Chapter 9: Fabled Treasure
The perfectly weighted sword felt like it belonged in Percy's hands. Its leather grip was all but molded into his closed hand and holding him as tightly as he held it. The double-edged blade, nearly three feet of shimmering Celestial Bronze, met a flat hilt gilded with golden studs. And on those studs bounced shrieking sparks as the demigod slashed his blade against the staff of a trident.
Percy shoved the pronged weapon away and shot forward after it, already swinging again and catching it between two spokes. From the other side of the golden symbol of the sea, Triton yawned.
"Slow," the god drawled before kicking Percy away.
The demigod willed the water to catch him and immediately flip his momentum back at the Prince of the Sea. He stabbed swiftly at Triton's unarmored stomach, extending his arm too far only for his opponent to sidestep the attack.
"Sloppy." Triton struck Percy's upper arm with the staff of his trident.
By design, none of the god's attacks had been devastating, and the only thing his words had accomplished was pissing Percy off. The worst part was that the entire time they'd been sparring, Triton thought he was actually being funny.
Percy retracted his arm, shaking out his shoulder as he floated just a yard from his deliberately dragging opponent. They drifted down until they were both less than a foot from the verdant courtyard floor. When Triton began spinning his trident without a care in the world, the demigod narrowed his eyes and kicked ahead. He braced his core and launched a wild slash at the merman's side.
"Sa–"
Percy roughly forced himself to a knee and willed the water to spin him against the ground. He added to his forward momentum by twisting with his core, coming up behind Triton in the blink of an eye, his sword already having finished its swing.
The taunt had died in Triton's mouth during the unorthodox sequence, and the prince looked down at the demigod who was glaring up at him. A sliver of golden blood drifted up between the two. Triton blinked once before he waved his twin tails, finding a thin gash down one of his caudal fins. The edge of his thin-lipped mouth twitched with a smirk.
"Not so useless after all," he mused.
Percy rolled his eyes and climbed to his feet, stiffly walking past Triton and turning to face him again. But Percy's irritation slowly faded as he stopped narrowing his vision on his opponent. Behind Triton loomed the pristine grey ramparts that wrapped around the huge palace estate. Each corner of the expansive rectangular wall was home to a cylindrical battlement inscribed with one of four zodiac signs. The closest to Percy was the lofty Pisces that stood at the front right of the estate, one of the two frontline bastions of the palace.
Lucid images of twin, intertwined fishes swam across the vertical face behind Triton, a pair of bioluminescent symbols drifting towards the back right Taurus battlement. Percy's eyes moved from the walls to his feet, shuffling in the grassy courtyard that was nestled in a corner of the palace garden. The seafloor beneath him was glistening blue marble, and Percy had no idea how it'd been sodded to grow such lush greenery.
He didn't turn to face the towering palace at his back or the nearest corner minaret that reflected the symbol of its corresponding bastion. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw a few of the domed air pockets that outlined this side of the palace garden, each one holding a species of flora from the surface. Between the domes of exotic trees and plants were sprawls of underwater foliage: luminant vines and twisting coral trees and leaves with glowing veins like Percy had never seen before.
He let Triton fade to the back of his mind in the otherwise peaceful garden, enjoying the beauty of his new little world as best he could. The twin fish made it to the halfway point of the lengthy rampart face, and Percy watched them transform into a raging bull that charged towards its symbol on the next battlement.
Atlantis was so cool.
Triton's lip curled back as Percy's eyes returned to him.
"I grow impatient with your silence. This is not a continuation of our time in your former cell."
Percy shrugged at the god.
"Haven't forgiven you," he said curtly, "Thanks for Riptide, but replacing my sword isn't going to make me just forget everything else."
Triton rolled his eyes and sagged his shoulders in petulance. On a frame like his, and while the merman held a deadly weapon, it couldn't look more ridiculous.
"For a species with such short lifespans, you humans bear such long memories," he groaned.
"Long memories?" Percy snorted. "The Gauntlet was like a week ago!"
Before Triton could respond or resume their sparring, a shadow descended from a palace balcony that oversaw the courtyard. A hulking shape taller than even Triton, wearing the same dark grey armor he'd worn a week ago when Percy had faced him in the Gauntlet.
