Poseidon's Secret

by Preston William Child

  Daisy was soaked but that didn't stop her from racing toward them when she obviously recognized Irving. Mr. Irving turned to Daisy and a big smile spread across his bearded face. He looked like he was resisting the urge to pull her in for a hug. Daisy just looked extremely uncomfortable with the whole thing. As far as she could tell, her eccentric colleague had come all the way there without any sort of explanation, let alone an invitation. It seemed odd that he would just miraculously appear out of the blue. When he took another step toward her, Daisy just stared at him with a confused raise of her brow. Mr. Irving's broad grin remained unfazed by her confusion.

  “If I am going to thank anyone, it should definitely be you, Daisy Judge. Yes, you most of all. You believed in me when no one else did despite the unruly societies of this modern world trying to bring down your beliefs. And despite losing opportunities and friendships because of what you knew to be true. It is because of the few people like yourself, the ones that still believe we existed...that my family and I are even still alive. Without you, I never would have stood a chance. No chance at all.”

  Daisy's eyes grew even bigger as she was putting the pieces together. She tried to say something but her tongue couldn't properly produce the words. She looked to Sam for some kind of help and Sam just nodded to confirm what she was probably already thinking.

  “Y-y-you? You're...” She took a gulp, like the name was struggling to leave her. “You're Poseidon?”

  “I have not really gone by that name too often in recent years...recent centuries, really...but yes, I am Poseidon.”

  She took a step closer, looking at him hard like she was trying to find evidence of his claim in his eyes. Maybe she was trying to find some sort of hidden smile, like someone might make when they were making fun of someone; Mr. Irving looked sincere though. It was satisfying enough to learn that the pearls really were connected to Poseidon but it was even more earth-shattering to be looking right at the god himself, and speaking with him like it was any other conversation.

  “Irving, you...you have always been...?”

  “I have,” Mr. Irving said. “My apologies for the deception. When we first met...I couldn't exactly just tell you upfront, could I? I was more of a human than a god at that point anyway, the way my luck was going. I barely had any power left at all in these bones. I was so glad to meet someone that still believed. You would have been quite a priestess in the golden days of my family's reign. But now, in this modern world, you did more than any priestess ever could. Thank you, again. Both of you.”

  The shabby, smelly man carried himself differently now. He stood taller and looked so much healthier than he had before—maybe he was, now that the pearls had been reunited. He gave them both a nod of appreciation, stepping out into the water. When the sea came up to his knees, he turned back to them.

  “I bestow upon you all of the blessings for a safe journey home. It was something I liked to give sailors back in my glory days...but those little wooden ships were so fragile back then. They needed all the help they could get. I'm sure you would be fine with or without my protection...but...better safe than sorry.” He turned back to the water but then quickly swung back around, not quite finished yet. “No need to sacrifice anything in return. I think my days of receiving slaughtered livestock are well behind me...at least I hope they are. Safe travels, you two. Perhaps we will see each other again someday.”

  Mr. Irving continued his stroll toward the breaking waves without any hesitation. With each step, more of his body disappeared under the water. One waved passed over his head and he vanished, never rising back up to the surface. The sea god had returned to his domain.

  Poseidon was gone.

  Sam turned to Daisy. “No need to tell me that you told me so, I'm well aware that you appear to have been right.”

  Daisy didn't seem to hear him. She was looking out to the sea with eyes full of tears. When she smiled, those tears rolled down her cheeks. Everything she ever believed in was true. Her gods were real. If Poseidon was any indication, the Olympians were no longer the powerful, regal creatures written into legend, but that didn't matter if they didn't live up to the stories. They were real all the same.

  Sam put an arm over her shoulder, genuinely proud to know her. He really had underestimated her when this voyage began and he regretted it. She had a lot more to offer the Order of the Black Sun than he gave her credit for. They both stood together and watched the rolling waves as the sun set over the sea.

  17

  THE PARTINGS

  “It was just supposed to be a simple job for us. That's what David Purdue said. That man always gets into more trouble than he thinks he will. Every time. I should hit him for leaving out the part about gods. And it did not help that Dajuan decided to come.” Aya paused, and bit her lip. “Who am I to talk? It was because he followed me. I am very sorry about that.”

  “That is quite alright,” Sam said. “It was bound to happen. Purdue has a habit of making so many enemies and I’m just the unlucky bastard that sometimes suffers for it. As long as the Wharf Man didn't have a bunch of other successors that we should know to be watching out for...we should be okay.”

  “No,” Aya said confidently. “No, the Wharf Man does not. That should be the end of them I think. Now that Dajuan is gone, no one else would be able to keep the Wharf Man's things together. They will all start fighting over them probably. I know many of them and there are very few who would ever be able to lead anyone. The Wharf Man...in many people's eyes but not mine...was like a king. Everyone knew they had to bow to him, whether they wanted to or not. When the Wharf Man died, his place went to Dajuan.”

  “Right. The prince,” Sam said with some relief. “And now that the prince is dead, there aren't any other real heirs to pick up the crown. The Wharf Man's network will just collapse in on itself, and that problem is finally gone for good.”

