The Iron Queen

by Kaitlin Bevis

  “No.” I shook my head, thinking of Hades, how he was willing to break the world for me. The way he’d held me together when my whole life seemed to shatter. The strength he saw in me I hadn’t even known was there. I’d survived Pirithous. I’d survived Boreas. And I destroyed Zeus. I could handle grief. “But I will be.”

  (Please continue reading for a short story from Kaitlin Bevis)

  Triton

  A Short Story

  “WHOA, LOOK AT this stuff!” I wriggled my tail to push through the narrow opening of the metal shipping container, wincing when the jagged metal scraped against my scales.

  Shipwrecks didn’t happen all that often, but shipping containers fell off boats all the time. I never got to leave The Circle to find them. Dad wouldn’t let me. So when I heard that a shipping container settled on the upper shelf, I took off.

  “Neat.” Rhode’s voice sounded way too dry for something so high pitched. The small dolphin didn’t even look at the shipping container tilted along the sandy edge of the upper shelf. “Triton, as fascinating as this... collection you’ve got going is, people are starting to talk.”

  What people? Between the ocean and the islands, Dad’s realm was chock full of “mythical” beings. But the thing about Cyclopes, Harpies, Sea Nymphs, or any of the others is that they’re barely smarter than the regular fish in the sea. Barely. Anything with high reasoning skills had either been killed off or mixed with the humans eons ago. Dad kept the stragglers around because they were with it just enough to worship him. “So you’ve said.” Over and over again. “Keep watch.” I pulled a conch shell from the kelp pouch that hung from my shoulder and blew it like a horn. The water inside the rusted shipping container poured past me into the sea. When it was completely dry inside, I stepped in.

  My fin rippled and a tickle of power trickled across my tail like sea foam. Tiny bubbles of power pricked against my scales as they split into legs. As my feet touched down inside the slanted container I realized the tilt looked a lot more drastic from the inside.

  “That doesn’t hurt?” Rhode trilled.

  I winced at the familiar question. She asked it every time I cursed her with sentience. The memories that came with basic sentience don’t stick once my powers falter and mine faltered a lot. By rights, I shouldn’t even be able to use them yet, but I wasn’t exactly normal, even for a god.

  “Nah. Just kind of tickles.” Sometimes I got sick of answering the same questions over and over, but Rhode had a dry humor that was different from any of the other residents of The Circle. And in my boring world, anything different was good.

  Besides, a little repetition was leagues better than being alone. I explored the shipping container. There wasn’t a lot of room to walk around, maybe a foot in either direction because of all the boxes and stuff.

  I ripped away the opaque plastic sheeting blocking my way to the boxes, but then ran into another problem. Some kind of a plastic strap, stronger than any rope I’d ever seen, held the boxes against the metal walls. “What is this?” I tugged at the plastic stuff, but it wouldn’t break.

  “Oh, a dingle-hopper of course,” Rhode snarked behind me.

  I scowled at the reference and tugged at the stuff for a few seconds longer before sawing away at it with the edge of my conch shell.

  Finally the rope-like thing broke.

  “YES!” I pulled down one of the boxes and ripped through the soaked and pulpy paper-like material it was made from and pulled out a bright, yellow rubber ducky. “Moby Duck! Ha!”

  “Moby what?” Rhode nosed her way into the container, coming to a stop where the water ended.

  “Okay, so like way in the early nineties, a ton of shipping containers went missing. Beach combers have been looking for these little rubber ducks,” I squeezed the bath toy and gave a delighted laugh at the squeaky sound it made “for, like, ever! Oh man!”

  I went on and on about the missing shipping containers even though I saw her eyes glaze over with boredom. I knew she’d tuned me out, but couldn’t stop the words from pouring out of my mouth. Even the illusion of someone listening was too good to waste. I punched open another soggy box and pulled out more ducks. “I wish I could post about this!”

