Amphitrite nodded. “I’ll get changed. Griffin should have armor just in case. Aphros, can your tritons lend him some?”
“I’ll speak to Kasos immediately, Mother.” The demigod hesitated, then crossed to her and kissed her cheek. “Be careful. Both of you.”
Silently, Poseidon echoed that plea.
****
Griffin hung onto the rim of the chariot as it streaked through the water with Amphitrite at the reins. The lightweight alloy pauldrons that now covered his shoulders and upper arms were strapped on with belts running across his chest, and the color of the metal matched the sectioned bracers around his wrists. Underneath the pauldrons was a garment that looked like a mesh tank top, and a thick circlet held a cap over his crown.
“This mesh doesn’t seem very strong,” he had said to Amphitrite when a triton came onshore with the armor. “Why don’t they wear breastplates?”
“Not practical underwater,” she had explained, helping him into the coverings. “Remember, water has much more resistance than air. Too much bulk and a triton is slowed down by it no matter how strong he or she is, whereas water flows right through the mesh. Even so, it will still turn most regular bladed weapons.”
“I take it they don’t wear anything on their tails?”
“There’s a mesh casing that they can wear in very dangerous circumstances, but that won’t work for you.” She had frowned at his legs. “You’ll be in the chariot, which will protect you from the waist down. That’ll have to do for now. I’ll ask Hephaestus to make you some proper armor afterwards.”
Griffin wondered how many more gods he was going to meet as the chariot surged behind a squad of tritons. The sea warriors held onto towropes attached to a device that looked like a monster version of an underwater propeller. Their commander, introduced to him as Kasos, guided the propeller through the water while Poseidon and Aphros flanked the warriors, tridents held at the ready.
“One of these days, I really need to sit down with one of you and have a long talk about mer technology,” he said in Éthlé.
She gave him a brief grin. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” she said in the sea tongue. “Seafolk aren’t nearly as medieval as landwalker legends make them out to be. The larger grottos are just as sophisticated as any major land city, technologically speaking.”
“I bet,” he said, eyeing the large propeller. Ahead of them, the water appeared as a solid wall of dark blue. “Are we getting close?”
Amphitrite studied the featureless water, obviously seeing more than he could. “Yes, we are.” She pulled back on the reins, and the powerful seahorses slowed, allowing the attack group to continue on. “We’ll curve around to the right and watch. If one of the whales or an ilkothella approaches us, I’ll steer us away.”
“Understood. But I’m not going to be able to see much.”
“Yes, you will.” She touched the side of his circlet. A rectangle of blue light snapped down in front of his eyes like a high-tech visor. Suddenly he could see the sea floor below them clearly. The featureless water now looked like translucent walls of blue ice, constantly shifting as he watched. “Welcome to mer technology.”
“Oh, my God. This is fantastic.” He studied the shifting lines in the water, wondering if they indicated turbulence and current flow. “Does it have a setting to show salinity?”
“Yes, as well as temperature and other conditions. I’ll show you how to use it later. Right now, keep an eye out for the whales.”
His delight vanished. They were there to do a job. “Right.”
He watched as the tritons and their flanking gods headed off into the distance. Suddenly the tritons dropped their tow lines and spread out like a school of fish, and Poseidon’s trident lit up with a dim glow.
Ahead of them, a huge shape loomed out of the shadows.
Chapter Fourteen
“This one is mine,” Poseidon called. Aphros and the tritons backed off, forming a defensive cordon behind him.
The sea god eyed the right whale swimming towards them. Adult rights were usually somewhere between 45 and 60 feet long, but the behemoth in his path was closer to 70 feet. The usual scabby white patches on a right whale’s head, a result of parasitism by whale lice, had extended over much of its upper body, giving it a gruesomely mottled look.
The creature’s mouth opened and Poseidon got a look at the row of tiny but fiercely serrated teeth that had replaced the whale’s baleen plates, the filtering system that had allowed it to feed on floating clusters of tiny crustaceans and krill. Deprived of its usual method of feeding, the whale would grow hungry enough to use its backup method of opportunistic feeding, looking for anything large enough to satisfy its appetite.
