Banished Sons Of Poseidon

by Andrew J. Peters

  For the next leg, they rounded the treacherous rim of an escarpment, and then they came to a steep hike that traversed the face of a higher shelf. Dam kept pace with Rad and looked back to Attalos to see he was keeping up as well. The danger of being chained together was that it took just one of them falling out of step to drag their whole line back and downward.

  To preserve the breath in their lungs, they climbed without talking. Dam’s thoughts wandered to his cousin, bedded in the city infirmary, hopefully gaining strength or at least holding down food and water until they returned with the Oomphalos. Wryly, it occurred to Dam that if Aerander had been well, he would have embraced their journey with unflappable optimism. Faced with an army of ox-size beetles, Aerander would have led the charge, armored by his belief that honor always prevailed. Without a doubt, he would have prevailed. He had faced the giant, three-headed serpent queen Ouroborus and brought her down. As Dam had often said, Aerander had been dipped in gold at his birth.

  But now Aerander was blind and crippled. That situation ached deeper in Dam’s bones the farther he traveled from his cousin. Dam had turned from Aerander at times because he felt his cousin didn’t need him, but he realized now that the Fates had given Aerander labors that would crush an ordinary man. Worst of all, Aerander had watched the sea wash away the Citadel and drown his family. He was haunted in his dreams by his father, whom he had not been able to rescue from death.

  And since the evacuation, the one thing Aerander had wanted above all else was for the two of them to be brothers again.

  Dam hadn’t done right by Aerander. He had pushed him away at a time when Aerander needed him the most. Dam wished like mad he could speak to Aerander at that moment, to say that he had been a stubborn fool and to ask for his forgiveness. He hated being stuck with those feelings so many miles away from his cousin. All Dam could do was to hope to get through their mission quickly and to pledge on his heart that he would make it up to Aerander as soon as he returned to the city.

  Voices called down the line, scattering those thoughts from Dam’s head.

  “They reached the mountain pass,” Rad told him. “It’s level ground, and a good spot to rest.”

  *

  At the height of their climb, two horns of stone towered into the darkness, and there was a scrabbly descent into a slim gorge in between. That was the mountain pass. It was only wide enough for two men to walk abreast. The cloak of a starless night obscured its depth, and Dam couldn’t tell if its colossal escarpments had caved in some places or verged together to pinch the route closed. It was going to be like blindly excavating a cave.

  They detached their lines and harnesses and stowed their equipment in their cargo crates. Dam hadn’t noticed the change in temperature during their grueling scale into the headlands, but when his company sat down for a spell, he was quickly cold and damp in his sweat-soaked shift. He had no more clothes to change into or to layer over what he was wearing. The boys had dressed in their spare pairs of garments after they had stripped off their bloodied tunics to burn in the beetle bonfire.

  The warriors set up a brazier and pitched a kettle of soup above the flames to warm the meal. Dam and his friends sat near to the fire, flexing their grip-sore hands against the heat of the coals. Rad’s red-bristled, fire-cast face twisted up in a scowl. “You have to credit the bastards. They sorted out a way through the mountains.”

  Attalos and the others nodded along with him. But Dam wasn’t so sure about the pass that Calyiches’ party had found. He had an awful feeling about it, and just then, the bone amulet trembled against his chest. Had that been the shiver of his own body? Dam stared into the ravine ahead of them, listening and trying to sense movement in the ground. There was nothing.

  Attalos nudged his ribs. “What do you think they put in that kettle? A wee dram of beetle guts for some extra flavor?”

  The other boys groaned and grimaced.

  “Least it’s warm,” Callios said. “I’m tired of cold, salted fish.”

  “What’s the difference?” Heron said. “It’ll be warm, salted fish. Tastes the bloody same.”

  Attalos leaned back with his hands interlaced behind his head. “I dream of meat.”

  Callios and Heron exchanged a bawdy grin. “What’s that?” Callios said. He cupped his hands between his legs. “A plump and juicy sausage?”

