Olympic Cove 2-Breaker Zone (41 page)

Undoubtedly they’re mounting an attack
on this structure to rescue you. Also undoubtedly, Thetis will recognize this
and use you as a hostage. We need to get out of there.

He turned, staring at the cages that
held Claire and the mermaids.
What about
them?

Hold me up to each lock.

Skipping Claire’s cage, he kicked
awkwardly to the first mermaid’s cage and held the Rod to the lock. Pythia
shrank more and slithered through the keyhole, tiny golden body twisting. After
a moment there was a dull thunk, and she pulled out.
Gods, I hate rust. Hurry and take
me to the rest of the cages.

You can pick
locks?

She twisted to look at him. If he didn’t
know better, he would have sworn she’d smiled cheekily.
I can do many things, Bearer. But
we’ll talk about that later. Let’s get these mermaids free and find a place to
hide.

He moved as quickly as he could, opening
the five remaining cages. The mermaids swam out, some looking frightened.
Others looked angry.
 
“Thank you,
Bearer,” one of the angry ones, a blonde with large brown eyes, said. “Are we
being rescued?”

“I certainly hope so.”

The blonde turned. “All of
you,
go find hiding spaces, small as you can,” she ordered.
“If you get a clear shot to get away, take it. Go!”

The rest of the mermaids obeyed, pausing
to look outside the hold before disappearing into the gloom beyond. “My name is
Meghan,” the blonde mermaid said. “I’m a ranger with Northern Current grotto.
What are we going to do with the goddess?”

Nick kicked back to Claire’s cage.
Inside, the sea goddess was half again as large as she’d been, her skin patchy
grey and sickly looking. “Claire, can you hear me?”

The goddess slowly raised her head,
working her jaw with its sharp new teeth. “I hear you, Bearer,” she rasped.

“It’s time.” He hesitated. “Will you
keep your vow?”

She nodded.
“If you
keep yours.”

“I will.” He held up the Rod, and Pythia
unlocked the cage. Slowly getting a feel for her rebuilt body, Claire kick-swam
out into the hold. She turned those solid black eyes on Meghan and blinked. “Be
at ease, Ranger. I haven’t succumbed to the Nereid’s madness yet.”

Meghan’s jaw was set.
“Yet.”

Claire smiled. The effect was chilling.
“You won’t be my target, I assure you. Bearer, I can feel where the bitch is in
my head. Shall we go fulfill our vows?”

****

Kasos and Fergus floated at the head of
their forces. Across from them, more ilkothelloi had swum out from the wreck,
moving in patrolling circles. Joining them were the two changed orcas, looking
fearsome with their expanded jaws and lumpish but powerful bodies.

The triton commander lifted a hand to
his neckband and touched the stone there.

“Now.”

As one, the tritons and mers surged
towards the wreck. Ilkothelloi rose to meet them, backed by the mutated orcas.
The joint forces skillfully harried Thetis’s creatures with tridents and nets,
evading the snapping jaws and clawed hands. A group of tritons and mers broke
off to engage the now-vicious orcas, luring them farther and farther away from
the wreck.

As soon as the battle was joined, Aidan,
Lysandros, and the strike team began their surreptitious trek along the ocean
floor, finally reaching the downed ship. Two tritons went in first,
then
one leaned out and gave the hand signal for “clear”.

Aidan and the rest of the tritons
followed. Almost immediately Lysandros held up a fist. They all smelled the
acrid scent of frightened mers. “We’re tritons and a ranger with the Bright
Water grotto,” he called.

Four heads poked out of nooks and
crannies around the wrecked room. One tiny redhead threw herself at Lysandros,
sobbing.

With care, he detached her and handed
her off to a triton, waving up two more of his men. “Get them back to base,” he
ordered.

“Wait,” Aidan said quickly, darting to
the redhead’s side. “Did you see a human here?”

