by Eliza Raine
I looked up at his warm, open, honest face that reminded me so much of my father’s. I let the death demon out, I have fire magic inside me that scares and thrills me, Fantasma says I have a turbulent future, I can’t sleep and Icarus hates me. I squashed my thoughts and said,
‘I just know so little about Olympus, coming from the mortal world.’
Chiron frowned at me.
‘That’s no excuse, Pandora. Would you like extra classes? I’m sure Dasko would be happy to help and so would I.’
I snorted involuntarily and the centaur raised his eyebrows.
‘Sorry. It’s just, I’m having a lot of extra classes already.’
‘In fire and water. Yes, I heard. You know, all the classes here at the academy are deemed integral to your survival once you leave the academy. That’s why you must pass them to stay. You do understand how important they are, don’t you?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘For you, they are even more important. You have no family or place in this world currently. You will be starting from scratch when you leave here, meaning nothing in your arsenal could be more helpful than knowing everything you can about the geography of Olympus, how gods and demigods and demons live, and how to read and speak the language.’
I stared at him. I was so determined to be able to get back home, I hadn’t considered what he was saying. I would be starting from scratch. If I graduated, I would be sent out into Olympus with nowhere to go and no clue how to live there.
‘I see that you and Icarus are spending much less time together,’ Chiron said gently. My stomach muscles clenched and I dropped my gaze.
‘Yes,’ I said quietly.
‘You should try to patch that up. He is a very clever young man and you two achieved something truly great with that sea demon last semester. You can help each other.’
‘Does he need help?’ Concern filled me.
‘Not with his written studies, no. But the more he withdraws back into himself, the more he loses his ambition. And Olympus could use his ambition. He could be exceptional. Like you.’
I sighed.
‘Everyone keeps saying that. Dasko says I have to be better at water, Neos says fire, you say this, Fantasma’s stupid goblet says my future’s all messed up anyway and then there’s the demon…’ I trailed off. Chiron fixed me with a serious look. I waited for the suspicious questions, trying to think of lies to cover my slip up.
‘You don’t need to worry about the demon just now. The potion is keeping people safe. Let people help you with your studies.’
‘Yes, headmaster.’
‘Would you like extra classes?’
‘No, thank you. Zali has offered to help. And… and maybe Icarus will help me with language.’
Chiron smiled at me.
‘He’s one of the best in the school at ancient Greek.’
I had to run to make my water class on time when I left the geography room. Chiron’s words went round and round in my head as I stood at the back of the water class, absent-mindedly making approximations of butterflies soar from the water-wall and whiz around me in circles. My Sunday sessions in the pool with Dasko were working. As long as I was near water, my control was becoming second nature.
Chiron was right, I was realizing. As alluring and important as my elemental magic was, as fire was, understanding the world I had been sucked into was equally as vital. The thought of roaming Olympus alone, confused and hopeless, was just as awful as the thought of going back to the mortal world without my family. Would I really be starting from scratch? The painful thought of my mom popped into my head. She had said she might ‘look me up’ if I graduated. Where did she live? A pang of guilt jolted through me as I realized this was exactly what Chiron meant. If I had paid more attention and read the books I was supposed to then I would probably know where sea nymphs like my mother lived.
‘Zali?’ She was sitting cross-legged on her bed with a book in her lap when I entered our dorm room after water class.
‘Uhuh?’
‘Is that offer to help me revise still open?’
‘Sure it is.’
‘Thank you,’ I said gratefully, dropping my bag on the bed. ‘I really messed up the geography exam. I’m not going to do my water classes with Dasko on Sundays any more, and I’m going to cut down the fire classes.’
‘We have ten days, that’s plenty,’ she smiled at me.
‘Really?’
‘Course. But we have to go and check on the fire rafes tonight.’
I nodded. We had agreed to check on the plants weekly, so that if they weren’t growing or anything happened, we could try and get more seeds as soon as possible. Although Zali was so enamored with the garden I thought she’d check on them daily if she could. They had been doing well last time we looked, the green shoots a good couple of inches out of the soil.
‘Right. We can get in half an hour before dinner. Have you got your god lineage book?’ Zali asked me.
‘Yeah, somewhere,’ I said, and started to hunt for the heavy book. ‘I, um, thought I might ask Icarus to help me with language,’ I mumbled as I bent over the pile of books at the end of my bed. I jumped as Zali squealed behind me, clapping her hands together.
‘About time,’ she beamed as I turned to her.
20
I clenched my sweating palms for the hundredth time, took a deep breath, and forced myself to step between the bookshelves. I could see Icarus, sitting on the floor with his tattered Sherlock Holmes book, his wings wrapped forwards so that he could lean back on the shelves. Heart hammering, I opened my mouth.
‘Hi,’ I said. He looked up at me and lowered his book.
‘Hello.’
‘Can I, um, join you a minute?’
His piercing green eyes bore into mine and my breathing quickened. I didn’t need to be this nervous, I told myself sternly. I’d spent hours with this boy. He knew me and I knew him. We had a bond.
‘I guess,’ he said. That wasn’t a good start.
I slid down the selves opposite him.
