Poseidon's Academy Box Set

by Sarah A Vogler

  ‘I think Venus is the only thing she’s scared of,’ Hailey said.

  Although Hailey was surprised she hadn’t run the idea of sneaking down to the stable past Jayden. Maybe their relationship isn’t going so well these days. That’ll make Demi happy.

  ‘What happens if the monster or whatever sneaks up behind us?’ Alec glanced over his shoulder as they wound their way through the hallways.

  Demi rolled her eyes. ‘If it was behind us, we would have seen it.’

  ‘Not if it’s invisible.’ Alec glanced over his shoulder again. ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like not knowing things. If we at least knew what the thing taking people was I’d feel better.’

  ‘I’m scared too,’ Tahlia told him, and stretched out her fingers, wrapping them around Alec’s hand. ‘But at least we’re not alone.’

  Alec’s eyes widened. He glanced down at Tahlia’s hand on his and gulped. ‘Um, yeah, that’s true.’

  ‘When we get to the nereids’ room, I’ll be keeping my force field up—this time high enough that they won’t be able to throw any sea-urchin bombs over it. I’ll push them against the wall until they tell us what’s going on.’

  Alec was turning paler by the second, and Hailey thought he might faint at any moment. ‘And what if your force field breaks?’

  ‘It won’t.’ Aaron’s voice was absolute.

  Hailey believed him. The nereids had put them through too much. There was no line her and her friends wouldn’t cross to get what they wanted. If Hailey had to, she would get Alec to punch a hole through the wall so she could zap the nereids with lightning until they told the truth. This was the only way. The only chance they had. If they didn’t get the nereids to talk, then they were all dead.

  ‘Everyone get ready.’ Aaron’s voice was a whisper as they approached the nereids’ room. He kept one palm raised while he used his other hand to twist the nereids’ pearl door handle. His hand shot back up as the door flew open and he lunged inside. Hailey bolted in behind him, ready to see Nemertes’s scowling face. But the room was empty.

  ‘They’re not here,’ Demi stated the obvious.

  ‘I’ve never been in this room before.’ Tahlia glided a hand over one of the clamshell sinks.

  ‘Where would they be?’ Hailey had been certain they would be here. She didn’t know anywhere else that they liked to hang out.

  ‘The sea,’ Aaron suggested, dropping his hands. ‘They probably took the sea-horses for a ride.’

  ‘But they only did that when they were keeping things from Amathia,’ Alec pointed out. ‘She’s not around to spy on them, so why would they take the sea-horses out, especially during the night?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Pandora said. ‘It actually might be a good thing. Now we can hide here and wait for them to return. They’ll probably be so pleased that things are going their way they’ll start bragging about their plan.’

  ‘Back to spying again.’ Demi clapped her hands together. ‘Just like the good old days.’

  ‘Um, one problem.’ Tahlia put down the mother-of-pearl brush she’d been admiring, resting it on one of the sinks. ‘There’s nowhere to hide.’

  Hailey smirked. ‘We know a place.’

  Aaron strode towards the painting of Poseidon and the nereids, lifting it off the wall to reveal a passageway with tiny lights embedded in its crystal walls.

  ‘Ooh, I missed out on this secret passageway last time.’ Demi skipped towards it.

  ‘Wow,’ Tahlia gasped. ‘What do you get up to when no one is around?’

  ‘You wouldn’t believe us if we told you,’ Demi said.

  ‘Are we sure this is a good idea?’ Alec stared anxiously down the long passageway. ‘If they find us like they did last time, we’ll have to go back through that maze.’ He trembled.

  ‘We only got caught because you sneezed,’ Aaron pointed out.

  ‘I had Poseidon’s Plague,’ Alec argued. ‘I couldn’t help it.’

  ‘I know,’ Aaron said, patting him on the back. ‘Come on. Everyone inside.’

  Everyone except Alec piled into the passageway, which was tall enough for them to stand up in. The lights embedded in the walls glowed brighter as Alec fixed the painting back on the wall, concealing the passageway.

  ‘It’s smaller than I remember,’ Alec said as he fazed through the painting and squeezed past Aaron, Hailey, and Demi so he could stand at the back with Tahlia and Pandora.

  ‘There were only three of us last time,’ Hailey reminded him.

  ‘Shh,’ Aaron hissed. ‘We don’t know when they’ll be back. We can’t risk them hearing us talking.’

