by Raine, Eliza
‘You’re beautiful,’ I told him, finding his eyes again. And he bumped his nose against my hand. A smile split my face and I heard a little noise of surprise from Miss Alma behind me. His nose was cool and slightly wet and I held my breath as he nuzzled against my fingers. ‘I’m going to name you something really good,’ I told him. ‘But I’ll need a while to think about it. Is that OK?’ He pushed harder against my hand and I laughed. ‘I’m going to take that as a yes.’
‘Well,’ said Miss Alma. ‘Well, well. I guess we’ll teach you how to saddle him up. The only other person who rides him is Agrius.’
‘Who’s Agrius?’
‘He’s the sword master here. And he teaches electricity elemental class.’
‘Why hasn’t he given the pegasus a name?’
‘He’s not the sort of man who cares for naming animals,’ she said, stepping past the pegasus and lifting a gigantic black leather saddle off the rack it was sitting on. He reared back as she approached him with it, clopping his feet loudly on the ground.
‘Hey, hey,’ I said softly. ‘Do you not like the saddle?’
He gave a little whinny.
‘He must wear it. It’s not safe to ride without one. And you are small for him, you’d fall and die,’ Miss Alma said matter-of-factly. I gulped.
‘You hear that? You have to wear it, or I can’t ride you,’ I said gently. He looked at me, then at the saddle, and shook his huge wings.
‘I think it’s too heavy for me,’ I told him, but tried to take the saddle from Miss Alma. I immediately dropped it. ‘It weighs a ton!’ I exclaimed.
‘Wait here,’ she said, then disappeared out of the stable door. I laid my hand on the pegasus’s front flank, feeling his silky soft coat. He tensed for a second, lifting his folded wings a little, then I felt him relax. Miss Alma returned a moment later with a large wooden box.
‘Climb on that,’ she said, setting it down in front of me. I did, then she passed the saddle up to me. Now that my waist was level with the pegasus’s back, I was able to heave it up onto him. He neighed loudly and stamped his feet again, but stayed where he was and Miss Alma hurried over, showing me where the saddle fastened and which clips went where.
‘Do you want to try sitting in the saddle today?’ I looked at her, my eyes shining and she rolled her eyes. ‘As if I needed to ask. Go on, get on,’ she tutted, but I could swear there was a smile tugging at her lips.
I climbed carefully from the box to his back, easing my leg over the saddle. Instead of stirrups like horses at home had, there were just little metal brackets near the back of the saddle and Miss Alma stood on one leg to demonstrate how I was supposed to tuck my legs up and hook my toes into them. No sooner had I done so, than the pegasus gave a great snort, reared up onto its back legs and charged from the stable. I bit back a scream and threw myself forward, wrapping my arms around his massive neck. I felt wind rushing over me, the thudding of his hooves on the ground, heard a cry from Miss Alma and then we were weightless. My breath caught and for a second I couldn’t breath as I stared in bewilderment at the clouds whizzing past me. Then we swerved sharply, angling down so that all I could see was the deep blue ocean. I took a gasping breath, then straightened slowly, tears streaming from my eyes as the cold wind blasted past us. It was like being on the most intense roller-coaster ever. I kept my hands firmly entwined in his mane, but sat up, taking comfort in how sturdy my legs felt in the saddle as he changed direction again, leaving the sea below us and soaring back towards the tower. A shriek left my lips, half terror, half joy. Adrenaline coursed through me, making my hands shake and my skin vibrate. He banked again as we reached the tower, then shot upwards, beating his huge wings. I looked either side of me at them, the power and beauty overwhelming. Once we were higher than the tower he dived, tucking his wings in on either side of us. My hair whipped up behind me and manic laughter bubbled out of me as we raced towards the ocean. We got so close I could see the academy distantly beneath the clear water, then at the last minute he pulled up, wings beating as he gained height again.