‘I wanted to ask you a favor,’ I said, figuring that getting to the point would be less awkward than small talk.
He raised his eyebrows.
‘I’m failing Ancient Language. Chiron suggested that as you were so good at it you might be able to help me revise.’
‘You’re failing all your written classes, aren’t you?’
I scowled.
‘How’d you know that?’
‘I’m not stupid. And you’re spending all your spare time with that demon.’
There was an edge to his voice that instantly set me on the defensive.
‘Are you spying on me?’
‘No. But I’ve been keeping a close eye on Neos. And you’re always with him.’
I stared at Icarus and he stared right back.
‘He’s helping me control my fire magic,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘Sure. And you think it’s a good idea to spend that much time with a demon that was locked away for eternity by a Titan?’
‘If Oceanus had meant to lock them away for eternity he wouldn’t have left a trail of clues to follow and a vial in there for Titan descendants to drink. He obviously meant for the box to be opened at some point,’ I snapped.
‘So now you’re defending him?’
‘No! But he’s made some good points, and he’s the only hope I have for stopping the soul snatcher. Plus I’m getting a lot better at fire.’
Icarus’s eyes flashed and his wings fluttered around him.
‘I don’t trust him,’ he snarled.
‘You don’t have to.’
‘Oh really? So you’re doing this all alone now?’
‘I’ve not had much choice!’ I regretted shouting it as soon as the words left my mouth. Icarus dropped my angry gaze and neither of us said anything for a long, long moment.
‘I’ll help you with language,’ he said eventually.
‘Oh. Thank you,’ I said, surp
rised.
‘But if you continue to trust that demon, I can’t help you with anything else.’
Disappointment and annoyance thrummed through me. I hadn’t come to him to ask for help with the potion or the demon, but he was the only person who knew the truth. How could he not see that Neos was our only hope?
‘I don’t have a choice, Icarus. If he’d wanted to hurt anyone, he’s had months to try.’
‘I don’t think he wants to hurt you. I think he wants to use you.’
‘For what?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Well do you have any other suggestions to stop the death demon and get those poor girl’s souls back?’ I challenged him.
‘Not yet. No.’
‘Then I have to try.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
I got to my feet, anger pumping through me now.
‘I’m doing my best, you know,’ I said. ‘To fix this.’
Icarus looked up at me and I saw a glimmer of the real him that I’d come to know so well at the top of the pegasus tower.
‘I’ll meet you here for an hour after dinner for language revision,’ he said.
I locked my eyes on his, willing him to say more. To tell me that he forgave me, or that he missed me. But he said nothing, so I turned and left, before my emotions could get the better of me.
He did meet me every day after that, but we spoke about nothing but ancient Greek. Each time I found myself watching his lips as he spoke, or wishing his hand would brush mine as we sat over a book, I recalled his words. If you continue to trust that demon, I can’t help you. The memory riled me enough every time to push the soppy thoughts from my head and concentrate. If he would rather I left my fire magic untamed and uncontrollable and faced the death demon alone, then so be it. I didn’t need him. There was no doubt he was improving my language skills though. He had a weird little technique that made it infinitely easier to remember the complicated words. He would make me think of something similar to the word we were learning, then visualize it with the meaning. So the Greek word skafos reminded me of the word scaffolding. Icarus didn’t know what scaffolding was, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that skafos meant ‘boat’, so when I pictured a boat all covered in scaffolding, it was easy to remember.
Zali was testing me every morning and every night on the gods powers and family trees, and in the library in the evenings Gida was testing all of us on the twelve realms of Olympus. Roz was almost as bad at geography as I was, so he gave us both the most questions. She had grown up on Cancer, Hera’s realm, and apparently her family had little interest in the rest of their world.
Slowly, but surely, the exams crept closer but just as slowly and surely, I was feeling more prepared. I was squashing down the constant nagging reminder that I was still no closer to finding a manticore feather, but our third check on the fire rafe went well. The shoots were now two feet long, and something was beginning to bulge under the green skin of the long reedy plants. Nobody else had been taken since Astra and it seemed unlikely that anyone would risk not drinking the potion after what had happened to her.
When the morning of the first exam rolled around I was awake early, and feeling as ready as I ever would. They were spaced out over three days, ten of them in total and first up was flying. There had been speculation that an obstacle course of some sort would make up the test, and when we reached the top of the pegasus tower, Zali and I saw that the rumors had been right. There were flaming rings hovering all around the tower, high and low, large and small.
‘Hello class,’ called Miss Alma as we all gathered on the ledge. ‘Hermes will be joining us momentarily to oversee the exam. There is no race today, you will take your turns one-by-one. You need ten points to pass the exam, and you will get a point for each of the fourteen rings you fly through, except for the highest and lowest rings, which are worth two points. You will have three minutes each. Please saddle your pegasi.’ I wished Zali luck, did my best to catch Icarus’s eye but failed, and jogged to Peto’s stable. He was as restless as I was clearly able to feel the nervous energy buzzing through the students now noisily clattering around the stables.
