The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1)

by Stephens, Alexandra

  They sat down and Cassandra almost forgave her brother for bullying her into class when he handed her a bottle of water just when she was thinking she was about to die from thirst. She emptied it rapidly, wiped her mouth and watched in sympathy when River got up and hurriedly left the room.

  Cassandra sighed and closed her eyes to rest for a moment. As soon as she did, unbidden memories of the orphanage sprang up. She vividly remembered how twice a week they had cleaned their tables after breakfast and studied there, the smell of stale bread and almost turned milk still hanging in the air. Their father had always said that knowledge was power but that in order to fight well, they only needed to know the basics. They had made sure to know much more than that and it had been enough to pass the entrance tests. She hoped it would be enough to survive the next three years as well.

  The only thing their father had taught them extensively about was the Trojan war. He could go on for hours about it. They knew much too well that their mother and father had been an actual part of the war and as punishment they had both been allowed to stay alive to tell their tale. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of happily ever after.

  Their father had told them over and over again how the war had started: Eris, goddess of strife and discord, had not been invited to a feast of the gods. To avenge herself, she had thrown a golden apple before them, inscribed with the words “To the Fairest.” Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all claimed to be the rightful recipient of the apple and Zeus, who didn’t want to be caught in the middle, decided upon Paris, son to the King of Troy, to make the decision for him. All three goddesses wanted to win the prize, so Hera promised to make Paris king of Europe and Asia, Athena promised him wisdom and skill in battle. But it was Aphrodite who offered him what he eventually chose: the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife. Unfortunately, that woman was already married at the time, namely to the Spartan king Menelaus. Still, Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris and Paris snatched Helen from her husband, thereby starting a bloody, brutal war that went on for ten years.

  It was hard to imagine that a woman who had turned her face into a lifeless mask with too many surgeries, who used so much peroxide that her hair looked artificial and brittle and who was forever wearing clothes that were much too tight had been the reason the Trojan war had started. Their mother, the once beautiful Helen, had made her husband Menelaus willing to risk the life of his family and all his subjects because she had run off with Paris. Menelaus said that he had started the war to win her back, that he had loved her very much and couldn’t bear to see her with someone else. But Cassandra saw no love between them and she often thought that maybe there had been none from the beginning. That it had just been his pride that had stung because she had left him so easily for another man, had even married a second time once Paris was killed during the war. Only when Menelaus had won the war had she come back to her husband because it was either him or death.

  One of the reasons Cassandra always put up with her father rambling on and on about the war was that her namesake, the original Cassandra, was a part of the story and even though that Cassandra had foreseen the downfall of her house and the death of her brother Paris, it had been her curse that no one had believed her.

  She was disturbed in her thoughts by her brother’s continuous attempts at finding a more comfortable position. The chair he sat on was much too small for him. He shifted and moved until the chair was groaning and he decided to sit on a table instead. The clock told her that Ariadne’s class on tactics and defense was about to start but their teacher wasn’t anywhere to be seen yet. The room was filling up quickly, making the little oxygen left in the room an even more sought-after good. Finally, one of the Claimed took it on himself to open the windows and everyone sighed with relief. Then the first complaints came that the air was too cold and drafty and soon there was a heated discussion about whether it was better to die from suffocation or freeze to death.

  Bear, who was sitting in the front row, had put two chairs next to each other and was trying to balance his big bulk on them without much luck. He looked like he could use some cold air, too. His head was fiery red, his gaze wild. He kept throwing glances at the door as if he was waiting for something. His left leg was bouncing up and down restlessly and he looked like he was about to jump up and charge at someone. His gaze turned even wilder when he saw Sol and Beatrix smooching. His tension lessened visibly when Arissa finally entered.

  As usual, Arissa simply looked stunning. Although today she was wearing simple black trousers, a black tank top and a see-through white blouse, everyone held their breath or, in some cases, even dropped their jaw. Arissa didn’t even start to pretend that she didn’t enjoy the attention. She gave everyone a big smile and, with a very interesting sway of her hips, moved to sit beside Bear who was staring at her in eager participation. She threw a quick look at Ben, who still looked pale but this time with anger, and then whispered something into Bear’s ear that made him grip the handle of his chair so hard it broke. Satisfied, Arissa turned to talk to Beatrix, leaving Bear in a state of even greater turmoil than before.

  Cassandra thought back to last night and the notable absence of both Bear and Arissa. Not that it necessarily had to mean anything. But by the way Ben angrily kept rubbing his wrist, it must have meant something to him at least and he looked like he was about to get up and do something stupid.

  Alexander, who saw his friend’s distress, said something to him that first made him freeze, then relax. With an uncharacteristically stiff movement of his whole upper body, Ben made a conscious effort to turn away from his girlfriend and went to stare straight ahead instead, ignoring Arissa’s antics as best he could. Hector cleared his throat and bent down to touch Cassandra’s shoulder, shaking his head.

  “I know”, Cassandra said quietly. “She is walking on very thin ice, that girl.”

  Hector gently pressed her shoulder and leaned back again. Cassandra wondered whether Arissa knew that she was playing with fire but by the way she threw back her long blond hair and arched her back, she knew it very well.

