Blessed Death

by Amy Sumida

  “That would be Sekhmet, Re, and your father,” Hades growled.

  “Yeah; okay,” she huffed. “I'm sorry. Can I stay?”

  “Just sit down and be quiet,” Hades snapped.

  Mac sat.

  “Thank you,” Sekhmet whispered to me.

  “Thank you for contacting us with this information,” I said to Sekhmet. “Now, what have you discovered?”

  “It started as a little flicker,” Sekhmet said. “There's not a lot of magic in this city; most Hindu gods live in the God Realm.” She paused to nod to Brahman and Sarasvati. “So, even though it was distant, I felt the twinge.”

  “That could have been anything,” Thor noted as he took a seat beside his father.

  Artemis was right; Odin did look like Thor's hotter, younger brother. It was a little unsettling since I had been Thor's girlfriend before I wound up with Odin.

  “Yes; that's exactly what I thought,” Sekhmet said. “I ignored the flutters. But then they grew stronger, and I decided to investigate them.”

  “You investigated flutters?” Macaria asked with a scathing tone.

  I gave her a hard look.

  “Sorry,” Mac mumbled.

  “I followed the magic down to the beach,” Sekhmet ignored Macaria. “My private beach is about sixty feet from the ruins, and that's were the flutters were coming from.”

  “The ruins?” I asked.

  “There was a series of events which led to the sinking of Dvārakā,” Odin explained. “Humans began to take the luxury and advances for granted, then they began to fight over them, and finally, Salva attacked Dvārakā.”

  “Who is Salva?” I asked.

  “He was another Atlantean,” Odin said. “Krishna and Salva were both from Atlantis, but there was such a large influx of Atlanteans to the area that not all of them reached godhood; Salva was one of the Atlanteans who were left out. When Krishna built Dvārakā, and the humans praised him as a supreme god, a lot of the overlooked Atlanteans grew jealous. And then the humans abused Krishna's gift.”

  “And this Salva guy used it as an opportunity to get one over on Krishna,” I finished.

  “Exactly,” Odin confirmed. “Salva attacked the city using Atlantean technology and magic provided to him by the god, Shiva.”

  “We used to have these flying palaces with projectile weapons stronger than human missiles,” Brahma said. “We flew them about freely; it was yet another way to convince humans of our godhood.”

  “They were like Rudra's palace,” Sarasvati—Brahma's wife—said. “And we also had flying chariots called vimanas.”

  Brahma sighed. His wife had an affair with Rudra. It had been a long time ago, but Brahma had only found out about it recently, and it had caused a huge drama between the three of them. Love triangles are especially tricky with the gods.

  “Awkward,” Pan said in a sing-song tone.

  “You were saying, Odin?” I tried to steer us away from that train wreck... or flying chariot wreck.

  “Salva was killed in the battle,” Odin went on smoothly. “But Krishna had lost hope in humanity and his fellow gods. He sank the city.”

  “As all Atlanteans know; once sunk, a city cannot be saved,” Brahma finished. “There is no way to raise it.”

  “That's not exactly true,” Sarasvati said with a frown. “Krishna lifted the city's foundation from the seabed when he created Dvārakā. I recall there being Atlantean supports below it; like those moving poles they use to lift cars.”

  “Jacks?” I asked.

  “No; the one's in automotive shops,” Sara said. “Large, metal tubes which move up and down.”

  “Hydraulic lifts,” Torrent whispered with a tone of wonder. “Holy hamburgers! Krishna used the ocean itself to lift his city.”

  “Yes; hydraulics,” Sara said in a smug tone. “It was brilliant, but so were most of our advances.”

  “I recall it now.” Brahma nodded. “But how Krishna lifted it doesn't change the fact that it's now submerged.”

  “My darling husband,” Sara said with a sigh. “Krishna lifted it up and then sunk it down; which leads us to the conclusion that... ?”

  “It could be lifted again,” Brahma murmured. “Jhaant ke pissu!”

  I looked at Sara askance.

  “It means...” She made a pained expression.

