“It’s deceptively pretty”, Charlie murmured more to himself than to the others, then he looked up again. “Like I said: don’t touch it. It’s bad news. Fortunately, your sister seems to literally have a thick skin. Otherwise she’d probably already be dead.”
Cassandra threw an angry look at Pandora who shrugged.
“Told you I am immune to such things.”
“Are you also immune against angry demigods coming against you with spears, knives or whips?”
She involuntarily touched the spot where Arissa’s whip had slashed her cheek open. The wound had healed but her pride still stung.
“So what is the story behind the necklace? Why would anyone have it in the first place?”
Charlie, who seemed to have learned his history lessons, explained it to them.
“Some myths state that the necklace was given to a woman named Harmonia by Aphrodite, some say it was Hephaestus who gave it to Aphrodite. Anyway, whoever wore it had a hell of a lot of bad luck coming their way, so you’d best leave it alone.”
Cassandra nodded and finally put the necklace in a towel so that she could safely transport it back. Her eyes fell on the little necklace, the one from Arissa’s room.
“Why did you take this one?” Cassandra asked and indicated the necklace.
Pandora shrugged.
“I don’t know”, she said. “Maybe because it was not with the rest of her jewelry but hidden somewhere else. I thought she had simply forgotten about it and wouldn’t miss it.”
Cassandra frowned. Why would Arissa care so much about that little thing that she would set Wolf and Bear on her?
“Charlie, what about this one here?” she said and held the small necklace out to Charlie. Now it looked like some sort of apple but again Cassandra wasn’t sure.
Charlie dismissed it.
“Just a piece of ju…”, he said and turned away. Then he swiveled back. “Hold it up again.”
He looked at it curiously from all sides, muttering and shaking his head. Then he suddenly turned his face away and let out a cry of frustration.
“I can’t see it”, he said apologetically. “It is heavily disguised to hide its true nature. Interesting though that you were able to see that.”
Cassandra didn’t say that she had just been curious because Arissa had wanted that thing back so badly it must have meant something to her.
“I will get it back to Arissa”, she said and put it with the other necklace.
“I think that Arissa-girl doesn’t like her father much”, Pandora said suddenly and both Charlie and Cassandra stopped in their tracks.
“What do you mean?” Cassandra asked.
“I don’t know”, Pandora said lightly. “It’s just that almost all statues of him were covered with clothes or towels. And I am pretty sure she – or someone else before her – has scratched his eyes out in one of the statues. That doesn’t really say I love you, Daddy does it?”
Cassandra and Charlie exchanged a look. Clearly he thought that was weird as well. When Cassandra suggested to take a walk to the palace together, he had no objections. Pandora excused herself and disappeared somewhere.
On their way to the palace, Cassandra’s head was bursting with questions but the most important one was why Arissa had made such a fuss about it. The necklace seemed insignificant in comparison to the Cursed Necklace. The nearer they got to the living quarters of the demigods, the more insecure she felt. She hadn’t had much to bargain with from the start and suddenly she didn’t feel like she had anything at all. Charlie, on the other hand, seemed quite relaxed given the circumstances and swung the towel that held the two necklaces with something close to enthusiasm.
“Aren’t you afraid that the bad luck is rubbing off on you?” Cassandra asked.
Her sudden words caused Charlie to lose his stride and stumble and he caught himself at the last moment. He winced when he hit his big toe against a stone and almost let go of his precious parcel.
“Have you met me?” Charlie asked with a grim smile. “The gods have screwed me for” – he hesitated as if just remembering something, like he didn’t want to give away too much – “well, never mind. Let’s just say a day where I am having simple bad luck is a good day.”
And with that he entered through the servant’s doors and waited to be searched by three huge guards who looked like they were Bear’s older brothers. Cassandra didn’t like being touched by someone she didn’t know and when the guards insisted that she lose the knives, it could easily have turned ugly. Then a familiar dark voice intervened.
“Let them go, Ben said. “I´ll take them.”