Cadmus came level between the two duelists, and Percy took an unconscious step back, his grip tightening on Riptide. The giant merman was helmless, his silver hair tied back in some sort of bun. He wore his lined smile as he faced Percy, and the demigod still couldn't get over how familiar his eyes looked. Since the tournament, they'd stuck with him along with a mental scarring of how easily he'd been thrashed by the elderly merman.
"I am sorry to interrupt," Cadmus said evenly, though his baritone made it sound like a grumble, "but Lady Amphitrite has summoned."
Triton drifted forward but froze when the larger merman held a hand up.
"I apologize, Lord Triton. She has only summoned young Perseus."
Percy gawped while the Price of the Sea remained stunned. What could Amphitrite want with just him? He hadn't even seen her since she'd turned her back on him at the end of the tournament.
The demigod capped his blade, returning it to a pen before nodding numbly. Cadmus escorted him away from the garden and through an intricate golden archway that led into the side of the palace. Before turning into a corridor, Percy looked back to see Triton blinking in place, still processing.
The duo floated in silence for a minute as they traversed the hallways of the shining estate that Percy had decided was way too gaudy. They turned through rooms of portraits and sculptures painted and etched into dramatic renderings of Poseidon's exploits. In many, the rugged Olympian fought huge sea creatures that seemed forgotten to even modern mythology. In others, he stood with his brothers and sisters in their fabled fights against Titans and Giants and even each other.
They continued and drifted into a secluded, golden hallway that cut past an aromatic expanse that had to be the palace kitchen. Percy realized they were taking a long way through the estate; the kitchen should not be on the way from the garden to the throne room.
"How has your adjustment to living in the palace been?"
Cadmus' voice pulled Percy out of his thoughts, demanding his attention.
"It's, uh, it's fine. Better than the cell." Percy realized he was fidgeting with his pen. "The bed is also way comfier."
Cadmus chuckled, and Percy checked to make sure the walls weren't cracking.
"I hope I was not too harsh on you in the Gauntlet, Perseus. My brother berated me for days following the tournament."
"Your brother?" Percy paused. Of course. The deep-set eyes, the way they both smiled. "It's Ascalon, isn't it?"
"Yes." Cadmus grinned. "My younger brother. He pleaded with me to discreetly petition Lady Amphitrite to be your final opponent over my counterparts in the Manus Dei."
"He pleaded with you," Percy echoed, looking at his feet as his stomach sank, "So he never actually thought I could beat the Gauntlet?"
Cadmus stopped and put a huge hand on the demigod's shoulder.
"You never had a chance," he said bluntly, "Look at me." Percy did. He had to crane his neck just to see past the barrel chest that might shear through its breastplate. "I would have little trouble with Lord Poseidon himself when he was your age."
Percy believed him.
"The goal was never your victory," Cadmus continued, "It was always reaching the twelfth round to face me, where I would simply knock you out. For both parties, it is considered more honorable to kill challengers, but knowing you were not a willing combatant, I would spare you." The merman lowered his head until he was nearly eye level. "But Ascalon wholeheartedly believed you had a chance to make it to me."
"Do you?" Percy asked, unsure of why he even cared, "If Triton hadn't skipped the rounds, do you think I could have made it?"
Cadmus straightened himself and scratched his beard, mulling over the idea as he stared down the demigod. He began moving down the hallway again, and Percy quickly followed.
"Yes," the merman eventually said, "though you almost certainly would have had to unlock your hydrokinetic ability earlier. Using it on Triton was very bold."
Percy smiled sheepishly.
"Did he tell you about that?"
Cadmus snorted.
"Absolutely not. That is far too embarrassing of a story for an upstart like him to ever admit." Percy was more than a little shocked at the merman's constant candor. "Lady Amphitrite informed me of the events following the Gauntlet. You did well showing him that he is no longer the only one blessed by the sea."
"I won't tell him or anything," Percy started, "But aren't you supposed to like him a lot? Like as part of the 'Hand of God' and everything?"