‘You’re incredible!’ I yelled in delight, over the roaring wind. I heard him whinny, then he did a loop-the-loop. ‘I’m impressed but very dizzy,’ I laughed as he straightened out. ‘Can we try a bit slower?’ He slowed instantly, his massive wings snapping taught and causing us hover in the air. I took a long breath, the dizziness dissipating, and the sound of the sea below now clear. ‘Wow. Just… wow. We’d better go show Miss Alma that we’re OK,’ I said, and he turned back towards the tower.
The relief on the teacher’s face when we approached her actually made me feel quite good. It was nice to know she cared.
‘Gods, but you gave me a fright,’ she scolded, as the pegasus landed gently beside her. I didn’t know if she was talking to me or him.
‘Miss Alma, he’s amazing!’
‘Yes, yes, he is,’ she said with a frown. ‘Now unsaddle him and then feed him. That’s quite enough for one day.’ He trotted back into his stable, stopping next to the box and I eased myself off his back.
‘Thank you,’ I told him. ‘Miss Alma, what’s the Greek word for fly?’
‘Peto,’ she answered. I grinned. It wasn’t very original, but I was new here, and that was easy an easy name to remember. Plus it suited him.
‘Thank you for the ride, Peto.’ I stroked my hand down his back and he gave a low, happy whinny.
19
The rest of the weekend passed in a blur. There was a running race around the training ground after my flying lesson but I didn’t take part. I was too busy telling Zali over and over again how amazing Peto was. All the food in the academy couldn’t keep my energy up enough to deal with everything I’d experienced in the last week though, and I spent most of Sunday sleeping. Whenever I was awake and alone I read the riddle but I couldn’t make sense of it. I knew it couldn’t just mean we had to go to a place underwater, that wasn’t enough information. I was missing something but I couldn’t work out what.
After history class on Monday morning I had my first Sword class. Tak had warned me that the teacher, Agrius was fierce and I was keen to meet the man who also rode Peto. The figure that strode out onto the training ground was huge. Like body-builder huge. The muscles on his arms were so large and round that they didn’t look real, and his legs were almost as wide as I was. He was easily seven feet tall, and he had sandy colored hair cropped short above a scowling, scarred face.
‘Today we are going to learn a basic parry. Vronti, come here. Everyone, watch me,’ he said as he came to a stop. He took a lethal looking sword from a sheath on his belt as the white haired Zeus twin stepped forwards. Vronti selected a wooden sword from the large pile, then hesitantly faced Agrius.
‘Won’t the metal sword go straight through the wooden one?’ I whispered to Tak, alarmed.
‘You have a question?’ Agrius turned to me. I felt my face get hot.
‘Erm, I just thought that the wooden sword wouldn’t be enough to stop your metal one,’ I stammered.
‘You think I’m in the habit of killing my students?’ he answered coldly.
‘No, no of course not,’ I shook my head.
‘I am the son of Ares. Fighting runs in my blood and I have ultimate control over all weapons. You would have me use a wooden sword?’
‘No,’ I shook my head harder.
‘Keep your opinions to yourself, Titan,’ he spat. The surge of defiance I felt was dampened a little by the venom in his glare and I said nothing but glared back at him.
‘Vronti, attack,’ he said, turning back to the boy. Vronti lunged with his wooden sword and Agrius lifted his quickly, deflecting the blow to the side. The metal hit the wood soundlessly and the practice sword was undamaged. Magic, I thought. I needed to remember that the rules from my world didn’t apply here. I practiced with Tak, and wasn’t bad at it, though my arm ached from holding the sword up for so long. I couldn’t imagine how different it would be with a real sword. Other than throwing
me a few scowls Agrius ignored me for the rest of the lesson, for which I was grateful. I got the impression he wasn’t a fan of the academy allowing Titans in any more than the students were.
