Page 123 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

And then a trident the size of a steam train was being flung at me, and I was rolling and hoping I didn’t crush anybody and flipping back to my feet because suddenly, I had a lot of goddamned energy to work with.And no explanation whatsoever of how I’d gotten it.Or howhehad, I thought, as another impossibly huge man gave a yell that shook the rafters and jumped the length of a football field onto what I guessed was Poseidon’s back, and—

“Mircea!”I screamed at him.“What ishappening?”

No idea, he gasped mentally.Perhaps our third—

But our third couldn’t explain anything as he was busy.Our third was—well, that’s why they call them war mages, I thought, staring once more.And okay, Pritkin was borrowing something from our bond, because that was vampire speed, I realized, as an even dozen spells hit Poseidon all at once.

And some of them must have been the Forbidden stuff the witches had been talking about, because they actually staggered him.So much for humans being weak, I thought viciously, and threw the energy coiling around my hand.It wasn’t in the form of my usual whips this time, but it seemed to work just as well, and would have taken the giant golden god square in the chest if he hadn’t moved like quicksilver.

As it was, it cut as a swath across one arm, causing him to roar in outrage, a sound that was cut off abruptly when Mircea plunged fangs into the great neck, changing the roar into a scream.And while it was still echoing around the room, Pritkin jumped him from the front.And started viciously carving into the great body with a pair of giant knives he shouldn’t have had because they were longer than a sofa.

They were also golden bright and began causing light to spill out from the great body, spearing around the room and reflecting off all the gilt this and marble-covered that to be almost blinding.I put up a hand to shield my eyes and felt my stomach churn hungrily, but before I could even be tempted, all that golden light suddenly wasn’t there anymore.I thought for a second that the guy staggering back from the assault had reabsorbed it, but then I saw Pritkin’s eyes, glowing so vividly green that they looked like two lasers in his face.

And realized the truth:he’dabsorbed it.

He’d absorbedallof it.

“What thehell?” I said, but nobody was listening.

Maybe because Poseidon had just clawed Mircea off his back and thrown him across the room, and almost simultaneously, Pritkin was staggering back from some blow I hadn’t seen, because I’d taken a split second to blink.And then I did it again, and Mircea was suddenly mid-jump, with fangs and stabbing down again.Until Poseidon lashed out with a huge arm, and this time, he sent him flying the full length of the lobby toward the far wall before crashing through it.

Dust billowed, a god roared, and Pritkin recovered and stabbed him through the shoulder, and would have gotten the heart except that the old bastard moved too fast.In fact, the whole fight was happening at speeds that I doubted anybody else could follow at all, because the rest of our group did not seem to be moving.

They looked frozen in place, almost as if I’d stopped time, only I couldn’t currently do that.But maybe I could do something else, I decided, because Pritkin was somehow holding his own, with the help of a bunch of huge weapons that seemed to have levelled up in size and power right along with him.A handgun went off, but since it was now the size of a car, it resounded around the room more like a cannon, and caused a spear of pure, golden-white light to carve its way out of Zeus’s brother and slash around the room.

It didn’t slash our frozen group, however, as it was far too high, all of this taking place well above their heads.It did carve a swath through the group of massive gods that had just run in from outside, though, probably in response to their master’s call.Or possibly their dad’s, as they looked decidedly fishy.

One woman had googly eyes and enough fins to qualify as aquatic, a man had tentacles for hair, and the rest… well, they looked like the people at Nimue’s court, except they made her courtiers appear like the posers they were.This was the real thing, with brilliant, glowing eyes in every shade from blue and green to pale, translucent nothingness; with hair floating out around them as if on unseen waves in every color except the normal ones; and with delicate, although gossamer fins instead of brows and more fins edging the gills in their necks and the backs of their arms.

Who’d have expected Zeus to leave his very aquatic brother in the middle of a desert, I thought, right before Pritkin fell, with three of the new arrivals jumping him at once, and I remembered that I wasn’t here as a goddamned spectator.

I still had no idea how, but I had power.Why I wasn’t going mad from it, or what the hell was going on, I didn’t know, but I didn’t need to.All I needed was that, I thought, as a couple of huge golden whips rolled out from my hands and, a second later, were flying through the air to wrap around two of the bastards menacing Pritkin.

Iyankedand they went flying, one with his head now separated from his body.And causing Mircea, who had just reentered the room, to go sliding on his knees and bending backward to avoid them.And then springing back up and leaping for the third of Pritkin’s attackers, tackling him with fangs out and eyes glowing a brilliant amber gold, while Pritkin snarled and jumped back to his feet.

Just in time to counter the sword Poseidon was bringing down on his head.

He met it with those long, golden knives crossed in front of him; I saw that much.And then it was hard to see anything except in flashes, as the battle sped up to the point that it was all I could do just to stay on my feet and keep fighting.Because these foes weren’t mindless.

And I didn’t need anybody to tell me that they’d been battling at each other’s sides for thousands of years as they moved almost as one, without the need for communication.Or maybe they were doing it the same way we were—silently—but I heard nothing before they were on me.Along with a few dozen more who ran in from the street, where I guessed they must have been waiting for us to arrive, and started this way.

But then Pritkin—I guessed—opened the portal again, sucking half of them down its throat as they ran by.I wanted to ask what good that was going to do, since the damned thing let out only a couple of blocks from here, but didn’t get a chance.Not before a scream resonated through my head:Down!

I got down, or as low as a five-story woman could, hugging the ground and then rolling and dodging and lashing out with my whip at the myriad of weapons that followed me.And then clattered to the ground all around me when the portal reversed, overloaded, and exploded, blasting the room with fifty years’ worth of pent-up energy.And sliced through the phalanx of godly types still on their feet like a scythe through wheat.

Bodil hadn’t been wrong, I thought, as a rush of crimson energy boiled just overhead, so hard and so impossibly hot that it felt like my face was burning off.And a lot of other people’s literally were.Body parts rained down everywhere, as some of these “gods” must have been of the demi variety, spilling blood instead of power, although there was some of that, too.

I immediately absorbed it, feeling it radiate through me and then outward through the bond, reinvigorating me before doing the same to my triumvirs.And they needed it, because Poseidon was raging now, and he was worth a battalion, all by himself.The deaths of his people had changed the tenor of the battle, and he wasn’t playing anymore.

He created a golden shield, used it to bisect the livid red beam, and redirected it at Pritkin, who dodged just in time to keep from flying apart into ash.But the beam cut a swath through the wall behind him, and I do mean that literally, with daylight streaming in through a jagged tear that looked like the Joker’s fiendish grin before the energy blast abruptly cut out, the talisman’s power expended.And I scrambled back to my feet to help my triumvirs before it was too late.

Only to be immediately hit by something that dropped me back to my knees, screaming.It felt like being flayed alive, like hot knives piercing all over my body, like acid-laced fire.Like that, I thought, seeing a spell with black flames and purple tips running over me, sucking my power away, and hurting, God, so much!

I fell out of slow-time while the battle raged around me, and I realized: the gods hadn’t thrown this.Over by the main doors, a group of mages had shown up, and I guessed all the dark ones weren’t on our side, after all.These looked a lot more prosperous than the rag-tag group I’d been hanging out with, and they were more powerful, too, twisting the fiery knives trying to eviscerate me and causing them to sink farther in, threatening more than pain, but thrash as I did, I couldn’t free myself.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to.

Because we had magic users, too, didn’t we?And while they hadn’t been able to help against actual gods, the dark mages were another thing entirely.And it looked like Zara and company hadn’t been the peace party because of a lack of strength.

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