Like most legends and myths, it had been warped over the millennia to serve whatever lesson they wanted taught. They were also both mostly a load of shit—except for the part about their starting off as monsters. That was true enough.
Gorgons looked like beautiful human women, but they weren’t. They were Gorgons. And they turned people into stone statues to mark their territories against predators and other Gorgons who might want to move in. Like Captain marked plants, people, and furniture with the scent glands in his head and paws and good old-fashioned cat pee to tell other cats what was his. Except that instead of using olfactory cues, theirs were visual—very visual and explicit, like the one we were standing beside, the Roman soldier clutching a spear sticking out of his abdomen, his face permanently fixed in an expression of shock and terror.
It was one hell of a warning . . . definitely not what the beautiful face before us would suggest.
“Artemis,” she said. The sleek tendrils of her hair churned in on themselves, the magic that coursed through the Gorgon animating them. Her voice had a thick, seductive quality to it; “womanly” might be the best descriptor.
“Naomi,” Artemis said. He was avoiding looking her directly in the face. I followed his lead and averted my gaze. Looking a Gorgon in the face wasn’t an automatic stone sentence, but they turned it on and off at will, and if Artemis wasn’t on that kind of buddy-trust level with her, I definitely wasn’t.
“Lovely to see you,” he continued.
She snorted. “Wish I could say the same.”
“I’m not here for a social call or to cause trouble,” he said, holding up his hands. “We’re here to barter, then leave. You have my word.”
She snorted again. A nearby statue held a shield, its surface reflecting a blurry image of the natural cavern. In it I thought I saw the Gorgon arch an eyebrow.
“Barter? Is that what you’re calling it now? Things have changed greatly if the peddling of your wares is now called bartering.”
I glared at Artemis. The impression I’d gotten from him was that he and the Gorgon were on friendly terms.
Artemis didn’t lose a step. “You know what we’re here for, Naomi.”
“Ah, yes. You want me to let you search through my home for some artifact.” I heard something clink and hazarded a glance at her hand, careful, so careful, not to look her in the face.
Dangling from her fingers was a small stone pendant.
Shit.
“I’d forgotten about this old thing,” she said. “I found it on the Gorgon who was here before me, too many years ago to remember things clearly—someone came here asking me for this many years ago as well. Might have been a Roman, might have been a Turk—might have even been one of them.” She nodded at the statues that filled the cavern.
I averted my eyes back down at the water as she turned her gaze on me.
“I was curious when you called,” she said, still addressing Artemis. “I assumed the thieves had reared their ugly heads and were back to killing our kind. Then I began making my own calls.” She smiled. It wasn’t friendly. “You’d be amazed at what I found.”
Her voice was still even, but there was a tension in the air now that hadn’t been there a moment before.
I noticed the water near the statue churn. There was a small splash, then a second one, then a third. Okay, there was no way that was natural. Shit, was that a fin? I turned to get a better look, keeping my eyes rooted on the water.
“So tell me, Artemis, why should I give you this?” She leaned over the boardwalk railing, her skin as reflective as the polished wood. All pretense of pleasantries was gone from her face.
“Who did you speak to, Naomi?” Artemis asked, a warning in his own voice now.
She might have responded, but I was fixated on another splash beside me, then another. There was a fin in the water—no, make that two, three, four—
Oh, that was not good. “Artemis,” I said. He looked down at the water and spun back on the Gorgon. “Naomi,” he chided her, “I thought we were friends.”
She laughed at that. “I’m afraid I had an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“If it’s money—”
She made a clicking sound, and the tendrils of her hair reared, animated and hissing once again. The water underneath us was churning, stirred up by whatever the hell was in it. One of the statues crashed to the submersed floor, cracking under the water. I got my first good glimpse of a long, sinewy tail preceded by the back of a bone-white female body.
Yup, bad was going to worse. I backed the hell away from the edge of the walkway, putting myself and Captain square in the center.