  Bear’s larynx did a wild dance but just when he was about to reach for Arissa, she got up and went to sit on River’s chair, right beside Ben who was still staring straight ahead. She reached out to him to touch his arm and after a moment he relented and put his hand on hers. Cassandra felt incredibly disappointed. Apparently this was how their relationship worked.

  Bear, who had gotten all worked up again, broke the other handle off too but kept quiet when he met Ariadne’s stern eye, who had just then entered and at least partly picked up on what was going on. She watched him trying to reassemble the chair with a raised eyebrow and a slight shake of the head and waited for the room to quiet down.

  In the meantime, Ariadne left Bear to it, put down her books, rearranged some papers and snatched up some chalk from the floor. She did it with swift, efficient movements that showed her no-nonsense approach to things. She was small and lithe, her hair cut short because it was more practical that way and her clothes and shoes just the right mixture of comfortable and businesslike. Cassandra had come to know her as someone who valued the achievements of the mind higher than those of the body and who – up until now – had treated them fairly, though with no special warmth or kindness. She expected them to read and think and discuss and always gave them more homework than they could handle. She didn’t like excuses and she didn’t like flattery and she especially didn’t like being lied to. Cassandra hadn’t finished reading the book assigned for this lesson and she felt bad about it. By the way everyone was looking at anything but their teacher she knew she probably wasn’t the only one.

  But after saying some more words of welcome, Ariadne, in an unusual change to her normal routine that would have left her reading from her notes, started to speak freely to them.

  “The mind is at least as important as your body”, she said and thoughtfully played with a little piece of red string. “Hippolyta and Ajax will make sure that you w
ill be prepared for anything you will encounter on the battlefield, I will teach your minds to stay flexible, to always expect the unexpected, to think outside the box. Because your brain is a muscle that needs to be trained, too.”

  Bear made a grunting noise and got up.

  “My muscle is already about twice as big as everyone else’s”, he said and raised his right arm to show what he was talking about. “And I bet it beats brain.”

  That got him a few sniggers and suppressed laughs but when Bear saw the expression on Ariadne’s face he quickly sat down again under the croaking protest of his two chairs.

  “I will let it slide this time”, Ariadne said with another stern look at Bear. “But if you really think that your arm muscles will help you get out of a labyrinth or trick a Minotaur, think again, because the Minotaur is much stronger and definitely much cleverer than your left arm muscle, Bear Hammersmith. And as for getting out of a labyrinth, didn’t I see you back at the teacher’s room this morning because you thought it was your classroom?”

  That made everyone laugh and Bear murmured that he had been looking for the bathroom.

  “So much for using your muscles instead of your head”, Ariadne said and then turned towards the rest of the class. “Before we concentrate on the special mindset that is necessary to find your way out of a labyrinth, I would like to start off today’s class with a question that always leaves me startled by the variety of answers I get. Usually I pose this question at the end of the year but this morning I thought, why not now? Let’s see how they are doing.”

  She waited for the murmuring to quiet down.

  “I expect that you have all been taught the history of the Trojan war?”

  There was some hesitant nodding and some very definite paper rearranging and avoiding of eye contact as no one wanted to be the next victim of Ariadne’s inquiries. Wolf seemed to be the only one who didn’t mind. He leaned back, revealing some very tanned, tattooed stomach muscles and scratched his belly. Ariadne smiled and stepped in front of him.

  “Wolf Ares. You are the son of the god of war, yet you seem to be slightly bored by the subject. Would you care to tell us why?”

  Wolf yawned, displaying his sharp teeth and then slid even further down his chair.

  “I am not interested in wars that lie in the past. I only look ahead to the ones in front of us.”

  That earned him a loud “Yeah” from Bear and some of the other Claimed, a slight frown from Ben and a shake of the head from Alexander.

  “We can learn a lot from things that are in the past”, Ariadne said. “We can look at mistakes made and make sure not to repeat them. We can consider the lives lost and hope not to have to shed as much blood ever again.”

  Wolf bared his teeth.

  “Where would be the fun in that?”

  Ariadne bent down.

  “Fun?” she said, very quietly. “You think war is fun? Well, that is quite something. I wonder whether a soldier lying on a battlefield with his intestines inside out, wishing for one last drop of water thinks of war as fun as well. Or that an invalid with only one leg left and a mind that screams attack every time he falls asleep and hears a noise thinks of his experience as fun. Oh right, and let’s not forget the general killing and raping and marauding and destroying or the mounting of heads on sticks. Is that your idea of fun, Wolf, Son of Ares?”

  Wolf shifted uncomfortably but didn’t back down.

  “War is ugly sometimes”, he said and sat a little straighter. “But battles have to be fought. Why else would we be here?”

  Ariadne stuck out her chin in defiance.

  “You are here to prevent wars from happening”, she said and met everyone’s eye individually. “You are here to think and find as many reasons as you possibly can why not to start a war.”

  Then she sank her head as if realizing that this was not all they were here for.

  “But yes, you are here to learn to protect humanity at all times, especially in times of war.”

  She sighed and looked up again.

  “But never forget that you have a choice. You always have a choice to make it… not quite as ugly as that.”

