by Eliza Raine
I gasped as it hit me, cold and hard, then I was tumbling backwards, Icarus yelling as I crashed into him and water rushed around us.
‘What did you do?’
‘I- I just-’ I felt him pull me from behind, yanking me to my feet. I turned and grabbed him, then noticed dark green smudges on his arm. ‘What’s that?’
‘I don’t know, one of the vials broke when you fell into me.’
‘Have you got the rust?’ The water was slowing around us now, but we’d made plenty of noise. We needed to get out of the tower.
‘Yes. Can you get rid of the water?’
I concentrated, willing the water away. Slowly it began to dry up. Icarus ran to the door and yanked it open, and we raced down the stairs, the little fireball following behind us. As soon as we were outside we carried on running, towards the pegasus tower, not stopping until we were in the hauler.
‘We should go back to our rooms,’ panted Icarus. ‘They’ll know someone was in that tower.’
‘They wouldn’t look up here,’ I gasped. ‘And we need to check we got the right thing. How’s your arm-’ I broke off as I looked down at where the green smudges had been. Icarus’s whole forearm was now covered in a patchy dark green substance.
‘Dora, why does my arm look like that?’ he said slowly, holding his arm out in front of him.
‘What did it say on the label on the vial?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know, there were loads of them,’ he said, a slight panic in his voice.
‘Does it hurt?’
He shook his head.
‘It itches a little.’
‘OK. We’ll wash it off as soon as we can.’
The hauler doors slid open and we stepped out into the corridor.
‘Where did all that water come from?’ Icarus asked me.
‘It was the weirdest thing! There was this armor breastplate and it was really well polished and-’
Icarus crashed to the ground, cutting off my words.
‘Icarus!’ I yelped, dropping down beside him, barely noticing the impact on my knees. His closed eyes fluttered open and I thought my heart would stop in relief as I saw the shining green color. It wasn’t the soul snatcher.
‘Dora, why are there three of you?’ he mumbled. Three of me? I looked at his arm, the green muck snaking its way further up and under his sleeve.
‘We need to get that stuff off your arm,’ I told him, and tried to pull him to his feet. He was heavy though, and his wings were acting as a dead-weight, dragging him back down every time I tried. ‘Who’s that?’ he said with a half smile, pointing over my shoulder. I whirled, but there was nobody there. ‘Hello!’ he said cheerfully, and waved.
It was like he was drunk or something. I needed to get the potion off his arm, quickly.
‘Wait here,’ I told him, and ran down the corridor towards the stables. I leaned over the stable door of the first one to see if the drinking trough had water in it. It did, so I let myself in, talking softly to the dozing pegasus, and picked a bucket up from the corner. The creature flicked its wings a little, then settled back down. I filled the bucket and jogged back to Icarus as carefully as I could, trying not to spill too much.
‘Here,’ I said, pushing his sleeve up. The green stuff had spread over his shoulder now, and onto his chest and down his back. ‘You’ll need to take your shirt off.’
‘My shirts don’t fit anymore,’ he told me. ‘Since I got proper wings.’
‘I know,’ I smiled at him, and put my hands hesitantly on the bottom hem of his shirt.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I need to take off your shirt, Icarus.’
‘Oh. They never used to let me wear a shirt.’ His eyes darkened as he spoke and he sat up heavily. ‘No shirt for the boy with baby wings.’
‘Icarus, I’m sorry,’ I whispered.
‘Not your fault. They used to make me…’ He grabbed my arm, his eyes suddenly full of panic.
‘Don’t let me go back there, Dora, they can’t have me! I need to be free!’
My mind flashed on the words of the file I’d seen. Trapped… Strange experiments… The fear on his face made my heart ache as he let out a strangled wail.
