by Simon Archer
“Look at them, Sasha,” she said through her petite hands and perfectly manicured fingers. “They don’t even need a sip of your precious wine to help them move along. They’ve got it bad.”
Sasha’s eyebrows raised suggestively. “Yes, they do, my dear.”
I wanted things back on track so I launched into an explanation about Tainted Love and the plan to lure Aphrodite to campus.
Sasha and her nymphs listened intently. Habitually, she spun some of her hair around her finger as she pondered and processed my words. When I finished, Sasha exhaled heavily as if she had been the one telling the long story, rather than me.
“That’s a very clever plan,” Sasha said with an approving eye. “Lean into the madness rather than resist it. Well done, Cameron.”
“Thank you?” I said uneasily, not sure if it was a proper compliment.
“Do you have a theme?” Sasha said, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. It was the first positive sign I had from her, so I took hold of it and ran.
“It’s going to be a masquerade,” I replied, “on Halloween.”
Sasha whistled, low and long. “That’s not a lot of time. Doable, but still, I would have liked another week or so. Maybe a Christmas ball, preferably.”
“Wait,” I paused. “So you’ll help us?”
“Absolutely,” Sasha said brightly as she leaned back against the trunk of a nearby tree and crossed her legs.
“Awesome,” I exclaimed right before Hailey put a hand on my shoulder.
“Wait for it,” she muttered.
“On one condition,” Sasha said on cue, with a half-smile prickling at her lips.
“There it is,” Hailey confirmed with a tight smile of her own. Her hand slipped off my shoulder and curled into a fist at her side. “What do you want, Sasha?”
Sasha sneered at Hailey disapprovingly. “So suspicious, daughter of Apollo. Do you walk around your whole life like that? How sad for you.”
Sensing the tension in my lover next to me as her body clenched with annoyance, I stepped in. “What’s your condition, Sasha?”
“I want to put on a show at the dance,” Sasha announced. She spread her arms wide so that the long sleeves of her robe dangled dramatically.
“What kind of show?” I asked, though apprehension seeped into my brain, unable to hide my concern.
“A main event at the dance,” Sasha said slyly. “It doesn’t have to be long, but it has to be spectacular. We can still have the dancing and the punch and the costumes, but I want to direct a show.”
“Like a musical?” I wondered. “What are you thinking here, Sasha? How big are we talking?”
“As much as I would love to bring out a classic Greek tragedy or one of my father’s infamous comedies, sadly, I don’t think that will go over so well with the officials, no matter how lovey-dovey they may be right now,” Sasha answered with a dramatic and disappointed sigh. “Now, it would be more like a dance number, but with fighting. A choreographed fight, if you will.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I said honestly. I could tell Hailey wasn’t happy with the idea, but I had concluded that Hailey wasn’t going to be happy with anything I agreed to for Sasha’s sake. So, being the head of this dance committee, I made the executive decision. “I think we can manage that.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” Sasha said suddenly, though I could easily tell she had been purposely holding back this part of the request. Probably for dramatic effect. “You two will be the stars.”
“What?” I balked at the same moment Hailey said, “No!”
“I’m not an actor or a dancer,” I said as I held a hand to my chest, not unlike the way Sasha had earlier. “I don’t like being in front of people.”
“You’re not going to get me to prance around in some costume, making a fool of myself,” Hailey said as she crossed her arms definitively.
“You two have no imagination!” Sasha complained. “I’m not going to embarrass you, I promise. And it’s going to be fight based, which is something both of you do anyway, isn’t it?”
“Your whole job in theatre class was to embarrass us,” Hailey said spitefully.
Sasha’s eyebrows jumped up again, surprised. “Ah, so that is your beef with me, huh? You think what I do is embarrassing?”
“It has no value to what we do as soldiers,” Hailey said, her voice clipped and sharp around the consonants. “We are warriors and fighters, not actors and artists.”
