The Gift From Poseidon: When Gods Walked Among Us (Volume 2) (31 page)

The monster had escaped its cage and nearly killed our Gift from Poseidon.  But just HOW did this happen?  Only two others can lead us to the answer.  Regrettably, the Yeturi smashed and gored them both with reckless abandon, but not all is lost.  Dead Mermaids forever cease to tell their tales, but ALMOST dead ones can be helpful.

– Penelope, Mermaid Historian

– Mid-Fall, Year 4,253 KT
[31]

Evagoria was safe – physically at least.  The Yeturi dead, the time to discover just what had led to such madness was now at hand.

“He is wounded beyond repair, my queen.”  The face of the Mermaid medic turned more grey than blue and his eyes were sad and swollen.  “I doubt Cruentus will live out the night.”

“That is not my concern,” Diedrika said dryly.  “Keep him alive long enough to tell Penelope and Hezekiah what he knows.  And once he does so, leave him be.”  The medic cocked his head and his mouth fell open.  Queen Diedrika leaned in.  “If he truly is as you say: ‘beyond repair’, then it really is not in our best interest to keep the Grim waiting now, is it?”

With these wise words, the medic nodded and departed with his Arachna mentor in tow.  Diedrika returned to her throne alongside King Judiascar.  She then motioned for Penelope and Hezekiah to approach.

“Now almost noon, we have until nightfall at most,” Diedrika told them.  “Cruentus is a good Mermaid from a fine family, but he is going to die no matter what.  Press him hard to tell you all he remembers from last night, early this morning, whenever it was the beast escaped.”  Diedrika took in a deep breath and pointed her eyes downward.  “Do not fail me.”

Penelope atop Hezekiah, the historians made their way to another part of the palace.  They had visited the murder scene earlier.  Others having already removed the other guard (he was dead on arrival) and Cruentus – there was nothing left to see but an empty, filthy cage.  Well,
almost
nothing.  The duo did collect a few pieces of evidence they had yet to reveal to anyone, but soon would.

The moment they entered the infirmary, the gore that met their eyes shocked Penelope.  Cruentus was a bludgeoned mess.  A thick, scarlet cloth covered him from his midsection up.  Medics used this color to help mask the blood one might see when wounded, but Penelope could see every drop.  Arachna silk covered everything else aside for one eye – intact, shockingly – and what was left of his mouth.  She made her way around the dying Mermaid and stopped next to his shoulder.  One table held his body while another held only his head; there was a gap in between.  She bent down to look at the back of Cruentus’ neck, but dearly wished she had not.

“Penelope!”  Hezekiah ran over.  “It’s okay, my dear,” he said kindly.  “It’s okay.”

She vomited.  Images of her slain brother, Eumelus, cruelly swam about her mind.  Tears rushed out and mixed in with strands of reek hanging from her trembling mouth.  With every choking breath sucked in, Penelope vomited more.  A medic brought over a silvery potion of some kind and pleaded with her to drink it.  She finally did so, but it was many moments before she could speak again.

“Poseidon’s tail – how is he still alive?” Penelope begged of the chief Mermaid medic.  Her tail tucked under her, she still knelt.  “His neck is half gone!”

The medic pointed in the direction of two Arachna busily at work.  “Every mid-turn, we change his silk dressings.  You saw him just after we had removed these dressings to change them once more.  This has slowed his end, but it will come, nonetheless.  Although the day marches on and it grows warmer outside, the infirmary turns colder.”  The medic shivered as if Hades now ran his frosted finger from the edge of one shoulder to the other.  Penelope could not feel this cold, but began to shiver as well.  “Whatever you need from Cruentus, Historian, I suggest you get it fast.”

Their task was not only to scribe Cruentus’ account of what had happened, but also to rewrite what they learned in an orderly way.  When announcing their findings, they did not want to sound like babbling idiots.  For many turns of the clepsydra, Hezekiah questioned the poor Mermaid.  Penelope considered this more torture than not, but they had their orders.

Blood shot from Cruentus’ mouth with each whispered word.  His eye would suddenly burn with fury, but then, just as quickly, turn vacant as if doused with water.  He sobbed, grunted, or made twisted faces more often than he spoke.  This unlucky soul could not move any part of his body aside for the muscles on his face, but the horror he revealed made every muscle in Penelope’s body twitch.  Cruentus would pass out repeatedly, but each time the medics awakened him.  There would be no healing in the infirmary on this day, only suffering extended as long as needed.