"The Dei is Lord Poseidon, and by extension, Lady Amphitrite as she is the one who spends the most time here." There was a deep amusement in Cadmus' eyes, like he was going to tell a joke only he understood. "It does not extend to a child of petulance, namely one who has not been anointed heir apparent yet."
"What does that mean?"
The duo stopped in front of a familiar pair of gilded diamond doors.
"You will hear about it soon," before adding ominously, "should you survive this meeting."
The doors opened on their own, revealing the throne room that Percy hadn't entered since the day he'd met Amphitrite months ago. Just like last time, the goddess sat in her emerald throne up the small set of central stairs, her tail poised and coiled beneath her. And just like last time, the larger sapphire throne to her left stood empty.
Why wouldn't he survive the meeting? He turned back towards Cadmus to already find him gone. Someone that big should not be that fast. Percy swallowed and stepped through the doors that immediately began to close behind him. He made it to the foot of the stairs and half-bowed as the twin doors shut with a heavy thud.
The silence of the empty room crawled across Percy's skin as he looked up at the occupied throne. Amphitrite was already tracing him with her rending gaze, her mouth set and expressionless. Her long, black hair drifted out from behind her, falling across her armrests and down the front of her shoulders. It had been slightly curled, and it only made her look more like Percy's mother. He felt a stab in his chest at the sight of her, and his head began to hurt from holding her deep purple eyes.
The gulf of silence felt like it'd inch into eternity as Percy's initial nervousness began to shift into awkward fidgeting. He tapped the cap of his pen against one of his fingernails until he realized how loud it sounded in the otherwise noiseless room.
"I hear your training with my son has been… difficult," Amphitrite began, her eyes still unreadable.
The lack of edge in her voice somehow both put Percy at ease and made him more uncomfortable.
"It's been pretty weird," he agreed, "We were just training before you called me for…"
"For conversation."
"About what?"
Amphitrite studied him again. If she liked anything she saw, Percy would have no way to tell through the stone mask usually described as her face. She traced a finger down one of her armrests.
"My son is right. You do speak too much."
Percy frowned.
"What are yo–"
The goddess held up a hand, and he wisely swallowed the rest of his sentence.
"I did not say it was a flaw. Simply an observation. Most of Atlantis would have responded to my first query with 'Yes, My Lady.' The second would have received no spoken reply at all. The only ones in the palace who would have said anything else are you," she paused, a blur of amusement cracking her stone expression, "and Cadmus."
"I like Cadmus," Percy replied defensively, realizing he was only proving her point, "He's cool and kind of funny."
"He is funny," Amphitrite agreed before slightly leaning from her seat, "Do you also find it funny what he says about certain members of the royal family?"
Percy paled. She must have supersonic hearing or something. Could she hear through the doors?
"He didn't say anything about the royal family," he lied, "Just about how badly he beat me in the Gauntlet."
A flicker of what Percy hoped was approval dashed the goddess. She leaned back.
"He did thrash you," she said, "but he also let you live. My son was not happy about that in those final moments of the tournament; he did not realize Ascalon cared for you enough to plan your survival."
A warm feeling filled Percy's chest, giving him the will to ask a question that could get him killed.
"What about you? Were you also upset that I lived?"
"I was," the goddess admitted, and it might have been regret that dulled her beautiful voice, "but after your altercation with my son, I told him to bring you here."
So that's what she'd said after turning her back. Percy wasn't sure he would've ever guessed that.
"Why?" he pressed.
"Because of your reasoning. I do not recant my anger, but I believe I pointed it unfairly and at too great of a magnitude."
Percy looked at her expectantly. That was a lot of words just to dance around the main point. It was missing three words, and they both knew what they were. Amphitrite narrowed her eyes from the throne.
"Are you expecting an apology?" she sneered.
"Yeah, but not for me." Amphitrite looked surprised, and the expression was foreign to her regal features. "You called my mother something on the day we met, and I know you remember how Triton brought her up after the Gauntlet." It was Percy's turn to narrow his eyes. "We're never going to be anything like friends until you apologize for that."
Percy's heart throbbed harder and harder in his chest the longer Amphitrite remained silent. Maybe this was the moment Cadmus had someone expected, and the demigod would die here. But it would be defending his mother, and he could honestly live with that – or not livewith that.
