couldn’t raise the dead, and Hades had never released another spirit after the Eurydice incident. Gaia’s work?
Yeah. I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, we need to go find Ammie.
Poseidon held out a hand. His trident rose from where it had fallen to the sea floor and flew to his grip. She’s gone after Thetis. She thinks you’re dead.
Shit. The octopus shimmered, then disappeared. A naked Griffin floated where it had been. He swam quickly to Poseidon, careful not to touch the god’s already healing wounds. Can you find her? I don’t know how to port yet.
That simple phrase confirmed Poseidon’s suspicion about his mate’s new status. Always. He fired off mental instructions to Aphros and Kasos, then reached out through the seas for his consort. What he found terrified him. Hold on to me.
G
riffin did. Poseidon opened a portal, and they swam through.
****
Amphitrite slowed the seahorses to their equivalent of a canter. Ahead of her was a rugged deep water reef known to the mortals as the Charleston Bump. Seafolk called it Oceanus’s Keep and avoided it, considering it to be an ill-omened place.
Which makes it a perfect location for my sister. She could still sense Thetis. It could only mean that the elder Nereid wanted to be found.
Amphitrite dismounted from the chariot, running a hand along Skylla’s curly mane. “If I’m not out in an hour, go find Poseidon,” she ordered. “If you can’t find him, get Aphros, Bythos, or Ian.”
The seahorse nodded in obedience, nudging her mate who did the same. Unclipping her trident, Amphitrite swam to a rough gap in the reef wall and went through it.
The interior was just as severe as the exterior, opening into a maze-like arrangement of rough stone outcroppings crusted with greyish minerals and the occasional cluster of ocean plants. Fish and other sea creatures were nowhere near as plentiful as at other reefs, giving the Keep an eerie, abandoned feeling.
Amphitrite forged on, avoiding a sharp outcropping of limestone as she navigated through the reef’s channels. The sense of her sister strengthened, and she headed in that direction.
It led her to a low, flattish plateau in the reef. Amphitrite edged into it, acutely aware that she was exposed to an attack from above.
“I’m here, Thetis!” she shouted. “Show yourself!”
Ahead of her a dark mist coalesced into the form of her sister. Amphitrite repressed a wince at Thetis’s rotted appearance.
But the Mad Nereid smiled at her. “Welcome, sister,” she crooned. “I knew you’d come.”
“You killed my mate,” Amphitrite said, her grip tightening on her trident. “What else did you expect me to do?”
Thetis flicked her fingers dismissively. “He was human. You didn’t really want to associate with that trash, did you?”
She hefted her weapon in response. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”
The amusement drained from Thetis’s ragged face. “You’d kill me, sister? Your own blood? Over vermin?”
“He was my agapetos!” The shout echoed in the space. “And you killed him for no reason!”
“No reason?” Thetis snarled back, gesturing at her own ruined body. “They did this to me, little sister. Their infernal science destroyed me, destroyed my beauty. And once I was destroyed all of you turned your backs on me, didn’t you?” Tattered lips pulled back from teeth that looked longer and sharper now. “I wasn’t fit anymore for divine company, not looking like this. Even your precious husband, who once panted after me like a dog after a bitch in heat, refused to help me.”
This was news to Amphitrite. “I can’t answer for Poseidon’s actions,” she said. “But if you had come to me I would have moved heaven and earth to help you.”
“And what could you have done?” Thetis sneered. “A sea nymph turned minor goddess through your husband’s pleasure? You’re even more powerless than I was.” She lifted her arms now, spreading long, spindly fingers that ended in black nails. “But I don’t need anyone now. The vermin’s science destroyed my beauty, but in return it has given me power, more power than I’d ever dreamed of. And now I will take this planet for myself and remake it in my own image, and not you, or Poseidon, or Gaia Herself can stop me.”
Amphitrite could sense something building in her sister’s form, something so utterly wrong that she wanted to recoil from it. She channeled her fear into anger, pushing power into her weapon. The trident’s silver tines began to glow with a pure white light. “I won’t allow you to hurt anyone else,” she said.
Thetis laughed. “Oh, my dear. Soon I won’t need to hurt anyone else. You’ll do it for me.”
Another flicker of those long, eerie fingers, and a trio of ilkothelloi emerged from the rocky walls behind Thetis. Each one of the huge, transformed mermaids had clawed hands and an oversized mouth lined with pointed shark-like teeth. Amphitrite backed away, knowing their new venom glands carried Thetis’s repurposed ichor.
She brought up her trident in time to meet an ilkothella’s charge, jabbing at the creature’s face. It recoiled at the last moment, but its straggly hair caught on the trident’s tines. Amphitrite yanked back hard, tearing out a good-sized clump of hair in the process. The creature screeched in pain. Another ilkothella attacked and Amphitrite spun, spearing it in the stomach. The ilkothella screamed and dissolved into a foul black foam.