  “Don’t let your father hear you say that.” Rhode clicked in disapproval.

  She didn’t have to tell me twice.

  My divinely waterproof smart phone was the only thing that kept me sane! Dad had set it up somehow to where I could receive data, but not send it, which was kind of annoying, but I got it. People had never really stopped searching for The Circle. One slip up from me and all the creatures Dad saved by creating this shielded paradise could be—

  Oh crud. “Rhode, what tide is it?”

  “Half past Ebb,” she chirped. “Why?”

  I winced. “I’m late.”

  THIS ONE TIME, one of the Nereids that Dad gifted with enough higher reasoning to babysit, asked me to describe my father in three words for some random craft she’d seen on Pinterest. For some reason, we never finished. Maybe it was because the words I picked—busy, angry, and sad—didn’t fit into her master plan to suck up to Dad enough to keep high-intelligence. I’d feel worse about ruining her plan if it actually would have made a difference. But Dad never would have gone for high-intelligence long term, anyway. Nereids reminded him too much of Mom.

  Busy. Angry. Sad.

  I tried to keep every piece of that puzzle in mind as Dad paced in front of his throne and tore into me for being late, but it wasn’t easy.

  “I am not made of time, Triton!” Dad railed, throwing his hands in the air. “I have a realm to run!” His voice echoed in hollow chamber. Water filled our underwater castle, tinting the algae and sand-colored spiraled columns blue. His voice shouldn’t have been able to echo like that, what with the lack of walls and all, but the laws of physics didn’t exactly apply within Dad’s castle.

  The inside of the castle acted as a neutral space and changed to meet the needs of those within it. Most of the time that meant variations in light, density, or oxygen levels for guests, but for Dad it meant the ability to echo. Like he wasn’t loud enough already.

  “Do you know what your mother sacrificed to even give you a chance like this?”

  “Everything,” I rasped, then cleared my throat. I hated him for throwing her at me almost as much as I hated myself for enjoying this conversation. He was talking to me. This wasn’t a screen or an enchanted dolphin or any other one sided connection. These were real words. And even though they hurt, I couldn’t stop myself from soaking up the sensation.

  “Everything!” The word met water like a heavy stone, shoving it away from my Dad in a bitter swell. Dad sucked in a deep breath and the ripple smoothed. If only the storm inside of him was as easy to quell.

  Busy. Angry. Sad. And it was all my fault.

  It takes a lot of power to create a god, even a baby one. At some point during her pregnancy, mom realized she didn’t have enough to bring me into the world and survive. I’ll never know why she didn’t just ask my father to share more power with her. Maybe she was afraid he’d say no and I’d never be born. Giving birth to me killed her.

  Dad took a deep breath and rested a hand on the arm of his throne. “These lessons matter. If you don’t learn this...” He raked his fingers through his short, spiky hair, sending little air bubbles into the water around him. “You cannot afford obscurity.”

  That was a lesson hard learned. My dad always said that my mother was the most beautiful goddess in the four realms. Unfortunately she was shy. Like, so shy that if I’d asked three different people who the queen of the ocean realm was, I’d get three different answers since pretty much no one was sure of her name. Not a good thing since gods live off worship. She’d survived for as long as she had because my dad shared just enough power to keep her alive. Until I came along and su
cked it all away.

  “As the heir to this realm, you have responsibilities... ”

  He kept talking but I stopped hearing him. Literally. The room knew I needed a minute, even if he didn’t so audio went out. My entire life could be reduced down to responsibilities. She’d wanted a baby, he hadn’t. I shouldn’t know that, but because of the way she died, I know a lot of things I shouldn’t. Not like created gods, they know everything and can use all their powers right away. Born gods come into the world without knowing anything and have to grow into their powers. I lived somewhere in-between. The last of her powers had awakened some of mine and given me a lot of knowledge I shouldn’t have with gaps the size of oceans.