He was beyond shocked when Amphitrite slowly nodded.
"I am sorry about your mother." She briefly paused, her jaw feathering. "About Sally Jackson. Both for her fate and how my son and I spoke of her."
There was a subtle twitch in the goddess' stony expression, a blur of hurt as she said his mother's name. It would have gone unnoticed had it not jerked Percy into memories he'd all but forgotten.
"I'm sorry, too," he said, surprising himself, "I don't really get it – maybe because of how old I am – but I'm sorry you're sad."
Amphitrite's mask fell, her eyes widening slightly and her lips held parted.
"You look a little bit like my mom – and that's already weird – but you also do a few things like her," Percy explained, "She always pretended to be happy in front of me. It usually worked, but whenever she told me stories about the Greek Gods, whenever she brought up you and Poseidon, I could always see that she was sad. Your face did the same thing when you said my mom's name, and I don't want her to be the reason you're upset."
More silence until Amphitrite donned her stately indifference again. But she was looking at Percy a little differently. Less like he was an ant and more like a larger insect – a beetle maybe. Still, all improvement was good improvement.
"He may be right about you," she murmured before raising her voice again, "I know you do not hold my husband in high regard, but you will obey his wishes." The goddess pursed her lips for a moment. "He believes that you will be good for my son."
Percy's brows knitted, and he reared up a shot at Triton only to turn suddenly as the throne room doors burst open. The Prince of the Sea drifted in, his jaw clenched before he met Percy's baffled eyes. In reply, he mirrored the demigod before bowing quickly towards the pair of thrones.
"Mother," he began, straightening himself, "What were you discussing with Percy?"
Percy rolled his eyes at the navy god's tone. He spoke as respectfully to his mother as he did distastefully towards just about everyone else.
"Your heir apparency," the goddess answered, standing from her throne.
"Wh–" A single glance from Amphitrite cut off Percy's breath.
Triton didn't notice, too busy being stunned as he stared at his mother.
"T-today?" he asked, "I earn it today?"
"You receive an audience today," Amphitrite corrected and lightly pushed off of her emerald throne.
She drifted down the shimmering gold stairs and floated in front of Triton and Percy. The goddess looked small next to her hulking son, but she was still over a head taller than Percy. Her relatively thin shoulders still broader. Gods were seriously huge.
The pair flicked their tails at the center of the throne room floor, grazing little impressions that Percy hadn't even noticed etched into it. He stumbled back as the walls shook and a crack spread from where the gods had touched the ground. Willing himself to float, Percy escaped the retracting floor that spiraled open a wide hole in the center of the room. When the area finally stilled, the pit was large enough to fit the width of a freight train.
The vertical tunnel led imperceptibly deep, its water so black that Percy couldn't see past a dozen feet. Considering neither of the gods had moved, maybe they couldn't see much further than him. Slowly, four lines of fluorescent blue runes hummed to life, evenly spaced as they framed the tunnel and dug downward with their light. The darkness slowly waned, erased by the cerulean cyphers tearing through the revealed passageway.
Triton took a deep breath and moved to dive headfirst, but his mother's hand stopped him.
"Bring Percy," she said before melting into the sea itself.
The god nodded dutifully and put a hand on Percy's shoulder.
"Brace yourself," he warned.
"Don't have to," Percy answered, smirking, "Remember, we did this from my old cell to Atlantis and you thought I'd throw up."
Triton grimaced.
"Yes. You became water for a one mile drop. This one is six."
Percy's stomach churned, and he tightened his core as Triton willed their forms to change. The demigod's mind and body warped while he felt himself dragged forward into the pit.
The world whipped past Percy in an indecipherable blur, the only color distinguishable being the four lines of blue that lined the tunnel. The demigod felt like he was moving at lightspeed through hyperspace, his stomach in his skull and his brain in his pelvis. He'd never considered being afraid of rollercoasters, but this might have changed his mind. He would have shouted if it didn't feel like his mouth no longer existed.
The insanity of the rocketing drop vanished all at once as they instantly leveled out in the mouth of a dark cave. Percy felt his body come back to him and take shape again, his legs and feet finding solace against crumbled rock. The demigod stumbled over to the nearest wall and steadied himself with his hands, breathing heavily while nursing a stress headache.