The remaining ilkothelloi lunged in unison, hideous mouths open and snarling at the death of their packmate. Amphitrite brought up her trident like a stave, using the pole to break their charge. Both ilkothelloi grabbed onto the trident and held fast, and the sea goddess twisted, using her divine strength to spin them around like a bizarre windmill. With a howl the creatures were torn away from her trident.
Amphitrite darted forward and stabbed the closest ilkothella, then twisted and rammed the butt of her trident into the stomach of the second. It folded over, and she was able to spin the trident and dispatch it with the glowing tines.
Trying not to breathe in the black foam, she backed off and glared at her sister. “Is that truly the best you can do?”
Thetis clapped like a child. “Of course not, sister. I just wanted to see you in action again. I was afraid the years of pandering to the vermin had eroded your fighting skills, but they’re as formidable as always,” she said in approval. “You’ll make a magnificent second in command.”
Amphitrite grimaced. Thetis’s willingness to sacrifice her creatures was just as appalling as the thought of being turned into one of them. “I’ll never bow my head to you.”
“Oh, we’ll see about that.”
Something stirred in the depths behind the Mad Nereid, a massive shape that rose and continued to rise like the billowing plume from an underwater vent. Amphitrite stared up at the creature in horror, recognizing it.
“Oh, Gaia,” she whispered as she felt a portal open at her back. “Sister, what have you done?”
****
Poseidon cut their forward momentum into the colder water, heart turning over in relief as he saw Amphitrite standing with her back to him.
Then his attention was caught by the floating form of the Mad Nereid. “Thetis!” he thundered. “Stop what you are doing and surrender to me immediately!”
She waved at his arrival. “Greetings, Sea Lord!” she called, giving him a rictus grin. “Your arrival is most fortuitous. In the words of the vermin, say hello to my little friend!”
Poseidon had thought the shape behind her was a huge rocky outcropping until it moved. It could only be called monstrous. Even he couldn’t see all of the huge creature, but what was visible looked like a cross between a whale, a shark, and one of the creatures mortals called a dinosaur. Covered with scaly hide in bold streaks of grey and black, the heavy, blunt head was ridged down the sagittal crest, and the long jaw was full of viciously sharp teeth. Where a whale’s flippers should be were short, thickly muscled limbs ending in an articulated clawed paw. Poseidon noticed grimly that the innermost “finger” was opposable, most likely serving as a thumb. If Thetis’s creature could grasp and hold things like a primate, its deadliness increased exponentially.
Griffin let go of him, floating at his side. “Shit,” the new god said. “I thought I saw arm buds on one of the right whales. She’s putting them through some kind of forced evolution.”
Amphitrite’s head turned at Griffin’s voice, eyes going wide in shock. “Griffin?”
“He’ll explain later,” Poseidon said briefly. “I’ve seen this sort of creature before, millennia ago. We called it kētos, sea monster.” Part of his brain noted details for Bythos’s analysis later. The rest focused on what he had to do now. “Both of you, stand back.”
Rerouting power into his form, he began to swell, shooting up through the water until he was as huge as Thetis�
�s kētos. His armor had disappeared during his transformation, leaving him naked and armed only with his trident.
He glanced down at Thetis. The Mad Nereid didn’t appear to be overly worried about his transformation, giving him a ruined smile. She swept back out of the way, gesturing to the kētos as if inviting him to try his luck.
The creature came forward now, exposing powerful hind legs and a longish tail that could be used as a blunt force weapon. The jaw undoubtedly held venom glands, and the claws were most likely venomous as well. Killing it with divine will alone was out of the question while he was at this size, but grappling with it would be equally dangerous.
But he was damned if he would shrink to a safer size in the face of Thetis’s spiteful rebellion. He would take her creature on directly, Gaia damn it, and he would win.
He brought up his trident, looking for weak points in the scaled hide, and tried a thrust at the kētos’s belly. It moved more quickly than he expected, shifting to the side rather than pulling back. Those clever paws grabbed for the trident and he yanked it back, dropping into a crouch as he circled around. The kētos turned to follow him, gaping jaw opening wider and releasing a rumbling hiss.
Then it lunged.
****
Backing away with Amphitrite, Griffin watched as Poseidon whipped up his trident to fend off the scaled monster. At first glance it appeared that the titanic forms were evenly matched. The God of the Seas had fighting skills and a deadly weapon on his side, but the kētos possessed a brute strength that would have done justice to a MMA champion.
He winced as the kētos’s tail lashed around, slamming into Poseidon’s side and knocking him back. “I can’t just stand here and watch.”
Amphitrite’s hand tightened on her own trident, and she glared across the plateau at her sister. “If I go after Thetis now, that might distract her monster and give Poseidon an opening.”
“Yeah, but can you handle her? She’s not just a Nereid anymore.” Griffin glanced at the dark bruises that bloomed along Amphitrite’s shoulder and upper arm. “And you’re hurt.”
Deep Water Page 29