  Audio came back full force. “... residents of the realm will rely on you and your powers to survive. That should matter enough to be on time!”

  “I know.” I hated how weak my voice sounded. When Mom faded away, I was left with a debt I would never be able to pay back, a burden I never asked for, and a dad who never wanted me in the first place. But however he felt about me, my dad loved her. And since I was all that was left of her, Dad was determined that I’d avoid her fate.

  “If I can take time off from running a realm to teach you, you can damn well make time to learn.”

  “I know. I just lost track of time.”

  “Lost track of time? Lost track of time!” He was really getting warmed up now. “Of all the irresponsible, selfish things--it’s once a week Triton, hardly a demanding schedule.”

  Dad channeled bits of power to me once a week and taught me how to use them. Then he poured scraps of his leftovers into the conch shell I always carried on me, just in case I ran into some kind of an emergency and needed a bit of divine assistance beyond my own abilities.

  I used to cling to that shell as proof that he cared, even if most of the time he couldn’t really meet my eyes. Having a piece of him with me was better than nothing, right? He didn’t have to give me anything, so why would he unless I meant something to him.

  But gods can’t lie, even to themselves. If he really cared, he’d make time more than once a week and he wouldn’t waste it yelling at me. I’d take his stupid lessons because I saw the sense in them. Whenever I was old enough to come into my powers on my own, I was going to make such a big splash that no one would ever forget my name. Then he’d know I didn’t need him anymore. One less responsibility for Dad, one less burden for me.

  Dad sucked in a breath so he could keep yelling. “Do you even realize—”

  Pulse.

  Somewhere far away, three drops of golden blood dripped into the ocean. Dad broke off with a curse as power rippled through the realm. “I have to go.”

  “What is that?” I demanded, hair standing on end.

  “Demeter…she’s in trouble, I have to go!” Without another word, Dad vanished.

  Demeter, as in the goddess in charge of the human realm Demeter? No chance of me staying here then! Dad gave me teleportation authorization as soon as I was big enough to swim. The Circle may be safe from humans, but danger still lurked around every corner and he wanted me to be able to escape in the blink of an eye. But with that borrowed power came limitations. He’d made me promise not to teleport out of The Circle without him until I came of age. Since gods can’t lie, that meant I literally could not break my word. But teleporting now wouldn’t be breaking my word. After all, I was going with him. He just didn’t know I was tagging along.

  Luck was with me. I ported in just behind an outcropping of large rocks jutting from the ocean.

  “Gah!” I threw my hands over my eyes and blinked fast in a desperate attempt to adjust to the sunlight. The surface was always so bright. I didn’t understand how humans could possibly prefer that harsh white-hot light over the soft filtered-blue of the ocean.

  When my eyes stopped watering, I squinted to see two figures fighting on top of a patch of land so small it could only be a sand bar. A man in dark clothing was beating the living daylights out of a girl.

  No.

  Not the girl.

  Rubbing my eyes, I leaned closer and realized that he wasn’t actually touching her. His hits glanced off the air around her like some kind of invisible barrier knocked them back.

  A shield, I realized. Which meant this girl was a goddess. A young one, assuming she wasn’t wearing a glamour.

  The man in black didn’t seem too worried about the shield protecting the girl. He just kept on hitting her. How long could she keep it up?

  Where was Dad? I glanced around but all I saw was the endless blue of the sky meeting the sea. There was no one else who could help. That tiny bit of sandbar and the two deities struggling on it were the only other bit of color for miles. It was up to me to save her.

  My fin split into legs as I grabbed my conch shell and lifted my head up high. Scenes from a million movies and shows played out on the tiny screen of my cell phone flashed through my mind. I suppressed a grin. Who was about to rescue a damsel in distress and get his first kiss? This guy.

  I’d just gathered enough energy to port and surprise the crap out of the man in black when the girl darted out from behind her shield to grab his arm. I knew, I just knew she was about to do something epic.