“The B-bearer?” she said, eyes wide.
“He’s o-one deck below, where we were being k-kept.” She pointed at an open
doorway leading to a passageway. “Take the first opening on the right and go
down.”

Aidan grabbed her hand, kissing the back
of it. “Thank you.”

Their guardians shuttled the now-freed
mermaids out through the gap in the hull, reducing their group to seven. The
two point tritons led the way across the passageway and down the narrow
staircase. It opened onto a hold with open cages lined across the far end.

It was also empty. Aidan scented Nick
and wanted to howl with frustration.

“You have his trail?” Lysandros asked.

“Yes.”

“Find him.”

Teeth drawn back, Aidan followed the
scent trail to the far end of the hold, where there was a door. Not waiting for
the point guards he went through into a long passageway, checking blind spots
as he swam.

A rusty patch on a wall exploded outward
and an ilkothella barreled out of it, slamming into Aidan and knocking him
further down the passageway.

He brought up his trident shaft in time
to intercept the creature’s champing mouth, slapping its tail hard with his
own. It fell back, growling. He spun the trident, bringing it up in attack mode
in time to catch the ilkothella’s next lunge. To his shock it grabbed the
trident’s tines and pushed, powerful tail threshing hard and shoving him
further down the hallway.

Afraid he was going to be wedged in a
corner, he yanked the weapon back, trying for a low thrust. The ilkothella
wriggled impossibly to avoid it, giving him a leering grin.

Before he could try another thrust the
creature was yanked back up the passageway.
Thank
you, Lysandros.

And then he could see the ilkothella’s
captor. To his shock, it had waving green hair like most of the minor sea
goddesses, but its skin was mottled grey and it was much larger than any nymph
or demigoddess he’d ever seen.

And then it opened its mouth. Razor
sharp shark’s teeth tore into the ilkothella’s tail. The creature wailed in
pain and fury, turning on its new attacker. Aidan hung back, trapped as the
goddess and ilkothella savagely wrestled in the water, biting and clawing at
each other.

The goddess wrapped her legs around the
ilkothella’s trunk and swung around to the creature’s back. Grabbing a solid
handful of hair, she yanked the ilkothella’s head to the side and sank her
teeth into its neck. Black blood bubbled up as the ilkothella screeched.

The goddess tore her head back, taking
the ilkothella’s throat with her. The creature spasmed one last time and went
still, drifting slowly down to the deck.

Aidan brought up his trident as his
green-haired savior spat out her mouth of flesh, wiping a forearm across her
lips. “Put that away. I mean you no harm,” she growled.

Aidan braced himself. “Excuse me, my lady,
but I’m having problems believing that,” he said tightly.

“Aidan?”

Behind the goddess, Nick and a blonde
ranger swam out of a doorway. The relief on his mate’s face was a mirror of the
sensation suddenly bubbling in his chest.

Aidan darted past the goddess, keeping
himself between her and his mate. Frantically he ran his hands over Nick’s
body, terrified he would find a bite mark. “Are you all right? Tell me you’re
all right.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Nick’s face was drawn
and his eyes exhausted, but his skin was intact. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” Over Nick’s shoulder, Aidan saw
why the tritons hadn’t come to his aid.
The ilkothella’s rush
through the bulkhead had caused that section of the passageway to collapse,
blocking off his backup.
“Who’re your friends?”

Nick introduced Meghan and Claire, briefly
explaining what had happened to the goddess. “We need to get out of here.”

“The only exit I know of is behind
that.” Aidan pointed at the caved-in section of the passageway.

“Not a problem.” Claire opened a door in
the passageway and swam into what looked like a small equipment hold. Aidan,
Nick and Meghan waited at the door while the goddess went to the tiny,
rusted-out porthole.

“We won’t fit through that,” Aidan
pointed out.

