Serpent's Storm Part 7

"Really?"

She nodded.

I couldn't believe that here, in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, we were still in the Triborough Area. It was amazing. A drop of rain fell from the darkening sky, hitting me squarely in the eye. I blinked and wiped it away. The air was getting colder, and the way the wind was blowing, it appeared we were gonna be in for another pummeling rainstorm.

"It kind of blows one's mind, doesn't it?" Hyacinth said. "That something so pristine and untouched like this protected marsh-that we have now desecrated-can be so close to one of the largest man-made rattraps in the world."

I didn't take offense at Hyacinth calling New York City a rattrap, but in no way did I agree with her.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, shivering as the heavens opened up and the rain came down, drenching us before we could do anything about it. I didn't care. In fact, I was happy for the free shower-maybe it would wash away the blood and grit I was covered in.

The sea turned choppy before me, licking at the marsh gra.s.s, inching closer and closer to where we stood. I took a few steps back, but Hyacinth held her ground.

"We came here to get some help," she called over to me as the rushing wind stripped the words from her mouth almost before I could make them out. "And we're not leaving until we get it."

There was an emptiness, a desolation to this place we had come to that frightened me. Not because I was going to die here, but because I was afraid of what kind of creature would call this place home.

"We have come for guidance!" Hyacinth screamed into the wind, which whipped her bright gold hair around her face and tore at the white sheath dress she wore. Hyacinth screamed into the wind, which whipped her bright gold hair around her face and tore at the white sheath dress she wore. "We will not leave until we are satisfied!" "We will not leave until we are satisfied!"

I half expected Hyacinth to pull out a knife and sacrifice a goat or something to whatever monster she was calling up from the depths of the stormy sea, but instead, she took out a small white bone and held it up for the wind to take. Instantly, the bone was funneled into the sky, where it hovered in the air for a few hesitant moments before it was flung into the water by unseen hands.

The second the bone hit the water, the winds died down and the sea became calmer.

"Where did you get that bone?" I asked Hyacinth, but she ignored me.

Dammit, I knew exactly where she'd filched it. Where else but from Jarvis's poor desiccated corpse? What a b.i.t.c.h! What a b.i.t.c.h! A powerful surge of adrenaline slammed through my veins and I very nearly tackled the Viking-like woman beside me, but seeing as she outweighed me by about two hundred pounds, I decided it would be safer to just let my anger go. A powerful surge of adrenaline slammed through my veins and I very nearly tackled the Viking-like woman beside me, but seeing as she outweighed me by about two hundred pounds, I decided it would be safer to just let my anger go.

"We have offered you a gift," Hyacinth bellowed. "Now show yourself, you old b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

The seawater began to churn and froth, the wind screaming around us like a banshee, and I covered my ears to block out the terrible wailing. Then, like the return of the Leviathan from the very depths of h.e.l.l, the sea split apart and a solid wall of water crashed over us, washing me away from the safety of the land and out into the foaming sea.

nine.

Like a freight train running at full throttle, the wave crashed over me, knocking my legs out from under my body and sucking me into a swirling vortex of salt.w.a.ter and seaweed. I was so surprised by the turn of events that I went under with my mouth wide open-and let me tell you, having your lungs inflated with salt.w.a.ter is never a pleasant experience. I went into shock, the cold and the inability to draw a breath causing my brain to default into panic mode. I started struggling against the pull of the tide, clawing at my amorphous captor as if I could break its watery embrace by sheer dint of will. Which was totally ridiculous; I wasn't going anywhere the water didn't want me to go.

I felt a tug on my leg and I realized I was no longer being dragged as viciously by the water as I'd initially been. Now I was free-floating, with very little tidal pull working over my body. I also discovered-though it freaked me out to no end-that my lungs weren't screaming for air anymore. I was perfectly fine to hold my breath-or not hold my breath-while I sailed through the murky seawater. I opened my eyes, the salt.w.a.ter stinging the delicate vitreous humor, but after a few moments my eyeb.a.l.l.s adjusted and I was able to get a better look at my new surroundings. To my surprise, I found myself in a ma.s.sive underwater grotto, miles away from the frightening wall of blackness that had originally captured me. Encircling me on all sides were mountainous embankments of coral in varying shades of blood orange and cream, their strange squiggly outcroppings like skeletal branches of a denuded forest. Marveling at the intricate beauty of the cavern, I used my arms and legs to propel myself forward, careful not to get caught on the intricate outcroppings of coral, which were sharp enough to slice open my skin like a razor blade if I was unlucky enough to get too close to them.