Artemis spun on Naomi. “Call your mermaids off,” he said.
She tsked, placing the necklace around her neck, the pendant dangling against her scales. “How about you explain to me why your cousin Rynn and his merry band of mercenaries are clamoring to get to you and the girl. And don’t lie, Artemis. You did that last time before you took that delectable creature away from me.” She pointed to an empty pedestal. “She was to have her own spot. I still haven’t found a replacement.” She smiled at him. “Whatever happened to her? She must be dead by now. Just think, if you hadn’t stolen her from me you could still visit.”
Fantastic, Artemis had saved someone from her. Of all the times for him to have altruistic tendencies. Shit!
The mermaids reared up against the railing, forcing both Artemis and me back.
I froze. I’d never seen a mermaid before. I’d read about them, seen drawings of them, but never seen one in person. From the back they might resemble a human woman with a fish tail, but belly side up was a different matter. Rows of needle-pointed teeth ran behind their lips, and milky, vapid eyes stared up at me. Their mouths moved, but no words came out.
Artemis pushed me along the walkway until I shook myself out of my torpor and ran. “You didn’t say anything about mermaids!”
“Mermaids and Gorgons are distant relatives. It was always a possibility they’d be down here.”
We dodged another mermaid, who threw herself out of the water at us. “Gorgons live most of their lives on land, preferring swamps and caverns to open water. Mermaids live most of their lives in the Mediterranean. They’re more interested in finding food and hoarding anything shiny than holding a conversation. Why do you think there were so many shipwrecks?”
I dropped to my knees as one launched overhead, her pale, glassy fish eyes set in a bloated corpselike face seeking me. She screeched as she hit my shoulder, sending me sliding for the cistern’s water. The legends about their being beautiful women were certainly off. Survivors’ prejudice, I figured. Those who got a good look at a mermaid’s face rarely lived to tell the tale.
That did not bode well for me.
“Naomi,” Artemis warned, all trace of civility gone. “We had an agreement. All I’m interested in is that pendant.”
“I’m not that naive.”
“Tell him I left before you could catch me. He knows me well enough to know that’s plausible.” He was pleading with her now, trying to avoid a fight.
For a moment, watching Naomi as I stayed out of range of the mermaids, I really thought she might go for it.
“If only it was you he was interested in.” She pointed at me and let out a high-pitched screech that echoed throughout the cavern.
The mermaids returned the call, their shrieks warped by the water. Artemis swore.
Captain, deciding he didn’t like anything that smelled supernatural and lived in water, spat and hissed.
One of the mermaids’ tails crashed into the boardwalk in front of me, while another hit the railing behind me. The statue of the Roman toppled, shattering with a loud crack.
“Run!” Artemis shouted.
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I grabbed Captain and scrambled down the walkway after Artemis. A steel grip closed around my ankle, tripping me and making me drop Captain. He slid a foot away before shaking himself and attacking the clawed, corp
selike white hand, which was now dragging me towards the water.
My legs went over the edge, and I gripped the post as though my life depended on it. Captain growled, and the mermaids shrieked and splashed back at him.
Artemis realized that I wasn’t behind him and skidded to a stop before doubling back towards me, but the mermaids cut him off.
I looked down into a face full of teeth and began to kick. “Let—go—of—me!” I shouted, punctuating each word with a kick.
The mermaid’s algae-stained nails slipped as Artemis reached me and began to pull me up. He pulled me after him, towards the exit, but it was too late. The mermaids churned the water, cutting off our retreat.
“Any bright ideas?” I asked.
“Not unless you happen to be carrying a boatful of ancient soldiers around in your backpack to appease them with.”
The churning made the underwater LEDs appear to flicker like strobe lights, highlighting the many swimming forms closing in. My foot caught on one of the boards as we backed away from them, and luckily Artemis caught me before I could fall. It wouldn’t have happened if not for the damn lights, and they were everywhere.
That gave me an idea.