‘We’re going to ace today,’ I told him as I heaved his saddle on his back. He snorted. ‘I’m going to let you be in charge. Just fly through as many rings as you can.’ When the pegasus was ready to go I led him carefully from the stable and back to the ledge, where a few students were already waiting. There was a burst of bright white light, then Hermes was standing next to Miss Alma. She bowed her head low and I followed suit along with the others.
‘I haven’t ridden a pegasus in years,’ the god said cheerfully. I blinked. ‘Can I have a go, after the kids are finished?’ He looked expectantly at Miss Alma.
‘Of course, Lord Hermes,’ she spluttered.
‘Excellent,’ he beamed.
Icarus went first. I watched, enthralled, as his huge wings snapped taught behind him and he dove from the ledge. I wasn’t the only one to lean forward over the edge of the platform to watch as he tucked his wings around him and shot towards the lowest flaming ring like a dart. As he got closer he spread his wings wide, turning sharply and angling himself towards the hoop, then tucking them around himself again as he zoomed through it. I hardly breathed as I watched him, soaring around the course like it was the most easy, natural thing in the world. We had flying class together twice a week but he always took off around the tower, flying well away from everyone else. He’d clearly been practicing hard. As he landed back on the platform with all fourteen rings cleared and a full three seconds left on the clock, everyone burst into applause. His cheeks colored pink and I was nearly overwhelmed by the urge to go to him.
‘Well. I’ve not seen anyone fly like that in a while. Well done,’ said Hermes. This time Icarus’s whole face went red and he shook his windswept hair over his face as he bowed his head.
‘Thank you, Lord Hermes,’ he mumbled.
‘Next!’ called Miss Alma.
I was fifth to go and Peto was desperate to get off the platform by the time I climbed up into the saddle and locked my red Converse into place. It was like he was getting jealous watching everyone else having all the fun.
‘Ready boy?’ I whispered to him, scratching behind his ears. He shook his enormous wings out hard and whinnied.
‘Let’s go!’
He flew like a dream, banking hard but accurately as we approached each burning hoop and tucking his wings in just enough as we flew through the sudden heat. The fire felt different each time we got close to a ring, like it was calling to me. I concentrated on the churning waves below me, trying to block the feeling out and draw stability from the ocean. But as we flew towards the ninth ring, my vision blurred slightly. I screwed my eyes shut, trusting Peto, and when I opened them I screamed. The ring just feet in front of us was an inferno. Flames as big as the pegasus leapt and danced around it and Peto neighed loudly, beating his huge wings as he tried to change direction, but it was too late. We were too close, and his momentum was too great. I lifted one hand high in the air and called the water, praying it would reach in time as we barreled towards the flames. A solid jet of salt water rocketed up from the sea below, smashing into the burning ring and knocking it from our path with less than a second to spare. Peto wheeled up, and I could feel his legs kicking hard beneath me as we rose, away from the now spinning hoop.
‘It’s OK, it’s OK boy. We’re OK,’ I tried to soothe him, my mind racing. Had I caused the flames to do that? I heard a gong sound and my attention refocused sharply. That meant I had ten seconds left. And I had only achieved eight rings. Adrenaline pumped through me. I couldn’t fail this class, it was one of the few I was good at. There wasn’t time to fly through two more rings, but the pegasus’s efforts to avoid the last ring had taken us high above the main course. My eyes fell on the highest ring, now just a few feet above us. It was worth two points. ‘Come on Peto, we can still do this!’ I urged him up, an
d he responded, beating his wings fast. I clung to the presence of the water, refusing to even acknowledge the flames flickering around the ring. I channeled the heavy solidity of the ocean below, pushing all thoughts of fire out of my mind, and Peto tucked his wings in as we passed through the ring barely a second before the final gong sounded.
21
‘Are you alright?’ said Zali as we landed back on the platform. ‘What happened with the fire around that ring? Gods, that was close.’ She continued to fuss and ask questions as I climbed down from Peto’s back.
‘I’m fine,’ I told her as I turned, then froze. Hermes was standing behind her, staring at me. Zali turned to see what had caused my wide-eyed look, squeaked and ducked to the side, bowing her head. I dipped my head too, heart pounding.
‘Interesting,’ the god said eventually. ‘Next!’
None of the rings suddenly became lethal blazes for any other students and unease filled me as I watched them take their turns. Had I made the flames do that? I didn’t think I had, but who here who could or would try to do that to me? I instinctively looked about for silver hair, mysteriously present whenever bad things happened to me at this school, but Vronti wasn’t in my flying class.
Zali was last to go, and she did great, managing eleven hoops with no problem. Everyone in the class passed and Miss Alma looked pleased as we all trooped to the hauler.
‘Which one is most fun to ride?’ I heard Hermes ask her as we started to descend.
The next exam was archery, another one I was reasonably confident in. There was no Hermes to oversee this one, just Chiron and Agrius. As I’d hoped, I hit every target well, and ended up coming in the top five. And to my delight, I beat Tak by one place.
‘I’ll get you in swords!’ he called playfully to me. I believed him.
Language was next, and my heart was skittering in my chest as we filed into the classroom. The flame dish in the middle of the room roared to life as we sat down, an image of a horse floating above it.
