effort budged it. He swung the Blades of Chaos, but they bounced harmlessly off it, sending fat blue sparks dancing into the chamber around him. Just as he began to wonder if the gods favored him in the least, he reached back and drew forth the trident. At eye level he saw three small holes. Leaning forward, he shoved the trident prongs deep into the exactly spaced holes.
The huge portal opened easily. He withdrew the trident, and the portal immediately began to close. He ducked under the ponderous weight and ran forward to the rim of a circular pool behind the door. Nowhere else in the tiny room did he see an exit, and without returning to be certain, Kratos knew the door would not open from this side. Every way in Pandora’s temple became only one way: forward.
This time it had to be down into the crystalline water of the pool. He knelt first and washed off the blood he had accumulated from his many fights, grimly pleased that much of it was not his own. He stretched and flexed again to judge his full fighting capability. Many were the times he had gone into battle in worse condition. But one thing worried him as he thrust his head beneath the surface of the water, striving to find the bottom of the well. No man could hold his breath long enough to reach the seemingly limitless bottom. All he could do was explore to the limits of his lung capacity, then assess his situation.
He sucked in a huge draft of air, then plunged into the bracingly cold water. Downward he swam, powerful strokes carrying him deeper and deeper. A faint light glowed all around, permitting him to see that the sides of the well were etched with the curious arcane symbols he had seen throughout his journey thus far. Again he wondered whether, if he could decipher them, he could find an easier way through the traps to the chamber holding Pandora’s Box.
He swam deeper still until he found a huge tunnel curving away from his position at the bottom of the well. His lungs were beginning to burn a little. He let out a few bubbles that built at his nostrils, burst forth, and raced toward the distant surface. Kratos tried to estimate his chances of going on with his lungs increasingly on fire from lack of air. This was a decision to be made while gratefully breathing the air above. He turned and began to rise, only to see iron bars moving from the sides of the well, crossing its diameter entirely. He kicked powerfully, trying to get past the bars before they trapped him underwater.
He failed. By the time he reached the bars, they had secured themselves on both sides of the well, leaving only small squares of opening between them. He strained, reached high. His hand broke through the surface of the water-but this did him no good. He breathed through his nose, not his fingertips! Straining, he applied his shoulder to the bars, but they refused to yield. Kratos moved to grasp the rim of the well to give him more leverage. Again he failed. The iron bars were impervious to his strength.
His lungs felt like bladders ready to burst now. He let out more bubbles and watched as they mockingly burst just above his head. The bars had been cruelly placed to allow a swimmer the promise of safety-and then deny it by mere inches.
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
