Chapter Eighteen
Merck tied the boat to the closest piling and hopped off, but paused, detecting a disturbance in the water. Water bubbled on either side of the dock.
A green ichthyocentaur rose from the water as if propelled from a cannon to land on the dock. Seconds later a blue ichthyocentaur alighted next to him. Both transformed to human form immediately prior to landing, clad in leather battle gear.
“Bythos?” Merck asked of the used-to-be green ichthyocentaur.
“This is Aphros. My brother.” Bythos waved at the other guy who towered above them both by at least a foot or more.
“Are you guys here to help or dissuade me?” Merck asked.
“You think we’d miss out on a chance to kill some Athena underlings? We’ll even settle for a decent fight, which we haven’t had in ages.” Bythos tossed his huge sword from hand to hand.
“Good enough. Try not to scare the straights too much, though. There’s bound to be a few druids around,” Merck said.
“All right.” Bythos stretched while Aphros gazed toward the forested area ahead.
“I’ll get to Shannon.” Merck palmed his knife.
Bythos grinned. “You like her. That’s progress.”
“You’re a real pain in the ass,” Merck mumbled.
A deep sound rumbled from Aphros’s belly and erupted into a laugh. “I like this kid. He’s a hoot.” He leaned down from his ultra-tall height to ruffle Merck’s hair.
Merck rolled his eyes and pulled his head away from the hair ruffling. “We’re in a bit of a hurry here.”
“Are you going into battle with that toy?” Aphros nodded to Merck’s knife.
“It’ll get the job done.”
Aphros pointed at Merck’s face. “That’s why you got those from them in the past. These things must be fought at a distance.” He handed Merck a huge sword off his back. Merck accepted the blade, expecting it to weigh too much to be useful, but it felt no heavier than his knife. Magic.
“Do us proud and you can keep her.”
“Thank you.” I’m better with a knife. But one didn’t scoff a god’s gift.
sprinted in the direction of the house. No noise other than the impact of his tennis shoes breaking sticks echoed around him as he tore through the forest. Eerie. Not even a bird or the wind. Not a peep from the now-absent Ichthyocentaurs. He’d lost sight of the two during his dash and didn’t see them anywhere.
He pulled up at the tree line and viewed the chaos. Ericthonians and snakes were everywhere. Six or seven druids were fighting on the porch of the house and around the lawn. There was a lot of blood, but he couldn’t tell whose. Two druids were down, possibly dead, but neither was Brian Randolph or Eli. More than twenty dead snake men littered the lawn. Kudos for the druids.
Weapons were up and firing round after round into snakes and snake men in a snowstorm of bullets. Bullets didn’t kill these guys, although it might slow them down. These things only stopped when they bled out, but there’d be more. It was an endless army. Getting rid of them required giving Athena what she wanted.
He sighted Shannon at the far edge of the porch using her preternatural skills to keep the creatures off her, pushing them away with wind. Pride filled him as he watched her manipulate the air like a pro. Powerful, directed, and effective. No hesitation. No doubt. God, she was spectacular. Her face showed strain though.
His senses worked as fast as possible while he ran toward her, but he felt as if he were underwater. He dodged free-flying bullets, his movements so quick that the bullets appeared to move at a snail’s pace, as if they were hovering mosquitoes. He leapt, hurtling over the bodies of dead snakes and a few live ones, to strike the snake creature threatening Shannon. With a whirl, he sliced off the head of a lunging snake. The borrowed blade’s sharpness impressed him.
The creature fell. A second snake man sprang at him. He was too close for a sword swing. He rammed it as hard as he could. It rocked back, but not very far. Damn these things were strong. It swiped at him with its ultra-sharp nails, nearly tagging his shoulder.
“Behind you!” he yelled at Shannon. She spun, but too late. A snake creature swiped Shannon’s side. Direct hit. She had an hour or so before the change to snake creature started and one to two hours before the change was permanent. This entire shitfest needed to end so he could get her the antidote.
She dodged another strike, whirled, and lodged a small blade into the snake man’s neck. Good for her.
It got her again as it went down. Shit and super shit.
He threw himself back at the creature leaping for him. It ripped down his chest with its nails and jumped out of range of his sword. He gasped, his gaze lifting to the sky. The Ericthonian was coming at him again. No time to dwell on pain. He lunged forward, his blade striking its target in the neck this time. The snake man hissed in pain, gripped its neck, and struck out again, but missed. Finally, blood loss too great, it collapsed.
It wouldn’t be down long. Snake creatures resurrected themselves after about ten minutes, like a hydra with its many regenerative heads. Bleeding out paused them for much longer than hacking them to bits, but nothing killed them since they were the creatures of Athena. The druids couldn’t defeat an immortal army.