As I maneuvered around the coral cavern, the lack of available light made it hard to get my bearings. To add to that, the farther forward I trekked, the less light filtered down, making it nearly impossible to discern which way was "out" and which way led deeper into the impenetrable ocean depths. To my relief, a smack of tiny Day-Glo purple jellyfish swam out from the gray shadows ahead of me, surrounding me with their luminescent bodies. Shimmering like neon blossoms in the dusky gloom, they beckoned me to follow them-and together we raced through the coral caverns.

I didn't know why I felt safe following the miniature jellyfish deeper into the underbelly of the ocean, but there was just something pleasant about them, calming even as we moved inextricably farther away from my normal habitat of earth and air.

Finally, after what seemed like eons, the darkened cavern gave way to a brightly lit chamber full of twinkling rainbow-colored jewels in a mult.i.tude of sizes and shapes. They were everywhere: littering the floor, crammed into every available nook and cranny, the plethora of colors contrasting sharply with the bloodred coral that made up the circ.u.mference of the chamber.

In the middle of said chamber, on a throne made out of the protracted jaws of a great white shark, sat a wizened old j.a.panese man. A black kimono hung limply from his thin frame while an odd gra.s.s skirt cinched in at his waist then flared primly to his ankles. A thick piece of black linen peeked out from underneath a mop of gray hair and wound around his forehead, almost obscuring his bushy salt-and-pepper-colored eyebrows.

The jellyfish, having delivered me in one piece to their master, turned as a smack and swam back the way they had come. As soon as they'd gone, the chamber began to vibrate, and the entrance I'd just arrived through disappeared behind a quick-grow wall of bone white coral. This new wall acted like a lock, slowly sucking all the salty water out of the chamber, as if someone had pulled the plug on a slow-draining bathtub.

Cool, dry air filled the chamber in the water's wake, and I discovered I could breathe again. I found the gentle rise and fall of my chest as I drank in the sweet-tasting air to be an incredibly rea.s.suring thing.

"Why have you disturbed my slumber?" the old man growled at me, his voice projecting menace as he spoke, the deep lines around his jaw sagging and puckering like an angry fish.

"I didn't disturb you," I said firmly. "I was just standing didn't disturb you," I said firmly. "I was just standing next next to the lady who did." to the lady who did."

The old man's brows compressed in thought as he meditated over what I'd said.

"Is that so?"

I nodded.

"I don't even know who you are," I added.

This elicited a grin, exposing a nice set of pearly whites.

"Seriously," I continued, "I don't know who you are or why I'm here, and I'm truly sorry about disturbing your 'slumber,' so if I you just want to send me back up to the surface, I'd be mucho appreciative."

"Hmm," he said, resting his chin on his fist as he surveyed me.

"Look, it's been a rough day," I said, as honest as I could be. "I look like c.r.a.p, I feel like c.r.a.p . . . I probably smell smell like c.r.a.p, and I'd appreciate it if you could just help get back up onto dry land-" like c.r.a.p, and I'd appreciate it if you could just help get back up onto dry land-"

Something I said made the old man giggle, squeezing his eyes shut like a little kid as he enjoyed whatever I'd said that had tickled him. I grinned back at him, enjoying our strange little back and forth. I don't know what it was, but when someone laughed at my stupid schtick, I felt compelled to totally debase myself in order to make that person laugh harder.

"Oh, you like that, huh? When I said I smelled like c.r.a.p?"

The old man's head went up and down like a pogo stick.

"How about this one?" I said, enjoying myself. "I look like p.o.o.pie pie and I taste like one, too."

Now the old man was snorting with laughter at the absurdity-I supposed-of what I'd just said.

"You're funny," he said between guffaws. "Like a tuna fish."

I had no prior experience with tuna fish, but if the man said they were funny, then who was I to argue.

