Olympus Academy: The Complete Series

by Raine, Eliza

  ‘And your sister is how old?’

  ‘Six.’

  ‘Here.’ She handed me some funny smelling paste, like the stuff Icarus had used when he was still injured.

  ‘What do I do with it?’ I asked her. She regarded me a second, then took the paste back from me.

  ‘Stay still,’ she said, and dipped her fingers in the tub.

  ‘Do you have any other children? Since we’re asking questions,’ I said tentatively.

  ‘None,’ she said, and I flinched as she pressed her fingers to my temple. Her hands were cool, and as soon as the paste touched my skin a soothing tingle spread across my forehead.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I never found anyone I wished to make a child with,’ she said simply.

  ‘What... what about my dad?’ Her eyes met mine.

  ‘Your dad is a kind man. Much kinder than most in Olympus,’ she said.

  ‘So, you loved him?’ I studied her face as I spoke, watching her stoic expression for emotion.

  ‘You should feel fine now,’ she said though, and turned back to the metal counter with the paste. I sighed.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said. I almost said thanks mom, but I faltered at the last word. Maybe she wasn’t as awful as I first thought, and maybe she was looking out for me, but I wasn’t at the mom word yet. ‘We’d better get to Vronti’s room.’

  When we reached his door Icarus was crouched in front of it, peering into the lock. Thom and Zali were hovering nervously behind him, and Arketa was leaning against the opposite wall looking for all the world like she couldn’t care less. It was a gift, I thought, to be that cool all the time. I envied her. I struggled so hard to keep my emotions from being written across my face. Or blurting them out.

  ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘I don’t know what kind of magic he used, but I can’t get through it,’ said Icarus, his voice tight and angry.

  I looked at Thom.

  ‘Thanks for saving me from Vronti’s lightning bolts,’ I said. ‘I was so caught up I don’t think I’d have moved out of the way in time.’

  ‘No worries,’ he shrugged, but it was the first time I’d seen a proper smile on his face in days.

  ‘If you’re going to use fire magic, you need to make sure you have control over it,’ said Arketa, and I turned to her. More guilt washed through me. A Titan using fire around her must be awful after what happened to her sister, I realized. Perhaps it was fear in her eyes, not anger.

  ‘I-’ I started, but my mom cut me off.

  ‘Pandora and I have an agreement. I will use water to douse out any rogue fire. You needn’t worry,’ she said.

  ‘I’m filled with confidence,’ Arketa answered sarcastically, but she did look less worried. I stared at my mom, pinching my lips shut. Had we made that agreement? I mean, I know she’d said it when we were talking about practicing but...

  ‘Aha!’ Icarus shouted suddenly, and we all turned to him. ‘I’ve got it,’ he beamed and stood up, his wings rustling. With a flourish, he turned the knob on the door and it swung open. His elated expression was enough to briefly distract me from finding the sword. I loved to see him like this, so confident and cocky. It was such a far cry from the moody, insular boy I’d met months ago.

  ‘Where do you think he would have put it?’ asked Arketa, pushing her way past us into the room.

  ‘I dunno, look everywhere.’

  With all of us searching every drawer, cupboard and chest, of which there weren’t many, it didn’t take us long.

  ‘I think I’ve found it!’ shouted Zali, crouching by the bed, her arm underneath the bunk. She dragged out something large, wrapped in a bed-sheet, and we all hurried over.

  ‘You unwrap it,’ she said, standing and turning to me.

  ‘OK.’

  I dropped to my knees, and slowly flipped back the white sheet, revealing what was inside. My breath caught, and goosebumps sprang up across my skin. It was Alifthoros. I’d seen a few swords in Magical Objects class, but none anything like this one. Instead of a normal straight blade, one half of the blade was serrated, but shaped like curling, rolling waves. The pommel and hilt were huge, to support the enormous blade, and encrusted all over with pastel colored coral, that looked wet but felt dry when I reverently touched it. It felt rough though, the coral scratching my fingertips as I brushed them across the sword handle. The metal of the blade shone in stark contrast.

  ‘That’s where the gem goes,’ my mom breathed, and I could see awe on her face as I looked up at her. She was pointing to a hollow in the center of the pommel.

  ‘Let’s reunite them,’ I said.