Cassandra briefly wondered whether Ben would get in trouble for letting her in with weapons at hand. Then she remembered how easily he had overwhelmed her. He nodded a brief hello to them and then silently guided them through the palace.
“Is he always so dark and gloomy?” Charlie whispered so loud it barely counted as whispering.
“How should I know”, Cassandra answered in her normal voice. “I only met him yesterday and the first thing he did was give me a major concussion.”
Cassandra involuntarily reached for the back of her head where she could still feel a pretty big bump where she had hit the wall. Ben pretended he wasn’t listening but she could see the tension in his shoulders. Cassandra contemplated the narrow, dimly lit staircase they were taking and decided that now was not the time. Unfortunately Charlie didn’t seem to follow her sentiment.
“Whatever you will say about him”, Charlie said, tilting his head and clicking his tongue. “That bad boy thing really suits him, don’t you think?”
Ben turned around with such a menacing look on his face that Charlie almost fell down the stairs. Cassandra waited for Ben to turn around again, then indicated to Charlie to cut it out. They were in enough trouble already. Ben opened the door to the demigods’ quarters for them and they followed him down a broad, luxuriously decorated corridor. It was mainly deserted except for the odd guard who was stationed at each corner they turned. They always snapped to attention when they saw Ben and he curtly nodded back at them.
There were symbols associated with the gods on each of the huge wooden doors that must have led into the individual rooms of the demigods staying there. There was one with a lightning bolt on it, Zeus’s symbol, but Ben kept walking. He led them to a balcony at the end of the long corridor.
When Cassandra passed Ben, she noted that his eyes were expressionless but his breath accelerated slightly when she accidently brushed up against him. She felt herself blush and was glad when the fresh autumn air cooled her down a bit. She felt Ben watch her every movement but for a moment she was distracted by the sight of Alexander. He was sitting with his wheelchair turned sideways, enjoying the late autumn sun, and once again, Cassandra was struck by his absolutely perfect features. Hearing them come, Alexander opened his eyes to give her a short, warm smile.
“I see you are feeling better”, Alexander said and she involuntarily stepped a little closer.
His voice was seductive and she felt herself wanting to be close to him. Charlie on the other hand stayed where he was, not least because Ben had let a heavy hand fall on his shoulder. Alexander’s smile vanished when he looked at Charlie.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Alexander said and Charlie, who didn’t look half as smart as during the opening ceremony but not nearly as bad as when Cassandra had first met him, stroked his beard, scratched his belly and unsuccessfully tried to hide his embarrassment.
“Don’t think you do”, Charlie said, coughing.
“Of course I know you”, Alexander said coolly. “You were the gentleman screaming his head off in the Ladies’ room the other night. Or was that supposed to help your friend in any conceivable way?”
Charlie had the decency to look ashamed but Alexander had already lost interest in him.
“You came here to bring me something that belongs to my sister?” he said, his voice now not exactly harsh but not
very friendly either.
Charlie stretched out his hand and the son of Hades took the towel from him. The he spread its contents before Alexander. He was careful and didn’t touch the big necklace although he seemed to be more curious about the little one anyway.
“The Necklace of Harmonia”, Alexander said and shook his head. “Beatrix should have known better than to take it with her.”
He looked at Ben.
“Make sure it is sent back home to Aphrodite”, he said and then took a closer look at the small necklace.
“I wonder why my sister made such a fuss about losing this one”, he said, gingerly picking it up with his good hand. After inspecting it for a moment, he simply tossed it onto the ground.
“It’s worthless”, he said dismissively, then he looked up at Cassandra and stretched out his hand.
“I apologize for what happened the other day”, he said and Cassandra couldn’t help but take it. The skin on his hand was soft, his grip stronger than she would have expected. “I promise that she won’t bother you again.”
Cassandra, who was hit by a sudden vision, staggered back and would have fallen if Ben hadn’t caught her. She quickly disentangled herself from him but still felt slightly dizzy from what she had just experienced.
