"Adkins, Patrick H - Titans 02 - Master of the Fearful Depths" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adkins Patrick H)

of tiny, silver-eyed fish cavorted about them, surrounding them in a
cloud of luminescence. She realized that Proteus must have summoned
these creatures up from far below to light their way. The luminous fish
accompanied them as they swam, and on all sides, just beyond the faint
blue of the water, the illumination ended in a wall of impenetrable
blackness.

Now she followed a little behind him, watching the easy naturalness of
his movements and admiring the perfect symmetry of his smooth, bronzed
body. Tall, neither slender nor bulky, he glided effortlessly ahead of
her just above the languidly waving growths of the sea-bottom plain, his
sleek muscles rippling with each slightest movement. He belonged here,
she realized, amid the magnificent solitude of these blue depths.

Coral-covered cairns of rock rose up around them like ghostly castles.
An eel, startled at their approach, sought shelter within the crevices.
A scarlet, spiked creature watched them from unblinking eyes as they
swam past. A ray fish ventured into their path, then veered away with
the sudden flapping of its winglike fins.

When sharks passed nearby within their circle of illumination, Proteus
warned her to stay close to him. Usually these vicious predators
extended to the gods the wide berth otherwise reserved only for the
largest of whales, but their ravenous ferocity occasionally led them to
attack even creatures of divine proportion. Despite their relatively
small mortal size, they could inflict very painful injuries. They were
capable of snipping off divine ringers or toes, and even more serious
wounds could result when they hunted in packs.

The palace of Nereus lay in the deepest part of the Aegean, near the
very bottom of a great sunken rift. As they approached this enormous
valley the sea bottom dropped away suddenly. Proteus led her outward
into the open water, well clear of the steep wall. With a single
thoughtless kick the naiad might easily precipitate an underwater
landslide and trap both of them beneath an avalanche of soft mud.

Downward they swam, through the vast and empty darkness, until they
reached the rippled, yellow surface of the valley floor-a silent
landscape pockmarked by the burrows of deep-sea creatures and spotted
with waving thickets of spiney, red and orange growths that resembled
finely serrated plants.

Occasionally fan-shaped coral drifted past, reflecting red in the
phosphorescent light. Three sharks came upon them suddenly-ugly white
creatures with broad, flat heads and glistening, bulbous white eyes.
Finding themselves caught in the periphery of illumination, they backed
away in startled confusion, then sought escape in the surrounding
blackness.

At last the palace of Nereus came into sight, glowing in the distance,