  I had to carry the sword in the sheet, as the coral on the handle made it too sharp to pick up, and I daren’t handle the sharp end of Alifthoros. I’d only been around the sword a few minutes, but I already felt like I needed it in my life. It must have been four feet long and it weighed a ton, there was no way in Olympus I could ever wield it, but it didn’t matter. I felt like it was a part of me. And I could see that my mom had the same attraction to it. We all piled into my cabin, and I laid the sword on the bed and unlocked the chest. The second I flipped the lid open the sound of the ocean roaring filled the room. The others looked alarmed, but a happy laugh burst from my lips. The gems were actually vibrating on the fabric, and I scooped them up excitedly.

  ‘Is that...’ mom said, staring at the stunning material left in the chest. Then she blinked and looked back at the sword. ‘Later,’ she muttered, and came to stand next to me.

  ‘Are you ready?’ I asked, not really knowing who I was asking. It felt silly to be speaking to the gems, but I kind of was. They hummed with energy in my hands. Slowly, I set the first in its hollow in Alifthoros. There was a satisfying clicking sound, then a seahorse made of water flew out of the gem, dancing around the sword, vibrant and full of life. Zali let out a delighted gasp at the same time as I did.

  ‘It’s so cute!’ she said. I turned the sword over, and the little seahorse flitted up by my shoulder, as though watching. Excitement at boiling point, I set the second stone back where it belonged in the sword. There was a louder click, then another seahorse burst from the second gem. The first one whizzed around in circles on the spot, then pelted towards the second, which zoomed to meet it, and they danced around each other like they couldn’t contain their joy.

  ‘They’ve been separated for an eternity,’ I whispered.

  ‘This is a little bit crazy,’ murmured Thom behind me.

  ‘It’s adorable!’ said Zali. I reached out to touch the sword again, and the two seahorses shot towards me. They moved like they were in the water, rocking as though a current lifted them. They danced around my hand as I paused, then dove back into the shining sapphire gems.

  ‘Oh, where did they go?’ I started to ask, then the whole sword began to glow. My eyebrows shot up in surprise as it began to shrink in front of me. When the sword was about half its original size, it stopped, then the handle began to pulse with blue light. I moved my hand to it again, and instead of the scratchy coral, I felt a cool smooth surface. It was as though a layer of glass had formed around the handle, allowing me to pick it up. I did, slowly, marveling at how much lighter it was, how natural it felt in my grip. The pair of seahorses zoomed out of the gem again, whirling around the blade happily.

  ‘Can you believe this?’ I breathed, moving the sword around gently.

  ‘It’s pretty awesome,’ ginned Icarus.

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ said Zali.

  ‘If I’m being honest, I’d quite like one myself,’ said Arketa, and she was actually smiling too.

  ‘It shouldn’t be possible,’ said my mom.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘That’s Oceanus’s sword. No other being should be able to wield it,’ she said. Her face was pale.

  ‘But he led us to it, surely this was what he intended?’ said Icarus.

  ‘No, I thought it would contain a clue, another riddle or something. Alifthoros has changed f
orm to allow you to use it, Pandora. That is... I need to talk to you. About your fire magic.’

  ‘What about her fire magic?’ said Arketa sharply. I frowned, lowering the sword.

  ‘Yeah, what about my fire magic?’ Mom glanced around at the assembled group, eyebrows raised. ‘It’s fine, you can talk in front of them. They need to know everything too,’ I said.

  ‘Fine. I’m sure they told you at the academy that it is rare to find demigods that can control opposing forces,’ she said. I nodded. ‘Well, as a descendant of the creator of water, it’s even more rare that you should be able to use fire magic at all. Let alone to the degree that you can.’

  ‘Right,’ I said slowly.

  ‘Pandora, you can’t have both. Not at this level of power. They are opposing forces and your body will not be able to contain that war between them as they grow. They will tear you apart.’ My stomach was tightening as she spoke, an uneasy feeling crawling over me. I thought of my dreams, the many, many nightmares where fire and water had destroyed everything around me. I thought about Professor Fantasma’s cup and my unknown, turbulent future that she had predicted.

  ‘But... How do I get rid of one?’ Real emotion gripped my mom’s face, sadness in her usually cold eyes.