“Are you ok?” Alexander asked, worry showing in his eyes and Cassandra nodded, confused.
From one moment to the next, Alexander’s face changed into a horrible mask of pain and he turned away from them.
“You should go now”, he said and Cassandra bit her lip.
Then she murmured a short good-bye and indicated to Charlie that it was time for them to leave. They exited the servants’ entrance and Charlie, looking flushed and sweaty, told Cassandra that he needed to get a drink and disappeared.
Cassandra wasn’t unhappy about being alone because that gave her time to think about what she had seen when she had touched Alexander. Again, her vision had been unusually specific: she had seen two people holding each other in a tight embrace. One had been a tall girl with brown hair who had her back turned to her. And the other one had been Alexander. An Alexander who had been looking directly at her and who was able to stand on his own two feet again. His hair had been a little longer but it had definitely been him. Cassandra had no idea what to make of that.
That night she had one of her bad dreams again. She woke up, drenched in sweat, unable to breathe. And then Hector was there and took her into his arms. It took a while for the panic to subside but her brother’s presence helped. He waited until she was able to breathe normally, then he asked her to go back to sleep. He stayed at her side until he was sure she was ok, then he lay down on the floor.
That was how Pandora found them the next morning: Cassandra, curled into a ball on the bed with her hand touching her brother’s big frame and Hector still covered in dust and dirt from the road and snoring so heavily, the room was shaking.
Pandora gave a cry and then threw herself at her brother and started to kiss and cuddle him, before she demanded he tell her everything. Hector, smiling with an unusual strain at his pet sister, indicated to Pandora that he would rather have something to eat first. Excitedly, Pandora clapped her hands together and was out of the door as fast as she had come in, crying out for them to join her in the kitchen.
Cassandra, who had seen Hector’s initial reaction before he realized where he was, put away the knife she had drawn from under her pillow.
“Don’t ever do that again”, Cassandra said and her brother nodded, slowly hiding the knife with which he had almost hurt Pandora because, for a moment, he had forgotten that he was safe now.
Cassandra, stretching out her hand, was helped out of the bed by her brother and drawn into a quick hug. Then they went downstairs to have breakfast.
5 First Day of Class
When Hector and Cassandra came down for breakfast, the kitchen was almost empty except for Charlie who lay passed out on the sofa again and Pandora who seemed to have put it into her head to make pancakes for them. They were soon joined by Summer who shyly introduced herself to Hector and then went to tell Pandora to step away from the oven. Pandora, covered in flour and egg yolk, looked at her hands, then at the black mass that had once been butter, and sat down next to Hector pouting. The clouds on her forehead soon disappeared when Hector smiled at her and she started talking animatedly to her brother.
Jim, stretching and yawning on his way into the kitchen, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Hector.
“Are you a giant?” he asked, caught between fear and fascination.
Charlie coughed and then opened one very red-rimmed eye to look at the new arrival.
“Wow”, he said hoarsely and sat up a little straighter. “It’s not hard to guess who you descend from. Only that, unlike Hephaestus, you somehow managed to get lucky in the face department.”
Hector, frowning, raised an inquiring eyebrow towards Cassandra who shrugged and told him that Charlie was harmless. Jim, who was still staring open-mouthed at Hector, asked whether it was safe to come in, to which Pandora replied that he shouldn’t be ridiculous. Hesitatingly, Jim came in and sat down next to Hector. Their brother, choosing to dig into the pancake Summer had made, lay a heavy hand on Jim’s when the little boy tried to take another one Summer had served them and shook his head. Jim, shrieking and then clapping his hands over his mouth, scrambled to the side.
“Don´t worry”, Pandora said. “He is really nice.”
“But he is so big”, Jim whispered but came back to sit beside her again.
Hector stuck his fork into a pancake, laid it on Jim’s plate and then nodded. Jim, checking whether he actually meant it, gingerly reached for the plate and then started eating, too. Hector murmured an appreciative thank you towards Summer for yet another pancake. Summer, blushing, quickly turned away.