  “Or Hephad’s meat-balls,” Heron said.

  They cackled like fools. Dam glanced at Attalos. He was chuckling and taking it in stride. The boys heckled each other back and forth. Dam tried to loosen up and join the conversation, but that ominous sensation he had felt in his chest bothered him. They ladled their soup into bowls and wolfed it down like starved dogs. When all the soup had been drank, Hanhau stood to address the group.

  “We hike forward for another stretch. There’s no time to waste if we want to make up ground on our quarry. There’s signs of their camp faltering farther in. With a good push, we can gain up on them in another portage.”

  “Will there be more beetles?” Rad said.

  “Not likely. They nest in deeper parts. The principal danger is millworms. They can drill clear through rock. That’s mainly what they eat, but they won’t turn away from grinding whatever’s in their path into pulp.”

  “Big?” Rad said.

  Hanhau encircled his long arms in front of him. “You’ll see for yourself. There’s a bore hole up ahead. It’s noisy work drilling, so you’ll hear them coming. We haven’t noticed any sign of them, which is another good reason for us to get a move on.”

  Rad’s face relaxed. He looked over his companions. “We’ll be ready for them.”

  Ichika joined in. “No millworms is a good thing on one hand, but a possible danger on the other. The creatures can sense the fault in these mountains. They burrow to safer ground when they feel it seizing up.”

  Dam flattened his hand on the ravine floor. It was still. No sign of man-sized, drilling worms. No trembling from faults shuddering open, either. Let it stay that way, he prayed.

  Ichika told the boys, “If there’s a tremor while we’re in there, there’s a few things you can do. Find cover under the escarpment or a fallen boulder. If you can’t do that, stay in place, get down to the floor and protect your head.”

  Dam exchanged a dubious look with Attalos. That didn’t sound like much help if they faced a barrage of falling rock.

  *

  For their trek into the passage, the warriors kept their raised hands aglow like torches. That provided a trail of signals for the route ahead. Fallen boulders had spilled into the gorge in places, and the floor was fractured badly enough to trip on. Some of those splintered spots looked deep to Dam. It was too dim to say for sure.

  They stopped for a moment to marvel at the wormhole that Hanhau had mentioned. It was a smooth socket, perfectly rounded, on the side of the ravine and at the level of their shoulders. Blix, the boldest, stuck his head into it. The hole was three times big enough. Blix turned to the others with a grin.

  “An old trick—you might be able to hear what’s going on at the other side of the mountain.”

  He ducked his head back in and bellowed, “Hello.” Then he leaned in with his ear. He came back with a shrug. “Guess there’s nobody there.”

  Rad passed by the hole, leaned his head into it for a breath, and went on his way.

  Dam looked into it. The walls were ribbed in even bands, which brought to mind a helical motion of a creature’s body, like the bit of a carpenter’s drill. The burrow was still and obscure. Dam backed off from it to let Attalos take a look. He wasn’t going to holler his name into it and rouse something in there.

  Continuing, he walked shoulder to shoulder with Attalos for some stretches and in front of him where they had to go single file. Besides the rustle of their movements and the occasional echo of quiet conversations among the pairs, the ravine felt very quiet and peaceful. Initially, Dam had been wary of the narrow walls that stretched a sightless distance above him. He im
agined them crushing in from both sides, having nowhere to run, being suffocated by rock. The easy hike pulled him out of those worries. Besides, Attalos liked to talk when he was nervous, and that kept Dam distracted.

  After a short, silent spell, Attalos turned to Dam and said, “This might be a funny time to ask. But did you and Hanhau ever…”

  Dam grinned. “Looking for pointers for when you get back to Hephad?”

  “Just curious is all. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  Dam told him bluntly, “We can’t.”

  Attalos’ breath quashed. Though their faces were shadowed, with the light from Blix’ hand a good five strides ahead of them, Dam could picture the contortions of confusion on Attalos’ face. It made him grin.