‘It’s OK, it’s OK, your father’s not here now,’ I said soothingly, cupping his face with my hands. He stared up at me, wild-eyed. ‘Let me wash this stuff off you.’ His face went slack suddenly and his arm dropped from mine. I pulled the shirt up over his shoulder, pulling one arm through, and yanked off my own hoodie. I balled it up, dunked it in the bucket and began to slough off the green goo. He said nothing as I worked, but I could hear his heart racing when I leaned close to him. I was careful not to touch his wings, despite wanting to so much. He’d never asked me to, and it somehow didn’t feel right to touch them uninvited.
When all the green stuff was off his skin I dropped the hoodie in the bucket and sat down beside him.
‘How do you feel?’ I asked.
He turned to look at me slowly.
‘Better. I could see stuff that I don’t think was here and…’ He trailed off.
‘It must have been a madness potion or something,’ I said. He stared at me for a moment.
‘How did you know?’ he said, quietly.
‘Know what?’
‘About my father. How did you know about my father?’
My stomach clenched as I looked into his eyes. I couldn’t lie to him.
‘I saw a file. On Chiron’s desk,’ I admitted. ‘I didn’t read all of it but a few sentences caught my eye.’
It was almost as though I could see the walls so painstakingly lifted over the last few weeks slam back down around him. His beautiful eyes hardened and his mouth clenched shut. ‘I’m sorry, Icarus, I didn’t mean to pry, honestly, it was just right there!’
‘What did you read?’ His words were barely a whisper.
‘That… That your father locked you up and that Hermes rescued you. That’s all.’
‘That’s all?’ he repeated, incredulously.
‘I didn’t mean it like that, oh gods, I’m so sorry!’ Tears were filling my eyes and I reached my hand out for him but he pulled his own out of my reach.
‘Pandora, I trusted you. Why didn’t you tell me you knew something that important about me?’
‘I didn’t want to force you to talk about it! I wanted you to tell me in your own time. If I could take back what I saw I would, I swear.’
He snorted.
‘It’s too late for that.’ He got to his feet heavily.
‘Icarus, please, I’m sorry.’
He stared down at me.
‘I need to think,’ he said, and stumbled to the hauler.
‘I’m sorry,’ I repeated, guilt and regret washing over me again and again. He stopped and hope filled me as he turned.
‘You’d better take this,’ he said, and threw me a small glass vial. I caught it instinctively. It was filled with red powder. The rust. When I looked back up, he was in the hauler. I let the tears spill over my cheeks.
10
The next morning I was awake before Zali for a change. I had barely slept, and my roommate frowned with concern when she saw me.
‘Dora, what’s wrong? You look…’ she trailed off.
‘Tired? I’m just tired,’ I lied. I had stayed in the pegasus tower late, trying to work out how I could possibly fix what I had done. Icarus needed time, I had accepted, eventually. There was nothing I could do about that. He had spent his life learning not to trust others, being treated badly. And now I had given him a reason not to trust me. I just needed to hope he would understand why I hadn’t told him what I knew.
And in the meantime, I couldn’t be distracted from the demon, or returning the stolen souls. That had to be my priority.
I just didn’t know how I was going to do it alone.
We were swimming and not flying in first class, so I didn’t have to see him. Part of me wanted to, but more of me knew there was nothing I could say and
dreaded seeing that cold look he had given me the night before. Being in the water refreshed me, lifting the tired, heavy anxiety from me slightly. The turtles were there, the littlest shooting over to me as soon as Miss Alma gave us permission to go and see them. He headbutted my hand hard when he reached me, his expressive little eyes locking on mine. It was like he knew I’d had a rough night. I smiled at him, and he turned a somersault in the clear blue water. I did the same, our little game cheering me.
Our second lesson was not likely to be so much fun. Agrius stomped onto the training ground, his face serious as ever.
‘We’re going out,’ he barked.
‘Out?’
Vronti and Astra stepped up beside him, facing the spear class.
‘All first-year students are going on a trip today,’ Astra said. Agrius folded his arms sullenly behind her. Excited murmuring rippled through the crowd.
‘You’ll stay in this group, throughout.’ Vronti said. ‘And you’ll report to Agrius.’
‘Where are we going?’ Thom asked loudly.