  They didn’t have to wait long. Hailey was sure only five minutes had passed before the door clicked open. Everyone stiffened.

  ‘I do love wandering the palace’s hallways again.’ Hailey recognised Nesso’s voice.

  ‘Do you suppose any of the humans are dead yet?’ Pherusa asked. ‘How long would it take them to freeze?’

  ‘I do not believe they will last any longer than a few days,’ Nemertes’s voice replied. ‘And that’s if Stetho doesn’t get them first.’

  ‘It really was a brilliant plan to release her,’ Ligea remarked. ‘We should have done it years ago.’

  ‘Too risky,’ Nemertes replied. ‘She is unpredictable. She could have harmed us as well. Using her was the absolute last option.’

  Maera giggled with glee. ‘Everything is happening just as we planned. Poseidon will be so pleased when he returns.’

  Oh no, not the gods again. Please tell me they don’t have a plan to wake up the gods.

  ‘Sisters, does that painting look crooked to you?’ Nemertes asked.

  Hailey’s body turned as rigid as a gorgon’s victim. Please don’t come over here. Please. It was one thing to face the nereids in an open room where Hailey and her friends could corner them, but another for the nereids to trap them in a passageway. And Hailey really, really didn’t want to go through that nightmarish maze again.

  ‘Why yes, Nemertes, it does look crooked,’ Nesaea agreed.

  The painting flew off the wall.

  29

  Stetho

  Aaron threw his hands out, shooting his palms straight at Nemertes and her sisters. They flew backwards with a shriek as his force field ploughed into them. ‘GO!’ Aaron shouted.

  Alec scrambled down the passageway, with everyone else following behind. How is this happening again? Hailey thought as the passageway turned off to the right. It’s last year all over again.

  ‘Uh oh,’ Alec squeaked as the six of them stumbled to a stop.

  A crystal wall blocked the end of the passageway. But it wasn’t like the smooth polished walls in the rest of the palace. This crystal was uncut and rough, and reminded Hailey of an iceberg. Where in Tartarus did that come from?

  ‘How’d you get past it last time?’ Demi’s gaze shot over her shoulder, keeping watch for the nereids.

  ‘It wasn’t here last time.’ Aaron smacked his hand against it. ‘Tartarus, I thought it might be an illusion… Alec, you’ll have to use your powers to get us through.’

  ‘Punching through it will take too long—and crystal is as sharp as knives when you break it. My hand will get destroyed.’ Alec clutched his fists protectively to his chest.

  ‘Not your Heracles powers. Your Unique powers,’ Aaron corrected.

  ‘I can’t. I haven’t developed my powers enough to take people with me through objects.’

  ‘What about the wall?’ Pandora asked. ‘Use your fazing powers on the wall and then we can all pass through it.’

  ‘I’ve never done that before.’

  ‘Well, you better be a natural at it, because I don’t think my powers knocked out the nereids,’ Aaron said. ‘Do it, Alec. Now. Or we’re all dead.’

  Hailey clutched her necklace. Please, Tyches, let this work. She didn’t think they’d stand much of a chance against the nereids in this passageway. Sure, Aaron could use his force field to hold them back,
but the nereids struck Hailey as being patient enough to let them starve to death.

  Alec rested his hand on the rough crystal wall. ‘Please, please, please,’ he muttered. ‘Faze. Please faze.’

  ‘We are coming,’ Nemertes’s voice taunted in the distance. Hailey imagined her and her sisters slithering into the passageway. It wouldn’t take them long to reach this point.

  ‘Hurry up, Alec,’ Demi urged.

  ‘I’m trying.’ Alec gulped, looking as though he wished he’d run back up the stairs to get Sir Bliss when he’d had the chance.

  ‘You can do this, Alec.’ Tahlia placed a hand on his, her fingertips just resting on the crystal. ‘Concentrate. Feel yourself go airy and pass that feeling on to the wall.’

  ‘Okay... Go airy. Pass it on to the crystal,’ he repeated as sweat dripped down his face.

  Come on, Hailey thought as Alec closed his eyes. She could feel the nereids closing in on them with their silent footsteps. Prowling closer and closer.

  ‘Good,’ Tahlia said when Alec’s hand passed through the wall, as if his arm were made of mist. ‘Now pass that power on to the wall. Let it flow from you like the River Acheron flows into the Underworld,’ Tahlia instructed, her voice calm, acting as if they weren’t seconds away from psycho sea-nymphs attacking them.