  Attalos stuttered, “You mean, he doesn’t…”

  “He has everything that you and I have,” Dam said. Just because the warriors washed up separately and didn’t walk around camp fresh from their baths didn’t mean a person couldn’t detect certain things. Attalos sounded entirely earnest. Dam decided to explain things less flippantly.

  “For one thing, we can’t do it at camp. If one of us is lying down to bed, the other is keeping watch. It wouldn’t be right anyway since we have to keep our focus.” Dam hesitated, trying to find the right words for the rest of the story. “For another, the big reason, it’s that they change when they’re with someone that way.”

  Attalos’ voice sprang back at him. “Change how?”

  “They molt. The scales around their chests fall off. They grow back, but he can’t very well lead an expedition unprotected like that.”

  A nervous laugh hiccupped from Attalos. “That’s kind of gross, don’t you think?”

  “I think it’s kind of gross that you like Hephad.”

  “It looks the same underneath the scales?”

  “Just like you and me.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They open up a bit, and if you look real close you can see underneath.”

  “That’s bonkers, Dam. But…everything else is the same?”

  Dam smiled. “So far. I guess I won’t know exactly until we get back to the city.”

  Attalos guffawed. “I guess he is sort of handsome. Putting aside the scales and the fueling-on-and-off like a lantern bit. You really like him?”

  “I do.”

  “Makes it hard, having to wait?”

  “Hard like a brick.”

  They both laughed at the pun.

  “Hephad wants to wait too. At first, I guess he was self-conscious about his tongue. Then the big disaster happened, and we had all that work to do and me leaving on this trip. I think he was afraid that if we did it, I’d come back not wanting to be with him anymore. You know he’s a bit jealous. Especially of you.”

  “What does he have to be jealous of?”

  “I told him that. He’s a bit insecure.”

  “A bit.”

  Attalos drew a breath. “This isn’t meant to offend you. But people talk, and, you know, they say you’ve been with a lot of boys.”

  Heat rose up Dam’s collar. “A lot of boys. How many do they say I’ve been with? How many have you seen me with? We practically live in the same house.”

  Attalos spoke in a hush. “I’m just telling you what other people say.”

  “People. Like Hephad?”

  He didn’t reply. Dam breathed in deeply. He felt ready to explode. Why couldn’t people just ask him instead of talking behind his back about what he did or didn’t do? Normally that pushed him to make up stories even wilder than what people were saying just in spite, but he realized Attalos genuinely wanted to know.

  “Hephad and I have known each other a long time. He knows I’ve been with a few boys in the past. If you’re wondering about Leo and Koz, the answer is yes. Biggest blunder of my life. And you can bet that ninety-nine out of a hundred stories they told about me aren’t true.”

  “I didn’t think…” Attalos started to say. “I mean, Hephad is very careful is all.”

  Dam sighed dramatically. “He thought I wouldn’t be able to resist perverting you?” He reached to pat Attalos on his bottom.

  Attalos laughed. “Some men are like that, you know. They’ll do it with anyone.”

  “Three-quarters,” Dam said.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s fractions. It’s something I do in my head when I can’t sleep at night. I figure out how many boys or men I ran into that day, and I think about how many of them I would do it with. Usually comes out to three-quarters.”

  “That’s a lot!”

  “Try it yourself. You’ll be surprised.” He faced Attalos. “There’s a difference between wanting to do it with someone and actually doing it with them. We’re men. It’s the same with the ones who like women. Remember what Rad said? Think about how many boys are dreaming about getting one of those seven women to bed because they’re so mad for sex.”

  “Some of the women are old, and not even pretty.” Attalos’ voice rose up incredulously. “They’ll have the pick of the litter.”

  “Right.”

  Each of them minded his thoughts for a moment. Traveling shoulder to shoulder in the murky ravine, it was a lot like the nights when Dam and Aerander had stayed up late talking in bed after the lamps in the men’s side of the estate had been turned down.