  “The translation of 'jhaant ke pissu' from Hindi to English is; Bug of pubic hair,” Torrent offered helpfully.

  Artemis burst into laughter, and the rest of us followed.

  “He basically shouted 'crabs,' didn't he?” I asked Trevor.

  “You're damn straight he did.” Trevor chuckled. “I need to learn me some Hindi.”

  “Please do not,” Kirill drawled. “You are annoying enough in English.”

  “Even without the lifts in place, there is always a way when you have magic,” Sekhmet said. “But I'm not convinced that raising the city is the goal. Perhaps there's another reason for gods to be releasing magic in Dvārakā. They could be searching for Atlantean technology that Krishna left behind.”

  The God Squad looked at each other and grimaced.

  “We've had enough of assholes excavating Atlantean machines from the sea; it's not happening again,” Morpheus declared; the blue mist in his eyes swirling angrily.

  “We need to get down there and take a look around the site,” Blue said with less passion and more reason. “Then we'll have a better idea of what's happening.”

  “Yes, but how do we do that?” Eztli, Blue's vampire bride, asked as she waved toward the sea.

  “If only you had a god of water on your side,” Toby mused with a grin.

  Chapter Seven

  We waited until nightfall and then walked down to Sekhmet's strip of beach. She lived on a little hill overlooking the water, and the beach was at the base of the hill. Including Sekhmet, twenty-six people would be making the trek to the ruins. That was a lot of bodies for Toby to provide safe passage for. I didn't doubt that he could, but I was a little nervous for Sekhmet; who was human now. If something went wrong while we were out there, she could die.

  I wasn't the only one this occurred to.

  “Perhaps you should wait on shore,” Re said to his daughter.

  “Father, I was the one who felt the magic,” Sekhmet pointed out. “I can lead you to the precise location and save you the headache of searching the entire ruins.”

  “I assure you; she will be safe.” Toby waved his hand toward the shallows and a path formed in the water.

  The ocean simply split; pulling back to create a corridor lined in walls of water that went straight out to the ruins of Dvārakā.

  “Sweet!” Trevor strode forward eagerly.

  I looked from Sekhmet's stubborn expression to Re's matching one.

  “We're here because of her, Re,” I said softly. “Perhaps she's earned the right to come along; not to mention the fact that I have no desire to go hiking through wet sand for hours.”

  “Vervain, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you stand up for my daughter one more time, I will lose my patience with you,” Re growled.

  “Excuse me?” I gaped at him.

  “Oh, damn,” Macaria whispered. “Someone's gonna be in the doghouse tonight.”

  “Mac!” Hades hissed.

  “Sorry.”

  “Do I tell you how to parent your children?” Re suddenly lost the laid-back look he always wore and became the Supreme God of the Egyptians.

  “No,” I whispered. “But I don't expect you to hold your tongue if I do something you don't approve of either. Before anything else, we are friends, and friends don't bullshit each other. If you want a Yes Girl, look somewhere else, because it's not me. I call it as I see it.”

  “Fair enough.” Re sighed. “But I have punished my daughter on your behalf and every time you stand up for her against me, it feels like a betrayal.”

  “Shit,” I winced. “You're right; I'm sorry, Re. I was only trying to be forgiving and get
us all past this. No matter what happened, she's still your daughter, and I don't want to stand by and watch you damage your relationship with her because of me.”

  “La-la, I already have,” Re said sadly. “And that was my choice; as is every other interaction I have with Sekhmet. I understand what you're trying to do, and I don't feel slighted anymore, but I need you to stay out of it from now on.”

  “Of course.” I stepped back and waited for the father and daughter to come to a decision.

  “You may join us until we've found the location,” Re compromised. “But then you come immediately back to shore. I cannot risk your death while you are in this state, Sekhmet. I love you too much.”

  “Okay,” she whispered. “I accept your decision.”

  “Wonderful; very touching,” Horus huffed. “Can we go now?”

  “Sweetheart, what did we just talk about the other night?” Hekate asked her husband.

  “Katie, I don't give a shit if they think I'm an asshole,” Horus growled and stomped toward the sea.