  ‘You can’t,’ she whispered. ‘I had hoped your power was not this strong, that it would not come to this, but if you are strong enough to wield that sword...’ She trailed off, her voice quiet.

  ‘If her water power is that strong, surely it will just expel the fire?’ Panic surged inside me at Icarus’s words, and before I could stop myself, I stepped forwards.

  ‘No! You can’t get rid of the fire!’ He looked at me in alarm.

  ‘The fire is as strong within you as the water, that was clear when you faced off with Vronti. Your skin was literally aflame. The fire responds to your emotions. It is a part of you.’

  Her words were true, I knew they were. To take the fire or water away from me... The thought caused me physical pain, my stomach clenching and roiling.

  ‘What can I do?’

  ‘I don’t know. And I fear Oceanus will not react well to his strongest descendant and savior being a fire magic user.’ My head span.

  ‘You mean he might not help us?’

  ‘She can control his ship and use his sword, surely that means he’ll trust her?’ protested Arketa. My mom said nothing, and a long silence stretched across the room. I stared at the sword, the little seahorses now hovering anxiously above it. I needed to straighten my thoughts, to process what she was saying. My own magic would destroy me. The worst part was, I knew that it was true. I knew from the vision in the suit of armor, fire and water battling across my body. I knew I couldn’t control them both.

  ‘I hate to add more bad news, but we still don’t actually know how to find Oceanus,’ said Thom quietly. I snapped my eyes to his. ‘The sword hasn’t told us anything.’ The seahorses bounced up suddenly, excited again. As though riding a wave, they began to roll towards my washroom, then flitted back, before repeating the action.

  ‘Do they want to go in the washroom?’

  ‘Water. They want to be in water,’ I said. ‘And I know the feeling.’

  ‘Me too,’ said mom and Zali at the same time. I looked between them both.

  ‘I think it’s time we went for that swim,’ I said.

  21

  It took me barely any time at all to change into my swimsuit and get up to the top deck, Alifthoros in hand. Mom and Zali weren’t there yet, so I walked quickly to the main mast and laid my hand on the wood. A desire to move, feel the wind, be free, shuddered through me.

  ‘We need to head down to the water, please,’ I asked the Tethys. ‘Well away from Aries, if you can. We don’t want any pirates bothering us.’ We’d moved north of Aries as soon as we were back on the ship, not wanting to loiter near the angry war god any longer than we had to. But with no sense of where we were going we’d just been hovering over the ocean since Vronti took off in the longboat. I felt the ship begin to descend, and opened my eyes to see Arketa standing before me.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, awkwardly.

  ‘Um, hi,’ I said, equally as awkward.

  ‘I, err,’ she said, and then shook her head, as though annoyed. ‘Can I swim with you guys?’ she said eventually, her eyes locking onto mine.

  ‘Of course you can,’ I said. ‘You’re great in the water.’

  ‘I know I am. I manage to beat you often enough,’ she said, but her usual spite was missing from her voice. Her tone was teasing, not angry. I cocked my head at her, raising my eyebrows. She rolled her eyes and sighed. ‘Look, the way Vronti freaked out... I know he only wants his sister back, and the gods know I can empathize with that, but... I don’t want to end up like that,’ she said, glancing down. ‘He’s so angry that he would actually kill someone.’ She took another breath. ‘I’m probably as surprised by this as you are, but... I don’t actually want you to get torn apart by your magic.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah. As much as I still don’t trust Titans, it is true that we’re a good team. And... you saved my life, back at the academy. During the chariot race, I realized that I knew you’d do it again if you had to.’

  ‘I would. Of course I would,’ I said. She nodded and I could see the sincerity in her eyes. She really did care what happened to me. So I hadn’t imagined that bud of mutual respect I’d felt.

  ‘This doesn’t mean we’re friends, you realize,’ she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder, and reinstating some of her trademark cool instantly. ‘But this is a truce.’

  ‘Got it,’ I said. ‘Truce.’

  We didn’t speak again until my mom and Zali emerged from the hauler, Icarus with them. The Tethys was now only ten feet above the waves, and as I leaned over the railings, inhaling deeply, I felt a little calmer. Carefully, I climbed up onto the wood, Alifthoros’s handle tucked under my arm.