"It takes years to get used to for immortals. You did not do terribly," Triton said from behind him.
Percy whipped around, his anger sparking and only making his migraine worse, but he saw the Prince of the Sea looking at him with genuine pity. Even Amphitrite's mask held some sympathy.
"Come," she said, "Moving through water will make the pain and nausea fade."
The trio made their way into the black cave, walking through pitch darkness for several minutes. Percy only realized they'd stopped because he walked straight into Triton's back. The god steadied him with a massive hand on his head like a claw machine, and Percy swatted it away while gritting his teeth.
They waited in silence until a building hum slowly filled the room, and soft grey lights crawled from beneath their feet across dozens of yards of rock in all directions. They kept scuttling like thick lines of silverfish until finally streaking upwards, climbing and climbing and climbing as they spread their soft light to reveal an expanse twice the size of a football stadium.
Percy spun with a dropped jaw, tracing the gigantic cavern ceiling riddled with jagged rocks the size of houses. The floor was all fine powdered stone, pieces of it scorched and blackened, all of it lit by the silver, luminescent lines that stretched all across the dome.
What the Hades was this place? Percy stopped gawping and spinning in a circle, focusing his attention on Triton and Amphitrite. The pair still had their eyes fixed forward, and the demigod followed their gaze to the far face of the cavern.
It was eerily flat, even more so than natural fjord walls on the surface. The sheer rock was smooth for nearly the entire climb up to the ceiling, except for three indents each the width of an eighteen wheeler. But even those indents weren't random. They were carved arches orchestrated a lot like Olympic podiums.
The central arch stood the highest on the cliff face, gilded with a lower line of sapphire. To its right and nearly a hundred feet below was a second arch, its floor hung with emeralds. And reflecting that one on its far left, another hundred feet down, was a third arch with no added flair. It was also positioned low enough that Percy could almost see into it, at least the upper wall curving back to reveal that a tunnel led further into the cliff face. From inside the tunnel wafted flickers of blue fire.
"Gilrastes!" Amphitrite called, her voice echoing dozens of times across the cavern.
Over a minute passed before the goddess' echo died, and it was replaced by a quiet but growing rumble. Percy waited, his legs tense and his stomach tight as the noise grew louder. A shadow cast from each of the three arches, painting bulbous silhouettes on the cavern ceiling. Beside the demigod, Triton leered with excitement.
Just for a semblance of safety, Percy's hand drifted to Riptide as the shadows grew larger and larger. His discomfort broiled in his chest until, finally, a pink tentacle splayed from the uppermost arch. Two orange ones fell from the second highest window, and a dark green emerged from the lowest.
Three gigantic octopus heads followed, forcing their ways out of the arches alongside half their tentacles, hanging the thick, suctioned appendages yards down their windows. Percy's face curdled, a mixture of horror and disgust marring his features until Triton covered them with a palm.
"Fix that," he said under his breath, holding the demigod's head until it shifted back to normal.
"What is your issue, dude?" Percy coughed, grabbing Triton's wrist with both hands and pushing it back to his side.
The god returned his hungry eyes to the three octopi. Percy's glare eventually followed, becoming bewilderment as he traced the, for lack of a better word, freaks. All three were larger than any vehicle Percy had ever seen in real life, and their skin was spotted with circles identical to the colored suckers specking their tentacles.
The strangest thing, though, was that all of them had facial hair. Their huge black eyes on either side of their bulbous heads were their only features aside from their hair. The pink one in the uppermost arch had a grey mustache at the bottom of its head shaped like a bow tie. The orange one in the middle had a thick beard that hung down past its face and mingled with one of its tentacles. Was it stroking it? And the third, oh my gods, the third had a grizzled goatee that circled around nothing.
"Lady Amphitrite," a mouthless voice groaned.
Percy stumbled back. The sound came from all sides, but the demigod knew the source was the huge pink octopus.
"Gilrastes the First," the goddess answered after quickly lowering her head, "We have answered your summons following your conversation with Lord Poseidon. My son comes before you, humbled."
