Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  There was no getting out of this.

  The ocean had swallowed him.

  16

  THE GOD IN THE WATER

  Sam couldn't breathe. His body was being tugged and tossed through the near-weightlessness of the dark blue world around him. He had no control over his movements. The tides dragged him for what felt like ages. There was no air anywhere and he had no idea which way the surface world was anymore. There was nothing but the sea, and it wasn't letting him go. It would never let him leave and go somewhere where he could actually breathe again.

  For a brief instant, he wished that the ocean would just get it over with. He knew drowning was a slow, painful way to die but it should have only taken a matter of minutes to die. He should have already been dead, a dozen times over, but for some reason, was still very aware of his surroundings. He wondered if the others were experiencing the same purgatory that he was, unable to drown despite all evidence suggesting that they should.

  “You brought it back. You brought back what was mine.”

  There was that voice again; that same voice that emanated from that water man in the compound and the one that had whispered in his ears on the deck of Aya's boat. But now, it was louder than ever, reverberating through the sea and through his body. It completely surrounded him and even moved through him. No human vocal chords and no manmade instrument or soundboard could create the sheer size of the sound that surrounded him. It could only belong in something as endless as the sea.

  “I did not think you would succeed.”

  Sam just wanted to get out of the water. He didn't care if that voice was proud of him or thankful for him bringing the pearls back. None of that mattered compared to breathing. He had never needed to breathe so bad. He swung his arms about, trying to paddle his way, hopefully to the surface, but it was useless. He was drifting aimlessly, practically floating. He still didn't have a clue how he was still alive but he imagined that the voice was responsible.

  “You have done me a great service, Sam Cleave. For that, I won't let you drown.”

  The still void of blue water suddenly changed again. Water moved all around him, the entire environment shifting into something full of movement and power. Sam was pulled again, his body spinning uncontrollably through the sea.

  Suddenly, he burst through the surface and could breathe again. He was never so happy to inhale before. He really thought he was never going to get a chance to do it again but now he was safe, now he could live. The water wasn't done with him though, and he found himself caught in a wave that crashed down onto a muddy beach. He landed hard on his stomach, and coughed up some water, drenched from head to toe as he lay there in shock.

  His trip through the sea had felt so fast but at the same time, he thought he was drowning for hours. Now, he didn't know where he was, but at least he could breathe and at least he could stand on solid ground. His whole body hurt but he pulled himself up, climbing to his feet. He shook his body, trying to knock off some of the salty water that stuck to him. He smelled so bad but he tried to ignore it. It wasn't easy.

  Sure, the voice didn't want him to drown. That was awfully nice of something that caused so much damage to the Order of the Black Sun's headquarters and tormented Sam on his journey. It was like it was trying to make up for how terrible it had been. But if it really wanted to do something nice, it could have saved more than just Sam. It would have stopped the others from drowning too.

  Sam looked around. He was on a beach somewhere, and from the size of where he was, this wasn't some insignificant island. It was like he was on the coastline of some continent. He stared out at the sea and just saw it stretched out in front of him, just as daunting as it always was. It wasn't fair. The people that helped him return the pearls were still out there, drowning in that water. Daisy, Erica, Aya, and Aya's crew...they were all gone. It wasn't fair. They didn't deserve to be resting at the bottom of the ocean with monsters like Dajuan and the Wharf Man.

  “They're fine,” a voice said beside him.

  Sam turned and found a shabby looking man sitting on the beach beside him, his feet lazily buried in the sand as he also looked out to sea. He had a long unkempt beard and was wearing torn clothing. When he looked up at Sam, Sam recognized him immediately.

  It was Mr. Irving.

  Sam did a double take, blinking a few times just to be sure that he wasn't hallucinating. That had been quite the trip through the ocean. Maybe he was dead. Maybe this beach was some kind of strange purgatory for people lost at sea. But if that was the case, then why weren't Daisy, Erica, and Aya there too...and why was Mr. Irving?

  And what the hell was “they're fine” supposed to mean? Mr. Irving hadn't even greeted him but was just going to spout vague nonsense.

  Sam looked down and the homeless man was still plopped down in the sand, his long hair gently swaying in the sea breeze. He didn't seem to be nearly as panicked as Sam. In fact, he looked a little too comfortable, like he was just enjoying a nice sunny day at the beach. Why was he out here? In complete solitude?

  “I said, they're fine,” Irving repeated, scratching his nose with his dirty fingernails. “Just like you. You're all fine. Nobody needs to start panicking or throwing tantrums or shedding tears. I really just don't have the patience for that today, to be honest. It's been a good day and I'd like to keep it that way.”

  “What is this?” Sam asked. “Where are we?”

  “Dry land,” Mr. Irving said. “You're welcome. You looked like you had just about enough water to last a lifetime...which is real brief, honestly. Mankind likes to act like a lifetime is an eternity. Let me assure you...it's not. You can thank me for dumping you here whenever you like.”

  The words were having trouble processing through Sam's mind because they made no sense. Mr. Irving was acting like it was his decision to bring Sam there...but it was the voice...the voice in the water. Looking back, that voice did sound very familiar and now Sam knew why. It was the exact same voice that was speaking to him now.

  “You? No.”

  “Afraid so,” Mr. Irving said with a shrug. “You picture a god to be a bit more...godly? Yeah, so did I for a long time...but I've moved on from trying to be perfect.”

  There was no way that Mr. Irving was responsible for all of this. There was just no way. Sam barely believed in Poseidon and he certainly didn't believe that a man like Mr. Irving was secretly some kind of god.