  “Oh, thank goodness!” Pan exclaimed. “Because that's exactly what we think.”

  “Men,” Hekate said to me with a glance at Re.

  “Yeah; they're especially annoying when they're right,” I muttered.

  “I wouldn't know.” Hekate winked at me before she followed her husband.

  Chapter Eight

  “This feels biblical,” Teharon—the Mohawk God of Healing (and Toby's nephew)—murmured.

  “And the Lord caused the sea to go back, and maketh the sea into dry ground, and the waters are cleaved,” Pan intoned dramatically.

  “I guess we'll be calling you 'Lord Toby' from now on.” Azrael smirked at Toby.

  “'The Lord of Water' will do,” Toby said with an arrogant sniff.

  “Seriously, man, this is amazing!” Torrent said as he stared up at the glassy wall of water beside him. “Look; a fish!”

  Torrent poked at the liquid barrier and it indented like jelly.

  “Yep; lots of fishes in the sea.” Artemis—Torrent's girlfriend—rolled her eyes before taking Torrent's hand and leading him away.

  “It is pretty cool,” I said to Toby.

  “You could have done it too, Lady Moon,” Toby said. “You have an influence over the tide and a pull on water in general.”

  “Shut up,” I whispered. “Really?”

  “I believe so,” he said. “Our magic works well together, remember?”

  “Yes, Lord of Water, I remember,” I purred.

  Horus groaned, and Hekate smacked him in the gut.

  It didn't take long for us to reach the ruins and the location where Sekhmet had felt the magic originating from. She pointed out the general vicinity, and then Re gave her a stern look. Sekhmet headed back to shore with a grimace. After she left, Toby widened our dry zone to include a good portion of the ruins, and we spread out to investigate.

  We had several shapeshifters with us, and I had the best sniffer in the bunch, but I couldn't smell anything beyond the briny decompositional scent of the sea. The ruins were covered in sand and seaweed, but you could still see the obvious bumps and curves of pillars, walls, and statues. They were crumbling and worn, and it was hard to imagine what the city had once looked like.

  “So, this was the city of gold and silver palaces?” I asked Odin dubiously.

  “Five-thousand years ago,” Odin said.

  “Five thousand?” I asked with surprise. “You said that you visited Dvārakā.”

  “Many times,” Odin said calmly.

  “That would mean you're over five-thousand years old,” I pointed out.

  “We all are,” Horus said drolly. “How did you not know that?”

  “Well, not all of us,” Macaria huffed. “I was born after the Great Splash.”

  “Macaria,” Hades growled, “how many times do I have to tell you to stop referring to the Fall of Atlantis as 'The Great Splash?'”

  “Whatever.” Mac rolled her eyes.

  “I guess I've never thought about it,” I blinked in shock. “Five thousand; wow.”

  “We're older than that,” Re said. “Atlantis fell in the year 5086—Atlantis time—which equates to...” He frowned and looked to Odin for help.

  “3966 BC,” Odin supplied immediately. “Vervain, I lost track of my age long ago, but it's probably around six-thousand years.”

  “I think I need to sit down.” I plopped onto a seaweed coated wall; it went squish beneath my butt.

  “Oh, get over it.” Horus rolled his eyes.

  “Age is only a number.” Torrent patted my shoulder. “Isn't Arach like twenty-thousand years old, or something like that?”

  “You're not helping,” Trevor whispered to Torrent as he shoved him away. Trevor sat down next to me and took my hand. “We're all the same men we were this morning, Minn Elska. Nothing has changed but your own knowledge.”

  I looked over at him and smiled. “Yeah; you're right. It's just surprising.”

  “If you're over your human insecurities now, perhaps you'd like to come and take a look at this, Godhunter,” Eztli said.

  We all looked to where she stood with Blue; both of the Aztecs staring down at a piece of crumbling wall that was at the lowest point of our location. Blue looked up and nodded grimly; his jade eyes flashing within the deep tan of his skin.