‘To the stables on Dionysus’s realm, Taurus.’
A thrill shot through me and Tak gave a small exclamation of excitement and grabbed my shoulder.
‘Taurean stables! Do you know what kind of animals Dionysus keeps?’
His eyes were alive with excitement and I nodded at him, thinking of my mythology classes.
‘Yes! He keeps sphinxes and chimera’s and-’
‘Calm down, everybody!’ Agrius bellowed over the excitement. ‘You won’t be seeing anything dangerous today, you’re first-years. But Hermes has decided it would do you good to go on your first school trip early, so you’re going.’ He clearly didn’t think it was a good idea at all. ‘Hermes will be transporting us from the front temple in five minutes, so make your way there now.’
As excited as I was about seeing the creatures in the stables, I was more excited about seeing some of Olympus. Adrenaline skittered through me as I followed the crowd through the main temple, half-listening to Tak listing the animals he hoped we would see. Would we see Dionysus? Taurus was the tree-house realm. Much as I loved the underwater academy, the thought of being in a forest, of seeing a tree for the first time in months, was filling me with joy.
And boy was I right to be excited.
When we reached the front temple, Hermes clicked his fingers and suddenly we were surrounded by trees. And the trees on Taurus were not just any trees. They were massive. I gaped as I craned my neck, trying to take everything in. Dark brown trunks rose from the earthy forest floor we were standing on, and wooden huts rested in the long, sturdy branches. The huts were painted with bright swirling patterns, some even carved into the trunks of the trees, and tiny dancing fairy lights illuminated the areas shaded by enormous green leaves. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the smell of earth, and listened to the rustling sound of leaves and cracking of twigs. The heat from the rays of light filtering down through the forest canopy warmed my face and felt amazing.
‘Welcome to Taurus,’ a female voice said, and we all looked to our left. A slight lady, probably in her twenties and barely five feet tall, was smiling at us. She wore a beautiful flowing white gown and a silver circlet entwined with delicate green leaves topped her warm brown hair. ‘I am Princess Morea, of House Augeas.’ I let out a breath and glanced at Tak. He grinned back at me. A real-life princess?
‘The princess will show us to the royal stables,’ grunted Agrius. ‘Stay in groups, don’t wander off, and do what you’re told.’
The princess smiled at him and gestured towards a tree trunk as wide as my house.
‘Make your way over here, please.’ We all moved, eagerly, towards the tree.
‘Is this the palace?’ somebody near Princess Morea asked.
‘No. These huts are part of the Kingdom of Augeas. The palace is much higher up in the trees,’ she answered softly.
‘Can we see it?’
She gave a tinkling laugh and Agrius snorted.
‘Do you know how hard it is to get an invite into a Taurean palace?’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘Good luck with that.’
The princess raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to the student.
‘Invitations are exclusive, that is true. But you must always have hope. One never knows.’ Her eyes shone. She turned to the tree trunk and said something in a language I didn’t understand and then an oblong shape began to glow in the wood, forming a door.
‘We have many creatures here, and they are all unpredictable so please follow the rules. Do not enter the pens. Do not tap or shout or otherwise disturb the animals. And do not use magic around them.’
Everybody nodded.
‘Everyone back here in one hour,’ called Agrius, and we followed Princess Morea into the tree.
‘The animal's pens line the outside of the tree trunk in a ring,’ the princess explained as we walked through the dimly lit woody corridor. ‘We view them from the middle of the tree so that we are safely inside and they are out there.’ That made sense, I thought. ‘The most dangerous creatures are kept elsewhere, these are just the ones my father, the king, wishes to display today.’ I thought about zoos back at home, and hoped the animals didn’t mind being kept here, on display. As if hearing my thought the princess continued. ‘They are given free run of the forest floor at night, and return of their own volition during the day, for feeding. They are well cared for.’ She slowed and spoke another word in the strange language. The bark making up the wall around us began to lift and I gasped as glass was revealed behind it. We were standing next to a huge pen, which looked a lot like a lion enclosure. Everyone, including myself, began scanning the pen for an animal.