The night now upon them, they finished their grisly task as best they could and exited the infirmary.  Penelope again in the saddle atop Hezekiah’s back, a single shriek suddenly tore through the hall: Hades had taken what was his.

The echoes of this scream still bouncing about her ears, Penelope suddenly felt as if a pike carved from ice sliced open her chest, tore out her soul, and then thrust it back into her.  This hurt was so great that she nearly fell off Hezekiah.  Only the warmth of more tears kept Penelope from turning into ice herself.  She buried her head in Hezekiah’s mane and dreamed of carefree days long past she had shared with her brother.

*****

The two regents sat on their thrones once again.  Theodoric at Diedrika’s left side, Simonacles sat to Judiascar’s right.  Penelope and Hezekiah before them, the moon shone bright through an opening in the tiled roof high above.  Cassiopeia tucked in the dark silhouette cast upon the floor by the northern wall, aside for her, the pale moonlight lit up the rest of them like a torch.

Diedrika loved the dark.  It was not so much that the queen despised the day – just the early part of it.  Penelope the opposite, she loved to watch the sunrise each morning.  Evagoria in the greedy grip of the monster upon the dawn ––

Until today, how long had it been since Diedrika saw a sunrise herself?  And with this scar forever burned across her mind, would she ever allow her eyes to see one again?

“We have done as asked, my queen,” Penelope began.  She held up a handful of bamboo strips filled with writings.  “Cruentus is dead, but he did not pass on before telling us all we believe is needed to fully piece together how, how,” her voice cracked and began to fade, “the Yeturi escaped and … and.…”

“The following,” Hezekiah broke in strongly as Penelope’s words turned to whispers, “is an account as if viewed by Cruentus’ own eyes.  As if his mind is still with us and he himself can say through me what happened in the fading dark of the early morning we will never forget.”

Aside from Queen Marseea, no one could tell a story like Hezekiah.  Zarathustra was number three in Penelope’s mind.  There were these three and then there was everyone else.  Penelope took in the looks of each face as they gazed upon Hezekiah.  All eagerly awaited his every word – even Cassiopeia.  He sat up his straightest, cleared his throat, and began.

“As guards did every night, Felimix and I took our positions at the front of the Yeturi’s cage just before midnight.  The moon was full, but the sky cloudy.  No moonlight since our watch began, the marketplace was darker than normal.  I lit the torches by the southern fountain and this was all the light we had.

“Aside for a few deep growls and its normal stirrings, the monster lay asleep in its enclosure.  The marketplace clepsydra rang its third full turn of the early morning, and the time for a well-deserved break was at hand.  Felimix checked the lock on the cage, nodded to me it was secure, and we made our way back to the fountain with our packs.  We then ate and sipped drinks while lounging in the refreshing waters.

“‘Did you hear that?’ Felimix asked suddenly.

“‘Did I hear
what
?’ I asked back.

“‘I heard scraping or clanking of metal – almost as if another bronze-made something close by.’”

As Hezekiah continued, he just as much acted out the scenes as told them.

“I just gave his alarmed look a queer look back.  ‘You are hearing things!  Really, how can you hear anything with these swirling waters making all the noise they do?  And those squawking ravens!  Do they never shut up?’

“As if I were their overlord, for the most part they suddenly did.  Felimix laughed at this.  I peeked toward the cage, but the light from the torches made it hard to see anything not close to us.  Now full, I stuffed leftover food in my pack, shook my head at Felimix, and then glided away.  My pack set aside, I resumed my post to the right of the ramp that leads to the cage door.”

Cassiopeia left her perch along the northern wall and glided toward Penelope.  As would spellbound students at summer studies, with their tails tucked beneath them, the two knelt close to Hezekiah.  Penelope leaned in and the elder Mermaid wrapped an arm around her shuddering shoulders.  Cassiopeia had many flaws, but Penelope adored her nonetheless.  Hezekiah suddenly unfurled his great wings over them and shadow bathed Penelope and Cassiopeia in its blackened coldness.

“After just a few moments, to my shock, globules of dribble oozed onto me from above.  I slowly looked up.  Terror in the form of countless yellow daggers looked down.  My mouth open, but no scream with the courage to set itself free from it – the fiend sprung into murderous action.