  “Yes,” Aya said. “Jamaica will be free from the Wharf Man. My crew and I, we will be safe from him and his men this time. I might even be able to go back home now.”

  “I hope so,” Sam said. “Thank you for all of your help...and for saving my life back there, of course.”

  “It was not just about saving your life. I have been wanting to put a harpoon through Dajuan for years. I finally had my chance so I took it.” She smiled. “But you are welcome. Tell David Purdue to leave me alone for a while. I want to enjoy the world without the Wharf Man and his dogs.”

  “And you're sure you don't want to join the Order of the Black Sun? You have been a huge help to us more than once now. You are practically already a member. Why not make it official? We could use someone like you.”

  “No,” Aya said. “I like to be able to take my boat wherever I want, whenever I want. I cannot do that if I am chained down. But, if you or Purdue ask for my help, just like these last times, I might decide to give it to you. I might bring my boat if needed...but that will be by my choice. No one else's.”

  “Fair enough,” Sam said with understanding. He couldn't blame her for that decision. He was only just starting to adjust to the whole secret society part of it. “The ocean is an unpredictable place.”

  “I know that, yes,” Aya laughed. “You don't need to tell me. Do not worry about me. I have Poseidon watching out for me, hmm?”

  Supposedly, they all really did—and Sam could still barely wrap his mind around that.

  “I am very sorry about your family's pearl...”

  “Don't be,” Erica said but she couldn't hide her sadness. She seemed to still be grappling with the reality of the whole situation. “It was never my family's. Not really. They just stole it...”

  “Still,” Sam said. “It was passed down through generations. That means something, even if it wasn't rightfully yours.”

  “That whole stupid story was real...” Erica giggled nervously and shook her head. “I still don't believe it. My dad used to say sometimes that he thought one of our ancestors just found a funny looking pearl and made up the
whole story about taking it from Poseidon...just a way to make the pearl seem so much more important than it really was, that was all.” She laughed again, but there was pain mixed in. “I really did come from a family of thieves after all.”

  “You put the pearl back. You fixed your ancestor's mistake. That's what really matters in the end, Erica.”

  “I guess.” They both stood there, trying to figure out what to say. The whole situation was rather awkward. “So this is what you do all the time? Finding old things and almost dying?”

  “That tends to be how it goes, more often than not, yes,” Sam said and thought back to their first conversation at the gala's bar. “That's apparently in the job description for an archaeologist.”

  The heiress laughed, obviously remembering how he had introduced himself initially. “This was a bit more than digging up old fossils, Sam. You almost drowned. You were almost beaten to death. You—”

  “Spilled my drink on some spoiled rich girl that demanded she come along for the whole adventure?”

  “Well...yeah.” That brought a smile to her face. “That was pretty clumsy of you.”

  “So what's next for you now that you've dishonored your family legacy and lost something that was treasured for like...thousands of years...?”

  “I'm not sure,” Erica said. “Definitely not stick around here. As charming as you are, I don't envy all of the danger you seem to put yourself in. One of these days it will probably catch up with you. You can only take so many risks before something goes horribly wrong.”

  Sam nodded. “You think I'm charming?”

  Erica rolled her eyes. “Seriously? That's what you got out of what I just said?”

  “It is.”

  “I won't miss you,” Erica said.

  “And I won't miss you either.”

  They didn't know it, but they were both lying.

  Elijah Dane didn't look pleased when he heard about them finding more pearls and then putting them on some island in the middle of nowhere. The curator never liked hearing that a prized artifact wouldn't be joining their collection in his deep vault. Elijah was the kind of man that preferred knowing that rare items were safe under lock and key and under his protection. Frankly, he should have been thanking Sam after the damage the first pearl had done to the vault room.

  “You do know that our order is meant to collect items, not discard them.”

  “You heard that water man,” Sam said. “We needed to get the pearls back where they belonged. We would have all died otherwise.”

  Elijah balked. “So you gave in to a terrorist's demands.”

  “It wasn't a terrorist, Elijah,” Daisy said. “It was Poseidon.”

  Elijah took off his glasses and wiped off the lenses, like it was going to help him hear what he presumed to have heard wrong. When he put them back on, he raised a brow over the frame. “Poseidon. The sea god.”

  “Yes,” Daisy said confidently. “Poseidon needed his pearls brought back to his trident or he was going to continue causing the people who had those pearls problems. If we brought the pearls back here, then it would have been even more disastrous than the last time.”

  Elijah looked to Sam for some kind of explanation for her comment but Sam just shrugged.

  “She's telling the truth, Elijah,” Sam said. “I know it sounds ridiculous...trust me...but she is telling the one hundred percent truth of the matter.”

  “I see,” Elijah said. “I see that you both had a long journey. That much time at sea...well...I've heard it does some drastic things to people. Why don't you both get some rest? I can be angry with you when you're back in your right heads, I suppose. You won't retain a thing I'm telling you when you're like this. That much is certain.”

  Elijah gave both of them one last look of displeasure before walking away. That must have been exactly how Sam looked at Daisy when they first met. He felt a bit bad, now seeing exactly how he appeared—disinterested and smug.