I had new elements classes over the next few weeks too. Earth and air were held by Professor Fantasma. Icarus was really good at air, and I had to have another stern talk with myself when I felt the resentment building up inside me when I failed yet again to make any progress. He had been at the academy longer than I had. He’d been in Olympus much longer than I had. I would get there, I told myself. Agrius took electricity and I was almost relieved that I showed no aptitude for it at all. Maybe I wouldn’t have to carry on with it next semester if I was still here, and wouldn’t have to spend uncomfortable hours touching a cold metal ball whilst he leaned against the wall of the classroom glaring at us both.
‘Do you get the impression he hates us?’ I asked Icarus one day as we left the electricity room.
‘Everyone here hates me,’ he spat in reply, then jogged down the steps away from me. I watched him go, then Agrius barged past me, making me drop my bag.
‘Hey!’ I said, but he didn’t even turn around, stamping off towards the training ground.
Whilst Agrius was never going to make me an expert at handling electricity, he wasn’t making my life as difficult as Arketa and her gang were. No longer happy to knock my plates over at dinner or make snide remarks in swimming class, they were now trying to ruin evenings in the common room for me too. When I sat down on the couch the cushion would turn to water, soaking my clothes and making the area unusable for my friends. Kiko was good with Telepathy, and would make my dice fly off the table whenever I rolled them. Tak and Zali said that we weren’t supposed to learn how to move things like that until next semester but someone had taught her. I didn’t know what I would do when she could move things larger than dice. Filis didn’t use her powers against me, but her popularity instead. She would whisper things to other people about me, and week by week they seemed more afraid of me. I didn’t know what she was telling them, but the satyr, Gida, said they weren’t nice things. One Saturday evening there was a big dice tournament in the library. The enjoyment of the game, all of the competitive teasing and excitement seemed to be overcoming everyone’s usual apprehension and as long as they didn’t have to get too close to me, the other students were happy to let me join in. By some stroke of luck I’d got through to the final four and for the first time, I was starting to feel a little bit accepted as everybody crowded round to see what I rolled next. Until Arketa stood up suddenly, alarm on her pretty face.
‘What was that?’ she shrieked, pointing at me. I looked around myself, a cold feeling coming over me. What was she doing?
‘I saw it too!’ chimed in Filis, her expression serious. ‘When she rolled the dice I saw a flame.’ Panicked muttering broke out around me and people scooted backwards, away from me.
‘There was definitely a flicker of fire,’ agreed Arketa fearfully. ‘She’s getting excited about winning and she’s going to lose control of her powers!’ Students began scrambling away from me.
‘What? No! That’s not true, you were all watching!’ I tried to protest but nobody was listening. I looked down at the dice I’d rolled and then up at Arketa. She flashed me a sickly sweet grin, then called,
‘Everybody, run!’
And they did. I watched in dismay as they all fled the library, leaving just Zali, Tak and Gida still sitting with me.
‘You would have won,’ said the satyr, looking down at my dice.
‘Yeah. And that’s the last time they’ll ever play with me,’ I said, angry tears pricking the back of my eyes. I got up, needing to be alone before anybody could see me cry. ‘I’m going for a walk,’ I mumbled, and headed quickly out of the temple. I went straight to the pegasus tower. As soon as the cool sea air hit me when I stepped out of the hauler I felt a bit better. I jogged to Peto’s stable and he neighed when he saw me. We’d been flying further and further every class, and Miss Alma said I was a natural.
‘So why am I so bad at everything else?’ I asked the pegasus, stroking his mane. ‘As if I could set the library on fire! I can’t even move a flame that’s already there,’ I said bitterly.
‘You’re pretty good with water now though,’ said a voice. I jumped, whirling. Icarus was leaning against a stable door a little further along.
‘What are you doing up here?’ I snapped.
‘Practicing air. It’s easier up here,’ he said, and twisted his wrist. A tiny whirlwind appeared over his palm. I turned back to Peto and scratched behind his huge ear. ‘Filis has been telling everyone you’re really good at making fire but you can’t control it,’ Icarus said quietly.
‘What? But that’s not true!’ I gasped, turning back to him.
‘You don’t need to tell me that, I’m the one that has to share every stupid class with you,’ he muttered.