“It shoved a furry claw over my face; trying to spin away, the beast then clamped onto the back of my head with its massive jaws.  Those horrid vises ripped through every scrap of flesh from the top of my back to the base of my skull.  I went limp, my life flickered before my twitching eyes, and all went dark.”

Hezekiah pulled in his wings.  The moonlight returned Cassiopeia’s grey skin to its pleasant light blue hue, but the cold the shadow had wrought stayed with them.

“‘Cruentus?’  I heard this whisper in the back of my mind.  My eyes still closed, but my mind not – I tried to move, but couldn’t.  ‘Cruentus, where are you?’  I heard this whisper once more, harsher this time, and could finally open my eyes.  Well, only one as the wicked fiend had gouged out the other with its claw.

“The monster had hid the mess that was once me under its raised cage.  Despite blood all around and the searing pain I felt, I could see Felimix clearly.  He was now at the front of the ramp.  The Yeturi was nowhere in sight, but I heard a noise!  In the cage above me, it shifted a bit and snored as if asleep.

“‘Cruen ––’

“I prayed dearly that Felimix had paused because he saw me.  I tried to cry out to him, but nothing came out.”

Hezekiah took a few steps back from his enthralled audience.

“‘Is this some kind of joke, Cruentus?’ Felimix seethed.  ‘Why is the monster’s cage unlocked?’  His voice then became but a whispered gasp.  ‘And
why
is the cage door partly open?’

“In horror, I watched as Felimix slowly made his way onto and up the ramp.  Halfway up, only his tail was still in view, but I saw a glow and heard him bronze-make a weapon.  Still as a tree, silent as death, he stayed there for many moments.”

Once again, Hezekiah backed away a handful of steps.

“‘How that thing snores – the troll has got to be asleep,’ Felimix whispered finally.  I then watched his left hand set down his bronze-made short sword and he continued up the ramp.  I again tried to scream, but only sucked in a mouthful of blood for my troubles.  Then I heard the sound of rattling chains.  Felimix was trying to lock the cage.”

Hezekiah raised his voice as he continued to backpedal.

“‘I don’t know where you wandered off to Cruentus, but I cannot even begin to think of the trouble you would get into if I wasn’t your ––’”

With a great leap, Hezekiah landed but a whisper away from Penelope’s terrified face.  He then let out his best roar while holding in the screech that usually came right after.

“A terrible smash of the cage door crashing into flesh and bone was what I heard next.  And then I saw the impossible: Felimix ‘flying’ from the top of the ramp as if he was a helpless seal an Orca had just flung skyward; upon hitting the patterned tile floor with a crippling thud, the horrid beast sprang from the cage after him.

“The dark was suddenly light and moonlight bathed the marketplace.  Oh, why have the gods so cursed me that I must now watch this horrid scene in perfect detail?”

His rear claws stomping, his talons slashing, his eyes moving in the most devilish of ways – Hezekiah acted out all of what he spoke next.

“Spread out on the ground and his eyes facing the sky, Felimix let out the weakest of squeals.  The next instant, a pounding foot landed cleanly across my poor friend’s throat.  That fiend then picked him up by the hair as if he was nothing more than a sickly branch.  Felimix’s mouth wide open to scream, the Yeturi shoved its claw straight in.  This claw with razor sharp nails scraped, cut, and sliced every part of flesh each nail touched.  His eyes rolling up into his skull, that monster just stared at him blankly.  It twisted the claw in Felimix’s mouth so that its filthy palm now faced up.  In disbelief, I then watched that horrid beast drag his lifeless body along the ground by just the top half of his head.”

Hezekiah’s face a tangled mess of anger and hate just a moment ago turned soft.  His voice became sadder, filled with hurt.

“This sovereign of the savages!  This ruler of those most wretched!  It threw Felimix into its cage.  The wicked ogre then growled deeply and took a few steps east, but suddenly stopped.  I heard bronze-making.  I heard muffled voices – more than one – but could not make out what they said.  I wanted to look to where the Yeturi was, but I could not move.  It then came back into view, got down on all fours, and exploded westward.  As the demon creature rushed off, those wretched ravens with their gurgling croaks noisily cheered it on!”