  Sam stood alone with Daisy. They had left together, now they were returning together but it didn't feel at all the same. He saw her in such a different way than he had before. She was peculiar, yes, but that didn't negate all of the knowledge she had.

  “So you are a believer now?”

  Sam turned to Daisy who was smiling at him expectantly. She obviously was relishing the fact that her beliefs were validated.

  He shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I'm not going to hold it over you too much, but you have to admit, you were completely in the wrong.” She let out a bellowing laugh. “Like you should have seen yourself, arms crossed, so stubborn, and just refusing to open your eyes just a little wider.”

  “I get it, I get it.”

  “It was...an experience,” Daisy said. “But truth be told, I wouldn't mind working with you again at some point.”

  Sam shrugged. “It might happen someday. After this, who knows? Maybe at some point, we will have to take a rocket ship to the sun to help Apollo.”

  “That would be quite the journey,” Daisy laughed. “Did you know that sun is pulled over the sky every morning by a chariot?”

  She was still weird, but at least she knew her stuff.

  18

  THE SETTING SUN ON THE HORIZON

  Purdue was glad to hear that Sam had returned to the compound in one piece. He hadn't drowned after all. There had been some close calls thanks to the Wharf Man's successor but in the end, Mama May's vision hadn't come to pass. Sam was alive and well, and not a corpse at the bottom of the sea. It was a great relief since Mama May's predictions had been all Purdue was able to really think about since he heard them. None of it had been very good news. They had avoided Sam's death, but there was still the worry that there was a possible traitor among them. Things like that made Purdue incredibly nervous, and were what caused him to stay holed up in his room, trying to figure things out rather than spending time helping fix the plumbing damage with so many of the others. He didn't want to risk too much interaction with a possible traitor.

  Purdue knew that Mama May's vision of the future was limited and sometimes didn't always come to pass. He hoped that it would have just been enough to get him prepared for what could possibly be on its way but instead it only heightened the fears he already had. She hadn't been able to glean much information about the Old Lady that Purdue didn't already know. All she had done was put terrible, worrisome thoughts in his head. He almost wished he hadn't gone to pay her a visit. It had done more harm than good.

  There was a knock on the door and Purdue immediately felt on edge. He knew it was probably ridiculous but he couldn't help it now. Mama May's vision didn't mean that he was guaranteed to be betrayed but it did mean that there was a very real chance that it could happen. Somewhere in the Order of the Black Sun, someone had the potential to stab him in the back. He would do everything he could to keep that knife away from him.

  “Who is it?” Purdue called out after a moment.

  There was a knock again.

  “I said who is it?” Purdue asked with a bit more force.

  “It's me,” Sam's voice said through the door. “Is this how you welcome a friend home? A locked door in my face?”

  Sam wasn't the traitor. He had proven time and time again that he was dedicated to the same cause that Purdue was. They were more than just colleagues, there were times when they would consider each other very good friends. He trusted Sam more than he trusted most. The only person he trusted even more would probably have been Nina.

  “You just going to leave me out here?”

  Purdue walked over to the door and unlocked it. As Sam entered, Purdue nodded to him and offered a supportive smile.

  “It's good to see you alive.” Sam had no idea how good that really was after the warnings Purdue received. It wasn't just good, it was somewhat of a surprise.

  “It is, isn't it?” Sam chuckled. “There were like five times I almost died. Really could have used your help out there...”

  “I know,” Purdue sa
id, returning to the papers that he was looking at before. “Unfortunately, searching for our new enemy has taken a spot at the forefront of every decision I make lately.”

  It was true, and Purdue was just glad his friends had stuck with him.

  “I met a god today, Purdue.”

  “Oh?” Purdue didn't look up from his paperwork at first, and seemed to barely even hear Sam. After a moment of the statement hanging in the air, Purdue looked up. “Wait, what? What do you mean? What the hell you talking about?”

  “I mean exactly what I just said. I met a god today. I'm not talking about finding God like so many priests and religious people like to go on about. No. I'm not talking about meeting a god in a spiritual sense. No. I'm being surprisingly very, very literal...as crazy as it is to hear myself say. I'm talking about a flesh and blood god...standing as far away from me as you are, talking, moving, all of it...”

  Sam realized how crazy he sounded but he was long past the point of caring about that. He no longer minded if he seemed to have lost his sanity. He didn't care if people looked at him with that same apprehension and disbelief that he used to look at Daisy Judge with. He knew what he saw and he knew how real it was. There was no getting around that—there was no getting around any of it. It had really happened, that much was for certain.

  Purdue, unsurprisingly, just looked somewhat concerned. “Um, that's brilliant. Right?”

  “Yes...and no...I don't know.”

  “So I take it you found Poseidon then. That pearl and the other ones really did belong to him after all, aye? Is that what you're trying to say?”

  “Yes! Exactly. Yes, it was Poseidon but he looked like a homeless man at first...maybe he was...but now...he was so real, Purdue. Believe me.”

  “I do, Sam,” Purdue said. “Life is full of all kinds of surprises, isn't it? Things happen that you never, ever expect. That's why you've got to keep an open mind, Sam. It could make you much more prepared for days like this...days when things you thought weren't possible turn out to be very real.”