Which appears to be me. He ducked out of the whale’s charging path, testing the creature’s reflexes. It flexed around in a surprisingly tight circle, coming back for him. Right whales were slow and docile, but Thetis’s venom had gifted it with greater speed and flexibility, turning it into a gigantic shark.
He hefted his trident, focusing his power on the three tines of the weapon. They flowed together and merged into a single barbed head in the classic harpoon shape. Cocking his arm back, he hurled the weapon into the whale’s skin, piercing it. The whale convulsed, letting out a high-pitched bellow of pain. A blackish fluid gushed out of the wound.
Poseidon hated to kill the creature. Right whales were endangered as it was, the northern species critically so. But he couldn’t allow the mutated beast to roam freely and attack other marine animals or humans. He reached out and grabbed the shaft of his weapon, sending a killing surge of power along it into the whale’s gut.
It shuddered as its internal organs ruptured and died. He leapt away just in time to avoid the whale’s rapid dissolution into a foul cloud. His harpoon hung in the dark tendrils, and he called it to him, burning off the sticky residue as it came into contact with his aura.
He turned his attention back to Aphros and the waiting tritons. One down. The rest of the pod to go.
****
Griffin could feel his jaw muscles bunch as he watched Poseidon face down and kill the mutated whale.
“Does he have to get that close?” he asked Amphitrite. “Can’t he kill them from a distance?”
“Yes, but that takes more effort on his part, and it’s not as exact,” she said, her hands clenched around the chariot’s reins. “This way, the deaths are quick and clean. He doesn’t want them to suffer.” Her tone made it clear that she’d be willing to live with more suffering if it improved Poseidon’s safety. Griffin agreed with her on that.
Grimacing, the Nereid clucked at the seahorses. “Come on, we have a job to do.”
Sthenios and Skylla pulled the chariot towards the area from where the right whale had appeared. Griffin adjusted his visor until he could see turbulence patterns in the water. “Looks like some massive displacement there.”
“Yes. That whale was definitely not alone. So where are the others?” With a flick of the reins she guided the seahorses lower towards the ocean floor. “There should be—”
Something massive slammed into the bottom of the chariot, shoving them upwards. Cursing, Griffin clung to the chariot’s rim as Amphitrite fought to keep control of the vehicle. The seahorses screamed in rage, surging forward. He risked a look back and almost pissed himself at the yawning mouth lined with saw-like teeth that snapped closed just inches from the back of the chariot.
Amphitrite yelled something in Ancient Greek to the seahorses. They galloped faster, manes streaming out with the motion. Griffin hung on like grim death as the chariot raced away from the second whale. He looked back again, relieved to see that they were pulling ahead of the beast.
Then he spotted something behind the bullish, mottled head. What…
Oh, my God. That’s impossible.
“Can you get around to its side?” he yelled to Amphitrite. “I need to look at its flippers.”
The Nereid gave him an “Are you shitting
me?” glare but hauled on the reins. Sthenios and Skylla slewed to the right in a tight turn, flinging Griffin hard against the side of the chariot. The whale followed. Ignoring the pain in his hip he stared back at the whale, tracing along the creature’s midline to where its flippers should have been.
Fuck. I was right.
“Get us out of here!” he yelled.
“I’m trying to!” Amphitrite yelled back. They had dropped down to mere feet above the ocean floor now, racing along it with the right whale in pursuit. The seahorses arrowed through the dark water, swerving through rocky outcroppings and seaweed stands like rats running through a maze. The right whale stayed with them, smashing through obstacles without stopping.
A grim Amphitrite steered the chariot down even further, angling them towards a jagged outcropping of coral growth. “Hang on!”
Griffin did, praying the goddess knew what she was doing as they headed straight for the hill-like outcropping. At the last moment the white seahorses plunged through an opening that he hadn’t even seen, slowing as soon as they were inside.