A new Ericthonian approached him, flanked by two serpents.
Shannon’s father fought alongside two druids at the opposite end of the porch. They were covered in bloody scratches. All of them would need the remedy to prevent the change. He had a small bit at the office, probably not enough for this many people. No time to fly to the one shaman in Greece who could brew the right healing potion.
This had to end. He protected people. It’s what he did, who he was. Above all, he protected Shannon.
This entire business with Poseidon reeked of gods fucking with his life. His fault. His responsibility.
Merck pointed the sword at the approaching snake man. In Greek, he said, “All of this needs to stop. Take me to Athena. I am the only one here who knows about what she seeks.”
The creature halted, cocking its head as if considering his words. It gazed at the blade he held and then nodded.
Shannon grabbed his arm. His gaze met hers for an instant and then resumed his stare on the snake man.
“I’m going with you,” she said. “This is about me.”
“We don’t know exactly what this is about.” He met her father’s gaze over her head. “Stay with your father right now. I’ll deal with this.”
“You can’t stop me from going with you.”
“I might not make it, darlin’, but I need for you to live. You still have a chance to survive all of this.” His breath came out a harsh rasp. “Please. I need for you to be somewhere safe while I speak with Athena. Go.” He nudged her toward her father. All the Ericthonians looked to be backing out of the fight.
Her gaze darted around the yard. The breeze carried the stench of blood. Streaks of red painted the front of the white house, and the porch rails like a B-grade horror film.
“The only place I’m safe is with you.” She took a step toward him, but her father caught her arm.
“He’s right. Stay here. With us,” Brian ordered.
Merck wished he could keep her close and promise her the safety she asked of him. Right now he had to deal with a goddess he’d never met face-to-face. If everything went south and Athena killed him, then Shannon would be safer out of view or with the druids in a renewed fight against the snake men. He gazed at Brian for a few seconds, silently pleading he keep her safe, before jogging after the Ericthonian.
He approached the black-haired woman at the water’s edge. Not a woman, he amended in his mind, a goddess. Serious goddess. Everything about her appearance was perfect and toned with dark Mediterranean skin and catlike eyes. Intelligent eyes.
He’d lost sight of Bythos long ago. Right now, it’d be nice to have the brothers as backup.
He bowed when Athena’s attention focused solely on him. “It is an honor to be in your presence.”
“Give me the Trident,” she ordered in an echoing voice that ricocheted painfully between his ears.
Merck’s spine went rigid. Athena’s tone and glower demanded fear and deference. What was the worst she offered? Death. He may not want it today, but he wasn’t afraid of it, even if she could probably dream up a painful way to ensure he died eternally screaming. He’d accept it if the outcome protected his water friends and kept Shannon safe.
He asked, “Why do you want the Trident?”
She frowned as if he was an idiot to question her. “I do not answer to you, but I detect your father’s stubbornness should I refuse to answer. To take Poseidon’s power and kill him, of course.”
Merck shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He released a long sigh. Athena didn’t get the big picture. “This is about revenge for you, then? For something he did a long time ago?”
Athena scowled a promise of impending pain, but the slight widening of her eyes was a clear yes on Poseidon being a shithead at some point in the past.
Merck said, “Assuming I could get the Trident for you, which I’m not saying I can, and I give it to you, what then? Will you steal all of Poseidon’s power and rise over him, humiliate him, possibly even kill him and ascend to his underwater throne? Then what?”
Athena’s face lit up. Her lips curved into a jubilant, scary smile.
The hairs on his arms stood as chills skirted along his skin. “Are you ready to take on his responsibilities? Do you love all of the ocean and her creatures to the point you would devote the rest of your existence to their welfare? To mediate the battles amongst them and against humans? To fight pollution? To pick up after natural disasters? To heal their injuries?”
“Who are you to question me?” Her voice echoed inside his skull to the point his ears hurt.
“So you want his throne without responsibility? Perhaps you plan to delegate the responsibility of sea life and ocean welfare to someone else. Someone who won’t understand them? Someone equally power hungry?”
“You want this job.” She smiled superiorly as if she had him figured out.
“No, ma’am. I’ve got enough to deal with, thank you. I don’t want all that. That’s an insane amount of responsibility. Without Poseidon or a similarly powerful ruler, there will be chaos underwater. I have visited a world, a dimension actually, where Poseidon doesn’t exist. The animals are scared and hurting. They need what only he can offer them: the assurance of his presence and control. If you swear to me on your soul and the soul of the children you love that you plan to dedicate all that you are to care for those who need their water god, then I will find this Trident for you.”