  ‘Good luck,’ Icarus said, his voice tense with worry. My mom’s revelation couldn’t have been easy for him to hear, I knew. If someone had told me the same thing about him... I couldn’t dwell on it now. The more I thought about my inevitable doom, the more my head span and my magic rumbled inside me. I had to concentrate on fixing my mistakes, on saving Tak and the others. Everything else would have to wait, and that included crying on Icarus’s shoulder.

  ‘Thanks. See you soon,’ I said to him, then launched myself off the edge of the ship.

  The feeling as I hit the water was glorious. The little pool in my room on the ship was good, but it wasn’t the ocean. Cold water engulfed me, and I tumbled about as I righted myself, letting the liquid carry me. Alifthoros had become completely weightless, I realized as my head finally popped through the surface. I took a breath and opened my eyes, watching as the others jumped in after me.

  ‘How deep do you think we need to take the sword?’ I asked my mom as she surfaced next to me. The waves were calm and we bobbed together on the surface, as Arketa and Zali surfaced on my other side, a broad smile on Zali’s face. I knew she would have shifted already.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ my mom said.

  ‘I can only go about five minutes without air,’ I said.

  ‘Me too,’ said Arketa.

  ‘That’s OK,’ I can create the breathing bubbles you need,’ my mom said.

  ‘Can you teach me how to make them?’ asked Zali excitedly.

  ‘No, I may not. There are very few sea nymphs who can create them,’ she told her.

  ‘The garden under the academy has them,’ I said, and her eyes flicked to mine awkwardly.

  ‘About that...’ she said, unable to hold my gaze. My mouth fell open.

  ‘It was you?’

  ‘That’s how you knew about Icarus!’ exclaimed Zali. ‘You’d seen a boy with wings go with Dora to the garden!’

  ‘You were there? But how did you know we’d be there?’ I couldn’t make sense of it.

  ‘I didn’t know you’d be there. But I hoped yo
u’d find it,’ my mom said, quietly.

  ‘So you knew about the box and Oceanus?’

  ‘No, Pandora. I had no idea. I hoped you’d find the garden because it’s beautiful, and you’re my daughter. A child of the ocean.’ A lump formed in my throat and I blinked. ‘When I dropped you at the academy, I found myself wanting to stay. So I did. Under the academy. I... I wanted to see how you did, make sure you were happy. So I watched you.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘The turtle family. I can communicate with them, like Zali can. They kept me informed on your progress. And when I felt your presence under the school, I sent you the breathing bubbles.’

  ‘You were there the whole time?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Watching out for me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were there or talk to me yourself?’

  ‘You were so angry with me on the beach, and… and to be honest I have no idea how to talk to a teenage girl. I suppose I was a coward.’

  I couldn’t believe it. She did care. I had a mother who cared. She hadn’t abandoned me at all. A swell in the waves caused my head to dip under the water momentarily, and I spluttered in surprise.

  ‘Touching as this is, we should probably get on with it,’ said Arketa, her words harsher than her tone.

  ‘You’re right,’ said my mom. ‘I shall summon the bubbles, let us go,’ she said, her formal presence snapping back into place, the emotion dropping away. She disappeared under the water, Arketa following after her. I felt Zali squeeze my hand.

  ‘Told ya,’ she said with a grin, then dove under the surface. I blinked rapidly, shaking my head. There was only so much information, and emotion, a person could process at one time, and I was officially at capacity.

  We didn’t have to go far under the surface before Alifthoros began to glow. The turquoise breathing bubbles were whizzing around my head, protecting my eyes from the salty ocean, and I could see clearly when sapphire light began emanating from the blade. Zali, excited to be in mermaid form, was flitting about between us all, moving at three times our speed. The little seahorses suddenly burst from the pommel of the sword and I grinned as they circled each other, leaving tiny trails of bubbles in the water. I slowed down, then came to a stop, treading water. The others did the same, Zali’s iridescent tail reflecting the swords glow in the dimming light. The seahorses danced along the blade, up and down, and the glow got brighter and brighter, until I lifted my other arm to shield my eyes. Then suddenly, the glow died away, and the seahorses bounced back from the blade. The only thing left glowing was an inscription, now shining along the center of the steel.