“Yes, but you study Grecian art, do you not?” Sasha snapped back. “The Greek invented theatre, Thespis the first actor to step out of the chorus. Theatre is one of the ways we keep our history alive through song and story.” The teacher hopped up on her feet, emboldened by her passion, as though she had been waiting years to say this. “You go out onto the battlefield and fight your battles, but the artists tell of your conquests for years to come. The artists maintain your legacy long after you are gone. The artists create heroes.”
Sasha leaned down and placed herself inches from Hailey’s face, a challenge if there ever was one. “Without artists, there would be no one to tell your story.”
Hailey didn’t move or flinch away from the daughter of Dionysus. She stayed still, with a solid grimace on her face. Meanwhile, Sasha straightened and flicked her robe out like a cape as she turned away from the pair of us.
She put both hands on the tree trunk and leaned against it with her head bowed. The teacher’s shoulders shook, and for a second, I thought she was crying. Suddenly, Sasha stilled and whirled back around to face us, confident as ever.
“Those are my terms,” she declared. “Take it or leave it.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again, unsure of what to say. I really didn’t want to be in any kind of spotlight or show. The most acting I ever did was when I worked at the Outdoor Interactive Museum as the blacksmith. They dressed us up in old-timey clothes, and we had to make it seem like we lived in the eighteen-hundreds. Playing to the students on field trips or the tourists was my least favorite part of the job. I only wanted to use the forge, no matter how outdated it might have been.
I never was one to seek attention. I was more than happy staying in my smithy, making weapons for other warriors and heroes to use. But ever since I’d been admitted to the Academy, I’d been forced to not just make the weapons, but take them up as well. Use them and fight alongside those heroes. Maybe this was another opportunity to do that. It was unconventional as hell, but maybe it was the baby step I needed. And who was I kidding? It couldn’t be any harder than fighting a chimera.
“I do have one concern, Sasha,” I said, thinking through all of the details.
“Yes, my dear?”
“That’s a lot of work, to plan a dance, and star in a show,” I commented, the hesitation in my voice. “Danced, choreographed fight, whatever you want to call it. I mean, there are only two other people besides us on the committee.”
“That’s where we come in,” the beach tanned nymph stepped forward. She spread out her hands to indicate herself and her sisters. “We will free up some of the more tedious duties, so you can focus on the performance.”
So that’s why Genesis and Makayla suggested we find Sasha. Not only was she the daughter of Dionysus, but she had a connection with the nymphs. These creatures were going to take a lot of the work off our shoulders, which would free us up for her ‘show.’
The excitement at having extra help quickly faded as I reminded myself of the impending show Hailey and I would have to put on. Then it sunk even farther when I thought about how much time I was going to have to spend with this disturbing, immaculate, gorgeous daughter of Dionysus.
“What do you say, dears?” Sasha asked Hailey and me with narrowed eyes.
“We’ll do it,” I decided before Hailey could interject. Luckily, the daughter of Apollo didn’t defy me. She visibly swallowed her words and then stood there with a stoic expression.
“Glorious,” Sasha exclaimed. “Simply glorious.” Then the da
ughter of Dionysus turned to Hailey and me, suddenly looking serious. “We’re going to begin rehearsals tomorrow evening at sunset.”
Hailey opened her mouth to protest, but Sasha held up a finger and cut the soldier off. “I don’t want to hear it. Make time, daughter of Apollo.”
Hailey’s face pinched into a grimace, but she nodded all the same.
“And Cameron,” Sasha said as she put her palms together, looking as though she were about to start a prayer. “I have a special assignment for you.”
“What is it?” I asked wearily.
“It’s something right up your alley as the son of a blacksmith,” Sasha said, pleased like she was giving me a treat. “I’m going to commission you to make brand new weapons for our show.”
It was true. Sasha had given me a treat. Those words were the best ones I’d heard from the teacher since meeting her. I couldn’t help myself. My face beamed into a bright smile.