“Give me a moment, mer.” Claire raised
her legs, bracing them on either side of the porthole, then reached down and
grabbed the rusty, glassless edges. With a grunt she ripped the porthole wider,
the screech of tearing metal painfully loud in the tiny cabin. Two more
powerful
tugs,
and the hull now looked like something
large had punctured it from the outside.

She turned to them, sharkish mouth
grinning widely.
“Big enough for you, mer?”

“Yes, my lady,” he said respectfully.

“Mmph.”
She dove
through the hole, just clearing the edges. Aidan urged Meghan to go next,
followed by Nick and himself. Outside, they found Lysandros and the others, who
had backtracked to find another way into the wreck.

The moment the tritons saw Claire, however,
they immediately fanned out around her, caging her in a spiked ring of black
tridents. “Surrender and you will not be harmed,” Lysandros said.

The goddess straightened, chin coming up.
“I will tell you what I told the mer. My grudge is with Thetis, not you. Let me
pass and face her, and none of you will be hurt.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Nick said
quickly.

“And why are we supposed to believe one
of Thetis’s creatures?” Lysandros snapped.

Claire stared at him, divinity mixed
with pain in those black eyes. After a moment, he flinched and bowed his head.
“I was the patron goddess of naval sailors and all those who did battle on the
waters,” she said. “It is my place to deliver retribution to Thetis for doing
this to me. Do not stand in my way, triton, for you will be defeated.”

Very
reluctantly
 
Lysandros
bowed and backed away. “If
you truly intend to engage the Nereid, I suggest you move quickly,” he said. “Now
that we’re all out of the wreck, my commander has plans for it.”

****

Liam’s neckband tingled.
A voice muttered, “And go
.”

He stepped to the ladder leading to the
pilot house. “Col! We’re
go
!”

“On it.”
The motor
started again for a brief time, and Liam felt the ship move position before it
shut off. Col clambered down the ladder, grabbing his trident from where it
rested against the wall. “Ready?”

“Yes.” They both knelt on the deck for
stability, and Liam raised his right wrist, touching the control band there. A
loud boom tore through the air, and the ship rocked violently upwards.

Soon, there was a detectable tilt to the
deck as the bow began to sink in the water courtesy of the two tiny hydrogen
charges that had blown holes in the hull. “Let’s go,” Col said.

The two of them stood and dove cleanly
off the stern, changing once they were in the water. The coordinates given to
them by Kasos were exact, and they could already see that the ship would glide
down through the water and land on what looked like an old wreck on the bottom.

“Let’s get to the triton base. I bet
Aidan already has Nick there waiting for you,” Col said, clapping him on the
shoulder.

As they angled downwards and started
swimming, Liam hoped he was right.

****

Aidan looked up. He could see a cluster
of tritons suddenly pull back from the ilkothelloi they were harrying. The
reason quickly became apparent as an enraged Thetis swam into view, followed by
the hulking Halkyone. He’d never seen the goddess in her mutated form before,
but the description from Ian, Bythos, and Aphros matched the shape that swam
overhead right down to the trailing, diaphanous rags.

“You dare attack me?” The words rang out
through the water. “I shall see you all dead for this!”

Above her, a dim shape began to form.
Aidan realized it was a boat, rapidly sinking and heading for the wreck. Before
he could hope that it landed on the screaming goddess, however, she also spotted
it. Lifting a hand, she pointed at the boat.

It froze in position, hovering in the
water.

“You think to crush me with human toys?”
she called. “You
fools
. Learn my power now.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw
Claire’s lipless mouth draw back in a snarl. The goddess launched herself up
from their group like a meteor, arrowing towards the Nereid and her handmaiden.

The collision between goddesses rocked
the waters. All the combatants—tritons, mers, ilkothelloi, and orcas—were sent
tumbling violently as Thetis and Claire struggled with each other.

Aidan’s group spilled across the sea
bed, caroming off rocks and boulders. The mer managed to slam his trident
point-down into the sand as an anchor, grabbing Nick as the human rolled past.