She drifted backwards, moving beside Percy as Triton took her place at the front of their little triangle. He bowed deeply, holding it for several seconds before raising himself again.
"Council," the god boomed, "I am grateful to stand here and receive the news of your discussions with my father, if you would have me hear it."
"Lord Triton," another voice rang, reedier.
The orange one, Percy thought.
"Lord Poseidon sends good tidings."
The demigod had to hold his nose not to snicker aloud, almost choking on a laugh. His shoulders shook in silence at the stupid pun. It was his mother's fault he found those so funny. Percy looked up after composing himself, and he found Amphitrite staring from the corner of her eyes, a flicker of a smile gracing her lips.
"Both at the behest of your father's wishes and the discovery of a threat in need of attention," the pink one – Gilrastes the First – said, "you have been granted the opportunity to earn your ascension."
Triton visibly swelled, his thick back widening as he held back his shoulders. He waited for them to continue.
"The Great Leviathan has been reborn," the orange one said, "The first Abomination, the seed of Oceanus himself. You must kill it and bring back its fabled treasure, and you have earned the ritual right to inherit the seas."
The Prince of the Sea's shoulders drooped. He looked down at his tails.
"That is it?" he asked, "We all know the Great Leviathan is reborn as a baby, and you are sending a god to kill it? My inheritance is contingent on a guaranteed victory?"
The dark green octopus glowered from his nearest perch, leering down at the price.
"You know nothing, boy?" it grated, its voice much harsher than the other two, "A god is forbidden from seeking 'kleos' in this way."
Glory, Percy thought, though he was more focused on how Triton was the problem when they were the ones assigning a god to the mission.
One of the octopi might have read the demigod's mind.
"You will not be going as a god," Gilrastes the First droned, "Your father has granted us an authority to strip you of your ichor."
Triton's eyes shot wide, but before he could say anything, all three octopi extended their tentacles. A blinding flash erupted from the Price of the Sea, and he unleashed a shout that shook the cave while Percy and Amphitrite turned away from him. Percy's vision through shut eyes was still sheet white, and he thought he'd gone blind like on the Long Island bridge. But, slowly, the light dulled and his vision returned.
He looked to find Triton on the floor, holding himself up by his arms and tail, breathing heavily. The merman raised himself with exertion, rolling his shoulders and wincing as he turned to face his mother. Percy was shocked by the sudden lack of splendor on the merman. His navy blue face looked more sunken, his eyes less harsh. His body, while still coiled with muscle and bearing the same imposing frame, obviously held only a fraction of its former power. Just looking at him, Percy could tell that he really was no longer a god.
Triton's face held the same sobering realization. He glanced from his hands to his mother, whose worry seeped through her stone mask. Looking at her son, she forced a heavy nod back towards the octopi, and he quietly turned away. Percy felt like he was stepping in on a moment that should have been entirely private. She wasn't a goddess or a queen there, just a mother cradling her distress for her son. The demigod looked away right after Triton did; he didn't think Amphitrite would want his pity. Why was he even here?
"So," Triton laughed, his voice still just as formidable, "I am now just a merman." He looked down at his arms. "Sent to single-handedly slay the reborn Great Leviathan and earn my place. True kleos."
Percy might have been imagining things, but he thought he could hear a new edge of apprehension in the former god's tone. The demigod had never even heard of the Great Leviathan, but if Triton was afraid of it in any capacity, Percy knew it'd be wise to follow course.
"Not entirely, Lord Triton," the green octopus rasped, "True kleos, yes, but not single-handedly. Lord Poseidon bestowed upon us one more imperative for your quest." Percy's knees turned to jelly as he put together why he was here. Why Amphitrite said he'd be good for Triton. "Your companion must be the born-mortal blood of the sea."
All eyes in the room warped to Percy as he held his mouth agape, and he knew his face reflected the horror on Triton's.
A/N: Unfortunately another quick upload before I have to rush away. Just off the top of my head, I remember one review asking about everyone's ages. I sprinkled it in throughout the story so far, but just to have it in one place: Percy and Annabeth are 10, Luke is 14, and Thalia is 12 at the beginning. Anyways, hope you're enjoying the story, and please review to lmk what you think so far!