He and Athena gazed at each other in silence. He expected her to rip off his head or deliver an extremely painful hit now that he’d revealed he didn’t have the Trident and had thrown down an ultimatum.
“I want him to hurt,” Athena finally said. Pain transformed her beautiful face.
Merck said softly, “Poseidon did some dickhead thing to you? He probably doesn’t even remember it or didn’t think twice about it. I’m sorry. He’s a guy and sometimes, honestly, we just don’t get women or we’re so wrapped up in our own shit that we do things without thinking.” He shrugged. Been there, been guilty of it too many times, and may not have even recognized it when he’d done it other times. “Words from me won’t help, but destroying him and the balance of his underwater world won’t help either. Sure, it’ll feel great for about a minute. Then it’ll heap a load of extra duties on you for the rest of your existence. Have you ever told him to his face what he did that pissed you off?”
She tapped a long, silver-painted nail against her teeth. “I don’t like your arrogance, but you’re smart. He violated my temple with Medusa. It’s why I turned the bitch into a monster. Poseidon refuses to meet with me to discuss matters.” Her eyes darted over Merck’s right shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Bythos?”
Bythos bobbed in the water, back in his half-merman, half-horse form. “I don’t recall you submitting a request for an audience recently. If he refused, then perhaps he doesn’t think you mean to meet peacefully. The previous two times he agreed to meet with you there were traps meant to hurt him.”
Merck took a step toward Athena. The snake men around her tensed for attack. He said, “If you require death to end this vendetta to take a throne you have no plans to rule in the manner which it will need, then kill me. Kill Poseidon’s son. But first, vow you will stop attacking Shannon and her family who have nothing to do with any of this. If the Pleiades goddesses have been assassinated, then she and the others related to her are the last of the Pleiades bloodlines. They need to remain alive.”
He stood tall, ready for the deathblow but confident it wouldn’t come. He’d never felt so certain a threat wouldn’t kill him as right now. The gods who would preside over his live-or-die judgment in the next twenty-four hours would never let him out this easily.
“To his face, I would hear you call Poseidon a dickhead.” Athena savored the last word as if highly entertained.
“I can do that.”
She gazed at Bythos. “He is ready.”
With a wave of her hand, she and all her snake men disappeared.
What did that mean? Ready for what? His meeting to determine his fate? Anger slid through his mind. Damn it. Was all of this some sort of elaborate test?
All these people hurt, possibly killed. His ocean in chaos. And it was a fucking game. He hated the gods and their bullshit.
Bythos clapped a hand onto his shoulder. He flinched. Bythos was now back in humanoid form. “That could’ve gone very differently. Glad you understand the gravity of the missing Trident.”
Merck threw off Bythos’s hand. “What the hell was all this about?”
Bythos held out a glass bottle. “This is for the straights who got scratched by the Ericthonians. A drop or two on the scratch should do the job, but it’s got to be within the next hour.”
“Thanks.” He took the vial, relief settling into his chest that he wouldn’t have to run to work to get what little he had left to help Shannon. “But it doesn’t answer my question.”
“There are things I can discuss and things I can’t.” Bythos grinned as if he was thoroughly enjoying this.
Merck held out the sword. “Tell Aphros thank you. She’s really a remarkable weapon.”
Bythos shook his head, rejecting his offer of return. “The ever-sharp blade is meant for you and no other. A gift from your mother.”
“My mother?” He palmed the beautiful blade. The intricate hilt and etched blade were not human made. The sword exuded a rich energy. Old magic. “Who’s my mother?”
“You’re no bastard.”
His eyes shot to Bythos, shocked. “Amphitrite?” The true wife of Poseidon.
Bythos nodded.
“Why’d she give me up?”
Bythos glanced out to the ocean. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but you showed grit today. That I respect. To have another child your mother had to bargain.” His deep gaze returned to Merck. “The goddesses who govern children and childbirth forbade Poseidon more after his first few were disastrous. The only way Bendis and Aphrodite would allow your existence was to have you submitted to scrutiny. Your mother had to give you up for your younger years and let you be judged. Trust me when I say the negotiation was long and bitter.”
“They wanted to test me?”
Bythos nodded. “To see if any catastrophic issues arose as did with your brothers.”
“Do you think I’ll pass?”
Bythos’s face fell. He shrugged. “The judgment is not just about you. It’s political and complicated.”
That’s what he’d suspected. It meant he could probably do whatever the hell he wanted and it wouldn’t matter. “When will this judgment take place?”
“Today or tomorrow.” Bythos shrugged again. “I’m not sure.”
“How did someone get the Trident to begin with and why is Shannon involved? What did Athena mean by he’s ready?”
Bythos grinned. He dove into the water, disappearing.