"I have have eaten tuna fish in the past," I said. "But now that I know we have a similar sense of humor, I'll only eat salmon." eaten tuna fish in the past," I said. "But now that I know we have a similar sense of humor, I'll only eat salmon."

He found my comparison of tuna and salmon hysterical. Once again, I couldn't tell you what he found so humorous, but he was obviously enjoying my company immensely.

"I like you," the old man said abruptly. "You don't take things too seriously. That's a good way for Death to be."

That sobered me up.

"I'm not Death."

"You might be," he said matter-of-factly.

"Not if I don't have to be . . ."

"You are who you are." He grinned back at me, sounding very philosophical. But since I was a purveyor of pop culture, not Pericles, I just shrugged.

"Look, I don't know why Hyacinth was trying to call you out of your slumber, but maybe you can just send me back up top now and we'll call it even-steven?" I asked, hoping the idea would appeal as much to him as it did to me.

He wrinkled his brow.

"This Hyacinth . . . big tall lady with golden hair?"

I nodded. "That's the one."

"She sent this?" he asked, pulling a small white bone from his kimono pocket and holding it up for me to see. It was the pinkie bone Hyacinth had nicked off Jarvis's corpse while we were preparing the funeral pyre.

"It belonged to a friend," I said softly, biting my lip.

The old man seemed to sense that this was a touchy subject and slid the bone back into its hiding place in the folds of his kimono.

"Okay, we go up top, then," he said, answering my earlier question.

"Uhm, you don't need to go with me-" I started to protest, but he held up his hand.

"I need to confer with the lady up top, see what she has to say. That would be the right thing."

"I guess so," I said uncertainly.

"All right, then," he said, standing up and moving toward me, the magnificent shark jaw throne devolving into a pile of bones behind him. "It's all settled."

"If you say so-"

"This is for you," he said, pulling a small uncut stone the color of heart's blood from inside the magical folds of his kimono. He presented it to me, but at first I didn't take it.

"Oh, that's really nice of you, but I can't really-"

"Take it!" He scowled at me, pressing the jewel into my hand, then wrapping my fingers into a tight fist around it. Satisfied, he stepped past me, waving his hand dismissively at the coral, indicating that it should get out of his way. Without a sound, the wall of coral receded, revealing the entrance through which I'd first arrived.

"This way," he said, waving for me to follow him out into the cavern.

I took a deep breath, expecting to be inundated with seawater, but the old man had created a magical air pocket that ran the length of the cavern. I barely knew this strange man, yet here he was trying to make me comfortable.

"Come along."

He was already halfway down the cavern, almost out of sight, so I picked up my speed to catch up. The guy moved pretty d.a.m.n quickly for an old man, and I had to jog to keep up with him, my feet crunching against the unprotected coral. The old man didn't seem to mind the mess I was making, he just kept encouraging me forward.

"Stop," he said when we had reached the entrance to the coral grotto. "I will call the tuna."

I thought he was joking, but within ten seconds of him snapping his fingers, we were surrounded by a school of huge, bulbous-eyed tuna fish. They came over to the air pocket like hesitant goats in a petting zoo, and at the old man's urging I grabbed hold of two of them. Suddenly, I found myself racing through the ocean, eyes shut tight against the sting of the salt.w.a.ter. Air bubbles streamed from my nose as we flew, my body slicing through the cool water like Esther Williams on speed-but only a million times cooler because I was tuna skiing!

As we got closer to the surface of the water, I released the friendly tuna, letting them return back to the depths while I swam the last few feet on my own. Relief filled my brain as my head broke through the water and the cold air plastered my wet hair down to my scalp. I wiped my eyes and looked around, certain I was back where I'd started and that land was within easy reach, but I was mistaken.

To my horror, there was nothing but empty ocean for as far as the eye could see in any direction.

"s.h.i.t!" I said, treading water like a maniac. After a few minutes, my limbs started to ache and, teeth chattering, I came to the realization that it was really cold out on the open water.

"Help!" I cried, scared I was gonna be stuck in the middle of the ocean all by myself. "Help me!" "Help me!"

The only response was the lone cry of a gull circling somewhere overhead.