“Now that,” I said, “I can do.”
Sasha promised to give me the specs when we met the next day. She ushered us away after that, finally excusing us after what was an unpredictable afternoon. A violent wind accompanied our exit as if it shoved us out of the clearing.
Hailey and I didn’t speak much when we walked back out of the woods. It was nice to just be in her presence, even when each of us was wrapped in our own thoughts.
When we reached the main parts of campus again, Hailey walked me to my dorm entrance. We stood there together, face to face, but not looking at one another.
“That was…” I started, unable to find the right word.
“Weird?” Hailey supplied.
“It feels bigger than weird,” I replied with a chuckle.
“I told you,” Hailey said as she shook her head, “that woman is a handful.” Hailey rubbed her forehead in frustration. “I can’t believe we have to work with her for weeks.”
“We’ll be okay,” I assured her. “Hopefully, we’ll get through it, and everything will go back to normal. I want to talk to Beth without hearing Bella’s name every six seconds.”
“Cameron,” Hailey breathed my name, and I wanted to fall into her. It beckoned me like a siren call, and I leaned forward ever so slightly.
“Can I kiss you goodnight?” Hailey asked, her voice keeping that breathy tone.
I decided to tease her, “Since when did you have to ask?”
I leaned in and kissed Hailey, feeling her lips relax under mine. I lingered longer than necessary, leaving my lips hovering above her lips for a breath, two. Then I pulled back and gave her a smile.
“Goodnight, Hailey,” I said, enjoying the flush in her face and the daze in her eyes as she fluttered her fingers over her kiss swollen lips.
I walked to my room with the knowledge that I still had that effect on the soldier.
19
So that’s how I ended up working with Sasha and Hailey three nights a week through the rest of September and into October while simultaneously planning a school dance. Oh, and keeping up with my regular schoolwork. Not to mention working my regular hours in the forge.
Needless to say, I was ridiculously busy.
Sleep eluded me on a regular basis. Part of me thought about cutting out my early morning run. I’d developed the habit last year at the Academy and continued it throughout the summer. As the winter loomed ahead, it was colder and darker each morning. My body probably could have used the sleep but that short time at the beginning of the day was one of the few times I was alone anymore.
I felt like I was constantly surrounded by people nowadays. Whether it was in class, at dance committee meetings, or even in my dorm, there was always someone around. Rachel had basically moved in, and while she and Karen kept their sexual activities to her room, Rachel liked to lounge around in the main common area. She was respectful and always nice, but her mere presence irked me. I constantly felt like an intruder in their space when the soldier was really the intruder.
Second-year classes were much harder, especially now that my workload included Enka-specific classes. We had tactical training, team building, and survival techniques. I felt like my brain was only half there with everything else that was swimming in it.
If all that wasn’t enough, the dance loomed over everything. I couldn’t get a break. In the beginning, the nymphs bombarded me with questions. They asked my opinions of everything from decorations to food menus to music selection. After they interrupted one too many classes, I had to establish some boundaries with them. While I appreciated their enthusiasm, I was sick of picking out color schemes or tasting sample punches.
Finally, I delegated everything to subcommittees. Thank the gods that Jade took over the food and the menu in general. She was more than happy to. Daniella helped out with the music selection, opting for something more modern since the nymphs were set with a lyre and one of the nymph's operatic voices. The other parameters I set up were that the nymphs weren’t allowed to ask me anything outside of our weekly dance committee meetings. They sometimes lasted up to three hours, but it was a hell of a lot better than three gorgeous women bursting in on Grecian art during a test just so I could settle a dispute between burnt orange and pumpkin orange, which looked the exact same to me.
Plus, it was rather distracting to my fellow demigods to have a dozen beautiful nymphs running around with hardly any clothes on.