‘It is important to remember that many of the creatures we keep here have evolved forms now, that live a sentient life among the citizens of Olympus. We only keep wild, un-evolved creatures here. So whilst there are many harpies, or griffins or telkhines that live in Olympus as our equals, there are just as many who live in the wild, unaware of their evolved counterparts.’
There was a thud and my attention was pulled from the princess and back on the pen. A huge animal was jumping down from where it had been concealed in a winding leafy tree. Though it had the body and limbs of a lion, it had the head of a mean looking eagle. A hooked yellowing beak jutted out under hard black eyes and shining tan wings beat out from it’s back.
‘This is a griffon,’ Princess Morea said. I watched it, transfixed as it stalked up to the glass, cocking its head. ‘Feel free to walk around, and look at the others. I’ll be here if you have any questions.’
‘Come on!’ said Tak, pulling my arm as students hurried off in either direction, keeping a healthy few feet from the glass.
I let him pull me along to the next pen, then slowed to see what was inside. It was filled with sand and looked empty except for a dusty stone structure at the back. We watched the dark doorway in the stone hut but nothing happened.
‘I can’t believe we’re here, on Taurus,’ I said as we watched.
‘I can’t believe we might see a sphinx!’ Tak replied. Eventually the two students still watching and waiting with us sighed loudly and moved on. S’pose we should give up on this one,’ Tak said.
‘I guess so.’
We walked quickly onto the next pen and I let out a little gasp involuntarily. It was filled with water halfway up the glass, and steam was blowing gently off the surface. Stretched out on the dry and dark rocky bank of the pool was the ugliest thing I’d ever seen. It looked sort of like a dog, except that it had flippers ending in weird webbed hands, and a tail like a seal. It was dozing, matted fur running down its bony back.
‘What is that?’ I breathed.
‘Telkhine!’ Tak said excitedly. ‘The evolved ones work in Hephaestus’s forges and make really cool stuff for the gods, like Hades’ invisibility helmet.’
‘Hades has an invisibility helmet?’
‘Yeah. How do you not know that?’ Tak shook his head at me in
disbelief. ‘Anyway, they’re really amazing metal-workers.’
I squinted at the thing’s webbed fingers.
‘How?’
Tak shrugged.
‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘They just are.’
We carried on around the trunk of the tree, seeing creatures in about half of the pens, most of them sleeping. There was a pegasus three times the size of Peto, it’s enormous white wings filling the pen as it lay sleeping in the middle of the stall, and I couldn’t help wondering how happy it was in such a small space. Eventually we came back to the griffin, pacing up and down along the glass.
‘What do you think of the stables?’ the princess asked us.
‘They’re great!’ Tak beamed. She smiled at him and looked at me.
‘I… Um….’ I wasn’t sure what to say. They were incredible, sure, but the pens just seemed so small. ‘Do they have enough space?’ I blurted out. Tak froze beside me and Princess Morea raised her eyebrows.
‘Yes, of course they do. I’ll show you,’ she said, and beckoned us to follow her. Tak elbowed me as we set off, glaring at me. I guess you weren’t supposed to challenge a member of the royal family. ‘Here,’ she said, stopping before the empty sand-filled pen with the stone structure at the back. She put her hand against the glass and whispered inaudibly. Something moved inside the stone den. ‘This is Sting. He’s Dionysus’s pet manticore.’ My heart began to hammer in my chest as a sleek maneless lion slunk out of the den. Would this be my chance to get a manticore feather? Huge black claws ringed the front of it’s paws and behind it rose a scale-plated tail ending in a glowing red stinger, like a scorpion’s. ‘He’s rare as manticores usually have wings.’
No wings. My excitement died instantly.
‘So no feathers then,’ I said quietly. The princess turned to me with a small frown.
‘No. But he can leave whenever he wants. Through the back of that stone den. But he chooses not to. The creatures are not unhappy here.’