I felt something brush by my feet, and I instantly pulled my legs up to my chest, protectively wrapping my arms around my knees and floating on my back. Instinct was telling me to make myself as small as possible in the presence of whatever was lurking in the water below me, that I would be safer that way. With bated breath, I waited for something else to brush past me, but after a few minutes of nothing but calm seas, I chalked the whole thing up to a random fish drive-by and started to relax-until I saw a red fin break the surface tension of the water a few feet away from me then disappear again.

I decided to stay in the tiny ball position for a little while longer.

Too bad tiny ball position wasn't enough to dissuade whatever was stalking me not to attack-before I even knew what was happening, something big had come up from underneath me, lifting me bodily into the air.

Terrified, I screamed as I was hoisted skyward onto the back of a monstrous red sea serpent, replete with scales the size of roof tiles and a huge forked tail. Ascending far above the water, I started to slide down the beast's back. It was all I could do to flip onto my stomach and grasp at the smooth red scales as they slipped between my fingers. Finally, I was able to catch hold of a scale, and getting as much purchase as I could, I held on for dear life.

The beast reared, its giant head swiveling on its neck so it could get a better look at me. Crystalline blue eyes goggled in my direction, and I wilted under the creature's fierce gaze-and then to my utter shock, the d.a.m.n beast winked at me! the d.a.m.n beast winked at me! I nearly lost my grip and slid all the way down the creature's back; only a hundred feet or so of scaled slip-sliding and then I'd be free again. I nearly lost my grip and slid all the way down the creature's back; only a hundred feet or so of scaled slip-sliding and then I'd be free again.

"Do you have a strong grip?" the serpent hissed.

I had a hard time processing the fact that the beast's voice was pure "old man from the coral grotto," but the accent was unmistakable.

"Yes!" I screamed in the direction of the monster's flat, square head, making the a.s.sumption there were ears somewhere in the vicinity.

"Hold on, then," the creature growled before rearing its head and plunging back toward the water.

I've ridden a few roller coasters in my time, and frankly, the experience is not something I overly enjoy. The theme-park feeling of having your stomach plunge from your abdomen down to your toes is awful, and riding a sea serpent as it slithered through the water was tantamount to getting on the biggest, scariest roller coaster ever. It made me think that the beast was probably better suited to traveling underwater, but since I was...o...b..ard, it was choosing to swim well above the waterline.

Moving with a bizarre, rolling motion that started at its head then oozed down the line of its body until it reached its tail, the sea monster pushed against the water, propelling itself forward with a steady velocity. I likened it to a crazy sea-monster version of the b.u.t.terfly stroke.

Not fun.

"Where are we going?" I screamed up at the beast's head, but the monster didn't answer me. I wasn't even sure it had heard the question.

I gritted my teeth and settled in for the ride.

As we sliced through the endless seascape, I lay my head against the creature's flesh and closed my eyes. Everyone kept telling me I was Death, but something didn't feel right about the whole thing. If something had had happened to my dad and I'd unwittingly been imbued with his powers, then the Ender of Death would've killed me back at my office-but he hadn't, and that gave me hope. Besides, Daniel and I were both born with the propensity to become Death, and until one of us beat out the other to drink from the Cup of Jamshid, then neither of us could fully take over the job anyway. happened to my dad and I'd unwittingly been imbued with his powers, then the Ender of Death would've killed me back at my office-but he hadn't, and that gave me hope. Besides, Daniel and I were both born with the propensity to become Death, and until one of us beat out the other to drink from the Cup of Jamshid, then neither of us could fully take over the job anyway.

Both of these insights made me feel better, but then I started obsessing over the Jarvis situation and that made me feel c.r.a.ppy again. I'd unconsciously willed Jarvis back into life (and then killed him again), which was a point on the Death-side, so that just sent me back to square one.

If only I still had Jarvis's brain to pick, I thought angrily, I thought angrily, then I'd have a much better understanding of my situation. then I'd have a much better understanding of my situation.

By murdering the faun, the Ender of Death had destroyed my only source of knowledge about the Afterlife and all its strange rules and regulations. Without Jarvis, I was pretty much flying blind.

It was frustrating to be at the mercy of Hyacinth and the odd little j.a.panese man/sea serpent when what I really needed to be doing was going to Sea Verge, finding my dad, and making d.a.m.n sure he and my mom and Clio were safe and sound.

When we were near the sh.o.r.e, I heard someone call my name.