  Hailey didn’t breathe. She didn’t want to do anything to distract Alec. Come on, Tyches. Please let this work. She almost laughed when the wall blurred like an out-of-focus photo.

  ‘I did it.’ Alec looked more surprised than anyone else.

  ‘Everyone get through,’ Aaron ordered.

  Hailey was the fourth one to go through, following behind Demi. Pins and needles pricked at her skin as everything around her blurred. And then she was on the other side of the wall.

  ‘AHHH!’ Aaron cried out, forcing Hailey to whip around. The wall was solid again, and had trapped Aaron’s left foot inside it.

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry,’ Alec sputtered, running through the crystal. ‘I can fix it.’ He rested his hand on Aaron’s leg; it turned all blurry, like the wall had, and Aaron stumbled forward.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Hailey asked, cringing at the blood dripping from his cut-up ankle.

  Aaron gritted his teeth. ‘I’ll be fine. Keep moving.’

  They scrambled the extra few feet out of the passageway, Alec wrapping a hand around Aaron’s waist to help him.

  ‘Whoa,’ Demi gasped.

  Hailey came out after her, her breath catching as her fingertips exploded in tingles. The place was basically how she remembered it, with life-size paintings of Poseidon’s lovers, like Demeter and the nereids, lining the walls. But the painting of Medusa that had hung on the back wall had been removed; a passageway like the one they’d just come through stood in its place. But this one wasn’t lit with tiny lights in the crystal walls. It was dark. Like a tomb.

  ‘I think we know where Stetho has been hiding,’ Aaron remarked.

  ‘Where are we?’ Tahlia gazed around. ‘I’ve never seen this part of the palace before.’

  ‘Do you remember that impenetrable force field PET was trying to get through last year?’ Hailey asked.

  Tahlia nodded.

  ‘We’re on the other side of it. This is where Poseidon hid his lovers from his wife Amphitrite—at least that’s Alec’s theory.’

  ‘And maybe he hid a monster in here too.’ Alec’s voice was so quiet Hailey had to strain to hear him.

  ‘I guess it’s time to meet this Stetho.’ Aaron raised his palms.

  ‘No,’ Alec hissed. ‘We’re not facing a monster. We’re telling Sir Bliss so he and the teachers can face it.’

  ‘This ends now,’ Aaron said, his voice absolute. ‘Anyone who’s coming, stay behind me,’ he ordered before limping forward.

  Pandora drew the sword from the sheath on her back, the blade glinting in the light cast by the glowing orbs above them, and followed next.

  Hailey’s entire body shook, but it wasn’t from the cold. This passageway had to be where Stetho was hiding. As much as she wanted to run away and let the teachers fight the monster, she couldn’t abandon those who might be somewhere inside, petrified and screaming for help. Like Kora and Brennan, who were only taken because of her. She had to save them. She couldn’t risk letting this chance go, not when so many teachers had failed. Like Aaron said, it ended now.

  Hailey clutched her heart pendant as she entered the passageway; air as stale as a hundred-year-old window-less room wrapped around her. This is it, she thought, tiptoeing after her friends. They were about to find out what Stetho was. What could make people disappear so fast they didn’t even have time to scream?

  ‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ Aaron mumbled as he walked into the room at the end of the passageway.

  It was a large space—about the size of their common room—dimly lit by floating orbs. A bed was in the centre of the room, draped with tattered canopies that looked a thousand years old. That was all Hailey could see. Because shimmering white statues cluttered the rest of the area. But they weren’t really statues. She recognised them as the students and teachers who’d gone missing.

  Stetho’s a gorgon!

  ‘Kora!’ Tahlia ran up to the statue of Kora, just to the left of the passageway. Her mouth was open, as though she’d been about to scream when she’d been turned to stone. That was what all the statues looked like.

  ‘It makes sense now.’ Hailey spun to face Alec, surprised he’d decided to follow them inside. He brushed his fingers over the statue of a girl with eyes as wide as a full moon, and stared at the shimmering powder left on his fingers. ‘That white powder we found on the ground was statue dust. There’s been a gorgon here this whole time… We should go. Now that we know what Stetho is, we can tell Sir Bliss. He’ll bring the teachers and fourth years here.’