  “Do you talk to Hanhau about fancying other men?” Attalos said.

  “No. He’s kind of…virtuous about those things.”

  “I could never say anything like that to Hephad. Fun talking about it, though, isn’t it?”

  “It is.”

  Attalos was quiet for a stretch. That piqued Dam’s curiosity.

  “You’re counting, aren’t you?”

  “Quiet now. You made me lose track.”

  “It’s just the people you met today. There’s only sixteen of us.”

  “I was trying to decide if I should count the warriors.”

  Dam told him flatly, “They’re men.” Dam waited while they took a dozen or so more strides. “What did you come up with?”

  “I think it’s two-thirds. But I was never good with numbers.”

  “Your father was a pawnbroker.”

  “He didn’t have me counting purses on the deeds.”

  “How were you supposed to learn the business?”

  “I kept up the shop. Put items in the vault and hauled them out for customers. Kept things polished and dusted off so they would sell. I don’t think my father intended for me to learn the business. My older sister Eugenia was always better with coin. He put her in charge of customers when he was out.”

  Dam laughed. “Never mind. What number did you come up with?”

  “It’s twelve.”

  “That’s not two-thirds. That’s three-quarters.”

  “Can’t be so!”

  “Well, you don’t count yourself, so it’s twelve by fifteen. But it works out close enough.”

  “Think it’s the same fraction for every man?”

  “Probably.” Dam’s eyes gleamed mischievously as he bumped his shoulder against his friend. “Bet Rad’s in that twelve.”

  Attalos snickered. “Almost left him out because he’s such a know-it-all. Suppose it doesn’t matter, though, if his mouth is closed.”

  “Or occupied.”

  They giggled.

  “Twelve minus four of us boys means there’s at least eight warriors on your list.”

  “I thought things through a bit broadly.”

  “I bet I can name them.”

  “Quiet now. Don’t be an idiot.”

  “Blix.”

  “Dam!”

  “Hold on a moment. There’s eleven warriors, and three of them are women. You’d screw all eight of the men.”

  Attalos wrangled Dam’s arm behind his back. “Stop it. It’s not funny.”

  Dam couldn’t help his laughter, Attalos caught it, and they both burst into hysterics.

  “Are you
serious?” Rad hollered back at them. “What the hell are you two cutting up about?”

  “Sorry,” Attalos called out.

  Dam straightened out, too. But was there really anything wrong about joking around a bit?

  “You two are stumbling along like sailors on a bender, and there could be giant worms bursting out of the ravine,” Rad said. “We’re all on lookout, and we’re counting on every man to keep his wits together and have a quick hand on his blade.”

  Dam told him, “It won’t happen again.”

  “Really nice show for the House of Atlas.”

  Dam almost responded sharply to that comment, but a cry rose up ahead, startling everybody.

  “Company, halt.”

  Chapter Nine

  They idled in the ravine waiting for the call to proceed. Dam fretted over what the matter could be. A tight underpass in the trail ahead? A dead end? Something worse? So many things could be worse. Dam’s body was steeped in dread and anticipation, but he was ready to take on whatever danger awaited him.

  After the scolding from Rad, he and Attalos didn’t dare to talk while everyone stood around, glancing from time to time at the hazy aura of light from Blix’s upraised hand. There must have been a bend in the trail in front of him. Dam couldn’t see any farther than the lead man of their team.

  Finally, Blix waved their unit forward. They traveled around the bend. The beacons of the unit, the freight bearers, appeared ahead. After another bow in the trail, they came to a broader hollow. Everyone in the company had halted there. From the combined light of the warriors, the socket was as well-lit as a room with fully fueled gas lamps, but they were pressed together pretty tightly. Dam perched on the tips of his sandals and craned above and around the backs of the front line warriors. Hanhau was standing farther ahead beneath a notch in one side of the ravine, and Ichika and the archers were drawn up beside him.