Naomi was bearing down on us. Between her and the mermaids, I would have to act fast.
I looked around, searching the walls for wires. They had to be here somewhere—there! I saw them, black waterproof tubes running down the length of the cavern walls and spreading out to the sunken LEDs. Now, how to reach them? The walls were all too far away from the boardwalk—there! Behind a statue of a Greek woman, her clothes long since reduced to silk covered with water slime.
“Stay here,” I said to Artemis and Captain.
One, two—on three I jumped. I hit the statue and had the wind knocked out of me, but I held. I kicked at a mermaid hand and a set of snapping teeth set in an uneven face, then climbed. The woman’s features had long since worn away; the porous, lavalike rock was nowhere near as sturdy as it looked. Captain let out a moan. I looked over my shoulder and saw him standing on the railing, switching his tail as if readying to jump, but the water below stopped him from following. He renewed his assault on the mermaid tails that flicked towards him and Artemis. I scrambled up the statue until I was standing on her shoulders, the old silk turned to soft mush in my hands, and bits of the black rock crumbled as I tried to reach the wire.
Try not to think what you’re breaking, I thought as the statue’s fingers broke off. I wedged my foot in the crook of her arm. The statue wobbled on its pedestal as I reached for the wire.
Whether the mermaids understood what I was trying to do or simply realized that I’d escaped the boardwalk I’ll never know, but the water churned around me as I reached for the insulated black wire.
“Alix, watch it!” Artemis shouted.
I glanced over my shoulder in time to see the Medusa push him into the arms of waiting mermaids, who pulled him into the water. She turned her green eyes on me.
Shit. I closed my eyes and turned away before her magic could wash over me. God, I hoped it didn’t work on cats.
I doubled my efforts to reach the wire, balancing on my toes as I stretched my arm towards it.
My fingers closed around the wire, and I pulled. For a long moment it held, bolted to the cavern wall, but then it gave, the fixtures popping out one by one. Now, where the hell was my knife?
I searched my jacket with my free hand until I found my pocketknife. I set the blade against the wire and sawed madly at the insulation.
It gave, and the LED lights flickered out. The cavern was illuminated only by the lantern lights now, the water a dark, churning pit. A mermaid knocked against the statue, sending it rocking on its foundation. The ends of the wire slipped from my hands and almost fell into the water.
“Artemis? I’d get the hell out of the water—like now!” I shouted.
I couldn’t see him, but I heard him curse at me. Then I heard splashing and shrieks and footsteps. He must have made for the boardwalk.
The statue rocked again, and I yanked my foot out of the way before a mermaid could snatch it. More mermaids were swarming around me, if the splashing and jostling of the statue were any indication.
I glanced down at the water but couldn’t make out the now dark forms. The statue rocked again, and I hoped that enough of them were there. I dropped the severed wire ends into the water.
The effect was immediate and spectacular. There were no sparks or flashes like you see on TV or in the movies. But there was noise, a lot of it: the heightened shrieks of the mermaids and the intensified splashing. Then I smelled burnt flesh—not like a fish’s, more like smoked bacon. The violent splashing lasted only a minute, and then only the scent of smoke remained as silence descended. The lights above reflected off the glasslike water, disturbed only by the long bodies floating on the surface.
The Gorgon screamed.
Okay, Owl, don’t ruin the plan by falling into the electrocuting water. I leapt off the statue and for a moment feared I might hit the water before crash-landing on the boardwalk.
I stood and turned towards the doorway, in sight but very far away.
Naomi was standing in the way. And she had Artemis, the tendrils of her hair wrapped around his neck, arms, and waist, the snake-shaped heads of her hair snapping at his face.
I froze. Captain crouched by my feet.
“Why?” Artemis managed, his voice strained.
Naomi’s hair struck his face as she snarled, “Because he wants her. It was either capture her or serve him.”