  That was all the prompting we needed; we hurried over—across the foot-sucking sand—to peer at the spot Eztli was pointed at. The rock had been cleaned and the base of the wall excavated. A channel had been dug in the sand—down at least a hundred feet. Whoever had done it must not have had a water god with them; the ditch went straight down, without any way to climb down it. When you're swimming you don't need ramps, but we did. Persephone motioned with her hand and manipulated one wall of the channel into a ramp. We tromped down the sandy ramp to the bottom of the wall. The wall was about twenty feet tall; beneath a slab thicker than I was tall; I assumed it was the city's foundation. Between the wall and the foundation there was a crevice about four feet wide; just wide enough for someone to slip through.

  “Re, would you mind shedding some light on the subject?” I asked.

  Re crouched beside the crevice and set his palm within it. A glaring light emanated from his hand and illuminated a metal column. We gathered around Re and peered past the first column; into a cavernous space filled with more of the metal cylinders.

  “Looks like someone found the hydraulics,” Blue noted.

  “Can we disable them?” I asked.

  “Perhaps if we could find the pressure lever,” Odin said.

  “Can't we just blow the lifts to bits?” Finn asked.

  “The resulting crash may be similar to an earthquake,” Torrent mused. “It could have dangerous repercussions on the entire world.”

  “Fuck,” Brahma growled. “We need to handle this carefully.”

  Brahma slid into the space.

  “Brahma!” Sarasvati shouted. “What are you doing? You don't know if it's safe to go under there.”

  “It's held for thousands of years, Sara,” Brahma said. “I think I'll be fine.”

  “Let's get in there and help him.” Thor climbed down into the cavern too.

  Re went in after Thor; casting his light across the ceiling of the cavern. The rest of us followed him inside and then stopped to stare around us as the enormity of the space was revealed. The metal lifts were set in orderly lines and stretched as far as I could see.

  “How big was this city?” I asked Odin.

  “Easily twice the size of Manhattan,” Odin said. “Perhaps twice that.”

  “Sweet city of gold,” I whispered. “It's enormous; and these lifts have been supporting it for all this time.”

  “The controls could be anywhere,” Mr. T said. “They could even be above this level. In fact; that would make more sense.”

  “Shit; you're right,” Brahma said from a spot forty feet away. “Sara, do you remember anything about a Control Room?”<
br />
  Sara frowned thoughtfully. “I don't, but knowing Krishna, it would be somewhere in his palace; that was located in the center of the city.”

  “Why don't we just ask Krishna?” Morpheus suggested.

  We all looked at Morpheus in surprise.

  “What?” Morph huffed. “It's logical.”

  “And so obvious that none of us thought of it. Well done, Morpheus,” Odin said.

  Morpheus grinned.

  “Does anyone know where we can find Krishna?” Blue asked.

  We turned to stare at Brahma and Sara, but it was Karni Mata—Teharon's girlfriend—who answered.

  “I do,” Karni said softly.

  We all looked at her hopefully.

  “You do?” Teharon asked in surprise.

  “We were close once,” Karni said gently. “He wanted to disappear for awhile after Dvārakā sunk, and I gave him sanctuary.”

  “Was that all you gave him?” Teharon's usually-kind face hardened.

  “It was a long time ago, Teha,” Karni whispered. “We all have a past.”

  “Yes; you're right.” Teharon sighed. “I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me.”

  “It's called jealousy.” Brahma grimaced. “Take my advice and deal with it internally.”

  “It's already gone.” Teharon lifted Karni's hand to kiss it sweetly. “I have you now, and that's all that matters.”

  Karni smiled adoringly up at Teharon. “Good; because he's in my temple. He never left.”

  “What?!” Teharon roared.

  Chapter Nine

  After Teharon calmed down, we headed back to Sekhmet's house and informed her of all our findings. She nodded and remained quiet, but it was obvious that she was shaken. The possibility of a god city rising from the sea just beyond your home would upset anyone, but it especially bothered an ex-goddess who would be completely defenseless against a magical attack.

  “I'll stay with you,” Re said to his daughter. “I can keep an eye on the site and watch over you as well.”