‘Why would they do that?’
‘Because they can’t find anything else to bully you about,’ he said bitterly.
‘Like your wings,’ I said, realizing what he meant. He said nothing for a long moment, then pushed himself away from the wall.
‘Yeah. Like my wings,’ he said, taking a step towards me. My breath hitched as his eyes found mine. Even in the dimming light, they were so bright. ‘Do yourself a favor, new girl. Ignore them.’
‘I can’t,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Don’t you want to prove them wrong?’
He laughed, but it was an angry, abrupt sound.
‘Why? What’s the point? Unless you want to burn the school down.’
‘Of course I don’t,’ I snapped. ‘But I want to be good. Be powerful.’
Doubt flickered across his face.
‘I don’t need to be powerful. I just need to be…’ He tailed off.
‘Need to be what?’ I prompted him.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said, then turned away. He walked off quickly, and I turned back to Peto thoughtfully. What would be better than being powerful?
After that evening, the pegasus tower became a bit of a sanctuary for me. Whenever I got fed up with not being able to make fire or air or earth or electricity do anything I wanted them to do, or when I’d spent hours trying and failing to make my big toe bigger, or Arketa and her gang found a new way to show me up, I’d sneak up to the top of the tower and sit with Peto. I daren’t ride him without Miss Alma there. Not because I didn’t trust him, but because the saddle was too heavy for me to lift alone and because I didn’t really want to disobey her like that. I was starting to like the serious woman. I was also really, really starting to like my new friends. Zali and Tak, and Gida too, were sticking by me, even though being my friend was making their lives almost as difficult as mine. Whenever I’d got into trouble back home, the people claiming to be my friends had always disappeared instantly. But these guys were different. I cared about them and I was pretty sure they cared about me, although a nagging voice asking why they would have any time for me at all often bothered me at night.
Not all my classes were going badly. Icarus had been right. I was getting pretty good at water now. Since the disaster in the attic I’d been able to conjure a little bit of water out of nothing, which Dasko said was impressive as it was much harder to create it than work with what was already there. I was also starting to feel something from the phoenix feather in Magical Objects class. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but there was a weird, deep hum inside me now when I tried to bond with it.
I read the riddle daily. Every time I tried to ask Professor Dasko something about the caves or the ocean surrounding the academy he told me he couldn’t understand me.
‘Maybe there’s something in the library that could help,’ I said one day after history class, when he asked us if we’d made any progress.
‘If you think there might be, you must check. There’s only a month left until Zeus’s inspection,’ he said.
‘Thank the Gods. That means only a month more
of electricity class with Agrius,’ I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
‘Pandora, this is serious. Zeus will find a reason to kick you out of the academy if you don’t find that box.’
‘I know. I’m just trying to lighten the mood,’ I grumbled. The truth was I was thinking increasingly about the lord of gods’ visit. ‘I just don’t get why he would throw us out. We’re not doing anything dangerous at all! We’re both rubbish at most classes.’ Icarus glared at me and I shrugged. ‘It’s true.’
‘He won’t want to take the risk. Trust me on this. Please, try harder on the riddle.’ Dasko’s eyes were pleading.
‘Fine,’ I said.
20
That night, Dasko’s words ringing in my ears, I decided to sneak down to the library when everyone else was asleep, to see if I could find out anything useful about the caves. Careful not to disturb Zali, I crept out of my room and made my way to the main temple. I sighed in disappointment when I reached it though. It was laid out for dinner, the long tables lining the hall.
‘If you want the library, you just ask it,’ said a voice. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
‘Are you stalking me?’ I asked Icarus, as he stepped up next to me.
‘I’m here for the same reason you are,’ he said icily, then held his palms out flat and said, ‘Library, please.’ The room began to alter, the library sliding into place in front of us.
‘We need to find out if there are any caves nearby,’ he said, and walked to a bookshelf. I scowled after him, then wandered over to a different one, looking for anything that said ‘Aquarius’ on it.