  ‘We’re not leaving.’ Demi’s eyes combed over the hundred statues. ‘We need to find Amathia and Madam Grayson. If we can bring them back, they can help us… Hey, I see Madam Grayson.’

  ‘Don’t move.’ Aaron grabbed Demi’s arm before she could run off. ‘You need to stay behind me. Otherwise I can’t protect you with my force field.’

  ‘It’s not possible to bring someone back without a spell or potion,’ Alec said, his face growing as white as the statues around them. ‘And that doesn’t always work either. We need to get help.’

  ‘I agree.’ Pandora was clutching her sword so tightly Hailey could see the white in her knuckles. ‘Gorgons are immortal. Only an adamantine sword can kill them.’

  ‘Like Perseus’s sword.’ Demi whirled to Alec. ‘We need to get that sword from your house.’

  ‘How? The travelling necklaces are gone. Remember?’

  ‘They’re here.’ Hailey spotted the familiar wooden chests scattered in front of the tattered bed.

  ‘Good. Let’s get the necklaces and then get out of here.’ Aaron limped forward.

  Hailey glimpsed Madam Norwood’s petrified face among the statues, right next to Amathia’s. She looked away. She didn’t want to think about the fact that they were trapped inside the stone. Probably screaming for help.

  ‘Grab one of the necklaces, Alec.’ Aaron’s eyes darted around the room, alert for Stetho. ‘Hurry, she could be back at any moment.’

  Alec dashed forward and then yelped, leaping back when someone—something—materialised in front of the chests.

  Even Hailey stumbled back a step. From what she’d learned at school, and in movies, gorgons were supposed to be hideous creatures with snakes for hair—like Medusa had been. But the gorgon standing in front of her was actually pretty. Long dark hair framed her young face, which was as beautiful as a nymph’s. The only thing that gave her away as a monster was the thick scaly snake tail that started at her waist. She raised herself up on the tail, surveying them with glittering green eyes.

  It took Hailey a second to realise she should have been a statue by now. Doesn’t a gorgon’s gaze instantly turn you to stone? And then
she remembered Aaron’s force field. Thank the Tyches for his powers.

  ‘Hello, little humans.’ Stetho’s voice was sweet, almost like a child’s. ‘Have you come to join my collection?’

  ‘No.’ Aaron pushed his force field forward, just enough to let Stetho know it was there. ‘You can’t touch us. Now turn everyone back or we’ll use our powers on you.’

  Stetho giggled and flicked her hand at the force field, sending ripples shooting across it. ‘I like it when they fight.’

  ‘Do what he said, Stetho,’ Pandora ordered, the point of her sword aimed directly at Stetho’s heart.

  ‘How do you know my name?’

  ‘We learned it from the nereids,’ Demi said.

  ‘Oh yes, they helped me build my collection.’ Stetho slithered to the left, running a hand over a statue of a boy. His hands were reaching for his face, trying to shield his eyes. Clearly, he hadn’t been quick enough. ‘I never used to like the nereids. But they’re not so cruel now—that’s why they’re not statues yet.’

  ‘Have you been living here since the school opened?’ Alec’s voice shook as he asked the question.

  Stetho slithered between the statues, admiring the faces frozen in terror. ‘Oh, much longer than that. Centuries—it’s been rather boring.’

  Aaron shifted his force field to follow the gorgon as she moved around the room. ‘How did you get here? Why haven’t you attacked us before?’

  Stetho hesitated for a moment, staring back at them, stunned, as if Aaron had just asked her why she had a tail. ‘No one has ever asked me for my story before.’ She paused, her face thoughtful. ‘I think I will share it with you. It’s not as though you’re going anywhere.’ She giggled and continued admiring her statues like a sculptor admiring their creations.

  ‘Poseidon was my father, and my mother was Medusa—she was pregnant with me when Athena transformed her into a gorgon… I don’t really remember her. I was only three when Perseus slayed her.’ She trailed her fingers over the statues as she slithered around them, white powder shimmering on her hands. ‘Mother was smart enough to keep me hidden, though, so Perseus never knew I was there.’ Stetho was on the other side of the room now, far enough away that Hailey and her friends could sprint to the door and escape if they wanted to—or more like dared to. ‘After Poseidon heard what had happened to my mother, he came for me and brought me back here. I was never allowed to leave,’ she went on, slithering her way back towards Hailey and her friends.