The skin walker’s words came back to me: “He can manipulate us now as easily as the humans he’s acquired, warping and twisting us until we’re just as dark and damaged as the elves made him and the armor.”
“You’ve heard the stories about the thralls,” Naomi continued. “They’re all true. He’s gathered enough mindless followers—draining them of self-will, turning and twisting them until they’re little more than weapons and cannon fodder.” She spat into the water, and I didn’t miss her glance down at the floating mermaid corpses.
Despite the circumstances, I felt bad for them.
I shook my head. I did not have to feel bad about the mermaids’ trying to eat me.
“He’s taken quite an interest in you,” the skin walker had said. “And you’re too naive to know the danger you’re in. Better that I take your skin and end your suffering now. Kinder than letting you run and hide.”
“He’s on his way if not here already,” Naomi said. “It was either me or you, Artemis, and I think you know who I’d rather see skinned alive.” The snakes flailed around her head.
Artemis grunted. He was going limp now, fighting her less.
And there was nothing I could do to help.
“Consider this payment for her—”
Naomi didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, the snakes holding Artemis loosened and began to flail. Her beautiful mouth formed a shocked O as a black pool formed on her chest, just above the spot where a human heart might have been. There was a blade sticking out of her chest, the handle in Artemis’s hand.
I hadn’t seen it; neither had Naomi.
Jesus. I took a big step back.
The tendrils of her hair fluttered once, twice, before settling around her face as the life drained out of it. She slid to the boardwalk, and Artemis crouched down beside her.
If he was perturbed, he didn’t show it. “Live long enough as a spy, and you learn it’s better to stick someone in the back with a knife before they can do it to you.” He wiped the knife off before it disappeared somewhere into his jacket.
I stood where I was, glued in place as I tried to wrap my head around what I’d just seen. I couldn’t help it; she might have been a monster, but now she was dead. And it hadn’t happened in a fight.
Artemis removed the pendant from around her neck and tossed it at me.
I caught it—barely. “I thought you didn’t get into fights with other supernaturals,” I said.
He smiled at me, cold and vicious. “And sticking a knife into someone’s back isn’t fighting—nor is it a talent. Getting close enough to do it is.”
I shook my head. “You just killed her.”
“And you killed a school of mermaids with a power cord.”
“Yeah, but—” I was going to say that it had been different—but had it? A moment ago I’d figured it was black and white, but now? I wasn’t so certain. Like everything else in my life, things were settling into an uncomfortable scale of gray.
Artemis either didn’t care about or notice my state of duress as he continued to roll the Gorgon, searching for items. It made all those times I’d roughly searched bodies in World Quest seem a lot sicker than they’d been. “Once we’re out of here, we’ll have a thorough discussion about what the hell it is you dragged out of da Vinci’s lair. And don’t tell me it’s a broken antivampire weapon.”
“But that’s just it! That’s what da Vinci called it. I don’t know what else it’s supposed to do.”
“Then you aren’t looking hard enough!” he shouted. He pushed the door open and headed into the abandoned tourist side of the cistern. The wires I had submerged must have short-circuited more than just the water-submerged lights; the entire cistern was bathed in a red glow.
Artemis gave me a sour look. “There is no way my cousin is terrorizing half the supernatural community trying to chase you out of hiding because of the Tiger Thieves. It has something to do with that thing you keep clutching like a junkie holding the last eight ball on the planet.”
I let go of the silver ball in my pocket. “According to her, it’s the entire supernatural community. And I’m far from a junkie.”
Artemis snorted. “A pit full of vipers with treasure in it, and you’d dive in.” He looked as if he was about to say something more when his eyes went wide. I turned around slowly.
Shit.
Behind the coffee tables and chairs scattered in people’s rush to leave stood Rynn. The armor looked more like a jacket and bike leathers than it had the last time I’d seen it. More casual, blending into its surroundings.
Rynn didn’t look like he was here to say hello. More important, he was blocking the exit.
Owl and the Tiger Thieves Page 28