Reaching behind him for the Blades of Chaos caused him to spin about in the water. More bubbles released from his lungs, doing nothing to ease the building pressure he felt. His vision dimmed, and a roar of the ocean sounded now in his ears.
The roar of the ocean. The God of the Sea. Poseidon.
Poseidon’s trident!
Close to succumbing and sucking water into his lungs, Kratos fumbled about over his shoulder until his fingers felt the cool haft of the trident. He drew it, thinking to use it against the iron bars. His breath exploded from his lungs, and death rushed inward in the form of water intended to drown him.
He felt the liquid assault of the clear water through his lungs-and the discomfort he had felt vanished. His eyesight returned, possibly sharper than before and unblurred by the refracting water. He felt his lungs moving rhythmically, taking in and expelling water as if he were a fish. Or the God of the Sea himself.
The trident had allowed him to become a denizen of the underwater kingdom. He shoved and pushed and tried to move the bars from their position, to no avail. As it had been with other portals, once closed he could never return, but with Poseidon’s trident in hand, he knew how to proceed. Spinning in the water so he headed downward, Kratos kicked powerfully and swam back to the bottom, then followed the curving flooded tunnel as easily as if his sandals worked against solid ground.
Strong strokes carried him along until he came to another well. He paused at the bottom, looking upward. A quick scissors kick sent him rocketing upward. He exploded from the water and landed on a tiled floor surrounding the well. Getting to his feet, he worried that he would suffocate in the air now that his lungs had become adapted to breathing water. As he slid the trident behind him, he coughed, brought up a gobbet of water, and then drew a regular breath again.
“Is that what it’s like to be a god?” Kratos wondered aloud. He was not sure he wanted to use the trident again, but he knew he had no choice if that was necessary to attain his goal. This chamber was small, hardly more than an anteroom. He made his way to the far side of the chamber, where a narrow crevice opened to a long slide downward. Kratos heard strange, almost chirping noises mixed with gurgling echo up from the water below. A quick test of the sloping floor confirmed his suspicion. If he stepped onto this incline, the slimy surface would make return to this chamber impossible. This was no different from any other passage inside the temple.
But the sounds? They both drew him and repelled him. No Siren sound, these. Something else awaited him.
Kratos stepped forward and his feet shot from under him. He landed hard, then straightened his body as he plummeted downward feetfirst. He hit the water and was completely engulfed once more.
The hunting cry of the naiads filled his ears. Then they attacked.
TWENTY-THREE
THEY WERE AS TRANSPARENT as jellyfish and moved with the same easy sinuous grace through the water. Kratos gripped the trident and prepared himself for the naiads to attack. Every undulation carried the inner-glowing creatures in a wide circle about him, just beyond his reach. One swam gracefully nearer and beckoned to him. Kratos started to stab out with the trident but held back, not sure what the naiad’s threat might be, since it did not seem to be armed. Still, like a jellyfish, it might have stingers that delivered painful, if not instantly fatal, poison.
Their song filled his ears. He could not help comparing it to the song of the desert Siren and noticing how different it sounded. The naiad closest swam a little closer, a long-fingered hand reaching to him. All his training, the years as Ares’s killer, the years of service he had given to the gods, everything in his being bespoke death and blood. A simple thrust with the trident would end this lovely creature’s life.
Kratos lowered the trident and held out a hand to the naiad, which drifted nearby. In spite of the slender, almost formless streamlined body perfectly adapted to an underwater existence, he saw faint, seductive curves that suggested the naiad was female. He lowered the trident still more and reached out. Their fingers brushed. Kratos jerked back as if stabbed, but there was no pain-only pain in his mind and memory. The touch had been feathery and beguiling, not in the least hurtful.
The naiad held out her arms. Pushing aside his innate distrust, Kratos stripped away his heavy bronze-plate armor and took the elegant creature in his arms so their bodies pressed together intimately. He kissed her, and deep within his mind he heard, You are come at last. Free us from this watery prison and let us swim free in the oceans once again.
“How?”
Remove Pandora’s Box from the temple and we will be free. We will swim the seas once more and honor you as our savior if you do this.
Kratos laughed. The sound of laughter underwater came strange and oddly musical to his ears. It pleased the naiad, who smiled and fitted her body closer still against his.
They kissed again, and within his mind he heard, Press the lever, mount the stairs, but not to the top. Jump into the water to your left and you will be able to free us.
“What more?” Kratos kissed the naiad again and felt both a carnal stimulation and a curious peace settle upon him. He could remain forever in this underwater world with them-with her.
To the center of the Rings of Pandora, swim once more and enter Hades. The naiad shivered in his embrace as she communicated these words to him, then she gave a flip of her tail and jetted away. No matter how the trident aided him underwater, no matter how strong he was, Kratos knew he could never overtake the rapidly disappearing naiad. He lacked the grace-and this was not his world.
Remaining here with the naiad was not his quest.
“What’s your name? Tell me your name!” His words burbled and bubbled, but no answer floated back on the current to him. Again, he found himself alone. Alone.
With powerful kicks that now seemed puny compared to the naiad’s, he swam along until he located the mouth of a well above. He broke through the surface and saw an immense statue honoring Poseidon’s wife high above, but more than this, the lever on a pedestal at the other side of the room drew his attention. The naiad had told him of stairs, but he saw none. The lever might provide the answer to this lack. He went to it, applied a considerable amount of pressure, and marveled at how different it felt to work in air again, rather than fighting against or using the eternal resistance of water all around his body. The lever snapped over, and a deafening rattling sound filled the immense chamber. Steps of the finest jade rose from the middle of the room and led up directly to the statue, the shrine to Amphitrite.
Kratos vaulted over the pool and ran up the steps, then slowed and glanced to the left of the stairs, into the water. The naiad had told him to jump into the pool at this point. Kratos licked his lips, tasted salt and the memory of the naiad’s lips. It had been so long, so very long, since he had trusted anyone. Why should he believe an undersea creature who might be ordered to lead him to his ruination?
He dived and cleanly cut the water to the left, not bothering to use the trident. Several quick strokes took him to the side of the pool and a cage there. Without hesitation he swam into it, only to have it clatter and clank around him and begin an upward climb that quickly brought him above water once again. The room looked familiar, and as he stared through an open portal, the heavy stone roller in the circular corridor rumbled past. The naiad had said to return to the Rings of Pandora. That could only mean the annular corridor. Kratos offered a quiet thanks to the naiad.
Kratos was immediately trapped once again in front of the roller, which spun about and threatened to crush the life from his bones. He ran lightly ahead of it, found the steps upward, and this time when he came to the top looked not across the corridor but down into the watery core. Before he had seen no bottom to this well, and that had prompted him to go in the opposite direction, but now he possessed Poseidon’s trident.