Panting, Griffin stared up at the underside of a covered coral lagoon. The lacy structure appeared to be solid from the outside, but allowed dim light and water to flow through it.
A loud grinding crack sounded behind them. Turning, he saw the right whale’s snout pulling back from a hole it had broken in the coral.
“Can it get in here?” he asked.
“Eventually, yes,” Amphitrite said, handing him the reins. “Here.”
“What are you doing?”
She plucked her trident from its holder, glaring at the tines. They collapsed inward, forming a single vicious-looking barbed blade. “I’m going to kill it.”
Griffin’s gut chilled. “It’s too dangerous!”
“Not if I hit it right,” she said, hefting her weapon. “If I can get past the jaw, one blow should kill it.”
The coral wall groaned again as the right whale drove into it, scabrous snout wedging into the hole like a cat after trapped mice. “Especially since it’s being so courteous about giving me a target,” she said, kicking free from the chariot. All he could do was hang onto Sthenios and Skylla’s reins and watch as his mate surged towards the whale, lithe arm cocking back to strike.
The whale shook its head back and forth, trying to widen the hole in the coral. Amphitrite hurled her trident/harpoon past the long snout, aiming for the whale’s eye. The beast jerked at the last moment, sending the weapon skidding along the bony outcropping in front of the eye.
It bellowed in pain, shoving itself further into the hole in the coral. To Griffin’s horror the giant scabrous head sideswiped Amphitrite before she could get out of the way, tossing her to one side like a rag doll.
Sthenios and Skylla shrieked in tandem, jerking the chariot around. With Griffin clinging to the reins the seahorses charged at the whale, their golden hooves clawing through the water and slashing at the whale’s snout.
A pale shape surged past them. Harpoon in hand, Amphitrite torpedoed directly towards the whale’s eye, flipping in mid-course and slapping her feet on either side of the rolling orb. She raised the harpoon and slammed it down.
Shrieking in agony, the whale shook its head and tried to back out of the hole, but the harpoon jammed in its eye socket blocked it in. The grimacing Nereid hung onto the weapon, and Griffin saw a ball of light pulse down the shaft into the whale.
The creature shuddered once, then exploded into an inky cloud. The seahorses backed the chariot away from the foul matter as Amphitrite kicked off to the other side. She stopped there, letting her harpoon fall as she grabbed her left shoulder and grimaced.
Griffin wrapped the reins around a protrusion on the chariot’s rim and started swimming over to her. “Are you all right?” he called.
She lifted her head and smiled weakly. “Shaken, more than anything—” Her face paled. “No!”
Griffin twisted in the water. Something heavy slammed into his chest, shoving him backwards and driving the water from his lungs in one great whoosh. Dazed, he looked down and saw a thick wooden shaft sticking out of his chest.
And then agony washed everything away.
****
Amphitrite darted to Griffin’s side, catching him before he could sink to the lagoon floor. She stared in horror at the spear protruding from his sternum.
Then up at her sister Thetis. The First Nereid hovered in the water, tattered robes streaming out from her disfigured body.
“Well met, sister,” Thetis called, sneering. “Although I didn’t expect to find you slumming with landwalkers.”
Amphitrite’s lips pulled back from her teeth in a rictus snarl. “Thetis, you bitch!”
“Now, now, Ammie. You killed my pet,” Thetis called mockingly. “It’s only fair that I kill yours.”
Amphitrite tore her attention away from her gloating sister, focusing on Griffin. “Beloved,” she begged, “please, don’t leave me!”
There was a last flicker in Griffin’s aura as if in answer. Then it disappeared. Her newly found agapetos was dead, lost once again to her.
Amphitrite let them both drift to the lagoon floor, laying his body down as gently as she could. Her shaking hand closed his eyes. I will avenge you, beloved. I swear this.
Looking up at her smirking sister, she held out a hand. Her trident flew to it, the now-separate tines glowing with power. “I’m going to kill you for this,” she snarled.
“Oh, really?” Disdain and something akin to eagerness flickered over Thetis’s face. “You think you can do battle with me, sister? Then come and find me.” The Mad Nereid disappeared into a whirl of sickly grey, streaming out through gaps in the coral.