Despite the near-naked ladies, the biggest distraction on campus was all of the elaborate ways students asked each other to the dance. Even though it was obvious who was going with whom, the various couples went out of their way to ask one another. Someone spelled out, “Will you go to the dance with me?” in flowers out in the quad. Another soldier used a pegasus and colored smoke to write it out in the sky. One girl even got a couple of Vreg soldiers to do a musical number during lunch one day in the cafeteria.
Not everyone was infected with Tainted Love, however. Whereas the Tainted Love couples seemed to stick together, the non-Tainted-Love students bounced from relationship to relationship. I couldn’t keep up with the drama of it all, but even those who didn’t have a designated partner still wanted to attend the dance, and hopefully not alone.
However, the one good thing about this whole situation was that my theory about the Tainted Love couples and their productivity was correct.
Students encouraged their respective partners to do their schoolwork and their training. Now that the students were encouraged to be open with their relationships, they weren’t sneaking around and wasting time. If anything, the steaminess seemed to cool off. It was the best compromise for pretty much everyone but me.
Thankfully, I had the forge. When I was there, I felt like my mind could finally clear off the excess noise and focus on the work at hand. Sarah was wonderful and let me have the space to breathe and work. I relaxed to the sound of the hammer on metal, to the crackle of the fire, and to the whine of the grinder.
Sasha’s special project required me to make the props for mine and Hailey’s choreographed fight.
“Rapiers!” she said as she waved her hands as though she was in a Broadway jazz number.
“Rapiers?” I repeated, even though I had heard her. “You want me to make rapiers.”
“Yes,” Sasha swooned. “Beautiful, sleek rapiers with intricate handles that represent your characters. They are the most elegant dueling weapons.”
“Yeah, maybe, but they’re definitely the most ineffective,” I commented offhandedly. “Also, the Greeks never used rapiers. They weren’t invented until the 16th century in England and Germany. They’re primarily Western European weapons. It was mainly used by civilians and was widely disregarded by the military or on the battlefield.”
Sasha blinked at me for several seconds, her lips pursed. “Well,” she said slowly, “you’re just a wealth of knowledge, aren’t you?”
“That’s kind of his thing,” Hailey said with a shrug. “Weapons and myths.”
I couldn’t tell if she was teasing me or complimenting m
e. But Sasha didn’t give me a chance to find out. She barreled on.
“We’re not concerned about the battlefield, dear. It’s for show!” Sasha threw her hands up in the air dramatically. “Now, there’s nothing quite right in the armory. All of their weapons are dull and bland for our purposes. We need something that will catch the audience’s eye, which is why I need you to make brand new rapiers for the show.”
“Greeks never used rapiers,” I argued, not really wanting to make the complicated weapons. Rapiers appeared sleek and beautiful, but it wasn’t easy to get them that way.
The blades were long and thin, but durable even under the most stressful situations. They widened at the base by the hilt, but the increase in thickness was miniscule, and true blacksmiths knew how to hide the gradual change. However, the most ridiculous part of rapiers were the handles. The guards were always fancifully designed, often for decoration rather than function. It was frivolous and complicated.
My specialty was functional weapons. While I considered smithing an art, I hardly ever spent the amount of time it would take to craft the handles, let alone the blades to make sure they could stand up to the force Hailey and I would surely put them through.
There was no changing Sasha’s mind once it was made up. That’s how I found myself battling Hailey in a smooth suit. Whereas, she was fighting me in a skirt.
“No, there’s no way I’m fighting him in that,” She said as she crossed her arms across her chest and stepped back from Sasha. She held out the practice skirt, a long, thick piece of fabric that reached all the way down to her ankles.
“You will have pants underneath it,” Sasha argued like that fixed everything.
“Then why do I have to have the skirt at all?” She spat, and I had the distinct impression that she was wishing the article of clothing would burst into flames in her hand.
Sasha lowered her arms so the skirt dragged along the floor. She leaned back and huffed out an exasperated breath. “Because you are Penthesilea, the great Amazonian warrior, and they all wore skirts.”