  She seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

  “But I am getting ahead of myself”, she continued suddenly. “I said I wanted to ask you a question today and that question is: How would you have won the Trojan war?”

  She took a look around.

  “Jack, why don’t you tell me how the Trojan war was won in the first place?”

  Jack, the descendant of Apollo that had been so rude to Cassandra the night before, started biting his nails until his friend Robin took pity on him and raised his hand to answer the question. Ariadne allowed it.

  “They built a huge wooden horse and hid their men in it”, he said, his voice smooth as a river. “They put it in front of the doors of Troy and left it as a present, pretending to leave on their ships. The Trojans pulled the horse in and celebrated their victory. During the following night, the warriors hidden inside the horse came out and opened the doors to Troy. The Achaeans killed off every single person in the city except for a few women and children.”

  Ariadne nodded and Robin sat down again. Ariadne looked around.

  “Bear Hammersmith, do I even have to ask how you would have won the war?” she said and nodded to Bear who was letting his arm muscles play.

  “By using more force”, Bear cried and stood up, lifting his arms. “Those craven bastards shouldn’t have taken to such a ruse. Fight openly or not at all, I say!”

  Bear threw a triumphant look around the classroom and Ariadne, sighing and shaking her head, went to the blackboard, drew a small arrow and wrote “brute force” after it.

  “Maybe we should hear a female perspective on the whole thing”, she said when turning back towards the classroom and approached Arissa. “Daughter of Zeus, how would you have won the war?”

  Arissa got up and took a good look around.

  “I think I would send a single person in”, she said after a moment’s thought and put down her hand possessively on Ben’s left shoulder. “Someone like the son of Hades. He always finds a way in and out of a situation. Well. Almost always.”

  The room temperature seemed to drop a few degrees when Ben moved his chair a little to the side so that she couldn’t reach him anymore and their eyes met.

  “I always find a way”, Ben replied coolly, his eyes never leaving his girlfriend’s face as if he was trying to tell her something. “But I find it is seldom a way someone else chooses for me.”

  Arissa’s smile was cold and cruel to the point of making Cassandra feel even sicker than she had felt this morning. And Cassandra knew that it wouldn’t pay to underestimate Arissa. That behind that perfect mask there was a dangerous and perfidious mind. Her next words only served to reinforce that feeling.

  “The Trojans had to eat and drink, didn’t they?” Arissa asked slowly and Ariadne nodded hesitantly. “After ten years of war, they wouldn’t have much left to eat, would they? And they would have needed a well or something to drink from, right?”

  Again, Ariadne nodded, this time with lips pressed together so tightly they almost disappeared.

  “I would have snuck someone in to poison their water”, Arissa continued, sticking out her tongue a little. “It was a dry, hot country, not much rain. So before they found an alternative way of getting water, they would have either died from thirst or from sickness.”

  “That someone would most definitely not have been me then”, Ben said but Arissa didn’t look at him, only shrugged when Ariadne asked her whether she would have no concern for the women and children.

  “Oh, but I do”, Arissa said, her voice soft as silk. “It would have been upon the Trojans to decide that, wouldn’t it? As soon as they realized that their water was poisoned they could have given themselves up. And then I might at least have considered sparing the women and children.”

  Ariadne nodded.

  “Fair enough”,
she said. “That would be your right as conqueror.”

  Arissa seemed to like that word.

  “Yes, that’s right”, she said with a smile that made Cassandra’s skin crawl. “I would have the right to decide. And I would decide to keep the pretty and strong ones to be sold into slavery and for the others to have a quick, merciful death. That would have been my way to win that war.”

  Arissa threw a triumphant look at her brother who had gripped his wheelchair with his good arm so hard that the white of his knuckles showed.

  “I think what my sister is trying to say is that this is an efficient, yet cruel way to win a war.”, he said, the full force of his authority reverberating in his voice. “And even though she might think herself capable of such a hardness, I am sure she would have shown true mercy had she been confronted with the hundreds and hundreds of innocent women and children. Wouldn’t you, sister?”

  Arissa looked like she wanted to protest but was forced by his authority to incline her head in agreement.

  “Very well”, Ariadne said, not in the least fooled by this. “You should always think about the consequences. There are always consequences.”

  Arissa was released and immediately snapped up her head.

  “And how would you have gone on about it, brother?” she said acidly.

  “It’s my decision who gets to answer next”, Ariadne said thereby asserting her very own authority in the classroom again. “Alexander will answer this question last. Maybe it is time for a different perspective.”

  She looked around and eventually met Cassandra’s steady gaze. Most of the Unclaimed who were sitting in the back row with them kept staring into their books and only occasionally looked up. Cassandra knew the way they hunched their shoulder only too well, like they were waiting to be treated badly, even expecting it. She wished they would all trust in themselves more. They had made it all the way here, so they must have been good students, intelligent and clever.

  “How would you have won this war, Cassandra?” Ariadne asked and Cassandra was still surprised by the fact that people knew her by name. But then she was a contestant after all. Every head turned towards her and Cassandra felt her throat dry up. At first she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to answer, but then she simply started talking and she felt her voice become steadier with every word.