  “The water looks better than it has in years, doesn't it? See the way the sun is bouncing off of it today? It's so shiny...so beautiful. Warms my heart to see it.”

  “You really expect me to believe that you are Poseidon?”

  “You can believe whatever you want, child,” Mr. Irving said.

  Being referred to as a child usually would have pissed Sam off but there was a weight behind the word this time. Suddenly, Mr. Irving seemed so much older than him, speaking down to him like a disappointed grandfather. Despite how Mr. Irving looked, there was something in him that made him look so strong now.

  “Recently, you have been expected to believe a great many things that you never thought you would have to. You have seen plenty that proves you were wrong to doubt and yet...yet you persist in your pessimism and your doubts even though the proof is right in front of your eyes. Even now, in this very moment, you are not believing your own eyes and ears. The truth is right here, yet you fight its credibility.”

  He was talking down to Sam like Sam was nothing more than an ignorant moron with his head buried in the sand. Mr. Irving was wrong—Sam wasn't blind but there were some things that were just too ridiculous to believe. This strange, shabby man wasn't some all-powerful god. That just wasn't possible, even if all of Sam's senses were claiming otherwise.

  “I could conjure up a few tidal waves for you if you would like,” Mr. Irving cackled. “But that would be awfully exhausting to do in my current state. I'm not quite what I was. I am a bit...less...these days.”

  Sam folded his arms. “Fine. I'll bite. W
hy is that?”

  “Because there are far too many people just like you in the world, boy. You and all of the doubters like you are the reason that I am slowly dying little by little. Despite what me and my siblings wanted to believe, we didn't just have dominion over the humans...no...we relied on them. Their worship, their sacrifices...they gave us strength. Now, it's just as you have proven. People don't believe in us anymore. We are myth. We are legends. We are stories. We are nothing. That's all now. How far we have fallen from the heights of Olympus...”

  Sam listened to the whole rant, trying to stifle his laughter. This was one hell of a performance. “So if I believe that you're...who you say you are...then you will magically feel better and strong again, is that it?”

  Mr. Irving laughed again. “Oh, it will take much more than a boy like you. No.”

  Mr. Irving opened his hand. The three pearls were all pressed together in his palm, like he was holding marbles.

  “I asked you to give them back...and you did. Imagine my surprise. Maybe there is hope for humans after all.” If this was an act, Mr. Irving was doing a great job of staying in character. “The pearls were totems to me. They anchored me to the being I used to be, that I haven't been in far, far too long. The pearls were always a fixture on my trident. My power flowed through them for thousands of years. Some of that power retained itself in those pearls. They carried portions of my being within, portions that I had lost.”

  “So that's why they could control water, earthquakes, and...horses...really?”

  “Horses are beautiful creatures,” Mr. Irving said with a glare. “One even came to your aid, didn't she? You're welcome. Even depleted, I was willing to give you that gift. You had gotten so close to returning the pearls. I couldn't let you be stopped when you had gotten so far, when you were so near your destination.”

  “Don't pretend like this was a favor to protect my honor or reputation. You just didn't want me failing at the eleventh hour. You needed me.”

  Mr. Irving smiled and Sam could suddenly see a glimmer of something else behind the man's blue eyes. “I couldn't collect my pearls on my own, sadly. They needed to be recovered by mortals. Mortals stole from me all of those millennia ago and only mortals could return them. Forgive the deception.”

  “And I suppose you want me to forgive that constant ringing in my ear too. The whispers. The shouting.”

  “Perhaps I was a little too direct at times, I admit. But we were running out of time.”

  “You were running out of time,” Sam corrected, speaking sharply. “I was just running out of sanity.”

  “It was the only way to restore my power to a sustainable level. I would have faded away soon enough without these.”

  “You know what I think? You sent us across the ocean to fetch your precious pearls out of pure laziness. You were probably just sitting on your ass upon the summit of Mount Olympus, just watching us little hamsters run through your damn maze. That's all any of this was, wasn't it?”

  “You are actually very mistaken,” Irving said, rubbing his beard. “And for your information, I was never one to spend much time up on Olympus. I much preferred my domain.” He pointed out to the water. “Just look at it. I never wanted to look down on humanity from the heights of the mountaintop like some of my family did. I wanted to be below you, separate but connected, watching from below, and looking up to see what humanity was doing.”

  “So what now then? Now that you got your power back and your fins back on, eh? Are you just going to go gallivanting around the world? Or are you going to try to convince the modern world that you even exist...maybe get some of that sacrifice racket going again?”

  “No, no, I don't think I'll be doing anything like that. I've long since realized and accepted that the world has moved on. I don't expect people to start slitting their goat's throat in my honor again. No. I have more personal matters to attend to. My family is out there and some of them have just been trying to survive like I was doing. They're fragile right now. Scared. With my power, I can help them restore themselves. Or, if they can't figure that out, I will be there with them at the end, for when the last bit of what was supposed to be immortality fades away.”

  “That's nice of you.”

  “Multiple millennia is a long time to have a family. If you think squabbles with your relatives is bad, you have no idea.”

  There was still something Sam needed to know. “Why didn't you save the others too? They worked just as hard to get these pearls back.”

  “I did save them,” Irving said. “I told you that they were fine, remember?”

  Irving glanced over at the shoreline and Sam suddenly noticed a few familiar bodies washed up on the shallows, just now finding land. It was like the ocean dumped them out and no longer needed them anymore.

  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 y
et. “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.”