Amphitrite let out the underwater equivalent of a whistle. Sthenios and Skylla tossed their heads and pulled the chariot to her. She leapt into it, not daring to look at Griffin’s still form. The seahorses surged out of the lagoon after Thetis.
I’ll return for you, beloved, she thought, hoping his spirit could hear her on its way to the Underworld. Just as soon as I kill my sister.
****
More of the mutated whales appeared out of the blue gloom. Aphros and Poseidon teamed up to handle them, letting the tritons run a search patrol around the area to harry more of the beasts towards the killing area.
Pain burst through Poseidon’s chest like an exploding star. He hunched over, wondering if someone had mistakenly thrown a harpoon at him, but his sternum was intact.
With horror, he remembered the only other thing that could affect him like that.
Panting through the blazing pain, he reached out for Amphitrite and Griffin. He could only feel Amphitrite. In his mind he heard the dry click of Atropos’s shears cutting through Griffin’s life thread, saw the golden fragment drop to the floor of the Fates’ cottage.
“No!” he howled. Moving blindly, he stabbed down at the whale and blasted his power through the harpoon. The whale erupted, sending dissolving chunks billowing everywhere. Amphitrite!
Griffin is dead, came back to him, the thought raw and ragged. Thetis killed him.
How?
Spear through the heart.
The pain in his chest eased, replaced by blinding fury. I swear by Gaia I’ll tear the bitch limb from limb!
Not if I get to her first, husband.
Aphros swam to his side, the demigod’s silvery fishtail and equine forelegs churning through the water. “Father? What’s wrong?”
“Griffin is dead.” Another whale loomed up, dragging Poseidon’s attention back to the battle. Pushing power into his harpoon, he went after the creature with furious intent.
He would kill the rest of Thetis’s beasts. And then he would go after their mistress.
****
Griffin opened his eyes.
Something had happened. He’d had a brief flash of something slamming into his sternum, and an awful choking pain.
He sucked in a deep breath, pushing fingers against his chest. It was reassuri
ngly solid.
“Hello, Griffin.”
Blinking, he looked around. He was sitting in a lounge chair in back of the cottage. The cove was a deep, perfect teal under the summer sky. Overhead the sun stood at its zenith.
Next to him sat an elegant older black woman, eyes closed and face tipped up to enjoy the sun’s warmth. He dredged for her name, came up with it. “Ms. Kuttner?”
“That’s one of my names,” she agreed, smiling. “I wanted to thank you.”
Something was very wrong about that. “For what?”
“For doing what you were brought back to do. You brought Poseidon and Amphitrite back together again. If they hadn’t reconciled their differences, it would’ve been very bad for, well, everyone.”
His mates. “Are they all right?”
“At the moment, yes. They’re both quite angry with Thetis at the moment, and with good reason.” Ms. Kutter lowered her face, sighing. “To be honest, I’m not all that happy with her myself. She’s cheating.”
Griffin shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“You wouldn’t,” the manager said. “But it doesn’t concern you anymore. You’ve done your job, and now it’s time for you to go on.” She stood, and Griffin followed suit. “It’s within my remit to give you one of three choices. You’ve earned a right to the Christian heaven, or you can take your place in the Elysian Fields. It’s up to you.”
“I’m … dead?” Griffin said, lips numb even as they formed the words.
The sudden impact to his chest, the agony. Looking down and seeing the spear shaft shudder with the last beat of his heart.
“Yes,” Ms. Kuttner said gently. “But you died bravely, and after fulfilling your destiny. Thus, your pick of afterlives. Heaven or the Elysian Fields.”
He tried to think, but his mind didn’t want to focus. “Heaven is real?”
Ms. Kuttner smiled. “Oh, yes, for those who believe in it. It’s quite beautiful. However, if you go there you’ll never see Poseidon or Amphitrite again. I’m afraid that particular god guards his gates most carefully, and outsiders are not welcome.”
Deep Water Page 28