Moontide
Chapter 19.5
Aster Realm
“Find the goddess of healing and bring her to me!” Poseidon roared in the scene that played before Panacea in her starry observtory. “If she has the amulet, I will have it from her.”
She’d been sifting through scenes in the mists all morning, and paused her scroll to watch the great sea god.
“We only think she has it, my liege.” Thema bowed her head when she answered Poseidon. “The serpent told us she’d interceded in the matter of the Olympian and his human. The human messenger we sent to Earth to make the trade you demanded has failed miserably.”
Her gaze slid sideways, to her accomplice, for help. Nia stepped forward, nodding in agreement.
“I told you the human couldn’t be trusted not to bumble the task. I don’t know why you’ve allowed him and his men to remain on your sacred isle all these years, my lord.” She sneered.
“It’s no matter.” Thema shrugged. “He’ll soon expire on Earth if he hasn’t already.”
Her nostrils flared, a dead give-a-way she wasn’t expressing herself truthfully where this human they spoke of was concerned.
“Silence both of you!” Poseidon thundered. “Don’t assume I’ve forgotten your misdeeds on my islands.” He glared at Thema. “Never think your actions are your own to decide, nymph. You answer to me!”
Nia flinched. She stepped back, closer to Thema. The sea god’s emerald eyes flashed to her. They shimmered with the heat of his anger. Movement in the iris was a trait of the gods. Poseidon’s were a veritable storm right now.
“If the human you sent hasn’t died yet, you will retrieve him and take him back to the island.” He commanded Nia.
“Yes, my liege.” She bowed before him then vanished.
“As for you, Thema,” he said with no acknowledgement of her royal title, “search the waters and all my islands. Find the goddess of healing and wrest the amulet from her. The enchantments of the stone will aid me in strengthening our defenses. This underworld invasion has gone too far.” He shook his great head. “There are still those gods who are in denial that the demons could ever come to power. Others sleep in Lethe’s realm of oblivion.”
Panacea nodded in agreement though no one could see her. A number of the greater gods remained in this state of self-induced coma Poseidon mentioned. It was the way the gods recharged themselves. Entering the goddess of forgetfulness’s realm cleared away all the memories they amassed over eons. Slowly, important recollections personal to them were restored, free of the clutter of moment to moment details. The process removed the cobwebs of omniscience and prevented insanity. Unfortunately, too many of the gods had been entering the sleep out of boredom, lately, and the wicked were taking advantage of their absence.
Poseidon didn’t sleep though. He’d finally caught on to the fact that his Tides portals were being breached by creatures the divinities had created long ago then forgotten about.
“As you command, my liege.” The Nereid queen bowed, then left in a shower of sea spray.
But Panacea saw the flash of anger in Thema’s eyes before she left. She cleared away the scene with a wave of her hand.
“Poor befuddled Poseidon,” she sighed. “He thinks his raging will get him his way. Even if I had the amulet in my possession, it would do him no good. He’ll never be able to use it on his own.”
There was no time to think more on the subject, though. She had to stay on Thema’s trail and see what the diabolical nymph was up to.
*I love that Panacea can spy on everyone from her hideout in the stars. What’s a situation you’d like to be a fly on the wall for?