  “What is going on here?” Dad’s voice, laced with enough power to twist my stomach in knots, echoed off the shore.

  I darted behind the outcropping of rocks, my head whipping back and forth to find him. Had he seen me? Oh man, I was gonna be in so much trouble!

  Several yards to my left, Dad strode through the waves to the shore. He must have shielded himself to take stock of the situation before interfering. Had he seen me?

  Before Dad reached the sand, the man in black teleported away.

  Dad stepped closer to the girl and asked her something in a low murmur that carried so much worry in it that my mouth dropped open. He’d... never sounded like that before. Ever.

  She didn’t seem to care.

  “I had him!” The girl spun on him, green eyes glittering with rage. “You ruined everything!”

  Holy crap, he was going to kill her for talking to him that way! I gripped my conch shell and started forward, one hand still clinging to the rock because I didn’t exactly want to out myself to Dad, but it sure felt like I needed to do something.

  “... didn’t get a good look at the other guy…” Dad’s voice sounded dry but otherwise he didn’t seem like he was about to pop a blood vessel.

  Wh... why was he okay with her talking to him like that? I’d shown up five minutes late to god lessons, but she could outright yell at him? What was this?

  The girl cradled her wrist to her chest and drew in a sharp breath like she was about to yell some more, but before she could get the words out, she coughed. The wet hacking sound was so terrible that even I could tell it meant something really, really bad.

  Dad swore and stepped onto the beach.

  “Stay back!” she yelled.

  “... helping you.”

  “... don’t want to owe you...”

  The wind picked up, snatching their words away from me and stirring the water into mini-waves that stung as they slapped against my skin. I shivered; it was cold on the surface world. Who knew?

  Dad’s shoulders stiffened, but instead of getting mad, he tried to reason with her.

  “... not thinking clearly.” He stepped toward her, arm outstretched.

  Now her voice rang out loud and clear. “Don’t touch me!”

  “Persephone—”

  Not Demeter then.

  “Don’t come one step closer! This might not be much land, but it’s still earth, and you are not welcome here.” She stamped her foot and the ground trembled. “This is my realm. Get out!”

  When Dad stepped closer, the ground rose up beneath him, shoving him back into the water.
/>
  “Get back!” Her voice sounded raw from screaming.

  Whoa. She was strong. Really strong. But she was also hurting. I could see it in the way she carried herself. And there was something else. Something familiar in her stance.

  Dad held one hand out and kept trying to reason with her. Part of me wondered what it was about this girl he was so invested in, but the rest of me held my breath to see if he’d be able to help her.

  Dad kept his voice patient and calm, as if he was talking to a wild animal, “... not going to hurt you...”

  “Stay away from me,” she warned when his foot crept toward the sand.

  “It isn’t your realm, you know. It’s your mother’s,” my father pointed out.

  She was Demeter’s daughter, I realized. And she obviously had control over the realm, so she was a realm heir like me.

  “You don’t get to talk about my mother. I know what you did.”

  Dad drew back like she’d done something to him and I found myself wondering what he’d done. “... long time ago—”

  “You’re scum! You’re worse than scum. And I am never ever going to put her in the position of owing you anything. Least of all my life. Now step back!”

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Can you teleport to Hades?”

  To Hades? He wanted to send her to Hades? No wonder she was pissed.

  Tears glittered in her eyes. “He’ll just be waiting for me in Tartarus. I’ll never make it.”

  When Dad stepped onto the beach, she stiffened, voice going hard. “If you come any closer, I’ll let Hades think you did this to me.”

  Hades. God of the Underworld. Now that was a threat. But why would Hades care one way or another what happened to this girl?

  Dad stepped back into the water. “If I don’t help you, you are going to die.”

  What was he talking about? Gods can’t die. But they couldn’t lie either. The girl winced and seemed to shrink in on herself. Why was she in pain? What was wrong with her?

  “Why not skip Tartarus?” Dad asked.