Dead Waters - Anton Strout [110]
“Tentacles,” I said. “That fits what I saw in my vision of when the General Slocum went down. That much makes sense, as do the crush marks on one of the student’s laptops we found at the bottom of a well leading out to the river.”
Godfrey nodded. “Supposedly, these two creatures were the guardians of the Strait of Messina, situated between Sicily and Italy. They still call one of the rocky outcroppings there Scylla. Scholars believe it may well be where the expression ‘between a rock and a hard place’ comes from.”
Despite the hard time my mind was having wrapping around the tale, the last details brought more pressing questions to mind. “Italy? Then what the hell are they doing here in New York?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but the Greek people are prevalent in America. Why not their gods, too?”
“No offense,” I said, “but I’m not sure I buy into this whole pantheistic worldview. I mean, if we’re going to go there, let’s just call in Thor to take care of it and call it a day, right?”
“He’s Norse, not Greek,” Godfrey corrected.
“Fine, whatever, but you see where I’m going.”
Godfrey sighed. “I hear you,” he said. “Look. I don’t know if I believe in gods and goddesses the way the Greeks did, either, but I do think that much of what they chose to believe in came from things that already existed in the world, something they then interpreted to fit their own worldview. For instance, it’s quite likely that supernatural creatures such as sea monsters may well predate the Greeks, but we see them as Greek mythological figures because that’s what the Greeks chose to name them. That’s what stuck in people’s minds.”
“Well, we’ve seen plenty of Charybdis in her female form,” I said. “I wonder what’s become of Scylla, other than knowing the professor fed it the still-conscious remains of George. Why he’s feeding it, I have no idea. Maybe so it grows up big and strong.”
Godfrey flipped open one of his books to a page he had marked off with a Post-it. “I think I may have an answer for that,” he said. “Remember how I told you that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been blasting away at the strait back in the mid-eighteen hundreds? I think that blasting may have hurt both of the monsters over a century and a half ago, incapacitated them. Charybdis seems to have risen back to some of her power, possibly because she can take aquatic form. I’m not sure. I think Scylla is still mostly dormant. Charybdis is its keeper. Its nurse, in this case.”
“Not for much longer, I suspect,” I said. “I think Charybdis recovered because Mason Redfield discovered her while investigating the Hell Gate Bridge. In return for his help providing sacrificed students like George to her monstrous companion, she gave him secrets to help him be reborn. I’ve seen the watery pit where he’s been feeding students to something out in the river. A something named Scylla. I imagine that sea monster is probably growing up big and strong.”
Godfrey shook his head. “If Scylla is as monstrous as legend and myth has it, it would take more than simply feeding it blood. It’s certainly a start, but for something so grand in scale, there would have to be a larger summoning ceremony of sorts. Something to raise it. I think you hit the nail on the head, Simon. The water woman marked Jane so that she herself would have a vessel to inhabit herself once the ceremony is performed to raise Scylla. From what I’ve read, Scylla, supposedly because she’s a daughter of Poseidon, needs a vessel to keep herself material. Something