“Not very talkative, your brother”, Charlie said and fell back on the sofa, groaning. “Unlike your sister who doesn’t seem to want to stop talking.”
“Why don´t you go to your room if you don’t like it?” Pandora said but Charlie had already covered his ears with a pillow and seemed to want to go back to sleep.
They quickly finished their breakfast and then left towards the general direction of the Colosseum. Cassandra was feeling edgy and nervous while Hector seemed relaxed enough. His obsidian skin shimmered in the early autumn sun and Cassandra smiled up at her brother, telling him about Arissa and the necklace, her run-in with Wolf and Bear and the other demigods, especially about Alexander and Ben. When she spoke about Ben and how fast he was, Hector started looking at her strangely but she was relieved of any further explanation when they finally arrived at their destination together with ten other Unclaimed and about fifty Claimed.
The latter were dressed in full-battle gear while the Unclaimed had nothing much but a fierce look of determination in their faces and Cassandra, who didn’t fare much better in the outfit department, wondered how long that would sustain them all.
It got a little better when they entered the training arena and saw that there were weapons and equipment waiting for them. The arena was bigger than anything Cassandra had ever seen and bustling with activity. There were servants hurrying around putting up armor into weapons’ stands, preparing the training machinery, raking the sand and sweeping away the gold, red and brown leaves from the huge trees at the side of the arena. Some stood simply at the ready to take care of the arriving Claimed and helped them adjust their protective gear. The Unclaimed stood at the side, waiting for their teachers to arrive. Cassandra and Hector joined them. The demigods had already arrived and Cassandra indicated to Hector who was who.
Wolf and Bear, not hard to recognize because they were wearing their animal hides again, were checking out their weapons and raised them in mock greeting towards Cassandra. They saw Hector standing beside her and hesitated, then seemingly decided to leave her alone for the moment. The demigods called River and Sol were engaging in a playful scuffle, their energy palpable throu
gh the arena. Sol, the son of Apollo, had a fierce intensity to his moves while River, who seemed to be gliding rather than walking, evaded most of his friend’s strikes with an ease that seemed in direct contradiction to his languid manner.
Hector didn’t need her to tell him who Ben was. He was standing with his back turned to them, polishing his silver sword and seemingly uninterested in what was going on around him. When River called out to him, he turned around, a smile playing on his lips, but didn’t approach his friends. It was as if there was an invisible line that no one dared overstep and the son of Hades made no attempt to close the gap either. He was wearing black again and looked entirely at ease by the way he moved and relaxed his shoulders. Then he swung his sword to test its flexibility and Cassandra found it hard not to stare at him. As if feeling her look at him, Ben stopped. He frowned when he saw Hector and her standing so close together, then he turned away again. Then he joined his friends who were getting jittery with suppressed energy.
Finally, their teachers came in but there was no introduction, no explanation, no motivating speech. Ajax shouted at them to lose the weapons and start running twenty laps while Hippolyta went to inspect the general set-up, making suggestions for improvement along the way. Some of the servants were putting up a ramp towards a row of spectator seats and Cassandra wondered whether they were expecting Alexander but was immediately distracted by the task set for them. Cassandra, feeling the sweet release of getting her body to exert itself, found her spirits lift with every lap they ran while Hector, who didn’t like running, obediently trudged along, indicated to Cassandra to go ahead. Cassandra didn’t need to be told twice.
The demigods had naturally taken the front position with Ben leading while most of the Unclaimed stayed at the back. Somewhere along the tenth round Cassandra saw something glint above and there indeed was Alexander sitting in the spectator’s row guarded by three heavily armed descendants of Ares. She involuntary picked up her pace when she saw him watching her, closing up to Bear with ease. She wished Bear, who was grunting and sweating heavily, a good morning. Bear frowned and then pushed her to the side. Cassandra caught herself at the last moment, swore and went at Bear. The son of Hephaestus lost his footing and almost fell, too. Suddenly Ajax was beside them and screamed at them to do 200 push-ups.
The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) Page 5
